Mark Twain defined a gold mine as a hole in the ground with a liar on the top. Meet William Ison. He pleaded guilty yesterday (August 27) to wooing investors into a private placement program …

Holli Dawn Coulman yesterday (August 27) pleaded guilty to defrauding Hewlett-Packard of almost $1 million between 2008 and 2012. She was an executive assistant to a senior vice president of a San Diego branch of …

On April 15, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged that Total Wealth Management, a San Diego investment firm headed by Jacob Cooper, had taken kickbacks without informing its clients. The firm's regular KOGO radio …

Texas governor Rick Perry touts low taxes and wages, but the companies wanting brains stay in California.

A 28-foot power boat listed in the name of Restaurant Events, Inc., the company owned by Katherine Stuart, wife of mayor Kevin Faulconer, has been sold. Wayne C. Jones Yacht & Ship Brokerage reported online …

State senator Jerry Hill, a Democrat of San Mateo, has introduced a bill that would require the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to conform to state open-meeting laws. The roots of this proposed bill are …

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for southern Napa today (Aug. 24). A temblor registering 6.0 hit at 3:20 this morning. Power has been knocked out to thousands of people in the area. …

The ongoing drought in the Western United States has caused so much groundwater loss that the earth has risen 0.16 inch on average in the past 18 months — up to 0.6 inch in the …

The Medical Board of California's Department of Consumer Affairs has brought an accusation against Niloufer Dennis, M.D., who practices obstetrics and gynecology and has offices in Kearny Mesa and El Cajon, according to an online …

San Diego-based Best Beverage Company has had its concessions license tentatively revoked by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Last year, the company was concessionaire to the Lockn' Festival in Nelson County. There were …

Robert William Herman, formerly a director of the North America Sales Department of Qualcomm, pleaded guilty today (August 21) to insider trading. Herman was secretly told by his Qualcomm supervisor that the company was contemplating …

NerdWallet, an organization that keeps statistics on metropolitan areas, says that Chula Vista is the 12th best city in the nation in which working parents can raise children. The study was done in conjunction with …

Should you buy or rent a home in San Diego? Neither, if you look at such a decision from an economic perspective. According to Zillow.com, the share of median income needed to buy a home …

Rubio's, the Carlsbad-based Mexican fast-food chain, on August 11 asked the Federal Communications Commission to clarify Telephone Consumer Protection Act applicability. In 1991, the federal government passed the act to protect people against pestiferous telephone …

La Bastide, a corporation which owns the tony Tapenade Restaurant, has sued the owner of a La Jolla shopping center on which La Jolla Music Society plans to build a $40 million performing arts center. …

Superior Court judge Ronald Prager today (Aug. 15) threw out remaining claims that Michael Shames, former head of Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN), filed against whistle-blower David Peffer and Peffer's lawyer, Mike Aguirre. Earlier, Prager …

The San Diego County unemployment rate rose to 6.6 percent in July, up from a revised 6.1 percent in June. County jobs declined by 5,900 in the month, mainly because a loss of 12,700 government …

The September edition of Opera News, the magazine for opera lovers published by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, has a long, sizzling investigative piece on the demise and (hopefully) rebirth of San Diego Opera. Ian Campbell, …

On the front page of today's (August 14) Wall Street Journal is a story titled, "Facing a Pension Shortfall, San Diego Dials Up the Risk." The article tells how the county's pension fund, only 79 …

People 35 to 49 years old — Gen-Xers — have been leaving San Diego and taking their children along, notes Kelly Cunningham, economist for the National University System Institute for Policy Research. One reason is …

Stock of SeaWorld Entertainment has plunged 31.51 percent this morning (August 13) to $19.18. Earnings per share in the second quarter were 43 cents, down from the 59 cents Wall Street analysts expected. Revenue was …

Some politicians tell us corporations are people. Yeah — greedy people. Two years ago, one poll showed that 83 percent of people — real people — believe that companies should pursue their business goals while …

Song Shen Zhen was sentenced to a year in custody and told to pay $120,500 to the Mexican environmental protection agency today (Aug. 11). Last year, Zhen had been caught smuggling dried Totoaba bladders — …

San Diego's endurance events — marathons, open-water swims, triathlons, 5ks, and mud-runs — are bringing in money, according to a study by the National University System Institute for Policy Research. Last year, more than 134,000 …

Since the convention-center expansion was thumbed down by the appellate court, the corporate-welfare crowd — particularly the Chargers and U-T San Diego — has switched to touting a combined football stadium/convention center. "It's going from …

