OB Rag

The California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District on Tuesday ruled that a state agency may not pull over and search a motorist on a mere hunch that a lobster might be hidden in the vehicle. The court considered the case of Bounh Maikhio, a motorist stopped by Department of Fish and Game Warden Erik Fleet on August 19, 2007 at 11pm. That evening, Fleet had been spying through a telescope on the Ocean Beach pier in San Diego when he saw Maikhio put something into his bag.

Occasionally news in San Diego affects us at the beach. Here are a few recent headlines of interest to sand crabs, seagulls and smoldering fire pits:

Lawyers Group Honors Judge Boycotted by DA Dumanis

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in town pushing for jobs

City Council declines endorsement of medical marijuana regulations

Court upholds San Diego School District’s right to assure that school construction jobs will employ local residents

January 6, 2010. Tonight, the Ocean Beach Planning Board voted unanimously to “strenuously oppose” the removal of fire pits from Ocean Beach Park. The meeting, chaired by vice-chair Giovanni Ingolia, was held at the Recreation Center and started at 6pm.

Brought to the Board via an agenda item initiated by Board member and former chair, Landry Watson, the issue of the City’s planned removal of OB’s eight fire pits along with the remaining pits around San Diego – a total of 186 – was termed “a hot issue” by Watson.

Hey, guys, I guess you’ll have to “Bear Down” without me. I was looking forward to ambling – or whatever you call the way we 70 plus year old dudes walk now – out to mid court with you at the halftime of the U of A/Washington game while thousands of Wildcat fans look at us, going “You guys played basketball?”

Well, I intended to be there but I lost my wife a few months ago and I find that my energy ebbs and flows. …But, wow, has it really been fifty years since we were tearing it up back in old Bear Down Gym….

By Patrick Goldstein / Los Angeles Times / January 5, 2010

It’s no secret that “Avatar” has been stunningly successful on nearly every front. The James Cameron-directed sci-fi epic is already the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time, having earned more than $1 billion around the globe in less than three weeks of theatrical release. The film also has garnered effusive praise from critics, who’ve been planting its flag on a variety of critics Top 10 lists. The 3-D trip to Pandora is also viewed as a veritable shoo-in for a best picture Oscar nomination when the academy announces its nominees on Feb. 2.

But amid this avalanche of praise and popularity, guess who hates the movie? America’s prickly cadre of political conservatives.

It’s been nearly half a century since the Peninsula Community Plan was officially launched by Peninsulans, Inc., its creator, in December of 1965. For the first time the organization of Point Loman business and property elites opened their vision of Point Loma and its sub-communities to the public.

The first urban plan for Ocean Beach was to grow out of this endeavor, as OB then was simply viewed as one of those sub-communities of the greater peninsula.

Peninsulans, Inc., or just “Pen Inc” – itself the child of the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce – had been officially endorsed by the San Diego City Council as “the citizen’s committee” for area planning on Point Loma. In 1968, three years after its launch, the Peninsula Community Plan was adopted by the City Council as the official plan for the Point Loma communities.

Originally posted Jan. 4, 2010

by Dickie Magidoff / January 4, 2010

For the New Year I send you all great appreciation and thanks from up here in the north country of California.

For me, reading the OB Rag online is something like having a great reality show or Sims computer game to watch – the biggest difference of course being that, unlike reality shows,
OB is real – and reading about the community good times, the community struggles, the great pictures, the genuine controversies, with real people going back and forth (with some humor) evolving a community perspective dazzling in its texture, inspiring in its purpose, and potent in its action—it helps keep me going in this very conservative place where I live.

The most recent reader poll by the OB Rag shows very broad support for San Diego’s fire pits – 82% want to keep them. Three-quarters of those who want to keep them think the “Adopt-a-Fire-Pit” program is a good idea.

Respondents to the two and half week poll, which ran from December 15th to January 3rd, were divided in how they want the fire pits to be saved. 55% like the Adopt program for OB. 6% thought someone with “deep pockets” should be found to pay for their maintenance. Another 14% were more demanding in their approach – and voted for “I pay taxes – at least give me a fire pit,” while another 8% voted to save all of San Diego’s fire pits. 1% said ‘you use it – you clean it.’

FIRE PITS ON OB PLANNING BOARD AGENDA – JAN. 6TH

New Church: “T’was the night before Christmas … and you’re fired!”

Stabbing Death of OB Homeless Man One of City’s Unsolved Murders of 2009

OB Historical Society Presents Local Photographer Steve Rowell in “Our Local Wildlife”

By Dwight Garner / The New York Times / December 29, 2009

Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1998 movie, “The Big Lebowski,” which stars Jeff Bridges as a beatific, pot-smoking, bowling-obsessed slacker known as the Dude, snuck up on the English-speaking world during the ’00s: it became, stealthily, the decade’s most venerated cult film. It’s got that elusive and addictive quality that a great midnight movie has to have: it blissfully widens and expands in your mind upon repeat viewings.

“The Big Lebowski” has spawned its own shaggy, fervid world: drinking games, Halloween costumes, bumper stickers (“This aggression will not stand, man”) and a drunken annual festival that took root in Louisville, Ky., and has spread to other cities.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. The big news around downtown OB today was the big waves, number one – which forced the OB Pier to be closed by lifeguards. And number two, the infamous “Charlie Brown” OB Christmas Tree came down – to be recycled.

With large swells arriving up and down the Southern Cal coast, and with a National Weather Service high surf advisory in effect until 10 p.m. on Monday, local lifeguards had to close the pier, while a few top-notch surfers braved the waves – which could have been as high as 8 feet.

* OB’s Tsunami Signs Merit a Union-Tribune Quote from the OB Rag
* Pagan Trees to Robb Field
* OB Christmas Tree Comes Down for Recycling on Dec 29th
* OB Parade Committee Email Hi-Jacked!
* Up to 30 Suspected Illegal Immigrants Run from Boat in OB

* Councilmember Faulconer Proposes ‘Sponsors’ for Lifeguard Training and Equipment
* New York Times to Pick Up OB’s “Adopt-A-Fire-Pit” Story
* Local Wonderland San Diego Producer Noah Tafolla Gets Props
* OBMA’s Winners of the Holiday Storefront Decorating Contest
* Sparks Fly – Duplex Burns on Niagara in OB
* Donations Gathered for the Pets of the Homeless
* Don’t forget OB Historical Society’s Meet with Local Photographer Steve Rowell