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Underneath Impeachment: 25 Random Headlines from Last Week

December 9, 2019 by Jim Miller

By Jim Miller

Her Heart Stopped for 6 hours. Now She’s Ready to go Back to Work

Fractured Forests Are Endangering Wildlife, Scientists Find

Killer Heat: US Cities’ Plans for Coming Heatwaves Fail to Protect the Vulnerable

Eight-Year-Old Girl Strip-Searched Before Visiting Father at Prison

No Sex in the Bunkbeds!: Tales from the Most Intimate Sharing Economy Start Up Yet

Google’s Anti-Worker Actions Evoke IBM’s Racist Past

This Has Been the Warmest Decade in Earth’s History

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A Few Random Faces from the OB Street Fair

June 27, 2016 by Source
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Here are some random faces from the Ocean Beach Street Fair – taken by our good friend Byron Morton.

Here’s Mike Deadman of Kissed Alive Tribute Band.

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What the Heck? The Story of My Randomly Sounding Fire Alarms

June 24, 2013 by Judi Curry

Buddy in pool 003By Judi Curry

My dog Buddy and I were awakened early Sunday morning by the smoke alarm going off in our bedroom. (Yes, Buddy and I sleep in the same room – although not in the same bed.) He freaked out because the high pitched noise hurts his ears, and he quickly ran into the other part of the house to hide.

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OB Random Stories: Sophie Stephens – the Future Cosmetologist to the Stars

April 5, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Continuing my series of ‘random’ stories of Ocean Beach, I wanted to go somewhere besides my usual haunt of Newbreak Cafe, across from the Lifeguard station. So, I tried going over to the great new coffeehouse on Voltaire that just opened, TeMana Cafe, … but it closed at 3pm. I turned and headed up the block to Hungry Lu’s where they must have good coffee, related to the Grab and Go stores – but no, they don’t sell coffee. Kids, I tried, I really did, but it was back to Newbreak for me.

It was a windy, cool day in OB, so I was looking forward to a mug of strong French Roast, and once I settled in at a small, round table inside Newbreak I was not disappointed. As I try to keep my interviews gender balanced, I was looking this day for an OBcean woman.

I found Sophie Stephens studying at her laptop; she had purple hair, so I thought this person must have a story to tell, and again I was not disappointed. She jumped at the chance to be interviewed – and as she met my criteria (resident of OB or Point Loma, willing to be interviewed, and have photos taken), I asked her to join me at my table which was a little quieter than hers.

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Random Stories of Ocean Beach: Interview With Aaron Sutton

March 18, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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After a brief respite from them, I was back on the trail for my series of “random” interviews of OBceans when I entered NewBreak coffee house on Abbott the other day. It was hot in the rest of the County of San Diego, but in OB it was a windy – almost cold day – and I was looking forward to my steaming mug of java.

After introducing myself to Aaron Sutton, a 40 year old with a full brown beard who was sitting in front of his laptop, he agreed to be interviewed and we moved over to a corner booth with more privacy. “Everybody has a story,” I told him, and “I want to tell yours.”

Aaron had been living over on Pescadero for about 3 years, when he moved in with good bud, Mike Stevens, on Lotus Street about 6 weeks ago.

“We call it ‘the Farm'”, he said, “we’ve got dogs, frogs, chickens, and fish,” he said.

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Ocean Beach’s Random Stories: LA Refugee and Resident Comedian

February 8, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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This is the third in a series of interviews with OBceans that I have met randomly – all so far in NewBreak coffee house on Abbott Street. I heartily believe that everyone has a story worth retelling, so I approach strangers and ask them if I can sit down with them and take their story.

Two requisites: they have to live in OB – or the Peninsula -, and they have to agree to have their picture taken. Up to now, the feedback from readers has been positive on these random interviews. Here’s my first interview with Eric Long and my second with Helga Staalhane.

Gina Manning – Who Fled the LA Area and Who Now Is in Search of Gigs As a Comedian

Gina Manning was just closing up her laptop the other day when I approached her and asked her if I could interview her for this blog. She said sure, so I sat down at her small table with my coffee mug and got out my notepad.

