Month: June 2020

Just when many people thought it was safe to go back out … San Diego County reached the so-called “trigger” – or at least one of them – that could require public health officials to retract decisions that allowed a variety of businesses, parks and activities to reopen or restart.

County officials on Thursday reported that there are now eight community outbreaks that had occurred in the seven-day period from Thursday, June 11, through Wednesday, June 17. Sufficient to trip the trigger.

This was going on just as California Governor Newsom announced a statewide order requiring everyone to wear a mask in most indoor settings and outside when maintaining a physical distance from others is not feasible.

Today June 19 is Juneteenth – so happy Juneteenth – it is an American holiday – or should be.

Also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day – Juneteenth is a holiday celebrating the liberation of African Americans who had been held as slaves in the United States.

Originating in Texas, it is now celebrated annually on the 19th of June in every state, except three (Hawaii, North Dakota and South Dakota) with varying degrees, however, of recognition. Only Texas, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania are states that recognize it as an official paid holiday for state employees.

Juneteenth (a combo of the words June and nineteenth) commemorates Union army general Gordon Granger announcing federal orders in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, proclaiming that all people held as slaves in Texas were free. President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation which had officially outlawed slavery in the south nearly two and a half years earlier, but for whatever reason, slaveowners in Texas had trouble notifying their former slaves they were now free. So, it wasn’t until the Union army arrived did the enactment become known.

There’s been some push-back against San Diego County Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten’s assertion about why Latinos have a higher rate of infection from the COVID-19 virus.

The head of the Chicano Federation of San Diego County, Nancy Maldonado, takes Wooten to task for her “simplistic explanation” of the impact of the virus on the Latino community.

On Wednesday at a press briefing, Wooten discussed the issues that could trigger county officials to reconsider the loosening up of the restrictions that have been in place due to the pandemic.

Wooten also reported that the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths have been disproportionately high in the Latino community. Wooten was not quoted directly but the SD Union-Tribune reporters put it this way:

Public Health Officer Wilma Wooten said there are multiple reasons why the virus is having a more severe impact on the Latino community, including the presence of more underlying medical conditions and a tendency to show more physical affection. (OBRag emphasis.)

San Diego County’s Public Health Officer Wilma Wooten at a Wednesday press briefing reported that three new community outbreaks now bring the total to six within one week. That is just one away from the number that could trigger the county to modify its loosening of restrictions that have occurred recently away from closures due to the pandemic.

If the trigger is reached, county health officials could reverse or halt the reopening of local businesses, parks, etc.

Of the six outbreaks, Wooten said, only two are in restaurants; one is a private residence and the others are in businesses of various types. So what is a “community outbreak”? It is defined as three or more confirmed cases from different households contracted in the same location. Outbreaks in nursing homes and other congregate living facilities are not applied to the trigger total.

By Emily Pontecorvo / Grist and RSN

Want to know how much plastic is entering the ocean every year? I regret to inform you that nobody knows.

A commonly cited figure — 8 million metric tons — comes from a decade-old estimate based on population and waste data, and scientists now believe the number could be significantly higher. But there’s an even more puzzling question for researchers who study plastic in the ocean: Where has it all gone?

Field studies of marine plastic have accounted for only a small fraction of the material that scientists believe has been dumped into the seas, leading researchers to wonder where the rest of it is. A peer-reviewed study published in PLOS ONE this month backs up one theory for what could be happening to at least some of the missing plastic: Tiny particles are getting spat back out of the ocean and up into the atmosphere.

By Colleen O’Connor / Times of San Diego / June 16, 2020

The warnings are dire. The options limited. The fears real. But keeping schools closed the remainder of the year may be a mistake.

Why open up in August? The reasons are obvious and many.

First, San Diego education leaders warn of financial calamity. If even a small number of parents choose not to send their children back to traditional schools, it could trigger a funding crisis and threaten the link between neighborhoods and schools.”

