Serving OB, the Peninsula and San Diego Beaches
Editor: Here’s a disturbing report about how New York police raided the homes of activists preparing for the May Day protests on the day before.
By Adrian Chen / Gawker / April 30, 2012
A day before Occupy Wall Street hopes to shut down New York and cities across the country in massive May Day protests, the NYPD visited at least three activist homes in New York and interrogated residents about plans for tomorrow’s protest.
By Dana Littlefield and Matthew T. Hall / U-T San Diego / May 1, 2012
SAN DIEGO — A judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors in a case involving a group of same-sex marriage activists violated the defendants’ rights by dismissing potential jurors based on their sexual orientation. Superior Court Judge Joan Weber dismissed the entire jury panel, saying she found it “shocking” that the San Diego City Attorney’s Office would exclude two gay jurors during the selection process.
By KPBS / May 2, 2012
A San Diego college student who federal drug agents forgot and left in a holding cell for five days without food, water or access to a toilet said Tuesday that he drank his own urine to survive.
Daniel Chong also said that he bit into his glasses to break them and tried to use a shard to scratch “Sorry Mom” into his arm, according to U-T San Diego.
The 24-year-old University of California, San Diego, engineering student was swept up as one of nine suspects in an April 21 drug raid that netted 18,000 ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons.
Chong said federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents told him he would be let go. One agent even promised to drive him home from the DEA field office in Kearny Mesa, he said.
by Michael Steinberg / May 1, 2012
As part of Bay Area May Day actions, Occupy San Francisco resurrected the San Francisco Commune. The SF Commune began exactly a month ago today, on April 1. The following day the SFPD shut down the Commune at the behest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the legal owner of the vacant building.
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By Casey McNerthney / Seattle pi / May 1, 2012
May Day protests and traffic jams quickly turned to vandalism and chaos in downtown Seattle Tuesday, resulting in eight arrests, late school buses and an emergency order from Mayor Mike McGinn.
After vandals smashed cars and business storefronts, McGinn signed an order allowing police to confiscate such potential weapons as sticks.
By Jacob Remes / AlterNet / April 27, 2012 |
American general strikes—or rather, American calls for general strikes, like the one Occupy Los Angeles issued last December that has been endorsed by over 150 general assemblies—are tinged with nostalgia.
The last real general strike in this country, which is to say, the last general strike that shut down a city, was in Oakland, California in 1946—though journalist John Nichols has suggested that what we saw in Madison, Wisconsin last year was a sort of general strike.
By Andy Taubmann
Fellow readers of the OB Rag,
I have been a regular reader of the OB Rag for about ten years, although I have never commented or contributed. I read the Rag, because I believe that the Rag has a unique position to observe, chronicle, and comment on the happenings of Ocean Beach.
As such, the very valid question has been asked, what is the Respect OB movement and what is it about?
By Sean Bohac
SAN DIEGO — Marriage equality activists charged with misdemeanors from an August 19, 2010 protest will be in court Monday morning. The “Equality Nine” are nine protesters who were arrested during a peaceful “sit-in” for marriage equality. Jury selection begins in their case Monday, April 30, at 10 a.m. before Judge Joan P. Weber in the Presiding Courtroom of the San Diego County Superior Court, 220 West Broadway, in downtown San Diego. The opening arguments, scheduled to begin on Monday afternoon, are expected to outline the first amendment and LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender] justice ramifications of this trial.
Carl Hancock / The San Diego Reader / April 26, 2012
In what looks like a fairly effective way of discouraging public comment, the California Coastal Commission recently sent notices to Shelter Island-area residents, informing them that the next hearing on the proposed Point Loma Townhomes development would be held in Marin County.
According to SDNews.com:
“The Point Loma Townhomes project site would be bounded by Carleton Street to the north, Dickens Street to the south and Scott Street to the west. It lies adjacent to the old Kettenburg Boatyard next to America’s Cup Harbor.”
Kathy Blavatt – a local artist and community activist from Ocean Beach – wrote this poem for the Respect OB forum held on Tuesday the 24th, and she’s letting us publish it here:
I’ve loved a lady with sunshine in her hair…
Dolphins swim through blue eyes.
A feminine free spirit… She goes by O.B.
She’s lived life with a checkered past…
A small-town girl in a big city.
She’s a hippie with a degree…
A surfer from way back…
San Diego, California – In a remarkable day for ocean conservation and advancing environmental safeguards in San Diego County, the Solana Beach City Council voted unanimously to pass an ordinance banning single-use plastic bags on Wednesday evening, becoming the first city in San Diego County to pass such legislation.
“Last night’s decision is a stepping-stone for other coastal communities in San Diego County to follow suit,” explains Walker Hicks, a volunteer with Surfrider’s Rise Above Plastics campaign. “We applaud the Solana Beach City Council members for their decision, and look forward to enjoying cleaner oceans, waves and beaches as a result.”
By East County Magazine / April 26, 2012
April 26, 2012 (San Diego) — U.S. Congressman and Mayoral candidate Bob Filner spoke in front of the San Diego Planning Commission today to oppose the “Quail Brush” Power Plant, slated for construction next to the San Diego Mission Trails Regional Park. The site is within the City of San Diego, but will have negative impacts in neighboring Santee. The Planning Commission was deliberating on the decision to re-zone the proposed location from “open space” to “industrial use.”
Filner joined environmental groups, community organizations, and the entire Santee City Council in opposing the power plant.
By Dave Rice / San Diego Reader / April 25, 2012
Well over 200 Ocean Beach residents showed up between the veterans’ memorial and main lifeguard tower at the foot of Santa Monica Avenue on the afternoon of April 24. They were there for an event titled “Respect O.B.,” billed as a forum to open dialogue between neighbors and to address common problems.
“Anyone who comes to live in peace and harmony is welcome, but to be accepted you must respect O.B.,” read a flyer left on locals’ doorsteps and posted at businesses in the days leading up to the event.
Attendees found three large maps of the neighborhood and were invited to write their names and contact information near their residences (or on a more discreet list alongside).
“We’re here because O.B. takes issues to the streets,” said event organizer Andy Taubman, who owns a computer business in the neighborhood. The idea for the gathering arose from a subcommittee of the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association, a local business group.
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