OB Rag

Lack of Trust Reason Power San Diego Couldn’t Collect Enough Signatures for Ballot

San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board / May 17, 2024

San Diego Gas & Electric is easily the least objectionable of the state’s three giant investor-owned utilities. It is not a corporate felon on “a crime spree,” as a federal judge described Pacific Gas & Electric in 2022. It didn’t launch the clandestine scheme to make ratepayers cover far too much of the cost of shuttering the broken San Onofre nuclear plant. Though SDG&E benefited, that was the work of an Edison executive.

Baristas Join UFCW Local 135 to Bargain for Better Wages and Working Conditions

San Diego, CA – Workers at Better Buzz Coffee’s Hillcrest location have achieved an important victory in their pursuit of better wages, fair treatment and improved working conditions. In a decisive election held by the National Labor Relations Board on Friday, May 17, the baristas, trainers, and shift supervisors voted overwhelmingly to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 135.

This worker victory marks the culmination of a determined effort by the employees, who organized under the name Better Buzz United. The workers cited concerns about wages, benefits, scheduling, and overall workplace safety as primary reasons for seeking union representation.

By Michael Livingston of Save Del Cerro

On January 9, 2024, in a 6-2 vote, San Diego City Council denied the All People’s Church (“APC”) application to build a 54,476 square foot, 900 seat facility, with over a dozen classrooms, over 20 offices, over 350 parking spaces, along with a 71,010 square foot two-level parking structure, at the intersection of Interstate 8, College Avenue and Del Cerro Boulevard.  In response, APC filed a federal lawsuit alleging religious discrimination.  All Peoples Church v. City of San Diego 24 CV 0562 TWR-MSB.

The City Council denied APC’s application based upon the inadequacy of the 2019 traffic analyses that APC used to support its application and the safety dangers that the proposed project created.  Both parties will now need to spend significant time and money litigating APC’s claims, when the traffic analyses and safety issues could have been decided years ago— indeed even when APC first made its plans — if APC had simply provided full and accurate traffic as well as safety analyses.

It’s More Than Just The “Wow” Dresses

By Colleen O’Connor

The annual Portuguese Festa de Espirito Santo has a 100 plus year tradition. It is family oriented, based in devout Catholicism, an affinity for the Portuguese community, their fishing history, and a bit of fun. A joy in serious times.

The parade on Sunday, with High Mass to follow, was delightful. Bands, lots of children in costumes, and dresses.

Surfrider has launched a petition directed toward decision makers to keep public access  to San Onofre State Beach.

Here’s their statement on the Petition.

California’s State Parks’ lease allowing public access to San Onofre State Beach expires in August 2024. Without a lease renewal or extension, we could lose public access to this valuable stretch of coastline and world-renowned surf breaks indefinitely!

Make your voice heard by these key leaders and decision-makers:

This Saturday, May 18th, 2024 at Noon in Ocean Beach !!

Come join a growing number of your friends and neighbors, 45 folks last Saturday, our largest group yet, standing out on a busy corner in Ocean Beach, demanding a CEASEFIRE in Gaza, and demanding that the U.S. stop providing Israel with weapons that have already killed 32,000+ Gazans.

This weekly demonstration, organized by the San Diego Veterans For Peace and the progressive women’s group, Code Pink, will mark the sixteen consecutive Saturdays at the same location,

Hundreds of activist will march for animal rights from Pantoja Park in downtown San Diego starting this Saturday May 18th at 10 AM. The march will go to Little Italy and then end back at Pantoja Park. There will be large, colorful art depictions of animals along with a “Barbie” theme.

Come Inside for More Details

By Ruth Milka / Nation of Change /May 15, 2024

Amidst a backdrop of escalating environmental and political stakes, a recent report by The Washington Post unveiled a controversial offer by former President Donald Trump: the reversal of crucial climate regulations in return for a staggering $1 billion donation to his campaign from oil industry titans

It’s getting intense, this controversial confrontation between supporters of County Supervisor Nora Vargas and those who back Brigette Browning, the leader of the San Diego Labor Council. Even today’s U-T op-ed page was devoted to the controversy, with both sides sharing their view.

Now, we at the Rag and at the beach have our own problems with Brigette Browning — more on that at another time.

Part of the current flare-up is over the fact that Cindy Chavez has been passed over for the top job in the County, and the Labor Council supports her.