Author: Source

Hailed by legendary film critic Roger Ebert as best film of the year and the ninth-best overall film of the 2000s.

By Kendra Syrdal / Parade / July 6, 2026

Based on writer and director Cameron Crowe’s real-life experiences as a teenage writer for Rolling Stone, the movie Almost Famous has become a cult classic sensation since its release in 2000.

When Crowe was just 16 years old, he spent three weeks touring with The Allman Brothers Band and interviewing its members as well as the road crew. Because Crowe was younger than many of the journalists, he was more inclined to interview the hard rock bands that his older colleagues didn’t yet understand. Because of this, he landed interviews with the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, and Eric Clapton.

This is what would serve as the inspiration and backbone for Almost Famous.

Crowe used many different points of reference when he created Stillwater, the fictional band, for the movie. According to Greg Allman’s 2012 memoir, My Cross to Bear, many of the moments and aspects of the film are taken from Crowe’s time spent with the band for the 1973 Rolling Stone cover feature. The movie was shot over the course of just 92 days, around San Diego, Ca. on Ocean Beach and Sunset Cliffs.

The soundtrack for Almost Famous has been lauded as one of the best compilations of music made for a movie, with some even considering it the best of all time. In 2001, it took home the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

By Shannon Handy / CBS8/ July 6, 2026

(slighted edited for clarification)

Visitors to Mission Bay now have to walk further to find a public restroom, as the city began closing nearly half of the facilities around the bay starting Monday, July 6.

A total of 13 out of 28 public restrooms will be shut down by the end of this week due to budget restrictions, a move that many local visitors and business owners are criticizing. [and just plain locals.]

The closures, which come after the 4th of July holiday, aim to save the city approximately $546,000, primarily from cleaning and maintenance costs.

Affected restrooms include:

Movement Against ‘Golden Pacific Powerlink’ 

PRESERVATION ACTION ALERT
Help Protect Backcountry Historic Resources and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

by Cody Dulaney / inewsource / July 6, 2026

Earlier this year, inewsource revealed a glaring loophole in a San Diego law that allows property owners to obtain a short-term rental license even after carrying out an illegal eviction.

More than four months have passed and that loophole still exists, and city officials haven’t said how they plan to fix it.

Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, who represents Ocean Beach, Point Loma and Mission Beach, continues to tout the regulation of short-term vacation rentals as a signature achievement, leading the charge to pass the ordinance that took effect in 2023. The ordinance has been hailed as one of the best examples of vacation rental regulations in the country.

Campbell plans to bring amendments forward to a committee meeting next month for consideration, said Venus Molina, the councilmember’s chief of staff. But Campbell nor her staff have answered questions about the loophole or how they plan to fix it.

Since inewsource revealed the gap in city law, hundreds of San Diegans have been evicted from their homes and the city has no way of knowing whether any of those evictions led to short-term rental licenses.

The loophole deals with a specific type of action called a no-fault eviction — it happens when a property owner wants to end a lease for reasons unrelated to a tenant’s behavior. State law allows property owners to exit the rental housing business for a number of specific reasons, including a substantial remodel or to allow for the owner or their family to move in.

After 60 years on Rosecrans Boulevard, Denny’s in Point Loma has closed. The old-school, 24-hour diner permanently shut its doors in late June. According to KFMB-TV, customers arriving at the restaurant found professionally printed signs directing them to another Denny’s nearby on West Point Loma Boulevard.

Because of its late-night fare, Denny’s was a favorite for generations of Point Lomans.

Yet, according to Econostrum the major breakfast chain has shut down 150 locations across the U.S. and it appears that the Point Loma site wasn’t up to snuff.

The iconic breakfast chain has continued to close underperforming restaurants following its acquisition by a private investment group earlier this year. The latest shutdown in San Diego comes after the company closed 150 locations during 2025, while several franchise operators have also faced financial difficulties. …

By Debbie L. Sklar / Special to the OB Rag

Shelter Island looks like a quiet stretch of marinas, sailboats, and waterfront hotels today, but its history is anything but ordinary. What appeared to be a natural peninsula was actually a shifting sandbar in San Diego Bay, gradually transformed over decades of harbor dredging, engineering projects,s and the city’s expanding maritime economy.

Even its name tells only part of the story.

1. It Isn’t Really an Island

Despite the name, Shelter Island has never been a true island. It began as a low sandbar near Point Loma that was visible mainly at low tide.

Beginning in the 1930s, harbor improvement projects deposited dredged material onto the shoal, gradually creating the landform visitors see today. Over time, what had once been open water became one of San Diego’s most recognizable waterfront destinations.

By Anonymous #7

Today marks the 250th anniversary of American Independence Day. It feels very different from the celebrations I remember growing up.

When I was a child, July 4th was a spectacle. My family gathered every year. My grandfather fired up the grill while my grandmother made potato salad and all the fixings. After lunch there was homemade ice cream or fresh peach cobbler. But the real excitement came after dark. Growing up in Texas, fireworks were everywhere, and lighting them was what I lived for each summer.

As we grow older, however, our understanding of history changes. I learned that the celebration of American independence has never meant the same thing to everyone. For many Native Americans, it marked the beginning of the destruction of their way of life. For African Americans, freedom would not come for another 89 years, followed by generations of unequal treatment. Women would wait nearly a century and a half before gaining the right to vote.

America, in its infancy, was not as great as history often portrays it. It was a extraordinary idea, one that produced many achievements, but had a long journey ahead before it could truly live up to its founding ideals.

That journey included a Civil War, two world wars, and countless struggles for civil rights and equality. America became a nation admired around the world, because it had shown an ability to grow, correct itself, and strive toward something better.

