Mark’s Soap Box

The border is hopping today! Five hour gun battle in Tijuana. Dry Ice bombs in San Diego. The Sprinter is scheduled to open, again. Costing — as of last count — 487 MILLION Dollars. Oceanside is wasting money on a building that we don’t need. Seems they decided instead of Police, Fire, Rescue equipment; we need a larger Museum. Yes I know we are all shocked by the waste of government.

Quick Open the Border

5 hour gun battle in Tijuana. Reuters TJ gun battle story is here.

TIJUANA, Mexico – Mexican police and soldiers traded gunfire with suspected drug gang members Monday in a five-hour battle near the U.S. border that left a police officer and one of the suspected criminals dead.

The shootout began at a house in a residential neighborhood of Tijuana, a drug smuggling hot spot across the border from San Diego. It started Sunday night and went on until early Monday, police said.

Oh yes, please make it easier to get into the U.S.

La Prensa wakes up, sort of. La Prensa is upset about the militarization of TJ, they are not so upset about he Drug lords killing people. They of course blame America.

Even more amazing is people actually question ICE and local law enforcement working together. As if they were not doing the same thing, law enforcement. It’s scary that so many think this way.

Bombs Away

A couple was arrested Saturday night for making Dry-Ice bombs, and setting them off.

Authorities arrested a couple late Saturday on suspicion of making dry-ice bombs and detonating two outside their house during their son’s 18th birthday celebration.

Their ethnicity was not given.

Sprinter still in starting blocks

The Sprinter, still not out of the starting blocks is having it’s issues “ironed out”. Well gee whiz, it’s about time.

NORTH COUNTY – For the North County Transit District, it’s not going to be enough that the new Sprinter trains run on time when they are scheduled to begin carrying passengers next Sunday.

The district also has to ensure that gates operate correctly at street crossings along the 22-mile route between Oceanside and Escondido, and that they don’t keep motorists fuming at balky barriers when there’s no train in sight.

Such incidents were a factor in forcing the district to twice cancel the launch date for the $478 million passenger rail line.

The worst problems occurred in Vista on Jan. 28 and 31, when faulty gates stopped traffic on Vista Village Drive during the evening rush hour.

No the worst problem is the platforms were built for a train they did not purchase and the doors do not mate up to the platform.

The district was forced to cancel start dates of Jan. 13 and Jan. 27 when the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates light rail transit in the state, said the system didn’t pass safety checks.

However I find it ironic that they never even considered how the trains will affect rush hour or any other hour’s traffic. Nice job, Government.

Art for what?

And in more news of the stupid. Oceanside has a new Museum that we don’t need.

Entrance to Oceanside Museum of Art
EDUARDO CONTRERAS / Union-Tribune

The museum space has more than quadrupled in size to 21,000 square feet with the addition of a $5 million, glass-fronted Central Pavilion that will be opened to the public for the first time this afternoon.

The two-story, 16,000-square-foot addition connects to the original museum, now called the Gill Building for renowned architect Irving Gill, who designed it in 1934.

“It does not hurt the reputation of Oceanside that it has what we now can call a world-class art museum in its midst,” Smith said. “We make the city look good.”

I thought they were building something useful, like more room for the fire-folks, or the bureaucrats. Oh hell no! We expand the Museum. Businesses are closing and leaving Oceanside and we expand the Museum.

The building sits adjacent to the city office buildings and the fire house for downtown Oceanside. I will get some pics as soon as possible.

Tags: oceanside, san diego, sprinter, dry ice, bomb, tijuana, drugs