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Your Horoscope for 2022

December 28, 2021 by Source

By Mat Wahlstrom

Good morning, starshine: the earth says it’s time for a prognostication of the year to come! It is written in the stars — or, more precisely, the orbits of the satellites in our solar system. But, I can in full confidence predict that events will transpire and things will happen in 2022, and that many of them will affect you personally.

And by personally, I mean by the random chance of your birth month being shared with a twelfth of everyone else alive — which is why there’s also a handy zodiac guide provided at the end to help understand how each sun sign responds to life’s challenges and windfalls.

So without further ado, here’s what lies ahead!

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Best Christmas Gift Ever: ‘The Gifts of Reading’

December 15, 2021 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

If you are reading this column, you will “bigly” appreciate the best Christmas gift ever. A book.

Not just any book, but one that draws you into the joys of the season, the thrill of holding a new pages containing amazing mysteries and adventures inside; and the ability to share it so it lives on, past anyone’s lifespan.

In short, a treasure. A genuine heirloom. And a timely antidote for any complaints.

The Gifts of Reading is an engrossing collection of short essays by some of the world’s finest and most celebrated writers. Their international prizes won are too long to list here.

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Stumbling Blocks on the Way to Enact Vacation Rental Regs for San Diego; City Staff Ignored Council Directions on Lottery System, Airbnb Complaints

October 12, 2021 by Staff

Lori Weisberg in the U-T reported this morning:

As the city of San Diego prepares to implement in July its first-ever regulations for short-term vacation rentals, officials unveiled on Monday a lottery system that both longtime hosts and City Council members said failed to give priority to responsible operators, as promised earlier this year.

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White Supremacists Playing the ‘Race Card’

August 4, 2021 by Ernie McCray

By Ernie McCray

Occasionally
if I write something
along the lines
of, say, a little Mexican girl
curled up in her fears
of what’s happening
in her world
as she’s housed
in a cage,
or of a Black man
dying from
a racist policeman’s rage,
his knee on the brotha’s neck,
someone says
I’m playing the “race card’
and I agree
since, in America,
race cards
are the only cards in the deck.

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Sunset Cliffs Shooting Victim’s Family Wants Answers

June 30, 2021 by Frank Gormlie

Akili Cobbs was fatally shot Sunday night, June 27, in a parking lot at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. Now his family wants answers.

Multiple gun shots and someone yelling for help brought police to the scene close to the 4500 block of Ladera Steret around 11:30. Cobbs was found in a car in the parking lot often used by surfers and park visitors, below Point Loma Nazarene University.

Now there’s a memorial for the 33-year old victim.

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UC San Diego Study of Cannabis to Treat Migraines Looking for Volunteers

June 8, 2021 by Source

By Michelle Brubaker / UC San Diego Health / May 19, 2021

Alison Knigge was in elementary school when she started to experience migraines. They continued to get progressively worse as time went on, especially after the birth of her son.

“I would describe my migraines as a piercing pain. It feels like my brain is being squeezed. It causes extreme sensitivity to light and sound and horrible nausea,” said Knigge.

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Did Pickleweed Commit Murder?

February 2, 2021 by Staff

By Kathy Blavatt

The question on everyone’s mind is, “Did the Pickleweed commit murder?”

A gang of suspects covered in green waited until just the right moment to tumble the cliff on three innocent people below.

The January 2020 San Diego Reader cover read “Beach Erosion, Can it Be Stopped?” and laid out the case of possible perps that lead investigators to the culprit being Pickleweed!

Is Pickleweed getting a bum rap, or are they a dangerous plant? The court will soon decide.

Excerpt: January 13, 2020, San Diego Reader – “Will sand save San Diego North County’s bluffs?”: On August 2, 2019, a 30-foot-wide chunk of sandstone came loose at Grandview Surf Beach in Encinitas, beneath a condo development. It fell onto three women, two of them locals, whose children and spouses sat nearby. The three women died. A lawsuit filed by the surviving families calls the poorly maintained bluff “an unnatural, unstable, and unsafe urbanized cliff.”

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San Diego Planning Commission Likes Jen Campbell’s Plan for Short-Term Vacation Rentals

December 4, 2020 by Frank Gormlie

The San Diego Planning Commission liked Councilmember Jen Campbell’s plan for short-term vacation rentals so much that on Thursday, they unanimously endorsed it and even made it more friendly towards STVR hosts.

