Month: April 2019

by Brad Racino, Lauren Mapp & Bella Ross / inewsource / April 3, 2019

More than 75 faculty members, staff and students at San Diego State University packed an open forum Wednesday, April 3, to demand answers of campus leadership about noxious odors that have sickened many since January.

Editordude: From an earlier post:

The odors arose from a chemical used during roof repairs to the Professional Studies and Fine Arts building, which was closed on March 13 — six weeks after the university was told of the problem and began air monitoring tests. Students and professors who occupied the building despite the smells said the university did a poor job of notifying them or giving them options. inewsource.com

We’re trying to keep track for you, dear reader, all the news about those scooters. As ER visits by scooter riders mount, the CDC is studying scooter injuries, Bird’s scooters just got more expensive. And remember those guys taking it upon themselves to “impound” scooters? Lime and Bird are suing them. As if the scooter companies aren’t themselves being sued. And the City of San Diego is being sued.

Here’s some exciting headlines:

Riding Bird’s electric scooters just got more expensive in some cities

Bird is experimenting with price changes as it seeks to tighten up the margins of its money-losing business. Since it first launched, the micromobility company has charged $1 to unlock an electric scooter, plus 15 cents per minute of riding. Now, Bird is effectively doubling that per-minute fee in some cities, while lowering it in others.

By Marjorie Cohn / TruthOut / April 8, 2019

The United States is taking illegal and dangerous actions to execute regime change in Venezuela. In January, Juan Guaidó declared himself “interim president,” in a strategy orchestrated by the United States to seize power from President Nicolás Maduro.

In March, Guaidó announced that “Operation Freedom,” an organization established to overthrow the Maduro government, would take certain “tactical actions” beginning on April 6. Part of the plan anticipates that the Venezuelan military will turn against Maduro.

By Judi Curry

San Diego Airport is One of Most Dangerous in Nation; Airplanes Drop Black Soot On Those Below

As I write this, it’s Sunday, April 7, 2019. Between the minutes of 6:31am and 6:52am I reported planes off course 6 times. They were flying quite a bit south of the OB Pier and very close to Pt. Loma Avenue.

This is not the first time this has happened, and as we get closer to summer and more and more tourists coming to San Diego this is going to get worse. For those of you that tell me that the airport was here before me, let me reiterate that we purposely bought our house where we did because it was NOT in the flight pattern.

By Christopher Chiu-Tabet / Multiversity Comics / April 10th, 2019

Comic book writer James Hudnall died yesterday at the age of 61. Artist Matt Cossin, who was working with Hudnall on a new book, announced the news on Facebook, stating “James’ sister, Susan, has informed me that my good friend, writer and collaborator, James Hudnall, has passed away. James was one of the very few kind hearted, genuine people I have ever met. I still can’t believe it.”

James David Hudnall was born in Santa Rosa, California, on April 10, 1957. His parents divorced when he was two, and after his mother remarried a man in the US Navy, they moved to San Diego, where Hudnall attended Point Loma High School. After graduating, Hudnall joined the US Air Force in 1976, and was stationed in England. After being discharged, he attended Coleman College in San Diego, majoring in computer science.

This is a tale – albeit a brief one – of two crises – homeless people living in cars in well-off residential areas and what some believe are the out-of-control dockless scooters.

This tale is about how these two parallel crises which have hit our fair city at roughly the same time and how they both are being handled and resolved by our earnest San Diego political leaders. Now whether these twin events are actual “crises” may be debated by history, but they certainly both are urgent matters of concern at least to some.

It was just this past February when the San Diego City Council overturned the local ordinance that banned sleeping in vehicles, a law on the books since 1983, but ruled unconstitutional by a Federal Judge last year.

And ever since, the Mayor’s Office and other city council offices – plus the local media – have been inundated with hundreds of calls from irate well-heeled residents – who also vote – about homeless people living in vans and leaving their messes on their residential streets. Just about every TV station had a report about these complaints.

By Steamed X-Punker

I am kind of steamed these days with the hubris that some businesses have who think they can just waltz into Ocean Beach and set up shop and start selling alcohol. I’m thinking right now of Dirty BIrds and Mr. Motto Pizza.

Is this what is going on?

Both these businesses are in the process of setting up their shops in the new plaza at Santa Monica and Cable Street. Both have applied for alcohol-selling permits. Now we learn Dirty Birds’ permit has been denied by the ABC. (Editordude: see this.) Motto’s is pending.

I have to ask: “What were they thinking?”

Didn’t Dirty Birds owners know setting up new alcohol serving places in OB could be a tough go? Had not they heard of what happened to Little Miss Brewery?

By Keaton Browning / Surfline.com / April 9, 2019

The Bottom Line

• Surf Trend: Rising NW winds and windswell on Tues PM. Jumbled surf through Wed, but possibly cleaning up Thur AM.
• Novice: Probably best to hold off for possible cleaner conditions, smaller surf Friday into the weekend.
• Tides: AM lows, PM highs (but not deep tides).
• Water Temps: Upper 50s for many areas, low 60s for South LA, South OC and San Diego.
• Also Watch Out For: Periods of strong onshore wind Tues; Another SSW swell lining up for next week.

Today, April 9th: 3-4’+ in the morning, trending up to 4-6’+ by afternoon. Rising NW winds/windswell. Old NW swell mix fades out as a fresh round of NW windswell fills in through the day

by Cheryl Clark / inewsource / April 2, 2019

More than 80 women are suing Sharp Grossmont Hospital and Sharp Healthcare for videotaping them without their consent as they underwent painful and emotional obstetric surgeries, including C-sections.

According to the 15-page lawsuit, the operating room cameras in the La Mesa facility captured videos of about 1,800 women between July 17, 2012 and June 30, 2013. Plaintiffs’ attorneys said Sharp officials disclosed those numbers and dates during legal proceedings before the lawsuit was filed.

Some folks who said good-bye to their favorite dog, Moose, have a message for other Golden Retriever owners and dog-lovers in general. And they’ve gone bandanas.

They have a sign up at OB’s Dog Beach about their grief and the need of Retrievers to have vet check-ups. And they’ve attached some bandanas for dogs. Here’s their message (photos by Albert C Elliott).

by Ernie McCray

I recently received an honor of a lifetime, Barrio Station’s “Cesar E. Chavez Humanitarian Award” for my lifelong civil and human rights activism. When I first got the word from Rachel Ortiz, Executive Director of the Barrio Station, a dear hero of mine, that I was to be given such a precious distinction, I didn’t know what to say other than “Wow!”

After hanging up the phone I couldn’t help but think of what a charmed life I’ve had. A life filled with children. Children, hundreds of them, in school settings all over San Diego County, have made me who I am, gifting me with tight hugs and snappy high fives for just being myself with them:

Out at P.E. with them,
my slam dunks
and shifty moves
and softballs
hit beyond the boundaries
of the playground
dazzling them
and bonding me
as a badass dude
with them.

By Judi Curry

The aging process really sucks. It doesn’t matter if it is the house you bought 50 years ago; or the car you bought 10 years ago; or the body that you were gifted with so many years ago. As each year passes more and more things seem to go wrong.

For example, my husband and I bought a large sectional couch 20 years ago. We placed in front of the three large windows in the living room. Behind the couch we had floor to ceiling drapes. Also 20 years ago. About 6 months ago, in preparation for a Bunco party at my house, I decided to have the carpets cleaned.

When the cleaner pulled the couch away from the wall I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.