Gospel according to George

San Diego — San Diego city councilman George Stevens says he knows the reason for his loss to Vince Hall in March's Democratic state-assembly primary: satan did it. "I don't recall ever going through a campaign where the devil was more involved than ever before -- the mudslinging, the hit pieces, the lies that were told," Stevens told the San Diego Voice and Viewpoint. Stevens, who is a preacher and officiates at weddings and funerals when he's not otherwise occupied at city hall, attracted attention after he accepted a $3000 campaign contribution from Cheetah's, a strip club on Kearny Mesa famous for its dirty dancing. Asked if he intended to continue his political career after leaving office later this year, Stevens replied, "If I see a burning bush, yes, I will run for office again." Meantime, a call by Stevens for a boycott of the Padres to punish owner John Moores for supporting fellow University of California regent Ward Connerly's Racial Privacy initiative was widely covered by TV news but completely shut out by the Union-Tribune ... San Diego attorney Thomas Warwick, who is defending U-T publisher David Copley in Copley's latest drunk-driving case, has given $2500 to the reelection bid of District Attorney Paul Pfingst ... San Diego city councilman Jim Madaffer is the only one among his eight colleagues to report receiving a free Lindbergh Field parking pass from the Port District. He valued it at $96 ... Jerry Allen and Associates has been awarded a $75,000 contract to develop a "public art plan" for the City of San Diego. Among other chores: "Identify potential sites of public art development." Meanwhile, the firm of Kelling, Northcross, which is advising the San Diego City Council on possible ways to raise taxes, has been given an extra $35,000 to continue its study. The original contract was for $40,000.

Slave whales SeaWorld may be getting another adoptee from the Vancouver Aquarium, reports the Vancouver Sun, and animal-rights activists there aren't happy about it. Last April, Bjossa, the aquarium's last remaining killer whale, was sent south to SeaWorld but died six months later. Now the Canadians are thinking of handing over Imaq, a male Beluga whale that has fathered a calf expected in July. Beluga males are known to sometimes make trouble after their mates give birth. "At this point, we're just being careful," says aquarium vice president of operations Clint Wright. "We want to have the option of moving Imaq if it becomes necessary." That doesn't sit well with Nikki Rotmeyer of the Coalition for No Whales in Captivity, who claims the Vancouver facility is a "puppy mill" for America's marine parks. "I believe that what the aquarium is doing is perpetuating the slave trade of these captive cetaceans again."

All politics The story of why ex-Padres co-owner Larry Lucchino left that organization can finally be told. At least part of it. "My partner and I, John Moores, had six glorious, good, comfortable years. We would finish each other's sentences," Lucchino, the new Red Sox co-owner, told the Boston Globe. "For the last year we had differences of opinion on things -- ballpark issues, Major League Baseball issues, personnel issues. It wasn't comfortable. We agreed at the end of the season I would step down. So, basically, it was six great years and one bad year." Did current Padres CEO Bob Vizas have anything to do with the falling out? "I'd prefer to keep that private. We were friends and acquaintances at law school."... San Diego attorney Mike Schaefer, who recently lost his bid for the GOP nomination to be California secretary of state, has again turned his sights on Nevada. The former San Diego city councilman who has run at least 17 times before for a variety of offices, according to a count by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has decided to run for Clark County public administrator ... More bad news for the Predator, the unmanned aerial vehicle made by La Jolla's General Atomics. Defense Week reports that out of 65 Predators made, each costing $4.5 million, 22 have been lost, either by malfunction, hostile action, human error, or weather. The military is keeping a tight lid on the precise problems the drone has experienced ... Coronado Democratic assemblyman Howard Wayne has been named Assembly Parliamentarian by speaker Herb Wesson Jr.

Contributor: Matt Potter