PhotosSniper’s watchTwo costly crowd control tools bought by local cops from a controversial San Diego-based high-tech security firm saw zero use last year, per the Annual Military Equipment Report for 2023, recently released by the …
April 17, 2024
Matt Potter has been a staff writer and editor at the San Diego Reader since 1989. He reports on politics and local institutions such as the Union-Tribune, UCSD, SDSU, and the City and County of San Diego.
He is the author of the weekly Under the Radar column.
Besides breaking the Cheetahs corruption story a year before the FBI raided the offices of the San Diego city council, he has written extensively on governance, medical ethics, and human experimentation issues at the University of California San Diego.
Some notable Potter stories:
June 1, 1989:The Egg Women (Mayor O'Connor, Joan Kroc, Helen Copley, and the Faberge eggs)
April, 25, 1991 Mayor Moves to Create Death Valley-like Wasteland in Point Loma (O'Connor house landscaping)
June 20, 1991: A Son by Any Other Name (Helen Copley's adoption of son David revealed)
Aug. 8, 1996: Welcome, GOP Delegates to San Diego, City of Shame
May 22, 1997: La Jolla Gentlemen and the Party Boy (secrets of Andrew Cunanan, gay serial killer)
Oct. 25, 2001: Did Bin Laden's Brother Lead a Secret Life in San Diego?
Nov. 29, 2001: Did Casey Gwinn Try to Get Don Bauder Fired? (City Attorney vs. tough reporter)
July 31, 2003: Fun with Ralph (Inzunza's eating companions at Dobson's)
Articles by Matt Potter
San Diego police buy acoustic weapons but don't use them
UCSD’s docs present for your entire surgery?
UCSD’s simultaneous skin timeAre UCSD doctors violating university policy by conducting simultaneous operations in the institution’s array of surgical suites? “The Policy defines Overlapping Surgery as an ‘operation or procedure in which the actual operating …
April 10, 2024
SDSU pres gets highest pay raise in state over last 15 years
Adela’s big fat raisesSan Diego State University president Adela de la Torre is in line for a five percent salary boost this year, from $533,148 to $559,805, putting her pay at the very top of …
March 27, 2024
Russians and other asylum seekers crowd Tijuana
Travel bug bites Vargas stafferA top staffer for South Bay House Democrat Juan Vargas and two other congressional workers jetted off for free to January’s glitzy Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, courtesy of the …
March 20, 2024
Will L.A. Times crowd out San Diego U-T at Riverside printing plant?
Volvo politicsYet another editorial staffer has departed under Alden Global Capital, new owner of the faltering San Diego Union-Tribune. The departure edges the paper further to the right, a move celebrated in some quarters. And …
March 13, 2024
Carlsbad mayor Priya Bhat-Patel restrained herself on gun storage rules
Guns awayDue to a personal conflict of interest, Carlsbad Mayor Pro Tem Dr. Priya Bhat-Patel, a high-profile North County gun control advocate, will be required to wait a few months longer to participate in efforts …
March 6, 2024
San Diego Dems get cash from RCS Harmony Partners
Liberal richiesThe political committee called the San Diego Labor Coalition, Sponsored by Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 89 has received another major round of developer cash for its direct mail “Democratic Choice Voter …
February 28, 2024
Toni Atkins moves her special-interest lieutenant governor cash to governor race
Moralist in disguise?Cappy McGarr, a big-spending hedge fund insider from Dallas, Texas, is among those who’ve kicked in the maximum $1350 for incumbent Democratic Mayor Todd Gloria’s re-election bid. (McGarr has lived part-time in La …
February 21, 2024
Pimps control San Diego adjacent to National City
Touchy feelyRobert Hertzberg, an ex-state Senate Democrat from Los Angeles widely known as “Huggy Bear” because of his unwanted serial embraces of female staffers and politicos during his years in the state Capitol, gave $1000 …
February 14, 2024