Serving OB, the Peninsula and San Diego Beaches
Beginning August 1, NPR Music will publish a week-long list of stories and podcast episodes exploring the legacy and future of the Grateful Dead fandom. And they want to hear from you!
They want to know: How did you become a fan of the Grateful Dead? Maybe it was a specific album that converted you, or you were transformed by a show you saw. And what would you say to someone who just doesn’t understand the band’s appeal?
By Marc Elias / Democracy Docket / July 27, 2026
Election Day is less than 100 days away.
Donald Trump is deeply unpopular. The Republican Party has little to show for its time in power. Prices are up, and the economy is stagnant. We are at war in the Middle East.
The GOP is not acting like a party trying to persuade voters to support its candidates — because it isn’t. Instead, the Republican Party’s entire strategy boils down to this:
By JW August / Special to OB Rag
Shirley Weber, California’s Secretary of State. has responded to a recent veiled threat from the Trump administration warning about criminal prosecutions of any election official allowing ineligible individuals to vote.
President Trump frequently repeats the claim of ineligible voters swinging the results of the 2020 presidential election he lost. No legitimate evidence has ever been provided to back the claim.
Weber’s response was to a letter from attorney and Trump supporter Harmeet Dhillon, who oversees the administration’s civil rights division as an Assistant Attorney General. Weber told Dhillon that “California is in full compliance with federal election law obligations.”
Weber did not respond to an offer of “assistance” from the Trump administration. Instead her unspoken response seemed to say, California electors know what they are doing. To prove her point she sent Dhillon a lengthy list of California and federal laws and codes her office enforces.
By Andrea Margolis / Fox News / July 18, 2026
A family’s unusual discovery in a rental home that left some TikTok viewers shocked finally has an explanation.
Libby Birrell and Aubrey Birrell, two sisters from Utah, recently went viral on social media after checking into an Airbnb rental and recognizing members of their own family in a framed beach photo hanging on the wall.
In an interview with Fox News Digital this week, the sisters admitted they were extremely “creeped out” by seeing the picture.
They were at a rental home in Oceanside, San Diego, with about 30 relatives to celebrate their grandfather’s 80th birthday in early July, they said, when they spotted the photo.
“The moment we saw it, we made everyone come up and look, and they were all in awe,” Aubrey Birrell said. “I started FaceTiming my friends because they all know my family. They were in shock, too. It was crazy.”
By JW August / Special to OB Rag
San Diegan Shirley Weber, California’s Secretary of State, has received a warning from the U.S.Department of Justice, advising her that she or “any election officer” in California faces serious criminal charges for “knowingly retaining non-citizens on the Statewide Voter Registration List.”
The letter, sent July 7, was signed by Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division. At one time, she was one of the most influential Republican women in California politics, and her stature has grown even more since following President Trump to Washington, where she is now a powerful voice in the party. Under her direction, the division, which 69 years ago was created to protect voting rights and to fight inequality, has changed course.
Before joining the administration, Dhillon was in private practice, and the firm she founded filed lawsuits in support of many of Trump’s goals. This included a case in San Diego, where a Trump anti-vax supporter’s protests were gaining momentum.
Fast forward to the current Trump admiration and her role is again in support of conservative causes. In a recent Los Angeles Times article, a dozen former attorneys in the division said “the division has taken on a far more partisan approach.”
In the same story, Dhillon defended her work, stating that “the division’s actions aren’t political.” She added her work isn’t combative; instead, “it’s transparent.”
Dhillon believes there is clear potential for non-citizens to vote in California elections. The letter to Weber comes amid increasing pressure by the Trump administration to discredit the nation’s voting systems, which the President says are inherently flawed.
By JW August
Laurie Holcomb, founder of a multiple cannabis companies, has made serious errors in judgment, alleges the U.S.Attorney’s Office in San Diego. The government announced last week it had filed a false claims act complaint against her, claiming that she had illegally obtained five pandemic loans from the federal government.
Her companies were engaged in the “cultivation, distribution, and retail sale of recreational cannabis and cannabis products,” according to the government’s filing. As is commonly known, it’s legal to plant, cultivate and smoke marijuana in California if you play by its rules. Not so with the federal government if it’s sold for recreational use, it’s still considered highly restricted Schedule I drug.
Holcomb’s mistake, the U.S. Attorney alleges, was when she asked the government for money. It was during the pandemic times and she borrowed from the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, which was created to help businesses during the pandemic. She convinced the government to give her $1.4 million.