The Commission raised the percentage cap of short-term rentals of the city’s housing units. Campbell had proposed 0.75 percent threshold of the city’s more than 540,000 housing units to be STVRs. The Commission raised the cap to 1 percent. Both Campbell’s and the Commission’s versions allow a “carve-out” for Mission Beach.

Proponents of the plan say the new regulations “would slash” the number of vacation rentals by a whooping 50%! Aren’t we lucky.

Apparently, a lot of people raised objections to Campbell’s plan.

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Michael Zucchet: ‘Troubled Ash Street Building Is the Taj Mahal of City-Owned Buildings’

August 18, 2020 by Source

Editordude: Michael Zucchet – a resident of Point Loma – who used to represent Ocean Beach and most of Point Loma in District 2 on the San Diego City Council, and who now is the general manager of the San Diego Municipal Employees Association, has stepped into the debate about the troubled City-owned building at 101 Ash Street, and has made a startling claim. He says compared to the work offices and buildings his union members work in, 101 Ash Street is the “Taj Mahal” of the city’s buildings. Here is his Op-Ed piece from today’s U-T.

By Michael Zucchet / San Diego Union-Tribune / Aug. 17, 2020

These days the most famous address of a city building is 101 Ash Street. Based on all the publicity, you might think it is the crummiest building the city owns or leases — riddled with asbestos and saddled with plumbing, electrical and air systems that are past their useful life. In fact, 101 Ash is the nicest, most modern, functional office space the city controls.

That’s right. Warts and all, 101 Ash is the Taj Mahal compared with the current work environs of city workers.

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Couple Maced by Woman at Dusty Rhodes Park in Ocean Beach

July 24, 2020 by Source

From SanDiegoVille.Com

A video is making waves on social media that appears to show a woman macing a man at Dusty Rhodes Park in San Diego’s Ocean Beach. Allegedly, the woman approached a young couple who was enjoying lunch with their puppy and harassed them for not wearing facial coverings before macing both them and their food.
“So this happened today at dusty rhodes dog park today in ocean beach,” wrote Ash Sherilynn O’Brien on her Facebook page.

“This is my husband getting maced by a random old lady. We had our 3 month old pug with us. We were just sitting down eating lunch and minding our own business. We were not wearing masks because we were eating. You can’t wear a mask and eat at the same time. She kept calling us idiots and flipping me off. Then she started saying more stuff and I told her to leave the park and stop harassing us. She then came right up to our table wear we were eating, pointed the mace at me first and got a little on me, and then my husband stepped in and took the entire can.”

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Genocide in California’s History

July 6, 2020 by Source

Junipero Serra1Originally published on August 15, 2008

by gjohnsit / DailyKos / August 14, 2008

What do you think of when someone says “California”? Beaches? Sunshine? Hollywood?

How about the largest act of genocide in American history?

“The idea, strange as it may appear, never occurred to them (the Indians) that they were suffering for the great cause of civilization, which, in the natural course of things, must exterminate Indians.”
– Special Agent J. Ross Browne, Indian Affairs

California was one of the last areas of the New World to be colonized. It wasn’t until 1769 that the first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá, was built.

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Study Shows CBD Could Replace Opioids for Pain

June 25, 2020 by Source

CBD for Pain: 2020 Study of 1,453 U.S. CBD Consumers

By Dwight K. Blake / American Marijuana / Last updated on June 25, 2020

Should you consider CBD for pain relief? Studies upon studies on CBD’s effectiveness against pain relief has been put on the tables. Even though most of them came up with positive results, there still are a few studies that concluded otherwise, claiming that studies still ARE NOT enough.

Does CBD work well for easing chronic, arthritis, and other kinds of pain?

In this study, AmericanMarijuana look at 1,453 Americans that use CBD for pain relief to see how well it performed compared to opioid. Specifically, we’ll look at its effectiveness, advantages, potential downsides, and practitioner’s perception towards the application of CBD for pain relief.

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May 5, 1970 Was the Most Violent Day Within the Country in American History

May 5, 2020 by Frank Gormlie

The day after the Kent State Massacre, Tuesday, May 5, was one of the most violent days in American history. It was the day when college and university students realized that four from their generation were dead because of protests against the Vietnam war. It certainly ranks up there as one of the most turbulent days inside the country.

