U.S. Department of Education auditors have called out the San Diego Unified School District for misspending some of the federal tax dollars it got under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as President …

The Port of San Diego’s controversial new $28 million cruise ship terminal was completed in December, just as word got around that Holland America was planning to pull its 1916-passenger Oosterdam liner off the once-lucrative …

A personal tragedy suffered by Celia Brewer, assistant port attorney for the Port of San Diego, has prompted the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission to conduct a review of whether public officials should be required …

With the price of gas the way it is, maybe a little uranium in the drinking water isn’t such a bad thing. Such is the situation facing residents of Campo Hills, a rustic community about …

Though the economy is down, local political dollars have continued to flow to those in the know. Poway’s Eric Christen, manager of the nonprofit Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, which battles public project labor …

Last week, city auditor Eduardo Luna released a report that strongly criticized the City’s management of its paramedic contractor, Scottsdale, Arizona–based Rural/Metro Corporation, finding that “the City has not adequately managed or monitored the financial …

Another mayoral hopeful, this one actually declared, is Republican district attorney Bonnie Dumanis. On Friday, April 15, she and her friend and political ally county sheriff Bill Gore held a Citizens of Courage Awards Ceremony …

P. Lamont Ewell, San Diego city manager from April 2004 to November 2005, before leaving to become city manager of Santa Monica, retiring there in December 2009, has popped up on the public payroll again, …

L.A.’s Tom Gores, whose Platinum Equity has owned the Union-Tribune since buying it from David Copley two years ago, has been raising his public profile of late. For years, the only photograph of the discount …

Democratic congresswoman Susan Davis, by far the most prolific junketeer of either party in San Diego’s congressional delegation, managed to fit in an eight-day trip to Tokyo before Japan’s earthquake and nuclear disasters hit. The …

The San Diego Police Officers Association has its hands full warding off efforts by city councilman and prospective mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio to make the City’s pension plan for cops into a 401(k) retirement system. …

Centre City Development Corporation consultant Alan Edwards reported one of the more interesting positions, owner and president of the San Diego Spirits Festival, described as an “annual festival promoting local businesses” whose worth he valued …

Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, said to be interested in running to replace the termed-out Jerry Sanders as San Diego mayor next year, continued to collect thousands of dollars in his state campaign committee, Fletcher for Assembly. …

It’s springtime, when flowers bloom and city officials are required to disclose their personal financial dealings. There’s lots of money to be made in beer. At least that seems the conclusion best drawn from the …

Almost two decades ago, Poway physician Robert Dougherty, Jr., then-president of the Palomar Community College District board of trustees, was hauled into court and charged with writing multiple prescriptions for painkillers and other drugs without …

County health officials say they have a life-threatening problem: keeping homeless tuberculosis patients in check. “TB is a highly infectious disease that can cause death,” notes a “request for quotation” recently posted on the county’s …

Officers have been raking in fat salaries at the nonprofit NTC Foundation, which San Diego city taxpayers bailed out last week to the tune of $1.1 million after county tax assessor Ernie Dronenburg forced the …

Back in April 1997, then–Union-Tribune columnist Neil Morgan was the town’s chief cheerleader for developer Sam Marasco and his plan to build a taxpayer-subsidized shopping mall and pedestrian bridge across the border from San Ysidro …

The decision by GOP senator John Ensign of Nevada to scrap his 2012 reelection bid was generally expected by those who have been following the soap opera–like scandal arising from his affair with a staffer’s …

Last week, Union-Tribune columnist Tom Blair showed how far the paper has gone under its post–Copley Press owners, but whether it’s in a good direction probably depends on one’s politics and level of interest in …

Every fall, ex–Democratic state senator Steve Peace throws a free bash in Hawaii for legislators, paid for by corporate and big labor contributions to his nonprofit California Independent Voter Project. The names of donors are …

A staffer for San Diego city councilwoman Lorie Zapf has been stirring the troubled waters of a bitter Northern California battle for a state assembly seat, which became vacant in January when the incumbent was …

The man who made a fortune as the political genius behind former Democratic assembly speaker and San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, among hundreds of others, has written a book of letters to his dead friends …

It wasn’t so long ago that David Copley enjoyed free rein at city hall, easily convincing the City’s Planning Department to allow him to combine a cluster of adjacent houses on La Jolla’s Virginia Way …

Despite the state’s budget crisis, Sandra A. Brown, the new vice chancellor for research at UCSD, has been awarded a salary of $290,000 a year by UC regents. A Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Wayne …

