Lady Catarina Pietra Toumei had a Rancho Santa Fe address and attended soirées of San Diego’s Beautiful People. She claimed to be an investment relations manager, “humanitarian and philanthropist.” Then, in civil and criminal suits …
Supply-side economist Art Laffer, whose Laffer Associates was based in San Diego until 2007, was part of a California hate-fest yesterday (Nov. 18) in Austin at a meeting of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation. …
Fitch Ratings yesterday (Nov. 18) downgraded San Ysidro School District bonds: $82 million of general obligation bonds were dropped to BB+ from BBB+ and $29.1 million of certificates of participation were downgraded to BB- from …
In 2008, John Harrell was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $40.6 million in restitution to his victims. Harrell had been a leader of a group that used religious pitches to …
A suit filed in San Diego federal court on Nov. 8 says that the Baltimore-based American Breast Cancer Foundation has raised $80 million since its founding in 2003, but only 5.3 percent of that sum …
N. Arthur Astor, owner of North County Broadcasting Corp. in Carlsbad, has been in broadcasting 60 years. He owns KFSD-AM in San Diego County and sold KCEO in March. He regularly buys and sells stations, …
Michael Shames, cofounder and former head of Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN), earlier filed libel suits against UCAN and Mike Aguirre, attorney for two whistleblowers who exposed problems within UCAN. Both defendants filed anti-SLAPP (strategic …
According to real estate publications and records in Los Angeles, the home of old-time horror-movie star Bela Lugosi — purchased by David Copley in mid-2011 — has been sold. Copley bought it for $2.25 million …
Former Department of Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner revealed yesterday (Nov. 16) that he will become president and managing director of Wall Street's Warburg Pincus LLC, a private equity firm. He will report directly to the …
AtlanticCities.com has a new article shedding more light on how much the San Diego economy depends on the federal government: 10 percent of jobs are directly tied to the federal government, according to calculations by …
Richardo Adolfo Benavente III of Chula Vista, a former banker for Wells Fargo, was sentenced Wednesday, November 13, to 27 months in prison. He stole $293,000 from Wells Fargo accounts and moved the money to …
Sciencemag.org reports that compulsive gamblers may be more turned on by money than sex. This thesis emerged from the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting held November 9–13, which reportedly attracted 30,000 to the San Diego …
A federal jury in Los Angeles has unanimously agreed that J.M. Eagle, which claims to be the largest pipe manufacturer in the world, knowingly sold to government entities substandard plastic pipe used in water and …
City of San Diego employees may soon see their retiree health benefits cut significantly, according to a study by ElderBranch, an online information portal dealing with healthcare issues. Cities are underfunding employees' healthcare plans, and …
The College of Business Administration at San Diego State University announced today (Nov. 12) that for the first time in the school's history it has been named among the top 50 busines schools in all …
There was to have been a debate among three of the leading mayoral candidates tonight (Nov. 12), sponsored by the League of Women Voters and televised by UT-TV. Some time ago, Nathan Fletcher said he …
According to Law360.com, a Washington state federal judge on Monday, November 4, refused to overturn a $115 million patent-infringement lawsuit against San Diego biotech Illumina. The judge found that Syntrix Biosytems had presented sufficient evidence …
Wretched excess: Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves announced today (Nov. 11) that they will depart Turner Field in downtown Atlanta and move to a new ballpark in 2017 in suburban Cobb County. Turner Field opened …
A documentary named Blackfish exposes the dark side of holding killler whales captive to do tricks for SeaWorld audiences, says columnist Al Lewis of MarketWatch. Lewis notes that the film premiered at the Sundance Film …
David Garcia, who was fired as city manager in Chula Vista (2008) and asked to resign from the same position in Corpus Christi (2003), was all set to take the job in bankrupt Stockton, but …
According to quarterhorsenews.com, the San Diego County Animal Services Department has recommended that criminal charges be filed against two people suspected of abusing the reining horse Bella Gunnabe Gifted prior to her death Sept. 21. …
Dr. David Chao, former team doctor for the Chargers, has dropped a legal attempt to recover $2.2 million from medical device maker Smith & Nephew, according to MassDevice.com. Chao claimed in a suit in U.S. …
A new publication, the Seaside Courier and its companion website SeasideCourier.com, will attempt to cover Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad, and Oceanside, a market once covered by the North County Times. The U-T has …
The State Bar of California has suspended Kenneth Matthew Cooke of San Diego for six months and until he makes restitution of money he owes clients. According to the California Bar Journal, Cooke initially stipulated …
U.S. Navy commander Jose Luis Sanchez was arrested in Tampa today (Nov. 6) and charged with accepting prostitutes, luxury travel, and $100,000 in cash from a foreign defense contractor. Sanchez will be returned to San …
