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Fifteen Years Later: Remembering the Invasion Of Baghdad

April 10, 2018 by Source

By Kilian Colin

On April 9, 2003, I woke up to the sounds of bombs.

My bed was shaking and my sister, who was sleeping in the bed next to me, was awake crying and shaking in her bed. It was like an earthquake with very scary sounds. Shards of glass from the windows covered my bed. My parents ran into the room. My father said let’s go downstairs.

We lived in a 1-bedroom apartment on the second floor. We went downstairs and knocked on our neighbor’s door. The neighbor opened the door and let us inside his apartment without saying a word. He was clad only in underwear and held a copy of Quran in his hand. His name was Abo-Allaa.

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Back to the Spring Rituals of Baseball

April 2, 2018 by Jim Miller

Baseball is back, and, as I do every year—no matter how bad the Padres are—I enjoy re-immersing myself in the game. And, as opposed to our president who argues in this ridiculous interview that talent comes strictly from innate ability and is made manifest on the Social Darwinist proving ground of sport, I know that it’s all about focus and work. Perhaps the most important thing of all is failure that leads to more focus and work and honing one’s craft.

You alone with the thing itself.

On the diamond this cliché holds true: even the best players fail most of the time, sometimes quite badly. .

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Under the Gun in Ireland: A Report From the North – August, 1983

March 17, 2018 by Michael Steinberg

Editordude: In honor of St Patrick’s Day, we publish the following piece just sent to us by Michael Steinberg, who went to Ireland a number of times during the 1980s. Happy Paddy’s Day!

By Michael Steinberg

In 1983, I was among a contingent of 82 Americans, including 7 San Diegans, who went on a fact finding tour of Northern Ireland.

What we found there was a vicious colonialism that rules through murder, lies and a concerted attempt at total social control. And a native people who exist under this everyday terror and resist it with extraordinary courage and grace.

I arrive a few days before the tour begins to explore the southern Republic a bit. I first visit the city of Limerick at the mouth of the River Shannon on the west coast. It was from here that my great-grandfather Cornelius Donahue emigrated sometime in the mid 19th century.

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Survey: Flipping the 49th Congressional District Won’t Be Easy

February 22, 2018 by Doug Porter

By Doug Porter

A just-released poll, conducted February 12-15 by FM3 Research for Flip the 49th! Neighbors in Action has a cautionary tale for Democrats seeking to replace retiring Congressman Darrell Issa in the 49th Congressional District.

The good news is the Republicans’ brand is so tarnished that a generic Democrat could win over a generic Republican by 7 points or more.

The bad news is that the current line-up of Democratic candidates is likely to split primary voters in such a way that two Republicans will face each other in the general election.

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Man Arrested in Stabbing Death of Walter ‘Ras’ Riley Last June in Ocean Beach

February 21, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

A young man has been arrested in the stabbing death of Walter “Ras” Riley last June 22nd in Ocean Beach.

Noah Mitchell Jackson, 19, is being held in the San Diego Central Jail after his arrest in Hunting Beach in Orange County on Tuesday, Feb. 20, on suspicion of first-degree murder. With his bail currently set at $2 million, he is scheduled to appear in court Thursday.

Jackson was arrested by San Diego Police detectives along with local police and the U.S. Marshals Service. So far, no motive for the deadly attack has been publicly released, and police declined to report what evidence led them to the suspect. San Diego police obtained an arrest warrant for Jackson after identifying him as the lone suspect.

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Aboard the Magic Bus: From OB To a Marijuana Superstore

February 9, 2018 by Source

by Joaquin Antique

I have seen the ganja future and its name is urbn leaf. Whether it’s a dystopian future or paradise, I’ll let you decide.

You may have seen the bus driving around OB: a newish big black air conditioned rig with a giant marijuana leaf logo and the words “urbn leaf” and “CannaBus” painted on its front and sides.

At first I wasn’t sure exactly what the bus was all about. Was it like a Wine County or Craft Beer tour? An ad for a new band or reggae club? A party bus taking folks to concerts or other events? Turns out urbn leaf is a dispensary and the bus is a service provided for potential customers.

