The odds of discovering who is committing crimes against the taxpayers at San Diego’s city hall often seem tilted against the citizenry, as demonstrated by a June 26 fraud-hotline report by city auditor Eduardo Luna. …

He had nothing to do with the surprise Oscar-winning Manchester by the Sea, but ex–Union-Tribune owner and San Diego Republican kingpin Douglas Manchester, awaiting senate confirmation as Donald Trump’s ambassador to the Bahamas, has long …

Fresh from her controversial appointment by the board of supervisors, San Diego's soon-to-be District Attorney Summer Stephans took to the New York Times this month in the midst of a victory round politically orchestrated to …

Those scary noises heard around the University of California San Diego last week were just the first shots in another advance of the surveillance state, according to a June 15 memo meant to reassure campus …

The Point Loma bay-front mansion where Stephen Puetz was married in August 2015, thanks to the largesse of owner Morgan Dene Oliver, has just been sold, according to an announcement by brokers Brett Dickinson and …

Douglas Manchester is prepared to surrender day-to-day control of his real estate and investment empire if ultimately confirmed by the senate as Donald Trump's ambassador to the Bahamas, according to State Department disclosure records posted …

Awaiting Senate confirmation as the nation's next ambassador to the Bahamas, known for its tax-sheltering proclivities, Doug Manchester, ex-publisher of the Union-Tribune and million-dollar donor to president Donald Trump's January inaugural festivities, can boast a …

Employees of the San Diego Unified School District have been improperly dipping into student funds for personal food money, says a June 1 report to superintendent Cindy Marten from Gamy Rayburn, the district’s interim chief …

San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, whose hopes for statewide office took a big hit from this month’s city-council rejection of his plan for a hurry-up $5 million November special election on SoccerCity and a hotel …

Just as the San Diego city council was disposing of the controversial SoccerCity development in Mission Valley on Monday, June 20, the California State University system, proprietor of San Diego State, issued a call for …

Confirming word first reported here May 30, Stephen Puetz, controversial chief of staff to San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, is departing his job at city hall for a gig with Missouri-based political consultant Axiom Strategies. …

La Jolla’s Craig Venter, the genomic giant who gets regular positive write-ups in his hometown Union-Tribune, was spared mention in the paper when it was announced two weeks ago that his Human Longevity, Inc. was …

Disappearing ink on thermal vanishing paper and a clueless janitor have been blamed for missing records at the San Diego Unified School District that a recent audit says could represent only the tip of a …

California’s taxpayer-funded $3 billion stem cell research program, officially known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, is spending money at the rate of $22,000 an hour, and expected to run out of cash in …

Kevin Faulconer has ripped the cover of gentility from the obscure practice of tax-fueled mayoral favor-giving in exchange for city council votes, employed over the years to boost the political careers of council members, including …

As intrigue grows at San Diego city hall regarding backdoor wheeling and dealing of Republican mayor Kevin Faulconer and members of the San Diego city council over the timing of the so-called SoccerCity ballot measure …

So-called e-cigarettes have been increasingly making their way into San Diego from foreign ports, according to a May 24 audit by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, raising possible dangers for unwary users. “E-cigarette liquid — …

As a retiree, San Diego State University’s former vice president of business and financial affairs Sally Roush has done well by the taxpayer-funded state university system. After stepping down from her $301,957 a year position …

The jury is still out on the ultimate fate of La Jolla hedge-fund maven Mike Stone’s attempt to wrest Qualcomm Stadium and its acreage away from public ownership, but the stock price of another of …

As a city council vote draws nigh for getting taxpayers to fund a $5 million special November election sought by the city's hotel moguls and backers of SoccerCity — a plan to privatize a big …

The San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce has agreed to fork over a $5000 penalty to settle charges by the city’s ethics commission that it failed to report big money spent on a befuddling political …

With the approach of a city-council vote on whether to stage a $5 million special election this coming November for SoccerCity developers and mayor Kevin Faulconer’s hotel-tax hike, his honor’s top political brains are said …

With Washington abuzz over charges that Russian agents mucked about in American politics during last year’s presidential election, the San Diego Diplomacy Council is going straight to the horse’s mouth for another take on the …

With fingers pointing to inside wheeling and dealing between Republican San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer and a group of La Jolla hedge fund mavens promoting the transfer of Qualcomm Stadium to themselves for a massive …

San Diego–based Sempra Energy, whose corps of lobbyists regularly hand out food-and-drink freebies to California legislators and their staffers, took a bit of a break during the first three months of this year, spending just …

Washington’s always-on political intrigue may have its peculiar charms, but last month ranking aides for San Diego House members Darrell Issa of the GOP and Democrat Juan Vargas took off for the 24-hour bright lights …

