OPEN MIKE NIGHT AT THE SPACE BAR INTERNET CAFÉ JULY 28
Printer-friendly version July 18, 2011 (La Mesa) – On the fourth Thursday of each month, the Space Bar Internet Café at 7454 University in La Mesa presents open mike night from 7:30 to 10 p.m with Jihmye Collins. On July 28, host Jim Moreno will welcome Jerrica Escoto and Succinct from the San Diego Slam Team. (see details below). The public is also invited to “come express yourself in public” through spoken word, poetry, song, comedy, and dance. Coffee, tea, smoothies and deli food is available, including brownies. For more information, call (619)461-7100. Jerrica Escoto is a recent graduate at California State Univeristy San Marcos majoring in Literature and Writing and Women Studies, as well as a minor in Philosophy. She has been active in the San Diego spoken word community for four years and has performed for girls in juvenile hall, youth and high school cultural events, San Diego special event shows including Fusion 2010, benefit concerts, the LGBTQ community, featured at higher education institutions including UCSD, CSUSM, CSULB, CSUDH, and Southwestern Community College. She also has co-taught numerous poetry workshops for pregnant and teen mothers at JCCS, and recently, started a new poetry/empowerment group at King Chavez High in downtown, San Diego. Succinct is a member of the San Diego Slam Team that placed 6th in the nation at the recent national championships in Minneapolis, Minn. Her duet poetry with Jerrica and her solo pieces are original, powerful, and gems of social justice and social consciousness. She is a regular at Elevated, a spoken word showpiece at the Evoke Dance Theater in North Park the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month. The Castles An x-files, supernatural feeling began to overcome me, as the ferryboat circled the island on the portuguese side of goree’ in much the same way as I stood mesmerized in the middle of slave road at ouidah a year ago, the rusted cannon barrel pointed east, as the winds blew in separations and cadences eerie-like I knew then, the ghosts of my ancestors were talking to me, protecting me from the flood of indignation and rage fury that would surround me stepping into giant footprints footprints, gone, but still emblazon, without shoes and heels, in the red soil the tide was out sand beached against the castle side walls I imagined fewer steps, but normal strides were prohibited by chains of bondage, displayed in several types and sizes, next to the gift shop dark spots appear on the ground sun-baked over hundreds of years from thousands of bleeding ankles inside a small cell, I saw in my mind’s eye, a multitude of sparkling, but sad, children’s eyes, that guided me to a hold for women mothers, where hands I didn’t see touched about my shoulders, gently, softly, leading the way to another dark, small hole, where another unseen hand seemed to sternly clutch my wrist, just as the guide, in french-accented english, said we stood in the lock-up for the defiant ones the defiant ones densely concentrated inside these walls, the musty, damp smell, swarming throughout, begged the question if the odor from the brothers and sisters at auschwitz was similar upon leaving I exhaled a sigh of relief as the ferry cruised away, the french gun of the last conquerors pointed north an x-files supernatural feeling overcame me Jihmye Collins Printer-friendly version
HUNDREDS BENEFIT FROM CLEAN ENERGY AND WORKFORCE TRAINING PROGRAM
Printer-friendly version July 18, 2011 (El Cajon) – A $1 million grant stemming from federal stimulus money injected into the economy in 2009 has ended a productive run at Cuyamaca College, with hundreds of students completing a workforce training program and many attaining promising new careers in the green industry. One such person is Paul Schankin, a San Carlos resident who found himself unemployed in August 2010 after 15 years working the technical side of the television and multimedia industry. He was recently hired by Synergy Companies, a Bay Area-based energy management company, to analyze the potential energy savings of existing homes. He decided to pursue an interest in working at a green job and took several classes over a four-month period offered through Cuyamaca College’s Clean Energy Workforce Training Program to obtain the national Building Performance Institute, or BPI, credentials needed to become an energy analyst. The grant program was administered by the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District’s Continuing Education and Workforce Training program based at Cuyamaca College in Rancho San Diego. “The training I received at Cuyamaca introduced me to the software programs and some of the technologies that are used by firms to analyze buildings and residences for modification or enhancements like double-pane windows to lower energy use,” Schankin said. “I am grateful for the career opportunity that Cuyamaca provided me. Whatever they can do to retrain the displaced workforce is very useful.” Green tradition As a recognized leader in green economic and workforce development in San Diego County, Cuyamaca College was the only college in the county and one of about a dozen statewide awarded the grant from the California Clean Energy Workforce Training Program, a state initiative to stimulate the economy by developing and offering green job training. The grant was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and was used to train 251 students at Cuyamaca and Palomar colleges in solar thermal and solar photovoltaic installation, as well as training in becoming a certified building analyst to assess energy efficiency in homes. The college also used the grant to offer job placement workshops specific to the green industry and to sponsor free public events such as a green business symposium last May. The gathering brought together more than 200 industry leaders, green employers and graduates of Cuyamaca’s green job program to identify growth opportunities and ways to create new jobs in the region’s fledgling green industry. Another outgrowth of Cuyamaca’s grant program was the San Diego Green Workforce Coalition, a partnership of the college district, the San Diego Workforce Partnership, and the California Center for Sustainable Energy. The San Diego Workforce Partnership funds job training programs for emerging careers in green jobs, healthcare and clean technology. The third partner is a nonprofit promoting a clean energy future. The workforce coalition was formed to provide industry expertise to ensure the Cuyamaca program reflected relevant training for green jobs. It also sought to provide opportunities for employment for program graduates. “Cuyamaca College has long been on the forefront of preparing students for green jobs. We’re proud of our innovative offerings available through our Continuing Education and Workforce Training program, as well as programs such as ornamental horticulture, water and wastewater technology, environmental health and safety, and sustainable