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Football First, Water Last

Football First, Water Last

In his State of the City speech on January 13, Mayor Jerry Sanders devoted 434 words to the possibility of taxpayers shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars for a subsidized Chargers stadium and 174 words ...

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He Got Quite An Education

He Got Quite An Education

Every morning at seven o’clock, Rodger Hartnett starts his day. The 62-year-old law school graduate and county employee breakfasts inside his Tierrasanta home as he watches the news. Afterwards, he opens up his book of word ...

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National Football Liars

National Football Liars

It’s Big Lie season again. Super Lie. Specifically, Super Bowl Lie. It’s that giddy time of the year when the National Football League trots out its claim that the city that hosts the Super Bowl can ...

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The Mad Hatter’s Council Meeting

The Mad Hatter’s Council Meeting

Communication at a Chula Vista city council meeting hit an all-time low on December 15. The council was besieged when one resident threw plastic eggs ... More Comments (5)

Hello? Hello? Can You Hear Me Now?

Hello? Hello? Can You Hear Me Now?

Suppose colleagues often call the house, even in the early hours. This morning you’re half dressed and still sipping coffee when the phone rings. It’s ... More Post a comment

More Community, Less College

More Community, Less College

On a warm September afternoon last fall, Scott Freeman sat at an outdoor table near the art department at San Diego City College. Dressed in ... More Comments (3)

Free Lunch for Banks

Free Lunch for Banks

Perhaps you are comforted believing that the U.S. government, Federal Reserve, and Wall Street are all working assiduously to provide you with a job. Ha ... More Comments (183)

Up, But Not Way Up

Up, But Not Way Up

Last year, the San Diego economy did poorly, although it was picking up a bit in the final several months. This year, it should do ... More Comments (50)

When the Horses Are Gone

When the Horses Are Gone

I asked Sergeant Bret Righthouse about the bad old days, back in 1994, before a cadre of mounted San Diego Police Department officers began routinely ... More Comment (1)

The Plaintiff Knew Nothing

The Plaintiff Knew Nothing

‘If I am guilty of anything, it’s of being a good lawyer and advocating for the rights of the disabled,” proclaims Lynn Hubbard III of ... More Comments (50)

Fabiani Talks

Fabiani Talks

The young son of a prominent government official boasted to his father that he had saved 25 cents by walking home instead of taking the ... More Comments (135)

The Logic of a Landslide

The Logic of a Landslide

Brian Burke was agonizing over whether to appeal the court’s decision in the Mount Soledad landslide case. “Have you ever been too close to something ... More Comments (4)

Lobbyists Rule

Lobbyists Rule

Some enterprises signal what’s going on inside by hanging a red light outside. Mayor Jerry Sanders has revealed what’s going on inside his administration by ... More Comments (30)

Great Whites Might Be Victims

Great Whites Might Be Victims

Photo by Christie Fisher. In late 2007, when local shark researcher Michael Domeier teamed up with a television crew and National Geographic to tag great ... More Comment (1)

The Mayor and the Dirty-Money Guy

The Mayor and the Dirty-Money Guy

Did Mayor Jerry Sanders get his money out of a scandal-ridden private equity group whose chief executive has filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy? It’s ... More Comments (26)

The Pall on the Mall

The Pall on the Mall

Window-shopping at Helzberg Diamonds in Westfield’s North County Shopping Mall, Grace, the manager of nearby John’s Fifth Avenue Luggage, says, “I’d think twice before plunking ... More Comment (1)

War at La Jolla Farms

War at La Jolla Farms

Life should be peaceful at La Jolla Farms, that tony area of 100 superluxury homes adjacent to Torrey Pines State Park.But war has broken out ... More Comments (20)

Play the Sneaky Development Game

Play the Sneaky Development Game

An Orange County developer who led the effort to delay San Diego’s general plan update until his own project could be approved is one step ... More Comments (4)

Barnyard Brew

Barnyard Brew

At Bernardo Winery, 50 large redwood vats have resided in the warehouse for more than a century. Until the 1960s they were used as fermenters, ... More Comments (8)

No Cure, No Shutdown (Yet)

No Cure, No Shutdown (Yet)

After an agonizing wait of more than 40 years, science may come up with a treatment for lupus. But the two companiesworking together on the ... More Comment (1)

Nine Miles of Nothing

Nine Miles of Nothing

Conflict has surrounded the South Bay Expressway, the southern extension of State Route 125, since its inception. Prior to groundbreaking in 2003, the privately held ... More Comments (3)

Can Feds Thwart Runaway Pay?

Can Feds Thwart Runaway Pay?

The pay of American top corporate executives is obscene. About the only people who don’t agree with that statement are the executives themselves. In 1980, ... More Comments (87)

East Village Lowdown

East Village Lowdown

Lured in by the promise of large-scale development in East Village, to be anchored by a state-of-the-art baseball stadium and filled with high-rise luxury condominiums, ... More Comments (16)

Did Dominelli Study Ponzi?

Did Dominelli Study Ponzi?

