OB Rag

By Elie Honig / New York Magazine / April 10, 2025

Donald Trump’s presidential payback tour rages on, and now it’s personal. It’s one thing to target multibillion-dollar law firms, universities, and media outlets for organizational retribution; those efforts, aimed at stifling and punishing any criticism or dissent, are reprehensible in their own right. But now Trump is going after individual private citizens, using the might of the executive branch to potentially throw his detractors in prison.

In a pair of official proclamations — rendered no less unhinged by the use of official fonts and White House letterhead — Trump identifies two targets who worked in the federal government during his first tenure and dared to speak out publicly against him.

First: Chris Krebs, who led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency from 2018 to 2020 and made headlines when he publicly contradicted Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. For this act of heretical truth-telling, Trump labels Krebs “a significant bad-faith actor” — whatever the hell that means — who poses grave “risks” to the American public.

And then there’s Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security official who publicly criticized the president in an anonymous book and various media appearances. Taylor, like Krebs, purportedly poses “risks” to the United States, is a “bad-faith actor” (though apparently not a significant one like Krebs), and “stoked dissension” with his public commentary.

By Jacob Knutson / Democracy Docket / April 10, 2025

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a major voter suppression measure that, if it became law, could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters and badly undermine U.S. democracy.

The vote count was 220 to 208, with four Democrats voting for the bill and zero Republicans opposing it. Democrats who voted for the bill were Reps. Jared Golden (Maine), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), Henry Cuellar (Texas) and Ed Case (Hawaii).

The SAVE Act would make it more difficult for active voters — Republicans and Democrats alike — to continue participating in elections, and would erect unprecedented barriers for new voters hoping to register and participate.

The bill appears to face long odds in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to overcome an expected Democratic filibuster.

“In a bold new departure for the forces of voter suppression, MAGA’s so-called ‘SAVE’ Act will make it harder for tens of millions of eligible Americans to vote, including tens of millions of people, mostly women, who change their names after marriage,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told Democracy Docket in a statement. “Every eligible voter should be able to access the ballot box, free from legislated intimidation, trickery and harassment.”

As usual the folks at Peninsula News are on top of what’s happening at the bay front. Here’s the latest …. (For any links in their article, please see the original.)

By Eric S. Page / 7SanDiego / April 10-11, 2025

Nobody seems to know when, exactly, a stretch of towering Mexican fan palms were planted along one of San Diego’s most iconic streets in one of its most iconic neighborhoods, but most would agree that the gently swaying giants, visible to the east as far away as the runway of San Diego International Airport, have come to be identified with the community of Mission Hills.

On Wednesday, April 9, the city of San Diego took steps to protect the trees for the future, placing 33 soaring fan palms under Conserve A Tree status after prodding from one local historian and the San Diego Community Forest Advisory Board, which recommended such an action at a meeting last month.

“Trees under protection status are meant to deter damages and tree removal by adjacent private property owners and identify the importance of the tree(s) to the community,” city spokesman Anthony Santacroce said in an email to NBC 7 on Thursday.

With the designation, the trees are believed to be the first examples of palms — of 400 or so historically designated trees in the city — to be offered the protections by the city in the two decades or so of the program.

Check out all these events around the Peninsula in the upcoming days and weeks — and thanks to our friends at Peninsula News.

By Erwin Chemerinsky and Laurence H. Tribe / RSN – New York Times / April 9, 2025

Of all the lawless acts by the Trump administration in its first two and a half months, none are more frightening than its dumping of human beings who have not had their day in court into an infamous maximum-security prison in El Salvador — and then contending that no federal court has the authority to right these brazen wrongs.

In an astounding brief filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, the solicitor general of the United States argued that even when the government concedes that it has mistakenly deported someone to El Salvador and had him imprisoned there, the federal courts are powerless to do anything about it. The Supreme Court must immediately and emphatically reject this unwarranted claim of unlimited power to deprive people of their liberty without due process.

That would seem to be the obvious response. It was Thomas Jefferson who called the right of habeas corpus to protect against unlawful detention one of the “essential principles of our government.”

