The newspaper business, not to mention the art world, has come to this: a former reporter and editor with the San Francisco Chronicle and copy editor with the New York Times turned performance artist has …

Locked in a tight battle to save his congressional seat in a newly redrawn district, San Diego Republican congressman Brian Bilbray was featured in a fundraising invitation last month that reminisced about the good old …

Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, and the date marks an anniversary that some political insiders say may signify bad news for transparency at San Diego’s city hall. It was one year ago tomorrow that the …

The true source of the bulk of a $15,000 contribution given to the 2014 reelection bid of Democratic governor Jerry Brown by the Thoroughbred Owners of California PAC has finally been revealed. As we reported …

The 2012 election season is quickly shaping up as one of the busiest in recent years, and by all indications, San Diego political consultants have just begun to rake in big bucks from a variety …

The Downtown San Diego Partnership, a pro-redevelopment lobbying group run by Kris Michell, ex–chief of staff to GOP mayors Susan Golding and Jerry Sanders, quietly settled up with the City’s Ethics Commission last month. Seems …

California Strategies, the Sacramento-based lobbying outfit run by Bob White, ex-aide to former San Diego mayor and California governor Pete Wilson, was very busy at San Diego city hall during the final quarter of 2011, …

San Diego County supervisor Dianne Jacob has been busy trading stock and options in high-flying Apple, Inc., according to her recently filed personal economic interest report. On January 19 of last year, the supervisor unloaded …

Lawyer and Del Mar mayor Carl Hilliard, now running for third district county supervisor in a crowded field that includes Steve Danon, aide to GOP congressman Brian Bilbray, and Democratic Solana Beach deputy mayor Dave …

San Diego State University president Stephen Weber received total compensation of $306,856 during 2011, the year he retired, according to a database of state salaries recently posted online by the Sacramento Bee and confirmed by …

Over the years, Democratic congresswoman Susan Davis has traveled around the world many times and back on field trips paid for by the nonprofit Aspen Institute. Last year alone, she and husband Steve visited Barcelona, …

Democratic governor Jerry Brown continues to pick up San Diego money for his various causes. Among the latest big donors: software maker Intuit, with $20,000 to Brown’s 2014 reelection campaign, and the Barona Band of …

San Diego Democratic assemblywoman Toni Atkins amended her year-end campaign filing last week to include a previously omitted in-kind contribution: $2650 on July 16 for use of the Petco Park skybox belonging to the Sycuan …

It’s time again for cooking with Susan Davis, that semi-regular event for which the Democratic congresswoman from San Diego flings open the doors to her D.C. home and whips up custom omelets for a cadre …

Who was the highest-paid employee at the University of California San Diego in 2010? Not chancellor Marye Anne Fox, at a mere $387,886. Nor Edward Babakanian, chief information officer for the university’s health sciences division, …

San Diego county supervisor Greg Cox, who so far has not attracted any opponents in his First District reelection bid this year, is piling up campaign money at a prodigious pace, reportedly in order to …

More and more these days, political committees are taking on a life of their own, outlasting the campaigns they were created for by years and raking in thousands of dollars in contributions on behalf of …

San Diego–based Emissary Relations, LLC, was a big winner in last year’s local political-consulting derby, getting a total of $49,000 from GOP assemblyman Nathan Fletcher’s mayoral campaign committee and another $2000 from Fletcher’s assembly political …

Daniel K. Inouye gave $500 to the congressional reelection bid of Republican Brian Bilbray on October 19. But the donor is not the famous Democratic senator from Hawaii; it’s his son, who works for the …

La Jolla billionaire Irwin Jacobs has continued to pull out all the stops in his efforts to get his controversial parking and transportation plan for Balboa Park approved by the city council. As reported earlier, …

San Diego County sheriff Bill Gore is looking for more than a few good women’s support garments to bolster the physiques of his (presumably) female prisoners, 2700 per year, to be exact. According to a …

The election isn’t until 2014, but Democratic governor Jerry Brown is already out raising money for his reelection campaign. Recent donors include beer-making giant Anheuser-Busch, with a $25,900 donation on January 28, and the California …

Sempra Energy, beset by a leaking reactor at San Onofre and illegal bird-space penetrations in East County, among other troubles, has been currying favor among state officials in the firm’s traditional way, by providing them …

Democratic state senator Christine Kehoe, barred by term limits from running again for her seat, has continued to collect contributions for her so-called officeholder account, a means that state law sanctions to tap special interests …

San Diego County sheriff Bill Gore is looking for a few good legal researchers to help the denizens of his jails throw off their chains. “The inmates’ right to conduct legal research has been determined …