What follows in our latest installment in the series commemorating the student rebellion and strike of May 1970. We offer it without apology, without recourse but with the knowledge that despite the tedious repetition, it is part of our American experience, an important day in our modern history.

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The Virus of Sextortion

May 4, 2020 by Source

By Richard Riehl / The Riehl World / May 4, 2020

It’s Cocooning Day 50, with no Covid -19 cases so far, in our Château Lake San Marcos community. Karen and I wear facemasks when we leave our condo to take daily walks. We discovered how to fashion a mask by using two rubber bands to hook over our ears to hold a hospital sock over our nose and mouth. We tried everyday socks, but discovered their thickness hindered our breathing. The thinner hospital sock souvenirs, if less fashionable, are more comfortable.

Thanks to Netflix, Prime Video, our “Social Distance Singers” YouTube production, and ongoing writing projects, we’ve been able to fend off the boredom of social isolation.

An unexpected benefit in our daily lives has been the unusual absence of scam telephone calls. But that hasn’t kept the online predators away. Yesterday I received this email

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May 2-3, 1970: The Weekend Before the Storm 50 Years Ago

May 2, 2020 by Frank Gormlie

The weekend of Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3, 1970 – exactly 50 years ago – was the “lull” before the storm of protests that erupted and enveloped the nation in response to President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia.

Thus, we continue our series of installments of a day-by-day recounting of what came down half a century ago, which is actually just a sampling of what happened during that first week of May 1970. From coast to coast and everywhere in between college and university students rebelled – sometimes violently – against Nixon’s expansion of the Vietnam War.

Nixon had been elected in 1968 because he had a “peace plan” and had actually begun bringing US troops back to the states – when he announced on April 30 that he was sending American troops into Vietnam’s neighbor Cambodia, a diplomatically neutral country.

Protests began immediately (see the intro to the series here, and Part 1 here) and ultimately involved literally millions of students and faculty members with the closings of hundreds of campuses,

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News and Notices for Ocean Beach and Point Loma – Mid-February 2020

February 7, 2020 by Frank Gormlie


Random Street Art in OB

Newport Pizza to Close With Hopes of Moving to Jungle Java

There’s more news about Newport Pizza. The OB Rag first reported the ale and pizza house was set to close in October 2019. Now we’ve learned it will shut its doors on February 9 but with the hope of relocating in what’s now Jungle Java, the open-air coffee patio by the end of summer. ….COME INSIDE FOR MORE

City Prepares Groundwork for Massive Redevelopment of Midway District

Jennifer Van Grove wrote in the Feb. 7 issue of the San Diego Union-Tribune about how the City of San Diego is laying the groundwork for a massive redevelopment of the Midway District, centered around the old sports arena complex. COME INSIDE FOR MORE

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San Diego Mainstream Media Downplay Suspected Serial Killer of Homeless People

November 5, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

For some reason, San Diego’s mainstream press is downplaying the fact that the man in court is suspected of being a serial killer of people who were homeless.

On Monday, a preliminary hearing opened for Jon David Guerrero, 42, who is charged with four counts of murder with a special-circumstance allegation of multiple murders. He is accused of killing four people, three men and one woman during a murderous crime spree in 2016. Plus he may be charged for another murder, as one of the badly injured victims has since died. He also faces charges of attempted murder, arson and assault with a deadly weapon likely to cause great bodily injury.

That’s still a lot of murders. So many I thought of asking the ol’ citadel of wisdom, wikipedia: “How many random murders does it take for it to be a serial killing? ”

Here was my answer:

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Reforming California’s Dysfunctional Charter School Law

July 19, 2019 by Source

By T. Ultican / Tultican / July17,2019

Members of the California legislature have engaged in an internecine battle over charter schools. Even the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) has expressed concern over lawless cyber charters and filed the first known complaint with the California Department of Education over A3 Education and Valiant Prep which were recently charged with stealing a stunning $50 million.

California State Sen. John Moorlach (R) is warning that 85% of school districts in California are running deficits. Governor Gavin Newsom has stated “rising charter school enrollments in some urban districts are having real impacts on those districts’ ability to provide essential support and services for their students.” The drive to privatize schools in San Diego, Oakland and Los Angeles has been fueled

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Fireworks – Cheap Thrills with Toxic Consequences

July 18, 2019 by Source

Pollution from Fireworks is an Unnecessary Risk to Our Personal and Environmental Health

From Back Country Attitude

Why celebrate those special occasions by polluting? Is poisoning the air and water a patriotic way to recognize the 4th of July?? Is unnecessary air pollution a good way to ring in the New Year??

