Month: July 2024

After the Rag posted the amounts of trash collected this year the day after July 4th from OB beaches, a couple of readers questioned the amounts collected from Dog Beach. San Diego Surfrider sponsored this year’s “Morning After Mess” clean-up and provided the numbers of trash in pounds.

I did a quick review of some of the trash totals from the last few years and constructed the following chart:

2024

• 120 pounds from around the OB Pier,
• 1,575 pounds of trash at Dog Beach.

By Marjorie Cohn/ TruthOut / July 4, 2024

[On Thursday, July 4th], Americans celebrate[d] Independence Day, commemorating the Declaration of Independence when the colonists threw off the yoke of King George III. When they crafted it, the framers of the Constitution established three co-equal branches of government to check and balance each other.

But the Supreme Court’s shocking decision in Trump v. United States takes us back to the bad old days of the monarchy. The reactionary supermajority held that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for core official acts, and presumptive immunity for all other official acts.

Here are the results to the very recent election of the OB Community Foundation Board of Directors that ended July 3.

The winners —  in order of percentage of votes received — are:

• Nicole Murray (14 percent);
• Margaret Morghen (12);
• Dawnette Sheets, Karen Froehner and Angelo Devlin (all 11);
• Rouge Yusuf and Schuyler Winter Jr. (both 10); and
• John Carleton and Palmer Bajari (both 8).

Public Service Announcement

By Laurence H Tribe / The Guardian / July 8, 2024

Court’s troubling rulings on presidential immunity and regulatory power make it clear that change is an ethical essential

On 1 July 2024, the US supreme court, after an unconscionable half-year delay that it laughably described as “expedited” treatment, handed down Trump v United States, the immunity ruling placing American presidents above the law by deeming the president a “branch of government

Dog Beach in Ocean Beach won the “day after” award — it had the most trash from the celebrations from July 4th. Volunteers organized by Surfrider Foundation removed 1,575 pounds of trash at Dog Beach. And then including the 120 pounds from around the OB Pier, the Ocean Beach contribution to the landfill was finalized at nearly 1,700 pounds.

Every year, Surfrider organizes these “Morning After Mess” cleanups. According to the organization, 688 volunteers collected 3,906 pounds of trash at nine San Diego County beaches in three hours, with most of the refuse consisting primarily of plastics that otherwise could have washed out to sea, the nonprofit environmental organization said.

“On Saturday 6-29-24, for Black Music Month I attended this first ever event,” wrote a cultural reporter for the Rag, Byron Morton. “It was a celebration filled with music, creativity and heritage at the San Diego Black Arts and Culture District Music Festival.”

The San Diego Voice and Viewpoint reported:

From 11AM until 8PM on the last Saturday of this June, music lovers were able to listen to a melody of free music compliments of the San Diego Black Arts and Culture District and their variety of sponsors at MLK Park on Skyline Dr.

Two men were stabbed early Sunday morning, July 7, in an OB bar, and the attacker has been arrested by police.

All identities of victims and attacker have been withheld by police.

By John Yarkoni  / Exclusive to OB Rag

Some of you may have heard that name before, The Brown Berets. You might’ve heard about the 1970 Moratorium that happened up in LA, or the March Through Aztlán that happened the year after. Or maybe, you’ve heard stories of riots and cop killers.

If that’s your perspective, then you haven’t heard the whole story. The history of the Brown Berets, especially the often overlooked San Diego Berets, is less one of blood in the streets and more one of grassroots community organization.

Not everyone is happy with Point Loma Nazarene’s appointment of a new president.

Longtime provost and chief academic officer Kerry Fulcher was picked after a long and national search for a new leader for the conservative religious campus. Yet, the choice has sparked controversy due to Fulcher’s role in a controversial firing in 2023 of Mark Maddix, PLNU’s dean of theology, due to Maddix’s backing of a former teacher who supported LGBTQ+ people.

The Union-Tribune reported:

A coalition of LGBTQ+ alumni and donors condemned the selection, saying it would hinder the university’s already strained relations not just with some students and faculty but also with San Diego’s LGBTQ+ community …

The Callen Report

By Kate Callen

As part of its coverage of the presidential debate calamity, the New York Times ran a July 3 opinion piece with a headline that caught me up short: “The ‘Philly Girl’ Shielding Biden from the Bad News.”

The op-ed by columnist Michelle Cottle recalled how Jill Biden physically blocked a heckler from approaching her husband at a 2020 campaign event. She told reporters afterward, “I’m a good Philly girl.” “Philly tough,” Cottle wrote. “

On July 3, members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) voted to ratify a new three-year contract with Food 4 Less/Foods Co. The contract was reached after months of negotiations and active participation from thousands of Southern California grocery workers. The members are from Locals 8GS, 135, 324, 770, 1167, 1428 and 1442.

This contract will go into effect immediately for over 6,000 essential grocery workers in Food 4 Less/Foods Co. locations across Southern California.

On July 4th, 1776, we kicked the king out, and on July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court brought the king back. It took 248 years.

Because of the calamitous direction our country is headed, today, July 4th could be the last time we celebrate the nation’s founding. Seriously. This is not hyperbole.

Trump and the Supreme Court are burning the flag.