By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Gosh, maybe we should have a local San Diego column called “Jews in the news.”
In San Diego, Jews make news
Let’s see, a showdown is coming at the San Diego City Council over Irwin Jacobs’ offer to fund a controversial project to take cars off the Plaza de Panama in Balboa Park. … Elliot Hirshman, the new president of San Diego State University, will be making one third more salary than his predecessor Steve Weber, at a time of state budget cutbacks and tuition increases … Scott Himelstein’s campaign to increase the size of the San Diego Unified School District board has failed to collect sufficient signatures to be placed on the ballot … Robert Price has decided to donate the land that was fomerly Pearson Ford at Fairmount and El Cajon (who can forget the television jingle?) for a new YMCA complex … District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez are engaged in a press release battle over former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to reduce the prison sentence of Nunez’s son, Esteban, in the shooting death of Luis Santos. Dumanis is backing a court suit saying Schwarzenegger failed to follow the law in the midnight commutation of his political friend’s son’s sentence. Nunez said mayoral candidate Dumanis and the media went gunning for his son because of politics, not because she really wanted justice … Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone has a proposal to split off parts of Southern California (but not Los Angeles) from the rest of the state.
In the entertainment world, one of the hot ticket items at Comic Con will be a panel led by actor William Shatner about “Captains” — a film about actors like himself who played the commanding officer in various Star Trek series. He, of course, was “James T. Kirk” in the original series.
And, if Jews locally have not been providing enough news copy, there are always our landsmen at the national level. Stories out of Washington D.C. speculate about a power struggle between House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, with some suggesting that Cantor, as the more conservative of the two, is really the one calling the shots.
Agree with any of ’em, or disagree. No one can deny that in San Diego, and across the country, American democracy and opportunity have been good to the Jews…. and Jews are returning the favor!
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. he may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com