Month: December 2018

By Angela Mooney D’Arcy and Paloma Aguirre / Times of San Diego

Every year, the state Lands Commission makes decisions that impact the lives of millions of Californians and over 150 indigenous nations. This little-known agency manages more than four million acres of the state’s public lands. From managing oil and gas leases along the coast, to overseeing development in the vicinity of the Tijuana River in the south, and Goose Lake in the north, the commission’s decisions have consequences that last for generations.

One of the commission’s core responsibilities is ensuring the people of California can use the public lands and waters under its care. But right here in San Diego County, we have a river that is inaccessible due to pollution, and tribal communities that have been displaced from ancestral homelands.

By Sarah “Steve” Mosko

What do beer, oysters, table salt, air & tap water have in common? They’re all ways humans are ingesting microplastics, tiny bits of plastic waste ubiquitous in oceans, lakes and rivers and even soil and air.

Wildlife as diverse as whales, seabirds, fish and zooplankton are polluted by ingesting plastic debris. It’s naïve to assume that humans, sharing the same global environment and eating at the top of the food chain, are magically spared contamination from plastics.

Though no one has yet measured how much plastic pollution humans actually carry around, there’s plenty of evidence we’re taking the stuff in, by eating, drinking and just breathing.

By Jacob Snow, Technology & Civil Liberties Attorney, ACLU of Northern California / ACLU Speak Freely

Recently, a patent application from Amazon became public that would pair face surveillance — like Rekognition, the product that the company is aggressively marketing to police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — with Ring, a doorbell camera company that Amazon bought earlier this year.

While the details are sketchy,

In recent tests by the school district at Ocean Beach Elementary, water was found at 5 sites with lead that exceeded local standards. Parents were reportedly informed last week of the report results.

Water standards at San Diego Unified School District for lead are 5 parts-per-billion (ppb) (this is a targeted goal) and the District requires action to be taken if lead is found at 5 ppb or higher. This is in comparison with State and Federal guidelines which require action to be taken if lead is found in drinking water at levels of 15 parts-per-billion (ppb) or higher.

According to the December 14, 2018 report, sites that exceeded the standard included:

After living as a model tenant for nearly 30 years in her Ocean Beach cottage, a 98-year-old woman is being evicted by the landlord. Abc10News is reporting that Betty Morse received a 90-day-notice in July terminating her lease.

Why? It appears the owner is quitting the Section 8 housing assistance program, which Morse has been using to help cover her rent.

The landlord is evicting Morse, a model tenant, in order to make substantial renovations to the cottage and then place it on the market for a higher rental value. Short-term vacation rental anyone?

Here is part of 10News report:

(And other important info on getting your news)

From San Diego Free Press

Dear friends,

The day has come to dim the lights at the San Diego Free Press. We could not have had such a successful six and a half year run without you. Each one of you invested something essential in this endeavor, whether it was through your thought-provoking submissions, committed readership, or crucial financial support. We are so grateful for the opportunities we have had as editors to get to know so many of you personally.

There are a few other details that we would like to leave you with.

By David Helvarg / Blue Frontier Campaign / December 10, 2018

Between the devastation of Mexico Beach, Florida and Paradise California plus the 4th National Climate Assessment Report, the year 2018 may become known as the point of no denial, an acknowledgement of what Governor Jerry Brown calls, “the new abnormal.” At this point climate deniers are being recognized as little more than the willing tools of the fossil fuel industry such as the coal lobbyist now running the EPA.

The best available science reflected in the federal report prepared by 13 government agencies including NASA, NOAA and the National Science Foundation, suggests the worst possible scenarios if we continue on our present course (which we appear to be with 16 of the 17 hottest years on record occurring since 2001).

This Saturday, December 15, the Friends of the OB Library will hold their biggest annual book & gift sale ever!

The all-volunteer group has received so many new books as donations from Barnes & Noble —

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year here in Ocean Beach, and the OB Town Council’s Annual Food & Toy Drive needs volunteers to help sort and pack the many toy and food donations – and then needs drivers to pick-up and deliver the boxes of food and gifts to families around OB.

Usually more than 80 families are served by this program each year. This is truly a heart-warming event that captures the magic of the holiday season! Volunteers will be meeting at the Masonic Center, 1711 Sunset Cliffs Blvd. for the work parties and also for Delivery Day, Saturday.

The scooter wars have enveloped San Diego for months. Whether you love them or loath them, the scooters are upon us.

Will they go the way of the dockless bikes? Remember them? Or the Decko-bikes? Or will they substantially alter the way many of us get around?

With San Diego having experienced our first near-fatality of a scooter crash just recently in Pacific Beach, with mounting other accidents involving scooters, with ER doctors bemoaning their impact, with the Mayor coming out with his proposal on regulating them, with new scooter companies releasing their fleets upon our streets and sidewalks, with crash victims lining up to sue the scooter companies, with certain cities banning or regulating them, with scooter companies suing cities for restricting them – one cannot get away from the new reality of scooter wars.

Local television and online media station KUSI picked up the OB Rag‘s story from Tuesday about the high number of deaths and serious injuries at Sunset Cliffs during 2018 – and even gave the OB Rag accreditation – which we are grateful for as it is a rare occasion for the Rag to be acknowledged by mainstream media.

But there’s just one problem: they got it wrong.

KUSI‘s headline for their online report blared: “Record number of deaths and injuries at Sunset Cliffs this year.”

Now that she is in her new District 2 office, Councilwoman Jen Campbell has announced her new staff – which includes one of her former Democratic Primary opponents, Jordan Beane, who has been hired on as her Communications Director and Policy Advisor.

Campbell’s representative for Ocean Beach is Seamus Kennedy, another Policy Advisor, who also represents her office in Mission Beach.

Her Community Representative for Point Loma and the Midway is Miller Saltzman.

Here is the full list of Campbell’s office staff and their community assignments: