OB Rag

By Onell R. Soto / SignOnSanDiego

A former manager at the San Onofre nuclear plant in North County said Wednesday that he was fired after complaining to nuclear regulators that his superiors were ignoring worker complaints. Paul Diaz, 35, of Oceanside, said he tried to go through channels within the plant when people he supervised raised questions, but was shot down.

“I needed to do something,” he said. And so he went to Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors based at the plant. He was then fired from his job in October as manager of business accounting and project services.

By Tony Barboza / Los Angeles Times

The waves off San Onofre have for generations beckoned surfers and sport fishermen to a wild stretch of coastline in the shadow of domed nuclear reactors.

Now, an Orange County entrepreneur wants to tap the power of that legendary surf in a novel but highly controversial plan to build one of the nation’s first hydrokinetic wave farms.

By Kendra Hartmann/SDNews.com

With budget cuts rearing their ugly head on a regular basis, news of more casualties falls on almost numb ears. The University of California, San Diego, however, is feeling the threat of tightening purse strings in a whole new way. For the students, scientists and public that frequent the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) Library, Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed cuts could mean the end of an era: the largest library in the world dedicated to marine science will likely close this summer.

“It doesn’t make any sense that our 100-year-old unique facility should be terminated,” said Walter Munk, professor emeritus at the UCSD Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and longtime SIO Library user.

Local Artists Capture “Conservation in Bloom”

SAN DIEGO – Join local artists as they celebrate the spring season at the eighth annual “Paint-Out” at the Water Conservation Garden (Garden) from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on April 9, 2011. Watercolorists of all skill levels are welcome to participate to capture on their canvases the lush, colorful scenery that springtime “California-friendly” blooms have brought to the Garden.

Thoughts Stemming from Viewing “Precious Knowledge”

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the range of ethnicities in our country, of how all human beings innately identify with racial and cultural ties that go back ages and ages in our personal histories. Who we are was set in place in ancient times. It’s natural, the way its supposed to be.

But somehow in the mix some human beings decide that their ethnicity is the ultimate of ethnicities and looks at others fearfully and fitfully.

By Stephanie Clifford and Catherine Rampell /NewYorkTimes.com/ March 28, 2011

Chips are disappearing from bags, candy from boxes and vegetables from cans. As an expected increase in the cost of raw materials looms for late summer, consumers are beginning to encounter shrinking food packages.

With unemployment still high, companies in recent months have tried to camouflage price increases by selling their products in tiny and tinier packages. So far, the changes are most visible at the grocery store, where shoppers are paying the same amount, but getting less.

I supported San Diego’s Stop the Ban campaign Monday (March 28) by attending a rally in front of City Hall. So many people showed up in opposition of this ban that not all of us could get into the building or inside the council chambers. There were some great messages rolling through the crowd on homemade signs. My personal favorites were: “Patient not pothead”, “Plants not pills”, and “Marijuana is a gateway drug” its punny message surrounded by junk food packaging.

Please come, hear the plans, and help launch a NEW THEATRE GROUP in OB. It’s a fundraiser for the 501 c 3 application for The Vagabond Theatre Project of Ocean Beach.

Only One Night – KARAOKE @ CHESWICKS, 5038 Newport Avenue, MARCH 30th, 2011, 7PM -11PM

By Janice Steinberg / San Diego U-T /  March 26, 2011 Back in 1913, the Wonderland Amusement Park in Ocean Beach…

Over forty people were in Collier Park Sunday, joining the potluck picnic commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Collier Park Riot of 1971. We have written about this, go here for our earlier post.

With Dave Rice’s mastery of the grill, with Patty’s awesome potato salad, Frank’s popular chicken, Doug’s savory deviled eggs, and everybody’s elses food and drink, the picnic god shined the sun on the gathering that lasted happily into the late afternoon.

What an extraordinary weekend! It ended Sunday with a picnic in Collier Park where some of us personally remembered and…

Two weeks into Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant crisis, the situation continues to worsen.

Among the headlines in today’s paper is “Breach feared at reactor—radiation high.” The Associated Press reported “Plant operators don’t know the source of radioactive water discovered in at Units 1 and 3.” The utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co., suspected that water found in Units 2 and 4 was similarly contaminated.