Congressman Duncan Hunter continues to grapple with a series of Union-Tribune exposés regarding the propriety of his campaign spending in Las Vegas, including an $896 January 11 tab at the Cosmopolitan Hotel’s main bar, “where …

A tsunami of political cash — driven by two measures that appear headed for a special election in November — has grown even bigger, thanks to $250,000 from Fifth Avenue Landing, LLC, the partnership battling …

Housing prices spiral ever upwards and city streets are overwhelmed by unsheltered vagrants, but big money sports venues craved by the politically-connected super-rich continue to dominate the covert agenda at San Diego's city hall. Of …

Travel and entertainment spending by the department of surgery at UCSD billed to so-called Express Cards handed out to employees for official spending has caught the attention of California state auditors, resulting in the implementation …

La Jolla public affairs honcho Bill Bold, long the chief strategist of Qualcomm’s efforts to increase the number of so-called H-1B visas to allow more foreign nationals into the country to perform engineering work for …

As San Diego’s layoff-shrunken corps of reporters continues missing in action on big political stories of late, a local nonprofit, donor-backed news-and-opinion website has gone up on LinkedIn, seeking a new six-figure executive in charge …

The bomb bay doors of San Diego politics have opened on FS Investors and Mike Stone, the former Wall Street hedge fund maven seeking to grab Qualcomm Stadium, with collateral damage for the higher-office ambitions …

Mega-millionaire La Jollan Linden Blue, co-owner of General Atomics, has long been a loyal Republican donor, kicking in hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to support party politicos from would-be San Diego GOP …

State senator Toni Atkins had plenty of food, drink, and travel in 2016, thanks to the multitudinous dollars of special interests. Her personal financial report filed for last year shows she received greater than $100,000 …

Republican San Diego city councilwoman Lorie Zapf was first elected in 2010 to represent District 6. She was reelected in June 2014 from District 2 after her house ended up there as a result of …

It's been a decade-long slog for mega-millionaire developer and onetime Union-Tribune publisher Doug Manchester's controversial Navy Broadway complex at the foot of Broadway. Project foes vowed that it would never get built, citing its forbidding …

The widely expected coronation of Rancho Santa Fe Republican Summer Stephan as the county's next district attorney, courtesy of the GOP board of supervisors, is rapidly approaching. Meanwhile, the most recently elected member of the …

Ex-Republican assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, who turned independent and then Democrat while placing third in two bids to become San Diego’s mayor, continues to ramp up an apparent try for the county supervisor’s seat being vacated …

With what some are referring to as the pending anointment of Summer Stephan as successor to Republican district attorney Bonnie Dumanis comes conflict-of-interest questions involving at least one member of the county board of supervisors. …

The salary of Dean Dwyer, chief executive of the David C. Copley Foundation, has been holding steady, from $228,960, plus benefits of $29,629 in 2014, to $230,000 in pay and $29,677 in benefits as of …

They are the crème de crème of San Diego business and political society, giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to both Democrats and Republicans, and in turn receiving development permits for hundreds of upscale apartment …

The San Diego Padres, perennial laggards on the playing field, are getting millions of dollars in cash and a secretive deal for discounted medical care from UCSD as part of a costly endorsement and promotional …

San Diego State University’s KPBS broadcasting operation is suddenly slamming the door on website comments, some of which have questioned the political direction of the station whose newsroom is named after billionaire Democrat contributor Irwin …

Back in July 2011, after Beverly Hills vulture capitalist Tom Gores bought the Union-Tribune from an ailing David Copley, ending decades of local ownership, the paper’s new editor Jeff Light announced he had come up …

The battle between a Wall Street hedge fund multimillionaire from La Jolla and two old-line developers over the destiny of Qualcomm Stadium is looking more formidable than ever. On Thursday April 13, a political committee …

Former San Diego city manager Jack McGrory, controversial for his role in the costly downtown Padres stadium project on behalf of mega-millionaire John Moores and later a big-time real estate developer in his own right, …

The ongoing battle over whether to turn over the 165-acre, publicly owned Qualcomm Stadium site to a group of La Jolla hedge-fund managers seeking to develop a soccer stadium and commercial complex has been very …

San Diego’s Qualcomm, Inc., cofounded by La Jolla Democratic billionaire Irwin Jacobs, has lobbied long and hard to greatly increase so-called H-1B visas, the entry permits issued by the federal government, allowing lower-wage foreign engineers …

The City of San Diego’s communications department, already chock full of public relations hands speaking favorably of Republican mayor Kevin Faulconer (himself an ex-PR man), is looking for more of the same. The new employees, …