Do you consider yourself environmentally conscious and responsible? You might not know that all those colorful explosives used to celebrate special occasions…. (your firecrackers, skyrockets, Roman candles and yes even those so-called “harmless” sparklers)… pose a serious environmental and health danger from heavy metals and other toxic firework fallout.

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Gone Are the Golden Months of the Fetus

July 9, 2019 by Source

By Joni Halpern

Since 1896, Ohio voters have picked the winning candidate in all but two presidential elections – 1944 and 1960 – giving rise to the state’s renown as a “bellwether” to which candidates cannot afford to turn a deaf ear. If Ohioans are going to be so influential, maybe we could help inform their future choices by sharing some concerns from the Golden State

Dear Ohio,

It has occurred to me to ask you to take a second look at the abortion controversy. It seems to be splitting us apart as a nation. Apparently, it is not enough for some groups of Christians to refrain from abortion in their own lives. They seem to believe they can save their souls only if they ban abortion for every woman of every belief, under every circumstance. They contend that a full-fledged human life with all rights to maximum protection begins at the moment sperm and egg join. They believe government must protect the fetus.

In the old days, long before modern techniques of abortion were available, women of every culture and religion knew how to encourage miscarriage. Mothers and grandmothers taught daughters and granddaughters. There were potions and teas before there were coat hangers and curettes.

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News of Ocean Beach, Point Loma and the Midway – Mid-June 2019

June 13, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

* Driver Crashes into OB CVS – Then Fights Police
* Suspect in Serial Killings of San Diego Homeless Found Competent for Trial
* Armed Robbery of 2 7-Elevens – Midway district and Point Loma
* Suspect in Peninsula 7-Eleven Robberies Could Be Involved in LA Killing of Off-Duty Cop
* Request Your New Yard Sign to Save San Diego Neighborhoods
* Intruder in Point Loma Home Dies in Police Custody
* Hey! San Diego Media: Where Is the Midway District?
* Full Council to Vote on Campland Lease
* Old Point Loma Lighthouse a Member of SoCal’s History
* Mr. Moto to Open in July

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News and Notes From Ocean Beach and Point Loma – Early April 2019

April 2, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

Ocean Beach Green Center Open Saturdays Till May’s 30th Anniversary Party

Big things in the works at the new location of the OB Green Center, 4862 Voltaire St. They will be having their grand opening, 30th year anniversary party, spring fundraiser in May at the new location. Until then someone will be there on Saturdays from noon to 6 pm if you want to stop by and check in with them.

Screwball Whiskey Making Began in OB

The creators of Skrewball Whiskey announced their peanut butter whiskey will soon be available nationwide.

Slightly Stoopid Trombonist Andy Gelb

There’s a local school of funk. From their web page: “The Ambassadors of Soul are a collection of some of the finest high school musicians in San Diego, directed by Slightly Stoopid trombonist Andy Andy Geib.

OB Band Gowing By Leaps and Bounds

One band currently making major inroads into the national scene via touring is Ocean Beach-based indie rock quartet, Brothers Gow

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A Friend Makes Me Feel Like I’ve Lived in a Dream

February 6, 2019 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

I just finished “Platitudes and Attitudes,” a little book that was written by a dear lifelong friend, Shirley Robinson Sprinkles, “Shirlgirl.”

Shirley and I grew up in Tucson, Arizona in the 40’s and 50’s and as I read the “random thoughts and memories” that she had collected over the years, I was transported back in time, like in a dream.

She’d mention a street and I could see myself riding my bicycle down that street, popping a wheelie, with my levi’s ripped at the knees (light years before that was cool).

She’d describe an event, and I was there (trying to be cool).

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Kindness Can Turn This Troubled World Around

December 21, 2018 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

Not too long ago I had an encounter with an act of random kindness.

It went like this: I was enjoying an interesting tale in San Diego born Nafissa Thompson-Spires’ wonderful collection of short stories, “Heads of the Colored People” and a meal of scrambled eggs and ham with a buttered biscuit and jam and a Bloody Mary when I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked up and into the beautiful face of a black woman, close to my age, a woman whom I had acknowledged with a slight nod of my head as she left the café.

