A bitter media war is raging in San Diego’s gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community. The battle pits San Diego Gay and Lesbian News, an online operation that is less than a year old, against Gay and Lesbian Times, …

‘Japan looks like a slow-moving train wreck,” says A. Gary Shilling, New Jersey–based economist who in 1988 was almost alone in predicting that the Japanese bubble would burst. But with the euro zone falling apart …

They’re scrimping in PortugalRetrenching in SpainParsimonious in ItalyIn San Diego — insane Europe talks frugalityJapan’s praising thriftEven Greece lauds austeritySan Diegans get stiffed (apologies to the Kingston Trio) Yes, the frugal horn is blowing around …

Banks and companies commit massive fraud at will. Until recently, regulators have just looked the other way. Corporate lobbyists have greased the palms of politicians of both parties, who have passed legislation sheltering plutocratic thievery. …

On May 4, PBS’s Frontline show interviewed a former recruiter for Ashford University, the online college that is part of San Diego’s newest corporate darling, Bridgepoint Education. She complained about the pressure to enroll students. …

It’s true: God did tilt the world on its axis, and all the nuts rolled into Southern California. Proof: entrepreneurs in Los Angeles are discussing a billion-dollar retractable-roof football stadium downtown. Not to be out-loose-screwed, …

Fore!! Callaway Golf — the big maker of golf clubs, balls, and other accoutrements — has hit an errant shot that may plunk its shareholders on the head. The blog Footnoted.org says Callaway is “taking …

In the financial industry, deregulation has been a disaster. So has regulation. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. In the past decade, the big Wall Street banks have concocted one highly complex swindle …

The young and still-untamed St. Augustine supposedly said it: “Oh God, make me chaste, but not yet.” That should be the City of San Diego’s slogan. In February of 2008, independent budget analyst Andrea Tevlin, …

Those euro-zone countries get everything backward — working to live instead of living to work. That’s what we smug Americans think. Take Greece. It has promised too much too soon to its pensioners, whose average …

Short sellers are getting short shrift at a time they should be getting tall praise. They borrow a stock, sell it, and hope to replace the borrowed shares later at a lower price. They make …

On or about October 17, 2008, Police Chief William Lansdowne was summoned to the office of an irate Mayor Jerry Sanders. The mayor wanted to know how a criminal investigative report coauthored by one of …

Copley Press sold the Union-Tribune cheap but for good reasons: it was doing even worse than other ailing metro newspapers. Now the company, the last remnant of the old newspaper empire, is selling the rest …

On April 23, 2007, two San Diego investigators, Gerald Cook of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Dan Vile of the San Diego Police Department, turned in a criminal investigation of wrongdoing in a local …

If a railbird tout gives you a tip on a horse, and you learn that three of the nag’s legs are so fragile they will likely break during the race, you will keep your money …

The classic description of a city living off personal services, and bringing in too little outside money through activities such as manufacturing, is “a bunch of people doing each other’s laundry.” Increasingly, that describes San …

People need money and water. Just ask Borrego Springs, the San Diego County desert town of only 2600 year-round residents. Through the years, it has endured failures of its major businesses, as entrepreneurs have run …

In his State of the City speech on January 13, Mayor Jerry Sanders devoted 434 words to the possibility of taxpayers shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars for a subsidized Chargers stadium and 174 …

It’s Big Lie season again. Super Lie. Specifically, Super Bowl Lie. It’s that giddy time of the year when the National Football League trots out its claim that the city that hosts the Super Bowl …

Perhaps you are comforted believing that the U.S. government, Federal Reserve, and Wall Street are all working assiduously to provide you with a job. Ha ha ha ha. Not so. The Federal Reserve, our central …

Last year, the San Diego economy did poorly, although it was picking up a bit in the final several months. This year, it should do moderately better. Alan Gin, economist at the University of San …

‘If I am guilty of anything, it’s of being a good lawyer and advocating for the rights of the disabled,” proclaims Lynn Hubbard III of Chico, who has filed, by his own reckoning, 2000 lawsuits …

The young son of a prominent government official boasted to his father that he had saved 25 cents by walking home instead of taking the bus. “Tomorrow, save $10 by not taking a taxi,” cracked …

Some enterprises signal what’s going on inside by hanging a red light outside. Mayor Jerry Sanders has revealed what’s going on inside his administration by setting up a group of committees to carry out his …

Did Mayor Jerry Sanders get his money out of a scandal-ridden private equity group whose chief executive has filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy? It’s an intriguing question. For the past several years, Sanders has …

