Author: Source

From First Amendment Coalition

We’re writing to sound alarms about California Assembly Bill 1821, which would have disastrous effects on transparency, accountability, and our democracy. Well, it’s crunchtime.

The bill, which was amended at the proverbial 11th hour in a transformation that a local watchdog group called “a virtual horror show of governmental non-transparency,” is set for a crucial committee hearing June 30. We need your help to stop it.

If passed, the bill would fundamentally alter the California Public Records Act, a vital sunshine law that ensures the people’s business be done in public view, making state and local governments less transparent and less responsive to the people they serve. Specifically, it would:

• Allow government agencies to charge hefty fees for public records
• Give local governments the authority to deem requests “not properly requested” and therefore invalid
• Allow local governments even more time to delay their responses
• Empower government agencies to sue members of the public if they feel a request was made with “malicious intent,” which seems left to the interpretation of whoever is holding the public records someone is asking to see

Editordude: The following is an unsolicited manuscript involving a personalized account of locals and our history, and especially that of the famous “Osprey Mansion.”

By Steven Franklin

Margaret McIntosh, the flamboyant, beautiful and emotionally demonstrative mother of a close friend and a woman who was very kind to me when I was a child while living in difficult circumstance, died last week at 85.

Margaret´s death sent me searching nostalgically into our common past, where I found this photo of the historical Osprey Mansion taken from where Sunset Cliffs meets the Pacific in Point Loma, California, a place where Margaret´s family once lived.

Despite the great distance between us, I was able to remain close with Margaret on-line these last few years, and we communicated often. Just before she passed away Margaret shared a post about her favorite musician. I commented, recounting the day her fourteen year-old son saved that musician´s life after he had suffered a long fall from Sunset Cliffs onto the rocks and into the tidal pools below and was seriously hurt and drowning during a daring rescue in front of the old mansion, and how that musician recovered from the fall and went on to become a member of one the greatest rock and roll bands in history.

My recalling to Margaret what I had largely witnessed pleased her immensely, and she responded to me how proud it would make her if I wrote down what happened that day and shared it with our many mutual friends, which I promised Margaret I would do. Margaret died, however, just a few days later. I am fulfilling the promise that I made to her here.

The year was 1973. The unexpected hero´s name is David, but I understand that these days he goes by his middle name “Granger.” I´ve called him plenty of other names also, over the years, as young boys and men are often fond of doing. But back then we knew him mostly as David…David Granger Faulk.

I spent thousands of hours of my youth at David´s house, as his mother Margaret had generously given me a safe harbor in her home while escaping my own alcoholic and broken family circumstance.

By Debbie L. Sklar

Rose Creek is one of San Diego’s quieter but most ecologically important urban waterways, flowing from inland canyons through residential neighborhoods before emptying into Mission Bay. Often overlooked by commuters on nearby freeways, it remains a rare continuous green corridor in a heavily developed coastal city.

The creek begins far inland on MCAS Miramar east of I-15, a detail that still surprises many who know only its lower stretches. From there, it flows west through Rose Canyon to I-5, then turns south toward Mission Bay, forming the main freshwater tributary feeding the bay’s ecosystem. Along the way, it passes through a patchwork of neighborhoods, including University City, Clairemont, and Pacific Beach, linking upland canyon habitat to coastal wetlands.

Long before Mission Beach developed into a resort and residential community, Rose Creek carried seasonal flows from inland canyons into the marshes and tidal flats that once dominated the northern end of Mission Bay. As the bay was dredged and reshaped during the 20th century, the creek remained one of the few natural waterways still feeding the system.

Much of the upper watershed is protected as part of Rose Canyon Open Space Park, where native sycamores and willows still line sections of the creek.

By Stephen Hobbs / Sacramento Bee /  June 17, 2026

A California initiative that will place limits on environmental reviews of water, housing and road projects has enough signatures to appear on the November ballot, setting up a contest that has sweeping implications for the state’s future.

The California Chamber of Commerce, a business trade group behind the measure, argues the state’s system of approving certain developments is too slow, too muddied up by regulation and too expensive and that the initiative is the fix needed.

“Essential projects like clean water, clean energy, hospitals, affordable housing, roads, wildfire prevention, schools, public safety, and other infrastructure improvements are being delayed or blocked by unnecessary red tape, bureaucratic delays, and excessive lawsuits,” the initiative says.

The Secretary of State’s Office made the determination Tuesday.

The measure, called the “Building an Affordable California Act,” would create new rules for how agencies can handle those “essential projects,” including setting time limits for how long reviews can take and members of the public can comment on them.

Chula Tacos is heading to Ocean Beach. It’s bringing its Tijuana-style street tacos to the heart of Ocean Beach, and announced it has plans to open a new location at 4994 Newport Avenue, taking over the space most recently occupied by Doughboy’s Grill, at 4994 Newport Avenue.

