OB Rag

City streamlining enforcement, may consider looser regulations and ideas like consumption lounges

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / Dec. 31, 2020

The new San Diego Cannabis Permitting Bureau launching this winter will streamline regulation of the city’s cannabis businesses, step up enforcement and explore new ideas like “consumption lounges” and delivery-only services.

The bureau also may focus on loosening city policies under New Mayor Todd Gloria and a Democrat-dominated City Council, who are expected to take a more permissive approach to legalized cannabis.

By Geoff Page

After a day long trip to Tijuana on Wednesday, I found a few emails my phone had not picked up because of where I was. One was from editordude asking if any of his band of merry pranksters had any year-end thoughts to share in The Rag. Had it not been for that trip to TJ, I’m not sure I would have known what to say.

Most of what comes to my mind about 2020 probably comes to most people’s thoughts. This was an odd year and it is safe to say that it was a year when almost everyone was focused on the same things, politics and the pandemic. In other years, attention was not so singularly concentrated because lots of things happened, good and bad, as usual.

This year was different because the good was overwhelmed by the bad.

By Rob Nikolewski / San Diego Union-Tribune / Dec. 31, 2020

The San Diego City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposal brought forth by Mayor Todd Gloria to extend the city’s existing franchise electric and gas agreement with San Diego Gas & Electric by an additional five months.

The extension, which runs through June 1, continues the terms of the current agreement that was set to expire Jan. 17 and is designed to give city officials more time to negotiate a new deal while clearing up uncertainty regarding the millions of dollars SDG&E pays to the city in franchise fees.

Gloria’s proposal to the council comes after the newly elected mayor and his staff negotiated with the utility over the Christmas holidays. On Tuesday, SDG&E’s board of directors agreed to add five months to the existing contract.

Time for a little schmaltz

By Judi Curry

I’m so glad this year is over,
It hasn’t been the best,
Sometimes it was so unbelievable
I had to think things were said in jest.

JANUARY 6, the day Congress meets in a joint session to accept the results of the presidential election, should be a testament to America’s enduring democracy.

Yet it may become a demonstration of its poor health. President Trump, along with craven enablers such as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), is seeking to upend what should be solemn but largely perfunctory proceedings to ratify the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.

The result could be a shameless show of support by numerous congressional Republicans for erasing the votes of millions of Americans — and, perhaps, mayhem incited by the president in the streets of D.C. “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!,” Mr. Trump tweeted earlier this month in an appeal to his supporters to come to the capital to buttress his campaign to overturn the election results.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune, Wed., Dec. 30, 2020

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has worked out a proposed extension of the city’s soon-to-expire franchise agreement with San Diego Gas & Electric that will add just over five months to the current deal — through June 1.

Gloria will present the proposed extension before the City Council in a special meeting scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

“I urge the City Council to support it during their special meeting tomorrow,” Gloria said in a statement. “I thank SDG&E for working with me in a collaborative process.” In order for the proposed extension to go into effect, the city council has to approve it on a two-thirds vote — meaning at least six of the council’s nine members have to vote yes.

Originally posted August 2012

Nothing says OB more than surf, sweet boards, and social consciousness! In the following interview, OBcean Larry O’Brien, vintage body board collector, cave explorer, and aspiring eccentric shares one of his many passions: Creating boards from found wood and other materials.

Coronadoian “Paipo Mike” Shourds, builder of wooden body boards and recycled junk bikes since 1960, is also a collector and all-around creative person.

Terrie Leigh Relf: What inspired you to create your body boards?

Larry O’Brien: Back when I was in junior high school, carpentry was something taught in school, and sex was something you learned …

General Rain Advisory in Effect

The Department of Environmental Health has issued a GENERAL RAIN ADVISORY for the coastal waters of San Diego County due to contamination by urban runoff following rain.

Swimmers, surfers, and other ocean users are warned that levels of bacteria can rise significantly in ocean waters, especially near storm drains, creeks, rivers, and lagoon outlets that discharge urban runoff.

Activities such as swimming, surfing and diving should be avoided for 72 hours following rain.

The most recent rain event occurred December 29, 2020.

The GENERAL RAIN ADVISORY for urban runoff contamination applies to beaches from San Onofre State Beach south to Border Field, including Mission Bay and San Diego Bay. While many coastal outlets are posted with permanent metal warning signs, additional temporary signs are not posted for General Advisories.

When a General Advisory is issued:

By Colleen O’Connor

Yes, it is a song, but a song that might presage the entire fate of the country.

The lyrics tell of a Gothic murder, lots of jealousy, infidelity, and an innocent man hanged.

Then ends with a bizarre twist, with the real murderer (the “little sister” of the man hanged) who confessed and warned,” Don’t trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer, ’cause the judge in the town’s got blood stains on his hands.”

The surprise ending or literary “plot twist” in this song, or any story, requires misdirecting the audience with “fake” information. The finale depends on the element of surprise.

The many surprises coming from Georgia begin with the two U.S. Senate races on January 5th. The outcome will determine not just the control of the U.S. Senate, but choice between deadlock and progress.

Already, this race is the most expensive contest in congressional history

by Ernie McCray

2020. What a year, huh?

I was in Cuernavaca, a town I’ve come to love, when the year began – a little groggy because New Year’s Eve in Mexico is an explosion of firecracker noises and gunshot noises against a background of brass and drums in surround sound at decibels seemingly without bounds.

All that aside, with a little ringing in my ears, I had a wonderful time on the first day of the year.

Our dear friend, Josefina, sat us down to fresh coffee and chilaquiles y juevos, over easy, and papaya, manzanas and peras and cheesecake and we spent the day talking away.

Then the next day we drank margaritas and dined with a beautiful view of a downtown park we had just strolled leisurely through, looking into smiling brown faces, meeting a man who offered us tickets to heaven and we joked about whether the tickets were roundtrip.

It was such a nice trip and the rest of January also was filled with pleasantries,

Andrew Buck, a longboarder and surf-mat aficionado from Carpinteria just south of Santa Barbara has an ability to catch sets at Rincon on an inflatable mat and generate speed that has won him fans all over the world.