Life should be peaceful at La Jolla Farms, that tony area of 100 superluxury homes adjacent to Torrey Pines State Park.But war has broken out there. One resident controls a local biotech. A former resident …

This Thanksgiving, some Americans will be eating turducken, a turkey stuffed with duck that is in turn stuffed with chicken. It started commercially in Louisiana’s Cajun country about 25 years ago, spread to much of …

To Be Thankful Requires Humility — John Brizzolara This Year, We’re Staying Local — Pamela Hunt-Cloyd Eat What the Politicians Feed You — Don Bauder This Is How It’s Supposed to Be — Barbarella Thanksgiving: …

After an agonizing wait of more than 40 years, science may come up with a treatment for lupus. But the two companiesworking together on the promising development are not based in San Diego County. At …

The pay of American top corporate executives is obscene. About the only people who don’t agree with that statement are the executives themselves. In 1980, chief executives made 42 times what the average worker made. …

J. David “Jerry” Dominelli is famed in San Diego lore for one thing: his 1980s Ponzi scheme that bilked Southern Californians of $80 million. A full 24 years after Dominelli was sentenced to prison, and …

Economists say the United States should export its expertise. Scam Diego is doing just that. A couple of rascals who honed their skills in San Diego are now polishing them in other cities. Alfred Louis …

Everybody knows that Democrats and Republicans are barely speaking these days. But two political scientists at the University of California at San Diego are statistically quantifying this mutual contempt: “Political polarization is at a post–Civil …

Comic Woody Allen once postulated that murderers should be given the death penalty before they commit the crime, thus sparing the life of the victim. That’s typical of Woody’s wild imagination, but it’s no wilder …

In San Diego, those who do good do not do well — from an income standpoint, that is. The professions devoted to helping people down on their luck, such as social work, are not at …

The world’s experts on all topics are huddling in Washington, D.C. One chap proclaims that he is the world’s ranking expert on goldfish. Inquires a layman, “Okay, how do you tell a male goldfish from …

Experts say the San Diego Chargers could make the Super Bowl this year. However, the team’s desire to build a new stadium in San Diego could be — well, economically inSuperable. The team now plays …

Wall Street absolutely loves the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC). That’s a major reason why backcountry folks may have to swallow San Diego Gas & Electric’s loony scheme to shut off those rural residents’ power …

Back in 1998, then–Padres majority owner John Moores promised that if taxpayers would pour more than $300 million into a ballpark, he would produce teams that were competitive. Maybe he meant that he could produce …

How would you like to buy a whole year’s home-delivery subscription to the Union-Tribune, Thursday through Sunday,for $29.95? That’s particularly enticing, because if you want only six months of the same thing, you pay more …

It wasn’t so long ago that the Convention and Visitors Bureau, hotel marketers, and San Diego ad agencies “would utilize Tijuana in advertising,” recalls Jack Giacomini, partner in Hotel Managers Group and head of the …

Recessions always bring out the vultures, and these days they are a step ahead of technological trends, as scam haven San Diego is learning once again. Con artists claim they can fix your credit, rescue …

"Looking better dead than alive.” Morticians boast of it. So do Mafia hit men. Now, it appears, holders of some corporate bonds are secretly putting their faith in that declaration. Because of a dubious kind …

There is no question that executives at Platinum Equity won’t back down from a fight. The Beverly Hills–based buyout firm, which is willing to purchase sick companies in ailing industries, this spring bought the Union-Tribune …

If you go to the website of the Los Angeles law firm of Lavely & Singer and click the bio of cofounder Martin Singer, you find a Los Angeles Magazine article in which Singer is …

Visitors to downtown hotels are a piddling few. Residents of downtown condos are a piddling few. But that won’t stop the establishment from diddling taxpayers for more downtown development — a travesty because outlying parks, …

As the recession grinds on, how much will Generation X and Generation Y spend? Will it be Z, as in zilch? It looks that way for some San Diego companies that appeal to the youth …

How do you rebalance when the economy is so unbalanced? That is the question facing all money managers and particularly the fiduciaries that run pension funds for employees. Periodically — say, once a year — …

The old aphorism “penny wise, pound foolish” has been revised to “penny-stock wise guys get pounded.” San Diego has reams of penny stocks: don’t get foolish. Actually, the Securities and Exchange Commission defines a penny …

The sugar daddies that could be expected to bankroll the convention center expansion are on the sidelines. But watch out: the backers of the proposed expansion are likely to twist statistics and distort reality to …