OB Rag

Yup, someone did place a tiny border wall around Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame Star, complete with barbed wire and warning signs.

By Jim Miller / Kelly Mayhew

As I wrote last week, these are dire times for public education. With Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education leading the charge for big budget cuts, charter schools, and a radical privatization agenda, the possibility that free quality public education for all in America could soon be a thing of the past is real.

One would think that such clear and present danger to a cornerstone of our democracy coming from the right would unite Democrats behind the mantle of defending public education.

According to Claudia Jack of the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association, the “Day After” clean-up is going smoothly, although volunteers found plenty of marshmallows – a clean sign that some beachgoers celebrating July 4th in OB either did not get the message about the ban on throwing marshmallows following the fireworks or are trying to bring the old OB tradition back.

Claudia estimated only 10% of those on the beach were throwing marshmallows.

The OB Rag has heard from numerous sources that Target Express intends to purchase the Newport Avenue Antique Center on the main commercial street in Ocean Beach. The “junior Target” will open, reportedly, at the end of summer.

The Antique Center, owned by Craig Gerwig, is arguably the largest building on Newport.

This has huge implications for Ocean Beach and the conditions on Newport.

“I Love My Dog, but….”

Let’s get one thing straight. I LOVE MY DOG, SHADOW. And I love his playmate “Rolle”. I love Shadow’s cousin “Toby”. There have only been two dogs in my lifetime that I did not love – the German Shepard that bit me when I was 5 years old, and the Pit Bull that attacked Shadow two years ago causing me to break my leg in three places, as well as my ankle and the cheek bone.

Other than those two dogs, I cannot think of any dog I don’t go “gaga” over. So when I received a note from a neighbor – Barb – saying that there is a lot of discussion about “service dogs” and other animals being brought EVERYWHERE, I decided to do some investigation and see what I could find out.

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain News

Remaining Three Mile Island Reactor to Shut Down

On May 30 Chicago-based Exelon Corporation, the largest US owner and operator of commercial nuclear power plants, announced that it would be shutting down its Unit 1 reactor at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania in September 2019. Located 10 miles from Harrisburg, the state capitol, and 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia, the reactor started up over in 1974, over40 years ago.

Photo by Albert C Elliott

and thanks to Adam Ewing:

How To Lock Your Bike – Secure Your Bicycle From Thieves — COME INSIDE

Briefly …

An estimated 1500 San Diegans rallied and marched in downtown San Diego today to impeach the president of the United States. The first rally began around 11am in front of the County Admin building. About 45 minutes into the event, the crowd moved off the site onto the streets for a march around the western edge of downtown.

Last night at Mission Bay High School, the city unveiled two of its alternative plans for De Anza Cove before community members and the De Anza Revitalization Plan Ad-hoc Committee .

David Garrick at the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the revised plans:

Mission Bay’s northeast corner would be transformed into a combination of marshland, public-private recreation, camping areas and a restaurant … The two proposals would also preserve but reconfigure Mission Bay Golf Course, create nature lookout points, fill a missing link for bicyclists, add a vehicle entrance off Grand Avenue and centralize parking areas.

Is it true that Point Loma High School is the only high school in the district without stadium lights?

While this question is mulled, know this, the stadium lights controversy at Point Loma High School just reached a legal plateau with a recent Superior Court ruling that was in support of the school and the lights. Oh, the lights, the lights!

But still it may not all be over …

By Ernie McCray

PRELUDE: What’s written here are words that poured from me when I tried to, just for a few moments in time, air my mind of all the mania that seems to come from the White House from time to time aka all the time. It’s as written, word for word, with punctuation added to tidy it up a bit.

Here are the winners of the OB Chili Cook-Off held Saturday, June 24th: