Month: February 2019

OB Should Be Proud of Its Planning Board

By Geoff Page

Having been on a planning board for some years, I really had an appreciation for the dilemma facing the OB planning board as they struggled with the issue of another liquor license in Ocean Beach.

Board member Craig Klein took an informal street poll in his quest to see what the community thought, and he said the 50-50 result was not much help to him in making a decision. What that did illustrate was that the board would make half the community happy and half angry no matter how they voted. The discussion was very impressive, and it was plain that the board members took it very seriously.

The problem was they were facing

On February 9, 2019, the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art in collaboration with the San Diego History Center will host the 2nd annual recognition of individual’s whose contributions have resulted in retaining and expanding the cultural expressions that are uniquely African American.

The event will be from 5:30-7:30 PM at the San Diego History Center, located in Balboa Park, Casa de Balboa, 1649 El Prado, Suite #3 San Diego, CA 92101.

The good Samaritan who perished in jumping off an east county bridge Wednesday had an Ocean Beach connection.

Robert Bruno – who had stopped to assist a stranger in a wreck on the Pine Valley Creek Bridge and then jumped off the bridge to avoid a second wreck – lived in Ocean Beach with his fiancée Gwendolyn Sneed for years and raised his son here.

Bruno, 48, lived in Jacumba Hot Springs and was on his way to work in San Diego, according to Sneed, when around 5 a.m. he saw a Ford F-150 blocking the westbound Interstate 8 near the bridge.

By Sheila Pell / San Diego Reader

As cannabis facilities grow, so does the traffic around them. Emissions increase, air quality degrades. Yet the San Diego City Council is ignoring those environmental impacts.

That’s what several appeals of permits for three new pot production facilities before the city on Jan. 14 claimed. After a preliminary review, the city exempted the projects — 3443 Pickwick Street in southeast San Diego and 8330 Arjons Drive and 9151 Rehco Road in Mira Mesa — from further environmental study, since the applicants would use existing buildings, make limited modifications, and the impacts in these light industrial zones should be minor.

Environmental concerns have nothing to do with the appeals, speakers for those applying for permits alleged. The California Environmental Quality Act, a state law that can be used to block development permits, is being abused by competitors.

By Marc Ash / Reader Supported News / Feb. 06 2019

What the US corporate media is not telling you about the situation in Venezuela is why the Venezuelan economy is in such trouble.

Since 1999, the US has waged economic warfare against Venezuela in an attempt to destabilize and deconstruct the Socialist Revolution started by former Venezuelan president and close Fidel Castro ally Hugo Chavez.

The US wants Venezuela, with its rich oil reserves, to be a compliant client-state. That was what motivated the Cuban Revolution and that is what drives anti-colonialist sentiment in Venezuela today.

The Old Broad Shares a Story About 2 of Her Foreign Language Students

I have been hosting foreign language students since 1992. They come to the US to learn English, and live with me during their stay here. I am now on my 521st student – and I have to tell you – I am so proud of Lea, from Switzerland, and her friend Serena, from Italy, that I have to share the story.

Yesterday Lea and Serena found a wallet on B Street in Downtown San Diego. It wasn’t just any wallet; it had 24 credit cards, a driver’s license, and $400 in cash in it. They took it to an authority – not quite sure if it was a police officer or not – but they were directed to someplace else. It was late, and Lea brought it home.

by Ernie McCray

I just finished “Platitudes and Attitudes,” a little book that was written by a dear lifelong friend, Shirley Robinson Sprinkles, “Shirlgirl.”

Shirley and I grew up in Tucson, Arizona in the 40’s and 50’s and as I read the “random thoughts and memories” that she had collected over the years, I was transported back in time, like in a dream.

She’d mention a street and I could see myself riding my bicycle down that street, popping a wheelie, with my levi’s ripped at the knees (light years before that was cool).

She’d describe an event, and I was there (trying to be cool).

Animal rights groups are trying to get SeaWorld corporate to release necropsy reports on the 3 Orcas that have died under their supervision in the last few years, including one killer whale who died here at San Diego SeaWorld.

The groups believe the Orca death reports need to be reviewed by independent experts which will allow them to analyze the clinical histories of these mammals and the treatments they received, the effectiveness of these treatments- not simply why they died.

For years, animal rights advocates have waged war against the US Navy for its use of dolphins in warfare and research. Is a resolution possible?

by Lina Zeldovich / Hakai Magazine / February 5, 2019

1. The Great Divide

Michele Bollo stood on Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge, close to the US Navy base in Point Loma, San Diego, looking through a video camera trained on a network of pens in the water below. The nine-by-nine-meter ocean corrals held 70 dolphins and 30 sea lions belonging to the US Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP). Bollo was there to document how the navy treated the animals.

One animal, a 46-year-old bottlenose dolphin named Makai, once deployed to find mines in the Persian Gulf during the 2003 Iraq War, was sick and unable to swim.

By Marjorie Cohn / TruthOut / Feb. 2, 2019

As Venezuela’s second president, Simon Bolivar, noted in the 19th century, the US government continues to “plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty.”

From engineering coups in Chile and Guatemala, to choreographing a troop landing at the Bay of Pigs intended to establish an exile government in Cuba, to training Latin American strongmen at the School of the Americas in torture techniques to control their people, the United States has meddled, interfered, intervened and undermined the democracies it claims to protect.

Now, Vice President Mike Pence, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and the infamous Elliott Abrams are working with opposition groups in Venezuela to carry out a coup d’état.

I know that this restaurant is not in our Ocean Beach / Point Loma area. However, I think that a shout-out should go to them for what they did. What do you think?

My husband – before he passed on – was a member of Veteran’s for Peace. I have kept semi-active in the organization and I think they do some wonderful things.

Today I received this message from Kate Beckwith – a retired Veteran – that hands out sleeping bags with so many others. I think this might be appropriate to repost because it talks about a restaurant – one that should be given plaudits for what they did.

A feel good story about an amazing restaurant…

Cannabis Rescheduling Could Change Its Status on Global Scale

By David Mangone / Americans for Safe Access / February 01, 2019

On February 1st, the World Health Organization (WHO) made an announcement that has the potential to change the status of medical cannabis globally. The WHO has determined that cannabis and cannabis resin should be removed from Schedule IV of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (which is different than the U.S. Controlled Substances Act scheduling) and divided into more specific categories in lower schedules. For, example compound pharmaceutical preparations containing THC would be placed in Schedule III and CBD preparations would be removed from scheduling entirely.

If these recommendations are adopted by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs this would effectively nullify the excuse of violating international treaty which many governments use as an excuse to block medical cannabis reform in their country.