Month: May 2014

By any objective analysis, cannabis and cannabinoids exceed the FDA’s existing standards for medicine.

By Paul Armentano / AlterNet

Medical cannabis opponents are fond of promoting many myths and misconceptions about the herb. Here are the facts.

Medical cannabis is too dangerous to recommend as a medicine
The cannabis plant and its biologically active constituents, known as cannabinoids, possess an impressive safety profile compared to other conventional therapeutic agents. According to the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, marijuana possesses an estimated dependence liability of less than ten percent. (Others have acknowledged that pot’s true dependence potential is likely even lower.)

On Wednesday, May 28th, the OB Town Council will be hosting a debate and discussion on local San Diego propositions B and C. These props will determine the fate of the Barrio Logan Community Plan update. This has been described as a battle between community and economic interests. The OBTC invites the public to come learn about these two initiatives. at our OB Town Council meeting on Wednesday and then cast your vote on June 3rd.

The Town Council will meet May 28, at 7:00pm, at the Masonic Center, 1711 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.

Speakers include:

– Corinne Wilson, Protect Our Children’s Health San Diego (Pro Props B & C)
– Rep from Protect Our Jobs Coalition (invited) (Anti Props B & C)

There will also hear an update on the Ocean Beach Community Plan …

by Michael Steinberg / blackrainpress – Indybay.org

A report released just recently detailed a government spy network that was employed to monitor the Occupy movement “hour-to-hour” during 2011.

The Washington DC- based Partnership for Justice Fund just released an investigative report, “The Hidden Role of Fusion Centers in the Nationwide Spying Operations against the Occupy Movement and Peaceful Protest in America.” It took two years to carry out this investigation. Its principal authors are PFJF members Maria Verheyden-Hilliard and Carl Messineo.

Fusion Centers, funded by hundred of millions of dollars from the Department of Homeland Security, sprung up across the nation after the 911 attacks. Their mission was ostensibly to fight terrorism. But ten years later they made fighting the Occupy Movement their Number 1 priority.

By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout | Op-Ed

The recent torturous execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma has propelled the death penalty into the national discourse. The secret three-drug cocktail that prison authorities administered to Lockett – the first to render him unconscious, the second to paralyze him, and the third to stop his heart and kill him – didn’t work as planned. After writhing in pain for 43 minutes, he finally died of a heart attack. Madeline Cohen, a lawyer who witnessed the botched execution, said Lockett had been “tortured to death.” Seasoned reporters, also witnesses, called it “horrific.” President Obama found it “deeply disturbing” and promised a review of how the death penalty is administered.

By Jim Miller

San Diego City Works Press is soon approaching its 10-year anniversary. SDCWP is run by a 100% non-profit collective and is the only small literary press in San Diego that focuses primarily on the publication of local writers with an emphasis on our region that moves beyond the postcard version of our reality.

In an era where commercial forces and hegemonic instrumentality are drowning out what remains of literary culture, we have persisted against the odds. We invite all interested parties to be a part of our beautifully useless endeavor.

To celebrate our anniversary, we are putting together a second edition of our first anthology, Sunshine/Noir II. All local writers are encouraged to submit work for consideration.

See the relevant details inside:

Someone altered this freeway sign on Sunday, May 25, 2014. It has been verified that it is a real alteration, not simply a photo shop product.

Watch this video. … COME INSIDE

By Clancy Sigal / Alternet

Except for mourning family members and Boy Scouts loyally placing tiny flags on veterans’ gravestones, hardly anyone knows anything about Memorial Day except that it’s a day off. It’s the saddest of the military holidays, invented after the Civil War, supposed to help us honor, or at least pause to remember, all the American dead from all our wars. That’s a lot of men and some women to remember going back, well, how far?

Big and small, we’ve “done” about 70 wars starting with the mid-18th century so-called French and Indian wars where George Washington was bloodied and when we got our first taste of industrially massacring Native Americans, mainly Ojibwas and Algonquins who sided with the French against our British masters.

March Against Monsanto

The whole world is marching against Monsanto this weekend. Including San Diego.

Local activists have three days of protests planned for the coming weekend, starting

• Rally – a rally outside Monsanto’s La Jolla offices (11099 Torrey Pines Road) on May 23, Friday starting at 4:30,
• Rally and March May 24: a rally and march starting at the fountain outside of Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park starting at 11am Saturday and

By Ernie McCray

I hear all kinds of arguments about what’s wrong with schools and the sentiments tend to avoid the keys to what’s essential in the creation of a learning environment: an understanding of “who” the person is who’s being educated. And nothing gets at “who” a child, a student, is more than an educator who respects and appreciates that person’s culture and gives him or her an education that’s rich in the arts.

With that being said, on May 2, 2014, a hero of mine, a teacher extraordinaire, Jose Luis Solis Lopez (Galeano), was assassinated at the Zapatista’s “Little School” (La Escuelita), in Chiapas, Mexico. The school was built to celebrate “who” children are and “who” they can become.

Yes, it’s finally happened. CVS Pharmacy has begun the work of rehabbing the former Apple Tree Market in OB.

On a visit at the site on Thursday, May 22nd, I witnessed plenty of activity that displays the development. An on-site contractor also confirmed that CVS is really beginning the process of moving in.

Workers inside were finalizing the dusty and dirty job of gutting the interior of the Fifties-style cavernous building – once the site of a Safeway. The wood will be saved I was told – and I could see wonderful reddened wood covering the ceiling.

The plans are to a complete remodel of the interior. It would be easy speculation to say that the remodel will look very similar to other CVS Pharmacies.

Do organics make good neighbors? Or more specifically, do businesses selling organic products make good neighbors here in OB?

When Blue Dot Refills opened earlier this year right next door to People’s Food, the common wisdom was ‘wow, they must really get along’ – referring to the gigantic OB-centric vegetarian and organic market – OB’s largest employer – and the small two-person refill storefront. Both stores were pushing organic things in order to help the environment.

But there have been complaints from People’s managers about a couple of things that have to do with the new neighbor. First, someone from Blue Dot came into People’s and went up to customers telling them that Blue Dot had cheaper and better products. Oops! That’s a definite abuse of neighborly love.

Second, Blue Dot customers are parking in People’s parking lot, the allegation goes, while People’s own customers circle the block looking for spaces. We all know that parking is an issue in that part of OB.