Category: Media

By Paul Krueger / Times of San Diego / December 13, 2025

Mayor Todd Gloria is spreading the word about a national survey that shows 76% of San Diego residents are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with their city.

According to Gensler Research, San Diego ranks second in “satisfaction with their city as a place to live,” trailing only San Antonio with a 78% score.

But Axios, which published the results, cautioned that “satisfaction” is a “broad” term, defined as “a general vibe check on how people are feeling about job opportunities, housing costs, safety and other key urban issues.”

And the survey’s methodology reveals a very significant — even disqualifying — limitation: The poll was conducted more than a year ago, from July 18 to Nov 24, 2024.

Since then, there’s been a flurry of activity at City Hall, and most of it is having a negative impact on our personal finances.

By Teri Figueroa / San Diego Union-Tribune / December 8, 2025

Two years after a split San Diego City Council agreed to install 500 automated license plate recognition cameras throughout town, the technology is up for review — and it’s still controversial.

On Tuesday, the council is slated to look at the plate readers as part of a review of 54 surveillance technologies that police use, which also includes cameras officers wear on their uniforms and SWAT robots and tactical equipment.

San Diego police hail the readers as a force multiplier that helps solve crimes. In 2024, San Diego had 36 homicides in San Diego. Information gleaned from the license plate readers aided in nearly a third of the investigations and helped lead to six apprehensions, police said. Without the technology, a spokesperson said, four of those cases would not have been solved.

Police also note that since the system was launched, they have recovered $6 million in stolen property, including more than 400 vehicles.

Critics argue that the automated license plate readers create a mass surveillance network and intrude on civil rights. And as communities reel from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns, many fear the federal government could muscle access to local surveillance systems despite laws barring such. An Associated Press investigation published last month said the U.S. Border Patrol is using a license plate reader program that flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on travel routes and locations.

By OB Staff 

David Garrick, the San Diego Union-Tribune’s City Hall Reporter, will give a Saturday, December 13 presentation on “This Just In: Covering the City Hall Beat.”

The forum, part of a series organized by the San Diego Community Coalition, will take place from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. at the Logan Heights Library, 567 S. 28 Street. Following Garrick’s brief remarks, the floor will open for questions from the audience.

Garrick has had a front row seat in San Diego politics for more than a decade. When he started covering City Hall in 2014, Kevin Faulconer was the new Mayor, Todd Gloria was City Council President, and Sempra Energy occupied the tower at 101 Ash Street.

Sometimes the best truth in a newspaper can be found in its Letters to the Editor.This is what happened in today’s (Dec.2) LA Times where a reader raised needed and serious questions about a recent news article about the “Feds monitoring, detaining drivers,” that was published in the Times on Nov. 21 — with a similar story being published in the Rag that same day, with the headline, “The Border Patrol Is Monitoring the Driving of American Citizens — Detaining Those With ‘Suspicious’ Patterns.” It’s such a crazy and frightening story that none of our readers raised questions or commented. But Charles Petithomme of Burbank had the nerve to do so with the Times. Here, below is his letter in full.

Re “Feds monitoring, detaining drivers,” Nov. 21

What a frightening story that leaves so many unanswered questions.

Questions about who is being pulled over: Was the system tested before being made operational? Does the targeting algorithm have built-in biases? What is the racial composition of the people being surveilled? What is the conviction rate of those being surveilled?

Trump called for the Democratic lawmakers to be “arrested and placed on trial” in social media posts because of their video message.

President Donald Trump on Thursday, Nov. 20, accused six Democratic-lawmakers of “seditious behavior,” calling for them to “be arrested and put on trial” for behavior that, he said, could be “punishable by death.”

All because of a video they made earlier in the week and distributed widely telling military and intelligence officers to “refuse illegal orders.” Which is the law.

The lawmakers, all of whom are veterans or had worked in the CIA did not urge any illegal actions. They include Democratic Senators Elissa Slotkin, of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona, and House of Representatives members  Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Jason Crow of Colorado.

In response to their video, Trump responded on social network:

“It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand – We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET,” the president wrote in one Truth Social post Thursday morning, linking to an article about the video from the Washington Examiner.

“This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???” Trump wrote in another post.

