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This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Email it to [email protected] In the recent elections, the U.S. came perilously close to re-electing a man who, after four long years as our president, made it clear that he was an incompetent, authoritarian conman. He presided over a failed pandemic response, greatly increased the budget deficit despite promising to reduce it and dismantled environmental protections that had been in place for decades. While we may all breathe a sigh of relief for

This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Email it to [email protected] Let me state this right up front. I dislike political signs. I consider them litter. I cringe when I see them sprouting up like weeds in my neighborhood in the weeks before an election is held. If I could restrict them to being in people’s yards or the windows of homes or businesses, I’d enjoy my neighborhood walks so much more.   Through multiple election cycles, I wait for at least one smart campaign to make a virt

With California’s junior senator Kamala Harris poised to become America’s first female vice president, a remarkable pattern has taken hold: Once again, a woman from California is making history in the nation’s capital. “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” Harris vowed in her victory speech Saturday night. California also is home to the first woman to become Speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, who first won the post in 2007. And, whe

This is the second installment of a two-part series on Gompers Preparatory Academy in Southeast San Diego. Read the first installment here. The Gompers community has made its position clear. About 80 students, teachers, alumni and community members staged a protest Oct. 27 at the district office, demanding that the San Diego Unified School District reverse its recent decision to eliminate on-loan agreements for four top Gompers Preparatory Academy charter school employees. The on-loan agreeme

This is the first in a two-part series on Gompers Preparatory Academy in Southeastern San Diego. Read the second installment here. Fifteen years ago, I had the privilege of sitting in the boardroom when San Diego Unified School District’s Board of Education authorized the conversion of Gompers Middle School to an independent charter school. This was a turbulent time, with Alan Bersin as superintendent, a teachers union in revolt and a dysfunctional school board. In this midst of this tumult ca

Native San Diegan Shakema Martin says she may still be employed today if she weren’t Black. Martin, a Mira Mesa native, was working at a Carlsbad company until August when she caught COVID-19. She quarantined until she felt better and returned to work with a doctor’s note, clearing her of the highly contagious virus. “They let me start work right away but told me I needed my doctor to fill out other paperwork,” she said. Martin found it difficult to complete her extra work during her Monda

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ It's often hard to see, but much more is at stake Tuesday than the presidency and control of Congress. Voters get to shape public policy by approving or rejecting more than 100 statewide ballot measures and dozens more local proposals — and this exercise in direct democracy includes plenty of ideas for bettering American democracy itself. More than a score of m

Editor's Note: This opinion piece originally appeared in The Hill, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the author. ‍ Polling indicates Joe Biden and the Democrats will win big. However, Democrats are falling short of the edge they need in early voting to offset the Republicans’ anticipated big edge in Election Day voting in three of four battleground states where data is available. If pollsters adjusted to fix 2016 mistakes, the RealClearPolitics average in each state shows B

Her son’s third birthday party and his preschool field trip, those are the SeaWorld memories Anna M. holds dear. As a season passholder, she gushed about how fortunate children in San Diego are to get exposure to animals up close between the Zoo and SeaWorld. “They aren’t just reading about them in a book or watching them on TV. My son has seen a real-life manatee. I didn’t know what a manatee was at his age!” said Anna, who preferred not to disclose her full name to protect her privacy. The c

VotePact is a voting strategy that advocates that people vote for their actual preferences by pairing up with someone on the other side of the Democratic-Republican divide. So people can strategically vote for the candidates they most like without fear of helping those they most fear. Instead of effectively cancelling out each other -- one for Trump and one for Biden, they can both vote Libertarian or Green or whatever they want. It is effectively DIY ranked choice voting, which allows voters t