It services Ocean Beach on the hour, from noon until 8 PM daily. The bus picks up patrons at the OB Pier parking lot

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Multiple Tires Slashed in Ocean Beach

December 22, 2017 by Staff

A reader of the OB Rag informed us today, that last night, Thursday, Dec. 21st, someone appears to have randomly slashed the tires on many cars, at least from Narragansett to Coronado on Cable and west of Cable.

The guy who informed us was himself a victim and says the number of tires cut could be higher than twenty.

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San Diego Kumeyaay Etched ‘Resistance Art’ in Floor and Roof Tiles of Early Spanish Churches

September 22, 2017 by Frank Gormlie

Richard Carrico, anthropology professor at SDSU, held an audience of over 60 people transfixed last night at the OB Historical Society monthly presentation with his slides and descriptions of how Kumeyaay laborers sketched artwork on floor and roof tiles of the churches they built for the first Spanish colonists in San Diego. He called it “resistance art or abusive art”.

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Just Another Day in Ocean Beach …

August 30, 2017 by Source

By Shona Neufeld / HuffPost / August 24, 2017

“…this really funky corner of a city that would grab us and hold us and speak to us as no other place…” – Zip Code 92107 by Franklin Straus, hanging in the OB post office

It was a Friday evening, like any other, unusual only in that I could not find a companion to accompany me to my favorite fish taco joint. The sun was about to set and I wanted nothing more than to chow down whilst watching the sun melt into the ocean behind the pier and palms. South Beach has the perfect outside patio for just the occasion.

The notion that rent is skyrocketing and my time here could potentially be limited is, unfortunately, always on the back-burner of my consciousness. The changing atmosphere, vacation rentals, and condos replacing my previous apartments, the breweries, and now swanky wineries…suffice to say it’s not looking good for regular folk like myself.

As I sat there drinking my beer,

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How Short Term Rentals are Affecting Ocean Beach in 5 Charts

July 31, 2017 by Source

By OB Planner

On social media, in news articles, and at City Council meetings on the topic of Short Term Vacation Rentals, a constant complaint has been the lack of meaningful data on the topic. Occasionally a map is highlighted, or members of Save San Diego Neighborhoods share data they have paid for on the issue. Other than that, the conversation is severely lacking useful data points. The City is playing catchup, and has not requested a detailed study by local economists.

Meanwhile Short Term Rental websites, like AirBnB and VRBO continue to closely guard information which is confusing local elected officials.

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A Brief History of SANDAG’s Climate Change Culpability

July 26, 2017 by Source

An agency incapable of change: the story of power, money, and deception in America’s Finest City

By Duncan McFetridge / San Diego Free Press

California has aggressively pursued policies to address climate change. Beginning with Assembly Bill 32, enacted in 2006, the state set in motion a set of regulations designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The most notable action is the cap-and-trade policy. Because automobiles create about 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, the legislature enacted Senate Bill 375 in 2008. This measure attacks greenhouse gas emissions by requiring regional planning agencies — such as the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) — to prepare long range regional transportation plans to reduce them.

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San Diego Schools Embrace Untested ‘De-personalized’ Learning

June 29, 2017 by Source

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican

San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is spending lavishly on technology despite their budgets being decimated by California’s unaccountable charter school industry. During the 2016-17 school year, SDUSD bought digital badging and 16,000 new Chromebooks.

“The district is struggling with a projected $124 million shortfall in its $1.4 billion budget, and have issued in the neighborhood of 1,500 layoff notices to full and part-time employees” reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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The Death of George Winne Jr. and the Fight for a More Peaceful World

May 11, 2017 by Source

By Curtis Yee / The Triton (UCSD) /May 10, 2017

Kingdom Come

May 10, 1970: M*A*S*H was still on TV, The Guess Who was at the top of the Billboard charts, and a little after 4 p.m., George Winne Jr., a UCSD graduate student, set himself on fire in the middle of Revelle Plaza.