landscaping,” said Cindy L. Miles, chancellor of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District. Through the grant program, students earned 394 industry-recognized certificates and 138 national BPI certificates. A particularly innovative offering was a class in how to start up a green business, in which Cuyamaca partnered with Southwestern College’s Small Business Development Center. Keen interest in green The numbers of students receiving multiple certifications points to their keen interest in pursuing green careers, said Darlene Spoor, dean of continuing education and workforce training at Cuyamaca. “We just really listened to our students and developed additional classes that the students needed and requested,” Spoor said. “People stayed engaged and because we were able to expand our offerings, our students are well prepared to compete in the job market.” With the grant-funded program now ended, the college is pursuing other means to continue offering the training, either through additional grants or student fees. The college has applied to become a full-fledged training center for BPI’s national certifications and has taken 10 of the program’s most promising graduates and trained them to become BPI instructors. Sharon Rogers-Andrews is one of the graduates selected to teach the BPI classes within the next few months, once the college becomes a BPI-affiliated training site. Effusive in her praise for Cuyamaca, Rogers-Andrews is excited about the opportunity to share what she’s learned in the five BPI classes she’s taken. Despite being unemployed for the past 2 ½ years after working in management positions, she manages to remain upbeat, seeing a lot of potential in an emerging field. “I know this is the beginning of a new market,” said the Oklahoma transplant. Molly Hughes, project coordinator for Cuyamaca’s program, said finding jobs for graduates has been more difficult than expected, largely because proposed federal legislation to provide funding incentives to homeowners for green-energy conversions fell through, as did the proposed requirement for energy efficiency audits of new and existing home sales. Without that legislation, the demand lessened for workers in those fields. On the horizon is a pilot program announced in the spring by the Department of Energy and the Department of Housing and Urban Development that will soon allow qualified homeowners to take advantage of PowerSaver loans of up to $25,000 for energy-saving measures, including the installation of solar panels. Hughes said more students have recently reported that they were hired, an indication that the market for green jobs is increasing. “More people are realizing that the green economy is the wave of the future and that community colleges are in the best position to offer transitional training. It’s what we do best
43 DRUG CARTELARRESTS ANNOUNCED IN SAN DIEGO
Printer-friendly version July 18, 2011 (San Diego) — Today, the San Diego Police Department led a multi-agency task force in a coordinated take-down of 43 high value targets with ties to Mexican drug cartels, authorities announced today. “Operation Second Sole” identified 43 suspects allegedly involved in narcotics trafficking, weapons trafficking, robberies and violence in our communities. Federal, state and local law enforcement officers and agents served arrest and search warrants throughout San Diego County to capture these individuals and disrupt their criminal enterprises, law enforcement officials announced today. "Many of the suspects arrested today have significant criminal histories and were considered to be armed and dangerous," said Lt. Kevin Ammon with the San Diego Police Department. "The success of today’s operation rid the County of a serious threat to the safety and security of our citizens." San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said Operation Second Sole demonstrates how law enforcement collaboration benefits the community. “Our office relies on law enforcement to make our cities safe places to live,” DA Dumanis said. “This sweep shows criminals that we’re watching and that we won’t compromise public safety.” “ATF and SDPD commenced this collaborative investigation in order to interrupt and prevent dangerous individuals from committing acts of violence in furtherance of narcotics trafficking. As a result of this joint effort, suspects implicated in criminal activity ranging from homicide to armed robbery have been taken into custody along with seized contraband, including illegal firearms and methamphetamine,” said John A. Torres, Special Agent in Charge, ATF, Southern California. “The San Diego area is safer due to the diligence and careful work of the ATF and SDPD, whose shared goals include routing out violent criminals and seizing the weapons they use to perpetrate serious crimes.” “ICE is steadfast in its commitment to joining forces with our law enforcement partners. We are happy to lend our expertise in dealing with violence linked to transitional smuggling networks that seek to harm our communities,” said Joe Garcia, Deputy Special Agent in Charge for ICE Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego. “These criminal enterprises cross international borders and county lines, and revert to violent tactics to ensure their financial gain. Our common goal is to identify and dismantle all of the network’s cells from the top to the bottom – which is best achieved through a unified operation.” United States Attorney Laura Duffy praised the work of the numerous law enforcement agencies involved in this year-long investigation, calling it a “great example of collaboration between state and federal agents and prosecutors to target dangerous offenders in our community.” “Our offices remain committed to protecting San Diego’s neighborhoods from drug and firearms traffickers,” stated Duffy, adding that “the numerous arrests and search warrants executed this morning demonstrate the positive impact our law enforcement partners can have at the local level through this type of joint operation.” “Operation Second Sole” involved the efforts of many agencies. The San Diego Police Department worked closely with law enforcement partners in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, United States Attorney, United States Marshal’s Service, United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), California Border Protection Alliance Group- HIDTA, San Diego Sheriff’s Department, and Chula Vista Police Department. Printer-friendly version
BLAZE BLACKENS BRUSH IN MISSION TRAILS
Printer-friendly version July 19, 2011 (San Diego) – A car fire spread into brush alongside State Route 52 near mast Boulevard this afternoon on the northern edge of Mission Trails Regional Park. The blaze charred about 80 open acres including portions of an open space preserve north of San Carlos. Ground crews and a helicopter doused the blaze within 30 minutes, San Diego Fire’s Maurice Luque told ECM news partner 10 News. No injuries or structural damage occurred. Printer-friendly version