Public schools, as libraries, are often the cornerstones of safety in many neighborhoods.

Yet, some parents will seek out alternative education sites: private schools, charter schools, academies, tutors and home-schooling options — further eroding the tax base allotments for the public ones—as those funds are calculated on a daily head count in every district. No one can blame parents for wanting to keep their children safe.

18th Annual Creek to Bay Cleanup

Goes Virtual with Facebook Live Kick-off!

Celebrate the first day of summer with San Diego County’s first major cleanup run by you, in your neighborhood along with thousands of other small cleanup efforts across the region – all hosted on social media! Many small efforts make a lasting environmental impact!

Saturday, June 20 2020 Starting at 9 AM

Join an army of socially-distanced Volunteer Environmental Champions by cleaning up litter and pollution in your neighborhood. Thousands of small efforts across the county will help prevent TONS of litter from entering our creeks, bays and the ocean!

How to Participate- COME INSIDE

Environmental groups again defeat the county’s approach to climate change in a nearly decade-long legal battle.

By Joshua Emerson Smith / San Diego Union-Tribune / June 17, 2020

A state court has struck down a San Diego County plan to allow housing developers to buy their way around restrictions on greenhouse-gas emissions from new vehicle traffic using so-called carbon offsets.

The 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego issued its ruling on Friday in response to a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Climate Action Campaign and other environmental groups. Specifically, the three-judge panel’s decision tossed out the county’s latest adopted Climate Action Plan — the sixth such ruling in nearly a decade.

by Brad Racino / inewsource / June 17, 2020

Following an inewsource report that the VA San Diego Healthcare System has stopped paying for a drug treatment that helps suicidal veterans, a panel of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs has begun investigating the decision.

El Cajon veteran AJ Williams, featured this month in the inewsource investigation, was interviewed Monday by a staff member from the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. A representative from San Diego Congressman Scott Peters’ office also participated.

Williams is one of several veterans pulled from ketamine treatments at a private clinic and ordered back to the VA to be treated with a controversial nasal spray President Donald Trump has touted as “incredible.”

The only bookstore in Ocean Beach, Run for Cover on Voltaire near Cable, is closing its doors on July 1. There will be major sidewalk sales coming up – so stay alert for them, as Marianne Reiner, the owner, has to sell as much of her inventory as possible. (Check RfC website for dates, etc.)

Here is the statement to her Book Lovers that Marianne wrote on her website:

Dear Book Lovers,

This is the letter I was hoping to never have to write.

Run for Cover Bookstore in its current form will be closing as of July 1, 2020.

The greatest gift Run for Cover Bookstore has brought me has been to get to know so many of you. Our conversations, our exchanges about books, society and life in general have enriched me in ways I can’t even begin to describe.

Organized to Disrupt

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican / June 10, 2020

The New Schools Venture Fund (NSVF) is the Swiss army knife of public school privatization. It promotes education technology development, bankrolls charter school creation, develops charter management organizations and sponsors school leadership training groups.

Since its founding in 1998, a small group of people with extraordinary wealth have been munificent in their support. NSVF is a significant asset in the billionaire funded drive to end democratically run public schools and replace them with privatized corporate structures.

1990’s Silicon Valley was a Happening Place

Like elsewhere in America, every little strip mall in San Jose, California had a Blockbuster video rental store. In 1997, Reed Hastings and Netflix co-founder Mark Reynolds came up with a disruptive idea that put Blockbuster out of business. For a monthly fee, they offered DVD’s by mail with no late charges. Blockbuster did not adapt fast enough and went bankrupt.

By Sheila Pell / San Diego Reader / June 16, 2020

A new ordinance regulating the use of drones in Del Mar will take effect on June 17. The rules will “add to guidelines set by the FAA,” a city report says. While the Federal Aviation Authority regulates and sets guidelines for drones, local governments can control some aspects.

However, the areas available for local regulation are limited.