Despite scant evidence of voter fraud, the group is laser-focused on weeding it out. It has pushed for voter-ID laws, voter roll purges and other controversial voting-related measures in a host of states. (Here is our guide to the voter ID controversy, where we note that evidence on both sides of the issue is lacking.)

OB Town Council Hears Outrage From Residents Over Recent Sexual Assaults and Peeping Tom Incidents

September 28, 2012 by Christopher Dotson

Community Members Jam OBTC Meeting and Voice Impatience at Lack of Progress by Police

Wednesday night at 7PM, the OB Town Council held their monthly public meeting, as a crowd of more than 100 Ocean Beach residents filled Masonic hall to express anger over a growing perception serious and violent sexual crimes are increasing in OB.

While the actual number of reported incidents remains low, a strong showing by residents, and several television camera crews from local media stations, were met with serious concern from San Diego police, as officers and residents reported on both known and unreported incidents.

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Annual Great White Shark Migration Along Pacific Coast Makes Scientists Giddy

September 27, 2012 by Source

Great white sharks back in north coast “Red Triangle”

By Peter Fimrite / SFGate / September 22, 2012

Scientists are all but running giddily into the surf with fancy new gadgetry as the annual migration of great white sharks hits full swing along the Pacific coast and reports flood in about finned beasts lurking in shallow waters.

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For the Sake of Civility the U-T Needs to Change

September 26, 2012 by Ernie McCray

Hope on my mind

Hope comes easy for me. It can rise from the words in a kindergarten girl’s poem where everybody lives happily forever and ever, or it could come out of the energy of thousands of San Diegans standing in the middle of Broadway singing “Give Peace a Chance.”

I didn’t realize, though, how hopeful a human being I am until I found myself one day holding out hope that the San Diego Union-Tribune, a rag that, on good days, over the years, has made me gag, could change and become a factor in helping San Diego become all it can be.

I didn’t see this hopeful moment coming. I was leaving the Union-Tribune Building one day when it dawned on me that I had a smile on my face. And that had never been the case when I look back on all the times I’ve walked away from the place.

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San Diego City Council Unanimously Denied Power Plant Near Mission Trails Park

September 26, 2012 by Source

By Nadin Abbott / East County Magazine / September 24, 2012

The mood was tense as people from multiple walks of life and political views filed into San Diego City Chambers. Among them was Republican Santee Councilman Jack Dale and Democrat David Secor, candidate for U.S. Congress for the 50th district. Both Dale and Secor came to oppose the Quail Brush gas-fired power plant.

So did Massada Disenhouse, activist for the Sierra Club and Martha Sullivan, a former California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) employee, and many others.

There were supporters of the plant as well, including Gary Salas, a member of the electrical trades. Also supporting the project was John Gibson, of Hamman Construction in El Cajon.

This planned peaked plant attracted people from multiple areas of the county, not just San Diego proper.

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The Closing of Rocky’s Surf Shop in Ocean Beach

September 26, 2012 by Mercy Baron

By Mercy Baron

Rocky’s Surf Shop on the corner of Abbott and Muir, in Ocean Beach, closed it’s doors September 15 after serving the surf community for an impressive 25 years. Owner, Doug Yates, was very forthcoming in my interview with him on the state of the surfing industry in Southern California today, and how it has affected his decision to close the doors to a surf shop destination.

Rocky’s was originally started in 1990 by original owner Robin Marion and was then bought by John Holly. Doug started as an employee about 12 years ago, and then bought it from John about 5 years ago in 2008.

Doug stated that in 2005, Clark Foam of Mission Viejo, the world’s largest supplier of surfboard blanks, went out of business, and they accounted for 80% of the blanks being made in the surf world. To fill that need, money poured into the industry with boards being made in China and Taiwan, which were made so cheaply, that it created a glut of boards.

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Peeping Tom Reported on Saratoga Avenue in Ocean Beach

September 20, 2012 by Christopher Dotson

Earlier this week, a flyer was hand delivered to OB residents along Saratoga Avenue issuing a warning of a “peeping tom on Saratoga Ave.” The flyer goes on to describe events surrounding an individual male stalker which San Diego Police are now investigating.

The word “BEWARE” appears in the heading, and the flyer narrates events as they unfolded on Monday morning, 9/17, around 10:30am after an OB parent found a large hunting knife outside their back door, on Saratoga Avenue in Ocean Beach. Even more alarming, the same startled parent also discovered a red velvet top-hat sitting on a trashcan which was located underneath their daughter’s bedroom window.

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The Case for Charlie Collier as the True “Founder” of Ocean Beach

September 20, 2012 by Frank Gormlie

This is the fourth and final part of my series on “What is the true birthday of OB and who is its true founder?” (Here are Parts One, Two, and Three.)

Besides J.M. DePuy and the partners Billy Carlson and Frank Higgins, there’s another historical character who walked across Ocean Beach’s stage, who had such an effect on the development of the community that some consider him the “true founder” of the village. And that is Col. David Charles Collier – who Collier Park up in northeast OB is named after.

Although Collier came later than our main contender for the title of the community’s “father” – William “Smiling Billy” Carlson, he had as much to do with what turned into our little town by the sea as anyone else. And perhaps more so.

“Charlie” Collier History

Ocean Beach and Col DC Collier first intersected in 1887, when young “Charlie” – then only 16 – bought one of Billy Carlson’s lots in Ocean Beach. The lot was close to the cliffs, over on Pacific – now Coronado Avenue – and Bacon Street. …

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Who Else Doesn’t Pay Taxes? Top 10 Corporate Deadbeats and Slackers

September 20, 2012 by Source

Among the 47% Who Pay No Income Taxes Is Mitt Romney Himself!

Mitt’s money that has not been funneled through offshore corporations linked to bank accounts in no tax jurisdictions has been taxed as capital gains, not income.

Mitt Romney dismissed 47% of the American people who don’t pay income tax as slackers and deadbeats. Thanks to a loophole Romney pays US taxes as “carried interest” which is taxed at the capital gains rate of 15%. That figure would not only include Romney himself who pays no income tax, but also all those corporate persons (remember Romney said, “Corporations are people, my friend”) such as Exxon Mobil and GE who not only pay no income tax but get a generous rebate thanks to American taxpayers.

Here is a list of the top 10 corporate deadbeats and slackers (thanks to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont):

1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.

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Twitter Turns Over Occupy Tweets to New York Court

September 19, 2012 by Source

Twitter [last Friday, Sept 14th] succumbed to pressure from a New York criminal court to turn over deleted tweets of an Occupy Wall Street protester. This is why you should care.

By Andrew Couts / Digital Trends / Originally published September 14, 2012

Twitter gave in to a New York court subpoena requiring it to turn over more than three month’s worth of tweets posted by user Malcolm Harris, 23, who was arrested last September during an Occupy Wall Street Protest. The surrender of the tweets, which Harris deleted from his public profile, follows a months-long battled by Twitter to keep the information from landing in the hands of prosecutors.

The surrender of the tweets was the result of presiding New York State Supreme Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino’s threat to hold the company in contempt and impose a fine on Twitter if the tweets were not handed over by today. To assess the amount of the fine, Sciarrino demanded that Twitter disclose its earnings statements from the past two quarters — financial data that Twitter, as a privately-held company, does not want to be made public by the court.

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San Diego Women Occupy Lead Prop 37 Rally and Bannering on 163 Overpass

September 18, 2012 by Source

Hillcrest Banners Favor Prop 37 On Robinson Street Overpass

By Nadin Abbott and Frank Gormlie

It was close to 4pm on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street – Monday, September 17th – and the mood at the Canvas for a Cause headquarters in Hillcrest was expectant. As people started to arrive for the programed rally in favor of Proposition 37, Nadine Abbott had a chance to talk to Doctor Norrie Robbins of Women Occupy San Diego and a member of the singers Occapellas. Robbins is also Adjunct Professor at the SDSU Dept of Geological Sciences, and is retired from the United States Geological Service, DC office.