Winne was standing in the the northeast corner of the plaza by Ridge Walk, covered in towels and holding a sign that read, “In the name of God, end the war.” A physics graduate student named Ralph J. Archuleta passed by Winne while he was dousing himself in gasoline. “I thought it was water and that he was just trying to cool himself off,” Archuleta said. He kept walking.

Then Winne set himself on fire.

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Special Needs Youth Volunteer at Businesses in Ocean Beach

May 2, 2017 by Source

By Brett Warnke

Everyday Chad Tye, a Teaching Assistant at Community High School of San Diego, a Pioneer vocational transition program, takes his six students to volunteer around Ocean Beach. It is a program Pioneer hopes to expand that helps students with special needs gain independence, skills and trades for potential employment.

“Many of our students have communication issues so even being able to say ‘I’m here’ and complete jobs—to have a some place to go when they wake up in the morning and someone to talk to—has improved their quality of life,” Tye said.

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Town Halls in San Diego: Darrell Issa Deflects, Duncan Hunter Sings Off Key

March 14, 2017 by Doug Porter

By Doug Porter

As town halls in San Diego featuring Representatives Darrell Issa, Duncan Hunter and Susan Davis drew big crowds and garnered national attention, the American Civil Liberties Union rolled out the inaugural event of People Power, with more than 2,200 events in cities coast-to-coast. (See additional coverage of the ACLU campaign here.)

There were more than a dozen expressions of activism on Saturday, March 12th ranging from the raucous to the reserved in venues large and small throughout the region.

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Anti-Immigrant Sentiment and Anti-Semitic Acts Impact San Diego

February 1, 2017 by Doug Porter

immigrant

By Doug Porter

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer made a statement on Tuesday indicating his disapproval of the executive order banning immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries where President Donald Trump’s companies do not have investments.

Though milder in tone than statements by mayors in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle (some of whom have actually joined protests), Faulconer’s statement does recognize that individuals affected by the order are essential parts of the community.

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My Neck

January 17, 2017 by Source

By Anne Haule / Musings of a Boomer Feminist

Photo of hands palm downI love Nora Ephron’s book, “I Feel Bad About My Neck”. I have been feeling bad about my neck since I was about 55. As the years passed, my feelings grew as my weight increased and my necked sagged. All my photos are full face – no side shots allowed.

At 62 I had a consult with a plastic surgeon. When I told him I wanted to lose weight, he told me to wait on the surgery until I reached my weight loss goal – no point in sucking out the fat, cutting the muscles and stretching the skin just to have it sag again on an otherwise svelte neck – assuming I actually lost the weight.

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November 8th, 2016 – Election Day Live Blog at the OB Rag

November 8, 2016 by Frank Gormlie

america-map

The OB Rag has been live blogging since 9 a.m. – COME INSIDE FOR THE LATEST ….

9:00 a.m. This is finally it – Election Day, 2016! This is the historic day where American voters have a final say in the Presidential contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

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Measure D – Nice Try, But No Cigar for The Citizens’ Plan

September 23, 2016 by Doug Porter

Downtown-Hotel-San-Diego-California-United-States-300x420By Doug Porter

A good metaphor for Measure D would be the guy who tries to break up a fight and ends up getting pummelled by both combatants.

Also known as the Citizens’ Plan, Cory Briggs Evil Plot, and Chargers Stadium Lite, the proposal is all-but-dead in the water.

The money spigot ran dry in May. The thoughtful discussion Measure D should have stimulated never happened, lost in the dread of yet another rich guy scheme, and the unintended consequences of its (mostly) good intentions.

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More Details Emerge in Shooting on Ebers Street

August 18, 2016 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for More Details Emerge in Shooting on Ebers Street

More details have emerged about the shooting that involved roommates on Ebers Street Monday, August 8th.

The man arrested for the shooting, Lance Touchstone, 40, a resident of Petaluma in northern California pleaded not guilty Tuesday, August 16, to the charges leveled against him: attempted murder and discharging a firearm.

