OB Rag

by Jill Castellano / inewscource / February 12, 2021

For the second time, a federal watchdog agency found that the Department of Veterans Affairs’ investigation into unethical liver research performed on San Diego veterans was “not reasonable.”

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel published new reports on Tuesday, Feb. 8, revealing more details about the mistakes and violations that occurred during the research and its dissatisfaction with the VA’s investigation into what happened. inewsource broke the story about the unethical study in 2018 as the first article in its Risky Research series.

The study at the San Diego VA was part of a $6 million international project to find new therapies for people with alcoholic hepatitis. Researchers around the world were supposed to collect these patients’ leftover liver tissue after they received biopsies and look for patterns.

But that’s not what happened in San Diego.

By Colleen E. Putzel / Times of San Diego / Feb. 16, 2021

Like most tragedies, the onset of the pandemic produced a call for unity with sentiments ensuring “we’re all in this together.”

Every outlet, from the daily news to hand-made window signs, offered appreciation for those on the front line: health care workers, grocery store clerks, public transportation workers, and truck drivers. My father, a truck driver, and my mother, a seamstress, suddenly became heroes.

My father goes to work every day delivering construction materials and my mother paused her Etsy sales to make masks for her local hospital. I feared, especially early on, that my father’s company would begin laying off workers. As that threat seemed less imminent, it was replaced by the fear that he would be exposed to the virus.

Former Charger Owns and Runs OB’s Sunnie’s

Like most San Diegans, former Chargers player and Point Loma resident Israel Stanley grew up eating good Mexican food. Today, he’s sharing his love of the cuisine with his community, one dish at a time, at his family-owned restaurant. Stanley owns and operates Sunnie’s in Ocean Beach, a Mexican café and taco shop on Point Loma Avenue. Sure, he’s the Black owner of a Mexican café (and likely the only Black-owned taco shop in San Diego), but he doesn’t consider Mexican culture his adopted culture. “It’s just my culture,” he told NBC 7. …

OB Dad and Son Set Up Foundation for Mexican Surfers

Areck Madden and his son Cole, who works at Ocean Beach Surf & Skate Shop, have helped to set up a foundation to donate surfboards and accessories benefiting less-fortunate wave riders south of the border through the shop. And it all started with Areck and Cole encountering a Mexican surfing dad-son duo on a recent Baja trip. …

On the one year anniversary of San Diego County’s declaration of a local health emergency due to COVID-19, there are hopeful signs that the worst of the pandemic could be behind us. And these charts and graphs demonstrate the basis of that hope.

It was on February 14th, 2020, Valentine’s Day, that San Diego County declared a local health emergency to combat the coronavirus. At that time there were two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in San Diego County and several suspected cases.

One year later to the day, more than a quarter of a million people in San Diego County have tested positive for COVID-19 and 3,000 people have died. But because there is hope, it does not mean we stop or ease up on

Here it is – today is “President’s Day” – a holiday meant to celebrate all American presidents and specifically Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays.

And here we are – more than three months after the Presidential election in November – and the Republican Party still refuses to accept Joe Biden as The President. The nation watched over the weekend and witnessed 43 US Republican senators refuse to hold Trump accountable for the bloody, seditious January 6 insurrection.

Not all Republicans – and certainly not the 7 who voted to convict – nor those in the House of Representatives who voted to impeach. And currently there are hopeful signs that the anti-Trump wing may even form a new party.

But the main wing of Trump’s party, including those sycophants in state parties who have censured the brave GOP’ers who didn’t go along, are apparently the majority. And it’s shameful that today, they are celebrating President’s Day even while dishonoring the current president – not to mention, the will of the people.

By Kathy Blavatt

Valentine’s Day is a fine time to ignite the “amour” in your life.

Valentine’s Day is by far the most romantic holiday. Valentine flowers and warm hearts remind us of those we love. It is the prelude to Spring, welcoming fragrant scents that burst forth from colorful blossoms.

Nature shows us how to revive and re-energize as we awake from the winter cold and darkness.

Luckily in San Diego, we can hardly complain about the cold, yet many locals think it’s the end of the world every time it rains!

By Donna Frye / San Diego Union-Tribune / Feb. 8, 2021

The political polarization facing our country today is not a new thing. People have been fighting about their differing points of view for as long as anyone can remember.

