Category: Health

A micro-farm that has been producing organic crops on upper Voltaire Street for nearly two years is now opening itself up for community gardeners.

Herb En Routes- run by Paige and Danielle- has been growing sustainable and local produce on .25 acres on a previously vacant lot at 4113 Voltaire. They were selling organically grown produce to local restaurants, such as Tender Greens, To The Point Cafe, Farmhouse Cafe, and the Pearl Hotel and Restaurant.

Paige and Danielle have now decided this endeavor is a bit too time consuming for them. So, they have decided to turn the farm into a community garden to allow them to work towards other careers but still continue to serve the community.

Starting this month, there are garden plots for rent, starting at $16 a month.

By Doug Porter / San Diego Free Press

Employees of the UT-San Diego are the latest casualties in the sordid saga of the right wing’s assault on the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

UT Publisher Doug Manchester has made opposition and denigration of the President’s health insurance reform agenda a top priority since the day he bought the paper. His editorial pages have been (figuratively) screaming about the impending end of Western Civilization for months on end. The ACA’s primary pillar—the individual mandate—was actually a conservative counter-proposal to President Clinton’s attempt to implement universal health care nearly two decades ago.

I know firsthand that the Affordable Care Act can help people

By Jill Richardson / Other Words

For the first time in years, I’ve got health insurance. Before now, my “insurance” was nothing more than exercise, a healthy diet, and medicinal herbs.

I’ve gotten insured through the Affordable Care Act without dealing with a buggy website because I live in California. Our state made its own website because our politicians are more concerned about their citizens’ health than making President Barack Obama look bad.

Death of Alessandro Speroni Confirmed

It has been confirmed that Alessandro Speroni is the 41 year old man who died after being pulled from the surf along Sunset Cliffs last Sunday, December 29th. He was the owner of the Soleluna Cafe in Cortez Hill and was recently married.

The County Medical Examiner’s investigation is still on-going, so the cause of death has been undetermined. However, Speroni was pulled from the ocean unconscious and paramedics were unable to revive him. This was near the 1200 block of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard.

OB’s Slightly Stoopid to Play in Costa Rico

Our best-known local band, Slightly Stoopid, is playing in Jaco, Costa Rica January 16-19, in what is being called the Jungle Jam IV. The band – led by multi-instrumentalists and founding members, Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald – be joined by special guest Don Carlos of Black Uhuru.

We now know as much about cannabis as we know about alcohol, tobacco and many prescription drugs.

By Paul Armentano / AlterNet

Speaking recently with the Los Angeles Times, UCLA professor and former Washington state “pot czar” Mark Kleiman implied that we as a society are largely ignorant when it comes to the subject of weed. Speaking with Times columnist Patt Morrison, Kleiman stated, “I keep saying we don’t know nearly as much about cannabis as Pillsbury knows about brownie mix.”

At least 71 sailors from San Diego-based carrier have reported radiation sickness and will file a lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Co.

By Brandon Baker / EcoNews

After U.S. Navy sailors on the USS Ronald Reagan responded to the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan for four days, many returned to the U.S. with thyroid cancer, Leukemia, brain tumors and more.

At least 71 sailors—many in their 20s—reported radiation sickness and will file a lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which operates the Fukushima Daiichi energy plant.

By Eva Posner / San Diego Free Press

Blackfish has been on my DVR since it aired on CNN for the first time in October. I knew I should watch it but I didn’t want to. I’ve never been to SeaWorld, and I wanted to go. I wanted to see the whales. I wanted to watch them jump in the air and wave at me. It’s really selfish, and maybe not the best thing to admit, but I didn’t want to see Blackfish because I didn’t want to feel guilty about thinking the whale show was super cute.

“My Grandma’s High on Weed”

My grandma has a case of shingles,

She hurts terribly bad,

I wish I could do something for her,

It makes me extremely sad.

Grandma went to her doctor,

Who gave her a strong pain pill,

But all that it managed to do for her,

Was to make her feel more ill.

Grandma went back to the doctor,

Begging for some relief,

The doctor said to get a weed card

And then go buy some leaf.

On December 21, 2013 at 9:11am, the Time & Day of the Winter Solstice

By Judi Curry

To call this beautiful remodeled house on the south side of Ocean Beach a “hippie house” truly does it an injustice. The new owner – Scott – has put a great deal of money into the house to make it liveable, and the fact that it is not the “normal” Pt. Loma residence is incidental. But….it is gaining fame, even though Scott and his significant other Layla, have just recently moved in.

First of all the views are spectacular. The scenery changes from minute to minute. What were high waves an hour ago are small little ripples now; the pelicans fly over going both north and south. The surfers are not there today – waiting the 72 hours after the rain – before dotting the scenery with their black wetsuits and multicolored surfboards. So why were we there this morning, braving the cold and wind, standing outside looking at a pole set in concrete , albeit in a beautiful design?

Here’s the first part for “Best of OB Rag” in 2008 – a story of the disappearance of the “Peace Sign” off of Bird Rock, and more on the Iraq war, the peace movement, the 2008 elections, torture, nuclear power, video from an alien invasion of OB in the Seventies, San Diego foreclosures and health care reform :

by Michael Steinberg /blackrainpress / Dec 12th, 2013

This story is important in and of itself, but also because it once again unearths the region’s role in the birth of the atomic age, and also highlights the radioactive legacy that continues to haunt us.

On November 13 the San Francisco Chronicle ran a lead story written by the SF-based Center For Investigative Reporting. The story was about the radioactive contamination of Treasure Island, a former US Navy base in the middle of the Bay.

The Chron article reported that 575 metal discs consisting of radioactive radium-226 had been found in the ground at Treasure Island as of 2011. The report did not mention that the radioactive life of radium-226 is millennia, over 16,000 years.