Source

Articles by Source

Source has written 3576 articles for the OB Rag!

A Layperson’s Guide to the ‘Destroy Public Education’ Movement

September 21, 2018 by Source

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican

The destroy public education (DPE) movement is the fruit of a relatively small group of billionaires. The movement is financed by several large non-profit organizations. Nearly all of the money spent is free of taxation. Without this spending, there would be no wide-spread public school privatization.

It is generally recognized that the big three foundations driving DPE activities are The Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation (Assets in 2016 = $41 billion), The Walton Family Foundation (Assets in 2016 = $3.8 billion), and The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation(Assets in 2016 = $1.8 billion).

Last week, the Network for Public Education published “Hijacked by Billionaires: How the Super-Rich Buy Elections to Undermine Public Schools.” This interactive report lists the top ten billionaires spending to drive their DPE agenda with links to case studies for their spending.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Surfrider to Hold 27th Annual Paddle for Clean Water at Ocean Beach Pier – Sunday, Sept. 23

September 20, 2018 by Source

With concerns over water quality and warming ocean water increasing, Surfrider Foundation San Diego is working to raise awareness on the challenges we’re facing together. So, this Sunday, Sept. 23, the chapter will host its 27th Annual Paddle for Clean Water in which hundreds of San Diegans will paddle out to the water in Ocean Beach.

This is one of the organization’s largest fundraisers, it is free for all, and seeks to raise awareness on the importance of water quality.

Come inside for detailed agenda of event

Read the full article → 0 comments

The San Francisco Climate Action Summit: Is It ‘Better Late than Never’?

September 19, 2018 by Source

After the Climate Action Summit, Commitments Emerge Amidst Growing Disaster

Corporate execs, career politicians, and environmental activists converged on San Francisco for the Climate Action Summit.

by David Helvarg / The Progressive / September 17, 2018

The Global Climate Action Summit held in San Francisco September 12 through 14 felt both urgent (as Hurricane Florence began to soak the Carolinas and Typhoon Mangkhut battered the Philippines), and hopeful. More than 500 commitments were made to speed up the transition to carbon neutrality and to remediate the growing impacts of climate change.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Transcript of Letter Prof. Christine Blasey Ford Sent to Senator Feinstein Accusing Judge Kavanaugh of Attempted Rape

September 18, 2018 by Source

We now know something about Christine Blasey Ford, the Palo Alto University professor, who has accused Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of attempted rape. Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegations, and has even denied being at the party – despite Ford not being specific about the party itself.

Republicans say both Ford and Kavanaugh will testify in a re-opening of the Judiciary Committee’s hearing on next Monday, Sept. 23, although Prof. Ford has not confirmed this. Democratic leaders are demanding the FBI investigate the allegations prior to any hearing.

Meanwhile, here is the transcript of the letter Prof. Ford sent to Senator Dianne Feinstein

Read the full article → 6 comments

Climate Change and Lorie Zapf

September 17, 2018 by Source

By Jordan Beane

On September 13th, the Union-Tribune released their interviews with our District 2 candidates, Dr. Jennifer Campbell and current District 2 City Councilmember Lorie Zapf. In Zapf’s interview, there were a lot of specific questions about the Climate Action Plan, it’s goals and more.

However, I believe the UT should have asked her a simpler question: Do you, Councilmember Zapf, believe in climate change?

Our Republican representative wants you to believe she cares about this existential threat and its impact on San Diego. She, along with the rest of the city council, voted to approve San Diego’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) in 2015.

Read the full article → 0 comments

The Sport of River Surfing by a Former OBcean

September 14, 2018 by Source

A Surfer Anniversary OB Probably Missed

by Seal Morgan

Did you know that July of this year was the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the sport of US riversurfing?

And, strangely enough, it was a San Diego kayaker/surfer working as a Jackson Hole whitewater raft guide back in 1978 who saw the potential and managed to stand up that summer on the Snake River’s Lunch Counter Class 3 Rapids standing wave. Mike Fitzpatrick and two friends admit they didn’t surf it well being as they were far more into kayaking, and they didn’t keep surfing that spot in the years afterward until recently, but Fitz and his friends are no doubt the Founders of US riversurfing.

