Category: Health

OB People’s Food has just purchased property immediately to the east of its current parking lot, which will increase the organic food store’s parking availability. Parking – or lack of – has been one of the biggest problems that has accompanied the success of the store, officially called Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market.

Nancy Casady, executive director told the OB Rag this morning about the very recent purchase. The property consists of 1300 square feet that includes two rental units – one is occupied currently with a long-term tenant.

The new property located at 4747 Voltaire Street will allow the store to increase its parking by 6 to 7 spaces in the rear of the newly-bought lot, accessible from the alley.

By Joan McCarter / Daily Kos

Oct. 1 will be upon us before we know it, the launch date of the health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

Note that while we’re hearing a lot about the Oct. 1 deadline for the exchanges, that’s when people can first start signing up in an open enrollment period that runs through next March. Coverage won’t begin, however, until Jan. 1, 2014.

We tend to hear more about the politics of all this (still!) than the mechanics of all this, so it’s worth talking about some of the basics for the people who it will affect.

Group brings challenge to patents on Monsanto’s genetically engineered seed to Supreme Court.

By Andrea Germanos / Common Dreams

A group of U.S. farmers is not giving up its fight against biotech giant Monsanto

In the latest step of a two and a half year legal battle, plaintiffs in Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) et al v. Monsanto asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thrusday to hear their case challenging the patents on Monsanto’s genetically engineered seed.

Another good piece of news from the Justice Department on the drug war.

April M. Short / Alternet

During the groundbreaking phone call on Thursday, August 29 in which U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the governors of Colorado and Washington the federal government would not attempt to intercept regulated legal marijuana in their states, he also said the Department of Justice (DOJ) is “actively considering” how to oversee the relationship between banks and marijuana shops.

According to the Huffington Post, Holder told the governors as long as marijuana shops “operate within state laws and don’t violate other federal law enforcement priorities” the DOJ is looking to regulate those interactions as legal.

By Adam Rothstein / Next City / Sept. 3, 2013

Black Rock City: Burning Man is not that different from everyday life. You get up, get dressed and catch the bus to work. You get off work and have a beer with some friends at a bar. And then you take off your pants, put on animal face paint, climb a steel tower to stare at a massive fire, and run screaming into the night with a hundred strangers you will never meet again.

Life in Black Rock City is just like life in any other city, except when it’s different.

A lot of fuss is made over the ways in which this massive temporary city of 60,000, which sets up in the Black Rock desert of Nevada for one week every August, differs from the rest of the world. The idiosyncrasies are what sell the event, why people pack up trucks full of paint, wood and glitter and spend hundreds of dollars every year to vacation from the straight world of capitalism, clothing and jobs.

From East County Magazine / September 4, 2013

On the heels of a hefty rate increase that took effect September 1st, SDG&E wants ratepayers to pay for costs of decommissioning the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations. Ratepayer advocates, meanwhile, say ratepayers should receive a refund for charges assessed when the nuclear facility was off-line for more than a year before being shut down permanently.

The California Public Utilities Commission will hold two hearings on Tuesday, October 1 at 2 p.m. and again at 6:30 p.m. Both will be held in the Al Bahr Shriners auditorium, 5440 Kaerny Mesa Road, San Diego 92111. The commission will consider whether or not ratepayers should be charged for the decommissioning costs, as well as whether ratepayers should receive refunds for charges assessed while the nuclear facilities were offline for more than a year before the shut-down decision.

By Jenesse Miller/California League of Conservation Voters

Today and for the last 60 years, oil and gas companies frack California without public notice. They inject acid into the ground, and they hide their “frack jobs.” They pump secret chemicals underground. They won’t tell, and they don’t have to tell – not even if you live next door. And it’s about to get even worse.

Demand to know the truth about fracking in California. Tell your Assemblymember to support SB 4, the environmental bill that forces Big Oil to answer to the public.

Attorney General Eric Holder has placed a ticking time bomb on the GOP’s doorstep that could detonate during the 2016 presidential elections.

By Sanho Tree /OtherWords

Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent announcement that the federal government wouldn’t challenge Colorado and Washington state’s ability to implement a legal regulatory system for adult recreational marijuanause marked a tremendous political victory for reform if not a definitive legal victory.

Technically, pot remains illegal across the nation. But Holder went as far as he could under our system of checks and balances.

by Sam Ollinger /BikeSD

Under the better late than never philosophy, I thought I’d write down some thoughts about the (now former) Mayor Filner’s short eight month reign in San Diego.

Back in 2011 when the November 2012 election season seemed eons away, I began to realize the importance of having a mayor in office ready and willing to push the bike agenda. I was just getting started in advocacy and having observed the success of having a champion in the mayor’s office from cities as large as New York City to ones as small as Oklahoma City, I thought I’d try and see how far I could get with having a mayoral candidate making a commitment a more bike friendly San Diego.

by Gail Powell / Special to the OB Rag

The last weekend in August, 2013 found a sad missive in local’s mailboxes.

It was a letter from the Ocean Beach Medical Group, located at 1947 Cable Street, announcing the imminent retirement of Dr. Jeoffry Gordon.

Dr. Gordon, a longtime medical practitioner in our community has decided to retire, effective November 1, 2013. In the one-page letter of correspondence, Dr. Gordon said “it has been my privilege to serve your needs as a family doctor and health systems advocate for many years.”

The good doctor has been practicing the art of medicine going on 30 years but Dr. Gordon acknowledged “the time has come to retire.”

Obama administration will not block state marijuana laws, if distribution is regulated

By Brady Dennis / Washington Post / August 29, 2013

The Obama administration on Thursday said it will not stand in the way of Colorado, Washington and other states where voters have supported legalizing marijuana either for medical or recreational use, as long as those states maintain strict rules involving distribution of the drug.

In a memo sent Thursday to U.S. attorneys in all 50 states, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole detailed the administration’s new stance, even as he reiterated that marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

By Matthew Wood

Acai bowls are the hottest thing in Ocean Beach since bikram yoga. Any coffee shop worth its beans from Niagara to Voltaire has some form of the smoothie-on-steroids. But unlike Padres losing seasons and Mumford & Sons songs, not all bowls are the same.

At the concoction’s core is the storied acai berry, a so-called superfood rich in antioxidants and amino acids which, long story short, is good for you. It’s layered between everything under the health-food spectrum from granola to coconut to bee pollen – which is different from honey how? – and topped with fresh fruit.

To save you the time and trouble of hitting every one of the myriad acai-erias in the hood, we’re here to break down the best of the bowls. Let’s start on Newport and work our way north.