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Will Generations X and Y Buy?

Will Generations X and Y Buy?

As the recession grinds on, how much will Generation X and Generation Y spend? Will it be Z, as in zilch? It looks that way for some San Diego companies that appeal to the youth market. ...

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The American Board of Nonexistence

The American Board of Nonexistence

You know those framed certificates and diplomas that hang in your doctor’s office? It’s reassuring to see them, isn’t it? It’s nice to know that the pediatrician who treats your children has not only graduated ...

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Sticking with Stocks

Sticking with Stocks

How do you rebalance when the economy is so unbalanced? That is the question facing all money managers and particularly the fiduciaries that run pension funds for employees. Periodically — say, once a year — ...

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Fallbrook’s Mine — A Hit or the Pits?

Fallbrook’s Mine — A Hit or the Pits?

A pristine wilderness area northeast of Fallbrook is at the center of a heated controversy, pitting local residents against a multibillion-dollar Fortune 1000 construction company. ... More Comments (2)

Stomp Off-Leash Park Romp

Stomp Off-Leash Park Romp

Bella, Jeff’s five-year-old Labrador mix, crouches five feet from her owner at a park in San Carlos. She stares at the rubber ball inserted in ... More Comments (7)

Penny Foolish

Penny Foolish

The old aphorism “penny wise, pound foolish” has been revised to “penny-stock wise guys get pounded.” San Diego has reams of penny stocks: don’t get ... More Comments (2)

Keep on Truckin' That Gas

Keep on Truckin' That Gas

If ever a scheme needs a good euphemism, it’s the Beneficial Use of Digester Gas. Nevertheless, the plan passed its first smell test. The City ... More Comments (4)

Convention Liars

Convention Liars

The sugar daddies that could be expected to bankroll the convention center expansion are on the sidelines. But watch out: the backers of the proposed ... More Comments (115)

Cold Case Gets Hot

Cold Case Gets Hot

It was shortly after 2:00 a.m. when Gerald Jackson finished his closing shift at the Barbary Coast, a downtown gay bar at the corner of ... More Comments (4)

El Cajon Scam

El Cajon Scam

Matthew “Beau” La Madrid, no longer a registered investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), nonetheless convinced 300 people that he had a ... More Comments (22)

Portraits of the Perps

Portraits of the Perps

A mural at the San Elijo Retail Center in Cardiff-by-the-Sea has gone away. Local artist Kevin Anderson completed the four-by-seven-foot painting a year ago at ... More Comment (1)

Obama: Waiting for the Sunrise?

Obama: Waiting for the Sunrise?

What began as a local backcountry struggle over San Diego Gas & Electric’s proposed Sunrise Powerlink is now a national issue, one that opponents of ... More Comments (21)

Californians Get Less Gas

Californians Get Less Gas

There was a moment, or at least it seems like a moment now, when you could roll into the filling station as the gauge fell ... More Post a comment

Hi There! You Shoplifting?

Hi There! You Shoplifting?

Marco Mitrowke, loss prevention manager for the local retail clothing chain Everything 5.99, was not what I expected. The job title “loss prevention manager” conjured ... More Comment (1)

Cold Condos

Cold Condos

The stunning 50 percent plunge in Phoenix’s home prices has attracted national attention. By contrast, San Diego’s condominium market, which has seen values fall by ... More Post a comment

The Voices Online

The Voices Online

In January, I began teaching two philosophy classes, one in the classroom and the other online. “The thing I don’t like about online classes,” says ... More Comments (12)

Here Comes the Sandman

Here Comes the Sandman

It’s not even Memorial Day and people are arguing over sand on the beach. But this isn’t just any sand. The argument is over new ... More Comments (2)

Rock, Paper, Busted

Rock, Paper, Busted

Many of the more than 100 vendors at Rock Paper Scissors, a consignment store on Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach, have been clamoring for their ... More Comments (4)

New Team(sters) for Lifeguards?

New Team(sters) for Lifeguards?

Call it a riptide in the ranks of city lifeguards. A dissident group is roiling the city’s beachfront guardians with an effort to split from ... More Comments (2)

13 Miles of Metal

13 Miles of Metal

Border Patrol agent Richard Gonzales pushes a button in the shiny white Chevy Tahoe he’s driving. In response, a gate rolls open to allow entry ... More Comments (6)

A Green Threat to Our Groves

A Green Threat to Our Groves

Should it appear in California, there might be no stopping it: citrus greening, or huanglongbing. The fearsome citrus-killing bacterium, first seen in China in the ... More Comments (2)

Flush It, Sell It

Flush It, Sell It

Mike Hogan walks toward a small pile of treated sewage sludge, a moist, black, lumpy, faintly malodorous substance inside a newly expanded processing plant at ... More Comments (2)

Arthur Levitt — Again

Arthur Levitt — Again

In 2006, Arthur Levitt Jr., former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, came under intense criticism in San Diego. At the time, Levitt was ... More Comments (48)

Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye Again

Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye Again

On New Year’s Eve, Howard Jackson was in court with Ellen Falcone, his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child. For more than nine years, the ... More Comments (7)

How About Trying a Free Market?

How About Trying a Free Market?

On March 23, stocks were headed for a fabulous 7 percent gain. The Obama administration had just come out with a program in which private ... More Comments (27)

Will Sun Shine on San Diego?

Will Sun Shine on San Diego?

Late last year, local solar advocates were pleasantly surprised when San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders moved quickly to implement a new state law that allows ... More Post a comment

Sad Stats

Sad Stats

"For us, business is good,” says Barry Lander, clerk of the bankruptcy court. “It’s a sad thing.” Indeed it is. The courts, judges, clerks, and ... More Comments (2)

Does New Center Make Any Sense?

