OB Rag

This Is a Challenge to City’s Passage of “Package A”

Today, March 24, Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) will file a lawsuit against the City of San Diego which challenges the City’s approval of profound changes to its historic preservation program without the required environmental review by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This is about “Package A” which many OBceans are now familiar with.

SOHO’s suit in San Diego Superior Court “seeks an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process to address adverse environmental impacts to historic resources posed by the City’s proposed Preservation and Progress project,” as SOHO stated in an announcement today.

Here’s the balance of SOHO’s announcement:

The City approved “Package A” of the project without analyzing the potential environmental impacts of weakening protections for historic resources across San Diego by modifications to the Municipal Code and General Plan.

Please help me understand the following:

There’s extremely long lines at major airports right now. They’re costing travelers hours upon hours of waiting.

There’s several factors causing these long lines … the weather, spring break … but the main one is that TSA agents have not been paid for over a month, and many of them have quit or are calling in sick — hundreds of them.

Now, the main reason the TSA agents have not been paid is because we’re currently in a partial federal government shut-down.

The main reason we’re in a partial government shut-down is because Republican and Democratic congressional members cannot agree to a budget (continual resolution).

The reason the two parties cannot agree is because Democrats refuse to fund ICE and the Department of Homeland Security — without reform —  due to the killings of people, mass arrests and abuse by ICE this year of immigrants and American citizens. TSA agents and ICE are part of the same government department, DHS.

By Nicole Gomez / 7SanDiego / March 20, 2026

A group of off-duty San Diego lifeguards is being credited with saving the life of a 57-year-old man who went into cardiac arrest at a restaurant in Ocean Beach.

The incident happened on March 1, around 7:30 p.m. at Blue Water Seafood, where three lifeguards — including Noah Herrera — had just sat down to eat when they noticed a man who appeared to be in distress.

Herrera said the situation quickly escalated.

“We rolled him, checking his pulse, and I didn’t feel anything after about 10 seconds, and I told Mitch, ‘I don’t feel a pulse, start compressions,’ and he just started on his chest right away,” Herrera said.

At the same time, another off-duty lifeguard, Griffin Houldin, was dining nearby with his girlfriend when they noticed the commotion.

Trumper Sheriff Bianco Is a Republican Candidate for California Governor

By Jen Rice / Democracy Docket / March 23, 2026

A Republican sheriff running for governor of California has seized more than 650,000 ballots cast in last year’s redistricting referendum election, an alarming signal that the FBI’s recent conspiracy-fueled raid of a Georgia county election hub could be just the first in a new string of attacks on the results of past votes.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco announced Friday that his office had seized the ballots and would conduct its own hand count after receiving complaints about an alleged discrepancy of 45,000 votes in the Proposition 50 special election. That vote allowed California Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map to wipe out President Donald Trump’s gerrymandering gains in Texas.

In recent weeks, the FBI has taken custody of ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, and subpoenaed records from Maricopa County, Arizona. In both cases, the focus was the 2020 presidential race.

But like in those cases, there are signs that Bianco’s challenge to the Prop 50 vote is also based on wrong or downright false information.

In statements to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors last month, county registrar Art Tinoco said the actual discrepancy between ballots cast and ballots counted was just 103 votes — roughly 0.016% of ballots. And the claim of a 45,000-vote discrepancy? It was based on misinterpretations of unprocessed, raw data, he said.

by Scott Lewis and Will Huntsberry / Voice of San Diego / March 21, 2026

D2 Race Is On

What do you get when a French mime, an MBA student, a merchant marine and a former mayor walk into a community center in Clairemont?

That would be a League of Women Voters candidate forum, of course.

Seven people are running for the District 2 council seat, which includes Ocean Beach, Point Loma, Mission Beach and Clairemont.

Any District 2 voters looking for San Diego’s version of Zohran Mamdani didn’t find him at the forum, which happened earlier this month. The debate was dominated by reaction to new fees, homebuilding and what the candidates viewed as poor management by current city leaders.

Allow me to break out some lanes for you that appeared evident at the forum.

City News Service / SD Union-Tribune / March 22, 2026 

[This is an AI generated image of ICE agents at airport]

Some local officials are objecting to the Trump administration’s announcement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will begin handling some security duties at U.S. airports on Monday amid an ongoing partial government shutdown.

It was not clear if there were specific plans for ICE agents to be deployed at San Diego International Airport. A spokesperson for the San Diego Airport Authority had no information on the matter.