What is relatively new, however, is the speed at which massive amounts of information can be disseminated to millions of people at the same time.

Not that long ago, people generally relied upon the newspaper, television or radio to find out what was happening both locally and nationally. Those were also the venues people used to communicate their points of view, especially to the public at large.

People sent letters to the editor or called radio programs. Sometimes days passed before their response was received and published. In other words, there was time between the information being received and the response being sent.

That’s not how it works today.

By Colleen O’Connor

Time to be blunt. Teachers, students and children are the new electoral battering rams amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Just as I wrote in June of last year, the 2020 Presidential election it was “not Biden v. Trump, but COVID-19 v. Trump).” And the GOP’s own confidential postmortem report (as quoted on Politico), confirms it.

“The autopsy says that coronavirus registered as the top issue among voters, and that Biden won those voters by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. A majority registered disapproval of Trump’s handling of the virus.

By David Helvarg and Jason Scorse / The Hill / Feb. 4, 2021

Last week President Biden made a firm commitment to transition America from polluting fossil energy to clean renewable power. We and other coastal residents are heartened by his “whole government” approach to tackling the climate crisis, especially his focus on the positive employment impacts of making smart climate investments.

However, we get concerned when the president identifies a million jobs linked to building electric cars in the industrial heartland, yet fails to note the millions of additional climate jobs that could be created in our coastal regions and on our public seas in a new blue economy.

[Editordude’s note: for those inclined to follow-up on issues in this post, please go to the original for any links.]

Coastal jobs solve climate too

Two years ago, recognizing that the Democrats’ Green New Deal resolution lacked sufficient focus on the nation’s coasts and ocean, our organizations began developing an Ocean Climate Action Plan coalition to make sure our public seas are central in U.S. climate policy. Supporters include Special Climate Envoy John Kerry, Leon Panetta, climate activist Jane Fonda and ocean explorer Sylvia Earle.

The Saga of the Widder Curry’s Covid -19

By Judi Curry

I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you that sent me prayers, positive thoughts, greeting cards, flowers, soups, foods, magazines, funny sayings, etc. during these past 22 days that I have been wiped out by Covid.

NEVER in my entire lifetime, which is substantial, have I ever been so weak, so indisposed as I have been the past three weeks.

When I say that I had no energy even to lift myself off the commode, that is no exaggeration. I needed help, each and every time. And do you want to know the strange thing about this disease? I had a “mild case.” I never had an elevated temperature; I never had low oxygen; my blood pressure remained normal throughout the entire 22 days.

I just had no energy. None. Nada. And one of the worst sensations I had in the 22 days was that my bones were on fire! Truly! They felt like there were flames emanating from them. All day. All night. For 18 days!

And how did it start?

by Ernie McCray

I got my first vaccine for covid-19 on February 6, 2021. One more to go for this old son of a gun.

But when I got back home after my shot I was reminded that this wasn’t the first time that February 6 was special to me, since on that day 61 years ago I took to the court with my teammates in Bear Down Gym at the University of Arizona and got to shaking and baking and whipping outlet passes to start fast breaks and shot the lights out all over the place, and came away with 46 points, a record that stands to this day.

The fun and glory of that will never go away.

And I couldn’t help but think, in those moments, what a difference six decades can make in one’s life. In so many ways. I was so strong back then physically, even with a bad back, something that’s plagued me since those days.

Today, February 9, the Ocean Beach Planning Board is sending Mayor Gloria and every member of the San Diego City Council a letter with the Board’s proposed changes to any short-term vacation rental ordinance – the subject of an upcoming discussion at Council.

The ordinance being discussed by Council is the proposed “compromise” concocted by Jen Campbell’s office, on the docket for February 23.

Here is the OBPB’s response – in the form of proposed amendments – and we post it below without edit:

RE: The Ocean Beach Planning Board’s Proposed Amendments to the Short Term Vacation Rental Ordinance, to be Docketed on February 23rd

The Ocean Beach Planning Board opposes the conversion of long-term housing to Short Term Vacation Rentals (STVRs). Whole home rentals without an owner or longterm lessee on sight are not a compatible use in residential zones. STVRs exacerbate the housing crisis by increasing investor speculation in the housing market and thus the price.