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Stories by Don Bauder

Golf is in the rough

Golf deep in the hole — San Diego no exception

Golf courses got overbuilt in anticipation of baby boomer retirements. But do boomers have patience for golf? Golfing is on the decline in San Diego. What to do with all that land?

The job-stealing scam — Texas is the biggest con

Texas woos gunmakers — and everybody else

Today's civil war — states bribing companies to move — is a negative sum game for the nation.

For-profit college tried to recruit homeless

Michael Clifford boasts that his for-profit college investments are winners, but woes suggest otherwise.

San Diego Gas & Electric rates are nation's highest

According to the Jacksonville Electric Authority, San Diegans pay the highest electricity rates in the U.S. There are examples that point to the fact that UCAN doesn’t do the best job at lobbying the California Public Utilities Commission to give residents a break; in fact, their relationship could be called “cozy.”

Men are lousy lovers

Apricus, Innovus tackle bedroom disorders

Do females suffer from sexual dysfunction or are men unskillful in bed?

Escondido: The ruling white minority

Escondido's white minority rules, but Latinos want fair representation.

Bubbles: Greenspan, Bernanke could have learned something in San Diego

Some kind of unhappy result of this madcap money printing by the Federal Reserve is inevitable: wait for the next disastrous economic bubble to burst.

The unmaking and making of Roger Hedgecock

Will Hedgecock pivot?

Former disgraced San Diego mayor Roger Hedgecock makes a big slug of money from a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization in Arlington, Virginia, the American Studies Center.

Couch-surf or get a roommate

The financial squeeze (high costs, low pay) is worse for San Diego's young adults.

San Diego hotels: labor in revolt

Paying extremely low wages to hotel workers boosts profits of out-of-town owners and deprives San Diego of spending power.

Convention center expansion would build into a glut

It stinks

Downtown overlords and labor want to rewrite federal, state, and local laws to build a Convention Center expansion into the teeth of a perfect storm.

San Diego, haven for pyramids

San Diego is a haven for multilevel marketing scams, which are often pyramid schemes.

TV and video games may intensify violence

Are Hollywood, football, and the media to blame for America’s penchant for violence?

Not America's sweethearts

In silent movies, Mary Pickford was angelic — her Southern California admirers aren’t. Elizabeth and Thomas Coldicutt, helped by San Diegans, allegedly set up shell companies to lure investors.

Engineers dislike H-1B; bosses gloat

H-1B visa opponents say corporations such as Qualcomm are using the program to lower the prevailing wage for engineers and tech employees across the board.

Does new UCAN board want reform?

The high-maintenance watchdog

UCAN, the San Diego–based Utility Consumers’ Action Network, burdened by scandal and misuse of funds, should shut down, some say. Some say otherwise.

Economy for 2013: San Diego worse than state, nation?

Are you tired of sluggish economic growth? Well, you could live in Europe, which is in a recession, or Japan, which has been struggling since 1989. Local economists look for slow growth in the United ...

ResMed: Please refuse to play the subsidy game

Sleep-apnia device-maker ResMed threatens to leave San Diego because CEO says it’s too hard to run a business in California. Valid gripe or jobs blackmail for taxpayer funds?

Should Jack stay in Mexican foods?

An analysis of Jack in the Box’s involvement with Qdoba, a Mexican food chain the company acquired in 2003

You will get hoodwinked on stadium costs

Is Chargers PR flack Mark Fabiani feeding malarkey to taxpayers about the total cost of a stadium?

Will SD power structure accept climate change?

San Diego big business and the City whistle past the greenhouse-gas graveyard.

Hispanic vote calls shots in San Diego

Does San Diego’s great awakening include Republicans?

Where did the news junkies go?

Fewer people than ever are reading newspapers; electronic media are not making up the difference. Are the old media trying to shove Beethoven down the throats of hip-hop fanatics?

San Diego's Schooler brothers

Lou Schooler’s company stands charged with making fraudulent land deals. John Schooler ran WFP Securities, which put elderly, financially squeezed investors in dubious schemes.

