A QUESTION OF POWER ON SDG&E’S PROPOSED SUNRISE POWERLINK:
Video documentary distributed to CPUC is now online October 23, 2008 (San Diego, CA) – Stubborn Mule Productions and Backcountry Against the Dump, Inc. announce that “A Question of Power” is now available online. This one-hour locally produced grassroots documentary about the ongoing battle over the 150-mile “Sunrise Powerlink” transmission line proposed by San Diego Gas & Electric was premiered recently in Escondido. “We were pleased that the audience enjoyed the documentary, but more importantly, they universally praised the work for its comprehensiveness in following this three year battle over the largest infrastructure project ever planned for San Diego, “ said Donna Tisdale, who produced the documentary. “There are more large-scale projects connected with this power line than people realize. It is not the green project that SDG&E’s PR machine claims. Folks need to see this documentary to understand the even greater scope of the project than previously reported.” Tisdale, a 19-year member and chair of the Boulevard Planning Group, in the southern end of the county, and president of the non-profit group Backcountry Against the Dump, said she has distributed the documentary to the California Public Unities Commissioners and the two administrative law judges who will decide on the line in the next month or two. She has also, at SDG&E’s request, provided the utility with the link to the documentary. “The CPUC needs to know how big the grassroots movement is against this line and how much people will resent any decision that ignores San Diegans and what they want for their energy future. Folks certainly don’t want this line even if it avoids the Anza-Borrego State Park. They don’t want it because they know there are better ideas to get our energy and common sense says we should be able to make use of them.” The documentary supports the idea of local photovoltaic rooftop arrays, and other renewable energy sources for San Diego’s energy supply. The line would cost California ratepayers between $1.5 and $7 billion according to various estimates. Stubborn Mule Productions is the production arm of Backcountry Against the Dump, Inc., a 501(c)(4) non-profit public benefit corporation.
EDITORIAL – SCHOOL BOARDS HAVE FAILED US
“School Boards have become a dangerous institution,” warns Doug Dean, Chair of the East County Chamber of Commerce Business Education Committee. “One of the poster children in San Diego County for problematic school boards is the Grossmont Union High School District Governing Board. Many years ago, one of our political parties made school boards the target for social change, and the GUHSD was one of the victims. Although it has improved lately, that board has been contentious and non-collaborative for decades, resulting in a district that is rotting from the inside out. Current new candidates threaten to throw it back into the past.”
EDITORIAL – PROPOSITION 4: WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW CAN HURT YOU — AND YOUR DAUGHTER
(Editor’s note: The name of this author has been withheld upon request, due to privacy concerns. All details have been fact-checked for accuracy.) Proposition 4 would outlaw abortion for minors unless parental notification or a judicial order is obtained. What’s wrong with restricting abortion access for teens? We already require girls to obtain a parent’s permission for piercings or other medical procedures, right? The answer is not so simple. If you are pro life, be aware that voting “yes” on Prop 4 could jeopardize the health or even the life of your daughter and other teens. As a reporter for nearly 30 years, I’ve interviewed countless women, girls, fathers, counselors and medical professionals on this issue. What I’ve learned is that there are many grey areas where moral clarity is murky. Pregnant teens fearful of talking to parents too often resort to desperate means if safe, legal access to abortion isn’t available. Here in San Diego, before abortion was legalized, women and girls went to Mexico, where unsterile conditions caused life-threatening infections. Some died or were left sterile. Now there is a frightening new fear for parents: the alarming growth of violence in Mexico. In the past four weeks, over 120 people in Tijuana have been brutally murdered amid drug cartel wars — some decapitated with tongues cut out, others simply gunned down while caught in crossfire. If abortion is made illegal for teens in California without parental notification, how many girls — and boys who accompany them — may wind up in dangerous situations south of the border? Prop 4 requires a 48-hour waiting period even after a parent is notified. This could be deadly for a teen with a tubal pregnancy (also called an ectopic pregnancy), in which a fertilized egg implants in the Fallopian tube, not the womb. The fetus cannot survive because the tube bursts within weeks, destroying the fertilized egg. Thus there is no baby to save, but massive abdominal infection, or peritonitis, can kill the