Qualcomm stock is down 4.29% in after-hours trading after the company told Bloomberg News that there is a shift in orders: customers are ordering more parts for cheaper handsets. The company reported sharply improved earnings …
The U-T this morning ran a story stating that the main claims of the candidate it favors, Kevin Faulconer, is "flawed." Actually, that claim, hawked by former mayor Jerry Sanders, is not simply flawed. It …
Fat cats are buying newspapers. Should journalists rejoice? Not yet. The nabobs’ widely varying strategies for turning around their papers have not yet been tested. Warren Buffett, the multibillionaire wizard of Omaha, has his company, …
Francine Busby, chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party, is using U-T San Diego publisher Doug Manchester's recent purchase of eight county weeklies as a fundraising strategy. Busby has sent fellow Democrats a letter …
A federal jury in Tampa has found Kenyon Lamont Williams, a San Diego tax preparer, guilty of filing false tax claims and wire fraud. In the first half of 2012, Williams discussed an interest-income scheme …
Jaime Cuadra, former chief financial officer of Oceanic Enterprises, was sentenced on November 4 to 41 months in custody for wire fraud and filing a false income tax return. According to U.S. Attorney records, Cuadra …
Stock of controversial Bridgepoint Education is down 8.62% this afternoon (Nov. 4) to $17.92. An analyst for Deutschebank lowered his recommendation to sell from hold. The analyst notes that since other for-profit universities such as …
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is authorized to report violations such as wastes of funds reported by federal government whistleblowers. In a letter to President Obama, on October 31, the office reported six cases …
According to a story in the Wall Street Journal that later appeared in the New York Times and on Bloomberg News, a consortium that includes Qualcomm, private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, and BlackBerry's cofounders, …
The San Diego law firm of Johnson & Weaver announced on November 1 that it is filing a lawsuit against San Diego biopharmaceutical firm Vical, Inc. The suit, intended to be a class action, alleges …
Doug Manchester, owner of U-T San Diego, is continuing his monopolization of San Diego print media. According to the La Jolla Patch, Manchester's U-T has purchased Mainstreet Communications, which includes the La Jolla Light, the …
Supporters of the Sacramento Kings pro basketball team are trying to get a $258 million subsidy for a new arena. The deal has been controversial because of the size of the proposed giveaway and the …
Callaway Golf has been sued by Cleveland Golf Co. for trademark infringement and unfair competition. Roger Cleveland sold his shares in the company named after him in 1990 and joined Callaway in 1996, according to …
PepperBall Technologies of San Diego (headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana) has received a sole-source $498,970 contract from the federal government's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative unit of Homeland Security, to provide pepper-ball launchers, …
According to a report today, October 31, from the Alliance for Audited Media (formerly the Audit Bureau of Circulations), U-T San Diego's average Sunday circulation dropped to 381,303 for the six months ended September 30 …
Infosys, the big outsourcing company based in India, has agreed to pay a $34 million fine for committing "systemic visa fraud and abuse" in bringing temporary workers into the United States. According to the New …
Altaf Abro claims in a court case that he was in line at a Jack in the Box in South Houston, Texas. He says that hot coffee spilled in his groin area, and he had …
Margo Schwab's San Diego Social Diary is THE source on San Diego's beautiful people. She reports in her latest edition that Papa Doug Manchester, real estate baron and owner of the U-T, will marry his …
There was to have been a debate tonight, October 24, among three mayoral candidates. It was to be sponsored by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Business Leadership Alliance. The U-T San …
It turns out that bankrupt Detroit practiced the same pension tomfoolery as San Diego, as noted in a New York Times article yesterday (Oct. 23). Detroit gave extra payments to retirees when the return on …
In a short political campaign, such as the current mayoral race, voters don't have time to check preposterous statements or to get into critical but complex issues. Example: Candidate Nathan Fletcher has been caught in …
San Diego hotel occupancy continues to lag the results of Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Francisco, according to Smith Travel Research numbers. Hotel guru Jerry Morrison of Encinitas blames this year's weak performance on …
In January of 2010, SunTrust Banks, the big financial institution in Atlanta, proudly announced that it would open a San Diego branch for its Sports and Entertainment Specialty Group, which manages finances for athletes and …
Los Angeles businessman Sunil Jiwat Mirwani was sentenced to 27 months in prison on Monday, October 21, for dodging customs duties on more than $30 million in Chinese-made apparel. Mirwani reportedly got San Diego-based businessmen …
American employers added 148,000 jobs in September, lower than economists' expectations, in a report delayed by the government shutdown. The unemployment rate dropped to a five-year 7.2% low, down from 7.3% the previous month, according …