Category: History

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.

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 Frank Thomas and John Lawrence

Is the Gassing of 1400 Syrians More of a Crime Against Humanity Than the Slaughter of 100,000 Syrians?

Frank Thomas’ take:

Russia’s ongoing multi-dollar sales of advanced massively destructive weapons to Assad’s government has exacerbated the killing fields in Syria. Yet Russia sanctimoniously thinks the rest of the world, namely the U.S., has no right of humanitarian intervention to protect the lives of innocents being slaughtered by chemical weapons and more so by Russia’s own prolific arms sales to Assad’s military forces.

Russia would remind us that for many years (1980-88) Saddam Hussein’s army blatantly used mustard and nerve gases at will against Iran and even the people of Iraq. Foreign Policy has just published CIA documents confirming Washington and other western nations knew of Iraq’s production and use of chemical gases and even delivered some raw materials.

Editor: It has been a week since the passing of our good friend, Jon Christensen, who wrote on occasion for both the OB Rag and the San Diego Free Press, writing under his initials, JEC. Here, below, we repost his two-part series on “Riding the Rails in the West – The State of Amtrak”:

Part I: Are We There Yet?

by JEC

Its 6am – still dark with a morning fog when we board the Pacific Surfliner in San Diego. While there is a train leaving at 6:35 am, Amtrak urges passengers booked on the Coast Starlight to take the first train out at 6 am, likely based on experience with frequent delays. But today’s train leaves on time with a few dozen blurry eyed passengers. We were bound for Chicago via Oakland.

Days before we departed, I had mentioned to my doctor I was about to leave on a train trip, from San Diego to Chicago via Oakland. He looked up, surprised, “what, you can do that, take a train from here to Chicago?”

A more common response – why would you want to? Ask yourself, to get from one city to the next; to go from LA to the Bay Area or Sacramento, or San Diego to Phoenix – does Amtrak come to mind? If you’re like 96% of the population the answer is a simple no. In California only 5% rely on public transportation to get to and from and Amtrak accounts for only a small portion.

By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner

Once upon a time there was a man with an unquenchable impulse to invite women out to breakfast, lunch, or dinner. He seemed oblivious to a fact most other men understand — there are circumstances when it’s okay to sweet-talk a woman and other circumstances when it’s not.

For a man known to be adept and dynamic at public speaking he was oddly banal and unimaginative at the art and practice of seduction: are you married… you are beautiful… your eyes mesmerize me… I want you to have dinner with me.

This man, according to TV and news accounts, routinely crossed the proverbial line. It was reported that he surprised some women with a kiss on the cheek, or forehead, or mouth – even, purportedly, a french kiss. Two or three women said he patted the vicinity where their rear ends reside. There were reports of fumbled attempts to touch a breast. A few recalled provocative whispers in their ear.

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.”

By Bill Adams /UrbDeZine San Diego / August 31, 2013

By now, most of the nation is aware of San Diego’s mayoral scandal, which was reported in such national media outlets as CNN, Chris Mathews Hardball, New York Times, etc. and included international legal gadfly Gloria Allred elbowing her way onto center stage. Former 10 term congressman Bob Filner had been Mayor of San Diego only 6 months before it all came to an inglorious and undemocratic end. The conventional wisdom is that the Mayor was accused by 18 women of sexual harassment leading to his resignation.

A former Freedom Rider, he was elected in the 2012 presidential election in one of the widest turnouts for a Mayoral election in the City’s history. It was a referendum for dramatic change, embodied in the policy positions and persona of Bob Filner. He was elected on a vision of prioritizing planning, neighborhoods, transit, affordable housing, labor, and livable city concepts. He was quick to deliver action on his promises . . . perhaps too quick.

By Jim Miller

Today is Labor Day, but how many of us have any idea where the holiday came from or what it celebrates?

The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5th, 1882 in New York City and was proposed by the Central Labor Union (CLU) at a time when American workers were struggling for basic rights such as the eight-hour day. The CLU moved the “workingman’s holiday” to the first Monday in September in 1883 and urged other unions to celebrate the date as well.

The movement grew throughout the 1880s, along with the American labor movement itself with 23 states passing legislation recognizing Labor Day as a holiday. By 1894 Congress followed suit and Labor Day became a national holiday.

Our good friend Jon Christensen passed away on Wednesday, August 28th, due to a heart attack. Jon would have been 64 on September 9th.

Jon wrote for the OB Rag and for the San Diego Free Press on occasion, and wrote under his initials “JEC”. His last piece – just posted on August 20th – called for the establishment of bicycle expressways throughout San Diego.

Much could be said about this former OBcean, who came to San Diego 40 years ago. He was a “survivor” at the County where he was employed for 30 years as staff and managers for elected officials. He was an avid sailor – twenty years ago, he designed and built his own trimaran and took it on its maiden sail in the Sea of Cortez.

by Marjorie Cohn and Jeanne Mirer / Common Dreams

The drums of war are beating again. The Obama administration will reportedly launch a military strike to punish Syria’s Assad government for its alleged use of chemical weapons. A military attack would invariably kill civilians for the ostensible purpose of showing the Syrian government that killing civilians is wrong.

“What we are talking about here is a potential response . . . to this specific violation of international norms,” declared White House press secretary Jay Carney. But a military intervention by the United States in Syria to punish the government would violate international law.

By Matthew Wood

The Torrey Pine on the 4300 block of Orchard Street estimated to be more than a century old is still standing, but neighbors wonder for how long.

A tree maintenance service team, scheduled to cut the tree down last week, was persuaded by Doug Harvey and Mary Cairns, neighbors across the alley, to postpone the job. They had reached out to Chris Caplaneris, the owner of the house where the tree sits, to trim branches that reached out over the alley. That somehow turned out into Caplaneris deciding to take out the entire tree, the neighbors say.

“This all came about because we wanted some branches to be pruned,” said Harvey, a real estate agent who says he is in the process of obtaining a degree in landscape architecture. “We’ll live with some sap.”

By Pete

Something smells awful fishy here in San Diego and I think its the politics. For the past thirty years the Republicans have worked along with the elite developers to spend every dime in & around the downtown area, as the rest of the city went unnoticed. High rise condo’s sit vacant, an over sized & over priced unnecessary library built downtown as libraries around the city closed or went unfunded, A new & over priced Baseball park built downtown for a below average team & lots of talk about a new Charger stadium, again, downtown, for the elite developer friends of the Republican mayors.

When Bob Filner beat the Republican front runner, Carl DeMaio, who was alleged to having been backed by big oil money from the Koch brothers in Texas, it was a shock that traveled through out the city. Filner, not only started his political career here in San Diego being on the City Council representing District Eight, one of the poorest districts in the city, but he also was a United States Congressman for over twenty years, and was returning to where it had all started to finally pull San Diego from the grips of the powerful strong hold the Republicans have been enjoying for thirty plus years.