OB Rag

By Sarah K. Burris / AlterNet / January 22, 2026 

Former special counsel Jack Smith spoke to the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday where he clarified some details that Republicans have tried to use as talking points against him.

Legal, analyst, reporters and commentators took to social media to attack the questioning of Smith.

“Republicans on House Judiciary don’t want answers from Jack Smith. They keep on interrupting him as he responds to their questions,” said legal analyst Katie Phang.

“Jack Smith reminds us that the cases against Trump were dismissed ‘without prejudice.’ Meaning they could be brought again,” legal analyst and podcast host Allison Gill, of @MuellerSheWrote pointed out.

National security analyst Marcy Wheeler cited Rep. “Hank Johnson still has it: While we’re deposing Marshall Miller (the guy who got Jack Smith hired) perhaps we can depose Donald Trump why he hired his personal lawyer to run DOJ.”

By Frances Vinall, Arelis R. Hernández and Maria Sacchetti / Washington Post / Jan. 22, 2026

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo instructs agents and officers that they can enter a person’s home to arrest them without a judicial warrant, a move that immigration lawyers and advocates say violates the Constitution.

The memo was included in a disclosure to senators by Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit legal organization, based on information provided by two of their clients, government employees who are not named in the document. It requests that lawmakers investigate its claims. The memo was separately shared with The Washington Post and was first reported by the Associated Press.

Several people with direct knowledge confirmed the directive existed but said they did not know whether it was widely shared within the agency.

The policy was issued in May and has been carried out in places such as Texas, the disclosure alleges. The Post could not independently confirm where it has been put into practice.

The memo, signed by Todd M. Lyons, acting director of ICE, gives the agency broad authority to enter homes to arrest immigrants. Officers are instructed that they can use a Form I-205 to force entry into a private residence. A Form I-205 is signed by an immigration enforcement official and authorizes an arrest following a final order of removal.

ICE OUT FOR GOOD — San Diego County Solidarity Actions & Nationwide Minnesota Day of Action

Friday, January 23, there are coordinated rallies and calls for boycotts across San Diego County as part of “ICE Out for Good”, aligned with the broader Minnesota Solidarity Day of Action opposing recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and demanding accountability, community safety, and human rights protection.

These local actions are connected to nationwide demonstrations and economic solidarity efforts responding to the federal ICE enforcement surge in Minnesota and the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renée Good — an unarmed civilian killed by a federal ICE agent during heightened immigration enforcement activity earlier this month — which has sparked widespread protests and national outrage.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY ACTION SCHEDULE — JANUARY 23, 2026

The City of San Diego has just released a Notice of Future Decision regarding an application for a Process 2 Coastal Development Permit for a 3-story, 10-unit project for 4862 and 4864 Santa Monica Ave. in Ocean Beach. The Notice was dated January 22, 2026.

It’s an application to:

• to demolish an existing two-story, 2,934 square-foot duplex consisting of two residential units at the rear the property, and
• construct a three-story, 6,545 square-foot multifamily building consisting of ten (10) units.

Billionaire Geoff Palmer Sued the City for Having to Include Some Affordable Housing Units While His Company Builds 1,000s of Units in San Diego.

By Dorian Hargrove / CBS8 / January 22, 2026

A Los Angeles landlord who owns more than 15,000 units in Southern California and is set to build more than 2,500 apartments in San Diego has lost his lawsuit seeking to get out of including affordable housing units in his projects.

According to court documents obtained by CBS 8, on Jan. 16, a federal judge dismissed billionaire Geoff Palmer’s lawsuit, which claimed the city’s inclusionary affordable housing rules were unconstitutional and akin to the government seizing private property.

Currently, Palmer’s company, G.H. Palmer, is finishing a 1,642-apartment project on Convoy Street in Kearny Mesa and is waiting to build nearly 1,000 additional units at a separate project in Grantville.

In Dec. 2022, before construction began on the Kearny Mesa project, Palmer’s company requested that the city exempt the project from the City’s Inclusionary Affordable Housing Requirement. The program required Palmer to set aside 10% of the units, or 164 in the case of the Kearny Mesa development, or to pay “in lieu of fees” for opting out.

The city denied Palmer’s request.

In Sept. 2023, Palmer sued the city, alleging the law was unconstitutional and violated private property safeguards.

