Month: April 2013

Every now and then we must pause in our daily rush and grind to acknowledge the passing of someone who is important to us. This is especially true in the tiny world of progressive journalism in San Diego. And it is true as we pause on the passing of Dave Davis.

Now, there are probably very few people in San Diego right now who even remember Dave Isaac Davis, but it was his little print shop in Golden Hill that was responsible for printing up the very first issues of the original OB Rag way back in 1970 and 1971, when we considered it to be an “underground newspaper”.

“If we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress”

By Gabrielle Giffords / New York Times / April 17, 2013

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.

Those illegally foreclosed on get a pittance in return.

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

Banks foreclosed on military service members, homeowners who had been approved for a loan modification and even homeowners who were current on their payments. At least 53 homeowners who weren’t behind on their payments were successfully foreclosed on and lost their homes for no reason.

There was widespread criminal behavior on the part of the banks, but in a recent settlement they got off relatively cheap.

By Jim Miller

Things haven’t been going too well for the corporate education reform forces lately. In Chicago there is great controversy surrounding and parent resistance to school closings as a result of the efforts of over zealous reformers. This shameful turn of events puts yet another black mark on former Obama Administration chief of staff and current Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel’s heavy-handed reign of error over his city’s schools.

Across the country in Seattle, teachers, students, and parents came together to resist the overuse of standardized tests by asking questions that resonated nationwide about the disservice we are doing to our children. And, in Atlanta, a massive cheating scandal raised eyebrows about the hegemony of high stakes testing as well.

About 6:30 pm, Sunday night, the 21st of April, a car being driven by Crystal Noel Banducci was going east when it drifted into oncoming traffic on the 5000 block of West Point Loma Boulevard.

Banducci’s red Honda CRX then crashed head-on into a westbound Toyota Camry, being driven by a 40 year old pregnant woman, as yet unidentified.

Banducci, 32, of San Diego, died at the scene,

On the I-805 just south I-8, there are reports of hundreds of bills floating on the freeway – bills, up to hundred-dollar bills – on the road, in the air.

One witness said a hundred-dollar bill got stuck on his windshield, and he tried to pull over, but CHP patrol cars were indicating that traffic needed to flow and continue on.

10News is running a story about frustrations and solutions. A local Point Loma woman found her stolen jewelry – worth $1,000 – online, and at first went to the police and then to eBay – both without success … initially.

It’s a cute story with a lesson and happy ending.

Sarah Endemann’s hubby had purchased a pair of apis cabochon stud earrings from Tiffany & Co. and a matching bracelet, worth a thousand bucks. It was a birthday present and he either stuck them or hid them in his golf bag, that he left in his truck.

The Ocean Beach Historical Society Presents:

Ricardo Breceda – The Accidental Artist

Featuring Author Diana Lindsay

Thurs., April 18 at 7PM,

at P.L. United Methodist Church

1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., O. B.

Not Every Resident Is Happy, However

Two bogus stop signs have been discovered in the tony neighborhood of southern Point Loma, near the Point Loma campus of Nazarene University. In July, 2012, a stop sign appeared on Jennings Street. The counterfeit signs have many supporters among local residents, and even the City signed off (no pun intended) on one of them – but, not everyone is happy.

Residents along Jennings at Albion Street and Silvergate Avenue are divided on the issue. Some say the bogus signs have made their neighborhood more safer for pedestrians, children, and walkers.

And some of them have been complaining to the City about traffic speeding through their ritzy neighborhood for over a decade. In fact, residents in 2000 asked the City to do something and allow stop signs, but the City declined, and installed a “Yield” sign. Residents also asked the City again later in 2000, and also in early 2001, and city staff deemed stop signs unnecessary.

The suspect in the March 24th sexual assault in Ocean Beach has been now charged with the August 25, 2012 sexual assault – which occurred in the same general vicinity as the more recent one. The D.A. says it was “the same M.O.”

Richard C. Butts pleaded not guilty to the late March assault, where he is charged with one count each of kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual assault, forced oral copulation and assault with intent to commit a sexual offense.

That assault on March 24 occurred late at night around 10:15 pm, as a 26-year-old woman was walking home in the 4800 block of Long Branch Avenue from a dinner at a friend’s house. Suddenly, a stranger ran up to her, grabbed her and gave her a bear hug. He then dragged her 30 to 40 feet to a more secluded area and sexually assaulted her. He had wrapped a sweater over her eyes, gagging her with it.

Fortunately, she was able to yell and scream for help and several neighbors immediately responded by running to the scene of the attack, chasing the assailant away. Butts was then arrested by police less than a half hour after the attack and close to the restrooms at Robb Field.

by Ernie McCray

Everyone, perhaps, has now seen the picture of Martin Richard, the 8 year old boy who lost his life in Boston, holding a sign that says “No more hurting people – Peace.” Oh, if we, as a society, could live in such a caring way.

And these sentiments, expressed by Mr. Rogers, of children’s television fame, have gone viral in cyberspace: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'”

How true, and I see Martin, even though he has been taken away from us, as one of the “helpers” of the world that Mr. Rogers has painted in our minds as he is already helping me to carry on after the madness at the Boston Marathon.

His sentiments are so simple. So innocent. So child-like. So characteristic, if you will, of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.