mother if the pregnancy is not promptly terminated. A delay of even one day in getting treatment can mean death. I know, because my doctor once suspected I had a tubal pregnancy after I reported sharp pain. He called on Sunday morning and insisted I miss church to come in for an ultra-sound. “If I’m right, your life is at risk with every hour you wait,” he warned. A Catholic friend collapsed from this condition and nearly died. She had no insurance. Pro-lifers in our office became converts, offering to help pay for the life-saving procedure. This condition is not rare. One in every forty to 100 pregnancies is ectopic, according to the National Institute for Health. At an international conference on family violence, I interviewed many victims for a national women’s publication. I was shocked to learn how common incest actually is — and how cruelly the legal system treats young victims raped by a family member. Many other girls suffer other physical abuse, such as beatings. A pregnant girl with an abusive parent could endanger her safety if she tells her abuser he’s impregnated her or that someone else has. But few young incest victims have the knowledge or ability to ask help from the courts. Even teens who do go to court often can’t get help in time, if at all — and late term abortions are far more risky and traumatic than early-stage procedures. Shockingly, I learned that in one southern state with a parental consent law, not a single judge would approve abortions for incest victims — not even when a pediatrician had photographic and DNA evidence proving that a 12-year-old had been raped by her father, the town sheriff! In far too many cases, incest victims have already told a judge that they were being molested–only to have the judge fail to believe them and award custody to the abuser. A girl already betrayed by the court system is not likely to ask a judge for permission to end a pregnancy. Is it right to force girls victimized both by the courts and abusive parents to give birth to her abuser’s baby? When legal abortion is not available, desperate teens may resort to terrible actions. I recall the case of a girl who asked her boyfriend to whack her stomach with a baseball bat because abortion access was not available to teens in her state. She suffered injuries and her boyfriend faced criminal charges. Wishing that every pregnant teen would give birth and either give her child a loving home, or give it up for adoption is simply not accepting reality. Outlawing abortion for teens, while it may save some babies and prevent some girls from taking actions they could later regret, will also result in more tragic cases of newborns abandoned or killed, babies born to drug-addicted mothers, and young mothers dying from lack of medical care. Young teens in troubled homes may turn to teachers, counselors, neighbors or female relatives for help under current law. Proposition 4 would require any such individuals to report suspected abuse to law enforcement. That sounds like a good idea; but some counseling professionals fear it could prevent some girls from seeking help at all. Incest victims often have mixed emotions. They may blame themselves, or refuse to seek help if they know it could put their parent, brother or uncle in jail. Babies fathered by close relatives are at high risk of hereditary diseases and other problems, which is why marriage between close blood relatives is illegal. Traumatized children need help to find safe haven, break the cycle of abuse and counseling to encourage legal intervention to protect them; but none of that will happen if they are discouraged from coming forward. What about teens who take medications that can cause birth defects, such as some psychiatric drugs? “Going off medications can trigger psychosis, violence or convulsions.” A local Planned Parenthood representative told me about a mentally retarded girl who was raped in an
GOOD MONEY – Market Crisis Highlights Sustainable Investing
Your guide to profitable and socially responsible investing By Judith L. Seid, CFP ® This financial crisis has its own unique characteristics unlike any in our history. For twenty-five years individual Americans, and their government, have been on a binge of borrowing and excess spending. That could not continue forever. The first down-payment on a retrenchment was the crash of the tech boom in 2000. The next down-payments are the current crashes in the value of our stock investments and our homes, occurring right now. As the financial markets restructure, we’re seeing some positive shifts toward a more sustainable economy. Our Perspective as Socially Responsible Investors We have received a lot of questions about the performance of socially responsible investments during this market crisis and to date, we don’t have quantitative data that is conclusive enough to say whether or not SRI has faired better than non-SRI portfolios. However, there are several reasons we believe that, when the dust settles, we will find that SRI has come out ahead of the pack. First, SRI money managers