Does New Center Make Any Sense?

All across the United States, and around the world, convention centers are vastly overbuilt. Supply exceeds demand. So municipalities that own the centers resort to ... More Comments (18)

The Padres’ Mystery Lineup

The Padres’ Mystery Lineup

Who are the new would-be owners of the Padres, and are they fit to own the team? Recent documents unearthed from city hall under the ... More Comments (23)

Pie in the Sky

Pie in the Sky

San Diego County citizens disgusted with massive potholes, deficient sewer and water systems, library closings, ad nauseam should scoff at politicians’ promises that things will ... More Comments (18)

“Hallelujah!” “Hey, keep it down!”

“Hallelujah!” “Hey, keep it down!”

Many are the tales locals tell of dodge-and-deny tactics the City of San Diego uses to avoid enforcing its own laws. The most common excuses, ... More Comments (27)

Michael Ellis As Angel

Michael Ellis As Angel

Psst. Wanna read a well-written, entertaining book? It’s filled with amazingly detailed descriptions of surroundings and dialogue from exciting events going back many years. It ... More Comments (135)

Got Megayachts?

Got Megayachts?

The stock market is crashing. The city budget is crumbling. The state unemployment rate has hit 10 percent. Maybe it’s not the best time to ... More Comments (11)

The Cost of Luxurious Sushi

The Cost of Luxurious Sushi

For the sushi-savoring diner who bites into a raw slice of bluefin tuna belly meat, the world may seem perfect for a moment, and at ... More Comment (1)

Suffocation Prose

Suffocation Prose

I told San Diego author Caitlin Rother that she has gotten a virgin. Me. Until I read an advance copy of her book Body Parts ... More Comments (4)

Admiral Baker Says No!

Admiral Baker Says No!

Last spring, Lee Campbell was looking for an apt way that Friends of Tierrasanta Canyons might participate in River Days. The celebration is staged annually ... More Post a comment

Help Obama. Borrow. Buy.

Help Obama. Borrow. Buy.

American consumers and American financial institutions are suffering dyspepsia from an extended trip to Las Vegas. The consumers drank and ate too much, and the ... More Comments (10)

Worms Eat My Reader

Worms Eat My Reader

Some readers want us to eat our words. David Shean worries about what happens when he eats them. “I eventually feed [the Reader] to my ... More Comment (1)

Pacific Beach Scoundrel Time

Pacific Beach Scoundrel Time

In June of 1999, Nicholas Charles Herbert (aka Nick Ashton and Nick Hanson) was jailed in San Diego and charged by the district attorney’s office ... More Comments (38)

Not-So-Fine Arts

Not-So-Fine Arts

In early September, Ian Campbell, general director and artistic director of San Diego Opera, was in London to discuss a possible coproduction with the prestigious ... More Comments (8)

Clipped Wings

Clipped Wings

It’s an inconvenient time for titans of industry and commerce to be caught luxuriating in the cabins of their executive jets. Late last month, Starbucks ... More Comments (2)

Battle on the Beach

Battle on the Beach

There is a doozy of a donnybrook over usage of the southwest corner of Fiesta Island. It’s a real bitch. Or a real beach. Well, ... More Comments (62)

Mira Mesa Meets Caltrans

Mira Mesa Meets Caltrans

Granted, Mira Mesa needs traffic relief, especially for entering and exiting the I-15. But how does Caltrans justify a project that is likely to increase ... More Comments (4)

Clouds on SDG&E’s Sunny Plans

Clouds on SDG&E’s Sunny Plans

When it comes to fighting global warming, San Diego Gas & Electric and its parent company, Sempra Energy, are accomplishing the neat trick of being ... More Comments (7)

Goldsmith’s Guillotine

Goldsmith’s Guillotine

On February 25 of last year, professional skydiver Alan (Buzz) Fink and his wife Kristina, who are not residents of San Diego, gave a total ... More Comments (64)

Nine Sinking Cities

Nine Sinking Cities

This month and in early February, city managers and finance directors in cities across San Diego County are appearing before their respective city councils to ... More Comment (1)

Self-Probe? Ha!

Self-Probe? Ha!

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency that is supposed to protect investors from Wall Street predators, says it is going to investigate how ... More Comments (30)

E-Trash Treasures

E-Trash Treasures

It’s not yet 9:00 a.m. on September 6, but the late-summer sun is already baking the blacktop of the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot. It’s hot ... More Comments (2)

Is Moores Jumping Out Just in Time Again?

Is Moores Jumping Out Just in Time Again?

In the past, pro sports has been considered somewhat recession-proof. Not this year, and perhaps not in 2010. Attendance is already sagging, despite the slashing ... More Comments (36)

Gone Fishing?

Gone Fishing?

Tim Green, captain of the 80-foot sportfishing vessel Premiere, has been motoring paying customers from San Diego Bay to the Point Loma kelp beds for ... More Comments (2)

Will the Horse Drink?

Will the Horse Drink?

Almost everybody prefers inflation to deflation. Certainly, economists and politicians do. And the general public prefers inflation too. Why do you think Viagra sells so ... More Comments (12)

No More Bragging Rights

No More Bragging Rights

The San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System always likes to brag about its investment performance. It endlessly points out that among its peers (other municipal ... More Comments (1312)

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Win The Unborn on DVD!

Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) hated her mother for leaving her as a child. But when inexplicable things start to happen, ... More