An audit released August 24 by Vlad Marinescu, vice chancellor and chief audit officer of the California State University system, takes San Diego State University’s Aztec Shops to task for host of festering troubles, including failure to track employee foreign travel properly.

Pennsylvania newspaper sale contrasts with San Diego's

The San Diego Union-Tribune, sold to Alden Global Capital by L.A. billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong on July 10, is no longer the most recent addition to Alden’s tattered collection of once-thriving, now-struggling newspapers. As of August 31, that dubious distinction belongs to four papers formerly owned by Pennsylvania’s Times-Shamrock Communications, including the Scranton Times-Tribune, The Citizens’ Voice, the Republican Herald, and The Standard-Speaker. The sale also included printing plants, but notably not an office building.

Unlike San Diego, where cancer drug kingpin Soon-Shiong, who also owns the LA Times, framed the sale to Alden as a positive for the U-T, minority Times-Shamrock shareholders blasted the sale. “Newspapers have been our family business for nearly 128 years,” said a statement sent to Editor & Publisher signed by George Lynett and four members of his family. “Since 1895, we have had the privilege of serving this community with local news, events and happenings. Today marks a very sad end to that legacy.” The statement continues: “We feel it is important to express our personal dissatisfaction with the sale of Times-Shamrock newspapers to MediaNews Group, a subsidiary of Alden Capital. This was a transaction that we do not support or endorse. Alden does not reflect the business principles we feel are consistent with the stewardship of any newspaper.”

Patrick Soon-Shiong believes Alden will be good for the U-T...really he does.

The message goes on to say, “The willingness to sell a company steeped in integrity and family tradition — and staffed by loyal, bright, compassionate employees — to a company with such a devastating reputation in the industry runs against everything we believe in. We are concerned for our employees, our communities, and our family legacy.”

Even before Alden’s arrival, Times-Shamrock had shrunken its press run, knocking off the Monday print edition in favor of an online-only PDF replica. Cutting print had also been mentioned before the sale to Alden as a possible business strategy for the U-T. In a June 2022 U-T story, then-editor and publisher Jeff Light told readers the paper’s July 4 print run for that year would be dumped and replaced with an online-only edition. “It’s important to note that this ‘print holiday’ doesn’t mean the paper version of the U-T is going away anytime soon,” said Light. “Unlike some other publishers, who have eliminated days from their print schedules, we plan to continue seven-day delivery for years. When that changes, we want our customers and our company to be well prepared.” Another print lapse happened a year ago on Memorial Day. In July, Light abruptly left his job after taking an Alden buyout after the sale.

“Half of the daily newspaper circulation in America is now owned by hedge funds or private equity firms,” writes Steven Waldman, of Rebuild Local News, a non-profit pushing tax breaks for the sales of newspapers to non-profits. “Studies (and our own eyes) have shown that when financial firms like Alden buy local newspapers, they cut local reporting staffs far more than family papers or nonprofits do.” A raft of other positions is also being cut at the U-T, including the job of Cristina Byvik, former U-T graphics director, who played a key role in the print edition.

SDSU’s killer food handling

An audit released August 24 by Vlad Marinescu, vice chancellor and chief audit officer of the California State University system, takes San Diego State University’s Aztec Shops to task for host of festering troubles, including failure to track employee foreign travel properly. “The Aztec Shops Travel Expense Policy did not address international travel, including foreign travel insurance requirements and the expense reimbursement process for transactions made on international trips,” the document says.

“Per confirmation with Aztec Shops management, we found that although international travel occurs infrequently, auxiliary personnel had participated in one international business trip during the audit period.” No costs or destinations were revealed. Also problematic, according to the report, was Aztec Shop’s enabling of employees to give themselves trips using university funds without oversight.

Vlad Marinescu is watching you, SDSU

“For two business trips that included four of the disbursements reviewed, we found that an employee approved payment of their own travel expenses made on procurement cards. In these cases, expenses were submitted for reimbursement via the procurement card process; however, the expense was made on the procurement card of a subordinate of the traveler.”

Aztec Shops, an SDSU-controlled subsidiary, runs the university’s food operations, among other generally mundane chores. “Aztec Shops was founded in 1931 and is a nonprofit corporation that provides a diverse portfolio of products and services to the campus, including operation of the SDSU bookstore, SDSU dining, conference services, commercial and real estate property, campus housing, and concessions and on-site spirit stores at Snapdragon stadium,” the report notes.

But in the dining department, auditors found other problems. “In our review of food-handler training and certifications for 15 employees, we found that two managers who had administered the food-handler exam for two employees did not possess a food-safety certification. We recommend that the campus, in conjunction with Aztec Shops ensure that food-safety managers administering county food-handler tests possess a valid food safety certification.”

Sole-source contracts have also proliferated without justification, according to the audit, opening the door to potential procurement corruption. “As a result, we found that documented justifications explaining why only a certain vendor could meet the specific performance requirements for a requested project or service were not maintained for any of the 10 sole-source contracts reviewed. We reviewed the 10 sole-source contracts, and all appeared appropriate and within the requirements of the Aztec Shops purchasing policy.” University administrators copped to the auditor’s complaints and promised to fix the problems by January of next year...

The committee to elect San Diego state Senate Democrat Toni Atkins as California Lt. Governor in 2026 picked up $5000 on September 1 from the Walt Disney Company. Next to Budweiser, also a major Atkins political backer, Disney is probably the biggest corporate player in the nation’s cultural wars, battling with Florida Governor and GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis over control of the company’s giant Disney World in Orlando. “I will not allow a woke corporation based in California to run our state,” DeSantis was cited as saying in a February 10 New York Times dispatch. “Disney has gotten away with special deals from the State of Florida for way too long.”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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