Thousands of Minnesotans chanting “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” are marching through downtown Minneapolis to demand ICE leave the state.

The chants ring through the crowd—clearly energized and undeterred by freezing temperatures—that includes teachers, electricians, community members, and others from seemingly countless organizations

Many of the signs refer to Renee Good, a poet, Minneapolis resident and 37-year-old mother of three who was killed on January 7 by an ICE agent.

Good’s killing has been raised throughout the day, including during an act of civil disobedience by faith leaders at the airport, and during an accompanying news conference there.

The civil disobedience from Minnesota faith leaders resulted in the arrests of about 100 clergy who engaged in civil disobedience by blocking a key road at the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport Friday morning, according to the ICE Out of MN coalition.

/By Michael Sainato and Rachel Leingang / The Guardian / Jan. 23 2026 

A “no work, no school, no shopping” blackout day of protest was kicked off by community leaders, faith leaders and labor unions on Friday, January 23, in protest against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surge in the state.

The “Day of Truth & Freedom” protest comes in the wake of the killing of Renee Good, the unarmed woman killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis earlier this month.

By Anonymous Point Loma Resident

I noticed that City Councilmembers Jen Campbell and Joe La Cava — who is council president — have items before the City Council meeting on January 27, excusing them from attending council meetings.

La Cava gives specific dates, Campbell does not.

Given Jen’s general lack of concern for residents of District 2 and her absence from District matters, this open- ended recuse from some/ all/ unspecified meetings is troublesome.

New Petition

We, the undersigned residents of Sunset Cliffs Park, oppose the unnecessary paving of our historic dirt alleys. These alleys have remained unpaved for over 50 years, preserving the unique charm, environmental benefits, and walkability of our neighborhood.

Why We Oppose Paving:

The San Diego Police Department confirmed that a car crashed into a tattoo shop in northeast Ocean Beach on Wednesday afternoon, January 21, around 4:52 p.m.

by Michael Zucchet / Voice of San Diego / January 21, 2026

In his Jan. 13 op-ed published in Voice of San Diego, former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey argues that increased spending and poor management are the real culprits of the city of San Diego’s budget woes.

But in many of the issue areas that Bailey cites (personnel and pension costs, lack of public safety spending and trash collection fees) San Diego is in line with or even outperforming other cities – including the city of Coronado under Bailey’s leadership as councilmember and mayor for 12 years:

• According to the Census Bureau, the city of San Diego’s population steadily grew more than 7 percent between 2010 and 2024 to 1,404,000. During the same period, the population of Coronado decreased 5 percent to 18,000. Despite this decline in residents, Coronado’s general fund personnel budget rose 89 percent from FY 2014 (Mr. Bailey’s first full fiscal year in office) to FY 2026.  During the same period – with a rising population – San Diego’s general fund personnel expenditures rose 76 percent. Coronado has one city employee for every 70 residents; San Diego has one employee for every 107 residents.

By Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / Jan. 21, 2026

Last September, the City Council unanimously passed a Coastal Resilience Master Plan, adopting nature-based solutions to flooding and erosion risks.

The CRMP was adopted to counteract the effects of climate change on six pilot sites in Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach and La Jolla.

City spokesperson Peter Kelly noted that the four project sites moving forward under Phase 2 are Tourmaline Beach in PB, Dog Beach in Ocean Beach, the Ocean Beach beachfront and Sunset Cliffs.

“Phase 2 is fully grant-funded through a State Coastal Conservancy grant,” said Kelly. “Work will be completed in January 2027…. This work will also include determining a rough order of magnitude for construction costs for each of the Phase 2 project sites.”

Sunset Cliffs’ plans include developing a separated pedestrian path, removing west side parking, and creating one lane for southbound vehicular travel on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard.

Responding to that roadway-altering proposal, Leon Scales, chair of the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Council overseeing Sunset Cliffs’ future development, offered an anecdote.

Scales said someone told him recently that they “would love to live on it (Sunset Cliffs Boulevard).” Scales asked, “If you did, would you be concerned that ‘cliff retreat’ would threaten your home and investment?”

The man responded that he would be dead before a cliff collapse occurred that was serious enough to affect his home, and added that he’d be much more worried if he lived on a street above the boulevard after it became a one-way passage, with all the reverse-direction traffic — and parking — in front of his house.