Category: Health

You want to talk outrage? How about this one: My brother Jack showed me a letter he received from Halliburton via his lawyer. Yes- that Halliburton. It appears that Halliburton has declared bankruptcy. And because they have declared bankruptcy, they will only be required to pay out pennies on the dollar in the settlement of my brother’s suit.

Two years ago my brother was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare and deadly kind of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

We met Lane Tobias during the fight to save the Ocean Beach branch library back in the fall of 2008. He enthusiastically joined our staff as the youngest blogger at the time and wrote for us for a year and a half. One of his posts about the lack of food stamps in San Diego County remains one of our most popular articles of all time.

Alas, Lane, originally from New Jersey, and his partner Carianne, had to permanently return to their roots …

by Dave Rice

In a proposal originally scheduled to run from 6:10 to 6:30 at the Ocean Beach Planning Board this Wednesday evening, Kevin deFreitas, a local architect based in Point Loma, delivered a nearly hour-long sermon on his vision of blending local landscape, culture, and . . . feces.

North OB has been without public facilities since late last year, when the original bathrooms constructed in 1964 were demolished due to concerns about the structural integrity of the roof.

Finally, we’ll get to see what the future public restrooms at the foot of Brighton Avenue will look like. There will be a public presentation of the new designs and plans of what the City calls the Brighton Avenue “Comfort Station” at Wednesday night’s OB Planning Board meeting.

The Planning Board will be determining approval or denial of the project’s conceptual design during the July 7th meeting at the OB Recreation Center, located at the corner of Santa Monica Ave and Ebers Street. The meeting begins at 6:00 pm.

A new sticker that we can relate to.

Tell us what you think about the new sticker put together by the folks at the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, who will be present at the community forum on Tuesday night.

(MORE DETAILS AND ALL LINKS INSIDE)

by Mike James

On Saturday, June 26, people of the world will join hands on beaches and in parks, united against the dangers offshore oil drilling.

Ocean Beach will also be one of the 600 locations across the world for the “Hands Across the Sands” solidarity event.

Hands Across The Sand‘s aim is to convince our leaders to abandon expanded offshore oil drilling and adopt policies that encourage clean and renewable energy sources.

Progressives and environmentalists all over San Diego County are being urged to send emails and letters to stop the movement toward creating a North County landfill in Gregory Canyon. The deadline is June 18th, so we at the OB Rag are urging our readers to send emails out today – June 17th.

The proposed Gregory Canyon Landfill is an environmental disaster in the making and would ruin sacred Native American lands.

Sunday June, 9th, half a dozen or so volunteers descended on Pescadero Avenue to take part in a joint project between San Diego Food Not Lawns and a local meetup.com group called SD Community Farms and Gardens. Their goal: to help local residents transform their water guzzling grass lawns with sustainable vegetable gardens.

On this Sunday, the group was helping a couple local residents to dig up their lawns and plant an assortment of vegetables. The group provides a great way to get a head start as a homeowner who may be thinking of converting their lawn but lacks the resources or manual labor to begin the process.

By Jeremy W. Peters / The New York Times/ June 10, 2010

A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.

Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica conservation group that conducts coastal waters tests, has given part of Ocean Beach an A+ rating in its latest annual report. The water around the OB Pier in both dry and wet weather got this highest rating. Dog Beach did not fare as well, as it remains a troubled area due to the run-off that comes down the San Diego River.

High grades in the coastal water rating system demonstrate that there are less incidence of sickness from fecal bacterial in the surfzones for ocean users.

It was a scene to behold. There was Julie strumming the guitar – singing softly, there was David minding the hot dogs on the flaming grill, Cat handing out cups and paper plates, and there was Lupe Haley – dishing out her pasta dish, a fruit salad, a veggie salad and dessert. And the homeless and hungry stood patiently in line.

It was a Monday, and as she has every Monday for the last 22 years, Lupe Haley came down to Ocean Beach to feed the homeless and whoever else showed up.

Yet hamstrung by demands by local police officers that she obtain the proper permit for public food handling, this Monday Lupe has set up her food line not at her usual site in Saratoga Park, right next to the sand, but in a friendly church parking lot off Sunset Cliffs Boulevard.

UPDATE: EARTHQUAKE CONFIRMED –

SDNN reports:

A 5.1 magnitude earthquake struck Southern California Monday at 5:38 p.m., 21 miles west of Mexicali where a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck on Easter Sunday.

It’s 5:39 pm, while waiting for dinner to cook, I just felt the entire house shake a small bit. The wood frame twisted for a half second. Must be earthquake season.