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Random OB Stories: From Norway to Ocean Beach With Love

January 31, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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This is another in a series of random interviews with OBceans while the author has a firm belief that everyone has a story worth telling.

Meet Helga Staalhane – on loan to OB from Norway. She has lived here for six months and is in a masters program in Sociology at San Diego State University on a student visa. I met her at NewBreak the other day and she agreed to be interviewed and have her photo taken for the OB Rag (the photo is a prerequisite for the interview, as living in OB is also).

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The Random Stories of Ocean Beach – Eric Long – Musician and Documentary Film Maker

January 22, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Editor: this is the first in a hopefully weekly series highlighting different OBceans and their stories, OBceans chosen at random.

Each person I’ve ever met has a story. Whether it was their life experiences or their dreams, or a combination of both, everybody has a story to tell. So, with this belief firmly in mind, I set out to find a denizen of Ocean Beach who I knew would have an interesting and deeply individual story, so I could tell their story to the rest of the village.

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OB Street Fair 2012 – Random Photo Gallery

June 24, 2012 by Staff
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Doug Porter wandered through the OB Street Fair yesterday, Saturday, June 23rd, and took dozens of random photos of the people, the kids, the bands, the vendors and their booths.

Here they are, randomly.

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A Random Act of Kindness – An Essay

March 3, 2011 by Source
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Editor: This post has received a lot of attention recently, so we decided to bring it back up.

By Shirley Sprinkles, Ph.D

She handed me a five dollar bill through the car window, then turned and walked away. I don’t know her name, nor where she was going—the encounter was so brief—but I know I will never forget that lady stranger who generously saved me from a lot of frustration and prevented me from walking a mile or more to my destination. The scene was a downtown public parking lot. My husband, Leo, and I were already a half hour late for a statewide conference on the status of African American families and children. (CSAAFC). We had taken the wrong fork in the expressway, and found ourselves deadlocked in traffic that was backed up for four miles due to a serious accident. I told Leo to go the other way, but he didn’t. .

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‘Complete Communities’ Is Not a Cure for San Diego’s Affordable Housing Crisis

April 3, 2024 by Source

by Danna Givot / Times of San Diego / April 2, 2024

The Building Industry Association touts the Complete Communities Now program as ramping up production of more affordable homes, but this deserves a closer look. Complete Communities is not a cure-all for San Diego’s housing problems.

[Please see original for important links]

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Love Among the Ruins — Fish, Flowers, and Friends

March 11, 2024 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

Disappointed in the Oscars?  Unhappy your football team lost the Super Bowl. Or that your candidates lost in the primary.  You are not alone.

Americans are overwhelmingly unhappy.

Why?  Let me count the ways.  Maybe count just the first among the heap of reasons.

The majority of voters do not want what is coming, in the 2.0 Presidential rematch of Biden v. Trump with the cruelty, debased language, hallow promises and dumb-downed promises that are mostly head fakes.

No trust of either candidate.

A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds 36% of Americans trust Donald Trump to do a better job leading the country as president, while 33% trust Joe Biden and 30% trust neither.

Over half are appalled by the death and destruction in the Israel/Hamas war. And want a permanent “cease fire.”

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News from Ocean Beach and Point Loma — From Mid-October 2023

November 1, 2023 by Frank Gormlie

Here’s a whole wave full of news from OB and PL – but from mid-October 2023 during the period the Rag was “down.”

Update on Possible Sale of Waters Edge Church

City Pays Out $8M to Man Injured While Police Detained Him in 2019 in the Midway

Camaro Crashes Into Sunset Cliffs House

Midway Roommate Squabble Leads to Gunfight and SWAT

Rady Children’s Ice Rink Returns to Liberty Station

COVID 19 Traces at Highest Level in Over Year at Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant

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San Diego Mainstream Media Parrot City’s Account of Homeless Camp Site

August 10, 2023 by Staff

By Geoff Page

On Monday, August 7, The Rag requested a tour of the city’s “hot lot” camping site at the City Operations facility as a follow up on The Rag’s two previous stories about the site. Some of the media had previously requested a site visit but had been rebuffed on privacy grounds. The Rag decided to try anyway.