Ten years after that watershed moment, in early Spring of 1988, this OB-born/Mission Beach-raised surf kid

Read the full article → 5 comments

Medicare for All and the Myth of the 40% Physician Pay Cut

September 14, 2018 by Source

By Dr. Carol Paris / Common Dreams

The surge in support for improved Medicare for All—now up to 70% in recent polling—has single-payer opponents ramping up their scare tactics. The Koch-funded Mercatus Center recently claimed that Medicare for all could only work with painful sacrifices from doctors, specifically by paying us Medicare’s current reimbursement rates, which are about 40% lower than private insurance.

If single payer would cost doctors so much, why do a majority of us

Read the full article → 1 comment

Be a Sponsor of the 20th Annual OB Pier Pancake Breakfast and Support the OB Food and Toy Drive

September 13, 2018 by Source

Read the full article → 0 comments

The Chuck E Cheese’s President

September 13, 2018 by Source

Read the full article → 3 comments

Midway Planners Forced to Hold Special Meeting to Approve City’s Last-Minute Changes

September 12, 2018 by Source

By Geoff Page

To borrow one of Yogi Berra’s timeless comments, it must have felt like “déjà vu all over again” for the Midway Community Planning Board on Monday, September 10, when they found themselves voting to approve a final draft of their community plan – one that they voted to approve on the 21st of last March.

The OB Rag’s story dated March 27 described the final vote and the schedule that was supposed to follow:

Read the full article → 4 comments

President Trump Admin Took Millions From FEMA For ICE Detentions – Video from Rachel Maddow

September 12, 2018 by Source

From the MSNBC YouTube website:

Senator Jeff Merkley talks with Rachel Maddow about a document showing that the Trump administration took ten million dollars from FEMA’s budget ahead of the 2018 hurricane season and gave it to ICE to pay for detentions.
Come inside for the video

Read the full article → 0 comments

OB Resister Sisters Say: ‘All in All You’re Just Another …’

September 11, 2018 by Source

Resister Sisters of Ocean Beach struck again. And thank you, Pink Floyd!

Read the full article → 0 comments

Will the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Meet Its Match? Floating Trash Collector Just Left San Francisco on a Mission

September 11, 2018 by Source

Will the Great Pacific Garbage Patch soon meet its match? We may soon know as a giant, floating trash-collector steamed out of San Francisco on a mission Saturday, September 8, to clean it up.

And some see the effort as a turning point in the campaign to rid the world’s oceans of plastic trash. Amid the accolades for the project – the creation of Boyan Slat, a 24-year-old Dutch college dropout who raised more than $30 million on a five-year quest to build an ocean-cleaning machine – are also some harsh criticisms. In the meantime the floating garbage collector with a nearly a 2,000-foot boom

Read the full article → 1 comment

The Deafening Drumbeat of the Unfree

September 7, 2018 by Source

By Stephen Cooper

Above the din of disturbing news – that discordant banging you’re hearing, steadily getting louder and louder, that you can no longer ignore – that’s the drumbeat of the unfree.

Dehumanized by the labels “prisoner,” “inmate,” and “convict,” even reduced to serial numbers like Victor Hugo’s Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables,” these men and women are, just like you and me, or any mortal – irrespective of flaws, frailties, even felonious acts and misdemeanors – endowed with the right to be treated with dignity, decency, and respect

Read the full article → 0 comments

‘I Have a Dream’ at the San Diego-Mexico Border and Reflections on 1968

September 7, 2018 by Source

By Rev. Richard Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

1968 came back to me when I stood with Martin Luther King, III, at the Border on August 28 and listened to folks on the other side of the Border holler in pure delight that the day had finally come when a black leader stood tall in the fight for a just immigration policy.

King, III, took us back to his father’s “I Have a Dream Speech” fifty-five years ago and reminded us that there’s no room for leaders who separate children from their parents in the world his father envisioned. No. Dr. King wanted to build bridges, not barriers, to freedom.