America has always had skeletons in its closet, so perhaps it should not surprise us that, on the nation’s 250th anniversary, we find ourselves moving backward in some ways. We elected a convicted felon as president. That fact alone says less about one man than it does about us.

Dear Friends:

We hope your summer is off to a good start. Here is a news round-up about the Coalition’s recent activities and future priorities:

This Week at City Hall: We appreciate the feedback on our weekly bulletin that highlights significant Council agenda items. Thanks to your involvement, City officials are feeling pressure to serve constituents and not just special interests. Let’s keep that up by speaking out at Council meetings – in-person, virtually, and in writing – to remind them that they work for us.

Jack McGrory Coalition Forum: If you missed it, check out Jack McGrory’s no-holds-barred analysis of City Hall in the OB Rag (Part I and Part II). The willingness of some civic leaders to deliver straight talk at our town hall events is encouraging. Our speakers’ series resumes in the fall.

strong>By Anonymous #6

Words cannot cover what it’s  been like since Donald Trump got elected President again.Worry, anxiety, doubt, despair and bad dreams are  my companions these days. I have been flying a small flag upside-down at my front door until Trump’s war on Iran ends.

There is always the mitigating gob-smacking Crime du Jour: President Trump’s unprecedented annual earnings report of $2.2 billion for his family and their private businesses — like crypto (which is “regulated by the government” Trump heads, Trump Bibles, Trump shirts-and-shoes merch — all while he holds public office. Critics are calling this a potential conflict of interest.

But what preoccupies  me is Trump’s arrogant ignorant  misalliance with Israel’s criminal prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is jonesing to destroy Iran.  Trump has joined Bibi’s war with no notice, no consultation, no consent sought from the U.S.Congress. Trump tore up Obama’s 10-year nuclear weapons production detente with Iran and instead, Trump/Hegseth/Rubio/Vance/Lutnick/Kushner have twice interrupted diplomatic negoatiations with Iran, first to “obliterate” (kill off) Iran’s leadership hierarchy and then to bomb Iran’s infrastructure and tighten economic sanctions against its people.

By Anonymous #5

The arrival of the United States’ 250th anniversary in 2026 brings an unexpected juxtaposition: a milestone meant to celebrate two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy is instead marked by the reality of Donald Trump’s continued dominance over the American political landscape.

For many, this semiquincentennial was envisioned as a moment of triumph for modern pluralism. Instead, it serves as a stark reflection on how the political map was redrawn. While Trump’s rise is often analyzed through the lens of conservative populism, an honest accounting of how the country arrived at this point requires looking at the other side of the aisle. The political reality of 2026 is, in large part, a direct consequence of progressive politics in 2016 and 2024, which repeatedly alienated moderate voters, fractured the anti-Trump coalition, and inadvertently drove a significant portion of the electorate straight into Trump’s arms.

The blueprint for this self-sabotage was drawn in 2016. In an election decided by razor-thin margins in the Rust Belt, the progressive left’s refusal to compromise proved fatal. Driven by an all-or-nothing ideological purity, a critical mass of progressive voters chose to defect from the Democratic ticket. In states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, the votes cast for Green Party candidate Jill Stein exceeded Trump’s margin of victory over Hillary Clinton. By treating the mainstream center-left as an enemy equal to the populist right, progressives fractured the coalition needed to stop Trump. They treated the 2016 election as a risk-free opportunity to send a message, operating under the assumption that American democratic institutions were durable enough to withstand a temporary protest vote. That miscalculation laid the groundwork for the transformation of the federal judiciary and the reshaping of American governance.

By Anonymous #4

Trump wants to use the 250th anniversary to validate his presidency and portray this era as a “golden age” he restored. His opponents focus on Trump’s many crimes and on his vile coarseness. Administration messaging through Freedom 250 stresses a heroic, mythic narrative of the Founding Fathers and America’s destiny. It encourages citizens to embrace patriotism and national pride. It’s impossible to take in this drivel and not list some aspects of our history that are nothing to be proud of:

• Native American Genocide
• Slavery
• Jackson: The Indian Removal Act
• McKinley: Imperialism
• Women can’t vote until 1920
• The National Security Act of 1947
• McCarthyism
• Vietnam and COINTELPRO
• Political Assassinations
• The Global War on Terror, including Palestine and Iran

Most of us are more comfortable with a traditional approach to July 4, which considers both American achievements and failures, and invites at least the pretense of national self-examination.

The key fact is that the American Revolution is a priceless example of radical political change for the better. The founders overthrew royal tyranny by force. There is a reason virtually every revolution since ours has quoted from the Declaration of Independence. We still love the ideal of liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the constitution. These principles are as seductive – and as subversive – as they were 250 years ago. We see them as fundamental to the American character.

This is the latest entry to the Rag writing contest.

By Anonymous #3

As our country prepares to celebrate 250 years of independence, I have been thinking about what America means to me. Our country isn’t perfect, but I still believe it is the greatest nation in the world because we have freedom and the opportunity to make our lives better.

I moved to Ocean Beach, California, in 1996, and I fell in love with it. There is something special about living in a community where people know each other, help one another, and appreciate the simple things in life. Living there has reminded me that America is not just a place on a map. It is made up of neighborhoods, families, and everyday people who care about their communities.

I am a caregiver for a veteran, and that has taught me a lot about sacrifice, service, and appreciating our freedoms. I have had the privilege of hearing stories from someone who served this country and seeing firsthand the pride and love that many veterans have for America. It has given me an even greater respect for the men and women who have defended our nation.