OB Rag

By Csaba Petre

I had the good fortunate of watching the OB Holiday Parade this year from a unique vantage point above Newport Ave.

The turnout was big, with people of all ages and families with kids lining both sides of OB’s main street.

The Galactic theme and turnout made this a particularly inventive and lively parade, which went more than two hours and concluded with Santa rolling by in a Harbor Patrol boat. Highlights included several fantastic live bands, and many aliens, UFOs, and space-themed cars.

[Dear reader: if you a photo or two of Saturday’s parade and wish it posted, please send as an attachment — no larger than 1,000 — to obragblog@gmail.com]

Trump Supporters Will Soon Control Most TV News Stations in San Diego

By JW August

San Diego County’s voter makeup has gone from red to blue over the decades, and there’s no better example in recent years than the evolving Democratic majority on the San Diego City Council and county Board of Supervisors.

While the region has slowly shifted Democratic, the broadcast industry in San Diego has been moving in a different direction — conservative. President Trump supporters will soon control most television news stations in the region.

Now, a bid for one of the remaining stations not under control by conservative ownership is being pursued. It is KGTV, aka 10News, the ABC affiliate in San Diego.  The pursuer is Sinclair Broadcast Group, whose executive chairman David Smith is a longtime supporter of Trump and the Republican Party. Sinclair’s target is 10News owner E.W. Scripps Company.

Full disclosure, I worked at 10News for 33 years, so I do have some familiarity with the news broadcast industry. Before 10News I worked as a freelancer in the early 1980s . My turf included both City Hall and county government.  It was a time when the city’s power structure, along with the City Council and Board of Supervisors were mostly white and male.  There were some important exceptions, which was sign of what was to come.

By Alexis Sterling   / Nation of Change / Dec.5, 2025

A new confrontation between the White House and blue states raises concerns about the political use of food assistance programs

The Trump administration is poised to block key federal funds tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as part of an escalating dispute with Democratic-led states over data demands involving millions of low income households.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Dec. 2, that the Department of Agriculture would begin halting federal transfers next week for states that have not turned over detailed information on SNAP recipients. The move has triggered legal challenges, sharp criticism from lawmakers, and questions about whether the administration has the authority to interrupt a program that helps 42 million people afford food.

Rollins said on Tuesday that the administration had requested state data earlier this year to address what she called “rampant” fraud in the program.

By San Diego Monitor News / December 5, 2025

San Diego officials are tightening the city’s belt once again, confronting a financial hole that continues to widen despite a wave of new fees and rate increases approved earlier this year. Mayor Todd Gloria has instructed every department to clamp down on spending immediately, warning that the coming budget cycle will demand even tougher decisions.

City leaders have been reviewing virtually every line of spending, from overtime to contracts that provide everything from homeless services to rented construction equipment. The mayor’s financial team issued the directive after discovering that equipment rentals alone cost the city more than six million dollars last year — often without full council review. Now, department managers must justify each contract and revisit their cost projections ahead of next year’s budget process.

Even with new revenue from trash pickup fees, parking charges in Balboa Park, and other rate adjustments, the city still faces a projected deficit nearing ninety million dollars for the fiscal year that starts next July. That number could swell past one hundred million if the city loses expected one-time homelessness funding or must expand staffing to meet operational needs. Roughly half of the gap represents long-term, structural problems that will require permanent fixes.

by Michael Casey / Associated Press – Fox5 San Diego / Dec 2, 2025 /

The Justice Department on Tuesday, Dec. 2, sued six more states in its ongoing campaign to obtain detailed voter data and other election information.

The department announced it was suing Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington over their “failure” to produce statewide voter registration lists. It has portrayed the litigation as part of an effort to ensure the security of elections, but Democratic officials have raised concerns over how the data will be used and whether the department will follow privacy laws in protecting it.

Tuesday’s actions bring to at least 14 the number of states the Justice Department has sued in its quest for the voter information [including California].

“Our federal elections laws ensure every American citizen may vote freely and fairly,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the department’s Civil Rights Division. “States that continue to defy federal voting laws interfere with our mission of ensuring that Americans have accurate voter lists as they go to the polls, that every vote counts equally, and that all voters have confidence in election results.”

The department has requested the voter data from at least 26 states, according to an Associated Press tally. It’s prompted concerns among some election officials because states have the constitutional authority to run elections and federal law protects the sharing of individual data with the government.

By OB Staff 

David Garrick, the San Diego Union-Tribune’s City Hall Reporter, will give a Saturday, December 13 presentation on “This Just In: Covering the City Hall Beat.”

The forum, part of a series organized by the San Diego Community Coalition, will take place from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. at the Logan Heights Library, 567 S. 28 Street. Following Garrick’s brief remarks, the floor will open for questions from the audience.

Garrick has had a front row seat in San Diego politics for more than a decade. When he started covering City Hall in 2014, Kevin Faulconer was the new Mayor, Todd Gloria was City Council President, and Sempra Energy occupied the tower at 101 Ash Street.

