OB Rag

The Callen Report

By Kate Callen

The September 26 Coastal San Diego Candidates Forum was a trip back in time to an era when politicians sat down with constituents to talk, listen, and learn.

Using a “speed-dating” layout, eight election-year contenders rotated around eight tables to converse with 80 community members. This interactive format was not
conducive to sloganeering. Constituents could challenge political spin – and they did.

The rights of a news reporter just became a little stronger here in San Diego.

Dorian Hargrove is now an investigative and long-form news producer at CBS 8, a job he took after being forced out of NBC 7 in retaliation for his criticism of NBC 7’s failure to stand behind his reporting on the Ash Street debacle.

The news is that Hargrove just settled his lawsuit against NBC7 for an undisclosed amount of settlement. Dorian and his attorney, Marlea Dell’Anno were prepared to go to trial, and confident they would prevail in front of a jury.

By Paul Krueger and Frank Gormlie

On Thursday, September 26, the Rag received an email from the Larry Turner for Mayor campaign with a troubling announcement.

Turner’s campaign announced that he has been “blocked from participating in a Mayoral Forum at Politifest 2024.”

Politifest is an annual forum run and managed by the media outlet Voice of San Diego with reporter Scott Lewis as the editor.

By Kristina Houck / Patch San Diego / Wed, Sep 25, 2024

Albertsons owns the largest share of grocery stores in San Diego County, according to an analysis by The Washington Post that looks at consolidation in the supermarket industry.

The traditional grocery store industry has shrunk over the past several decades. Now, according to The Post’s analysis, a third of U.S. grocery stores are now owned by just four companies — Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and Aldi’s (Süd), the fastest-growing supermarket chain in the country.

By Joe Mathews / JMathews@SCNG.com SD U-T / September 26, 2024

Lock up your tents, California! Toss out your old camping gear! Hide your pillows and blankets where the cops will never find them!

Because the people who run California have finally seen clearly that the greatest scourge in today’s Golden State is not climate change and not crime, not COVID and not corruption, not the rising cost of living nor grinding poverty.

No, what most threatens our way of life is people who camp.

What is the Paddle for Clean Water?

Originally launched in the 90s as a protest against sewage pollution, the Paddle for Clean Water has grown into an annual event uniting surfers, swimmers, and ocean enthusiasts in a powerful show of solidarity for protecting our coastline and improving ocean water quality.

By Geoff Page

The Rag was alerted, by one of our regular contributors, to the appearance of machinery and a crew on the pier Wednesday, September 25. Upon investigation, the equipment was determined to be a drilling rig.

The machine is positioned in the middle of the deck about 150 feet from the gate.

It’s new, it’s modular, modern and ready to go but New Earth Recycling Center hasn’t been able to recycle one thing or make one buck. It’s been sitting on the east side of Littickers on Voltaire waiting for the city to assist them in removing the roadblocks (read new permits required by the city) that have stalled its opening for 9 months. And it looks like it may take another 4 months or so and another $15,000 for Josh Turchine and his business partner. Once it opens, however, it will even recycle electronics.

Here’s a brief Fox5San Diego report on the situation (go see the video report).

By Melody Petersen / San Diego Union-Tribune TNS / Sept. 24, 2024

When Roy Richards spotted workers cutting down and shredding Joshua trees for a sprawling solar energy project near his Mojave Desert home last week, he started taking photos.

“Once the trees go through the shredders, they vanish,” he said, showing a reporter an image of a small pile of brown dust left by the crews. The developer of the Aratina Solar Center has government approval to fell all of the thousands of trees on the site.

By Colleen O’Connor

Tired of the juvenile nature of Presidential politics that passes for dialogue? Same snarky insults? Same quick-fix ideas that solve nothing? The drumbeat of “retribution,” chaos, endless photo ops, and vague promises?

Ready to escape to something more enlightening? More spectacular, indeed “stunning” in beauty, history and optimism?

Here is the answer.

By Lori Weisberg / The San Diego Union-Tribune / September 19, 2024

A little more than a year after suing SeaWorld for $12 million in back rent and fees dating back to the pandemic, the city seems no closer to recouping its money despite multiple efforts to settle the litigation.

In a legal brief filed last week seeking more time to meet a number of pre-trial deadlines, the San Diego City Attorney’s Office indicated that efforts to settle the case have so far not been successful. On top of that, lawyers for the city said that it has had trouble getting adequate responses from SeaWorld for documents it had requested as part of the discovery process.

Morris Cerullo was indeed a deeply-flawed televangelist, but in 2017, the San Diego City Council approved his Legacy International Center’s main campus for Mission Valley. It had a $160 million price tag. Construction began in 2018, and was completed in 2020, but Morris Cerullo died that same year.

Now, the massive, sprawling Hotel Circle property that was once envisioned by Morris Cerullo as a luxurious center for his global ministry and teachings has gone up for sale — after just four years.