This Californian has also noticed the unusual lull, and my best guess is that our so-far very mild winter has played a role in that due to less indoor congregation in good weather.

That's cold. :-(

I finally threaded my FB post about this to Bluesky:

bsky.app/profile/surf...

Trump DOJ’s ‘Ham-Fisted’ Letter Key to Ruling Blocking Texas Gerrymander  Read more here.

Plot twist -- former HB city attorney and former DOJ attorney Michael Gates ineptly sank the 2025 Texas redistricting maps which were struck down by a three-judge panel today:

tinyurl.com/nhe6er4j
1/6

Hey friends - we’ve been working extremely hard on efforts to protect queer lives in Orange County. But we’re struggling to do this work with our limited resources - and queer, trans lives are in extreme danger now more than ever.

Please help us protect our community.

Bit.ly/donatetopatp

I just donated. Keep fighting the good fight!

Is that you, Huntington Beach city councilmember Butch Twining, dressed in black, holding a candle and a small flag, at the very end of this clip from last night's Charlie Kirk rally at the pier as the crowd is shouting "WHITE MEN FIGHT BACK!"?

Why were surveillance cameras installed in Huntington Beach’s most iconic Latino neighborhood? The city says the cameras are intended to fight crime. Some residents worry they could be used to aid in federal immigration enforcement.

Great LAist article expanding an important story brought to light by Surf City Sentinel. :-)

Key quote:

“Surveillance equipment and surveillance, in general, are a lot of times a crutch for bad social policies,” he said. “They don't solve the underlying issues of crime.”

laist.com/news/politic...

DeFlock Spot, map, and resist automated license plate readers (ALPRs) near you.

Are there Flock cameras in your community? If so, add them to DeFlock.me, a crowd-sourced map. I've added a few dozen in my area of SoCal.

Oak View Surveillance Expanded 10 new police cameras are being installed without any public oversight.

Without transparency, there can be no trust when it comes to government surveillance.

surfcitysentinel.substack.com/p/oak-view-s...

Every one of us who lived through the 1970s oil price shocks due to Mideast turmoil saw this coming. That experience is one reason my household has two EVs charged from my solar panels.

Huntington Beach's unofficial poet laureate nailed it at last night's city council meeting -- "their mission is quite clear, stoke up cruelty, hate, and fear".

So much for the First Amendment.

Don't sugarcoat it -- rhetoric like that is encouraging violence.

As a vegan 6ft-tall 66yo male weighing 167lbs who does 5hrs of gym strength and cardio per week, I can meet the federal protein recommendation with a balanced healthy diet.

But there's no way I could do 1g/pound/day without becoming obese.

Surf City Sentinel BREAKING NEWS: California Resources Corporation (CRC) has submitted an application to rezone the oil production parcel on the inland side of Pacific Coast Hwy between Goldenwest and Seapoint (see...

Property owner seeks rezoning to build up to 800 medium-density residential units and 350 hotel rooms inland of PCH between Seapoint and Goldenwest.

www.facebook.com/surfcitysent...

Credit: @ochuddle.bsky.social

Trump targets 'anti-American ideology' at Smithsonian museums The order says that "divisive narratives" must be purged from the US museums and research centres.

The erasure of history is Orwellian.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Our lawsuit is in the early stage where nothing terribly interesting has happened yet, LOL. The city is using outside counsel. The only hearing on the calendar so far is a routine case management conference scheduled for 6/26.

Connie bailed from X and is now on Bluesky.

Anyways...

In the end, the Huntington Beach MAGA city council years will only be remembered for the partisan circus sideshows meant to entertain and distract, and not for any lasting accomplishments that might have built a better future for us all.

That's local Proud Boy Luke Dennis.

Huntington Beach is a defendant in a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging sexual harassment by a police officer against a resident, followed by intimidation from other officers to keep it quiet.

Read the details here:

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

But be aware that there is a financial penalty the IRS may slap you with for under-withholding.

Trumpflation is driving my Amazon subscription list prices higher by 5-38% in my upcoming delivery. :-(

Not good: "The owner did not receive testing for influenza and declined oseltamivir and further contact with public health officials, stating fear of losing employment as a consequence of communicating with public health officials and implicating farms that provided milk."

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) ... This report describes highly pathogenic avian influenza virus infection among two indoor cats living in homes of dairy workers.

In this week's CDC MMWR, dairy workers in two different households may have passed H5N1 bird flu to exclusively indoor cats.

www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...

State Appellate Court Says Huntington Beach Voter ID Lawsuit Can Continue A panel of judges unanimously said it was illegal for the original judge not to issue a ruling on whether the voter ID laws were constitutional – paving the way for Attorney General Rob Bonta’s lawsui...

In a defeat for MAGA City, the State Court of Appeals has ordered the OC Superior Court judge in the HB voter ID lawsuit to render a decision on the merits, and the writing is on the wall that the charter city justification for voter ID will fail.

voiceofoc.org/2025/02/stat...