Holcolm’s company claims to have generated $100 million in annual sales of cannabis, according to various media reports. The company also has a 100,000 square-foot cultivation campus in Los Angeles.
The company is described in the media reports as one of the leading legal cannabis companies in the state, having distributed marijuana all over California, including numerous locations in San Diego. Debts and merger decisions forced her to file for bankruptcy protection in March of last year.
By Shannon Handy / CBS8 / July 8-9, 2026
Researchers reveal alarming statistics about gray whales, declaring a “catastrophic mortality event” along the West Coast as strandings escalate dramatically this year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports a staggering 145 gray whales have been found stranded dead on the West Coast, including regions in Mexico and Canada, marking a significant increase that could make 2026 one of the deadliest years on record for these marine mammals.
The current stranding rate starkly contrasts with the previous two decades, where the average number of stranding per year was around 43 from 2006 to 2023. In 2025, the number surged to 179, raising further concerns among scientists and conservationists.
The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general public informed about important Council hearings and other city public meetings.
Item S400: Proposed FY 2027 Recreation Center Fund Budgets, Opportunity Fund Budget, and 2025 Come Play Outside
Why it matters: Funding for city Rec Centers and the proportions of available funding that go to “low resource” neighborhoods continue to be an issue of concern.
Item S401: Information Guide on Group Participation Updates and Council Determination of Community Engagement Efforts
Why it matters: Community Planning Groups have seen their input on density and development issues greatly reduced under the Faulconer and Gloria regimes. The Community Planners Committee is demanding a “Seat at the Table” on important land use decisions. Background:
From First Amendment Coalition
We’re writing to sound alarms about California Assembly Bill 1821, which would have disastrous effects on transparency, accountability, and our democracy. Well, it’s crunchtime.
The bill, which was amended at the proverbial 11th hour in a transformation that a local watchdog group called “a virtual horror show of governmental non-transparency,” is set for a crucial committee hearing June 30. We need your help to stop it.
If passed, the bill would fundamentally alter the California Public Records Act, a vital sunshine law that ensures the people’s business be done in public view, making state and local governments less transparent and less responsive to the people they serve. Specifically, it would:
By Sonia Fernandez / The Current – UC Santa Barbara / June 22, 2026
A study conducted by UC Santa Barbara researchers and collaborators has found that California has lost more than half of its coastal dune systems. The researchers’ assessment — the first of its kind for the California coast — estimates that 60% of dune systems that existed from 1850 have been lost, due to a combination of urban development, land-use changes and erosion.
“There are major implications of this loss for the California coast, including reduced habitats for plants, insects and other invertebrates, birds and small mammals,” said the paper’s lead author, postdoctoral researcher and physical geographer Tim Baxter. “Importantly, we also lose coastal protections against storms and sea level rise.”
This assessment, one of the largest and most detailed inventories of coastal sand dunes ever produced, is published in the journal Earth’s Future.
Feds Proposal to allow Cyanide poison bombs, hound hunting and trapping impacts San Diego’s public landsBy Renée Owens / EastCountyMagazine / June 19, 2026
San Diego County residents should be aware that a little-known federal proposal is sneaking under the radar, one that will have serious local and national consequences. Why is it such a secret? It could be because the new rule’s creators want it to be adopted quickly before the majority of Americans understand what a harmful precedent it sets.
On May 27 the Trump administration announced a proposed rule to massively increase hunting and fishing throughout over 2.5 million acres of public wild lands, 95 percent of the entire National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). It expands not only refuge access but also targets species lists, seasons, bag limits, and allowed methods for hunting and fishing, and promotes a discretionary approach that is based not on science but on appeasement of a few powerful lobbies. To add to the chaos is a clause in the fine print that removes bans on lead ammunition and fishing tackle — protections fought for by scientists for decades – and reopens doors nationwide for hound hunting, traps, bait, and poisons, despite mounting bans on their use due to unambiguous evidence of their cruelty. This on the heels of deep cuts in USFWS staff and funding.
By Dave Maass / Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF / June 2, 2026
People around the world are pushing back against the mass surveillance that undermines privacy and free expression for everyone.
One of the people who joined the fight for digital rights is EFF client Will Freeman. Will created the website DeFlock.me to reveal the dangers of automated license plate readers (ALPRs)—cameras that collect location data on every vehicle they see and upload that to a massive nationwide police database. Deflock.me turns the tables by enlisting ordinary people to track the locations of tens of thousands of ALPR cameras.
But when the police spy-tech company Flock Safety went after Will’s website with legal threats citing trademark law, he saw it for what it was: an attempt to silence critics and dim the light on mass surveillance.
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