Watching the hound dog

After a delay, San Diego State University, in response to a request under the state’s Public Records Act, has turned over the contract between itself and the nonprofit Watchdog Institute, the experiment in investigative reporting overseen by former Union-Tribune editor Lorie Hearn. SDSU is waiving $263.25 a month in rent and a $157.95 monthly utility bill to house what the contract calls an “instructional research facility” of 175.5 square feet. In return, the university will receive a number of services from the institute, which will make available its “databases to students in the School of Journalism & Media Studies for their course work,” the October 7 contract says. The institute will also “offer internships to journalism students,” “invite the annual conference of Investigative Reporters and Editors to San Diego,” and bring “data boot camps to SDSU for advanced journalism training.”

Hearn has a deal to sell stories developed by the institute to the U-T. Getting financial details about the deal between the institute and the newspaper will require its own bit of investigative reporting, since the institute hasn’t shared them with the public. …Ex-San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre’s top honcho has found a new job as county counsel for Glenn County, in the San Joaquin Valley north of Sacramento. Before working for Aguirre, Huston T. Carlyle Jr. was GOP Gov. George Deukmejian's director of the Office of Planning and Research and assistant city attorney in San Bernardino.