Month: March 2013

From “Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law”

By Marjorie Cohn, 2007

According to sources inside the administration, George W. Bush was planning to invade Iraq and remove its government well before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Such an invasion violates the UN Charter, which the United States signed in 1945 after the bloodiest conflict in history. The Charter permits countries to use military force against another country only in self-defense or with Security Council permission. But the evidence indicates that the U.S.-led invasion satisfied neither condition and is therefore a war of aggression, which constitutes a Crime Against Peace – exactly the kind of war the Charter was meant to prevent.

Mayor Filner Proposed 2% tax, $5000 annual licensing fee, and collectives / cooperatives in limited commercial and industrial zones; Full Council Votes March 25th

From Americans for Safe Access / March 15, 2013

Over the years, medical marijuana patients in San Diego have endured a lack of representation in local governments, raids, lawsuits, eradication efforts, federal interference, and outright misinformation about the issue. Fortunately, now we have a new Mayor who sides with compassion instead of ignorance and is willing to move forward with regulations.

After attending the January San Diego Americans for Safe Access Meeting, where he promised to move forward with regulations, Mayor Bob Filner began working on a proposal to bring to council.

Friday, the Mayor’s office announced his proposal is finished and the issue tentatively scheduled for the March 25th City Council meeting.

We spend more on artificial knees and hips every year than Hollywood collects at the box office.

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

A recent exhaustive article in Time magazine details the exhorbitant charges that hospitals are imposing on the American people, charges that have nothing to do with the actual costs of services provided. A woman in Stamford, Connecticut suffering from chest pains called 911. She was taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Stamford Hospital, a non-profit institution, four miles away.

Point Loma Seafood
2805 Emerson
San Diego, CA 92106
619-223-1109

Point Loma Seafood’s is famous all over, not just in San Diego. Thirty years ago I was a principal in Mohave Valley, Arizona and had two delightful, single teachers that taught for me – Bill and Cher. They subsequently married, and in the past 30 years I have seen them twice, until yesterday.

When they were here 15 years ago, I introduced them to Point Loma Seafood’s, and they have been back many times. They live in Prescott, so it is not just a hop, skip and a jump away. I was surprised when they called me yesterday and asked if I would join them for lunch at their favorite seafood restaurant. Naturally I said “yes” because it is also one of my favorite places. Not only do I like to go there for a meal now that my husband is no longer with us and catching fish, I buy my fresh fish there also. (And let me put in a plug for the half-baked bread. It is offered in rounds or loafs, and you finish the baking when you get it home. Yummy!)

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.

…suggesting we drop existing standards for the wild west of market based online education will do for education what deregulation did for banks and the stock market.

Last week State Senator Darrell Steinberg proposed what he thinks of as a bold new way to reshape higher education in California and to deal with the bottleneck of students who have trouble getting into “gateway” classes in our community colleges and universities. What is Steinberg’s answer to our access ills? Sadly, it is outsourcing higher education to the corporate interests who have long been aggressively lobbying to get a piece of the publically funded pie that is California’s public education system.

Shamoun, Bushe and Tom Gawronski returned to the Board

The results of the OB Planning Board election are finally in. These “unofficial results” of the balloting – held Tuesday, March 12 – included 5 open seats for the Board, as well as two propositions.

Both propositions – one for a “maintenance assessment district” and the other to move the police trailer in the Pier parking lot to a different location- went down to defeat. We have yet to be provided with the actual votes, so it is difficult at this stage to fully understand by how much or how far these propositions fared.

The propositions would have only been advisory decisions. The results will be certified at the April 3rd monthly meeting of the Board.

A new notice from the City of San Diego has appeared on the wire fence surrounding the corner lot at Voltaire Street and Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. Posted on March 7th, it announces that City staff will decide whether the owner of the lot – World Oil – gets an extension on their plans for a two-story “medical building”, called Sunset Plaza.

World Oil and their controversial projects for that corner have bounced back and forth for many years – going back to the late Nineties. Finally in the summer of 2009, the OB Planning Board approved – albeit with conditions – the construction of the controversial building. Critics have called the planned building all kinds of names – one that stuck – to use the vernacular – is “butt ugly”.

World Oil’s project was approved by the Planning Board back on August 5th, 2009 – 3 1/2 years ago. But for whatever their reason, the company has not moved on their concrete and glass-heavy edifice. And now with the deadline on their original construction permit nearing its end, World Oil is pushing for an extension.

Howdy, it’s Thursday, March 14th.

OB Planning Board Election Results to Be Announced Tonight

We have been waiting for the election results from Tuesday’s Planning Board balloting. We have heard that a press release will be released tonight. As the Board allowed for mail and email voting this year for the first time, they are just making sure they have all of the ballots back.

OB Rag T-shirt Design Contest to End on the Ides of March – Friday

Just a reminder that our OB Rag T-shirt design contest officially ends tomorrow, Friday, March 15th – the Ides of March. We have a score of design entries already but we are willing to check out anything new that reaches us by the deadline, either email (obragblog@gmail.com) or snail mail (OB Rag, PO Box 7012, OB 92167) or by carrier pigeon. We have a panel of judges waiting to make their decisions. There are prizes for the selected entries. For more info, go here.

The OB band Slightly Stoopid is sponsoring a contest in an effort to support local OB shops and the band’s new hit, “Don’t Stop”, and they have created a “Check-In to Win Scavenger Hunt“!

All those who complete the scavenger hunt will receive Slightly’s new album Top of the World, 2 Stoopid lighters, and 2 Stoopid stickers!!

The OB band Slightly Stoopid has a new vid out for their new hit “Don’t Stop”.  Check it out –…

by Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment / San Diego Free Press

When it comes to foreclosing on Californians, it looks like Wells Fargo may take the prize. According to a report released today, Wells Fargo is responsible for more homes in the foreclosure pipeline in California than any other single lender.