Category: California

Editor: The following is a press statement from the San Diego Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation on the opening of the Carlsbad desalination plant.

Carlsbad Desalination Plant Opening: The Wrong Solution at the Wrong Time

San Clemente, CA, December 10, 2015 – Since 2009, the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s ocean, waves and beaches, along with its San Diego Chapter, objected to the rationale for, and ultimately the process to establish the Carlsbad desalination plant, in California, by the developer, Poseidon Resources, Inc.

By Ameena Schelling/ The Dodo / December 8, 2015

The past few years have seen a stream of former SeaWorld employees speak out about their time at the company. Now another employee is stepping forward — and revealing even more details about just how poorly the parks’ animals are treated.

Sarah Fischbeck joined SeaWorld San Diego as a water quality diver right after high school in 2007. During six years with the company, she worked jobs across the animal departments, performing maintenance on tanks and cleaning them, and regularly diving with the animals.

Editor: OB’s Dog Beach is truly a model for other cities. Here is a comparison of Dog Beach in Ocean Beach and other San Diego dog areas with those in Atlanta, Georgia, and is part 3 in a three-part series that examined the similarities of two leading convention cities – Atlanta and San Diego.

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Home of nation’s first leash-free, free-range dog park offers lessons for Atlanta

By David Pendered / Saporta Report

San Diego – San Diego built what a plaque says is the nation’s first leash-free dog beach, in 1972, at a time the beachfront community was blossoming into a surfing capitol and the Haight-Asbury of southern California.

City leaders never turned back from their decision to provide a place for dogs and their owners to play together off leash. …
Today, San Diego has 14 leash-free dog parks, according to the parks department’s website. Popular nomenclature dubs these leash-free parks as “dog parks,” as if parks where companion animals can’t be set free aren’t dog friendly.

On any given day, dogs and their companion persons are playing catch with Frisbees on Dog Beach, said to be the nation’s first leash-free dog park; ….

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the US and global nuclear industry. In addition, it highlights the efforts of those who are working to create a nuclear free world.

Two more US nuclear plants slated for shutdown.

November brought news that two more US nuke plants will be permanently shutting down in the future.

On November 3 Bloomberg.com reported that the Fitzpatrick nuke on Lake Ontario in uppermost New York state would close down for good in “late 2016 or early 2017.”

Then on November 7 the Cape Cod Times reported that the Pilgrim nuclear plant on Cape Cod in Massachusetts will have its permanent closure “sometime before June 19” next year.

By Dave Maass / Electronic Frontier Foundation

Confirmed cases of misuse of California’s sprawling unified law enforcement information network have doubled over the last five years, according to records obtained by Electronic Frontier Foundation under the California Public Records Act.

That adds up to a total 389 cases in which an investigation concluded that a user—often a peace officer—broke the rules for accessing the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS), such as searching criminal records to vet potential dates or spy on former spouses. More than 20 incidents since 2010 have resulted in criminal charges.

Last Leg of Update Process Took 2 1/2 Years

Timeline of Update Process of the OB Community Plan 2002 – 2015

When the final City Council vote came down last Monday, November 9th, as it approved the OB Community Plan Update, it was a signal to all the OBceans and city planners who have been part of its creation over the last months and years to heave a great collective sigh of relief.

The vote was the final step in a long, long – but glorious – process …

SeaWorld Also Wants a Hotel on Mission Bay

The big news in our neck of the woods – or more accurately – our cove of the bay – is that SeaWorld has just announced that it is phasing out the Orca show performances at its San Diego park. They will be phased out sometime in 2016 – which means they could go on for another year. And replaced in 2017 with a “new orca experience”one with a more “natural” setting.

On Monday, November 9th, the company posted a document that stated that the theatrical Shamu stunts here in San Diego will be replaced with an “informative” experience with a “conservation message inspiring people to act.”

The changes do not affect killer whale shows in Orlando, Florida and San Antonio, Texas, where they own other similar parks with orcas.

Several people said to me: “It was all over too soon.” They almost couldn’t believe it.

But yes, it was over – the Ocean Beach Community Plan – freshly updated – was finally approved by the San Diego City Council in an unanimous vote Monday afternoon – the ninth of November, 2015. It was in a way, anti-climatic. The real drama had already been played out last year and this summer.

By South OB Girl

Fresh & Easy will be closing its doors. This makes the second loss of a grocery store in the Ocean Beach-Point Loma community in the past three years. We had previously mourned the loss of Appletree Market. Now we are losing Fresh & Easy.

Technically Fresh & Easy, at the corner of Catalina and Talbot St., lies within the boundaries of the Peninsula Planning Board. But many a OBcean has headed up and over the hill to the store. The self-checkout was favored by some as quick and convenient. The prepackaged meals were likewise seemingly well-liked by many. But the self-checkout and signature Fresh & Easy products were not enough to keep the company from declaring bankruptcy for the second time, and not enough to keep the doors open.

On October 30, 2015, Fresh & Easy LLC filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code 11 U.S.C. §§ 101-1532 (Case No. 15-12220).

One more time, OBceans are being asked to turn out in their blue shirts in support of the OB Community Plan. The Plan is going before the San Diego City Council this Monday, November 9th, and is on the 2:00 pm Council agenda.

Residents, property owners and merchants from OB have been in a long struggle to have the community plan updated and then approved by various governmental agencies, such as the San Diego Planning Commission, the California Coastal Commission and of course the City Council.

By Judi Curry

Once again we set our clocks back an hour last Sunday, but my dog Shadow cannot help but wonder why, just the other day, it was okay to have dinner at 6:00pm only to find that today he cannot have dinner at the same time. He said that he is not a farmer that needs more daylight to farm his crops.

In fact, my very intelligent dog said that there are very few small farms left in the entire United States that are maintained by Mom and Pop operations that need their children to help pull in the crops.

Many people, as well as animals, intensely dislike Daylight Saving Time.

By Frank Gormlie

It was early afternoon on a hot July day in 2014 when then San Diego City Council President Todd Gloria gaveled the Council meeting to order. First on the agenda was a vote on the newly updated community plan of Ocean Beach, a small coastal neighborhood of the city—called simply “OB.” What was going on that day was anything but routine or ordinary. City Hall was swamped with people wearing blue T-shirts emblazoned with large white letters saying: “Keep the OBcean attitude.”