Blogs
Scam Diego
Was Dan Broderick Really a Model of Integrity?
Posted by dbauder on May 13, 2008
On Saturday (May 17), the Daniel T. Broderick III Award willl be given to attorney Mike Neil. The award has been given since 1990 by three legal groups to the local attorney who supposedly best examplifies civility, integrity and professionalism. Dan Broderick and his new young wife were murdered by ...
More Comments (41)
Psssst! Wanna Make 90 Percent a Month? Those Who Bit on Escondido Ponzi Scheme Got Taken to the Cleaners
Posted by dbauder on May 12, 2008
Clementine Estrada pleaded guilty in federal court Friday (May 9) to a conspiracy charge related to her operation of two Escondido scams: the Crystal Rose and Sterling Rose Capitalization Programs. She promised investors returns of up to 90 percent a month, and claimed their capital would be protected. She admitted ...
More Comments (7)
Local Media Not Mentioning Transgressions of Their Stars
Posted by dbauder on May 12, 2008
San Diego news media have not been reporting the sins of their reporters. On April 28, Milan Martinic, 47, of Ramona, pleaded guilty in Jacksonville, Florida, to wire fraud. He was running a Ponzi scheme that fleeced more than 20 investors of $6 million. The maximum penalty would be 20 ...
More Comments (8)
Purported Ethics Commission Pulls Another Slimy One. This Is So Blatant It Could Backfire
Posted by dbauder on May 10, 2008
San Diego's alleged Ethics Commission is back to its pre-election dirty tricks. The caper is still another example of how city government and the Union-Tribune collaborate to thwart reform and keep the establishment in power. Today (May 10) the U-T printed a story saying that the commission will hold a ...
More Comments (43)
Union-Tribune Lays Off Three Who Spearheaded Electronic News, Radio Efforts
Posted by dbauder on May 7, 2008
The Union-Tribune today axed three executives who played key roles in the Copley Press online news efforts. Suddenly gone as of today, according to very good sources, are Chris Jennewein, who was head of the company's non-newspaper efforts; Ron James, who ran SignOnSanDiego day-to-day, and Jim Drummond, another SignOn executive. ...
More Comments (52)
Excessive Labor Costs Force Vallejo to Vote for Bankruptcy
Posted by dbauder on May 7, 2008
The Vallejo city council voted unanimously to file for bankruptcy late Tuesday (May 6). Excessive labor costs are the main factor, although the Bay Area suburb has also been hit by the housing crisis lowering property values and the state grabbing a large share of local tax receipts. Vallejo faces ...
More Comments (27)
Famed Business Writer's Book Says Pensions Bankrupted San Diego
Posted by dbauder on May 4, 2008
The long-awaited book on pensions by top business writer Roger Lowenstein is now out and being reviewed. Its prescient title is "While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis." New York Times reviewer Jeff Madrick ...
More Comments (18)
Celebrities Have Donated Money to Jerry Sanders, Including a New Celebrity: Marie Walsh
Posted by dbauder on May 3, 2008
Executives in the trash hauling business are known for giving lavishly to political campaigns. Alan Walsh, husband of Susan LeFevre (aka Marie Walsh) has been a significant donor to Mayor Jerry Sanders, among several others, including board of supervisors candidates and council candidate Carl DeMaio. On April 17 of 2006, ...
More Comments (12)
Memo to Fred Sainz: Clean Up Your Language -- But First Learn How To Spell
Posted by dbauder on May 2, 2008
In the now-infamous email of September 7, 2007, mayoral flack Fred Sainz sent some naughty words to his close associate, Union-Tribune editorial writer Bob Kittle. Here are some of the words that Sainz put in the email to Kittle: "bulls**t," "hell," "hell-bent," "f**ks," "f**king," "f**k." Sainz shouldn't have put them ...
More Comments (51)
Here's an Example of SEC Nailing the Small Fry, Ignoring the Superrich
Posted by dbauder on May 1, 2008
In a post today below this one, I describe how San Diego attorney Gary Aguirre is trying to expose the double standard of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency chases wee offenders and utterly ignores the superrich who use inside information. Today, the SEC announced that Harry H. Yim ...
