Month: November 2013

By Michael Steinberg

A new study indicates that rates of a thyroid disease in California newborn spiked after they were exposed to fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

The peer-reviewed study, “Changes in confirmed and borderline cases of congenital hypothyroidism in California as a function of environmental fallout from Fukushima,” appears in the November 2013 issue of the periodical Open Journal of Pediatrics.

In California all babies are tested at birth for congenital hypothyroidism, a rare disease that nevertheless can cause serious growth problems in children if it remains untreated.

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from Doug Ledbetter, the Director at Ft. Rosecrans Cemetery asking me if I had been up to see the progress taking place at the cemetery in the past few days.

Last night, and again this morning, I received five calls from readers asking me the same question. This is a quick summary of what I found when I drove to the cemetery at 10:30am on Tuesday, November 26, 2013.

It is 95% better than what I saw the last time I visited my husband.

Editor: There are changes afoot in north-west OB, particularly at the corner of Abbott and Voltaire. Here is Matthew Wood’s latest report.

OB Rag Confirms Pat’s Liquor Up for Sale

By Matthew Wood

The long-vacant lot at the southeast corner of Voltaire and Abbott Streets has just been recently sold, which may spark a domino effect of land sales on that corner.

Ray Adams, of Cassidy Turley Commercial Real Estate, confirmed the two lots had been sold for $635,000. The lots are 2,500 square feet each – 5,000 square feet total – and are zoned for residential housing. The Keen Family Trust was the seller.

Our fast-growing, heavy-breasted birds can’t even mate anymore

By Jill Richardson / Otherwords

It’s odd that the most iconic feature of Thanksgiving — the turkey — is likely the most unnatural. It’s got competition, of course, from the jellied cranberry sauce that retains the shape of its can and various food products sold in boxes marked “Just Add Water.”

(Really, is it so hard to mash potatoes yourself, especially given their divine taste and creamy texture after you’ve added in all the cream and butter required?)

By Doug Porter

It’s been touted as fact of life in San Diego politics: the electorate south of Interstate 8 votes heavily Democratic while those on the north side votes Republican.

After all, the northern part of San Diego is generally wealthier, older and whiter than the city’s southern half. Even as the GOP’s partisan advantage in the city has disappeared in recent years, the party’s candidates and causes have done well, leading to the general perception that the electorate in the regions favors conservative causes.

A succession of Republican Mayors and a track record for mostly voting with that party’s positions on initiatives re-enforce that perception. It’s a commonly accepted view in news media accounts; a local report on this weeks special election taps National University’s “policy analyst” Vince Vasquez, who says “You see that deep geographic divide among voters. It’s something not going away. If anything its more pronounced,” –

But not everything is as it seems. There are those most recent Democratic wins to be considered.

By Ernie McCray

I like facebook. For me it’s been a nice way to get snippets, sometimes daily, of what’s going on in the lives of both new and old friends: students of mine from over time, some of my children and grandchildren, ex-colleagues, fellow actors and writers and activists – interesting people all.

Occasionally one of them will suggest a game for me to play and I usually don’t take part in such online activities because it’s too easy to spend too much time on social media without the temptation of getting involved in diversionary attractions of any kind.

But lately …

By Jim Miller

Last Tuesday, fortune favored the bold. David Alvarez defied the pundits and political insiders and beat the prohibitive favorite, Nathan Fletcher, in the race to face Kevin Faulconer in the run-off to be San Diego’s next mayor. This was a seminal moment for San Diego—perhaps the biggest political upset in history of the city.

It just wasn’t supposed to happen.

A Report of the Point Loma Democratic Club Meeting, held on November 24, 2013

“After the Election”

By Judi Curry

The Point Loma Democrats tried a new format for their regularly scheduled meeting, Sunday, Nov. 24th. It was, without a doubt, one of the best, if not the best, meeting held this year. It was standing room only.

Three panelists were invited to participate in a “What Now?” discussion of the special election held earlier this week for the mayor of San Diego. The panelists, all well known in their own right were:

• Wendy Fry, from the NBC 7 I-team;
• Daniel Munoz, editor of La Prenza, San Diego;
• Dr. John Warren from the San Diego Voice and Viewpoint,
• and Andy Cohen, from our very own San Diego Free Press.
• The moderator was Patrick Schultheis.

By Ernie McCray

On November 22, 1963, I was a twenty-five year old sixth grade teacher enjoying my second year serving students at Perry Elementary. Before recess that day we had gotten the news that the president was shot.

The radio in our classroom verified what we had heard with the words “President John Fitzgerald Kennedy is dead.”

It is reported that a man was found deceased in the public restroom of the main lifeguard station in Ocean Beach on Wednesday, November 20. A witness said he still had a needle in his arm.

Yellow police caution tape was up on the restroom.

By Frank Gormlie

Fifty years ago this Friday, the 22nd of November, I walked out of my English class at Point Loma High School and full of disgust threw my brown bag full of lunch away in a trash can. I felt sick to my stomach and couldn’t bare to think ab0ut eating – we had just heard that the President had been shot by someone from an overpass while he was riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.

Classes were cancelled and we all went home, …

Clapper Rails Released Into the Wild in Mission Bay
On Tuesday, the 400th light-footed clapper rail was released into the wild right here in San Diego. Team Clapper Rail released seven captive-bred birds at the Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve in Mission Bay. This is the 12th year the team has hosted a release of the endangered birds. Organizers say it is so important to take care of our environment to preserve the lives it holds.

Four Unit Apartment in Ocean Beach on Banning Street Sold for Over $1 Million