Four months after it was abruptly padlocked, a free city public parking lot near the shore in Ocean Beach remains off-limits to cars, a pair of sun-bleached printed signs hanging from the gates telling people that the lot would “be locked indefinitely due to safety issues.” In January — apparently on Jan. 29, when the signs were posted — workers padlocked the dirt lot, which city of San Diego spokesman Benjamin “Benny” Cartwright told NBC 7 was “currently closed but is available for overflow parking for special events and tournaments. Robb Field users are directed to use the parking lots withi ..read more

The Biden administration said Friday that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has violated international law in Gaza, but that the country hasn’t violated terms of U.S. weapons agreements. In a report to Congress, the State Department said it hasn’t verified specific instances that would justify withholding military aid. “While the U.S. has had deep concerns during the period since October 7 about action and inaction by Israel that contributed significantly to a lack of sustained and predictable delivery of needed assistance at scale, and the overall level reaching Palestinian ..read more

A woman who mailed letters soaked in fentanyl and methamphetamine to a San Diego County jail was sentenced this week to three years in federal prison. Katherine Smothers, 34, sent multiple letters to an inmate at the George Bailey Detention Facility in Otay Mesa between December 2022 and April 2023, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. According to her plea agreement filed in San Diego federal court, the letters were intended for an inmate who was in a romantic relationship with Smothers. The letters were sent using false names and return addresses to hide that they were sen ..read more

The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin on Friday to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the Security Council to favorably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations. The 193-member world body approved the Arab and Palestinian-sponsored resolution by a vote of 143-9 with 25 abstentions. The United States vetoed a widely backed council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent. U.S. deputy ambassador ..read more

The National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a “severe geomagnetic storm watch,” the first such watch issued in nearly 20 years. According to the SWPC, this marks the first watch issued by the department since Jan. 2005. The watch comes after multiple earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CME’s) were observed by forecasters this week. At least five CME’s have been observed in recent days, and the particles could begin arriving to Earth by Friday afternoon, according to officials. It’s expected that the CME’s could continue to arrive through Sunday, marking ..read more

The fire-scarred Oceanside Pier, which has been closed since flames engulfed its western end last month, will reopen Friday, city officials announced. Roughly 80% of the iconic seafront landmark should be available for public use once again Friday, after the intense blaze erupted for unknown reasons, gutting a vacant restaurant building and a snack shop and sending a towering plume of black smoke to the east, authorities said. “The opening will extend to beyond the Bait Shop, the restrooms, and the fish washing station at the last ‘offset,'” a statement from the city asserts. “The damaged far ..read more

A little more than a week after the superintendent of the Poway Unified School District was ousted, some parents are demanding more changes from the school board. This all relates to the removal of former Superintendent Marian Kim Phelps. While she denied all wrongdoing, Phelps was let go after an investigation into claims she bullied students. Previous coverage: Poway Unified School District Apr 30 Poway Unified fires superintendent following investigation into bullying claims Poway Nov 28, 2023 Former Del Norte High School softball player sues Poway Unified, superintendent over allege ..read more

The third week of testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial draws to a close Friday after jurors heard the dramatic, if not downright seamy, account of porn actor Stormy Daniels, while prosecutors gear up for their most crucial witness: Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney. Daniels’ story of an alleged sexual encounter with Trump was a crucial building block for prosecutors, who are seeking to show that the Republican and his allies buried unflattering stories in the waning weeks of the 2016 presidential election in an effort to illegally influence the race. Trump, who denies the sexual e ..read more

A recently launched application is providing North County beachgoers with a new way to stay updated on beach conditions in Encinitas, the city announced on Tuesday. The “Safe Beach Day” app shows current weather and surf conditions, water temperature and quality, safety alerts, and even stingray activities in Encinitas. The city launched the app in partnership with the lifeguard reporting system Watch Tower. “Protection of the public is our Division’s number one priority, which we attempt to do through education and prevention,” Encinitas Marine Safety Captain David Brown said in a news releas ..read more

It’s a sight all too familiar to Californians. Tents over homes or businesses to get rid of termites. While getting rid of one issue, we could create a much bigger environmental problem. A recent study from Johns Hopkins University with contributions from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego found that California is the leader of a greenhouse gas that comes from termite fumigation. It’s called sulfuryl fluoride and is used when tenting a property to fumigate it for termites. The study suggests that what isn’t absorbed by properties being fumigated likely finds its way into the a ..read more