It turns out that former executive vice president of the San Diego Unified Port District Dan Wilkens, who announced his retirement last fall, hasn’t strayed too far from the agency. Wilkens, who left at the …

The Cato Institute, the libertarian-leaning Washington-based think tank, is conducting its annual Cato University next week at the Rancho Bernardo Inn. It’s billed as an opportunity to explore “how the state has expanded during times …

Democratic state senator Denise Ducheny, who chairs the powerful Senate Budget Committee, currently enmeshed in California’s fiscal meltdown, raised $11,821 for her so-called state officeholder account during the six months ending this June. Donations to …

The executive director of the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission has ordered San Diego retirement board member Herbert W. Morgan to disclose the identities of nine customers of his investment operation, Del Mar–based Efficient Market …

San Diego school-board president Shelia Jackson has filed a statement of intention to run for the Fourth District seat on the county board of supervisors, currently occupied by Ron Roberts. The election is next year, …

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman has been getting lots of campaign cash from some of San Diego’s most famous Republicans. One of the most prominent is Doug Manchester, the hotel magnate whose financial backing for …

With unemployment soaring, news that a San Diego–based aircraft carrier may be pulling out for good would come as unwelcome news to local politicians. On the other hand, one Seattle-area congressman has been trumpeting that …

San Diego Democrats don’t have much sway on the Southwest Border Task Force set up by Barack Obama's Justice Department. Only 3 members of the 21-member board hail from San Diego County, and 2 of …

How much money do the volunteer members of the city’s pension fund make in their professions, and where does it come from? California law requires that public officials disclose the amounts and sources of income …

Long Beach–based Cuba Travel Services is taking advantage of the Obama administration’s recent loosening of some travel restrictions to Cuba by offering nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Havana, allowing travelers to bypass the long-used …

Personal financial disclosure reports for members of Congress covering 2008 have been filed, and they reveal that the richest local congressman is still North County Republican Darrell Issa. Noteworthy transactions of the multimillionaire, who made …

Any doubts about the continuing political involvement of the Union-Tribune under Platinum Equity, its new owner from Beverly Hills, were erased two weeks ago with the appointment to the port commission of Lee Burdick — …

Is Balboa Park part of downtown? Does the city need another leash-free dog park? Can it afford it? Those questions occurred to Mel Shapiro when he read an account in the Union-Tribune about a recently …

The RAND Corporation, a Santa Monica think tank, is out with a study of how California’s parolees fare once they get back home from state prison, focusing on the four counties with almost a third …

Democratic senator Patrick Leahy has announced that San Diego, along with Leahy’s home state of Vermont, as well as the cities of Buffalo, New York; El Paso, Texas; and Atlanta, Georgia, will be getting a …

Leave it to Jerry Brown to round up the key players in two of San Diego’s ongoing sporting dramas. The state attorney general and ex-governor, now eyeing yet another run at the governorship next year, …

GOP gubernatorial hopeful and former eBay honcho Meg Whitman has been tapping San Diego Republicans for big money lately. On May 18, former savings and loan mogul Kim Fletcher gave $25,900, as did Jamul developer …

La Jolla’s Scripps Research Institute, which has built a $187 million branch on the campus of Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter, has become a target of students there opposing animal research. “We’re protesting the relationship …

The Surfrider Foundation and Sierra Club are out with their environmental rankings of California Coastal Commission members, and San Diego city councilman Ben Hueso shows up near the bottom, at 10 out of 12, with …

Rich Grosch, a staffer with Democratic assemblyman Marty Block, says he reimbursed the Viejas Indian tribe for the $37.11 in food and drink he consumed with Block and other staff members at the tribe’s restaurant, …

Other casualties of the Election Day massacre may include the KPBS public broadcasting operation, owned and operated by San Diego State University. The bad budget news couldn’t come at a worse time. Hurting from previous …

As last week’s losing ballot propositions went down to the wire, the list of political losers began to mount. Among them, San Diego district attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who showed up on a list of those …

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Rancho Santa Fe School District trustee Richard Burdge and Friends of Rancho Santa Fe Schools, a political committee for which he was treasurer, are set to pay a proposed $19,000 fine to the state’s Fair …

Three members of the Hempfield Area School Board in Pennsylvania are in hot water for spending more than $9000 of school district funds on a junket to the National School Boards Association convention in San …

A new view of the Middle East in local news coverage?

