OB Rag

by Ernie McCray

Chicago.

A wonderful city, in my view,

as far as towns go.

My earliest recollection

of visiting the windy city

is one of me, as a little lad,

in the 40’s,

back when racism

was ever so systemic.

By Ben Christopher / CalMatters / October 26, 2026

For nearly a decade, California’s Yes In My Backyard activists and other pro-development advocates have wanted to overhaul California’s signature environmental law to clear the way for more housing construction.

Now Proposition 45 is on the ballot. Supporters say it would, among other things, overhaul that law, known as the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, to clear the way for—you guessed it—more housing construction.

So why are YIMBYs divided?

By Rag Staff

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general San Diego public informed about important Council hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, October 26: City Council, Closed Session, 10:00 a.m.

CS-2: Victoria Hayes, et al. v. City of San Diego

Why it matters: The horrific December 23, 2023 accident resulting from a high-speed police chase that killed two young brothers was a major factor in the creation of a police oversight board. It’s hard to imagine why the boys’ mother is still waiting for a resolution of her civil suit.

Monday, October 26: City Council, 2:00 p.m.

Agenda

Item S400: FY2026 Year-End Financial Performance Report

Why it matters a lot: This is a bleak picture. The Independent Budget Analyst (IBA) notes that:

By JW August / Special to the OB Rag

The son of a San Diego City Councilmember — who earns $181,545 a year plus benefits — was hired two years ago as a summer intern at City Hall as part of a state-financed program designed to target disadvantaged youth.

Henry Foster IV, the son of Councilmember Henry Foster III, was chosen to work in the same department — Purchasing and Contracting — where his father had served as Equal Opportunity Contracting Program manager a decade ago. The councilmember took office in April of 2024.

Revelations about the summer internship award come as Councilmember Foster is running for reelection to his District 4 seat in what is expected to be a tight race.

While the summer job raises ethical questions of nepotism, the team managing Foster’s campaign points out that the council member’s son never interned in the District 4 office. Instead he worked for a mayoral department.

The internship program, known as Employ and Empower, was launched in 2020 by Mayor Todd Gloria’s office, and it was financed with the help of $18.5 million in state funding from the California Volunteers program. The city’s website for the program states that priority will be given to applicants who “come from communities of concern who are low-income, unemployed, justice-involved, in foster care, currently or previously unhoused, military-affiliated, or have experienced substance abuse or mental health issues.”

By Jan Wolfe / Reuters / Oct. 23, 2026

The US Justice Department on Thursday sued to preemptively block Alaska from certifying the results of its US Senate race if the Republican incumbent candidate loses by a narrow margin, saying voters could be confused because two Republicans on the ballot have almost identical names.

The lawsuit highlights the apparent willingness of President Donald Trump’s administration to contest the results of the November 3 midterm elections that will decide control of the US Congress.

Trump’s administration has taken an increasingly aggressive approach to election oversight, pressing states for voter-registration data and arguing that stricter measures ?are needed to ensure public confidence in the vote. Critics, including both Democratic and some Republican election officials, view the moves as federal overreach.

Control of the US Senate could come down to Alaska, where incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan is running a closely contested race against Democrat Mary Peltola.

Judge: Feds Using “Flawed” Data; Likely Violating Voting Rights Act

By Jude Joffe-Block / npr / October 22, 2026

A federal judge in California is putting limits on pre-election field operations conducted by the Department of Homeland Security that the agency says is aimed at trying to find noncitizens who have illegally voted in nine states.

In recent weeks, armed Homeland Security Investigations officers have carried out field operations and visited homes to interview people suspected of illegally voting as noncitizens. The targets can include people who became citizens but voted before they naturalized.

In a 19-page order late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, an appointee of President Joe Biden, wrote that the federal government was using “flawed” data in the initiative and that its efforts likely violated the Voting Rights Act, which bars voter intimidation.

Martínez-Olguín referenced a disclosure last month from a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services whistleblower that alleged rushed efforts to match data to create a target list of potential noncitizens on voter rolls, and that the list includes U.S. citizens. She also pointed to HSI’s social media posts, including one that showed agents handcuffing a California man accused of unlawfully registering to vote.

The judge wrote that the government’s use of unreliable and incomplete data along with highly publicized arrests “lead to an objectively reasonable fear of law enforcement entanglements that intimidates citizens from urging or aiding others in exercising their right to vote.”

HSI field operations were planned in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin, according to documents produced in the case and CNN reporting.

Join the Club’s October 25 Meeting at Point Loma Assembly Hall: City Council Candidate Nicole Crosby will be our featured speaker

Sign in and socializing starts at 3:30, meeting begins at 4 PM. And be sure to mail or drop off your ballot and VOTE no later than Tuesday Nov. 3!

Trump is cozying up to the Russian leader. What does this mean for the world?

By Bill Eddy / Bill Eddy’s Substack / October 22, 2026

Last week President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff spoke with the Russian President and praised him as a “humanitarian” because of releasing a 74-year-old American prisoner who may have been arrested for the purpose of being a bargaining chip. Trump also waived sanctions on the sale of Russian oil, which will produce a windfall for Putin to use in promoting his brutal 4-year war on Ukraine. Trump’s fondness for Putin has led him to withdraw most U. S. support for Ukraine, telling reporters this week in the Oval Office, according to PBS News: “We want Zelenskyy to make a deal. We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. We’ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss.”