have been screening out companies involved in predatory lending for several years. Many of the investment vehicles we utilize for your portfolios do not invest in financial companies that engage in these practices. Second, SRI is about taking a longer-term view on investing. Instead of sacrificing the long-term sustainability of our planet or humanity in order to make a profit this quarter, we aim to strike a balance between financial, social, and environmental returns that will stay for the long haul. The meltdown of the markets has shone the spotlight on the dangers of short-term thinking. Our expectation is that as the financial markets begin to focus on longer-term perspectives, the value of evaluating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) as part of the due diligence process will become clearer and better understood. As some recent studies highlight, including the United Nations Environment Program’s Finance Initiative report Show Me The Money: Linking Environmental, Social and Governance Issues to Company Value, ESG factors can be material to corporate financial performance, but often this plays out only over the mid-to long term. Third, the challenge of our country’s dependency on foreign oil is one that remains at the top of the political agenda despite all the noise surrounding the upcoming elections. Many smaller alternative energy and clean tech companies have been significantly undervalued during this market crunch and have produced some amazing buying opportunities. Meanwhile, $18 billion dollars in the recent bailout package was earmarked for clean energy incentives. Our Stake in Solving the Problem: Shareholder Advocacy The disastrous effects of predatory lending are not news to the SRI industry. For nearly a decade, SRI leaders have warned that abusive lending practices – besides being unethical – are not fiscally sustainable. Unlike the conservatives who are now placing the blame on the sub-prime borrowers themselves, we believe that the problem stems from the companies who target disadvantaged populations to improve their own bottom lines. Our industry has fought Household International’s predatory lending practices, engaged Citigroup on this issue, and continues to advocate for changes in Wells Fargo’s lending practices. Back in April of this year, one of our colleagues attended Wells Fargo’s annual shareholder meeting and addressed the gathering with these words: Our interest as shareholders in raising these issues is simply that predatory lending is bad business. Sub-prime, predatory lending practices bump up corporate profits in the short term, but are driven by shortsighted, extraordinary greed on the part of financial institutions. We believe that using the American dream of home ownership to boost profits at the expense of the citizens of this country is egregious, and is the cause of the current financial collapse of this country. What Should You Do?: Don’t just take our word for it, you can see sound investment advice being touted by Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the world, October 17th, 2008, in the New York Times, pointing to his incredible move to invest $24.5 billion into US Stocks over the past two weeks. One simple rule dictates his buying “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” There is no question that we are in recession. Even after the credit markets start to recover, we still have several quarters of negative growth ahead of us. Recovery from this bear market will likely take years, not months, and we may not have hit bottom yet. There are plenty of things you can do to help yourself through these difficult times. Common sense needs to replace fear. This is a time to spend less and save more. It’s a time to focus on family and friends and less on material things. Make sure your cash reserve is adequate and can fund any major cash needs over the next few years. Reduce debt if you have any. Turn off the ‘fear mongers’ on television and remember that you are invested for the long term. If you aren’t planning to retire for five, 10 or more years, don’t worry. If you are planning to retire over the next five years, consider working for a few extra years. It can make all of the difference in a more comfortable retirement, please request our list of 10 reasons to delay retirement. If you are already retired and living on a fixed income, cut expenses where possible. Consider the new trend of “un-retiring” for a period of time, or part-time work, or even turning a hobby into extra cash. Continue to save & invest – buying into the market when prices are down is a sound investment strategy “Markets are capable only of creating temporary declines. Only people can create permanent losses.” –Nick Murray Judith L. Seid, President and founder of Blue Summit Financial Group, Inc, is a certified financial planner who has actively used Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) for her clients since 1992. She firmly believes that “We can influence corporations to change their policies by avoiding investments