Federal officials said Sunday that border czar Tom Homan would be in charge of the effort to use immigration enforcement personnel to supplement security at airports amid the shutdown, which has left roughly 50,000 Transportation Security Administration employees working without pay, contributing to increased absenteeism and staffing shortages at airports nationwide.

“I have no idea how they can contribute at an airport unless it was for intimidation purposes,”  said Aaron Vazquez, a TSA lead transportation security officer at the San Diego airport and assistant airport steward for the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1260 in San Diego.

For a Mere $6.2 billion, Nexstar Bought Tegna, Which Owned CBS 8 Affiliate and The CW

By Teri Figueroa / The San Diego Union-Tribune / March 20, 2026

Questions and anxiety deepened in some of San Diego’s TV stations Friday, a day after the federal government approved a deal that puts the region’s FOX, CBS and CW affiliates, plus KUSI, under the same ownership.

It’s not clear what the ownership changes could mean for San Diego’s TV news landscape. It’s also unclear what the changes mean for viewers of the stations’ non-news programming. It appeared KUSI had aired some CW programming Thursday and Friday evenings, and the logo displayed on KUSI’s Friday afternoon newscast read “KUSI San Diego CW.”

Nexstar Media Group Inc. on Thursday closed a $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna after the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice approved the deal. The combination gives Nexstar and partners 265 television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, ultimately reaching 80% of households, the company said.

In San Diego, Nexstar already owned Fox affiliate KSWB and independent station KUSI. Tegna’s local stations included CBS affiliate KFMB and The CW. On Friday, leadership from the local stations either could not be reached for comment or did not respond to an emailed request for comment. One station referred questions to a Nexstar spokesperson, who did not respond to an email seeking comment.

CNN: ICE agents deployed … on Monday, March 23. The above image is AI generated on Sunday, March 22.

President Donald Trump said ICE agents will head to US airports Monday, March 23rd, placing border czar Tom Homan in charge of the effort.

By Csaba “Abby” Petre

This past Thursday, March 19th, a unique spring celebration happened under the brilliant flower-covered arbors of a very special house. Kicking off in the late afternoon sun around 4:30, the OB Historical Society’s bi-annual fundraiser took place at the beloved Wisteria Cottage on Niagara Avenue, drawing a joyous and elegantly dressed crowd of long-time locals, new neighbors, and friends of OB alike.

The Wisteria Cottage has a long history in the community; built in 1907, it is one of the oldest homes in OB. Its namesake vine was planted by John Clarke in 1915. Ned and Shirley Titlow remodeled the cottage extensively, built the patio, and constructed the arbor that supports the vine, provides extensive shade, and adds a beautiful touch of color to this part of OB. The Titlows also began the tradition of opening the house for the OBHS fundraiser in the early 2000s.

Instead of ending the Iran war or improving the economy, Senate Republicans are championing Trump’s MAGA voter suppression bill.

By Ari Berman / Mother Jones / March 18, 2026

The world is on fire. Gas prices are rising. The US economy is in shambles. President Trump has bulldozed through his promise of “no new wars” and 6 in 10 Americans believe the country is worse off than it was a year ago.

But instead of addressing the issues that Americans actually care about, Senate Republicans are spending the next week or more attempting to further what has become the central organizing principle of Trump’s presidency: making it harder to vote.

On Tuesday afternoon the Senate began debating the Save America Act, which voting rights advocates describe as the worst voter suppression bill that Congress has seriously considered passing.

At its core, the bill is a solution in search of a problem, predicated on the lie that non-citizens are systematically voting in American elections.

The City’s Municipal Primary Election will be held on June 2, 2026. The top two vote-getters in the Primary will advance to the General Municipal Election, which will be held on November 3, 2026. The following candidates are qualified to appear on the ballot in the order below as selected by random draw:

“My Brother Had a Name: Ryan Richard Taylor”

by Rachael Taylor / Voice of San Diego / March 17, 2026

When people hear that my younger brother died while experiencing homelessness, I can tell they want the story to stop there.

They want something tidy, contained and easier to process.

But my brother was not just another tragic ending on the street to be squeezed inside a statistic.

My brother had a name: Ryan Richard Taylor.

Last year, Voice of San Diego featured him in a story about people who received tickets over and over again because they were homeless. Authorities claimed their crackdown was reducing street homelessness. But Ryan continued to stay in Ocean Beach, where he felt most comfortable and at home, even after five arrests and nine citations for offenses related to homelessness.

He died in Ocean Beach on December 6, 2025.