Category: Media

by Roberto Camacho / Times of San Diego • Palabra / March 1, 2026

In a typically cool spring morning in San Diego, muralist Daniel Angeles took a phone call that chilled his soul: His first piece of public art in the city’s Latino-centric Barrio Logan, a large mural called “Birth of the Hummingbird,” was being erased. He clicked on a live video and was horrified that his masterwork was being painted over — the vibrant colors of his mural gradually covered by mundane, muddy browns.

Angeles called the property’s owner, who, years before, had allowed him to paint the building’s street-facing wall and fence. Angeles thought of invoking the California Art Preservation Act and the federal Visual Artist Rights Act of 1990, written to help artists preserve public works. Damaging or modifying works without an artist’s consent can be unlawful. Property owners are supposed to send notice three months before demolition or repainting, giving artists time to remove, document or relocate their murals.

“I was shocked. I couldn’t do anything since I was at a music performance for my oldest daughter,” Angeles said. “She was performing when this youngster FaceTimed me as he was running toward the wall to show me a couple of guys were going over the art with rollers and dark paint. I couldn’t believe that it was going away.”

Angeles, who paints under the name Dentlok, is a celebrated muralist, tattoo artist and long-time resident of the neighborhood. He said he received no warning before his prized mural was erased.

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by Dave Schwab  / Times of San Diego / Feb. 17, 2026

Near Valentine’s Day 1964, a young, recently married couple, Johnny and Joyce Swindle, were killed by a lone sniper as they stood behind the Ocean Bean seawall watching the sunset.

This random double murder was never solved.

Nor were the homicides of four more young couples killed at isolated California locations near water, at dusk, and with the same .22-caliber bullets.

Those killings were attributed to the infamous Zodiac Killer, who taunted police, was never apprehended, and who went silent six years later. Some criminologists became convinced that the Ocean Beach Valentine’s Day murders were an early trial experiment of this serial killer.

Please join the Ocean Beach Historical Society on Thursday, February 19, 2026, 7pm, at Water’s Edge Community, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd. Local author Jill Hall discusses her recent novel “On a Sundown Sea”

OB Rag Staff Report

KPBS Public Media informed staff on February 11 that News Director Terence Shepherd and Director of People and Culture Lois Hoyt were “no longer with” the station. The internal memo signed by Chief of Staff Travis Tamasese gave no specifics about why both senior executives were leaving simultaneously.

“We recognize that these announcements, though unrelated, are being shared at the same time and reflect a great amount of change for the organization,” Tamasese wrote. “Please know that we are here to support you if you would like to touch base.”

Shepherd joined KPBS in 2022 after eight years as news director of WLRN, Florida’s major public news outlet. He previously worked as a business editor at the Miami Herald.

It’s amazing. Saturday morning, January 24 — the morning that ICE / border patrol agents shot and murdered Alex Pretti — was 3 days ago – and today we still don’t know who shot him. We still don’t know which agent or agents fired the 10 bullets into his body at point-blank range.

Is it because there were so many agents surrounding Alex and pummeling him that investigators can’t figure out the individual identities?

No, authorities know who it is – they’re just not saying. ICE agents operate with impunity, under masks and with loaded machine guns.

Okay, so Greg Bovino is leaving with a few other agents and ol’ Tom Horman is coming in to quiet everybody down. You know Horman, he’s the gruff-speaking, bulldog looking guy from central casting — he reminds me of actor Broderick Crawford of the TV show Highway Patrol — who allegedly accepted a bag of $50,000 cash from FBI agents during a crime investigation — and got to keep it and who of course was not charged.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are getting ready to shut the government down unless funding for ICE is removed from the spending packages.

Well what do we know? What have authorities said about the trigger happy agent? (What happened to the idea that multiple agents actually fired into Pretti?)

Next Stop: New York City TV Festival, Jan. 28 – 30

by Tessa Balc / Times of San Diego /  Jan. 19, 2026

Ocean Beach got its own show this fall, and now it’s starting to garner some serious attention on the independent film circuit.

In October, Daniel Dyer premiered the first episode of “End of the 8,” named for the Ocean Beach location where Interstate 8 hits the Pacific Ocean. But OB isn’t just the show’s setting; the bohemian beach town also functions like a character in the show.

