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Summer Stephan first D.A. to take on Antifa
After watching "Sad Face" Summer failing to prosecute many crimes in the county, such as the Ash Street building fiasco, I'd about given up on her. If she's serious about this bunch of charges and actually sees them through to conviction and sentencing, I will change my mind. The lamestream media continues to talk about right-wing protestors, and there have been few convictions. It wasn't right wingers who took to arson in the melee in La Mesa last year; no, it was "peaceful" demonstrators who suddenly got violent, and burned down buildings. So, Summer, how about prosecutions involving the thugs on the other side in that mess? Is this the beginning of some balance in the story?— December 13, 2021 7:57 p.m.
Elisabeth Kimmel's pre-jail pleas for mercy
That could make a book that could sell very well, and keep the locals with short memories from forgetting just how corrupt and scandal-ridden SD can be, and was not so long ago. It isn't, and never was "America's Finest City". And it was never as rich or flush or whatever-you-want-to-call-it as many thought. Every dollar wasted was a dollar that didn't get spent on things that don't show until they break or you lose a wheel in a pothole. Yep, his reports would make a great book; I'd buy it in a heartbeat.— December 12, 2021 11:06 a.m.
Elisabeth Kimmel's pre-jail pleas for mercy
Today, finally, the You-Tee ran a piece on her and the guilty plea bargain that wasn't downplayed or hidden. It was on Page 1, and actually seemed to report the case in some degree of completeness. It mentioned the claims of her defense team that her arrest--in La Jolla--was brutal and caused a "cardiac injury." As to whether that was in any documented wasn't mentioned. The defense team called her transgressions a "dark moment in a life of goodness." Typical defense attorney-speak was that. That "moment" ran for six years, as Matt mentions. Personally, I doubted that she was in any way an unwitting victim of Singer, and at least the plea means that she is admitting her guilt, although her plea specifically disavowed any bribery. (She gave Singer the funds; he did the bribing is how the story would go.) That six week detention at Club Fed is more than i expected to be levied on a billionaire, or at least someone whose net worth is very close to that figure. Leave it to Matt to dig out more details, utterly unflattering, about her character and dealings with people. It would be so interesting to hear from some of her business associates about her way of runnning the family media empire, especially in San Diego. There's a final question I have. How did her husband, an attorney and former prosecutor, avoid indictment? Everything reported so far indicates that he was well aware of what she was up to, and went along with it.— December 10, 2021 8:32 p.m.
MTS can't get enough bus drivers
This CEO isn't your usual public bureaucrat; she admits that things are haywire when they are. She is so unlike her late predecessor, a smooth-talking dude who always portrayed the situation at MTS as perfect, or nearly so. She doesn't claim to be transparent, she is transparent with her comments. We all should appreciate that sort of dealing with the public and encourage it. As to the pay being offered, about $20 an hour, it doesn't sound all that attractive now. Decades ago the pay for San Diego Transit (what MTS was called at the time) drivers were taking down over $20K a year typically, equating to about $10 an hour. With the high cost of housing, utilities, and a host of other household expenses in SD now, this starting wage is barely a living wage. I have to wonder what the turnout of applicants would be if the pay started at, say, $25 an hour. This woman is one of the highest paid public employees in the county, maybe the highest paid. Her late predecessor was earning roughly four times the salary of the mayor of SD. Her salary must be comparable to his. For that kind of reward, I hope that she really takes the job seriously. One chronic problem was that MTS could not keep its buses on schedule, with long delays and then two or even three buses on the same routs all showing up within about two minutes. If she can solve that issue, it would encourage more folks to ride the Coaster in from No County to work, and make that train an even bigger success. Many potential riders of the Coaster need a MTS bus to cover that last mile, and it needs to run on time.— December 9, 2021 9:12 a.m.
