• Stephen Facciola's edible worldHe and Caplan started to swap names, to compare notes on big players in the exotic fruits and vegetables community. (“I’m sure you’re acquainted with Paul Thomas in …
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Stories by Matt Potter
Gloria’s fat funding loopholeSan Diego mayor Todd Gloria won’t have to recuse himself from vetoing any city council actions involving his bevy of campaign contributors, but he does have to disclose that he got their …
The murderous saga of Andrew CunananWhen Vulgar Favors, Maureen Orth's book about the murderous saga of Andrew Cunanan, hit the best-seller lists last month, a national audience was offered a sinister portrait of San Diego, …
San Diego's least-remembered great man – U.S. Grant Jr. On a Sunday in September of 1929, 15 members of San Diego’s elite gathered to carry the coffin of an old friend. Among the pallbearers were …
Rudder and stickA San Diego aviator whose company made the seaplane featured in Kevin Costner’s movie Waterworld has lost his appeal to the National Transportation Safety Board of an administrative judge’s ruling in June 2022 …
What happened? A pioneer family's tragedy There was nothing to do but walk back to the house. Eric and his wife walked 10 yards, 20 yards, 30. The sky was still pink in the west. …
La Jolla 1962 Dressed in long trousers and boat shoes and a white Lacoste tennis shirt, I accompanied Toby across Vista del Mar and Neptune Place to the Pump House and down concrete steps to …
Press lineTrue to their word, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong and vulture investor fund Alden Global Capital, operating under the name MediaNews Group, appear to be proceeding with their previously announced plans to print Soon-Shiong’s Los Angeles Times …
Bridges of San Diego County I drive the roads of San Diego County with an agenda: You don’t know when you might spot another canyon dancer, a concrete Nureyev. I hike gorges and find them …
Borderline helloBy coincidence or not, the May 22 hard landing of a U.S. Homeland Security helicopter at Brown Field Municipal Airport — an event which is currently under investigation by the National Transportation Board — …
Gloria’s glorious spy machineSan Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, up for reelection next year, is doubling down on the city’s burgeoning array of surveillance tools, acting in cahoots with his all-fellow-Democrat city council. “I’ve spoken out …
Like your road widened, Mister? In the pre-dawn gloaming, the roadbuilding machines are just black shapes lined up beside the southbound lanes of Interstate 15. From the overpass at Miramar Way, only the light from …
Fear and loathing at SDSU San Diego State University — back among the ranks of the Mountain West college athletic conference last week after agreeing to fork over legal fees resulting from a brief showdown …
Every dive around San Diego yields discovery One of the oddest of these noises, an irregular bumping sound heard frequently in the rocks and ridges off the beaches from the La Jolla Caves south to …
Sequester yourself in the Secret Ranch Welcome to “The Secret Ranch,” a 12-acre estate with more than 12,400 square feet of living space under roof located in the exclusive Covenant of Rancho Santa Fe. “This …
U-T’s culture wars The long-predicted sale of the Union-Tribune by Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong to vulture fund Alden Global Capital heralds an almost certain change to the once-mighty San Diego paper, including no more …
Cops step out San Diego cops are readying a barrage of TV spots and digital attacks against their Democratic city council nemesis Monica Montgomery Steppe, who is currently running to fill Nathan Fletcher’s vacated seat …
Raiding accounts The acting replacement for ex-San Diego County Counsel Lonnie Eldridge, who mysteriously exited his post almost a year ago after only twelve months on the job, has been called out by county chief …
Kevin F. gets religion While ex-San Diego Republican mayor Kevin Faulconer continues to brood about whether to run next year against his Democratic successor Todd Gloria, or for the District 3 San Diego County Supervisor …
LAT’s “disinformation” machine? A wave of sudden layoffs at the Los Angeles Times that sent ripples of fear through the San Diego Union-Tribune — which shares the same owner, LA biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong — …
Slapfisted Democrats State Senate Democrat Josh Newman, recalled from office in June 2018 thanks to big money raised by San Diego Republican politico and radio star Carl DeMaio, has picked up a free meal worth …
DNA’s TJ terror Border Patrol units in San Diego and El Centro rank high on the list of entities that collected the most DNA samples from detainees last year, with San Diego gathering 44,757 and …
Toni and Rupert’s political romance Controversial right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson is out of a job, and Fox News is poorer by $787.5 million, thanks to its settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over defamation charges arising …
Shelter Island’s Bali Hai was never some little grog shop “Special Tables for Spies, Espionage Agents to View the U.S. Fleet — Binoculars furnished to U.S. Citizens only,” said a 1950s advertisement for the restaurant. …
Sara’s care package It was off to Kenya for a week starting April 8 for House Democrat Sara Jacobs, who hasn’t been wasting any time catching up with her predecessor Susan Davis in the free …