Robbins said: “I am worried about my food. I’m beginning to get weird allergies that do not run in my family.”

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‘Occupy’ Anniversary Protests in New York, San Diego & Around the World

September 17, 2012 by Doug Porter

Go to San Diego Free Press for updates.

Welcome to September 17^th. Today is the 225^th Anniversary of the Constitution of the United States. It’s also the first year anniversary of the start of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests/movement.

Over the weekend people streamed into New York from around the nation for a three day event remembering the protests last year. Although OWS events are scheduled for 30 cities around the world, most in the mainstream media are running with the meme that the Occupy movement is dead. There will be events in San Diego today. (See Below)

The Huffington Post, that so-called bastion of liberal news, ran an Associated Press report

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Burning Man 2012: The Journey Home to Ocean Beach

September 13, 2012 by Brenda McFarlane

On Tuesday of last week, my husband and I, dusty, weary and battered returned to Ocean Beach from Black Rock City – a sort of desert Brigadoon, appearing and disappearing every year on a Nevada dry lake bed every end of August.

Going to Burning Man is more commitment than holiday and more journey than destination. For us, while the 2012 Burning Man pinnacle is complete, the journey is not. A pile of shoes covered with the almost-white alkaline powder of the Burning Man Playa wait to be wiped off with vinegar and repaired.

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What’s the True Birthday of Ocean Beach and Who Is Our True Founder? – Part 3 : the Legacy of Smiling Billy Carlson

September 12, 2012 by Frank Gormlie

This is a continuation of my series, examining the timely issues dear to OBceans of “What’s OB’s True Birthday?” and “Who Is It’s True Founder?”

In Part One, a discussion was begun on the different theories on the birth dates for Ocean Beach – with the main one being that OB’s birthday stems from a land rush celebration hosted by developer William Carlson and his partner Frank J Higgins in 1887.

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Keep On Seafood Truckin’ in OB

September 11, 2012 by Mercy Baron

By Mercy Baron

Without a doubt, the gourmet food truck scene is one of the hottest trends rolling right now in the gastronomical world. Between the TV offerings of, The Great Food Truck Race on The Food Network, and Eat St on The Cooking Channel, to President Obama tweeting about his fave truck in D.C., (D.C. Empanadas) you just can’t get any more au courant with a hopefully, long lasting fad.

It all started just a short four years ago here on the West Coast, with the Kogi BBQ truck in Los Angeles. I remember reading about it when I still lived there and was hoping to catch up with it someday, but never did.

In the beginning of 2010, the Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association (SoCalMFVA) was created, becoming the first organization started to protect the rights of gourmet food truck owners.

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Proposition 37: The Right to Know What You’re Eating

September 10, 2012 by Source

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press
I wrote a previous article in the San Diego Free Press about genetically modified (GMO) foods. One might ask, “What is the purpose of genetically modifying a food item.” Is it to enhance the flavor? Is it to make it more nutritious? Well, no, not really.

The sole purpose of modifying corn and soy products is to make them resistant to pesticides and herbicides. Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soy seeds grow into plants that will not be killed when Roundup is sprayed on the soy field which kills every other thing in the field EXCEPT the Roundup Ready soy plant.

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Slouching Toward San Diego to Be Born: Carl DeMaio, Spawn of the Wrecking Crew

September 10, 2012 by Jim Miller

It’s the week after Labor Day and the Carl DeMaio attack machine is in full force, with SuperPac-funded ads in the works designed to keep pounding away at Bob Filner while DeMaio furiously tries to repackage himself as someone palatable to moderate Democrats and Independents. This will involve things like lying to San Diegans about his environmental record, spending big money to woo Latino voters, and hoping that some local Democrats are terminally stupid enough to buy his “independent” populist reformer act. While I have written extensively about DeMaio’s right wing think tank pedigree, it never hurts to revive the historical record, particularly when we can count on the local news to fail on all counts in this regard.

