Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Samoans live and die in Oceanside
In 2006 and 2007, I lived in Oceanside west of Coast Highway. I have not always had the best luck with cops, but I felt very safe there. The police are real professional and take their time talking with people when they stop them for various things. I saw them contain a potentially explosive situation during the 4th of July weekend at the beach. They patrol a lot and are very visible all around the city. They go to the high schools when they let out to discourage after school fights and unruly crowds. Oceanside should be very proud of their police force.— February 20, 2008 12:40 p.m.
Samoans live and die in Oceanside
........At the annual Oceanside Samoan Cultural Celebration last summer, over 200 attendees listened to traditional music, participated in traditional and not-so-traditional dancing, and watched and competed in cultural activities such as banana-peeling contests.... over 200 attendees? More like 200,000....— February 20, 2008 12:13 p.m.
Jack in the Box Beats Street Forecast; Stock up 3 Percent
Super size me.— February 20, 2008 12:07 p.m.
Is Ailing Union-Tribune Crossing News/Advertising Line in the Sand?
The Guild decertification had unexpected consequences for a lot of managers. In Ye Olden Days, managers were expected to behave abominably … much like former UT exec Brute Krulak. If a wronged employee beefed to the Guild, who cared? Then came the decert. And an inept manager might very well have found his or her career on the line. Keeping unions out was the overarching corporate mandate and the wisdom said that if employees are treated unfairly or in an arbitrary manner they will want a third party (union) to intervene. The HR department (out of strategy as much as any decency) suddenly played an unprecedented heavier role in restraining managers ... and was intensely interested (much to many editors' dismay) in the goings-on in the newsroom. HR was mandated by Gene Bell to smoke out "problem" managers and weed them out as needed. And the weeding process meant out the door, as demotion back into the ranks was not considered a viable option. The problem managers were not graded on their technical proficiency ... the real test was how they handled (or mishandled) the people they were responsible for. Karin Winner, for all of her lack of technical (editorial) ability, was a strong proponent of holding managers accountable for their behavior to subordinates. Again, this sense of doing right by the employees came to a screeching halt in Feb. 2001 when Pat Marrinan fell ill.— February 20, 2008 9:34 a.m.
Is Ailing Union-Tribune Crossing News/Advertising Line in the Sand?
Marrinan followed the King & Ballou union-busting recipe: 1. Fire all managers who might be sympathetic to unions (Helen Copley does deserve some credit here, as she was not prone to rolling heads on this issue). 2. Bargain to impasse and make sure that merit pay is included in every proposal (unions find merit pay anathema ... once an employee keys off his or her supervisor for an increase, goodbye, union). 3. Make sure that all non-union employees have significantly better benefits, including more holidays, vacations, medical, retirement, 401K, etc. 4. Go without a contract for as long as it takes to undermine the potency of the union in the eyes of the employees. After a period of not having a contract, post terms and conditions of employment. 6. Nail any "problem" managers who cannot treat employees in a professional and dignified way at all times and under all circumstances. 7. When merit increases are approved, make sure that the best performers are well rewarded. 8. Make sure that any re-hires are not sympathetic to the union. 9. Ignore any union protests. "If you appear to care, you lose." 10. Take every piece of employee discipline seriously ... make certain that HR knows about it in advance. Let employees know that HR has an open door to air greivances.— February 19, 2008 3:55 p.m.
Is Ailing Union-Tribune Crossing News/Advertising Line in the Sand?
Rich Peterson was the head of the UT's "New Ventures," which turned out to be "No Ventures." His main contribution was SignOnSanDiego. When Roy Eugene Bell tossed Peterson overboard, he replaced him at SignOn with Marilyn Creason, the head of the UT Accounting department. "Say what?" was heard around Mission Valley. Creason soon quit to spend time with her new hubby (the UT, embarassed by her resignation, tried to couch it as an "early retirement"). Then came Chris Jennewein ... and if electronic is merging with the paper, where does that leave him? By the way: remember those awful United Way campaigns where the executives of the UT were trotted out as vaudville acts? Newsdoll Karin Winner teamed up with HR Queen Bobbie Espinosa to warble a few karioke tunes. Speaking of HR, at one point, from 1999 to 2001, the department did care about the employees and what they thought. This was under the auspices of Labor Relations manager Pat Marrinan. He knew that to keep a non-union environment two things were essential: treat employees respectfully and pay them a fair wage. And Pat was murder on managers who could not or would not treat employees in a professional and dignified way at all times and under all circumstances. Pat had a stroke in Feb. 2001 ... and HR Manager Ann Radosevich took the reins of employee relations. Disaster. You see, Ann grew up in the old UT environment where a manager could do no wrong. Shortly thereafter, que supresa, the packaging department organized. Employee Relations was summarily yanked from Radosevich and the UT hired a new employee relations manager. This new one left late last year, and, in the spirit of fiscal conservancy, was not replaced. Now heading up employee relations? Ann is back in the saddle.— February 19, 2008 1:37 p.m.
Mistaken Identify
How about give her no money, but put the D.A., prosecutor and judge in jail for a year? Just so they think twice the next time they do a sloppy job.— February 19, 2008 1:10 p.m.
I Love Paris in the...Winter
I see you smoking those blunts, dude.— February 19, 2008 1:07 p.m.
San Diego's Police State: Blogger Flannery Booted Out of Dumanis Press Conference
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wildfires/2008-02…— February 19, 2008 7:12 a.m.
I Love Paris in the...Winter
Josh are you telling us you've never drove drunk? Reading back in your crasher stories that's hard to believe.— February 18, 2008 11:12 a.m.