OB Rag

A former lawyer and current grassroots activist, I have been editing the Rag since Patty Jones and I launched it in Oct 2007. Way back during the Dinosaurs in 1970, I founded the original Ocean Beach People’s Rag - OB’s famous underground newspaper -, and then later during the early Eighties, published The Whole Damn Pie Shop, a progressive alternative to the Reader.

By Erwin Chemerinsky / LA Times Commentary  / August 26, 2026 The Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday allowing President Trump’s executive order on mail voting to go forward is stunningly insensitive to the context: Trump is trying to exercise control over elections when he has absolutely no authority to do so. In one sense, the justices decided nothing, simply saying it was too soon for federal courts to get involved.

By Vanessa Romo / NPR / August 26, 2026 Immigration and Customs Enforcement recorded 49,571 arrests in July, setting the highest monthly arrest total in President Trump’s second term, according to recently released government data provided by ICE to the Deportation Data Project based at U.C. Berkeley and UCLA. The total surge averages out to 1,599 apprehensions a day, and tops June’s record-breaking number of 43,021 arrests by 15%.

Krueger’s full statement, unedited, is published below By Paul Krueger / Letter to the Editor, U-T / August 25, 2026 Re “Can Gloria break San Diego’s mayoral curse?” (Aug.16): Thanks to Carl Luna for his insightful take on the unforced errors that define Mayor Gloria’s second term.

Resident Kenny Key Is Well-Known Activist By Katie Hyson / KPBS / August 21, 2026 An Emerald Hills resident is suing the city of San Diego over a housing development coming to his neighborhood. It’s the latest challenge to the development in a years-long debate. Residents have been asking for a park on the hilltop for decades. Their appeal to stop the new development was rejected by the city council last month. Kenny Key, who lives next to the lot, is challenging that rejection in a new lawsuit.

Pacific Beach, circa 1927 – 30+ years after the event. By Debbie L. Sklar / Special to the OB Rag Pacific Beach looked very different in the summer of 1893. The seaside community was still developing, with a hotel, a large dance pavilion and a railroad that brought visitors from San Diego to the beach. For San Diegans looking for a summer escape, Pacific Beach offered music, surf bathing, picnics and dancing.

2700 block of Nipoma Street in Point Loma A possible burglary suspect was shot to death by police after an hours-long SWAT standoff in Point Loma Tuesday night, August 25th. The unidentified male was shot after he emerged from the home with a gun in the 2700 block of Nipoma Street. No one else was injured. Police responded around 4:40 pm for a welfare check at the house but the call was later upgraded to a report of a residential burglary in progress.

By Lu Rehling What does the “Community” in “Community Planning Group” (CPG) mean when corporate interests govern? And why is the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Planning Group (“the Group”) so invested in the current plan for Midway Rising, despite urgent environmental and infrastructure concerns that have been raised by the CPGs that are the Group’s geographical neighbors?

San Diego City Council unanimously repealed Measure C, but state affordable housing law could still allow the 48-acre Midway Rising project to bypass coastal height limits. By Allison Ash / 7SanDiego / August 24, 2026 The San Diego City Council unanimously voted to repeal Measure C, eliminating the voter-approved law that allowed the massive Midway Rising project to circumvent the city’s 30-foot coastal height limit.

By Jacob Knutson, Jim Saksa / Democracy Docket / August 24, 2026 In a victory for the White House, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed President Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on mail voting to go forward, bolstering his long-running effort to restrict voting access ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.