Category: Health

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.

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.