Three hours after the email requesting the tour, the city responded informing The Rag about a media event scheduled for the next day, Tuesday, August 8. A link was provided that brought up an invitation for the media to tour the site. It was dated the same day as The Rag’s email, Monday, August 7.

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Citywide Rally for Responsible Growth — Fashion Valley — Sat., July 29th

July 24, 2023 by Source


Come Inside for text and details.

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‘Champion the Stop SB10 Volunteers’ Hit a Nerve

June 30, 2023 by Source

Part II

By Colleen O’Connor

Below is a random sampling of comments in response to my “Champion the Volunteers of Stop SB10,” posted here on June 26. They came to me direct from colleagues and friends angry over the prospect of even more in-fills and high-rise buildings in once predominantly single-family residential neighborhoods.

These comments  do not count the ones mourning the loss of the Old Town and

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From Refugee Camps to Ocean Beach Whiskey ‘Revolutionary’ – The Story of Steven Yeng

June 22, 2023 by Source

From There San Diego

One of the most stunning business success stories to come out of San Diego in recent years is that of Skrewball Whiskey, one of the fastest-growing alcohol brands in history.

The stunning success of Skrewball Whiskey is an amazing story, but it’s the story of Steven Yeng’s journey that’s even more incredible.

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San Diego Planning Commission Chair: ‘SB 10 is fatally flawed’ — Decision Put Off Until August

June 2, 2023 by Frank Gormlie

After a 5-hour hearing Thursday, June 1, on Mayor Todd Gloria’s Housing Action Plan which would incorporate the implementation of Senate Bill 10, the San Diego Planning Commission decided they needed more time to evaluate the proposal and voted to take it up again on August 3rd.

Senate Bill 10 was the prominent source for debate in council chambers during public comment. The most significant criticism of the bill by far was that it becomes irreversible once the City opts in.

CBS8 reported:

About 70 people filled council chambers in addition to a few dozen who called in over the phone, and while the majority spoke out against SB 10, a handful of supporters showed up too.

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Fight Intensifies for San Diego’s Future and Against Gloria’s Housing Policies

June 1, 2023 by Frank Gormlie

There is a fight going on for the future of San Diego and against the housing policies of Mayor Gloria. And right now, it is intensifying.

You can see it in the almost daily letters to the editor at the U-T where angry residents complain about how their neighborhoods are under attack. We saw it in early May when 600 to 800 people rallied against Senate Bill 10 and Gloria’s accessory dwelling unit (ADU) plans — from University City to the College area, from Clairemont to Hillcrest and from North Park to Normal Heights.

We saw it at a contentious City Council subcommittee meeting where only one vote sent Gloria’s plans to the full council. We saw it when the Committee of Community Planners came out against the policies.

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Sleepover at Grampy and Maria’s House

May 18, 2023 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

Two of my grandchildren,
Lyric and Marley,
Lyric almost ten,
Marley, eight,
slept over
the other night
and things went great.

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OB Planning Leader Speaks Out Against City’s Enforcement Plan for New Vacation Rental Rules – Plus Over 50 Mission Beach Hosts May Have Committed Fraud

May 3, 2023 by Frank Gormlie

During a 90-minute STRO Zoom community briefing on April 27 by the City’s Development Services Department Code Enforcement Division on their plans to enforce regulations of the City’s new Short-Term Residential Ordinance which took effect May 1, not all went well.

Also, not all is going well with Mission Beach short-term rental hosts, as it turns out over 50 may have lied on their license applications (see below).

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Ernie McCray Turns 85 Today — Aging Memories

April 18, 2023 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

I’m at an age
when my life
consists of mostly memories
and sometimes these remembrances
come to me
suddenly
and randomly,
as I can, in one moment,
remember
a time when I was
down, up against it,
overwhelmed
with cares and woes
like a man adrift in a dark churning sea,
a swallow away from drowning,

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Mexican President Lopez Obrador Insists Mexico Is Safer than the US

March 14, 2023 by Source

By Mexico News Daily Staff / March 13, 2023

Mexico is safer than the United States, President López Obrador said Monday [March 13] without citing any hard data to back up his claim.

