Innovative spending

UCSD, otherwise known as a university, is looking to become a high-dollar wheeler-dealer in the world of high technology. The tax-funded school is seeking an associate vice chancellor for “innovative alliances.” The new hire will “launch UCSD’s patenting, strategic corporate research partnerships, industry contracting, campus-wide research initiatives, new venture formation, and business development activities in exciting new directions.” …

Over at phone giant AT&T, legislative staffers for both parties picked their poison this past summer from an array of free entertainment options. Kierra Paul, a consultant to Democratic Assembly speaker Toni Atkins, got six tickets to see the Giants play in San Francisco on August 13, a gift worth $174. Anthony Zamarron, chief of staff to GOP assemblyman Rocky Chavez, went to the Ringling Brothers circus at Sacramento’s Sleep Train Arena on September 12 with three free tickets and a parking pass worth $214.35.