OB Rag

Compiled by Lisa Mortensen

by Frank Sabatini Jr./ Uptown News / March 22, 2026

The brouhaha over paid parking in and around Balboa Park became exceptionally clear to me after making two visits by car to our gorgeous public land in recent weeks.

My first visit under the new revenue- generating program was on a balmy weekday in February. It was 50 days after the initiative was implemented in early January — the plan was championed by Mayor Todd Gloria and approved by the San Diego City Council — seemingly enough time for city officials to acquaint us with a cohesive payment system.

I was there to briefly meet a friend at the Timken Museum of Art. I drove into the park at its northwestern section off of Sixth Avenue. That put me onto tree-lined Balboa Drive before hanging left to cross the Laurel Street Bridge. It’s the route I always take to my favorite parking lot located behind the Organ Pavilion, which sits in proximity to the park’s cultural heart, the El Prado.

The sight of pay stations and heavy signage pertaining to the new reality of paid parking was saddening. The materials are aesthetically cold and gawky against the park’s backdrop of lush foliage and historical architecture. It’s as through somebody walked into a large, airy room with good feng shui and cluttered it.

Bigger disappointments followed.

by Thomas Murphy / Beach & Bay Press / March 23, 2026

A 75-year-old waterfront restaurant in Mission Bay could be forced out by the city of San Diego’s redevelopment plan, putting Joe Busalacchi’s family business and one of the bay’s oldest tenants at risk.

Sportsmen’s Seafood was the first lease signed in Mission Bay, operating even before the area’s first bridges were built.

Busalacchi has run the restaurant for 36 years, continuing a three-generation family business after his father passed away.

“The city is supposed to serve and protect the citizens of San Diego. They want to kick out all of these people who have to pay rent and pay for their children,” said Busalacchi. “How is that serving and protecting? They ain’t serving me, any of my employees, or anyone on the docks.”

by Brooke Binkowski and Tessa Balc / Times of San Diego / March 22, 2026

A group of surfers held a paddle out Sunday morning, March 22,— an action typically reserved for mourning the death of a beloved community member — to protest the Trump administration’s weaponization of immigration agencies.

Dozens of surfers gathered at La Jolla Shores on Sunday for the event, “Let’s Get Salty – Time to Melt the ICE,” which was organized by a collective called San Diego Salty, with the stated goal of bringing awareness to arrests, deportations, forced disappearances, and deaths at the hands of Immigration Customs and Enforcement and other border agencies.

“This is about showing up together, sparking conversation, and building clear bridges to action – while reminding one another that we are not alone and that solidarity is stronger when we move as ONE,” their Instagram page said.

This Is a Challenge to City’s Passage of “Package A”

Today, March 24, Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) will file a lawsuit against the City of San Diego which challenges the City’s approval of profound changes to its historic preservation program without the required environmental review by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This is about “Package A” which many OBceans are now familiar with.

SOHO’s suit in San Diego Superior Court “seeks an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process to address adverse environmental impacts to historic resources posed by the City’s proposed Preservation and Progress project,” as SOHO stated in an announcement today.

Here’s the balance of SOHO’s announcement:

The City approved “Package A” of the project without analyzing the potential environmental impacts of weakening protections for historic resources across San Diego by modifications to the Municipal Code and General Plan.

Please help me understand the following:

There’s extremely long lines at major airports right now. They’re costing travelers hours upon hours of waiting.

There’s several factors causing these long lines … the weather, spring break … but the main one is that TSA agents have not been paid for over a month, and many of them have quit or are calling in sick — hundreds of them.

Now, the main reason the TSA agents have not been paid is because we’re currently in a partial federal government shut-down.

The main reason we’re in a partial government shut-down is because Republican and Democratic congressional members cannot agree to a budget (continual resolution).

The reason the two parties cannot agree is because Democrats refuse to fund ICE and the Department of Homeland Security — without reform —  due to the killings of people, mass arrests and abuse by ICE this year of immigrants and American citizens. TSA agents and ICE are part of the same government department, DHS.

By Nicole Gomez / 7SanDiego / March 20, 2026

A group of off-duty San Diego lifeguards is being credited with saving the life of a 57-year-old man who went into cardiac arrest at a restaurant in Ocean Beach.

The incident happened on March 1, around 7:30 p.m. at Blue Water Seafood, where three lifeguards — including Noah Herrera — had just sat down to eat when they noticed a man who appeared to be in distress.

Herrera said the situation quickly escalated.

“We rolled him, checking his pulse, and I didn’t feel anything after about 10 seconds, and I told Mitch, ‘I don’t feel a pulse, start compressions,’ and he just started on his chest right away,” Herrera said.

At the same time, another off-duty lifeguard, Griffin Houldin, was dining nearby with his girlfriend when they noticed the commotion.

