Dam Leaks

San Diego — Anyone living downriver from the Lake Hodges Dam, just north of Rancho Bernardo, might wish to take note. The City of San Diego is spending "not-to-exceed" $159,026 on a consultant who is supposed to find out whether "the foundation of the dam could potentially erode during a Probable Maximum Flood event and compromise the stability of the dam." The study, to be done by the URS Corporation, was requested by the state's Division of Dam Safety. ... Recent donors to San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders's privatization and city-pension-limit measures, which are opposed by big labor, include Pauline Foster. She's the widow of Stan Foster, the wealthy local developer whose pro-union leanings were such that he was honored -- with the backing of the labor council -- by having Kearny High's construction school named the Stanley E. Foster Construction Tech Academy. She gave $500. The big downtown law firm of Luce, Forward, which in the past has handled such outsourced assignments as the almost decade-long courtroom battle to expand Qualcomm Stadium for the Chargers, came up with $2500, as did American Medical Response, the Colorado-based firm that has the city's ambulance contract. ... Ex-governor Jerry Brown, the termed-out Oakland mayor running for state attorney general, has been picking up campaign cash from a variety of local gambling interests. Oceanside's Ocean's Eleven Casino gave him $5600; Alpine's Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians contributed $2000; and the Pala Band of Mission Indians gave $5000. Not surprisingly, lawyers were also big givers: Bill Lerach and associates gave a total of $35,350, and Luce, Forward and its workers kicked in $6000.