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Group gave $1000 to the reelection bid of liberal San Diego Democratic assemblywoman Toni Atkins on December 22. Meanwhile Orange County’s Irvine Company, owned by Republican billionaire Donald Bren, stepson of the …

Ex–Democratic assemblywoman Lori Saldaña, who at one point or another has considered running for the San Diego County board of supervisors and the state Board of Equalization and is now in a tough match for …

KPBS isn’t the only SDSU cause to benefit from Qualcomm-related largesse. According to a June 24, 2011 filing on the website of the university’s Campanile Foundation, Qualcomm vice chairman Steve Altman flew the school’s associate …

Twenty-eleven was a good fund-raising year for KPBS, the public broadcasting operation owned by San Diego State University, thanks in major part to billionaire Qualcomm founder and civic activist Irwin Jacobs. According to recently released …

Former naval aviator Bill Wachtler of Solana Beach is an engineer with multiple patents to his name. He still flies a Stearman biplane, the kind of two-seater used for training at North Island before and …

With public pension costs going through the roof, the stock market flat, and a shortage of tax dollars to make up the difference, politicians everywhere say they’re looking for ways to force “double-dippers” — government …

The San Diego Sports Commission paid its president Alan Kidd a total of $165,477 during the 12 months ending in June 2010, according to the nonprofit group’s most recent Internal Revenue Service report. The group …

Last week’s revelation that San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders proceeded with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Stadium promotion even though the office of city attorney Jan Goldsmith said the gambit was illegal has drawn little public comment from …

South Bay Democratic assemblyman Marty Block, ramping up for a run for state senate this year, has shut down his old assembly campaign committee but not before making a final payment of $5000 to legendary …

Last month the San Diego Foundation had a big success on its hands when the $275,000 in matching funds it put up for its “giveBIG” event resulted in more than $2 million worth of contributions …

As GOP congressman Darrell Issa’s seniority, power, and influence have grown in Washington, so has the bank account of his leadership political action committee, “Invest in a Strong and Secure America—ISSA PAC.” According to its …

Union-Tribune owner Doug Manchester is famous for his financial contributions to Proposition 8, 2008’s successful ballot drive to overturn same-sex marriage in California. Not so well remembered is his backing of GOProud, a Washington, D.C., …

An audit by the Pentagon’s inspector general has found that the Navy, in a hurry to spend funds appropriated by Congress in February 2009’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commissioned a series of expensive and …

Public budgets are said to be tight, but San Diego County is in the market for 26 new 2012 Ford Taurus SEL four-wheel-drive sedans for its general service fleet, according to a November 29 request …

The U.S. government may be laden with debt, but that hasn’t kept the feds from looking for an artist to help ornament the soon-to-be completed Broadway courthouse downtown. “In addition to a new courthouse, the …

Downtown’s F Street X-rated bookstore has vacated its longtime premises in the Gaslamp Quarter on Fourth Avenue. The business got its start just around the corner on F Street in the 1970s, in a narrow …

Molecular biologist Suresh Subramani, appointed earlier this year as senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at UCSD, is pulling down a cool $350,000 a year, plus car allowance of $8916. Besides that, the longtime biology …

UCSD’s associate vice chancellor for Extended Studies and Public Programs and professor of sociology Mary Lindenstein Walshok has long been noted around campus for her many extracurricular activities. She’s on the board of La Jolla …

San Diego’s budget has been out of whack for years, but that hasn’t stopped Mayor Jerry Sanders from embarking on a pre-Christmas shopping spree, starting with an elaborate new computerized scheduling system for the police …

The holiday season presents an excuse for politicians to stage fund-raising parties. On Tuesday of this week, San Diego Democratic congresswoman Susan Davis was to hold a home-cooked omelet event at her house on E …

An El Cajon firm headed by former Democratic state senator Steve Peace has been raking in big bucks from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. According to state campaign finance disclosure records, J.S. Peace & …

Rancho Santa Fe–based political fund-raiser Karolyn Dorsee spent the first half of this year collecting cash for the GOP’s New Majority California PAC, which is out to “broaden the appeal of the Republican Party.” Dorsee …

Former city development director Marcela Escobar-Eck, let go along with colleague and land-use chief Jim Waring during 2007’s Sunroad Montgomery Field building fiasco, is now plying the lobbying trade. Her October 19 filing as principal …

Beset by sex scandals, a bad audit, budget cuts, and city hall demonstrators, some good news for the San Diego Police Department seemed last week to have finally arrived in the form of its latest …

There’s a new hired gun in town, and it’s smoking. Sacramento lobbying shop California Capitol Solutions has registered to cast its spell on San Diego city hall on behalf of five medical pot shops, including …