J. David “Jerry” Dominelli is famed in San Diego lore for one thing: his 1980s Ponzi scheme that bilked Southern Californians of $80 million. A ... More Comments (89)

Local Fish Eat Our Sunblock, Deodorant, and Valium

Local Fish Eat Our Sunblock, Deodorant, and Valium

The dolphin skimmed down the face of a cresting wave mere feet from where I sat on my surfboard. Then, circling around, it joined up ... More Comments (3)

More Ballpark Lies

More Ballpark Lies

The Portland Beavers are a triple-A minor-league baseball team affiliated with the San Diego Padres. The Beavers want taxpayers to kick in bundles of money ... More Comments (39)

The Scariest Part of Halloween

The Scariest Part of Halloween

On a blustery afternoon, just down the road from a Mission Valley lot that’s already advertising Christmas trees, costumed sign bearers point the way to ... More Post a comment

San Diego’s Loss Is…You Know

San Diego’s Loss Is…You Know

Economists say the United States should export its expertise. Scam Diego is doing just that. A couple of rascals who honed their skills in San ... More Comments (2)

Moving Out Is Hard to Do

Moving Out Is Hard to Do

A few years ago, after moving out of a condo in a desirable San Diego neighborhood, Jacquelyn and Dave Quinonez found themselves in a bind. ... More Comments (2)

Poles Apart

Poles Apart

Everybody knows that Democrats and Republicans are barely speaking these days. But two political scientists at the University of California at San Diego are statistically ... More Comments (150)

Nowhere To Go

Nowhere To Go

While San Diego’s homeless people wait for the City to provide winter shelter, they need, among other things, to go to the bathroom. And there ... More Comments (13)

Make the Victim Pay

Make the Victim Pay

Comic Woody Allen once postulated that murderers should be given the death penalty before they commit the crime, thus sparing the life of the victim. ... More Comments (15)

Dogs’ Deathbed Gift

Dogs’ Deathbed Gift

At 2:00 a.m. on August 26, Donna Liebrich left San Diego and headed east on I-8 for the Mexican border. Mexicali, her destination, is a ... More Comments (4)

Pop Goes Pop Warner

Pop Goes Pop Warner

It’s Saturday morning, August 29. A crowd has gathered at Crawford High School’s football stadium for the San Diego Youth Football League’s season opener. On ... More Comments (2)

Vegas Pays Do-Gooders Well

Vegas Pays Do-Gooders Well

In San Diego, those who do good do not do well — from an income standpoint, that is. The professions devoted to helping people down ... More Comments (12)

All Aboard for the Fairgrounds

All Aboard for the Fairgrounds

"This story isn’t about me!” Richard Eckfield, who’s been on a three-year crusade to get a train stop built at the Del Mar Racetrack, is ... More Comments (6)

Experts

Experts

The world’s experts on all topics are huddling in Washington, D.C. One chap proclaims that he is the world’s ranking expert on goldfish. Inquires a ... More Comments (68)

But After All, He Was a Man

But After All, He Was a Man

I’m standing in front of a real human body at Body Worlds and The Brain — Our Three Pound Gem, currently on exhibition at the ... More Comments (29)

Chargers Won’t Fulfill Desires in San Diego

Chargers Won’t Fulfill Desires in San Diego

Experts say the San Diego Chargers could make the Super Bowl this year. However, the team’s desire to build a new stadium in San Diego ... More Comments (84)

If We're the Best, Imagine the Worst

If We're the Best, Imagine the Worst

Mark-Elliott Lugo, who is an energetic-looking 59 years old, might well be the poster child in the San Diego public transit system’s campaign to increase ... More Comments (117)

PUC Loves SDG&E

PUC Loves SDG&E

Wall Street absolutely loves the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC). That’s a major reason why backcountry folks may have to swallow San Diego Gas & ... More Comments (16)

They Have No Concrete Proof

They Have No Concrete Proof

On April 12, 2007, I did some concrete work in the backyard of my Rancho Peñasquitos home with the help of my wife, son-in-law, and ... More Comments (8)

Clearing the Bases

Clearing the Bases

Back in 1998, then–Padres majority owner John Moores promised that if taxpayers would pour more than $300 million into a ballpark, he would produce teams ... More Comments (273)

I Blow Smoke on Your Law

I Blow Smoke on Your Law

Sitting on a park bench at Prescott Promenade on a hot July afternoon, John stares at a brawny tattooed man in his 50s smoking a ... More Comments (65)

Get the Union-Tribune — For Almost Nothing

Get the Union-Tribune — For Almost Nothing

How would you like to buy a whole year’s home-delivery subscription to the Union-Tribune, Thursday through Sunday,for $29.95? That’s particularly enticing, because if you want ... More Comments (12)

An End to the Evil Euc

An End to the Evil Euc

In 1909, newspaper magnate Edward Willis Scripps began planting eucalyptus on the San Diego ranch he’d bought 11 years earlier. Those trees and their descendents ... More Comments (2)

Tijuana Tailspin Hurting San Diego?

Tijuana Tailspin Hurting San Diego?

It wasn’t so long ago that the Convention and Visitors Bureau, hotel marketers, and San Diego ad agencies “would utilize Tijuana in advertising,” recalls Jack ... More Comments (29)

The Park After Dark

The Park After Dark

Asking that her name be withheld, a woman emailed us a few months ago about a liquor store that was “bad, bad news for the ... More Comments (34)

Swine Fear

Swine Fear

Dina is 11, slight in her turquoise hoodie, and dark-haired. She’s finishing up the fifth grade at a private North County middle school where, she ... More Post a comment

Unappealing Banana Trucks

Unappealing Banana Trucks

On a Tuesday afternoon in June, Barry Jung, Dole Food Company’s general manager of West Coast operations, drives his white Ford pickup toward a green-and-black ... More Post a comment

Sticky Finger Season

Sticky Finger Season

Recessions always bring out the vultures, and these days they are a step ahead of technological trends, as scam haven San Diego is learning once ... More Comments (49)

Was Andrew Nice to You?

Was Andrew Nice to You?

May 10 must be the year’s hardest day for Mary Ann. In 1997, her son, Andrew Cunanan, went on a killing spree that ended with ... More Post a comment

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