Arizona’s GOP senator John McCain has been fuming over the $7.7 billion worth of earmarks hidden in the nooks and crannies of a $410 billion spending bill that started in the House and was making …

With Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats in the state legislature asking voters to raise their own taxes in a series of measures set for a May special election, legislative salaries are becoming a subject of …

Yet another local recession victim: the San Diego office of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, producer of the annual San Diego Boat Show, is being shuttered, and future shows may be canceled. “The recreational boating …

The stock market is crashing. The city budget is crumbling. The state unemployment rate has hit 10 percent. Maybe it’s not the best time to be spending $1.27 million to subsidize a marina for superyachts. …

Democratic San Diego city councilman Ben Hueso seems to be on a power roll. Not only has he been elected by his colleagues as city council president, on February 12, he filed a statement declaring …

Has car-alarm millionaire Darrell Issa, the North County GOP congressman, set his heart on the presidency, or at least the U.S. Senate? So think some observers, who point to his political action committee, Invest in …

The bloody budget battle in Sacramento didn’t distract one local lawmaker from delivering for her establishment friends in San Diego. On February 11, Democrat Christine Kehoe quietly introduced a bill to effectively prohibit the local …

Ten of the 13 members of San Diego County’s Commission on the Status of Women are appointed by the board of supervisors. According to the commission’s website, there are currently 7 vacancies. But that hasn’t …

If ex-superagent Jeff Moorad concludes his proposed deal for the Padres, local Republicans may send up a cheer. Current team owner John Moores is known for giving big money to California Democrats, who returned the …

How miserable is San Diego’s hotel and convention business these days? So bad, apparently, that the grand old Hotel del Coronado has gone to court against a big Washington, D.C., law firm for canceling a …

What does San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders have in common with Bill Maher, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, and Brad Pitt? He was named a “Hero of Love” to those fighting Prop 8, last year’s anti-gay-marriage …

As if it didn’t have enough problems trying to unload the struggling Union-Tribune, the Copley Press has been hit by a lawsuit claiming that it is violating state labor laws by treating its newspaper carriers …

The position of U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, based in San Diego, has long been a political football. Whether the job was held by Alan Bersin, an L.A. lawyer swept into town …

The president of the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego has shown up on a 162-page list of apparent customers of accused Ponzi-scheme swindler Bernie Madoff. The revocable trust of John Todd …

The state’s economy is seeing hard times, but legislators and state officials can always count on lobbyists for a free meal, golf, and sometimes even a decent concert, according to recently filed lobbying disclosure reports. …

It’s an inconvenient time for titans of industry and commerce to be caught luxuriating in the cabins of their executive jets. Late last month, Starbucks became the latest behemoth forced to try to unload its …

Democratic assemblywoman Lori Saldaña is already raising money to run for her next office, which she currently identifies as a seat on the state Board of Equalization. A November 8 fund-raising event at Hillcrest’s Terra …

The San Diego Foundation, an aggregator of charitable donations that have sometimes gone to questionable causes, such as a fund for school superintendent Alan Bersin that was used in part to buy fine wines for …

Is Jerry Sanders in thrall to his biggest political contributors? Some have thought so, especially as Sanders is said to harbor thoughts of running for statewide office in the not-so-distant future. Now there is evidence …

One hundred thirty-one thousand baby rattles made in China for Infantino, LLC, a Sorrento Valley–based baby toy company, were ordered recalled on January 15 by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The “Lamb and Lion …

The San Diego County Lincoln Club had mixed results in the November elections. Its heavy spending helped to easily oust Democratic city attorney Mike Aguirre. But some political insiders say that the club — composed …

Leaders of those two local environmental groups who just cut a deal with San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders not to oppose a sought-after waiver of federal sewage-treatment requirements are making pretty decent money. According to …

On February 25 of last year, professional skydiver Alan (Buzz) Fink and his wife Kristina, who are not residents of San Diego, gave a total of $640 to Jan Goldsmith in his run for city …

The Associated Press broke the story last week that software glitches in Department of Veterans Affairs computers caused incorrect doses of medicine to be administered to patients at V.A. hospitals across the country. In San …

The San Diego County Office of Education has sued a Minnesota software firm for failing to produce a working “Student Information System” that it had promised to provide by January 2007. According to a breach …

