PhotosA so-called data mining outfit with a specialty of busting short-term vacation rentals has retained ex-San Diego Republican city councilman Jim Madaffer to lobby the city for a contract to use its services, per a ...
February 23, 2021
Matt Potter has been a staff writer and editor at the San Diego Reader since 1989. He reports on politics and local institutions such as the Union-Tribune, UCSD, SDSU, and the City and County of San Diego.
He is the author of the weekly Under the Radar column.
Besides breaking the Cheetahs corruption story a year before the FBI raided the offices of the San Diego city council, he has written extensively on governance, medical ethics, and human experimentation issues at the University of California San Diego.
Some notable Potter stories:
June 1, 1989:The Egg Women (Mayor O'Connor, Joan Kroc, Helen Copley, and the Faberge eggs)
April, 25, 1991 Mayor Moves to Create Death Valley-like Wasteland in Point Loma (O'Connor house landscaping)
June 20, 1991: A Son by Any Other Name (Helen Copley's adoption of son David revealed)
Aug. 8, 1996: Welcome, GOP Delegates to San Diego, City of Shame
May 22, 1997: La Jolla Gentlemen and the Party Boy (secrets of Andrew Cunanan, gay serial killer)
Oct. 25, 2001: Did Bin Laden's Brother Lead a Secret Life in San Diego?
Nov. 29, 2001: Did Casey Gwinn Try to Get Don Bauder Fired? (City Attorney vs. tough reporter)
July 31, 2003: Fun with Ralph (Inzunza's eating companions at Dobson's)
Articles by Matt Potter
Barbara Bry's husband hangs up on reporter
San Diego's climate change plan flying blind, auditor says
San Diego's so-called Climate Action Plan, frequently ballyhooed by ex-mayor Kevin Faulconer as part of his self-styled middle-of-the-road campaign to become California governor, lacks city council accountability and risks unknown expenses for taxpayers per a ...
February 19, 2021
Trump and Hunter donors kick in for Faulconer's governor try
Another top California donor to last year's reelection campaign for Donald Trump is backing the California gubernatorial hopes of San Diego ex-mayor Kevin Faulconer. Probity International, a real estate development outfit run by Robert Zarnegin ...
February 16, 2021
Covid-19 and the infection of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt
A heavily redacted report by the Inspector General's office of the U.S. Department of Defense has critical words for the Navy and the leadership of the San Diego-based USS Theodore Roosevelt, one of two warships ...
February 8, 2021
New Yorker Al Sharpton trashes San Diego's paramedic selection
A national political figure has parachuted into San Diego's decades-long big-money war over which paramedic provider should get the city's exclusive contract, virtually guaranteeing another heated round of racially charged wheeling and dealing. "San Diego ...
February 8, 2021
San Diego Dems doing fine with political cash
Jesus is boss South Bay political powerhouse Jesus Cardenas came under fire in 2019 by then-county supervisor candidate and state senator Ben Hueso for “gaming” the San Diego Democratic Party central committee, resulting in the ...
February 3, 2021
Ash Street figures pour post-election cash into city campaign
The Cinderella story of last year's November San Diego city council runoff is that of Sean Elo-Rivera, the Ninth District candidate who beat labor candidate Kelvin Barrios, forced from the race as campaign finance chargespiled ...
February 2, 2021
La Jolla mega-mansion owner digs deep for Faulconer
Ex-San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, facing a daunting array of well-heeled Republican challengers to his bid to become governor in the face of a possible recall of Democratic incumbent Gavin Newsom, has hit the money ...
January 28, 2021
San Diego lobbying payments set to hit $1.7 million
Having been given new social justice marching orders, two lobbying firms for San Diego are set to be re-upped at a hefty six-figure cost to taxpayers by new Democratic Mayor Todd Gloria and his city ...
January 25, 2021