The San Diego COVID-19 Equity Task Force is an innovative, volunteer community-based coalition of stakeholders organized to discuss, advocate and help implement policies and strategies to address the disproportionate negative impact the new coronavirus disease is inflicting on the diverse and vulnerable populations in the San Diego community. Local physicians, Dr. Rodney Hood, Dr. Robert Gillespie and Dr. Suzanne Afflalo are the founding members of this collaborative.

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.  

This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Write it! Email it to hoa@ivn.us

The New York Times ran a story recently about Marina Udgodskaya, a cleaning woman who ran for office against her boss, the incumbent mayor of Povalikhino, Russia, and won. In the middle of our current elections, this headline is eye-catching. Everyone loves a story where the underdog pulls off an upset victory.

The presidential debates have come to an end, but the debate over who should run these important events in a presidential election cycle continues.

There is no question that the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) has willfully kept candidates outside the Republican and Democratic Parties out of the debates. They have even gone so far as to forcefully remove third party candidates from being in the same vicinity as a debate.

The democracy reform movement is having a moment right now. There are campaigns all across the country fighting gerrymandering, corruption, voter suppression, and plurality voting.

Because of this, we constantly get asked, “Who are you? And why are you advocating for approval voting instead of [insert preferred reform here]?” As a relatively new organization in the reform space, we thought it was time that we re-introduce ourselves to you. 

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.