Got Damage From the Storm?
Just about every neighborhood has a tree or large branch down.
Check these out. Palm tree down on Bolinas – …
Got any photos of wind or sea damage to share? Send them in to obragblog@gmail.com
Lessons From 1965: Why Employment-Based Reform Is Xenophobia In Disguise
By Carlos Batara
Politics is a game of unintended consequences. One needs to look no further than the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
As a San Diego / San Bernardino immigration lawyer, it is not uncommon to hear immigration activists praise the virtues of the Act. Yet, a retrospective review reveals that it was politics as usual. Benevolence was not the foremost consideration of most in Congress.
The Civil Rights Connection: Fact And Fiction
The Act was inspired by the Civil Rights Act as well as our nation’s quest for ethnic diversity and racial equality. In some political corners, the immigration bill was characterized as a progressive extension of the civil rights movement.
Clinton Democrats in 2016: Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here
By Jim Miller
Whatever happens in today’s Iowa caucuses, one thing is abundantly clear—when confronted with a credible challenge from the left in the form of the Bernie Sanders, the response of much of the leadership of the Democratic Party and their allies in the corporate media has been to defend the status quo with great zeal even if it meant borrowing tropes from the right.
Whether it was red-baiting from Thomas Freidman or condescension mixed with an appeal to “realism” from Paul Krugman, the drumbeat was loud and consistent: Sanders’ agenda, with it’s direct ties to the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr. and FDR was simply an unrealistic option in the neoliberal era.
Televangelist Morris Cerullo Plans Biblical Disneyland in Mission Valley
Controversial televangelist’s massive project up for review
By Ken Williams / Mission Valley News
A controversial Pentecostal televangelist who recently purchased the San Diego Resort Hotel complex in Mission Valley has proposed a massive mixed-use redevelopment project that would include a religious retreat, underground catacombs, a Jerusalem-style Wailing Wall, an outdoor amphitheater and bazaar, a TV studio, and timeshare units for his followers.
Morris Cerullo — the 84-year-old televangelist who proclaims to be a faith healer and miracle worker — bases his global ministry at 3545 Aero Court in San Diego’s Serra Mesa neighborhood. The proposed Morris Cerullo Legacy International Center would be built at 875 Hotel Circle South on 18.1 acres located off Interstate 8 in Mission Valley.
Councilwoman Zapf and Her Cameras at Issue at OB Town Council Meeting
Report from the Ocean Beach Town Council Meeting – Wednesday, January 27 – 2016
By Activist of OB
The first meeting of the Ocean Beach Town Council (OBTC) for the new year was highly attended (Hooray!) by both community members and local media.
What motivated the crowds? Perhaps New Year’s Resolutions to be more involved, perhaps the Girl Scout cookies being sold in the back of the room, heck….even District 2 elected City Councilmember Lorie Zapf was physically present! Wow!
Zapf Surprised at Turnout and Media Presence
Councilmember Lorie Zapf approached the front of the room and voiced her surprise by all of the media present, nervously laughing as she commented that she told her family she was just going to an OBTC meeting.
I said to myself “Yep, Welcome to OB, Lorie Zapf”.
The Lessons of Porter Ranch
By Nicola Peill-Moelter, Ph.D. / SanDiego 350.org
The massive leak at the Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility is a stark example of why natural gas is a significant health and safety risk and not a bridge fuel to our clean energy future. The facility, the second largest in the U.S., stores vast amounts of natural gas at high pressure in underground wells once used for oil extraction more than fifty years ago.
On or about October 23rd a rupture in a 60-year old injection well pipe a thousand feet underground initiated the leak. At its peak the leak had an estimated rate of one-hundred twenty-five thousand pounds of methane per hour. To date, the cumulative emissions from this single source is equivalent to 25% of the state’s annual methane emissions from major sources like agriculture and landfills, equivalent to the annual climate pollution of almost half a million cars.
OB Rag Poll: Sanders, Clinton, Trump
For a week, the OB Rag ran a poll on the presidential preferences of our readers. The poll was a wide-open horse race that had all the major candidates of both major parties running against each other, and included most of the top-tiered GOP candidates (however, it did not include and we now think it should have included Jeb Bush).
Overall, Bernie Sanders came out way ahead – with nearly 51% of the total vote. Near each other, Hillary Clinton had 17.5% and Trump had 16.7% following Sanders way down the sheet.
Marco Rubio had 3.3%, Ted Cruz had 1.7%, Chris Christie had .8%. Another 3.3% wanted another GOP candidate (Bush?).
Councilwoman Zapf Questioned by Community and Media on Her Police Camera Plan
Audience at OB Town Council Meeting Divided Over the Police Cameras
The packed Masonic Center became focused on the planned installation of the police surveillance cameras along OB’s waterfront.
With standing-room only, Wednesday nights OB Town Council meeting became the center of the controversy over the 10-camera system, as Councilwoman Lorie Zapf (pronounced “Zaph”) was in attendance and forced to answer questions from the crowd and the media about them.
It was the first opportunity for opponents of the cameras – and community members at large – to question and confront Zapf about the cameras, …
Living and Working In Poverty in San Diego : Excerpt From “Sunshine/Noir II”
Photo by quinntheislander (Pixabay)
Grim Reality in “America’s Finest City”
By Susan Duerksen
“Living in poverty” is one of those shorthand terms that rolls easily off the tongues of news anchors and politicians before they turn to the next topic. We all tend to glaze over the full meaning of the phrase, the grinding day-to-day misery of hunger, worry, discomfort, exhaustion, and despair.
In the city of San Diego, the proportion and number of people living in poverty edged up in 2013. It should have gone down. Instead, 7,000 more people in the city live in poverty now, in addition to the 202,000 who remain in that dire situation from the previous year.
Lack of Diversity Among San Diego County Commissions
Over 200 vacant positions. Zero Latinos on the “Citizen’s Review Board On Police Practices”
By Barbara Zaragoza / San Diego Free Press
On Thursday, January 21st the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI) held a Boards and Commissions Launch Event at MAAC’s Chula Vista Community Room in hopes of encouraging more citizens to actively participate in their local government.
Ocean Beach Therapist Opens Her “Office” at the Beach
Beachfront Therapist is Ready to Listen
By Matthew Wood
It’s Thursday afternoon, which means Gina Smith is at her normal post by the beach … waiting to talk.
The licensed therapist has made the grassy area at Veteran’s Plaza her office hours of sorts, bringing two chairs and a sign that says the “Listener Is In.”
“It’s a play on the Lucy, Peanuts thing,” she said. “I thought it was cool and fitting.”
Listening is exactly what Smith, 66, wants to do. She moved to OB in September of 2014 after coming to visit her son and newborn grandchild.
“I came to OB and was like, ‘Wait, did I step in a time warp?’” she said. “I love the community and the people.”
Push-Back Against Pro-Developer Coup at California Coastal Commission
Showdown at Commission Meeting on Feb. 10th
Things are really heating up at the California Coastal Commission, the independent state agency that is the guardian of the 1100 mile California coastline. Nothing is at stake except what’s left of the pristine nature of our coastline and the future ability of Californians to have access to it.
What’s going on – and there’s no way to mince words about it – is that there is a movement afoot on the 12 member board of commissioners to engineer a coup – to fire Charles Lester, the executive director of the Coastal Commission’s staff.
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