Read the full article → 0 comments

The Ocean Beach Green Center’s Calendar for September 2018

September 7, 2018 by Source

September Events from the Ocean Beach Green Center

The following event is at the Ocean Beach Green Center,
4843 B Voltaire Street, Ocean Beach 92107 oceanbeachgreencenter.org 619.225.1083

September 21st Friday 7:00 p.m. In honor of International Peace Day the Peace Resource Center and Ocean Beach Green Center are proud to present an introduction to the film series of “Women, War & Peace”. This 2011 KPBS series challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace is men’s domain. With depth and complexity, the series spotlights the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan and Colombia to Liberia, placing women at the center of an urgent dialog about conflict and security, and re-framing our understanding of modern warfare. We will be showing “PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL” which tells the powerful and uplifting story of

Read the full article → 1 comment

Rise for Climate March – San Diego: Sat. Sept. 8

September 6, 2018 by Source

By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams

Change only happens when people rise up to demand it. That is one of the principal

Read the full article → 0 comments

Victory! California Passes Net Neutrality Bill

September 5, 2018 by Source

By Katharine Trendacosta / Electronic Frontier Foundation

California’s net neutrality bill, S.B. 822 has received a majority of votes in the Senate and is heading to the governor’s desk. In this fight, ISPs with millions of dollars to spend lost to the voice of the majority of Americans who support net neutrality. This is a victory that can be replicated.

ISPs like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast hated this bill. S.B. 822 bans blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization, classic ways that companies have violated net neutrality principles. It also incorporates much of what the FCC learned and incorporated into the 2015 Open Internet Order, preventing new assaults on the free and open Internet.

Read the full article → 0 comments

The Magic ‘CannaBus’ Changes Its Weekend Schedule

August 31, 2018 by Source

by Joaquin Antique

It’s been six months since the OB Rag first published an article about the CannaBus shuttle service to urbn leaf dispensary in Bay Park.

Monday through Friday the bus still departs from the foot of Newport near the pier parking lot but weekend service to and from Ocean Beach has been cancelled.

On Saturdays and Sundays, the shuttle now services Pacific Beach,

Read the full article → 2 comments

Memories of a Doctor on the ‘Front Lines’ During Chicago 1968

August 29, 2018 by Source

By Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD

Fifty years ago this week, I was in Chitown.

Having just finished my medical internship and working several years with the famous pediatrician Dr. Ben Spock on anti-war issues, I was in a white coat among the checkered blue caped and the robin’s-egg blue helmeted police and real people.

I will never forget walking along the lines of scared, sweating teenage national guardsmen with fixed bayonets,

Read the full article → 1 comment

Matt Brower for Judge – Candidate Profiles for the November 2018 Ballot

August 29, 2018 by Source

By Matt Brower

I am challenging Gary Kreep in the upcoming November election for Seat 37 – California Superior Court Judge. This race stands out as the only one of six county-wide races from the June primary to advance to the general election in November. No matter where you live in San Diego County this race will appear on your ballot.

I began running for this seat when I saw the Commission on Judicial Performance had censured Judge Kreep in August of 2017 for committing over two dozen violations of the Cannons on Judicial Ethics that govern the behavior of judges in our local courts. Though these ethical violations were varied the ones that caught my attention were those involving unprofessional and disrespectful treatment toward women and minorities in court by Judge Kreep.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Sunset Cliffs Merchants’ Street Fair Scaled Down – But It’s Still on for Sept. 1

August 29, 2018 by Source

Apparently, after all the dust-up, the Sunset Cliffs Street Fair is still on for Saturday, September 1. Although, it will scaled back, according to local writer, Judi Curry.

Judi sent us the following:

There have been many rumors about this event. I have talked to the City Planners, Officer Lavelle, Richard Aguirre, and others and here is what I found:

Since this is a “first time event” it has been scaled down from the original plan. Sunset Cliffs Blvd. will not be closed off; only the 4700 block of Pt. Loma Avenue will be closed from Ebers to the east side of Sunset Cliffs.

Read the full article → 1 comment

Prisoners Risk Their Lives Fighting California Wildfires for $2 a Day

August 28, 2018 by Source

By Huiying B Chan / Daily Kos

Wildfires continue to ravage California. Instead of hiring firefighters to put out the fires, the government is turning to incarcerated people for labor. More than 3,400 prisoners risk their lives every day to tackle the wildfires. While the average California firefighter earns $74,000 plus benefits annually, imprisoned people are paid as little as $2 a day. By relying on prison labor, California avoids spending $80 to $100 million a year.

Read the full article → 4 comments

Dr. Jen Campbell’s Candidacy in District 2: Is She the Cure?

August 27, 2018 by Source

By Brett Warnke

Dr. Jen Campbell is not tall, loud, or filled with that busy anxiety of most politicians. But Campbell has a thoughtful quality. And a talk with her about the city’s problems is much like discussing the ailments of a weary organ. What seems to rile her most, like any good physician, is the untreated and blase patient. In this case, the city’s leadership, perpetually reacting to San Diego’s crises rather than responding actively to new realities and opportunities.

Dr. Campbell believes her opponent, current Republican District 2 Councilmember Lorie Zapf, serving on the council since 2010 and hoping for a third-term, is part of San Diego’s historical problem of initiative.

“It’s an old story of San Diego,” Campbell said. “It’s a city that just doesn’t plan ahead. Especially on infrastructure. We’re a city that has constantly gone from crisis to crisis. Zapf is part of this problem.”

Read the full article → 3 comments

Verizon Throttling During Wildfire ‘Has Everything to Do With Net Neutrality’- California Firefighters

August 25, 2018 by Source

By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams

As California lawmakers prepared on Wednesday for a key committee vote (it passed) on their state’s net neutrality bill — which, in its current form, would restore the protections repealed by the FCC in December — the Santa Clara County Fire Department accused the telecom giant Verizon of dramatically cutting its data speed as [the department] recently fought the largest recorded wildfire in California’s history.

After Verizon admitted that it slowed the fire department’s data — a despised practice known as throttling —

Read the full article → 1 comment

Marijuana, Opioids, and Alcohol: It Is Time to Change the Paradigm

August 24, 2018 by Source

By Egberto Willies / Daily Kos

America needs a paradigm shift when it comes to how it deals with products that affect our moods, psyche, and our overall well-being. We must do so based on data instead of ideology, and deprogramming many will be difficult. But marijuana must be completely decriminalized.

Houston cannabis activist Ashley Miller appeared on Politics Done Right to bring awareness to many issues about marijuana, aka weed, aka cannabis. Her first goal was to dispel the notion that there are any valid reasons why marijuana is illegal. Second, she hoped to activate Americans both locally and throughout the country. As one listens to all the arguments and discourse about marijuana, there can only be one conclusion: the product should not be illegal.

Read the full article → 0 comments

‘Brown’s Last Chance’ Could Be Our Last Chance To Avert Climate Change Apocalypse

August 24, 2018 by Source

By Stephanie Corkran / SanDiego350

Brown’s Last Chance is a campaign demanding Governor Jerry Brown halt the development of unsustainable, polluting, fossil fuel infrastructure and begin an immediate phase-out of fossil fuels in California.

If he’s unwilling to do so, a multitude of organizations (environmental, health, justice, community, consumer) are prepared to protest the upcoming Global Climate Action Summit.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Don’t Get Distracted: 565 Immigrant Children Are Still Held by U.S. Authorities

August 23, 2018 by Source

By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams

Amid a news cycle dominated by the day-to-day chaos, antics, and scandals of the Trump presidency, new government numbers released on Thursday offered a grim reminder that the humanitarian travesty sparked by President Donald Trump’s inhumane family separation policy is still ongoing, despite the fact that it has faded into the background of corporate news coverage.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Local Vets Encourage San Diegans Not to Attend Annual Miramar Air Show Sept. 29-39

August 23, 2018 by Source

By Gilbert Field / Veterans for Peace

Local veterans, friends and supporters from the San Diego Veterans For Peace are in their third year of a five year educational outreach encouraging the public to stay home and not attend the annual Miramar Air Show.

Veterans believe that the Miramar Air Show glorifies war with an exciting show of speed, power and noise. It celebrates the skills and machinery that exist to kill, maim and destroy. The show is very dangerous …. 10% of all Blue Angel pilots have been killed in shows or accidents.

Read the full article → 8 comments