The Mexican press reported this past weekend that Sempra Energy is under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security. Imagen del Golfo, a news agency in Veracruz, reported that Sempra is being investigated for corruption, …

San Diego's Comic-Con has sent a cease and desist order to Salt Lake City Comic Con. According to Salt Lake's papers, the Tribune and Deseret News, Salt Lake has no intention of backing down. It …

An enlightening book, In Bed with Wall Street: The Conspiracy Crippling Our Global Economy, has been published by Palgrave Macmillan. The thesis is that Wall Street, its regulators, and politicians conspire together for their own …

Stock of San Diego's Jack in the Box fast-food chain leapt 10.46% today (Aug. 7) to $61.25. The company, bolstered by booming sales of late-night and breakfast offerings, reported third-quarter earnings of 65 cents a …

A Securities and Exchange Commission administrative-law judge yesterday (Aug. 5) banned Ian O. Mausner and Douglas F. Drennan from the securities business. Mausner, was a cofounder and chief executive officer of J.S. Oliver, an investment …

Adam Lynch, known as "the Ho-Hum Bandit" for the nonchalant way he robbed San Diego banks in 2010, was sentenced today (Aug. 4) to an additional 70 months in prison. This brings his total sentence …

The financial-planning media are abuzz about the departure of San Diegan Derek Bruton from LPL Financial, which has headquarters in San Diego and Boston, and has 17,000 financial advisers under its wing. Publications such as …

The word is getting around town on the resignation of nationally known urban planner Bill Fulton after slightly more than a year on the job. "He had very little support from the mayor and there …

San Diego's planning director, Bill Fulton, has resigned, effective August 30. Fulton was brought in by ex-mayor Bob Filner in June of last year to head the planning department, which had been dismantled by former …

The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday (July 31) announced an agreement by which Jason D. Huntley of San Diego will be banned from the securities business for five years. Huntley agreed to the judgment without …

The California Public Utilities Commission late today (July 31) released a report that is devastating to both Southern California Edison and its protector, the commission. The U-T today ran a story about the CPUC's refusal …

The American Bird Conservancy has asked the National Football League to modify plans for the soon-to-be-built Minnesota Vikings stadium. It will feature large expanses of glass that will kill thousands of birds over time, says …

This week, two events affecting Pacific Gas & Electric, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and CPUC president Michael Peevey, have ignited a firestorm of justifiable indignation. First, the City of San Bruno managed to …

The Federal Trade Commission and the State of Connecticut have fined three online ticket resellers $1.4 million for deceptive advertising. One of the companies, SecureBoxOffice, is run out of San Diego by James Moran. SecureBoxOffice …

Doug Manchester, who intends to build a long-delayed hotel in Austin, is putting on a glitzy fundraiser for Greg Abbott, the Republican who is running for Texas governor against Democrat Wendy Davis. Manchester and his …

City Auditor Eduardo Luna was promised he would be independent. But after stepping on toes of the downtown crowd, he is catching flak.

Tonight (July 29), the board of La Jolla Tennis Club suspended its former president, Phifer Crute, until January of 2016. She was earlier deposed as president — a post she did not hold long. Crute …

The city council today, (July 29) by a 7-1 vote, approved spending taxpayer money up to $150,000 to pay city attorney Jan Goldsmith's legal bills. The lawsuit against Goldsmith forces him to reveal the contents …

Movoto.com, a real estate research outfit, has culled 2010 census data to rank the 50 snobbiest small cities (population 45,000 to 65,000). What counts is highest median household income, highest median home values, largest percentage …

WalletHub, which compiles economic and demographic statistics on American cities, finds that California cities, including San Diego, have recovered from the Great Recession more slowly than other American cities. The company looks at a number …

The headline in a New York Times story this morning (July 28) is "Large Crowds Spend Little at Comic-Con." The story — written by two reporters with help from a third — quotes a panelist …

The publication SFGate revealed yesterday (July 26) just how cozy officials of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) are with the utilities they are supposed to regulate. The City of San Bruno, which suffered a …

Bridgepoint Education announced today (Jan. 25) that the Massachusetts attorney general is investigating whether the company's business practices comply with the state's consumer protection laws. Bridgepoint recently settled with Iowa for $7.25 million and is …

Natividad Lara "Nate" Cervantes, the so-called "Godfather" of Camp Pendleton, was sentenced to two years in prison today (July 25) for accepting more than $100,000 in bribes from contractors seeking millions of dollars of military …

Yesterday (July 24), attorney Mike Aguirre filed a suit against governor Jerry Brown, complaining that he may have violated the California Public Records Act by refusing to reveal any communications he had on the termination …