Touchstone’s charges stem from the shooting of the boyfriend (or ex-boyfriend) of his sister Becky, one Jeff Renteria, 30 at their home on the 2100 block of Ebers Street.

Renteria was shot 3 three times and was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries – to his right side with at least one to his abdomen.

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Suspect in Homeless Attacks Arrested and OB Victim Identified

July 8, 2016 by Frank Gormlie

Suspect Imprisoned 6 Years Ago for Lighting Homeless Man on Fire

The suspect in the serial attacks on homeless men was arrested Thursday, July 7th, and the Ocean Beach victim of one of his fatal attacks has been identified.

Anthony Alexander Padgett, 36, was arrested by San Diego Police in Chula Vista about 10 a.m. Thursday. The arrest occurred near H Street and Broadway. He was booked on 5 felony counts altogether, two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of arson.

San Diego homicide Capt. David Nisleit told the media :

“At this time, we have probable cause to arrest Mr. Padgett for these heinous crimes.”

homeless attacks OB Vict Shawn Longley

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Other Victims of Killer of Homeless Men Identified – Including Ocean Beach Man

July 6, 2016 by Frank Gormlie

The other victims of the vicious attacks on homeless men have now been identified.

In the Midway District of the 4th of July, the killer assaulted his second victim who has been identified as Manuel Mason, 61, who was stabbed and found at Greenwood and Kurtz streets at about 4:50 a.m. The good news is that he is expected to survive, but is still in in critical condition.

An hour or so later near tennis courts at Robb Athletic Field in Ocean Beach, Shawn Longley, 41, was found dead with wounds to the upper torso.

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“Eleanor’s Story”: A Book and a Stage Production Not to be Missed

May 24, 2016 by Ernie McCray

p_2256_i_6661656By Ernie McCray

I met a woman named Eleanor Ramrath Garner early in April at a nice party at a beautiful Del Mar home with a wonderful view on a warm inviting sunny day.

The gathering had everything I like: delicious food; refreshing drinks; interesting witty people, scholars all, practically, filled with colorful stories to tell and they didn’t mind telling them.

Some of them had written doctoral studies and books and essays for professional publications. Eleanor happened to mention that she was an author. She didn’t say what her book was about but something about her made me want to read it. So I looked for it on Amazon.

And there it was: “Eleanor’s Story, an American Girl in Hitler’s Germany.” I clicked on “See a random page” and a picture appeared of Eleanor’s little brother and sister on Christmas Day in 1945 with the words “This was our best Christmas ever because we had survived the bombings, the Battle of Berlin, and hunger.”

I was sold.

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Housed to Homeless in San Diego: Could It Happen to You?

April 11, 2016 by Anna Daniels

By Anna Daniels / San Diego Free Press

homeless make devilQuick— imagine a homeless person.

Did you conjure up the image of an utterly ordinary looking seventy year old white woman attending classes at SDSU? or a neatly dressed young Latino waiting at a bus stop? or a pregnant African American woman passing by your house? or a neighborhood kid who disappears and reappears and seems disconnected, rootless?

We don’t hear much about these men and women, young and old, who are homeless. Instead, we read about the uptrodden who have to deal with homeless people crapping on the sidewalk in front of their expensive condos downtown or the bad optics and shabby aesthetics of the tents and battered pieces of cardboard where the homeless visibly bed down every night, also downtown.

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News From Around Ocean Beach and Point Loma – Mid March 2016

March 17, 2016 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for News From Around Ocean Beach and Point Loma – Mid March 2016

* Some Police Cameras Installed
* March 19th – Friends of OB Library Book and Yard Sale – Donations Needed
* Wife of Drowning Victim in OB Asks “What Was He Thinking?”
* Hess Brewery Dinged by Lack of Parking Citation
* Point Loma High Players and Fans Left in the Dark
* OB Elementary Principal to Kiss a Pig
* No Good Leads in Parrots Killings – Issue to Be Addressed at OB Town Council Meet
* New Construction Fence Around Former Doctors’ Offices – the Future “OB Plaza”
* OB Chili Cook-Off Contestants Needed
* Chapter One Tattoo Parlor Opens
* Hookah Parlor Closes
* Dog Lost at Sea Returned to San Diego Owner 5 Weeks Later
* Two Local Women Beaten Up by Female Traveler
* OB Picked as “Best” Neighborhood of a Large City

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When Does the Violation of Women’s Bodies Become a ‘Red Line’?