Jefferson’s concerns are underscored by the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a lawful resident of the United States, whom the federal government admits it wrongly deported to El Salvador. He has been incarcerated in El Salvador along with some 200 Venezuelan migrants deported there last month by the Trump administration, which says they were involved in criminal and gang activity.

By Regina Elling / Point Loma – OB Monthly SD Union-Tribune / April 10, 2025

Whether by providing child care, youth and family services, resources for food and housing assistance and more, the T. Claude and Gladys B. Ryan Family YMCA in Point Loma has served a lot of people in its 55 years, “and we want to continue to serve for … generations to come,” according to Executive Director Jonathon Collopy.

That’s why the Ryan Family YMCA — previously known as the Peninsula Family YMCA — hopes for a new building to replace its current one at 4390 Valeta St., near Correia Middle School and Bill Cleator Park.

By Bruce Coons / Op-Ed San Diego Union-Tribune / April 10, 2025

Ricardo Flores’ recent opinion piece calling for the elimination of the Mills Act in San Diego, citing the city’s budget deficit and arguing that historic tax relief unfairly benefits wealthy homeowners, is an argument based on misleading claims and a fundamental misunderstanding of both the Mills Act and the role of historic preservation in our city’s economic and cultural vitality.

Preservation strengthens, not weakens, the city’s economy. The Mills Act is a proven tool that stimulates local economies by increasing property values, attracting visitors and generating jobs in restoration and tourism. It incentivizes the preservation of historic structures, which are essential to San Diego’s identity, economy, and quality of life. Far from being a drain on city resources, historic preservation drives long-term economic growth.

The tax adjustments granted through the Mills Act are modest compared to the economic benefits these historic properties provide over time. Eliminating the program would not solve the city’s financial challenges — but it would weaken neighborhood stability and undermine a key sector of San Diego’s economy.

No One in Charge at City’s Trash Fee Open House for District 2

By Kate Callen

Which is more dismissive? Someone who ignores you? Or someone who pretends to listen but clearly doesn’t care what you think?

If you’re okay with synthetic respect, the City’s Trash Fee Open Houses have been pleasant in a quaint sort of way.

The April 7 event for District 2 residents (including OBceans) felt like a high school science fair. Environmental Services staffers were friendly. Display tables featured toy-sized trash bins in three colors and giant photographs of the latest in trash trucks.

It would have been a worthwhile event if community members wanted to learn the finer points of top-notch waste management. But that’s not why they came.

Melanie and Bob Sherman of Point Loma were hoping someone in charge at City Hall would explain why trash fee estimates are so high. And they wanted assurance that new fees wouldn’t be skimmed for “administrative overhead.”

From Voice of San Diego / April 8, 2025

Two South Bay mayors will race for the open seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre will appear on the runoff ballot July 1.

With 11,000 votes still to count, McCann, a Republican, had won 44 percent of votes. Aguirre had gotten 32 percent of votes counted.

Two other Democrats in the race, San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno and Chula Vista City Councilmember Carolina Chavez, garnered too few votes – 13 percent and 8 percent – to overcome the frontrunners’ lead. Three other lesser-known candidates split the remainder of the vote.

McCann will come up short of the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright.

The artists toiling away in their studios and workspaces, and the environmental advocates encouraging others to join their work, believe in the power of art to nudge people to care a little more about nature. Locally, that power will be on display during a new exhibition at Grossmont College’s Hyde Art Gallery, “One River, Many Stories.”

The San Diego River Park Foundation and the San Diego River Artists’ Alliance are partnering in this display of the stories of the San Diego River and its ecosystem, with an opening reception from 4 to 6 p.m. March 25 (the exhibit is open March 24 to April 24; the artists will also meet with the public again from 2 to 4 p.m. April 10).

David Garrick at the U-T announced this morning that the City of San Diego is knocking 10% off its proposed trash fee as a response to all the push back from residents. But is that enough to placate angry residents?

Garrick:

The revised proposal announced Wednesday suggests a monthly rate of $47.59 for full-service customers — more than $5 less than the initial proposal of $53 per month that the city announced in February.

The fee would still rise in coming years when the city adds new services like bulky trash pickup. But instead of rising to $65 in July 2027, the fee would rise to $59.42 at that time.