Military Bribes Sometimes Backfire

Outside agencies know how to prosecute San Diego white-collar crimes. But the sheriff’s department? Forget about it.

UCAN: Misspelled Accounts Add Up

UCAN director Michael Shames neutered the consumer watchdog organization by skimming over $400,000 in “intervenor fees,” among other dubious tactics.

U-T and Port: Bring in the Clowns

The notion of a bayside football stadium is “felony dumb.”

U-T San Diego Publisher Doug Manchester pushes for a Tenth Avenue terminal football stadium. But the numbers suggest San Diego would be trading good-paying jobs with low-paying service jobs.

Smarter Cities Richer

San Diego, one of the five richest cities in the U.S. Wow. Details?

Mary Hoffman Takes on the Regulators

California Public Utilities Commission president Michael Peevey is under the microscope due to his cozy relationships with utility companies.

Chargers Stadium, Affordable or Not

San Diego can hardly afford to plop $750 million or more into a subsidized football stadium for the Chargers. But increasingly, even opponents fear it may be inevitable. Former councilmember Bruce Henderson, a longtime battler ...

More San Diego Convention Center Lies

San Diego Convention Center expansion boosters knowingly cooked the books to fool the public and justify the project.

Scan Diego?

A cockeyed look at the businesses that look inside your body; namely, Heart Check and Life Score Clinic.

Wall Street's High-Speed Gambling

The dark side of mathematicians getting interested in finance.

Over the Cliff? Nope.

Will legislators allow America to drive off the edge of a cliff? Two San Diego political scientists say no.

Rats! Gnats!

Eye gnat infestations in south Escondido could lead to end of organic food farming in San Diego.

Screw U: The Next Bubble May Be Higher Education

In economics, a bubble is something that trades at prices far beyond its intrinsic value. Fasten your seat belt: the next bubble may be higher education. The $1 trillion of student debt is clearly a ...

League of California Cities Touts Openness but Shuns Disclosure Requirements

What does San Diego get out of the Sacramento-based League of California Cities?

Nixon's Swiss Stash

Did a secret money stash of President Nixon’s help finance a San Diego suburb?

The NFL's Dirty Secret

The National Football Leagues’s links to organized crime enumerated.

Creation of a Monster, John Gardner

Caitlin Rother’s book about John Gardner draws a terrifying portrait of a man who was sweet and cuddly one day and a crazed killer the next.

Could Imperial Valley Become Owens Valley?

Political and drought conditions could turn the Imperial Valley into another Owens Valley.

Will Brain Damage Kill Football?

The Fate of the Tobacco Industry May Provide a Blueprint

Professional football takes a blow to the head. Military combat personnel in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars may suffer the same kind of brain damage as professional football players.

San Diego Economy: Where’s the Oomph?

Is low home-ownership an indication of San Diego’s stagnant economy?

In Borrego, Prices Are Low, Anyway

Development of Borrego Springs still hinges on water supply.

Did Sempra Bribe Mexicans?

Did Sempra Energy pass bribes to officials in Mexico to grease construction projects there? Then, when a whistle-blower complaint was filed, did the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation permit Sempra ...

Will Wall Street Cool on Bridgepoint?

Bridgepoint Education stock drops. The San Diego company’s relationship with Wall Street becomes more apparent.

Build a Stadium and Team Will Stay? Nope

The lengths NFL teams go to in order to get their taxpayer-built stadiums.

Timothy Alan Simon: Commissioner with a Past

A California Public Utilities commissioner has his unimpressive/brow-raising track record laid out.

U-T Saw Ryan Leaf as a Savior

There was a time when the San Diego Union-Tribune prophesized that an NFL player would fill this city with super sports boosters. Didn’t happen.

UCAN's Best Con

The truism goes back centuries: “Hee that lies with the dogs, riseth with fleas.” But ten years ago, Utility Consumers’ Action Network (UCAN), the watchdog nonprofit attempting to dissolve while it is being investigated by ...