May 2011

San Diego “Debate” Over Fireworks Goes National as Mayor Goes On Rant

May 31, 2011 by Source
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Editor: The debate over the future of Ocean Beach and San Diego’s fireworks – particularly the traditional July 4th extravaganza of explosives – as gone “national” as Mayor Sanders went on a rant on local news today.

by Mike Lee / SignOnSanDiego / May 31, 2011

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders went on the offensive Tuesday with a live national interview on Fox News about July Fourth fireworks displays in the city that are up in the air after a court ruling Friday said they needed a potentially costly and time-consuming environmental review.

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Help the OB Rag Hit 70,000 Visitors For the Month of May

May 31, 2011 by Frank Gormlie
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Hey gang – help us – the OB Rag – hit 70,000 visitors for May! We’re at 69,000 -something. Actually if you’re reading this, you already have helped us. 70,000 visitors in one month. That’s not bad for a small, scrappy, progressive website with no paid staff.

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Ocean Beach Planning Board Agenda for June 1, 2011, Includes Cox Residence and Long Branch Demolition

May 31, 2011 by Staff
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Here is the agenda for the Ocean Beach Planning Board for its meeting on Wednesday, June 1, 2011. It meets at the OB Recreation Center, located at 4627 Santa Monica Avenue, 6:00 pm sharp.

The two important agenda items include: demolition and construction at 4775 Long Branch, and a report about the Cox Residence appeal at 5164 West Pt Loma,….

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Gentrification in Ocean Beach: Ocean Front “Penthouse” Sells for $2.2 Million

May 31, 2011 by Frank Gormlie
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The continuing process of gentrification in Ocean Beach is clearly demonstrated in the recent sale of a three-story “penthouse” on Ocean Front Street for a cool $2.2 million. It also shows that not everyone is hurting during this Great Recession.

The 5-unit cliff-hugger was purchased by Robert and Grace Pedigo of La Mesa. Located at 1627 Ocean Front Street, it’s on that section where the street twists and turns as it parallels the cliffs, and it seems more like an alley.

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High Surf Advisory Until Friday June 3rd

May 31, 2011 by Source
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The National Weather Service for the San Diego area has issued a Coastal Hazard Message about a High Surf Advisory.

The high surf advisory is in effect until 3 a.m. Friday, June 3, for south facing beaches.

Another large, long period southern hemisphere swell will generate high surf along most south facing San Diego County beaches, as well as along most of Orange County beaches, today through early Friday morning.

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Another oopsy at San Onofre – Nuclear plant spills 75 gallons of sulfuric acid

May 31, 2011 by Source

By Dave Maass / CityBeat / May 30, 2011

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station suffered yet another accident this weekend when a mechanical failure resulted in the release of 75 gallons of sulfuric acid, according to a spill report (pdf) filed with the U.S. National Response Center.

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40,000 Signatures in Less than 30 Days

May 31, 2011 by Source
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By Eugene Davidovich / Nug Mag

In April of this year, the San Diego City Council passed an ordinance that effectively denied safe access to thousands of patients in the city. If left as is, it would have negatively impacted the most vulnerable members of our community by cutting off access to their medicine.

As the ordinance is written, all locations where patients currently safely obtain their medicine, would be forced to shutter their doors and only a small handful would be allowed to open in far flung industrial areas of the City, only after coming into compliance with an onerous year-long conditional use permit process.

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Why the Democratic Party Has Abandoned the Middle Class in Favor of the Rich

May 31, 2011 by Source
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In 2008, a liberal Democrat was elected president. Landslide votes gave Democrats huge congressional majorities. Eight years of war and scandal and George W. Bush had stigmatized the Republican Party almost beyond redemption. A global financial crisis had discredited the disciples of free-market fundamentalism, and Americans were ready for serious change.

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Robert Reich: The Truth About the American Economy

May 31, 2011 by Source
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The U.S. economy continues to stagnate. It’s growing at the rate of 1.8 percent, which is barely growing at all. Consumer spending is down. Home prices are down. Jobs and wages are going nowhere.

It’s vital that we understand the truth about the American economy.

How did we go from the Great Depression to 30 years of Great Prosperity? And from there, to 30 years of stagnant incomes and widening inequality, culminating in the Great Recession? And from the Great Recession into such an anemic recovery?

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Memorial Day

May 31, 2011 by Staff
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(originally posted May 26, 2008.)

Editor: As the text within the graphic above states this was produced in 1963 by Dana Junior High School students who were in print shop. It is interesting to note that Steve Zivolich and Frank Gormlie were both involved in the anti-Viet Nam war movement at their respective college campuses back in the late sixties and early seventies.