March 8, 2016 by Source
Thumbnail image for When Does the Violation of Women’s Bodies Become a ‘Red Line’?

“If people divide their understanding of militarized violence into normal and not normal, acceptable and not acceptable, it makes a terrible kind of sense: violence against women has been “normalized.”

By Lauren Wolfe / Common Dreams

Two years ago I was on vacation in Maine when I started getting really, really mad. I’d been working to track sexualized violence in the Syrian war for a long time and had gotten very little response from policy makers despite many meetings with those in our government and the UK’s and at the UN.

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Ocean Beach Comedy – 10 Year Anniversary Show at Winston’s – Fri. Feb. 19th

February 19, 2016 by Source
Thumbnail image for Ocean Beach Comedy – 10 Year Anniversary Show at Winston’s – Fri. Feb. 19th

Ocean Beach Comedy (OBC) was created 10 years ago, almost by accident.

The show started with Andrew Deans and Steven Kendrick needing an outlet to continue their stand up desires after moving from Texas.

Soon Jesse Egan and Bob Hansen were brought on.

The team added spontaneity to the show by creating topics, sticking them in a hat, randomly drawing, and creating jokes on the spot with what was written on the paper. The show blossomed from there as the original crew started finding other local comedians and giving them a stage to work on material.

Throughout the years, OBC saw some of the best comedians in the business like Doug Stanhope, Joey Diaz, and Jeff Richards.

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From Good to Bad and Back to Good Again

December 29, 2015 by Ernie McCray

By Ernie McCray

I sat around last night trying to think of something to write and decided to click onto a page of prompts which gave me a choice of numbers between one and three-hundred-forty-six.

Sometimes just closing my eyes and moving the little arrow around on my Mac Os X and clicking randomly does the trick but I went, this time, with selecting number fifty-six.

Fifty-six is kind of a big number in my life. I had just turned 56 when Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa. A Highway 56 is named after Ted Williams, one of my favorite baseball players. I was in the Tucson High Class of ’56 and my life changed massively that year, in the time it takes to flip a light switch.

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“Citizens Against Privacy Abuse” Forms in OB in Response to Planned Installation of Police Surveillance Cameras

November 10, 2015 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for “Citizens Against Privacy Abuse” Forms in OB in Response to Planned Installation of Police Surveillance Cameras

In response to the planned installation by the City of San Diego of police surveillance cameras along OB’s waterfront, a loose collection of concerned and upset OBceans has gelled into a group called “Citizens Against Privacy Abuse” (CAPA).

Members of the new group are opposed to the cameras on principle or are upset with the process – how there was no community discussion about the system of 10 cameras that will stretch from the OB Pier to Dog Beach and the San Diego River.

One member said:

“It’s the way it was done. It sounds covert. To exclude groups because you’re afraid they’ll cause a stir – causes a stir.”

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San Diego’s Police Citizen Review Board Falls Short on Transparency and Accountability

September 22, 2015 by Source

Opportunity to provide citizen input at September 23 meeting

occupy san diegoBy Jeeni Criscenzo / San Diego Free Press

Four years ago today (September 17, 2011) the Occupy movement began in New York City’s Zuccotti Park in Wall Street. Like wildfire the movement that defined Us (the 99%) vs Them (the 1%) spread from city to city.

Three weeks later a large and exuberant crowd gathered in San Diego’s Children’s Park before marching defiantly to Civic Center Plaza, and Occupy San Diego was born.

And from that emerged a group of mostly “mature” women (of which I was one) who used our experience and energy to advance the movement long after the camps in cities throughout the nation had been aggressively dismantled by an organized police campaign.

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