His assertion came in response to a question from a United States-based reporter at his morning press conference.

“Is traveling to Mexico safe at the moment with everything we’re seeing, with all these [travel] alerts and these very regrettable events?” asked Octavio Valdez of Los Angeles-based television station Univisión 34.

“Mexico is safer than the United States,” López Obrador responded.

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One Sees a Lot in a Lifetime

January 18, 2023 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

You live long enough
you see a lot of things,
both good and bad
and in-between
in a lifetime
and I find myself
from time to time
remembering things I’ve seen
over my more than
three-quarters of a century
of being alive and breathing,

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Why in Hell Would Anyone Go to Burning Man?

October 3, 2022 by Source

The Burning Man Effigy Burns, 2022

By Brenda McFarlane

“Sounds like a cult to me” accused my husband on our fourth or fifth argument about going to Burning Man. This was sometime back when we were living in Ocean Beach, probably in 2007. I didn’t care if it turned out to be a cult, I wanted to check it out for myself.

I’d just attended an official San Diego Regional Burn somewhere near the Anza Borrego Desert. I’d felt awkward and out-of-place yet something about it tugged at a suppressed longing.  Maybe it was just being dressed in loose flowing clothes with the desert wind through my hair but I felt freer and more hopeful than I had in a long time. 

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Coming to Love Our Children More Than Guns

June 16, 2022 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

I can think of no better sentiment
than
“Love Our Children
More Than Guns”
and I can think of no better way
to display that love
than by enacting
a few rules and regulations
that protect them from guns.

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Dear Democrats: Please Don’t Do Stupid

April 29, 2022 by Source

By Collen O’Connor

Democrats need to outrun the “raw sewage flooding the public square,” that former President Obama cited in a recent speech.

Seriously, Democrats need a winnable “three-word,” Trump-like campaign slogan, akin to James Carville’s, “It’s the economy, stupid,” to avoid massive losses come November.

Three words seem to be the maximum allowed for memory retention in the metaverse of disinformation, lies, and depravity now dominating the social media and some fake news outlets.

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Midway Planners Hosting ‘Open House’ for Public to Hear the 5 Proposals for Sports Arena Redevelopment – Thursday, March 24

March 18, 2022 by Source

The Midway planners, officially called the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Planning Group, are hosting an Open House for the public to come and learn about the 5 different proposals for the Sports Arena Redevelopment.

The event will be Thursday, March 24, from 5:30 – 7:30 pm, at the EF International Language Campus, 3455 Kenyon St., San Diego, CA 92110.

All proposers will be making presentations and, according to a public service announcement by the planning group, “this is a chance to see all at once and to meet the people proposing. Anyone interested in what might happen with this development should try to attend.”

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San Diego’s Dance Fetish: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

February 23, 2022 by Source

By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner / Feb. 22, 2022

Did you know that San Diego has a dance fetish? Our obsessive routine goes something like this: We take one step forward, then two steps back… one step forward, two steps back… one forward, two back….

Year in and year out, the city makes a bit of progress toward the common good and then pulls back– undermining and diminishing the quality of life in our communities. To jog your memory, here are some random past examples of how we step on our own toes:

Once (circa 1980s), the city had a deal with SDG&E: we permitted them to exact surcharges on customer bills. In exchange, they were to bury the overhead power lines that crisscross our city.

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To War Or Not To War? That Is the Question

February 22, 2022 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominates the headlines; with good cause. Diplomacy is failing. Inflation is raging. Europe is reliving the nightmare possibilities of more Russian tanks, troops and trenches on its borders.

The current carefully scripted takeover of the two Ukrainian “state-lets” is a repeat of Putin’s takeover of the former Soviet state of Georgia, and more recently, the seizure of Crimea.

“August 7th, 2008, Russia launched a full-scale land, air and sea attack against its tiny neighbor, across an internationally recognized border.

The conflict pitted 70,000 Russian troops against Georgia’s army of about 10,000 soldiers and another 10,000 reservists. Needless to say, the “war” did not last long—it was over by August 12.”

That invasion lasted 5 days.

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