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Stories by Matt Potter

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Hands on the bar

The San Diego County Fair starts next month at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, but in the meantime one of the fair board members has been making good use of the facilities himself. On May 25 ...

Falling for Humpty

Daniel Bucheli, a staffer for Republican congressman Darrell Issa (who has of late been watchdogging the Obama administration’s Benghazi record), recently took a two-day free trip up the road from the nation’s capital to visit ...

Really smoking

With the battle over San Diego medical pot parlors raging between the city council and mayor Bob Filner and full-on legalization unfolding in Washington and Colorado, it’s probably not too surprising that more marijuana is ...

Homeland security blanket

Whether or not it makes the citizenry feel more secure or not, the City of San Diego is looking for a few good Homeland Security Coordinators, according to an online job notice. The new hires ...

SDSU's criminal state

The good news out at San Diego State University is that through March of this year there has been only one rape, compared to last year’s five during the same period. Robberies were also down, ...

Eternal flame of freebies

Maybe it was because they were still recovering from New Year’s Eve, but state legislators seemed to go easier on the receipt of corporate freebies during the first three months of this year. That’s not ...

Gallstone special

Those with a hankering for gourmet hospital food may hope that a recent sponsorship opportunity by UCSD’s health system is repeated. According to an online fundraising flier, a $25,000 “masters” sponsorship of the health system’s ...

Port's fishy business, redux

Back on April 10, a report here about ten free tickets given to a group of San Diego Unified Port District staffers to attend the “Sustainable Seafood Gala 2013” thrown by the San Diego Oceans ...

Lights! Camera! Nathan!

Back on February 15, ex-GOP assemblyman Nathan Fletcher tweeted his fans with some big news: “Just accepted award from Chancellor Khosla for work on behalf of UCSD while in the legislature.” The former San Diego ...

Dirty dancing for supper

It’s almost time for the San Diego County Taxpayers Association’s annual “Golden Fleece” banquet, famous of late on YouTube for its promotional video featuring GOP San Diego city attorney Jan Goldsmith, dressed up as a ...

Ambulances chase politicos

AMR San Diego, an ambulance outfit in the race for the city’s paramedic contract, has just amended its fourth quarter 2012 lobbyist disclosure statement to reveal $1000 contributions to failed GOP mayoral candidate and ex–city ...

Forgive, and forget the cash

La Jolla Democratic congressman Scott Peters, who beat the GOP’s Brian Bilbray in a hard-fought race last year, spent plenty of his own cash in the process. With wealthy wife Lynne Gorguze on his side, ...

Of Prop 8 and Filipinos

San Diego’s Republican Party outraised its Democratic rivals during the month of February by a hefty margin, recent disclosures show. The GOP took in $28,512, its monthly federal campaign report says. Democrats got just $8485. ...

Port's fishy business

At least ten unidentified employees at the port of San Diego were each given a ticket last month worth $150 to the “Sustainable Seafood Gala 2013” thrown by the San Diego Oceans Foundation. The free ...

Educating Lara

Bridgepoint Education, Inc., the controversial San Diego–based private school operator, continues to spread around political cash. According to a recent disclosure posted online by the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the firm gave $5000 on ...

Worth their weight in beer and gold

Who is giving the big bucks to San Diego State’s nonprofit Campanile Foundation? Not all the names have been made available, but according to a document recently released by the foundation under the requirements of ...

The ACLU, Qualcomm, and cash

San Diego’s Qualcomm, Inc., the cell phone giant, made a big splash a few weeks ago when company executive Nathan Fletcher — the former GOP Assemblyman turned independent who lost his bid for mayor last ...

Parasailing with the Evans family

Fresh from a big controversy over who gets to run kayaks at La Jolla Shores, the City of San Diego is now preparing to award an exclusive deal for parasailing operations on Mission Bay. But ...

Cousins, trash, and influence

Anyone who doubts the politically incestuous nature of San Diego’s old money — still playing a big role at city hall these days — has only to review the family connections of the Evans clan, ...

Of toilets and implosions

How much does it cost for the care and feeding of about 600 local VIPs and various hangers-on invited to watch a power plant being blown to smithereens? In the case of the San Diego ...

Foreclosing permit options

Business is booming for La Jolla lobbyist Matt Peterson, whose most well known client is failed GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his beachside teardown in the Barber Tract. Homeowner Peter Winn has retained Peterson ...

Costs of doing city business

Republic Services, the big Phoenix-based solid-waste operation with a wide footprint in San Diego, has of late been anteing up the bucks at city hall. According to its latest lobbyist filing with the city clerk, ...

Fourth district triage

The race to replace ex–city councilman Tony Young in the Fourth District is being fed by a raft of out-of-town special interests. According to recent disclosures, “Californians for Quality Paramedic Services, Sponsored by Rural/Metro Corporation” ...

Full nondisclosure by KPBS

San Diego State University’s owned and operated public broadcasting operation is out with its “2013 Local Content & Service Report,” touting what it says are various achievements of the previous year. The document is required ...

Seeing purple, not so much green

icPurple, the super PAC run by La Jolla computer magnate Ted Waitt that lost its bid to elect so-called independent Nathan Fletcher mayor last year, is still in business, barely. According to its monthly federal ...