More Comments (12)
SEC Lets Superrich Off and Chases Small Fish; Now, Lawsuit May Show How This Regulatory Mischief Works
Posted by dbauder on May 1, 2008
San Diego attorney Gary Aguirre has won a major battle in a lawsuit against his former employer, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). While working at the agency, Aguirre thought there was good reason to look into John Mack, head of one of Wall Street's biggest firms, Morgan Stanley, and ...
More Comments (6)
Chairman of San Diego GOP Co-Founded International Piracy Ring, Says Online News Website
Posted by dbauder on April 29, 2008
Tony Krvaric, San Diego Republican Party chairman and head of the party's state budget committee, "is the co-founder of Fairlight, a band of software crackers which later evolved into an international video and software piracy group that law enforcement authorities say is among the world's largest such rings," says the ...
More Comments (37)
San Diego House Price Declines Among Largest in Nation
Posted by dbauder on April 29, 2008
Today's (April 29) S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, which measure the direction of home prices in 20 major U.S. markets, once again show San Diego price declines among the sharpest in the nation. In February, San Diego home prices dropped 3.6 percent. Only four cities, Las Vegas (4.8 percent), Los Angeles ...
More Comments (8)
U-T, North County Times Lose Circulation, but LA Times, Orange County Register Do Worse
Posted by dbauder on April 28, 2008
Circulation at the Union-Tribune and North County Times continues to drop, but other Southern California dailies are doing worse, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations data for the first six months of 2008 released this morning (April 28, 2008). The Union-Tribune's Monday-Friday circulation dropped 2.59 percent to 288,669. That was ...
More Comments (14)
Why You Don't Get Accurate Information on San Diego from U-T Editorial Page
Posted by dbauder on April 27, 2008
In an editorial this morning, the Union-Tribune claims that City Attorney Mike Aguirre wants to "kill" a $103 million bond issue Mayor Jerry Sanders has proposed. Actually, Aguirre has said that under state law and the San Diego charter, this proposal should go to a vote of the people. That ...
More Comments (26)
U-T's Combined Paper and Online Edition Lose Market Share in County, According to Report
Posted by dbauder on April 27, 2008
In a new report, Scarborough Research has found that most metropolitan daily newspapers, including the Union-Tribune in San Diego, are losing market share in their combined print and online editions. The April 25 issue of Editor & Publisher, media trade newspaper, summarized the Scarborough findings. Of 20 metro dailies, only ...
More Comments (8)
Ad Hoc Committee Says Auditor Should Be Independent; Says City's Financial Processes Ill-Defined
Posted by dbauder on April 26, 2008
The Ad Hoc Citizens Advisory Committee to the City's Audit Committee will give its report Monday, April 28. The report definitively states that the city auditor should be appointed by the city council and not appointed by the mayor in consultation with the audit committee and approved the council, as ...
More Comments (2)
FDA Calls for Delay in Isis Pharmaceuticals' Anti-Cholesterol Drug; Stock down 28 Percent
Posted by dbauder on April 25, 2008
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today (Friday, April 25) that it wants more information on Mipomersen, a potential cholesterol-lowering drug being developed by San Diego biotech Isis Pharmaceuticals along with Genzyme. The agency wants more data on two ongoing studies. The demand should delay the product another year. ...
More Comments (2)
Straight-Talking Financial Journalist Herb Greenberg Leaving the Field To Go into Research
Posted by dbauder on April 24, 2008
Carmel Valley's Herb Greenberg, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones's online MarketWatch, is leaving print journalism May 1 to set up an independent research firm with Debbie Meritz, an analyst/accountant who has been a good source for him in the past. Greenberg will continue to appear ...
More Comments (2)
Sanders's Flack Bombarded Friendly Media with Anti-Aguirre Hit Pieces
Posted by dbauder on April 22, 2008
In a relentless hate campaign, Mayor Jerry Sanders's publicist, Fred Sainz, flooded local media with hit pieces on City Attorney Mike Aguirre, a study of Sainz's emails in August, September, and October of last year reveals. Blogger Pat Flannery got these emails when researching the wrongful termination lawsuit that former ...
More Comments (32)