He’s the son of Alex Spanos and the president of the Chargers, currently seeking a multimillion-dollar handout from taxpayers as a condition for building a new stadium somewhere in the county. But La Jollan Dean …

San Diego politicos spent the last month of 2009 raising money for the 2010 election season. Contributors included the California Medical Association, which gave $7800 to San Diego city councilman Ben Hueso’s Democratic assembly bid. …

Government officials say they’re hard up for funds, but most can’t seem to resist spending for lobbying activities. A recently filed disclosure report covering the third quarter of last year shows that District Attorney Bonnie …

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s got the biggest California state pension of them all? In San Diego County, apparently it’s El Cajon’s William Garrett, at $254,745.72 a year, or $21,228.81 a month, according to …

With the holidays approaching, what better way to get into the spirit of the season than with a free trip to Tel Aviv? Democratic congresswoman Susan Davis embarked on a three-day tour of Israel, from …

Ex–Democratic assemblyman turned insurance industry lobbyist Juan Vargas quietly kicked off his bid to replace termed-out incumbent state senator Denise Ducheny last week by personally making a $100,000 loan to his own campaign fund, state …

Hard times will soon shutter Rainwater’s on Kettner Boulevard, the fabled red-meat eatery. Over the years, politicos of all stripes dined gratis at the bistro, thanks to well-heeled special interests. February 2004 was typical. GOP …

Last week, Anheuser-Busch, the onetime icon of American beer that was snapped up a year ago by the Brazilian-Belgian international brewing combine InBev, finally unloaded its chain of theme parks — including San Diego’s SeaWorld …

For a little while, it sounded like great news. San Diego’s county library system was named to a national list of “Star Libraries,” compiled by Library Journal. The publication rated libraries coast to coast by …

The Barona Band of Mission Indians hosted a high-powered group of state GOP legislators at the tribe’s Barona Resort and Casino on July 9, according to a recent lobbyist disclosure filing. Senators Tom Harman, Dennis …

San Diego City Council president Ben Hueso has been feathering more than just his assembly campaign’s nest of late. A recently filed disclosure statement shows that he’s been getting big money for his legal defense …

Former eBay executive Meg Whitman, currently running first in at least one poll of voter sentiment in her race for the GOP’s gubernatorial nomination, gave $1.15 million to Valley Floor Preservation Partners. That’s the group …

There is the curbside view of the Mexican border: severed heads on nightclub floors, migrant corpses in the mountains, fingers lopped off, armies in pursuit of drug lords, fleeing fugitives, gangs of money-washers, set to …

In the category of lobbying standouts, there’s both Sempra Energy’s Heidi DeJong Barsuglia, who purportedly mixed it up with ex–GOP assemblyman Mike Duvall this summer (they both later denied the hanky-panky), and Jim Cassie of …

After a delay, San Diego State University, in response to a request under the state’s Public Records Act, has turned over the contract between itself and the nonprofit Watchdog Institute, the experiment in investigative reporting …

American Medical Response, which has lucrative paramedic and ambulance contracts with the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, National City, and a host of other local government agencies, gave $2000 to the county …

Anyone who wants to know how the well-connected world of San Diego’s power brokers works need look no further than Mary Lindenstein Walshok, associate vice chancellor for public programs and dean of Extension at UCSD. …

Democratic San Diego city councilman Ben Hueso has collected another $31,845 in his bid for the state assembly, bringing his grand total so far to $167,341, according to a recently filed campaign report. Among the …

The battle over a new city hall is already costing taxpayers a small fortune, judging from a recently filed lobbying disclosure report by California Strategies, the Sacramento-based firm run by Bob White, the ex-aide to …

When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger kicked off his Terminate Violence campaign at an L.A. news conference in March, he was especially proud of the jazzy free shirts handed out to the crowd. “I said that I …

GOP congressman Brian Bilbray used his Twitter feed to tout his mention last week in a USA Today story about a successful bill he’d authored to qualify three-wheeled vehicles for federal research funding, the main …

Foes of state attorney general Jerry Brown, leading the Democratic pack in the campaign for his old job as governor, have been unearthing radio shows the 71-year-old made during the ’90s, featuring controversial remarks calling …

Chula Vistan David Butler, appointed the County’s interim assessor–recorder–county clerk by the board of supervisors last March, is exploring whether to run for election. On October 7, he filed a candidate intention statement with the …

Del Mar investment advisor Herbert W. Morgan, nominated to the San Diego city retirement board by Mayor Jerry Sanders and confirmed by the city council in April of this year, has filed an amended financial …

Last week, controversial J. Craig Venter, millionaire, self-styled master of the human genome, and UCSD alumnus who maintains a handsome home in La Jolla, received the prestigious National Medal of Science from Barack Obama at …

Where do politicians turn when they need a spot of cash? In the case of the Democratic Party of San Diego County, to Advance America, “one of the nation’s leading payday loan companies” that has …

UCSD’s budget crisis has claimed the glitzy job of Stacie Spector, the school’s associate vice chancellor of university communications and public affairs. Deputy communications director in the Clinton White House and deputy campaign manager for …

The City of San Diego has formed a “multi-department Mass Care and Shelter Planning Committee” to put together a plan to use Qualcomm Stadium during disasters such as the October 2007 wildfires. According to a …

Politics is a year-around game, and the San Diego congressional delegation is busier than ever collecting money for next year’s reelection races. But sometimes it takes a bit of detective work to find out where …

Though it says it is hard up for money to fund the daily workings of government, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is looking for a new lobbyist to influence affairs in the murky …

An out-of-control aerial drone made by San Diego’s own General Atomics had to be shot out of the sky by the United States Air Force over northern Afghanistan on September 13. According to various industry …

When millionaire GOP congressman Darrell Issa made his latest semiregular appearance on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher in August, the show forked over $600 for a round-trip limo ride to and from CBS Television …

As first reported here in January 2008, Kimberly Hale works for the lobbying shop of Public Policy Strategies, owned by Tom Shepard, a key political advisor to San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders. At that time, …

When longtime Union-Tribune senior editor Lorie Hearn departed the paper this summer to set up the nonprofit Watchdog Institute for investigative reporting, the project was billed as a way of saving local journalism “in an …

A subsidiary of a company run by an Aleut shareholder-owned Alaska Native village corporation based on remote Saint Paul Island in the Bering Sea, 800 miles west-southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, is being sued by U.S. …

Helix High alumnus Jack Felson — a onetime San Diego politico with close ties to then–county supervisor Roger Hedgecock — has died at 71 at a cancer clinic in Bavaria, Germany. Beginning in the early …

The San Diego County Office of Education has come out the apparent winner in a lawsuit against Infinite Campus, an educational software outfit hired to produce a “student information system” that allegedly failed to deliver. …

A political committee controlled by San Diego city councilman Carl DeMaio has paid $8482 to a GOP consulting firm currently in the middle of a conflict-of-interest controversy regarding its ties to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Last …

You might call it MySpace for La Migra. Alan Bersin, ex–San Diego schools chief and President Barack Obama’s “Border Czar” in the Department of Homeland Security, has set up an online social networking site called …

How are you going to keep the cops down on the farm once they’ve seen Coronado? That seems to be the question facing the federally funded National Institute of Justice, which is hosting the Technology …

UCSD political science professor Peter Gourevitch, who has taken over as acting dean of the university’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies while full-time dean Peter Cowhey is away on extended leave advising the …

Ex–Democratic state senator Steve Peace, now working for ex–Padres owner John Moores, gave $6500 last week to the campaign fund of Attorney General Jerry Brown, expected to run for governor next year. On July 29, …

When it came to raising and spending campaign money, it was a busy first half of 2009 for termed-out Democratic assemblywoman Lori Saldaña. She spent the $11,898 remaining in her 2008 reelection kitty on a …

Upon his exit from the state Assembly last year, termed-out ex–GOP leader George Plescia of Del Mar bagged a lucrative four-year job as a member of the seven-member Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. One of five …

Some insiders predicted he would be UCSD’s first million-dollar professor, but the state’s financial meltdown apparently dashed those plans. Still, don’t fret for Dr. William Mobley, new chairman of the department of neurosciences at the …

Termed-out Democratic state Sen. Christine Kehoe has apparently set her sights on returning to the Assembly. After a failed bid for Congress in 1998, Kehoe, at the time a member of the San Diego city …

The Centre City Development Corp. is paying $10,160 to Heritage Architecture to create a “list of potential new uses, creative adaptive reuse design scenarios and provide cost-estimating services for the selected alternatives,” for rehabilitating the …

As many insiders expected, San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders appointed a reliable campaign contributor to the regional airport authority seat that was vacated earlier this year by another faithful giver, Alan Bersin, who left to …

A longtime business associate of South Bay developer Roque de la Fuente is circulating a petition that would put before county voters a measure to allow construction of a large landfill and recycling center on …

An Irishman who last December made the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Most Wanted List” of 23 environmental crime fugitives for illegal dumping in San Diego Bay, has been apprehended on the island of Malta. Fifty-eight-year-old …