Month: October 2013

Pizza Port Ocean Beach Wins 3 Medals at National Beer Competition in Denver

Pizza Port Ocean Beach claimed a GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE medal at the 2013 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition. The top three winners in the competition’s 84 beer-style categories were announced October 13 at the Festival awards ceremony held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.

San Diego’s final Bike Local Sunday hits Ocean Beach October 20th

The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, an organization that advocates for and protects the rights of all people who ride bicycles, ends its six-month stretch of monthly neighborhood bicycle tours this Sunday, October 20, in one of San Diego’s most locally loved neighborhoods: Ocean Beach.

… and much more …. come inside

By Kelsey Lynore / The Tarot Nook

Each week, Kelsey throws a “What to do?” spread for each of the zodiac signs. The first card is shown and the other two… well, you’ll just have to infer them from the written forecasts. Mind the heads up and have a lovely week!

Rams

Simmer down, Aries. You’re in a rush to start something new and believe yourself possessed by a fresh concept. But in chomping at the bit, you may be trying to run away from something which doesn’t feel so good, in lieu of running towards something which is truly promising. This is not to cast aspersions on your big idea, but please don’t bait and switch yourself. You’d do better to take a time out and really feel your emotions. Don’t run. Don’t even walk. Simply feel. This week, you need to acknowledge and transmute your own sadness. You’ll be reborn of it.

Editor: The following is a report of the October 16 meeting of the Project Review Committee, a sub-committee of the OB Planning Board, chaired by Peter Ruscitti.

By Stephanie Denton / Special to the OB Rag

CVS Pharmacy Alcohol License

Tonight the OB Planning Board’s Project Review Committee agreed to recommend approval to the board of CVS’s ABC License Type 21 application at the proposed location at Santa Monica and Cable. This came about not without debate however as board members were not unanimously in favor of a second pharmacy entering the Ocean Beach community. The recommended approval was strictly regarding the ABC License however and was nominated for a recommendation at a 3 yays to 2 nays vote.

Board members expressed that a second pharmacy in a few block radius of OB is not a necessary or primary need in the community. The CVS representative retorted, “In the American market there is more and more demand for pharmacies.”

Ocean Beach Needs to Draw Lessons From Ruling

Six years ago the well-known city of Flagstaff, Arizona, began enforcing a state law that made it a criminal offense to panhandle or beg for money or food.

Flagstaff is, of course, close to the national treasure the Grand Canyon, is often awash with tourists and transients alike. Merchants and some residents were getting tired of what they perceived as overly-aggressive panhandling by the transients on the town’s streets – especially in the commercial area. So pressure was applied and the city council ordered police to arrest anyone who panhandled.

During one year, Flagstaff police arrested an estimated 135 people – all on suspicion of loitering to beg. They would be arrested early in the day – in order to avoid the tourists probably. Some were jailed. A local attorney said, “Many of the people arrested under the begging law simply needed a little assistance — not a jail cell.”

By 10 am PDT, there appears to be a deal agreed upon within the US Senate to end the immediate crisis of the deal limit.

Both party leaders announced just after noon EDT on the floor of the US Senate that a deal has been reached to do the following:

• Reopen and Fund the federal government until January 15, 2014

• Raise the debt limit until February 7, 2014 – thereby extending the government’s ability to borrow

Former San Diego mayor Bob Filner has just pleaded guilty today – Tuesday, Oct. 15 – to felony false imprisonment and two counts of misdemeanor battery involving three women. The false imprisonment conviction was by violence, fraud, menace and deceit. These charges involved three women while he was in office.

As most of us know, Filner, resigned from office in late August coming under intense daily pressure to leave his post amidst allegations of sexual harassment against the former 10-term congressman.

Looks like a very full agenda for the upcoming Project Review Committee meeting Wednesday, Oct. 16th. The panel of planners sits as a sub-committee of the full Board – which will take up the sub-committee’s recommendations at its next meeting, November 6th.

The review panel meets at 6:00 pm sharp at the OB Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue. It has four action items to review and take recommendation votes on. Peter Ruscitti – vice-chair of the full Board – is the chair of the review group.

CVS Pharmacy Wants to Sell Booze in Former Apple Tree

At the top of the list is CVS Pharmacy’s application for approval of its ABC License

By David Helvarg / Blue Notes

Work on ocean and coastal protection, management, law enforcement, federal science and safety ground to a near halt with the government shutdown when the Republican House majority refused to pass the nation’s budget because Obamacare became law.

This disaster comes on top of the ongoing budget “sequester” that randomly slashes funding for federal agencies dealing with our public seas including EPA, NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard which has reduced its offshore patrolling roughly 15 percent and, with the shutdown, effectively ended fishing enforcement and marine mammal law enforcement.

Despite our Healthy Ocean Hill Day in May that saw seaweed activists lobbying Congress on behalf of an Anti-Pirate Fishing bill, right now is a good time to be a pirate. With over 90 percent of EPA shut down it’s an even better time to be a polluter dumping poison into our seas.

“Meet and Greet” Is Covered by Famous OB Rag Columnist

A “meet and greet” was held on Sunday, Oct. 13th, in Ocean Beach to introduce us to David Alvarez, a candidate running for the position of Mayor of San Diego.

It was the first time that many of the attendees had ever met Mr. Alvarez, and there was great interest from the over 50 people in attendance in what he had to say, how he said it, and what he sees for the future of San Diego. He gave willingly of his time, and spent almost three hours answering every question asked. It is interesting to note that at no time did he evade the questions, and from this observation was honest and sincere in what he said.

Local doc leaves OB practice, but won’t stop helping those in need

By Matthew Wood

After more than three decades with a local practice, Dr. Jeoff Gordon is getting back to his roots.

He is retiring and will be closing his Ocean Beach Medical Group on Friday, October 18, ending a run of more than 15 years in OB and more than 40 in the beach area.

“I want to live a little bit of life,” he said. “I’ve got two kids and a dog and a pile of books I want to read.”

But the good doctor is far from done helping people. He will work part-time a few days a week at the Family Health Centers, an offshoot of a group he helped organize in the 1970s.

By Jim Miller

After my last column on the perils of Carl Luna’s characterization of progressives supporting Democratic mayoral candidate David Alvarez as the “Tea Party of the Left” I got a response from Luna.

In his comment to my article posted at the OB Rag, he stood by his analogy “that those in the Democratic camp who hold that there are ‘true’ progressives (aka those they agree with) and DINOS are in danger of going down the Tea Party rabbit hole—like the Occupy Wall Street people run wild. (Except that Tea Party has 90 seats in Congress—OWS zero).”

This was prefaced by a reminder that, “the point of elections is to win.”

Herbal products can work wonders, but sometimes the products on the shelf are overpriced, ineffective or even unsafe.

By Jill Richardson / AlterNet

You’re not feeling well, so you head to the grocery store for some herbal tea. Or perhaps you pass a booth at your farmers’ market, full of herbal concoctions to cure every ill. Thanks to a 1994 law known as DSHEA (the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act), herbal products cannot promise to actually cure you of anything. Rather, they offer to support or promote a specific body part or function.

To most of us, it’s all the same, whether a tea, tincture or capsule promises to help cure our cold or “support upper respiratory health and immune function.” You see the promise, you buy the product, but does it work? Did you get ripped off?