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Post Rapture Blues: Grover Norquist Slouches Toward Sacramento and Other Signs of the Coming Apocalypse

May 30, 2011 by Jim Miller
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Less than a week after dodging the end of the world as we know it, Californians were met with the news that Grover Norquist, the hatchet-man of the hard right, had come to Sacramento and was roaming the hallways of the Capitol reminding Republican legislators (all but a handful of whom had signed his notorious pledge to never raise taxes) that bad things would happen if they reconsidered. Norquist, who conservative pundit Tucker Carlson once called “a mean-spirited, humorless, dishonest little creep . . . the leering, drunken uncle everyone else wishes would stay home,” is a darkly looming figure. As Drake Bennett recently pointed out in Business Week…

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Keep On Keepin’ On (Getting Beyond the End of the World)

May 30, 2011 by Ernie McCray
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I’m sitting writing on a day that can’t decide whether it wants to be sunny or gray, a day about three days past the day that the world was to come to an end and it’s a rather nice day, by the way.

But I can surely identify with a doomsday. My children and I woke up one day, just living our lives pretty comfortably, no shining ups, particularly, or dim lows, and before the day had bid us goodbye the world as we had known it was snatched from beneath us with the swiftness and fierceness of lightning in a storm ridden sky – and all we could do was cry. On July 22nd of 2009 we lost our precious valentine, an amazing mother, a beautiful sexy brilliant artistic athletic incredible 62 year old human being I loved referring to as mine.

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Renewing the Patriot Act: Who Will Protect Us From Our Government?

May 28, 2011 by Source
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Those who founded this country knew quite well that every citizen must remain vigilant or freedom would be lost. This is the true nature of a patriot — one who sounds the clarion call when the Constitution is under attack. If, on the other hand, the people become sheep-like, it will lead to a government of wolves. This is what we are faced with today as Congress marches in lockstep with the White House to renew the USA Patriot Act.

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Medical Marijuana for the Uninitiated – HELP!

May 27, 2011 by Anna Daniels
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Finding Information for Senior Citizens

Obecians and beyond- I need your help! A few weeks ago a close friend of mine asked about medical marijuana dispensaries in the Hillcrest area. I pointed out a dispensary on University Avenue, not far from where we attend our weekly Buddhist meditation. I also tore out the back pages of the Reader which provide a pretty comprehensive list of locations and handed them to her.

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Obama signs Patriot Act extension after many liberal Democrats support it.

May 27, 2011 by Source
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Entire San Diego Congressional Delegation – except Filner – supported extension – as did Boxer and Feinstein

US President Barack Obama has signed a four-year extension of the Patriot Act from Paris, extending post-September 11 powers allowing the government to secretly search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of alleged terrorists or their supporters.

Hours after the US Senate and House of Representatives passed the law, through votes taken in rapid succession, and just minutes before the law was to expire at midnight in Washington DC, Obama sent in a digital signature, finalizing the renewal on Thursday.

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“Terriers” Makes Top 10 TV Shows

May 27, 2011 by Source
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Judging by the ratings, which never topped a million viewers after the pilot, you didn’t watch “Terriers,” a private-eye show on FX from “The Shield” creator Shawn Ryan and “Ocean’s Eleven” scribe Ted Griffin. And in a way, we don’t blame you.

The title and marketing were baffling, the biggest star was schlubby sitcom veteran Donal Logue, and the premise—an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic with ex-wife problems works as an unlicensed private detective in Ocean Beach, California, with a former burglar—couldn’t have been more generic if it tried. Unfortunately for you, “Terriers” was simply fantastic, and it’s now been canceled.

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There is no re-run of Gil Scott-Heron, the Revolution will not be televised.

May 27, 2011 by Source
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by Daoud Tyler-Ameen / NPR / May 27, 2011

Gil Scott-Heron died Friday afternoon in New York, his book publisher reported. He was 62. The influential poet and musician is often credited with being one of the progenitors of hip-hop, and is best known for the spoken-word piece “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

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Ocean Beach beaches all get “A’s” in water quality tests – not so all Mission Bay

May 27, 2011 by Frank Gormlie
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The test scores are out, and all of the beaches in OB received A+’s or A’s. Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based non profit, conducts annual water quality tests of beaches and water-ways on the Pacific Coast, and has just released their results.

Here are the following OB beaches and their scores:

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Three Strikes Caused This Prison Problem

May 27, 2011 by Source

By Larry Gerston, Ph.D. / NBC San Diego /May 27, 2011

The U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold a cap on the number of California prisoners complicates the already cloudy California budget picture.

Under the terms of the decision, California must release 36,000 prisoners within five years because current overcrowded conditions constitute violation of the Eighth Amendment guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

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Ocean Beach to Benefit from San Diego Police Department Realignment

May 26, 2011 by Andy Cohen

City Council looking into selling advertising at city’s beaches

San Diego Police Department Community Liaison Officer David Surwilo said last night that the police department was in the midst of doing some redistricting of its own in the wake of studies that show a much greater concentration of calls in some divisions while others tend to be comparatively quiet.

