Category: Health

By Matthew Wood

A potential new cell phone tower could be going up on the roof of the Newport Antique Center, at 4864 Newport Avenue.

Craig Gerwig, owner of the antique store between Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and Cable Street, confirmed that he had plans to add the tower, but said no contracts were in place. A group of men were seen on the rooftop of the building late last week, presumably scoping out the site.

Gerwig refused to answer any questions about the possible addition to his business, but did say he had no concerns about any health issues that might arise from having a tower so close to a residential area.

By Kelsey Lynore / The Tarot Nook

Each week, Kelsey throws a “What to do?” spread for each of the zodiac signs. The first card is shown and the other two… well, you’ll just have to infer them from the written forecasts. Mind the heads up and have a lovely week!

Rams

Prepare for a banner week, Aries. But know this: Your dreams won’t come true if you isolate yourself in your own mental bubble and fantasize about how great your life could be if only. You need to move out into the world and make it happen! Is it scary? Of course! Will it get your blood pumping? I sure hope so! But where you might have tried and failed in the past, you now stand a very good chance of succeeding. So, strap on your hiking boots, pack only those things that you want to carry with you into the future, and then move towards that future. As soon as you do move, you really, really will. Yee-haw!

How about a bill banning soda sales at the House of Representatives’ cafeterias?

By Jill Richardson

I spent a few months on food stamps this year. As a single woman in San Diego, I qualified for $70 a month — less than a dollar per meal. But I’m lucky and I’m unusual because many of my friends are farmers and gardeners and I know how to forage wild foods.

Determined to stretch my $70 a month budget to somehow cover a healthy diet, I harvested wild cactus pads and edible weeds from my neighbors’ yards. Friends gave me fruit from their trees. A farmer told me to take whatever I needed from his stand at the farmers’ market. Then I used the food stamps to acquire foods I couldn’t get for free: milk, oatmeal, beans, and so on. All organic.

When the meeting first started, I was fearful that the attendance would be very low. But by 10:45am there were over 30 people in attendance for this, the first unit meeting of the Pt. Loma League of Women Voters.

Nancy Witt – the co-chair of the meeting – explained that there are different facets to the LWV; There are the unit meetings that take place in all of the 9 units throughout San Diego County. There are “special event” meetings; there are “forums” etc. Today was a “topic” meeting and all of the units were discussing the same topic.

The mayoral race candidates with be presented in a “forum” with the LWV presenting only facts and information – they cannot make any recommendations but they can bring together the candidates, the information and other information for discussion. We were assured that there will be a forum before the mayoral election.

From Huffington Post

Does bad body image lead to bad sex? Quite possibly.

“Nothing kills the mood quite like being negative about the way you look,” HuffPost Live host Caitlyn Becker said during a Sept. 11 segment on how body image affects women’s sex lives.

Sarah Jenks, founder of life coaching and weight loss organization Live More Weigh Less, explained that many women’s body concerns get in the way of their pleasure in the bedroom. “A lot of us believe that if we lose 20 pounds, that’s when we’ll finally feel sexy,” she said. But of course, feeling sexy has much more to do with your state of mind than your weight.

Emotional eating expert Isabel Foxen Duke recommended that women whose self-esteem affects their sex lives ask themselves: “Is this about an underlying self-doubt that has nothing to do with my weight?”

Point Loma Sewage Plant at End of Its Line – Only Large Plant in US Not Up to Fed Standards

U-T San Diego: After suffering years of budget cutbacks because of a pension crisis, San Diego now faces a bigger financial challenge: how to deal with a sewage project that could cost even more money — up to $3.5 billion once interest is included.

OB Man’s Bamboo Bicycle Stolen – Pledges to Pedal Across Country If Returned

abc10News: An Ocean Beach man is offering to pedal his one-of-a-kind bamboo bicycle across the United States as long as the stolen bike is returned. Rob Greenfield is an Ocean Beach resident who owns and operates The Greenfield Group, an environmentally-active marketing company.

Come inside for more ….

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.