Dyer’s premier event sold out local bar The Harp. Clips disseminated on social media have led total strangers to yell “end of the f—–g 8” at Dyer when they see him around the neighborhood.

Now the show will travel across the country, premiering at the New York City TV Festival, taking place Jan. 28 – 30.

By Wild Oscar / Escondido Grapevine / January 12, 2026

“One Battle After Another,” the new Warner Bros. picture written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, opened recently— and it doesn’t merely visit San Diego. It moves in, rearranges the furniture, and leaves its footprints all over the place.

Last year the production spent roughly six weeks roaming the region with cameras and cables, collecting scenery the way tourists collect fridge magnets. Border areas. Otay Mesa. Borrego Springs. Downtown. If you squint during the trailers, you can practically hear the local traffic reports.

“Definitely when you see this on the big screen, you’re going to see a lot of San Diego in it,” said Guy Langman, the city’s film program manager, sounding like a man who’s already spotted familiar palm trees in the rushes.

The county, never one to waste a good ledger entry, says the shoot pumped nearly $7 million into the local economy—hotels, catering, wages for extras and crew, and assorted cinematic odds and ends that don’t usually show up on a tourist brochure.

The filmmakers, meanwhile, were not motivated solely by sunshine and civic pride. California’s tax credits played their part.

In Minneapolis and other cities where federal agents have led immigration crackdowns, residents have formed loose networks to track and protest them.

By Julie Bosman / New York Times / Jan. 14, 2026

It began in Los Angeles, in Signal chats and strategy sessions on Zoom. Last year, as immigration raids proliferated throughout the city, Latino activists and neighbors began organizing a response, monitoring for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents along sidewalks and in Home Depot parking lots and texting their networks when they spotted an arrest underway.

By late summer, activists in Chicago were trained and ready. Before the Trump administration had announced a crackdown called Operation Midway Blitz, immigrant rights organizations had handed out orange whistles for volunteers to use as a public warning system, formed “rapid-response” groups and advised people to report sightings of ICE agents and memorize their own legal rights. Chicagoans, even many without formal ties to protest groups, showed defiance against ICE with “Hands Off Chicago” signs adorned with the city’s beloved starred-and-striped flag, placed prominently in windows of restaurants and bungalows.

And in recent weeks in Minneapolis, the latest focus for a Trump administration surge of immigration enforcement, a loose but growing network of neighborhood volunteers has shown up near reported arrests, yelling at agents and recording them on iPhone cameras. Some gathered near hotels where agents were believed to be staying, pounding drums and making noise.

Please join Ocean Beach Historical Society, for A View From My Trike, Thursday evening, January 15, 2026 at 7:00 pm, at Water’s Edge Community, 1894 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.

OBHS Board Member and talented writer Mercy Baron presents an engaging selection of her stories from the San Diego Reader.

This fun and lively presentation will kick off Ocean Beach Historical Society’s 32nd season of free monthly programs.

By Steve Rodriguez

The start of a new year always brings forth a flurry of predictions for what to expect in the coming months. Predictions can range from the wild to the more reasonable, with prognostications coming from a variety of individuals to include mystical clairvoyants, creative visionaries, and more research-based futurists.

Instead of just waiting to review such predictions, I thought this year I would do some hard thinking and come up with my own look into what 2026 might bring forth at both local and national levels.

My approach is a mixture of amateur psychic, sophisticated seer and analytical trend forecaster.  Not to intentionally downplay my prophetic talents, but some of these predictions are easier to make than others. After all, predictions are often based on data and patterns reflecting past behavior. On the other hand, some of the more extraordinary prophecies can be attributed to my exceptional gut instinct.

Quite frankly, I enjoy being called a “futurist.”  In fact, just the other day as I was walking through the neighborhood, I heard someone say, “Look, it’s the smarty pants futurist, too bad he can’t bother to look ahead to figure out which week to put out the blue recycling bin.”

In any event, here is my list of the top 26 headlines we can expect to see sometime in 2026.

1.     Padres Hire New Batting Instructor