San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer held a community meeting in Encinitas Thursday, Dec. 4, to urge the public to take a stand against the Trump administration’s plans to expand Califonia’s offshore drilling. She was joined by Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner. The meeting had been organized by the environmental groups California Coastal Protection Network, Oceana, Surfrider Foundation and Wildcoast.

The Thursday gathering followed the Nov. 20 announcement by the Trump administration that it will reopen ocean waters off the Pacific Coast to oil drilling leases, generating rapid opposition from California officials and environmentalists.

Lawson-Remer said she and others are united in defending the San Diego region, and told President Donald Trump and oil executives to “go pound sand.”

“We are not going to go backwards,” no matter how much Trump calls clean energy “a con job,” Lawson-Remer said during the meeting.

Once again, we return to Letters to the Editor for the truth — and it’s so much more fun to see letters written by people  you know. So, here’s a couple from today’s Union-Tribune, one from Rag writer Kate Callen and another from Ralph Teyssier, a commenter on the Rag.

Re “Campillo’s reforms a smart response to Gloria’s trash fee machinations” (Nov. 30):

Thank you for pointing out that San Diego has one elected official with a functioning moral compass. Yes, Raul Campillo is pushing the reform rock up the hill — for now. But widespread disgust with the mayor’s mendacity and the connivance of eight City Council members is changing the political landscape. We see this in the overflow crowds at council meetings and the scores of angry letters you print.

by Michael J. Stepner and Mary Lydon / Times of San Diego / Dec. 4, 2025

City of San Diego officials implemented a complicated fee structure for parking in Balboa Park, set to begin Jan. 5, without fully vetting its unintended consequences.

The City Council approved the proposal despite the concerns and testimony of park users, park institutions and park organizations big and small. Together, they expressed an emerging general consensus: It is not right to use San Diego’s Crown Jewel to fill a tiny piece of the city’s budget gap.

This rushed decision risks what the World Cities Culture Forum called “the heart of thriving cities” — culture.

“It is a crucial part of a city’s fabric, a golden thread that runs through all aspects of urban policy,” the UK-based nonprofit wrote.

Culture is an expression of community, shared values and creativity. Balboa Park is San Diego’s soul.

The paid parking implementation did not take into consideration any understanding of what Balboa Park is, or what the park provides to a rich tapestry of our citizenry.

By Jillian Butler

Ocean Beach residents are once again grappling with the consequences of corporate overreach. As many long-time OBceans have feared, the Target Express at 4864 Newport Avenue is backtracking on the assurances made to both Ocean Beach residents and business owners. In 2017, Target applied for ownership of the building formerly housing the Newport Avenue Antique Center.

According to NBC 7:

The store is part of Target’s master plan to open what it calls “small-format stores” in urban areas and in dense suburban neighborhoods – namely places where a full-size Target store may not fit. These smaller stores aim to offer an assortment of products that cater specifically to the community in which the store stands.

With Ocean Beach’s historical opposition to large corporate franchises and diverse array of small businesses, this was met with stark opposition from the community back in 2017. A petition against the Target garnered over 2,600 signatures. Local print shop, James Gang, sold “No Target in OB” shirts. Ocean Beach Town Council meetings were filled to the brim with community members opposing a mega corporation on one of Ocean Beach’s liveliest streets. Crowds of concerned OBceans gathered on Newport Avenue to protest the installation. One resident even traveled to the Target headquarters in Minnesota to demonstrate against the Target Express.

There’s been a spike in detentions of Afghans living in San Diego recently and it’s being condemned by the local chapter of America’s largest Muslim civil rights group, CAIR, which stands for Council on American-Islamic Relations.

In a statement issued Dec. 3, the Executive Director, Tazheen Nizam of San Diego’s CAIR said:

“This past week, our office has seen a spike in calls from Afghan community members suddenly facing new threats to their status and safety. This morning, I accompanied an Afghan evacuee to what ICE claimed was a routine check-in in San Jose; despite full cooperation, he was detained immediately. We’re hearing the same fear from long-time green card holders, already-vetted refugees, and families who have waited years to reunite with loved ones now trapped in limbo.

$283.7 million in tax revenue raised in the third quarter of 2025 alone

by: Chris Ponce / Fox5 San Diego / Dec 2, 2025

Legal cannabis sales in California brought $283.7 million in tax revenue in the third quarter of 2025, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) announced Tuesday.

Cannabis excise tax revenue funds childcare programs, youth substance abuse prevention, environmental recovery, medical research and more, according to CDTFA. Officials shared that more than $7 billion in cannabis tax revenue has been raised since 2018.

During the third quarter, July to September, this tax rate temporarily increased 19%. However, the tax rate returned to 15% following legislation signed by Governor Gavin Newsom.

“We’re rolling back this cannabis tax hike so the legal market can continue to grow, consumers can access safe products, and our local communities see the benefits,” Newsom said in a news release.

Assembly Bill 564 stops a 25% tax increase on the cannabis industry, hoping to promote long-term success of the industry in California.