Trumper Sheriff Bianco Is a Republican Candidate for California Governor

By Jen Rice / Democracy Docket / March 23, 2026

A Republican sheriff running for governor of California has seized more than 650,000 ballots cast in last year’s redistricting referendum election, an alarming signal that the FBI’s recent conspiracy-fueled raid of a Georgia county election hub could be just the first in a new string of attacks on the results of past votes.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco announced Friday that his office had seized the ballots and would conduct its own hand count after receiving complaints about an alleged discrepancy of 45,000 votes in the Proposition 50 special election. That vote allowed California Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map to wipe out President Donald Trump’s gerrymandering gains in Texas.

In recent weeks, the FBI has taken custody of ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, and subpoenaed records from Maricopa County, Arizona. In both cases, the focus was the 2020 presidential race.

But like in those cases, there are signs that Bianco’s challenge to the Prop 50 vote is also based on wrong or downright false information.

In statements to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors last month, county registrar Art Tinoco said the actual discrepancy between ballots cast and ballots counted was just 103 votes — roughly 0.016% of ballots. And the claim of a 45,000-vote discrepancy? It was based on misinterpretations of unprocessed, raw data, he said.

by Scott Lewis and Will Huntsberry / Voice of San Diego / March 21, 2026

D2 Race Is On

What do you get when a French mime, an MBA student, a merchant marine and a former mayor walk into a community center in Clairemont?

That would be a League of Women Voters candidate forum, of course.

Seven people are running for the District 2 council seat, which includes Ocean Beach, Point Loma, Mission Beach and Clairemont.

Any District 2 voters looking for San Diego’s version of Zohran Mamdani didn’t find him at the forum, which happened earlier this month. The debate was dominated by reaction to new fees, homebuilding and what the candidates viewed as poor management by current city leaders.

Allow me to break out some lanes for you that appeared evident at the forum.

City News Service / SD Union-Tribune / March 22, 2026 

[This is an AI generated image of ICE agents at airport]

Some local officials are objecting to the Trump administration’s announcement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will begin handling some security duties at U.S. airports on Monday amid an ongoing partial government shutdown.

It was not clear if there were specific plans for ICE agents to be deployed at San Diego International Airport. A spokesperson for the San Diego Airport Authority had no information on the matter.

Federal officials said Sunday that border czar Tom Homan would be in charge of the effort to use immigration enforcement personnel to supplement security at airports amid the shutdown, which has left roughly 50,000 Transportation Security Administration employees working without pay, contributing to increased absenteeism and staffing shortages at airports nationwide.

“I have no idea how they can contribute at an airport unless it was for intimidation purposes,”  said Aaron Vazquez, a TSA lead transportation security officer at the San Diego airport and assistant airport steward for the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1260 in San Diego.

For a Mere $6.2 billion, Nexstar Bought Tegna, Which Owned CBS 8 Affiliate and The CW

By Teri Figueroa / The San Diego Union-Tribune / March 20, 2026

Questions and anxiety deepened in some of San Diego’s TV stations Friday, a day after the federal government approved a deal that puts the region’s FOX, CBS and CW affiliates, plus KUSI, under the same ownership.

It’s not clear what the ownership changes could mean for San Diego’s TV news landscape. It’s also unclear what the changes mean for viewers of the stations’ non-news programming. It appeared KUSI had aired some CW programming Thursday and Friday evenings, and the logo displayed on KUSI’s Friday afternoon newscast read “KUSI San Diego CW.”

Nexstar Media Group Inc. on Thursday closed a $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna after the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice approved the deal. The combination gives Nexstar and partners 265 television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, ultimately reaching 80% of households, the company said.

In San Diego, Nexstar already owned Fox affiliate KSWB and independent station KUSI. Tegna’s local stations included CBS affiliate KFMB and The CW. On Friday, leadership from the local stations either could not be reached for comment or did not respond to an emailed request for comment. One station referred questions to a Nexstar spokesperson, who did not respond to an email seeking comment.

No Kings protests are being organized for Saturday, March 28. Over 3,000 events are being planned across the country — 19 just here in San Diego County (so far). From Otay Mesa, downtown San Diego to Borrego Springs and Oceanside — thousands of County and city residents will be mobilizing.

Figure out the nearest one to you and RSVP to one of them here.  See official statement from NO KINGS below.

Also sign up to volunteer to be a Rag photographer and reporter for the day. Send name and contact info to Editordude, obragblog@gmail.com

Here’s the lists of No King protests in the city and county — they are all on Sat., March 28th but some have different times):

No Kings Day in City of San Diego

CNN: ICE agents deployed … on Monday, March 23. The above image is AI generated on Sunday, March 22.

President Donald Trump said ICE agents will head to US airports Monday, March 23rd, placing border czar Tom Homan in charge of the effort.