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Green Store and OB Rag Sponsored Clean-up of Gateway – Much a weed about nothin’

September 10, 2012 by Frank Gormlie

A dozen community volunteers showed Saturday for the Green Store and OB Rag clean-up of the Gateway Project. We began about 7:45 and went till 10:30 or so.

Weeds, weeds, weeds. We hacked, shoveled, dug, pulled weeds by the hand, raked, sweated … and … we ensured we didn’t take or pull flowers and native plants. But there was a lot of dead stuff, some trash, but a lot of work was needed to make the place less of an eye-sore and more of an inviting place for OBceans. One guy came by and said he weekly toured the site and picked up trash.

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One Year Later at Occupy San Diego – Checking Up on Our Own Occupy Wallstreet Movement

September 7, 2012 by Source

By Kali Kat / Special to the OB Rag

With the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street just around the corner on September 17, and many other cities’ occupy anniversaries falling in the weeks just after, like Occupy San Diego’s one year anniversary on October 7, the question being begged is:

“What is the current state of the Occupy movement?” If you go down to the Civic Center or your local City Hall, are people still living there?

The Occupy movement, including Occupy San Diego (OSD), is still alive and well, but no, there are not people still living there – well not people flying the Occupy flag anyways.

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Carl DeMaio TV Ad: Now He’s Running as an “Independent”

September 7, 2012 by Doug Porter

The ad says, “For Carl DeMaio, independence is not a label, it’s his life story.”

Talk about your makeovers. Perhaps he’s taking a cue from the Romney campaign and trying to humanize his image. Maybe somebody in his operation has actually drilled down into the polling numbers and realized that whoever wins San Diego’s mayoral contest is going to have to reach beyond party lines. Or possibly his advisors think people were turned off by his negative advertising in the primary race. Whatever.

The first round of video from the DeMaio campaign emerged Tuesday with a thirty second ad that seeks to remold “Fighting Carl” into “Mr. Rogers”, the iconic TV host who became known as a symbol of compassion and patience as he explained the world to children through the eyes of his neighborhood. It was jaw dropping.

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Prop 36: Amending California’s “Three Strikes” Law

September 6, 2012 by Andy Cohen

Adjusting sentencing guidelines under three strikes will help alleviate prison overcrowding and help California’s budget.

In 1994, California voters approved a law that was rather revolutionary in its time……as Californians are wont to do. We’re trendsetters in that way. The purpose of the “three strikes” law was a noble one: Deter violent crime—particularly from repeat offenders—by making each subsequent conviction even more costly.

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1968: Aroused Citizens Complain About the Hippies and Their Pan-Handling, Sex, and Drugs

September 5, 2012 by Source

Editor: The following hilarious article is lifted word for word right out of the July 1968 issue of the San Diego Free Press, and it is not satire nor tongue-in-cheek.

O. B. “Citizens” Aroused

The solid citizenry of Ocean Beach are aroused. For some time now, there has been a virtual state of war existing between businessmen and merchants, on the one hand, and hippies on the other. The growing hippie community in OB has been met with growing alarm on the part of the established citizenry.

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Widder Curry Constructs “The Reading Fence”

September 4, 2012 by Judi Curry

Have You Heard of the “Wailing Wall”? The “Widder’s” answer – “The Reading Fence” It is hard to believe that during the last presidential election my husband was alive and protesting the Bush regime. We first made contact with the OB Rag because of posters and/or pictures we had depicting our feelings. As the anniversary […]

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Secret Anaheim Police Report Targets Mexican-American “Hot Zones” for Civil Unrest

September 1, 2012 by Source

By Duane Roberts / the Orange Juice Blog / Originally published August 12, 2012

CONTAINING A REBELLION: According to a highly confidential Anaheim Police Department “Incident Action Report” dated Friday, July 27, 2012, the working-class Mexican neighborhood of Leatrice/Wakefield, located about a mile away from the Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks, was considered by top brass to be a “hot zone” where officers were to use “civil unrest protocols” at all times.