In a third, he wrote: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

By Frank Gormlie

I’m happy to share the news that two of the Rag’s current commentators and long-time San Diego journalist have received well-deserved awards of merit from local non-profit organizations.

J.W. August was honored by the San Diego Press Club with a “Best in Show” award for “Best Daily and Online Entry Excellence in Journalism.” August was recognized for his KPBS report on a detective in the Navy Criminal Investigations Division who is now serving time for abusing a federal prisoner in custody.

Paul Krueger was honored by the San Diego County Taxpayers Association with the Chairman’s Golden Watchdog Award for Grassroots Advocacy. Paul is a co-founder of both Neighbors for a Better San Diego and the San Diego Community Coalition.

By JW August

Eric DuVall could be called the Bard of OB.  But it’s not just the locals who may think that.

A blue ribbon panel of professionals from press clubs across America awarded DuVall “Body of Work” award for a series of stories for his column, “A Page from History,” which he writes for The Point Loma – OB Monthly. The Monthly is owned by the MediaNews Group, which also owns the San Diego Union-Tribune.  His work is also published in the Beach & Bay Press, Point Loma Magazine and publications, including here at the Rag.

He is a prolific, careful, thoughtful, writer who paints pictures with his words and evokes humor in his storytelling about the historical and cultural identity of Ocean Beach and Point Loma.

He was honored along with some of the region’s best communicators at the 52nd annual San Diego Press Club Awards held in Kearny Mesa at The Encore Event Center, formerly the historic XETV 6 studios.  San Diego’s Press Club has one of the largest memberships in the country and receives entries from all across the San Diego media landscape.

One last book sale!  Can you help on Sunday set up or take down? Give Laura a call/text/or email and let her know if you can help.

Laura says:

Set up time is from 11 to 12 on Sunday, Nov. 9th.  Meet at the Annex (4817 Santa Monica) and we will schlepp the trolleys and tables over to Vignettes.

By Frank Gormlie, OB Rag Publisher/ Editordude

I want to extend my personal congratulations to Shane Harris, the new owner and publisher of the San Diego Monitor and Business Journal, and to warmly welcome him to the local news media community in this town.

Shane has a distinguished record of civic leadership and of advocacy for civil rights. He has been a powerful force for justice, and has spoken out for so many whose voices are too often silenced. Now he will become a force for the mission of journalism, which is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

A new television pilot shot around Ocean Beach and featuring local musicians, “End of the 8”,  will have a public screening. It will be at The Harp — 4935 Newport Avenue in OB. Doors open at 6pm, screening at 8. Wednesday, October 29, 2025.

From La Prensa San Diego News Desk / October 22-23, 2025

A local Superior Court Judge has ordered the City of Chula Vista to pay over $500,000 to the law firm that represented La Prensa San Diego in its successful lawsuit over the release of videos recorded by police drones.

The lawsuit, filed in May 2021 seeking the release of Chula Vista Police Department drone videos, was upheld for the second time by the California Supreme Court on August 14th, ending over four years of litigation.

On October 9th, San Diego Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal awarded attorney Cory Briggs all of the legal fees and costs his firm incurred in the case since May 2021, when the lawsuit was filed, plus she granted Briggs a 1.5 multiple on his fees as reimbursement for having taken the case on contingency.

Bacal also weighed the fact that the case created a new precedent as a matter of “first impression” that went before both the Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court.

In 2018, Chula Vista’s police department became the first law enforcement agency in the country authorized by the FAA to fly drones beyond visual line-of-sight of the operator as part of a pilot program to help create a safe process for drones to be used as first responders to reduce emergency response times and increase officer safety.

Three years after the program launched, LPSD requested copies of police drone videos from just one month —March 2021— for an article on how the program was going and, specifically, to see how CVPD was using their drones.

Chula Vista’s then-City Attorney, Glen Googins, rejected the request for videos,

by Ernie McCray

We as a country
should keep alive
the brief firing of Jimmy Kimmel,
remembering it for what it was:
a vicious attack
on his Freedom of Speech,
the most precious right
of citizens of a free society,
taken from him
on the whim
of a president
who lives in fear
of any negative words that are spoken about him
or spoken about anyone or anything
that represents him.