Month: June 2014

The Ocean Beach Planning Board holds its monthly meeting this Wednesday, June 4th. It’s held at the OB Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue at 6 pm sharp. The public is invited and all are welcome.

The big item on their agenda is an “update” on the Update – the OB Community Plan Update. And there is much news to share, as the San Diego Planning Commission has thrown down the gauntlet and wants to de-claw the Plan after 12 years of working with City staff, the City Attorney’s Office, and countless community meetings, workshops and town hall gatherings about the Plan.

An urgent meeting has been called for tonight, June 2nd, by OB planners in order to formulate a response to how the San Diego Planning Commission dealt with the OB Plan Update last week.

The planners also also putting together a presentation for the City Council, which is scheduled to review the Plan on June 30th.

The meeting is open to any OBcean, and will be held at 6pm at the Dog Beach Dog Wash, 4933 Voltaire Street.

Quieter than dogs, but just as affectionate, goats produce delicious milk and cheese. But they’re not for everyone.

By Jill Richardson / Alternet

Believe it or not, chickens are not the only farm animals turning up—legally—in cities. Goats are now legal (with some limitations) in Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Pasadena, St. Louis, Oakland, Portland, Cleveland, Fort Worth, Berkeley, and St. Paul.

But do goats belong in a city? Strangely enough, goats can actually make nice neighbors, so long as their owners have a good fence. But, as a new generation rediscovers agriculture, they are also finding out that raising goats, particularly if you wish to raise them for milk, takes work.

An amendment that would prohibit the Fed from interfering in state medical pot laws is still up in the air.

By April M. Short / AlterNet

The GOP-controlled House surprised just about everyone when it voted 218 to 189 for a pro-medical marijuana amendment on Friday. The amendment, tacked onto the much larger criminal justice funding bill (H.R. 4660), would prohibit the Department of Justice (DOJ) from using federal taxpayer funds to interfere with medical marijuana laws in 22 states that have passed them.

The House vote was historic. It was the first time since the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 that the majority of a chamber of Congress voted in favor of something that would alter national marijuana policy.

Unanswered questions linger about the amendment, however …

By Jim Miller

What if they had an election and nobody came?

That’s the feel that this June’s primary has to it and, after a nasty and seemingly unrelenting political year from the Filner scandal on, it’s understandable that folks are burned out and/or disgusted enough to stay home.

Nevertheless, while most San Diegans are meeting tomorrow’s election with a collective shrug, there are a number of things at stake that will affect our lives and the future of our local and statewide democracy in important ways.

Here are a few key areas that should motivate progressives to get to the polls: jpallan via flickr

1) The balance of power in the city is at stake.