Conviction of Army & Navy headmaster for child abuse is overturned – updated 12-6-21
There is still a part of this case that doesn't fit. This judge was packing Barton off to prison with no chance that Barton would ever be released. Now he says he "finally wanted to resolve the case" and that was why he agreed to the plea bargain. That means he went from wanting Barton to die in prison about five years ago, and now is willing to turn him loose into society. That's a very large swing indeed. Could it be that the DA is just getting tired of this case? Another trial would have been a real chore, and there are undoubtedly more egregious cases to prosecute. But the plea deal could have required a few years of prison time prior to his release and it did not. Somebody blinked during the negotiations of the deal, and it looks as if it was the DA.— December 7, 2021 3:46 p.m.
UCSD misses out on Covid and Fema gravy trains
Khosla should have been fired years ago by Napolitano. She left that dangling detail for her successor to deal with. He hasn't dealt with it at all. UCSD has a gigantic staff of administrators, just like every other UC campus, and letting all those millions slip away is a travesty. So, now he says they'll do better in the future. UCSD might, but not as long as he's in charge.— December 2, 2021 7:20 a.m.
Symphony silent on reasons for renovation
My take is that this lack of transparency is far from "interesting"; it comes across as arrogant and elitist, with a bunch of high-flown rhetoric. You say that the details of the work haven't been revealed. Why? The usual and best explanation for that sort of thing is that there is something to hide. With all of the wealth that the Jacobs family endowed the Symphony a decade or more ago, there isn't a lack of funding for just about anything it wants to do. If managed properly that funding should keep the Symphony "in clover" in perpetuity. (OK, maybe only a century.) The board may now be feeling flush, due to the big run-up in stock prices that has occurred in the past few years. BTW, that won't last. If the Symphony reveals the details of all this "renovation" an interested observer might start looking at just who will be doing the work, and how much they will be paid. Potential for conflict of interest? That always lurks in the background.— November 28, 2021 8:48 a.m.
UCSD faculty caught playing hooky
Hookay, all those super-smart people at UCSD know just about anything you might want to ask of them. But, they can't understand what a day off work means? The dumbest floor scrubber there knows whether he/she has had a day of vacation, but a physician can't do that. I'd be hard pressed to think of a better example of elitism and disdain for rules than this. Fire a few of them for not reporting their misuse of vacation days and non-reporting and the problem would quickly clear up. Nothing like getting fired to get an employee's attention to the rules.— November 26, 2021 8:42 p.m.
Conviction of Army & Navy headmaster for child abuse is overturned – updated 12-6-21
We can only wonder what is going on here. The conviction was overturned on grounds that were "technical", regarding replacing a juror. The appeals court didn't rule on the evidence at all; it was procedural. So, why, if the DA was so incensed at his alleged crimes, does she go for this plea bargain? The judge hit him with a sentence that was tantamount to life, and now "might" sentence him to time served. Barton's prospects have brightened considerably, and he may easily live out his years as a free man, rather than dying in prison. But what does the future hold for him? This time he won't be able to get hired as a headmaster anywhere, and nearly nobody would have him in their employ doing anything.— November 20, 2021 10:06 a.m.
Times are swell at The Shell
From my isolated perch in No County, I am often left behind on names of places and things in central SD. This one is such a case. Here the heck is Jacobs Park? And what is the Rady shell? This whole thing comes across the way many earlier naming binges have gone, especially the always generous Jacobs clan of modern-day robber barons. My guess is that Jacobs Park is in or near the area formerly called Embarcadero Marina Park adjacent to the former Seaport Village, and that the shell is located there. But you know, so little has been said or reported about such developments in recent years that nobody can be totally certain. It seems that ol' Irwin and his wife and offspring want to stick that name on as many things as possible, a way of guaranteeing that they will all live forever. Jacobs this, Jacobs that, Rady this, Jacobs whatever, and one more Rady something seems to be the norm now. If either of those names were associated with doing something altruistic or publicly beneficial in their earlier years, it would be one thing, but that isn't the case. Both Jacobs and Rady went fullbore to enrich themselves and then much later on, started the philanthropy. In the case of the Jacobs gang, much of the giving has recently been directed into politics, often in the face of plenty of local opposition. Far back in time ol' Irwin and and wife gave over $100 million to the symphony, which if spent and managed could keep it viable for another century or longer. But now, it seems that the orchestra is still trying to keep up. Makes ya' wondah, doesn't ti?— November 5, 2021 8:12 p.m.