inewsource.com

“Next month, we will welcome Philip Salata to the reporting team as a member of the California Local News Fellowship’s first cohort,” reads an August 26 online post by inewsource.com. “Made possible through $25 million in state funding and a new state law, the fellowship, run by UC Berkeley Journalism, will provide two-year reporting fellowships to 120 early career journalists over the next five years.

Torch passing

The journalism power-shift away from the once-influential San Diego Union-Tribune — of late handed off to Florida-based vulture investing outfit Alden Global Capital by LA Times billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong on unrevealed terms — continues apace, with state taxpayers picking up part of the tab. Soon after the turnover to Alden was announced, U-T environmental writer Joshua Emerson Smith took one of Alden’s proffered buyouts and departed the paper to an uncertain future.

“Joshua worked as an enterprise reporter with a focus on the environment for The San Diego Union-Tribune between 2015 and 2023,” notes the reporter’s bio that remains on the U-T’s website, sounding more like an obit than a profile. “He wrote about everything from public transit and housing to climate change, drought and wildfire. He won numerous statewide journalism awards, unpacking complex, often political issues using data analysis and vivid storytelling.”

Brian Maienschein: man with a long-term plan.

The opening has given San Diego State University, which runs a growing tax-funded KPBS public broadcasting operation and hosts non-profit Inewsource, another source of enterprise reporting, a chance to further grow its already-sizable turf. “Next month, we will welcome Philip Salata to the reporting team as a member of the California Local News Fellowship’s first cohort,” reads an August 26 online post by inewsource.com. “Made possible through $25 million in state funding and a new state law, the fellowship, run by UC Berkeley Journalism, will provide two-year reporting fellowships to 120 early career journalists over the next five years. The fellows will be placed in newsrooms across California.

Adds the writeup: “Philip will report on the environment and energy in San Diego and Imperial counties. He recently finished his master’s degree at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism where he was managing editor of USC Annenberg Media, a multiplatform news publication. Why environmental coverage, you may ask. For starters, the impacts of climate change are all around us, intersecting with just about every aspect of our lives. Extreme heat and drought often lead to poor public health outcomes, especially for the most vulnerable of our neighbors. So do the activities of humans. Increasingly intense rain events have a way of exposing the cracks in our infrastructure: from overwhelmed sewer lines and flooded roadways to leaky roofs in our homes.” ...Assembly Democrat Brian Maienschein, in the race for San Diego City Attorney next year, has picked up some big cash for his other campaign, Maienschein for Attorney General 2030. On July 26, according to a disclosure filing of August 6, the Viejas Tribal Account came up with $6000 for the AG campaign. Days later, on August 17, the Assembly’s Fentanyl, Opioid Addiction and Overdose Prevention select committee. headed by Assembly Democrat Matt Haney of San Francisco, held hearings about a burgeoning fentanyl crisis on the Viejas reservation. “We’ve had...alcohol and drug issues (here) my whole life, but looking into the eyes of a meth addict versus a fentanyl addict is way different,” Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians Chairman John Christman told the committee, per a Union-Tribune account.

“Christman said he has witnessed people from outside the community walking onto the reservation to sell drugs. Because California is a Public Law 280 state, the tribe doesn’t have jurisdiction over criminal activity that occurs on its territory. As a result, its security force can only observe and report what it sees, and often the drug dealers are able to get away before the sheriff’s department arrives,” the U-T reported.

Electric rate hikes

An August 29 report by California State Auditor Grant Parks brings more bad news about the high cost of power from San Diego Gas & Electric, owned by San Diego-based utility giant Sempra Energy. “Customers and the media have recently raised concerns about SDG&E’s high electricity and gas rates in particular. SDG&E has the highest electricity rate of the large investor-owned utilities in California and, as of March 2023, more than 25 percent of SDG&E customers were more than 30 days behind on paying their utility bills.”

Explains the study, “In any given year, a utility’s actual rate of [profit] may be higher or lower than the rate the [California Public Utilities Commission] authorized, depending in part on how the utility manages its operations and costs.” But, the audit says, “In nine of the last 10 years, SDG&E’s actual rate of return was higher than its authorized rate of return — while PG&E and SCE achieved the same result only two or three times — raising questions about the accuracy of SDG&E’s forecasted costs. For example, the CPUC had authorized 7.55 percent as the rate of return for SDG&E during 2020, but SDG&E’s actual rate of return was 9.1 percent during that year.”

Andy Hanau audits the naughties.

The audit goes on to blame customers for some of the hike: “Another trend causing electricity rate increases is the reduction in electricity sales revenue that results from an increasing number of utility customers installing solar power systems, thus decreasing the amount of electricity they need to purchase. CPUC data shows that about 15 percent of SDG&E customers and about 7 and 10 percent of SCE and PG&E customers, respectively, have adopted solar power. With less electricity sales to cover the fixed costs of providing electricity, utilities have had to request and obtain the CPUC’s approval to require customers to pay higher rates.”

Wildfires also play a role, per the audit. “All three electric utilities have increased their spending on wildfire mitigation and natural disaster insurance. Further, some electric utilities’ electricity sales have fallen as more of their customers have begun generating power from their own solar power systems, particularly for SDG&E...

San Diego City Auditor Andy Hanau and his investigators have gone after a raft of presumed peccadillos committed by city staffers, a July 11 fraud hotline report shows. “An allegation of security issues at a City facility was investigated and determined to be substantiated,” says a June 7 log entry. In an April 13 case, “An allegation of misuse of a City vehicle was investigated and determined to be substantiated.” The same day, “An allegation of waste related to slow and underperforming software in a City department was investigated and determined to be substantiated. The department took corrective action to ensure that the computer systems’ software and hardware will be upgraded and updated appropriately.” No other details are provided for any of the cases.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

The Reader offers $25 for news tips published in this column. Call our voice mail at 619-235-3000, ext. 440, or sandiegoreader.com/staff/matt-potter/contact/.