Founded by Rigo Muñoz Jr., Chula Tacos began as a food truck before evolving into its brick-and-mortar location at 1719 Palm Avenue in National City. Reportedly, fans delight on its signature

By Sonia Fernandez / The Current – UC Santa Barbara / June 22, 2026

A study conducted by UC Santa Barbara researchers and collaborators has found that California has lost more than half of its coastal dune systems. The researchers’ assessment — the first of its kind for the California coast — estimates that 60% of dune systems that existed from 1850 have been lost, due to a combination of urban development, land-use changes and erosion.

“There are major implications of this loss for the California coast, including reduced habitats for plants, insects and other invertebrates, birds and small mammals,” said the paper’s lead author, postdoctoral researcher and physical geographer Tim Baxter. “Importantly, we also lose coastal protections against storms and sea level rise.”

This assessment, one of the largest and most detailed inventories of coastal sand dunes ever produced, is published in the journal Earth’s Future.

By Colleen O’Connor

Wonder of Wonders.  A real treasure exhibited itself Saturday, June 20 at the Peninsula Community Senior Center’s “Summer Celebration.”

Hard to ignore the chaos, fear and tragedies that surround us now.

But, fabulous to watch senior citizens and their friends, family and neighbors converge on a triumph of grace, humor, and support for not just those present, but all of Point Loma and environs.

Lisa Nokes, the Executive Director, and her staff, volunteers, neighbors, and friends, delivered a celebration of what “Neighboring” is— that great coming together to protect and aid those in need of their services.

Feds Proposal to allow Cyanide poison bombs, hound hunting and trapping impacts San Diego’s public lands

By Renée Owens / EastCountyMagazine / June 19, 2026

San Diego County residents should be aware that a little-known federal proposal is sneaking under the radar, one that will have serious local and national consequences. Why is it such a secret? It could be because the new rule’s creators want it to be adopted quickly before the majority of Americans understand what a harmful precedent it sets.

On May 27 the Trump administration announced a proposed rule to massively increase hunting and fishing throughout over 2.5 million acres of public wild lands, 95 percent of the entire National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). It expands not only refuge access but also targets species lists, seasons, bag limits, and allowed methods for hunting and fishing, and promotes a discretionary approach that is based not on science but on appeasement of a few powerful lobbies. To add to the chaos is a clause in the fine print that removes bans on lead ammunition and fishing tackle — protections fought for by scientists for decades – and reopens doors nationwide for hound hunting, traps, bait, and poisons, despite mounting bans on their use due to unambiguous evidence of their cruelty. This on the heels of deep cuts in USFWS staff and funding.

From San Diego Energy Justice Alliance

With City studies concluding a not-for-profit utility would save San Diegans billions, a coalition of groups is calling on the City Council to begin organizing a public utility.
The most recent city-funded study will be presented to the council this Monday afternoon, June 22, during a meeting set to begin at 2 p.m. in council chambers.

Using the most conservative assumptions, the city’s consultants concluded in the study that not-for-profit public power would save utility customers $500 each year.
Under more realistic assumptions, projections, total savings for customers are projected to reach tens of billions of dollars in coming decades. An earlier city funded study also found a not-for-profit public utility would lower electric bills for customers.

“We have the studies and know the facts,” said Dorrie Bruggemann, a board member of Public Power San Diego, which is among the groups in the newly formed San Diego Energy Justice Coalition.

For more info please go to the OB Mainstreet Association here.

by Debbie L. Sklar / Times of San Diego / June 18, 2026

Sand dunes, mussel beds, picnics.

Ocean Beach’s shoreline has been described in different ways over time, long before it became the coastal community known today.

Ocean Beach today is probably best known for its surf culture, its long concrete pier [that is permanently closed], and a tightly-knit neighborhood identity. But its earlier history is rooted less in formal place names and more in how people described the landscape: a broad stretch of sand shaped by wind, shifting dunes, and the former course of the San Diego River as it reached the Pacific.

That began to change in 1887, when developers William “Billy” Carlson and Frank Higgins subdivided the land and began marketing it as a seaside residential community under the name Ocean Beach.

By John McNab

We rarely talk context of why the public coast is disappearing and high rises are sprouting up everywhere.  The below is a perspective on going from freeing animals to caging humans – San Diego’s shift in priorities

A black-and-white movie on TV in the early 60’s was about a boy who went to the zoo with his grandfather. Upon seeing the animals in cages, he broke down. Likely because he loved to spend time under the warm sun playing in the canyons with the lizard and birds. Seeing the zoo animals poorly treated broke his heart.

Upon getting home, he was still in tears. It was recommended he did something. So he started protesting at the zoo. The editor at the local paper thought the story was cute and ran a piece on the boy and his protest. It struck a nerve and suddenly citizens were up in arms. So the embarrassed zoo changed. The last scene, in Technicolor, was the front of the San Diego zoo.

Yet what could be a sequel to the story?

A mother had many errands to run so she dropped off her son with his grandfather. The son, full of energy, got on the grandfather’s nerves. “Why don’t you go outside and play?” The boy answered in tears, “there’s nowhere outside to play”.