We black people of a certain age do that when we catch each other’s eye, say, walking down the street or exiting a restaurant, sometimes adding a word or two: “How you doing?” or a “Hey, now” – essentially saying: “I don’t know you, but I can guess what you might have been through.”

With the way the woman was looking at me, as she stood over me, I thought maybe she was about to say something like “Don’t you remember me?” and then I was sure she was going to say “Did you drop this?” because she was handing me something.

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Bob Dorn: Rest in Power!

December 3, 2018 by Anna Daniels

Last week, on November 28, Bob Dorn’s wife Deborah sent a brief email to the San Diego Free Press editors:

Very sad news….Bob had severe heart attack… basically cardiac arrest after a wonderful evening at a jam where he played with friends…..he passed today in a place he loved .Didn’t suffer at all….so sorry to tell you guys this way.
Love
Deborah

The news blindsided the SDFP editors who have been winding down our beloved publication, with all the emotions that engenders in each one of us. Bob’s death feels like a particularly incomprehensible blow, yet another grievous loss. We had imagined that our community would remain vital and connected after we ceased publishing, and then Deborah’s email informed us that our community had been diminished. Just like that.

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OB Town Council Parties Like It’s 1968 – As It Celebrates 50 Years

August 27, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

On Saturday, Aug. 25, the Ocean Beach Town Council partied. It was their 50th anniversary – and the celebration rocked the patio of Newbreak Church.

Local bands played, pizzas from Pizza Port and SurfRider were the menu, draft beer from the OB Brewery was on tap – and raffle prizes were handed out.

President Marcus Turner got the ball rolling with welcomes and intros; past presidents Dave Martin and Gretchen Newsom were on hand, and Councilwoman Lorie Zapf joined the fun – and stayed quite a while.

The infamous Mike James gave an inspiring speech. Happy Birthday was sung and a delicious birthday cake was carved up and dished out.

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The Colorful History of the Rowdies, Radicals and Ruffians of Ocean Beach

August 15, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

OB Longbranch-riot-LaborDay68

Originally posted Aug. 15, 2018

Downtown Ocean Beach during these times on any summer day or night is extraordinarily packed with people, as locals and visitors mingle on the beach, on the Greens, and in the numerous noisy restaurants and pubs that line the commercial streets.

OB’s reputation as being San Diego’s “laid-back” beach community precedes it as tourists flock to our liberal seaside village of tolerance, peace and hipness all in search of being part of it – even for just a moment – in their search for happiness. Little do they know there actually is a rough and sordid underbelly to OB’s traditions and history.

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Summer Chronicles 2018 #2: Learning to Be No One

June 25, 2018 by Jim Miller

Alone on the plane, I had the same thought that I always do: “we could crash and my life might end at any time.” As always, images of the moments before death subsumed me. I imagined the faces of my fellow passengers contorted in horror. I heard the weeping, the screaming, the voices futilely attempting to leave last messages for their loved ones on their cellphones, all to no avail.

My fantasy was real enough that amidst a banal announcement about expected turbulence, I came close to tears as I thought of never seeing my wife or son again and went on to consider the weight of the collective losses of all the souls on the plane.

But, in this case, what used to be a source of physical anxiety gave way to a feeling of absolute groundlessness.

There is something liberating about anonymity and the small pleasure of being unrecognized in the odd womblike environment of a passenger jet.

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Interview With Brad – the Guy Who Has Been Organizing Human Banners for 10 Years

April 19, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

Editor’s Note: Hundreds of people will congregate at Dog Beach in OB this Saturday, April 21st to spell out “VOTE!” with their bodies. Here’s the OB Rag interview – via email – with Brad, the guy who has been organizing human banners for ten years.

Question: Brad, we understand you’ve been doing what’s called “human bannering” for some 10 years now. And you’re part of a group who will be doing human bannering at Ocean Beach in San Francisco on Saturday, April 21st – the same time people in Ocean Beach, San Diego are doing it. Both towns spelling out “Vote” … and maybe more.

First, for the uninitiated, what is human bannering?

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San Diego Progressive Activist Calendar April 13-23, 2018

April 13, 2018 by Doug Porter

Morality Guide

Check out this week’s Progressive Calendar listings below. Following those listings are upcoming events of national importance, along with opportunities for organizational involvement.

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