Political Bedfellows

Northern Exposure

SMOOTH RIDE? With the death of political consultant Jack Orr, next year’s Oceanside mayoral race just got a lot less interesting. Orr had been tapped to run Councilman Jack Feller’s campaign against incumbent Jim Wood, a longtime nemesis of the consultant. Once, when Wood suggested Orr was being investigated by the FBI, Orr dashed off an open letter to newspapers in which he called the mayor “an ignorant, pompous, posturing, self-indulgent popinjay.” But don’t expect the vitriol to die completely. When Feller announced his campaign in March, nearly 20 months before Election Day, Wood called the early filing “asinine.”

LIFE ON THE EDGE: Another summer, another parade of motor homes lined up beachside along Carlsbad Boulevard. They arrive early in the morning, stay all day and take up all the choice curbside parking spots, critics say——generally with vehicles two or three times the length of a standard sedan or SUV. And Carlsbad police say it’s all perfectly legal. “I used to get complaints about that when I was working traffic——you know, ‘I bought a million-dollar house, and now I can’t see the ocean,’ ” says Lieutenant Kelly Cain of the Carlsbad Police. “They can’t camp there overnight, but they are legal parking spaces. It’s just one of those things. If you live on the edge of something beautiful, people want to come see it.”

TUSK, TUSK: The euthanizing of Carol, the ailing 40-year-old Asian elephant at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, made headlines around the world. An Associated Press story played up the uproar among animal activists, who claimed the degenerative joint disease that prompted zoo officials to put Carol down was caused by years of captivity in “cramped and unnatural” enclosures.

IMMIGRATION WARS: The controversy over day laborers, many of them illegal immigrants from Mexico, flared up this summer. Popular day-laborer pickup sites——from the Country Store parking lot on El Camino Real in Carlsbad to St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Fallbrook——have been picketed by San Diego Minutemen and counter-demonstrated by immigration-rights activists. That’s prompted municipalities to send police to keep the peace. In Carlsbad, the cops have begun writing citations to day laborers seeking work on public streets, under an anti-solicitation ordinance originally written for newspaper vendors.

DISNEY’S GOT THE BLUES: Escondido is one of 18 stops on Walt Disney Studios’ national “mall tour” to promote Blu-ray Disc, the next-generation, high-definition disc format seeking to succeed DVD. The three-day stay at North County Fair, which ends September 2, features towering wide-screens, interactive video game and movie stations and a mini-theater. Visitors can preview Blu-ray Disc versions of recent Disney animated hits Cars and Meet the Robinsons and play the Liar’s Dice game from the Blu-ray edition of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. They also can attend presentations on Blu-ray technology (and high-definition in general) that tie the revolutionary new format to a continuation of Walt Disney’s legacy of imagination.

KNOCKDOWN: Knockout Pizzeria has been a popular beach noshery on Carlsbad Boulevard for several years. Then came Knockout Burgers, a few doors down. Takeout menus at the burger joint come with an open letter from Knockout founder James Markham that says the two are connected. “You can be sure that every Knockout, whether it is a pizzeria or a burger joint, will be done the same way,” he writes. But a big sign at the cash register of the pizza parlor maintains there are “absolutely” no ties. What gives? “I’ll explain it to you real quick,” Markham says, noting that he launched both chains, sold off a few pizzerias and allowed the new owner to keep the name. “I don’t know why he has that sign up——it’s sort of stupid.” A manager at Knockout Pizzeria, who didn’t give his name, said a name change is in the works, to Flippin’ Pizza.

PARTING A RED SEA: The Devins saw red, lots of red, when the family returned to their Carlsbad home after a cross-country drive from Memphis. They had spent six months at St. Jude’s, where 2-year-old Claire, the youngest of their five children, had successfully undergone treatment for a deadly brain tumor. While in Memphis, mother Liz had prayed for a miracle and urged her friends at St. Patrick Parish School to “believe.” Teacher Karen Hoyle had organized a fund-raiser for St. Jude’s, selling red-and-white “Believe” T-shirts. When the Devins pulled onto their street, it was lined with fellow parents and students of the Catholic school Claire’s four older siblings had attended. “We can’t tell you how wonderful it was to see a sea of red shirts lined up on our street as we arrived home,” Liz Devins wrote in her online journal on CaringBridge.org, a nonprofit organization that offers free Web sites to people battling illnesses in their families. “I tried to slow down and take it all in. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!”

BY THE BOOK: Oceanside author Steve Prosapio, an executive recruiter by trade, spent evenings and weekends writing Dream War, a dark fantasy novel in which evil seeps into the world through people’s dreams. Now, his recently completed book has been selected as one of five finalists from among nearly 3,000 entries in a national online writing competition. The “First Chapters” contest was sponsored by Gather.com, a social networking site for adults.

COLUMN FOR SALE? It’s no secret newspapers everywhere are having a tough time, with more and more people turning to television or the Internet for their news. In markets where there are still two newspapers battling it out, things are especially hard. In North County, The San Diego Union-Tribune has begun selling banner ads on the front page of its North County section, while the North County Times is reportedly considering dropping its zoned editions, which at one point numbered nine, in favor of just two editions, one for coastal readers and the other for inlanders.

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