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Trump Confirms His War on Press at First Press Conference in Nearly 6 Months

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By Frank Gormlie / The OB Rag

For the first time in nearly six months, today, January 11th, Donald Trump held a news conference. You remember news conferences, you know, those lop-sided but necessary events where politicians actually have to appear to answer questions from reporters. His last one had been on July 27th – almost half a year ago and none since his election.

During today’s 90 minute spectacle – which I dutifully watched – Trump actually answered some of the questions thrown at him by reporters.

Yet, one thing was instantly and crystal clear – Trump is continuing his war on the press. This press conference confirmed it.

  [Read more…]

2016 Was Another Deadly Year at Sunset Cliffs

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Last year–2016– ended up as another deadly year at Sunset Cliffs, the beautiful yet dangerous cliffs that abut the Pacific Ocean on the west side of Ocean Beach and Point Loma.

By our calculations, four people died at the cliffs and 3 were seriously injured during 2016. In comparison with 2015, that year had 3 deaths but 8 serious injuries/ rescues.

The month of July, in particular, was the most deadly and dangerous, with 2 deaths and 3 seriously injured people.   [Read more…]

City Halts Coastal Mansions Through Affordable Housing Program

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The good news is that the City of San Diego has halted a decade’s old practice of allowing large single-family homes to be built in coastal areas expedited under the City’s affordable housing and sustainability program.

The bad news is that the City’s Development Services Department allowed single-family mansions to be built at all under a program that they were ineligible for – for a decade.

We reported in an earlier post about this program and how developers of single-family units had their projects expedited and how one big-time insider was able to take advantage of his connections:   [Read more…]

It’s Official : America Is in Distress – Place Your Flag Stamp Upside Down

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With the Electoral College vote on December 19th confirming Donald Trump as the next president, it is now official that the United States of America is in distress.

We are calling on our readers and supporters to do something every day to signify this distress.

And one of these things can be as small as placing your American flag stamps upside down every time you mail something.

The upside down American flag is a time-honored tradition of demonstrating in a small way that the country is in trouble, in distress.   [Read more…]

News from Ocean Beach and Point Loma: Mid-December 2016

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OB Boy Uses Savings from Lemonade Stand to Buy Backpacks for Homeless

A community has rallied around one little boy’s “Pay it Forward” project to create backpacks to distribute to the homeless of San Diego. Seven-year-old Dylan Rodrigues of Ocean Beach saved $120 he earned from putting up a lemonade stand to buy backpacks to fill with necessities like sack lunches, socks, scarves and band-aids. “I wanted them to not starve,” he said. The word got out that Dylan was on a mission to help people this holiday season and his project has now grown. Dozens of people have donated money and items to Dylan.   [Read more…]

Developer – Insider Benefits from Affordable Housing Program By Building Coastal McMansions

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A developer and political insider – a former chairman of the San Diego Planning Commission – appears to have benefited big-time from a City of San Diego affordable and sustainability housing program – that he was ineligible for – by being allowed to construct single-family McMansions at the coast.

Tim Golba of Golba Architecture was given the green light by the City’s Development Services Department to obtain the permits for his single family home projects through the city’s “Affordable/In-Fill Housing and Sustainable Buildings Expedite Program.” We know this, thanks to the diligence of the Voice of San Diego.   [Read more…]

Ocean Beach’s Largest Landlord Adds 10 Units, Immediately Raises Rents

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Michael Mills Buys Complex of Studios on Voltaire – Notifies Tenants of 20% Rent Raise

The largest landowner – landlord in Ocean Beach, Michael Mills, just purchased a complex of 10 studios on Voltaire Street – and immediately notified the tenants of a rent raise.

Mills can now add this property to his OB empire – an empire that the OB Rag has been chronicling – which we calculate at 241 units within Ocean Beach – not including this most recent purchase.   [Read more…]

Remembering Pearl Harbor and WWII Vets in the Time of Trump

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World War II Vets Would Not Have Stood for President-Elect

Remembering this December 7th – Pearl Harbor Day – has special significance for us today in this new Era of Trump. The 75th anniversary of the attack by Japanese forces on US air and naval power in Hawaii in late 1941 finds few surviving members still with us. And our collective memory of “the day of infamy” – as President Franklin Roosevelt declared it the next day before Congress – which pushed the country into World War II – has all but faded.

But yes, we need to remember this day – and all that it represents – all the contradictions of that historic moment and context. And all the parallels from that day to ours today.   [Read more…]

500 San Diego Students Part of Nation Wide Anti-Trump Protests

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Students From 3 Campuses Converge at Federal Building

On Wednesday, November 16th, upwards of 500 San Diego high school and college students staged walk-outs at their campuses in protests against the election of Donald Trump. They marched and blocked intersections, and then converged from their different schools in downtown San Diego.

Around 10 am, the first demonstration began near San Diego City College, and by 11:15 the crowd – mostly from San Diego High School and the College had swelled to 300 to 500 people, according to police and participant estimates, and they marched onto Park Avenue and other streets. Reportedly, the march was planned by students at City College with spreading including Wednesday morning via social media.

After taking over a few intersections, the demonstrators marched to the area of Horton Plaza and the federal building in downtown San Diego.   [Read more…]

OB Rally Planned for End of Newport – Sat., Nov. 19th

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An anti-Trump rally is being planned for this Saturday, November 19th, in Ocean Beach at noon.

Folks from the Green Store and the OB Rag met and mapped out the event that will be held at the foot of Newport Avenue.

As OB voted overwhelmingly against Trump, organizers hope to see some fellow OBceans on Saturday. They want OB to join the wave of ‘No on Trump’ protests sweeping the country.   [Read more…]

Anti-Trump Protests for 7 Straight Days Across America

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It’s a reality that Donald Trump and all his transition team platoons cannot fathom, a reality that the mass corporate media disdains and a reality that drives Trump supporters crazy, but – there have been mass demonstrations and protests across the country every day and night since the election on Tuesday, November 8th, for 7 straight days.

Americans – mainly young people – have been in streets in all the major cities – including San Diego – and especially Los Angeles – Chicago, Oakland, New York City, Atlanta, Portland – and on college and high school campuses, in parks in small cities and towns.

Thousands. Tens of thousands. Across the country – on both coasts – in the heartland, in Trump territory – in all the urban metropolis. And it’s teenagers doing this, high school students, even middle-school students – many too young to have voted.   [Read more…]

The Night that Democracy Died in America

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Sometime after 2 a.m. eastern standard time – in the middle of the late night, Hillary Clinton – who won the popular vote for President – phoned Donald Trump and made her concession. He had won the electoral vote.

In an historic rebellion of the white, working-class, half of American voters used democratic means to elect a man who does not understand the Constitution, who does not respect the Bill of Rights, and who does not believe in democracy.

It is an irony, then, that a radical regime was voted into power that represents the greatest threat in 40 years to what is left of American democracy. Words do matter. With the threats and promises made by our new President-elect over the course of the last year and a half, it’s clear that not since the time of Richard Nixon have the civil rights of Americans been so openly splayed out on the chopping block as they are now – or will be in a few months.   [Read more…]

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