Alan Bersin, President Obama’s customs and border chief, often touts the administration’s efforts to counter the danger to American tourists from Mexico’s cartel-spawned violence, and it appears that San Diego Democrats are taking him at …

As the City of San Diego scrambles for cash to fill its chronic budget hole, Mayor Jerry Sanders has put out the word that he is ready, willing, and able to become a pitchman for …

Walmart spent well over a million dollars last year on its efforts to beat back big labor’s big box ordinance and has announced an ambitious plan to build new stores all over town. So it’s …

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders, a self-styled liberal Republican who backed city hall’s failed Prop D half-cent sales-tax hike, has joined seven mayors from Arizona, Texas, and California in bashing conservative GOP presidential hopeful Mike …

The bidding process for contractors seeking to furnish the County with an elaborately outfitted truck to accommodate the sheriff’s bomb-defusing operations, first reported here last month, has been called off. “In the best interests of …

San Diego may be having budget problems, but the City is still in the market for five brand-new shiny black FX HO Yamaha Waverunners, so-called personal watercraft that start at about $12,199 each, according to …

When Democrat Juan Vargas narrowly edged out Assemblywoman Mary Salas in last year’s primary race for the state senate’s 40th District, it was tantamount to winning the general election, thanks to the gerrymandering that both …

Her cousins, billionaires Alec and Tom Gores, are both making big news, what with their variously rumored attempts to buy the L.A. Dodgers and Detroit Pistons, respectively, but Hala Gores has been creating her own …

The political action committee of the San Diego Police Officers Association spent a total of $181,934 last year, a good portion of which went to advocate passage of Proposition D, the half-cent sales tax hike …

With all the hubbub surrounding the destruction of that bombmaker’s house in Escondido, it comes as no surprise that the San Diego sheriff’s department is in the market for a new “Law Enforcement Bomb Truck,” …

Whether famed UCSD alumnus and genetic-engineering legend Craig Venter will get to lease a parcel of choice UCSD campus land was set to be quietly taken up by University of California regents at their San …

In last week’s cover story, we described how two of America’s richest and most powerful oil barons took a small La Jolla hotel called Del Charro and turned it into an unlikely base for their …

As the ultimate status of San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders continues to intrigue political onlookers, yet another rumored candidate to replace him has come to the forefront. GOP assemblyman Nathan Fletcher (whose official campaign biography, …

Hotel del Charro: PART ONE It was the vortex of a dark universe, hiding in plain sight. “At La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya), San Diego’s northern suburb,” the New York Times reported on January 17, …

Despite a degree of skepticism by city hall insiders, rumors persist that San Diego mayor and ex–police chief Jerry Sanders may cut short his term at city hall in exchange for a medium-level security-related appointment …

Football season is over for the Chargers, but the team’s political season never ends. During 2009 and 2010, Chargers president Dean Spanos, wife Susan, and relatives gave a total of $23,000 to the Gridiron PAC, …

The local housing market may be dead for mere mortals, but as far as the nation’s megamillionaires and billionaires are concerned, coastal La Jolla is in hypergrowth mode. Ex–Massachusetts governor and likely future GOP presidential …

The San Diego Sheriff’s Department is in the market for an X150 Thermal-Eye pocket scope. According to one online vendor, which lists the device at $4526: “Whether performing critical missions, gathering intelligence or conducting situation …

With government funds growing scarce, the San Diego sheriff’s office is looking for a metal salvage outfit to recycle spent cartridges at its shooting ranges at Miramar and Otay Mesa. The shells are “primarily 40cal …

San Diego’s two newest city councilmembers have been sworn in and are already enmeshed in possible ways to cut the City budget by slashing services and selling off City land. At the same time, the …

Former Democratic state senator Denise Ducheny, who’s already drawn heat for her appointment by the Senate Rules Committee to a four-year term on the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board — a job that pays $128,109 annually …

The free ride is apparently over for emergency victims rescued by San Diego’s helicopter fleet. Earlier this month, the City posted a request for proposal for “a comprehensive air medical billing service for patients who …

Baldwin & Sons, LLC, and its wealthy owner Alfred Baldwin, the big South Bay developer, is paying a $400 fine to the California Fair Political Practices Commission for failing to file a so-called major donor …

The former district director for ex-Democratic state senator Denise Ducheny has turned up as a new lobbyist for billionaire Sam Zell’s Otay Mesa border crossing complex, planned to connect Tijuana’s airport with the United States. …

Strapped for cash, the City of San Diego is looking for private movers, according to a recent request for bid for “office relocation services” posted on its website. The City “requires the services of a …