Month: February 2020

Wednesday, Feb. 5, local San Diegans joined thousands of others across the country in more than 200 protests of the coverup and Trump’s acquittal.

The San Diego chapter of Indivisible mobilized people at several street corners, and about 40 demonstrators showed up at the corner of Sixth and University avenues in Hillcrest, the SanDiegoUnion-Tribune reported. A steady stream of supportive honking from drivers flowed by. The group chanted slogans such as “sham trial, not above the law” and “come November, we will remember.”

There were other protests including one on North Harbor Drive.

It was a packed, standing-room-only crowd at last night’s meeting of the Ocean Beach Planning Board. The various issues on the busy agenda each brought out their own numbers of residents and this reporter counted 50 people in the audience over the scope of the meeting in the OB Rec Center.

The board of community volunteers received a presentation on the design for the new stairs at the foot of Bermuda, shot down a project proposed for the 4600 block of Orchard, were asked to support parents at OB Elementary in their efforts to achieve pedestrian safety improvements around the school, and were asked to okay reaching out to the Mission Bay Park Committee to seek improvements to the River Bike Path trail.

By Robert Tait / The Guardian / Feb. 1, 2020

For decades, its mesmerizing blend of baroque and Gothic beauty was closed to mass tourism by the iron curtain that divided the communist east from the capitalist west during the cold war.

Now Prague, which has gained an unenviable reputation as a destination for stag nights and pub crawls, has become the latest European city to propose a radical assault on Airbnb and other short-term letting platforms as over-tourism threatens to overwhelm it and drive out residents.

Under plans pushed by the city’s liberal mayor, Zdenek Hrib, property owners would be barred from leasing out entire flats except when it was their own home and they were temporarily vacating it.

The city council person who represents Ocean Beach and Point Loma – as well as the rest of District 2 – gave a “State of the District” speech late last week, Jan. 30. Yet the only print media this writer has seen about the address is the account by Dave Schwab at the Peninsula Beacon.

And thanks to Schwab, we have a sense of what Councilmember Dr. Jennifer Campbell said and did during the event at the Liberty Station Conference Center in Point Loma. Schwab said she “touched on everything from monarch butterflies and pesticide use to housing, homelessness, electric scooters, and short-term vacation rentals.”

The Ocean Beach Elementary PTA is hosting the 10th Annual Skate for the Kids fundraiser on Sunday, February 9, 2020. The fundraiser for Ocean Beach Elementary marks its tenth year of, as they say, fostering a love of skating in local school kids while contributing to their education.

It all happens from 12-3 p.m. at Robb Field Skate Park.

The PTA is partnering with the Ocean Beach Surf & Skate Shop for the event.

Two Impeachment Protests Wed., Feb. 5 in San Diego: Downtown at North Harbor Dr. and at Genesse & Governor Dr.

Reject the Coverup protests are scheduled for this afternoon at multiple locations in San Diego County .The protests begin at 4:30 and 5:30 with flag waving citizens on street corners protesting the impeachment trial that was not a trial but a coverup.

This action is part of a nationwide mobilization with the simple demand of End the Coverup.

Livingston’s Mexican Grill & Chicken Kitchen on Newport Ave in Ocean Beach has closed.

The hole in the wall Mexican eatery at 5026 Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach has been next to Sunshine Company Saloon for more than two decades. Sunshine customers could also order from a separate counter inside.

The Ocean Beach bike path between Pacific Highway and Morena Boulevard is now closed temporarily. It is expected to re-open on Friday, February 28th.

The closure began Feb. 3. Bicyclists, joggers and pedestrians are urged to look out for detour routes and to be especially careful while traveling in the area where construction is going on.

By Ernie McCray

I look at my country aghast,
as a president
who’s barren of
any sense of morality
makes a mockery
of our Constitution
and our democracy,
crippling concepts of justice
and liberty
just as sure as he breathes,
while our republican senators,
spineless
without integrity,
irresponsibly
turn a blind eye to his sins
like the iconic three monkeys
who see no evil,
hear no evil
and speak no evil,

By Joni Halpern

Maybe we should start listening to our fellow Americans who have been stockpiling guns for a battle they foresee if Mr. Trump is not re-elected in 2020.

Several of these folks have warned they will take arms against Mr. Trump’s enemies, which now comprise about 60 percent of the American voting public.

These armed Trump loyalists are said to believe that white America is under attack by people of color who are reaching majority status, immigrants who are using excuses of violence and fear to enter America and steal our jobs, and radical liberals (Democrats) who are conspiring to engage in morally despicable behavior.

By Neal Putnam / The Star News / Jan. 30, 2020

After 2 1/2 days of deliberations, a jury convicted a National City man Monday of first-degree murder of an Ocean Beach man whose body has never been found.

Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Dort said Brian Eleron Hancock, 49, will have to serve a minimum of 25 years in prison before he could become eligible for parole in the death of Peter Bentz, 68.

Dort said Hancock faces a sentence of 85 years to life in part because of his prior convictions for arson in 1999 and residential burglary in 2003.

“I’m totally satisfied,” said the victim’s brother, Kirk Bentz, after the verdict. “This is the correct and just verdict for Peter.”

Bentz was last seen leaving a gym on security cameras on Nov. 21, 2017.

By Richard J. Riehl / Riehlworld / Feb. 4, 2020

After a campus visit, a state-funded agency, the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistant Team (FCMAT) issued its November 8, 2019 report, describing Palomar College’s financial position and management practices. The news wasn’t good.

The report gave the school’s Fiscal Health Risk Analysis a 44.5% rating, indicating the school’s probability of insolvency in the near future. According to FCMAT, in two years the school will have drained all its reserves, forcing it to borrow $6.5 million from an external source to stay solvent.

Here’s but a sample of what FCMAT found: