OB Rag

There has been troubles at OB’s dog parks recently – there have been maulings and deaths of small dogs at both Dusty Rhodes Dog Park and at Dog Beach. In response, a community meeting is being held tonight, July 22nd, at the OB Recreation Center at 5:30pm. The Rec Center is at the corner of Santa Monica and Ebers.

Legislation to extend unemployment benefits overcame a Republican filibuster in the Senate yesterday, putting more than 400,000 Californians a step closer to having their benefits checks reinstated.

But suspended checks are only part of the state’s unemployment woes: 34.5 percent of teen workers in the state were out of a job in June. That’s compared to 25.7 percent of teens nationwide and is nearly three times higher than the state’s overall unemployment rate.

Workers 16 to 19 years old face the highest rates of unemployment of any age group. Teen unemployment in California is more than double what it was in 2000, according to the state Employment Development Department.

For some time I’ve been wanting to say something about Betty Brown, an old friend who passed away a few weeks ago. It’s taken me a while because the pressing question for me has been how does one summarize such a noteworthy woman’s life accomplishments? Listing them would fill an extremely tall and wide notebook, not to mention exhaust the reader.

But I’ve decided to go with simplicity beginning with the reality that there are many advocates for children on the planet but not many of them, including myself, could keep up with Betty’s pace as a community activist without gasping for air.

Late Monday (July 19) afternoon housing activists took over the long vacant 43-unit Sierra Hotel in San Francisco’s Mission District. The hotel has been empty for years and is in a state of disrepair though structurally sound. The takeover is “a collective act of homefulness” to protest government cuts of social services that will result in more people being out on the streets.

OAKLAND, California — The city of Oakland, California on Tuesday legalized large-scale marijuana cultivation for medical use and will issue up to four permits for “industrial” cultivation starting next year.

The move by the San Francisco Bay Area city aims to bring medical marijuana cultivation into the open and allow the city to profit by taxing those who grow it.

The Project Review Committee of the OB Planning Board will be determining whether to authorize a request to remodel cottages on Niagara next to the OB Pier, on Wednesday, July 21.

The owner of the cottages – called the Colburn Residences and located at 5072 Niagara Avenue – wants to remodel an existing residence and add 288 square feet. The site is .23 of an acre and has an additional five residences.

“Terriers” is our new Twentieth Century TV series, which recently finished shooting its 12 episodes, including the pilot. The show is going to air in the fall line-up for the FX Channel. I wanted to provide some insight on what it takes to get a show like this to work in San Diego.

Rare Coastal Habitat In San Diego Needs Volunteers July 24th

By Ed Joyce / KPBS / July 19, 2010

San Diego is home to one of the few remaining coastal dune habitats in California.The area is also a key nesting area for an endangered bird. The rare jewel can be found in the midst of Ocean Beach.

Rob Hutsel is the executive director of the San Diego River Park Foundation, which is involved in helping to protect the coastal dune habitat in Ocean Beach.

As a child growing up in Tucson I would sometimes, on a comfortable April day, ride my beat up blue Schwinn out to the foothills – and just soak in the beauty of the Sonoran Desert’s flowers of spring as they danced in the warm breezes, showing off their brilliant yellow and purple and orange and red and blue petals that cling to their striking green stems like lovers on a honeymoon.

Such moments soothed my young soul, making all the world feel like a lilting melody sung in perfect harmony. And to stay with this idea of music as a metaphor for “good feelings,” the world’s music, at the time, did make everything seem “copacetic” as the devotees of jazz and swing used to say in their cool ness.

by MSNBC Staff / July 18, 2010

Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, top-secret intelligence gathering by the government has grown so unwieldy and expensive that no-one really knows what it costs and how many people are involved, The Washington Post reported Monday.

A two-year investigation by the newspaper found what it called a “Top Secret America” that’s hidden from public view and largely lacking in oversight. The newspaper’s investigation is based on hundreds of interviews with intelligence, military and other officials, as well as public documents and records.

In its first installment of a series of reports, the Post said there are now more than 1,200 government organizations and more than 1,900 private companies working on counterterrorism, ….

You want to talk outrage? How about this one: My brother Jack showed me a letter he received from Halliburton via his lawyer. Yes- that Halliburton. It appears that Halliburton has declared bankruptcy. And because they have declared bankruptcy, they will only be required to pay out pennies on the dollar in the settlement of my brother’s suit.

Two years ago my brother was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare and deadly kind of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

by R. M. Schneiderman / Newsweek / July 17, 2010

So far, no modern country has ever legalized marijuana production—not even the Netherlands. Yet with heavy drug-related violence plaguing the U.S.-Mexican border, some analysts and policymakers now say that America should legalize weed in order to reduce the power of Mexico’s drug cartels.

Marijuana carries the least amount of overhead cost for many of the cartels and provides some of their cash flow for buying guns and influence. Estimates vary, but analysts say pot accounts for somewhere in the range of 20 to 50 percent of the cartels’ profits. But that could soon change with competition from El Norte: California has a proposition set for the November ballot—on which voters are roughly split—that would legalize the drug’s domestic production and sale.