Pot and trash talking La Mesa Vice Mayor Colin Parent, CEO of self-styled pro-transit nonprofit Circulate San Diego, has of late been under the microscope for soliciting $700,000 over the past five years for Circulate …
Fire in the hold A report to Congress by the United States Government Accountability Office in the wake of the July 2020 fire that devastated the USS Bonhomme Richard has found that when it comes …
Preuss’s trolley travails UCSD’s PR honchos are well-known for frequently touting the university’s charter prep school. “The Preuss School is located on the UC San Diego campus and is led by an alumna of the …
Cookies and beer Controversial Budweiser-pitching transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney is deeply rooted in San Diego’s Republican old-boy network, reports Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post. “Her grandfather, James Mulvaney Sr., who died at age 87 …
Pradeep’s rise A shadowy network of unidentified fat cats has come up with $13 million to fund the $500,000-a-year raise awarded to UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla by the University of California’s regents on …
Sempra’s choice Now that Democrat Nathan Fletcher is resigning as a San Diego County supervisor due to the region’s latest elected official sex scandal, what will become of the million dollars or so amassed from …
Getting Gil’s goat A political committee run by the chair of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority Gil Cabrera, which emailed a hit piece attacking ex-Assembly Democrat Lori Saldana last year during her bid …
Saving Sara House Democrat Sara Jacobs, facing a possibly tough reelection challenge from conservative Republican Mayor Bill Wells of El Cajon, has dispatched one of her assistants to a conference at United Nations Headquarters in …
Police profiling Just as San Diego cops have begun a public relations push to install video spy cams on more city streetlights, word comes that the building formerly known as the San Diego Sports Arena, …
University City massacre done by developer family donor They are the crème de crème of San Diego business and political society, giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to both Democrats and Republicans, and in turn …
Spy cams for free? San Diego cops installed a sweeping network of streetlight video spy cams with little public awareness until we initially broke the story here on February 20, 2019. The resultant political pushback, …
Voteless in Chula Vista Following his November 2022 victory over Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, Republican real estate investor, manager, and longtime Chula Vista city council veteran John McCann took over as mayor of that city in …
Media shipwreck Can Downtown’s homeless woes be linked to softball lighting in Clairemont? So argues the non-profit Lucky Duck Foundation, which has bestowed its latest “Shipwreck” anti-homelessness award on the City of San Diego for …
Undercover car tags missing The County of San Diego’s management of its fleet of government vehicles by the Department of General Services has been in dangerous disarray, per a recently posted audit dated September 29, …
Rent-a-pol Turo, Inc., a controversial peer-to-peer car-sharing company based in San Francisco, gave $7500 on January 31 to the ballot measure committee run by termed-out state Senator Toni Atkins, who is seeking to become the …
Old San Diego redux Competition for donor contributions between San Diego non-profit reporting outlets could be set to reach unprecedented levels, judging from a gauntlet-throwing January 31 pitch for money by the website of San …
The messy business of abortion A La Jolla biotech mogul who bankrolled RU-486, the lucrative day-after abortion drug, looms large in a new expose by Mother Jones. According to the piece, “In 1986, a North …
Sunbreak’s second chance It didn’t take long for Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and the New York Post to pick up on a homeless opinion piece co-authored by ex-basketball pro Bill Walton, adding to growing suspicions …
Throwing Goldstones As city hall’s controversies continue to burgeon, Democratic mayor Todd Gloria has gotten his reelection paperwork in early, in the form of a January 4 candidate intention statement filed with the city clerk’s …
Rainmaker’s run-in Fresh from a $1.8 billion March 2021 buyout by Roche of his previous employer, San Diego-based GenMark Diagnostics, the company’s chief financial officer Johnny Ek signed on in with Specific Diagnostics of Mountain …
Lorena’s loot Given that traditional local news outlets suffer financial duress and the Union-Tribune is expected to go exclusively online most days of the week, the word that ex-Assembly Democrat Lorena Gonzalez has set up …
La Jolla ear boxing A torrent of hype from high-flying La Jolla biotech investment outfits like Avalon Ventures continues apace, despite a growing stream of bad news for public investors. A sad case in point: …
Wanted: homeless lobbyist As homeless people swamp the streets of San Diego, the city’s Housing Commission is preparing to spend big money for a Sacramento lobbyist, presumably to chase a windfall of homeless-related state taxpayer …
Spy cams among us San Diego, a city that for years seemed unaware of the spy cams in its midst, is again being reminded of its ever-present network of surveillance devices. The first exposure came …
VA’s shooting suicides San Diego’s Veterans Administration Health Care system has fallen short in its efforts to deal with the growing number of loaded guns in the hands of suicidal patients, according to a newly …