Author: Staff

OB Rag Staff Report

KPBS Public Media informed staff on February 11 that News Director Terence Shepherd and Director of People and Culture Lois Hoyt were “no longer with” the station. The internal memo signed by Chief of Staff Travis Tamasese gave no specifics about why both senior executives were leaving simultaneously.

“We recognize that these announcements, though unrelated, are being shared at the same time and reflect a great amount of change for the organization,” Tamasese wrote. “Please know that we are here to support you if you would like to touch base.”

Shepherd joined KPBS in 2022 after eight years as news director of WLRN, Florida’s major public news outlet. He previously worked as a business editor at the Miami Herald.

A woman who stabbed two men in an Ocean Beach alley, pleaded guilty and will be sentenced to prison on February 17. Jana Nicole Halaska’s sentence will range from four to eight years. She is 29.

Halaska pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon on Jan. 14 as her trial date approached. It all extends from an incident on April 13, 2025, when she stabbed the victims, Gabriel Millan and Christopher Abrahamsen in an alley at Bacon Street and Newport Avenue just after 1 a.m. Millan and Abrahamsen were seriously injured, were rushed to an emergency room at a hospital, where they remained for many days.

Halaska famously declared “that’s not how you treat a lady” before stabbing the two men.

Halaska’s attorney tried to resolve the case by entering her into a mental health diversion program, but Judge Chandra Reid denied the motion on Dec. 10, records show. and she remains in the Las Colinas Women’s Detention Facility on $500,000 bail.

More than 500 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente locations in San Diego County are joining their sibling nurses’ unions who have been on strike for two weeks. They are members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 135 and are beginning an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) action Monday, February 9, 2026. The strike will begin at 7:00 AM with picketing to commence shortly after.

The walkout comes after workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a ULP strike in response to Kaiser’s refusal to return to National Bargaining and negotiate in good faith. Close to 350 pharmacy workers including technicians, assistants, and other classifications approved a ULP strike with a vote in October 2025. In January 2026, approximately 150 Clinical Lab Scientists and Medical Laboratory Technicians in San Diego County also voted to authorize a ULP strike.

Picketing will take place daily from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM at two San Diego County locations: San Diego Medical Center at 9455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92123 and in North County at the San Marcos Medical Center, 400 Craven Rd, San Marcos, CA 92078.

A rally and press conference will also be held at 11 a.m. Monday at the SD Med Ctr, involving Todd Walters, President, UFCW Local 135 and former San Diegan Lorena Gonzalez, President of the California Federation of Labor Unions.

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, February 9: City Council, 10:00 a.m.

Agenda:

Non-Agenda Public Comment:  The Mayor and the Council just cut a ragtag deal to “reform” paid parking at Balboa Park (but still charge for the closest lots). So the topic won’t be on this week’s Council docket. But San Diegans can still express their views on the issue in person or virtually during non-agenda public comment. On Monday, non-agenda comment is scheduled early in the meeting at about 10:15 a.m. On Tuesday, the comment period is near the end at about 12 noon.

OB Rag Staff Report

This follow-up to our December 2 “D2 Candidates: Follow the Money” report has the latest figures from Campaign Disclosure Reports (Series 400). Our continued review of these public records fulfills the Rag’s promise to “scrutinize the candidates in the 2026 primary: who they are, what they’ve done, what they say, and most importantly, where their money comes from.”

District 2 includes Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, Pt. Loma, the Midway, and Clairemont.  Councilmember Jen Campbell is “termed out,” so the district will have a new Councilmember next year.

Josh Coyne

Coyne is in first place in D2 fundraising totals with $93,002. That money includes a $30,000 loan he made to his campaign. According to the Voters’ Voice Initiatives, Coyne raised 6 times more money from outside D2 than from inside. Many of his contributors are business leaders and lobbyists. They include:

One of the most recognizable OB establishments, an icon of the counter-culture — The Black — is set to close after 57 years.

If you were a hippie or a hippie-wannabe in the late Sixties or the 1970s, The Black was the place to visit — as long as you asked for “water pipes” and not “bongs.” For a very long time, it was the only “head shop” in OB, as it sold pipes, rolling papers, records, jewelry, hippy and black light posters – and for a while it was the only hip book store in town.

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, February 2: City Council, 2:00 p.m.

Agenda

Item CS-1: Ordinance Approving Contract with NEOGOV for Applicant Recruitment, Tracking, and Hiring

Why it matters: NEOGOV would be paid nearly $4.2 million over 10 years for HR software systems. That seems like a lot for a city that 1) has a personnel department responsible for recruitment, tracking, and hiring; 2) is supposed to be in the middle of a hiring freeze; and 3) is nearly insolvent.

Wednesday, February 4: Budget and Government Efficiency Committee, 9:00 a.m.

Agenda

This past weekend, the Point Loma and Ocean Beach Democratic Club endorsed local candidate Mandy Havlik for the City Council race in District 2.

In their emailed announcement, the Club reported:

Both Nicole Crosby and Mandy Havlik attended and answered a wide arrange of questions moderated by Dave Fisher, President.

They also noted:

The morning of our endorsement consideration Josh Coyne’s campaign notified us that he would not be attending our meeting, they also failed to complete our candidate questionnaire that had been sent to all our Democratic candidates.

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer Sunday ordered all County and U.S. flags to be lowered to half- staff on County property in recognition of the lives lost in Minnesota at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

The San Diego Police Department confirmed that a car crashed into a tattoo shop in northeast Ocean Beach on Wednesday afternoon, January 21, around 4:52 p.m.

By Jillian Butler

On the evening of Thursday January 15, 2026, the Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB) hosted its first meeting of the new year. While the meeting followed a standard agenda, public concern over a proposed coastal development quickly emerged as the dominant issue of the night.

Hosted in the usual meeting location of the Point Loma Hervey Library, the meeting was small with less than 50 in attendance. Chairperson Eric Law was away traveling on business, so vice-chair Mandy Havlik presided. Additionally, several government, agency, and community representatives were not present.

The meeting began with its general call to order, agenda approval, approval of minutes, and board officer reports. Following this introduction the board heard non-agenda comments.

Ronald Duran started with the first comment, asking the PCPB to aid in opposing a coastal development project on Guizot street. Mr. Duran voiced his concerns about the developer using provisions from California Senate Bill 9 to purchase and demolish a single family home, split a .16 acre lot, and build two houses each with attached ADUs. Where one home previously stood, now four units would exist.  At the moment, tenants live in the single family home, rendering the property ineligible for SB 9. Duran’s son requested the city get involved. The city has reached out to the developer.