Articles by dweisman

Kindergarten-quality OAN cowers in public

With about 75 protesters forming outside San Diego-based Trump wannabe and Russian influenced One America News Network (OAN) on Saturday, the kindergarten-quality station showed its bravery by posting armed guards behind locked gates. Then, it got even worse for the nation’s least influential media supporter of the Trump embarrassment. Network founder and CEO Robbert Herring Sr. brought out his own kindergarten-quality sign, tried to affix…


2020 MLB Draft: Some locals get crunked

Several local players made the grade in the wild, and weird Major League Baseball (MLB) abbreviated five-round draft on Wednesday and Thursday while the San Diego Padres took six newbies with hopes to bring them into the Petco fold. The five-round 2020 MLB Draft is in the books now. A total of 160 selections were made over two nights in the abbreviated selection process. MLB…


Identifying surveillance at protests

The full weight of U.S. policing has descended upon protesters across the country as people take to the streets to denounce the police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless others who have been subjected to police violence. Along with riot shields, tear gas, and other crowd control measures also comes the digital arm of modern policing: prolific surveillance technology on the street and…


Virus-denier Issa sues to stop mail-in ballots

An original virus denier, Darrell Issa must believe forcing people to go physically to polling places amid the coronavirus would help him somehow. Issa on Thursday, May 21 sued to halt California Governor Gavin Newsom’s order requiring all registered voters receive absentee ballots. Issa, a Vista Republican conducting a carpetbagger campaign — he lives in the 49th District — to return to Congress, argued that…


COVID-19: Masks along the side of the road

Major Market becomes a masking hotspot Sara Chhng-To of Aspara’s Salon & Day Spa took her coronavirus layoff to heart by going into the masking business. These days, she can be found from around noon to 5 p.m. daily at the northeast corner of the Major Market parking lot, 1855 S. Centre City Parkway, Escondido. Chheng-To makes many masks hersef and brings in a varety…


Say it ain’t so! 2020 SD County Fair a no-go

With coronavirus ravaging the land from sea to shining sea and then some, and the need to socially isolate and avoid crowds, was there any doubt the San Diego County Fair would happen. Nope, and it became official this week as the 2020 San Diego County Fair website magically transformed into the 2021 San Diego County Fair page proclaiming in large white letters: “We’ll see…


Lake Hodges Dam opens its floodgates

In an unusual move necessitated by last week’s prodigious record-setting rainfall, Lake Hodges Reservoir this week opens its valves sending millions of gallons of water down the San Dieguito Riverbed towards the Pacific Ocean. The city of San Diego, which owns the reservoir and dam, is sending about 923 million gallons of water from the reservoir down the old riverbed through Saturday. And, as they…


Record rain wreaks rare results, road rubs

Rain, rain, and more rain roared through San Diego County like a freight train with no brakes this week and contrary to past storm trajectories refused to depart without causing mayhem and consternation. As if coronavirus weren’t bad enough, at least the record April rain made sheltering in place a more attractive alternative to wandering around outside. Riffing off T.S. Eliot’s “April is the cruellest…


Tales from the coronavirus home front

Tie a yellow ribbon Tie a yellow ribbon round the ole oak tree first appeared in a 1973 hit song by Tony Orlando & Dawn. It was a reference to an unnamed prisoner, according to Dr. Jack Santino, a folklorist. Yellow ribbons became a national obsession during the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis as trees across the nation were decked out in them to show solidarity…


Virus aside; the earth quakes, rain on the way

Sick of the coronavirus, this may take one’s mind off it: Anza had a 4.9 earthquake that shook San Diego County and rain is on the way this week. Good times. Looking backwards a bit, as the county recorded its 17th coronavirus death on Friday, April 3 — an 18th person died Saturday — the earth shook in a different way. A magnitude 4.9 earthquake…