The inauguration committee of Barack Obama picked up more than a few major contributions from San Diegans. Qualcomm billionaire Irwin Jacobs gave $25,000. But his wasn't the biggest donation: Michelle Lerach, wife of now-imprisoned plaintiff …

KPBS, the public broadcasting operation run by San Diego State University, is out with its financial report for the 12 months ending in June of last year, and it reveals that cash dedicated to actual …

In recent news from the state capital, Lori Saldaña, assembly Speaker pro tempore, has moved into Capitol office 3152, “known for having some of the nicer window views in the Assembly,” according to Capitol Weekly. …

With state budget problems festering and vital services being cut left and right, attention has inevitably turned to the state-subsidized leased wheels used by most members of the California legislature. On the assembly side of …

Gateway computer founder and La Jolla resident Ted Waitt turns up on the until-recently secret list of contributors to the Clinton Foundation, set up by the ex-president to advance his personal charitable agenda. The great …

UCSD alumnus and part-time La Jollan Craig Venter, famous for his race with the federally sponsored Human Genome Project to decode the human genome back in the 1990s, is also well known for making more …

Self-promotional plans by freshman San Diego city councilman Carl DeMaio, seen by many insiders as the most politically ambitious member of the council since Mayor Pete Wilson first aspired to higher office in the 1970s, …

The sentencing of Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, who loomed large in the bribery scandal that brought down GOP congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, has been delayed until January 29 of next year while Foggo’s lawyers fight to …

Earlier this fall, Dan Schroeder and his wife Lisa gave Union-Tribune real estate writer Roger Showley a VIP tour of their extravagant new La Jolla abode. Showley’s October 30 story described “a marvel in concrete, …

When a 12-year-old polar bear at the San Diego Zoo died of unknown causes a year ago last July, a team of investigators, led by Dr. Mark D. Schrenzel of the zoo’s Center of Research …

The Orange County Register has put up a new online search engine on its website, allowing lookups of the salaries of all employees of the University of California who make more than $25,000 a year. …

The arrest last week of Esteban Núñez, the 19-year-old son of ex–Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, in connection with a murder during a late-night rumble near San Diego State, has brought new focus on the former …

The tarnished legacy of ex–University of California president Bob Dynes — the onetime UCSD chancellor who was forced from UC’s top job following a series of high-profile payroll and administrative scandals — has taken yet …

La Jolla’s General Atomics, which makes the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle and is working on a new generation of experimental nuclear-power reactors, has entered into a deal with Eastern Kentucky University to make fuel from …

Republican Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser in the first Bush administration, has emerged as a key defense adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. The 83-year-old Scowcroft, a close buddy of such GOP military and …

Democratic state senator Denise Ducheny has been taking it on the chin from newspapers around the state for jaunting across the Pacific while the legislature wrestled with the budget crisis. She was among 15 of …

On November 20, we got stood up by Andrea Tevlin, the independent budget analyst who reports to the council. She had agreed to do an interview at 2:00 p.m., but she called beforehand to tell …

The University of California has decided to take a closer look at hundreds of its pensioners who are double-dipping — receiving fat retirement checks while working as temporary employees at their old jobs, in many …

Superhero of the human genome project always gets what he wants. And what he wants now is seven acres of UCSD's ocean-view property.

This week’s Fortune magazine is out with a story titled “Ten New Gurus You Should Know,” about what the magazine says is “a new generation of big thinkers emerging with radical ideas such as how …

When San Diego State University Associated Students president James Poet was busted last month by San Diego cops for driving under the influence and pot possession, school officials pledged to get to the bottom of …

As noted last week, employees of Latham & Watkins were the single biggest group of local law firm donors to the campaign of President-elect Barack Obama, giving a grand total of $9361, sizably more than …

There is a showdown coming. It might turn into a gunfight. Or at least a fistfight. There is a huge City budget deficit. To close the gap, the current council only wants to talk about …

Big-time Democratic politicians from around the country are heading to San Diego next month for a confab expected to bless whomever President-elect Barack Obama chooses to succeed Howard Dean as chairman of the Democratic National …

No doubt the most prominent local position to be filled by President-elect Barack Obama will be that of United States attorney. The San Diego office has long been a turbulent place. The last permanent holder …