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American Meteorological Society: Unequivocal Evidence that Earth is Warming, Sea Levels Rising, Snow, Glaciers and Artic Ice Shrinking due to Human Activities

August 30, 2012 by Source

How is climate changing?

Warming of the climate system now is unequivocal, according to many different kinds of evidence. Observations show increases in globally averaged air and ocean temperatures, as well as widespread melting of snow and ice and rising globally averaged sea level. Surface temperature data for Earth as a whole, including readings over both land and ocean, show an increase of about 0.8°C (1.4°F) over the period 1901-2010 and about 0.5°C (0.9°F) over the period 1979–2010 (the era for which satellite-based temperature data are routinely available).

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Ocean Beach Reporter for Reader Assaulted by Hilton Hotel Goons at Mission Valley Press Conference Exposing Mistreatment of Employees

August 29, 2012 by Source

Dave Rice, an OBcean and current blogger for the San Diego Reader and former writer for the OB Rag was assaulted yesterday – August 29th – while covering a story about the mistreatment of Hilton Hotel employees. He was assaulted by men who work for the hotel.

Here is a report from the San Diego Free Press by Doug Porter on Dave Rice’s experience:

Mission Valley mayhem… A press conference being held yesterday by the Employee Rights Center to air charges that the hotel’s operator, Connecticut-based HEI Hospitality, had been named in a complaint …

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Brother of Second OB Assault Victim Offers $5,000 Reward

August 28, 2012 by Source

Brother Posts Wanted Posters About Ocean Beach

By Chris Dotson and Frank Gormlie

The brother of the most recent sexual assault victim in Ocean Beach has posted a $5,000 reward. John Wilson is offering this for any information leading to the arrest or conviction of the assailant of his sister August 25th on the 5000 block of Muir Avenue.

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Who is the Founder of Ocean Beach? – Part 2 of the OB History Series on its Birthdates

August 28, 2012 by Frank Gormlie

This is the next section in my continuing series of early Ocean Beach history, as we investigate the “true” birthday of OB and review the contenders for Ocean Beach’s “founder”.

In Part One, I discussed the different possible birthdates of Ocean Beach and highlighted the different theories, the main one being that OB’s birthday stems from a …

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2 Sexual Assaults in Ocean Beach in 10 Days

August 27, 2012 by Frank Gormlie

A second sexual assault was reported in Ocean Beach late Saturday night, the 25th of August. This makes the second such assault within ten days in OB – not a very proud mark for the community. This one was called an “attempted assault” but an attempted assault is still an assault, according to the legal dictionary.

The latest assault occurred on the 5000 block of Muir Avenue at about 2:10 a.m. Saturday night. The victim told police she was walking home alone from an early-morning party. According to the report, the man was somehow spooked during the attempt, and took off. The woman was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

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We Built It? 2012 Republican National Convention Site: Publicly Financed, Publicly Owned

August 24, 2012 by Doug Porter

Editor: This is an edited version of Doug Porter’s daily column “The Starting Line” over at the San Diego Free Press.

Next weeks Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida will be held at The Tampa Bay Time Forum, an indoor arena that is publicly owned and whose construction was paid for primarily with tax dollars. Seven bond issues issued in 1996 for construction, according to the St. Petersburg Times, are being paid off with a combination of revenues from sales taxes, tourist development taxes, and ticket surcharges. The facility is legally owned by Hillsborough County, which leases it the Tampa Bay Sports Authority. County ownership keeps the property off the local property tax rolls.

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