OB Rag

By Justine McDaniel / Washington Post / Feb. 25, 2025

The Trump administration will determine which journalists participate in the White House press pool, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday, breaking with nearly a century of practice in which the independent White House Correspondents’ Association has overseen the rotating group of news outlets that cover the president in Washington and on travels.

It is an aggressive move by the government to control which news outlets have access to the president — one that is unprecedented in modern American politics and comes amid Trump’s long-standing efforts to erode Americans’ trust in fact-based reporting.

As journalists and media critics warned that White House control of the press pool threatens the foundations of a free press and could allow the administration to more easily block reporters from the White House, Trump boasted about the move.

“We’re going to be calling those shots,” he said from the Oval Office late Tuesday afternoon.

By Kimberli

A picture says a 1000 words.

There is/was no posted sign that our streets are going to be swept. Maybe the cars would not have parked at this location if there had been.

An activist network including the People’s Union USA is calling for a 24 hour economic blackout across America for Thursday, Feb. 27. Here’s their website. Other groups and networks have also joined in the call.

Here’s what Peoples Union USA says:

The 24 hour Economic Blackout
As our first initial act, we turn it off.

For one day we show them who really holds the power

WHEN:

Thursday February 27th from Midnight till Friday The 28th Midnight. (A full 24 hours of the 28th)

12:00 AM to 12:00 AM

San Diego International Airport published a statement earlier this month that marked “2024 as its busiest year ever with 25.24 million passengers recorded traveling through the airport’s terminals. This record-breaking year surpasses the previous busiest record of 25.18 million passengers served in 2019.” That was pre-Pandemic.

Said Kimberly Becker, President and CEO, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority: “Each year following the pandemic, the numbers of travelers recorded at our airport has increased.” She added this was a sure sign or recovery.

The airport says there are some main reasons for this growth.

One is the addition of two new airlines, Breeze and Porter Airlines who have service to nine new nonstop destinations.

From Public Power San Diego

If past form holds, Sempra Energy’s annual earnings announcement Tuesday, Fe. 25, won’t be highlighting the massive profits it records from SDGE, one of its largest subsidiaries.

Sempra will instead bury SDGE’s huge profits by including them with earnings from other businesses.

But SDGE’s profits can still be found in Sempra’s legally required filings. After reporting $670 million in profits through the first three-quarters last year, it’s likely SDGE will report annual earnings last year of about $900 million.

“It’s a simple formula,” said Bill Powers, a board member of Public Power San Diego. “SDGE charges the nation’s highest rates and that results in enormous profits. Every dollar of those profits came out of our pockets.”

By Kate Callen

If you’re a property owner, pay close attention to the mail you receive in April. A flyer resembling this water rate notice will ask you to vote on the City’s proposed trash collection fees.

If a majority of recipients send back a “No” vote, the trash fees will go the way of the sales tax hike – straight to the dumpster. And the Gloria administration will be dealt yet another setback.

By Steven Mihailovich / PB Monthly – SD Union-Tribune / Feb. 25, 2025

Opposition to accessory dwelling units continues to grow as Pacific Beach residents name multiple projects they say are wrong for their community.

Around 60 residents filled the Crown Point Junior Music Academy’s auditorium for the Feb. 19 Pacific Beach Town Council meeting to discuss recent building developments and efforts to block the construction of the proposed 22-story Vela project on Turquoise Street.

But that project is not the only large multi-unit housing project to which they object. They say developments on small lots are stretching the City of San Diego’s ADU bonus program beyond recognition.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Marcella Bothwell, a PB Town Council director who is also the PB Planning Group chair and also chairs the non-profit Neighbors for a Better California, an advocacy group for responsible planning.

“This ADU stuff is now starting to come into our neighborhood,” Bothwell said. “So we’re going to have to fight this.”

A six-story, 110-room 1970s hotel on Nimitz Boulevard in Point Loma — closed for 6 years — has been sold for $17.4 million. And the new owner has plans to turn it all into market-rate and student housing.

The 63,234-square-foot building at 2901 Nimitz Blvd., known over the decades by various names — currently the Consulate Hotel — was purchased by Encinitas-based Ambient Communities. Its previous owner was a La Jolla-based family trust called Nobel Legacy LLC.

Ambient Communities claims, reports the San Diego U-T, that the old hotel built in 1971 “has entitlements in place that facilitate an easy transition for rehabbing the structure.” Those entitlements include 48 parking spaces, space for meetings, an on-site bar, a restaurant and a pool. Ambient did not provide a timeline for when construction could be completed.

There will be nothing but talking trash at the City of San Diego’s 10 community forums to get feedback on the proposed monthly trash fees. They’ve actually begun and the first one was last night, Monday, Feb. 24th at the Otay Mesa Nestor Library.

Will the feedback help determine whether the city follows through on plans to add several new services and features to its trash and recycling program that would push the fee higher than it could otherwise be, or not? There’s been plenty of irate responses to the proposed fees in “letters to the editor” in local papers and at town hall budget forums held of late.

List of Forums

Employees of Yosemite National Park hung an upside-down flag on El Capitan to protest the Trump administration’s firing of about 1,000 park service employees.

The group of protesters said in a statement to the press that the “purpose of this exercise of free speech is to disrupt without violence and draw attention to the fact that public lands in the United States are under attack.”

The Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB) is announcing their upcoming annual elections.The PCPB will hold elections on March 25th, 2025 to fill five (5) board vacancies. Each seat carries a three-year term, awarded to the five candidates who receive the most votes. There will be a candidates forum on March 13.

Eligibility Requirements for Candidates:

To qualify as a candidate, you must:

• Be at least 18 years old.
• Reside, own property, or operate a business within the PCPB boundaries (boundary map available at www.pcpb.net).
• Have attended at least one regular PCPB meeting in the past 12 months. Attending the Candidates’ Forum meets this requirement.Election Details:

The fourth and final City of San Diego 2025 Budget Review Town Hall forum in Mira Mesa was the largest and angriest gathering of the series. Hot-button issues included the contentious trash fee proposal, inadequate road repair, city salaries and pensions, and the obscure management of developer impact fee (DIF) revenues.

Nearly 100 people gathered for the February 20 forum at the Mira Mesa Senior Center. There were no representatives from the Mayor’s office nor from any Council District office.

Throughout the two-hour forum  which began with a slideshow from Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica, community members expressed outrage at City Hall’s persistent stonewalling of constituents.

They traced the erosion of public trust in local government from the still-murky 101 Ash Street debacle to the trash fee analysis that began with modest payments and ended with costly assessments.

The following excerpts from public comments provide highlights.