The death of another famous San Diegan brings another memory of an infamous San Diego scam. Last month it was the passing of George Munger, owner of the now-defunct Piret’s restaurant chain and recipient of …

It’s not on the scale of Watergate, but Sempra Energy’s recent gift to one Republican state politico bears a whiff of nostalgia for the good old days of the 1970s. This March 5, the utility …

San Diego ranks high on the list of California jurisdictions where federal judges issued the most wiretaps last year, according to the recently released 2008 Wiretap Report by the Administrative Office of the United States …

Is there a political method to the madness in last week’s pension-board shake-up by San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders? With the city council assenting, the mayor switched out three incumbent boardmembers with three new ones …

Is Republican mainstay and Chargers owner Alex Gus Spanos really making campaign contributions to liberal Democratic state attorney general Jerry Brown? That’s what it says on a campaign finance filing by Brown last week: a …

Neal and Linden Blue, the La Jolla millionaires who own and operate General Atomics, makers of the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, have been getting a lot of good ink of late about their government-sponsored efforts …

Sacramento’s Capitol Weekly is out with its top-100 list of the biggest “influence peddlers, power brokers and political players in California.” Only two San Diegans, both Republicans, make the cut: Bob White, the ex-aide to …

Doug Hutcheson, CEO of San Diego’s Leap Wireless, has chipped in $2500 to the campaign for Props 1A through E, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s five measures on the May ballot. Prop 1A would hike state sales and …

On April 13, San Diego–based Sempra Energy gave $25,000 to the campaign in favor of Props 1A through E, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s five measures on the May ballot. Prop 1A would hike state sales and …

Now that Alan Bersin has been appointed “border czar” of the Obama administration’s Homeland Security Department, the race to replace him as chairman of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is on. Insiders say …

While the economy tanked last year, salaries of staffers working for San Diego’s congressional delegation were on the rise. The GOP’s Duncan Hunter, who retired in 2008 and was succeeded by his son, paid his …

Sheriff Bill Kolender has thrown the race for his successor into a tizzy by deciding to resign on July 2, giving his support as expected to Undersheriff Bill Gore, an ex–FBI agent who enjoys the …

Ex–GOP state assemblyman George Plescia has filed a final accounting for his officeholder fund. During the first quarter of this year, he spent $17,200, the remaining cash, on settling some tabs from last year, including …

The Union-Tribune has reported that the American Boat Racing Association has dropped San Diego from its 2009 World Series of Powerboat Racing schedule for the first time in 40 years. But though it cited a …

Political operative Mark Fabiani, who worked for Democratic vice president Al Gore before striking out on his own and signing up with GOP fat cat Alex Spanos, has picked up yet another controversial client. Italian …

The proposal to build a new San Diego city hall at a cost to taxpayers of at least $587 million is slowly making its way through the City-owned Centre City Development Corporation, en route to …

Democratic assemblyman Curren Price — who moved into West L.A.’s 26th State Senate District to run for the seat vacated by newly elected county supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas — was forced into a runoff last week …

Who are the new would-be owners of the Padres, and are they fit to own the team? Recent documents unearthed from city hall under the California Public Records Act suggest that City officials may not …

Public relations people at UCSD got ahead of themselves last month in their haste to announce the arrival of a physician who was widely expected to become one of the university’s highest-paid professors. On February …

Ex–Copley News Service Washington bureau chief George Condon is taking the fall for the failure of Washington, D.C.’s Gridiron Club to line up Barack Obama for its annual banquet. Obama is the first president since …

Rumors are swirling about President Barack Obama’s possible appointment of ex–San Diego schools chief and former U.S. attorney Alan Bersin to head U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a major unit of the Homeland Security Department. …

The Wounded Marine Careers Foundation, currently being sued by ex-Marines, some of whom allege they ended up paying $88,000 worth of their veteran’s benefits for ten weeks of film school, is the beneficiary of a …

A local member of the feared Mongols Motorcycle Club, a Latino gang with upwards of 600 members in seven states and four countries, wants his colors back. Last October, following an 86-count indictment of 79 …

Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña, who has filed campaign financial forms indicating she intends to run for either the State Board of Equalization or the 39th state senate seat now held by fellow Democrat Christine Kehoe, accepted …