OB Rag

By JW August / Special to the OB Rag

From the trenches

Keeping up with the turmoil in Washington, D.C. is an insider who works for a large federal agency and is witnessing the confusion and missteps up close.

Identified only as “S,” given that this person is not authorized to speak publicly, this is what our source says are a number of different actions that are creating fear in D.C.

Trump is trying to block a ruling from a federal judge in California ordering the administration to rehire fired workers who had been on probationary status.  He is asking the Supreme Court to knock out lower court resistance to his actions.  Source “S” tells me President Trump’s staffers have instructed agencies to put the probationary workers on administrative leave to give his attorneys time to overturn the court’s injunction.

By Lisa Rein and Hannah Natanson / The Washington Post — Reader Supported News / March 25, 2025

A flood of cuts led by Elon Musk has sent the agency into chaos as a new commissioner prepares to take charge.

The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones at the front desk as receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. But the agency no longer has a system to monitor customers’ experience with these services, because that office was eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk.

And the phones keep ringing. And ringing.

The federal agency that delivers $1.5 trillion a year in earned benefits to 73 million retired workers, their survivors and poor and disabled Americans is engulfed in crisis — further undermining its ability to provide reliable and quick service to vulnerable customers, according to internal documents and more than two dozen current and former agency employees and officials, customers and others who interact with Social Security.

By Delaney White / Fox5 San Diego / March 24, 2025

A deal that was too good to be true cost a prospective renter in San Diego’s Ocean Beach thousands of dollars.

“I got fooled. It’s easy to get fooled,” said victim Alexzandria Moya. Alexzandria Moya said after posting on the Nextdoor app about needing a place to live, she was contacted by a woman offering a small one-and-a-half-bedroom house in Ocean Beach. That price is well below the average cost of rent for that area, which is about $2,500 a month, according to the Zumper rental market.

By Kate Callen

Mark your calendars: Mayor Todd Gloria will be the lead-off speaker at an “exclusive event” for accessory dwelling unit (ADU) developers this Thursday, March 27, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The event is titled “The Future of San Diego’s ADU Bonus Program: How Will It Reshape San Diego’s Housing Market?” The flyer, which was sent to the Rag by an anonymous source, doesn’t include a location, a registration link, or contact information.

The host appears to be JLM Real Estate, a self-described “commercial real estate team focusing on the sale of multifamily investment properties.” JLM’s San Diego office is in Mission Valley at 3945 Camino Del Rio South.

The invitation reads: “Join San Diego’s top multifamily investors and industry leaders for an exclusive event on the future of housing. Hear from expert panelists as they unpack the potential repeal of the ADU Bonus Program— set for a vote soon — and what it means for your investments, housing supply, and development opportunities.”

The annual Ocean Beach Woman’s Club’s Hat Contest is coming. It will be Thursday, April 3 kicking off at 6:30 p.m. at Dirty Birds, 1929 Cable St.

As a fundraiser for the Woman’s Club, it has become an event not to miss in OB’s social calendar.

This year there are several  categories:

• 101 Celebration Hat,
• Most OBecan,
• Most Outrageous, and
• Ode to Mae Clarke, one of the community’s early historical hat contestants.

From Rebusiness Online / March 25, 2025

It appears that an out-of-state modular home builder has bought the Canon Street Marina Center, a retail and office center in San Diego’s Point Loma Village, plus two adjacent properties. NorthStar Homes, a family-owned and run outfit from Colorado purchased the Canon Street and Scott Street properties for $8.2 million.

By Lynne Miller

I have been reading the City of San Diego’s Coastal Resilience Action Plan that is close to approval.  The more I read the less resilient I feel.  I don’t know, maybe I have reached the apple-faced age of the old man on Saturday Night Live who might say something like “I remember when there were  just a few people walking along the top of the cliffs,  fewer surfers, and I liked it that way!”

You young kooks who are staking your claim in the ocean never knew those ‘good old days’. I remember when Long Boards began bobbing in the summer surf, and a few locals had woodie wagons to transport guys and their boards to the swells.  It was well, swell. The best you teenagers and young adults can do is watch Bruce Brown movies and glimpse the good old days. ‘Who?’  Google it.

Truth is, if you under 60 kids like any part of Ocean Beach and the Cliffs, you will have to take the baton. ‘Huh?’  You know, the baton that is passed in relay races! I apologize, I am feeling like that grumpy old person who is battle-worn.  No need to take it out on young people with shiny smiles, tight skin, who are wearing rose-colored sunglasses.

Here is the thing– soon Sunset Cliffs will become a one-way street, which means the next street up the hill will also become a one-way street, and it goes right by my house. It may not change traffic too much, since cars make the loop by my house after sunset anyway.

And I hear you shouting NIMBY from that proposed rooftop bar!

By Neal Putnam / Peninsula Beacon / March 22, 2025

An Ocean Beach man has pleaded guilty to transmitting a threatening communication in an email to an ally of the LGBTQ community and suggested violence to her.

George Joseph Wellinger II, 49, will be sentenced on June 9 by U.S. District Court Judge Linda Lopez. She allowed him to remain free on a $50,000 bond with GPS monitoring.

This case involves someone who was interviewed for a KTLA television newscast about the murder of a shop owner in 2023 when she posted a Pride flag outside her business in Lake Arrowhead.

Wellinger threatened the person who gave the interview, writing she was “another alphabet clown that wants to take a dirt nap, too” with a link to the KTLA report.

From SanDiegoVille / March 2025

James Gang Printing, a cornerstone of San Diego’s Ocean Beach community since 1976, has closed its doors, leaving behind a nearly 50-year legacy of custom printing and local advocacy.

A sign on the door at 4851 Newport Avenue as of March 21, 2025, announced, “We are moving. If you have any questions please email info@jamesgangprinting.com,” suggesting a relocation rather than a permanent end, though the destination remains unclear. The closure marks the end of an era for a business that not only shaped Ocean Beach’s commercial landscape but also its cultural identity.

The James Gang story began in 1976 when brothers Ron, Rich, Greg, Mike, and Pat James – hence the “Gang” – founded James Gang Graphics on Newport Avenue. The siblings, part of a Navy family that had moved between San Diego, the Aleutian Islands, and Redding, California, were drawn back to the city’s warmth and Ocean Beach’s laid-back vibe.

By Lisa Mortensen / March 23, 2025

See this first — From inewsource:

The city of San Diego may soon charge one of the highest trash fees in Southern California. But there is one way homeowners could stop it.

Proposition 218, a state law passed in 1996 to require approval from those facing a rate increase by government agencies, includes a property owner’s right to cast a written protest against a new fee or increase. It’s called a majority protest: If more than half of eligible property owners submit a written, “valid” protest, then the City Council would not be able to implement a trash fee. Councilmembers will discuss new reports on the fee schedule on April 14, city officials said.

By Matthew Garcia Monges

The air carries the scent of salt and a trace of cigarettes. Above, white cotton-ball clouds drift lazily across the crisp blue sky. At the corner of Newport and Abbott in Ocean Beach, the scene is alive with movement and character.

A man dances atop the concrete wall facing the sea, stretching into a full split before fluidly waving his arms, as if conducting an orchestra only he can hear. There is no audible music, only the crashing of waves. Intrigued, I ask him what draws him to this place.

“Well, I’m a siren, darling,” he tells me theatrically, without skipping a beat on his movements. “A siren lures people in with its song. There’s an artistic beauty, but a chaos underneath. That’s me. And this place, it’s the people, the energy, the wacky art on the walls. It’s liberating.” With that, he returns to his rhythms, as I return to my role as a spectator.