Latham's multiple masters

How much have San Diego taxpayers forked over to the giant law firm of Latham Watkins for legal services delegated to it by GOP city attorney Jan Goldsmith — the man lately in the middle ...

Dialing up dollars

Telecommunications giant AT&T spent a total of $32,737 in the last three months of 2012 on what is called “activity expenses,” also known as freebies awarded to public officials to get their time and attention. ...

Newsom's San Diegans of interest

Democratic Lt. governor Gavin Newsom made some waves here just over a year ago when then–Jerry Sanders media handler Rachel Laing tweeted a link to a letter from Newsom to Milford Wayne Donaldson, advising the ...

Low-level lobbying

Reports published after word came of ex–San Diego mayor Maureen O’Connor’s admission of stealing from her late husband’s foundation to feed a billion-dollar gambling compulsion had it that her game of choice was video poker, ...

There was port, and plenty of port

It was no doubt a tough job, but somebody at the Port of San Diego apparently had to do it. In this case, somebody was district board member Lee Burdick, who recently quit the port ...

Sempra, always with the political dough

Lobbyists for Sempra Energy were kept busy during the last quarter of 2012, arranging a mass handout of political largesse to San Diego city council and mayoral candidates. Under the city’s ethics ordinance, the maximum ...

Secretary of state's friend disbarred

Wade Sanders, the Navy veteran who served with U.S. Senator John Kerry during the Vietnam War and later played a prominent role in Kerry’s failed presidential campaign, has finally been disbarred from the practice of ...

Airport lobbying: not priceless

Some longtime San Diego lobbyists and Republican political players are picking up major change from the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority in the form of a lucrative “public outreach” contract ­— which during a ...

Sodium-free milk of politics

Sodium-free milk of politics Poseidon Resources, the desalination outfit that finally got a contract from the San Diego County Water Authority last year, spent heavily on local political campaigns, according to its recent disclosure filing. ...

Advice from ex-political boss

Speaking of David Alvarez, his ex-boss in the office of former South Bay Democratic state senator Denise Ducheny is raking in some big bucks from border-related city-hall lobbying of her former employee. Falcon Strategies, L.L.C., ...

Strong drinks, stout lobbyists

It hasn’t taken very long for freshman Democratic congressman Juan Vargas to hit the Washington fundraising circuit. According to a recent online invite from the Juan Vargas for Congress Committee, posted by the Sunlight Foundation’s ...

Unidentified flying freebies

After a grueling election year, things are settling back to normal at San Diego’s city hall, with favors and freebies the coin of the city’s political realm, and elected officials scrambling to be the first ...

Environmental Health Coalition ­takes on the whole wide world

Bob Filner and San Diego’s Democratic city-council majority have a lot of problems to solve — including global warming, in the opinion of one well-connected nonprofit. According to a recent lobbyist disclosure filing by the ...

First lobbyist Nathan Fletcher

Last week, new Democratic mayor Bob Filner gave his first State of the City Speech. Before he took the microphone at the Balboa Theatre, the mayor was preceded by Nathan Fletcher, former GOP assemblyman-turned-independent who ...

San Diego Central Library's moving daze

Now that the new downtown library is almost finished and preparing to open in July, moving day is just around the corner. This being the city, of course, a contractor is required. Based on a ...

Send in the AUSAs

Duffy fears San Diego will turn into Amsterdam West

United States Attorney Laura Duffy, who has been waging a lengthy war against medical marijuana in San Diego — along with the city’s current mayor — is calling for reinforcements. During last year’s campaign, the ...

Tied up in notes

Newly installed Democratic congressman Scott Peters is already entangled in some nagging post-election financial disclosure questions, courtesy of the Federal Election Commission. In a letter to Peters campaign treasurer Nancy Haley, dated January 4, the ...

P.R. at eleven

The nation’s TV and radio stations use the public airways — which are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission — to make a lot of money. The stations are required to file a quarterly “Issues ...

Buzz and Bob

Investigative Newsource, San Diego’s smallest nonprofit online-news operation, managed to grow its cash a bit in 2011, according to an annual charitable disclosure report filed in August with the Internal Revenue Service and recently posted ...

Happy new city council stipends

San Diego mayor Bob Filner makes an annual salary of $100,464, and city council members are each paid $75,386. Their relatively modest remuneration is unlikely to increase soon, but municipal leaders have discovered another, not-often-discussed ...

Solar-powered parking

Another piece of unfinished business for new San Diego mayor Bob Filner: deciding what kind of expensive new-fangled solar-powered, radio-controlled parking meters to buy. “The City still has approximately 4,700 single space parking meters that ...

Tale of a stealthy super PAC

Tale of a stealthy super PAC. During the days leading up to last month’s election, a mail piece was dispatched to voters in San Diego’s third county supervisorial district, where Republican Steve Danon was facing ...

Buzz, not static

La Jolla millionaire R.B. “Buzz” Woolley, the charter-school advocate and founder of the Voice of San Diego online news site, didn’t exactly have a great political year. The labor-union foe and hotel investor was one ...

Deck the halls with big-buck donors

It’s December, what better time to be looking for a gift-raiser? San Diego State University is in the market for one. “The primary responsibility for this position is to raise major gifts for the College ...

The last gift report

Former San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders left office last week in a familiar way, reporting the gift of a free Chargers ticket he made to a fellow pol. The final disclosed recipient of Sanders’s largesse: ...