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Darrell Issa, Patrick McHenry Get Nutty for Their Corporate Backers

May 26, 2011 by Source
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By Lucas O’Connor/Issa Watch/ May 24, 2011

It was a contentious day for the Oversight Committee, with high-profile testimony from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Elizabeth Warren. And twice in two hearings, committee Republicans accused their witnesses of lying to Congress, under oath…

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When Will Republicans Stop Saying Dumb Things About Rape? Hint: When They Stop Hating Women

May 26, 2011 by Source
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By Amanda Marcotte /AlterNet /May 25, 2011

Glib comments about rape by anti-choice Republican lawmakers reveal that the anti-choice movement is deeply rooted in antagonism to women’s rights.

No big surprise that it was in Kansas, which has struggled with the most serious anti-choice terrorism in the country in the 21st century, where a GOP state legislator named Pete DeGraaf compared being forcibly impregnated by a rapist to getting a flat tire. DeGraaf was responding to a pro-choice Republican legislator who raised the question of women being unable to afford to terminate pregnancies caused by rape, and DeGraaf responded by suggesting women should have prepared ahead of time for rape by saying, “We do need to plan ahead, don’t we, in life?”, adding, “I have a spare tire on my car.”

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How the City Is Gentrifying Ocean Beach – the Saga of the Cox Residence on West Pt. Loma.

May 25, 2011 by Frank Gormlie
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Tom Gawronski is very worried about the future of Ocean Beach. As the Planning Board representative for District 1, he’s especially worried about that section of West Pt Loma Boulevard that curves around down at the beach, west of Abbott Street. Gawronski sees the row of single-story duplexes along that stretch of boulevard as the front lines of the City of San Diego’s efforts to allow the gentrification of Ocean Beach. As a retired molecular biologist, Tom is not easily shaken. But he’s agitated now.

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Why I Don’t Buy Organic

May 25, 2011 by Brenda McFarlane
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Lured by the Romance of Shopping at the Ocean Beach Farmer’s Market

Buying locally grown, organic produce from the Farmer’s Market has always seemed like a romantic thing to do until I realized it was also an outrageously extravagant activity too. Whenever I try to participate, the cost of the produce quickly tarnishes the experience for me.

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Ocean Beach Rec Center and its Programs ‘Saved’ From the Ax

May 25, 2011 by Dixon Guizot
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Mayor Sanders’ new budget avoids cuts to rec centers in OB, elsewhere

The Ocean Beach Recreation Center — like similar centers across San Diego — had been targeted for cuts to its operating hours in Mayor Jerry Sanders’ initial budget proposal for the city’s next fiscal year.

Under an updated proposal Sanders released last week, however, the city’s rec centers would maintain their current 40-hours-a-week schedule. Sanders originally had slashed rec centers hours by half, but his new plan reflects the better-than-expected performance of the local economy in recent months.

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Supreme Court Orders California to Relieve Inmate Over-Crowding

May 24, 2011 by Source
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Supreme Court Calls BS on California’s 3 Decades of “Law and Order”

by Robert Cruickshank / Calitics / May 23, 2011

I suppose someone should write about [Monday’]s 5-4 US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Plata, where the court ruled that California must release 33,000 prisoners to relieve overcrowding in state prisons. So I’ll take a shot at it.

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Medical Marijuana Advocates Sue Federal Government over Rescheduling Delay

May 24, 2011 by Source
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Washington, DC — A Coalition of advocacy groups and patients filed suit in the DC Circuit Court [May 23, 2011] to compel the Obama administration to answer a 9-year-old petition to reclassify medical marijuana.

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Dairy Industry Misleads Public on Chocolate Milk in Schools

May 24, 2011 by Source
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By Ed Bruske aka The Slow Cook / La Vida Locavore

An Associated Press report last week on the controversy surrounding flavored milk in schools was widely reprinted in media outlets across the country, from the Washington Post to Huffington Post to Yahoo! In it, the AP declared that a number of professional and medical groups–including the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics–had issued a “joint statement” in favor of flavored milk, arguing that “the nutritional value of flavored low-fat or skim milk outweighs the harm of added sugar.”

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OB Convert: When is it a good time to give money to the homeless?

May 23, 2011 by OB Convert
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Dear OB Convert:

The other day I noticed someone throwing something at a homeless guy standing at one of our intersections near the freeway. The homeless guy had a sign (I didn’t see it to read it) And no, it wasn’t cash thrown – it was trash. I’m confused. I thought OBcians were tolerant and caring people. So, my question: just when is it safe to give money to the homeless at these intersections?

Confused OBcian

Dear Confused: We in OB have had a lot of discussion about the homeless

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The Hitchikers’ Guide to Ocean Beach, Attraction #5: Space Dock XIB

May 23, 2011 by Citizen Cane
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by Citizen Cane

Ocean Beach is known as a popular destination, but someday it will also be an important point of departure. That’s because Ocean Beach is home to Space Dock XIB, the longest concrete space dock on the West coast. When the end is near, a large spaceship will dock with the pier and rescue those fortunate folks that received XIB identity numbers from Clint Carey, the Spaceman of Ocean Beach. I not only have a number from Spaceman, but I also have the dubious distinction of being one the Kings of a ten foot section of railing.

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