In reality, Ukraine has been the bulwark—the defensive wall—for democracy in Europe against Putin’s war of choice to expand its territory, just as Britain and the United States were the bulwark for democracy against Hitler’s war of expansion across Europe. But this week Trump became open to the idea of a summit of Trump, Putin, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to resolve the war in Ukraine. This would involve getting Ukraine to concede land to Russia that was taken by force.

To understand the danger of this shift, let’s look at Putin’s personality since this is a column on why personality matters in politics. Specifically, does Putin fit the dynamics of “malignant narcissism,” as many dictators do (including Trump?) and what this means for our future.

County Supes Approved Major Use Permit in September

By Jacob Aere / kpbs / October 22, 2026

San Diego County and developers of a solar and battery storage project in East County are facing a lawsuit alleging the project’s environmental review was insufficient.

The suit was filed in San Diego Superior Court last week. It focuses on the Starlight Solar project near the town of Boulevard. The county Board of Supervisors approved a major use permit for the development for last month.

The 588-acre project, which includes a solar farm and a 868 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system, has faced community pushback.

The suit, filed Oct. 15 by a group calling itself the Back Country Community Alliance for Responsible Development, was brought under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

By Thom Hartmann / The Hartmann Report / Oct. 21, 2026

Trump is empowering Putin, abandoning Ukraine, and preparing to bargain with dictators over the future of the world. The Republicans who could stop him are doing nothing…
What the hell is going on in the Republican Party?

See original for all the links

Trump gutted his own Russia sanctions law, cut a diesel deal with Putin, and is now talking about carving up the world with Putin and Xi. Congress has the power to stop him right now: why are Thune and Johnson still on vacation?

Yesterday Donald Trump told reporters he’s ready to sit down with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in Shenzhen next month — apparently, a modern-day Yalta conference to carve up the world — and that Ukraine’s president may not be invited to the meeting that will decide Ukraine’s fate.

That came just three days after he spit on the grave of Lindsey Graham by signing an executive order waiving every operative section of the Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act that both houses of Congress had passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis.

Gone are the 500 percent tariffs on Russian goods, the secondary sanctions on Putin’s oil customers, and the requirement that the sanctions stay in place until Russia made peace on terms Ukraine accepted. All destroyed on a Friday night while Congress was out of town. And now he’s publicly, shamelessly defending it and essentially daring Republicans in Congress to do anything about it.

From La Prensa San Diego / Oct. 22, 2026

The Pentagon has authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to test a military-grade weapon known as a “heat ray” for potential use along the U.S.-Mexico border, prompting concerns from border-community advocates about the expansion of military technology in immigration enforcement.

The weapon, officially known as the Active Denial System and deployed atop an eight-wheels armored vehicle, emits an invisible beam of electromagnetic energy that heats the surface of the skin, causing an intense burning sensation intended to make people move away from the beam.

CNN reported Oct. 21 that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved a seven-month loan of the system to DHS for testing and the development of tactics for possible border operations. The authorization does not mean the weapon has been approved for operational deployment.

The Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC), a network of organizations advocating for border communities, condemned the decision, calling it another step toward increased militarization of the region.

According to the U.S. military, the beam can reach more than half a mile. Officials have described the resulting sensation as intense but temporary, although advocates have raised concerns about potential injuries and other health effects.

From Voice of San Diego / Oct. 23, 2026

Ever since we broke the news that a huge data center might be built in downtown San Diego, local Democrats have been insisting its time to pump the breaks.

Thursday morning, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria posted a photo of himself signing an executive order that temporarily bans data centers on X.

“San Diego is putting clear rules in place before we allow data centers in our city,” he wrote.

San Diego Councilmembers Sean Elo-Rivera, Joe LaCava and Kent Lee gathered outside City Hall later that day announcing the proposal of a new city law that would place requirements on data centers built under their jurisdiction.

By Alysse Dodge / Fox5 – Yahoo News / October 22, 2026 

El Niño’s impacts are already being felt across the nation, including elevated sea levels and coastal flooding.

For example, Tropical Storm Rachel caused surf to overtop and breach the bulkhead protecting the Long Beach Peninsula on the weekend of October 11-12, collapsing part of one of the state’s oldest boardwalks and leaving eight buildings red-tagged as unsafe. The same storm severely flooded 15-20 blocks of Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula, prompting a local emergency declaration.

The East Coast is also being affected by the 2026-2027 El Niño, which the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration says has an 83% chance of being the strongest ever on record. New Jersey and New England coastal communities were flooded by a powerful nor’easter at the end of September.

After storms like these, the response is typically the same — rocks, sandbags and concrete are put on the beach under emergency permits. However, in most states, nothing ensures they ever come off.

The Surfrider Foundation released its annual State of the Beach report on Monday, which focuses on the negative impacts of emergency shoreline armoring.

Once a hard structure is in place, the beach is pinned in place, upland sand replenishment is cut off and erosion accelerates on neighboring properties, which creates a need for more armoring. In some states, temporary structures become permanent without any new permit.