The San Diego State University Research Foundation has parted company with the firm of ex–GOP congressman Bill Lowery, its longtime lobbyist, who is currently under scrutiny by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles for …

What remains of San Diego’s rapidly diminishing press corps has always had a tough time getting a straight story out of Mayor Jerry Sanders and his bulked-up spinmeister Fred Sainz. Sanders is sometimes produced for …

When Ira Clifton Copley of Aurora, Illinois, first saw San Diego on a trip with his ailing brother to the Hotel del Coronado in 1891, it was a dingy town on the southern fringe of …

Old politicos never die, they just become consultants and fade onto the advisory boards of taxpayer-funded organizations, where they make wealthy new friends, line up clients, and peddle their influence in ever-widening circles. Take the …

Back in July 2001, then–San Diego mayor Dick Murphy and the rest of the city council voted to give a cool $1 million of taxpayer money to a small nonprofit outfit called the San Diego …

A big new raft of San Diego city lobbyist registrations are in, and not surprisingly many of the most prosperous influence peddlers also happen to be big financial backers of GOP Mayor Jerry Sanders’s re-election …

Back in November, we reported here that San Diego County district attorney Bonnie Dumanis spent a total of $35,680 in the second quarter of last year lobbying the state legislature on various bills, including those …

Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has lately been picking up big pieces of change from San Diego County fat cats. The governor’s “Dream Team” committee collected a bunch of large checks here on the first week …

Now that Super Tuesday is out of the way, the real business of politics can begin. On February 20, GOP congressman Brian Bilbray, who replaced the ill-fated Randy “Duke” Cunningham, is set to stage a …

Now that it’s been announced that Padres owner John Moores is splitting up with wife Becky and she is presumed to be in line under California law for half her husband’s substantial net worth, a …

It’s no secret that San Diego State’s KPBS public broadcasting department has been cutting back on producers and local coverage, the most prominent examples being the controversial cancellation of its Full Focus TV talk show …

With recession looming and tax revenues falling at an unprecedented rate, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature are threatening draconian reductions in state spending, including closing state parks and releasing “low risk” prisoners. So far, …

When one Democratic presidential candidate swung through town last Friday, the business of the San Diego State University Research Foundation’s investment committee was put on hold. “Tomorrow’s meeting has been postponed to allow committee members …

Jostling in the race for San Diego city attorney is becoming more pronounced as the major candidates lining up against incumbent Mike Aguirre seek to gain advantage. Likely to play a role in the campaign …

How much does it cost to harass Mike Aguirre? San Diego County’s Republican Central Committee forked over $375 on the 16th of this month to pay for a “Protest clown to oppose Mike Aguirre for …

Padres owner John Moores, no stranger to legal scrapes himself, has given $25,000 to the legal defense fund of state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, a longtime buddy. State voters approved legal defense funds …

La Jolla’s Bishop’s School, tony alma mater of the late Andrew Cunanan, the gay serial killer who murdered fashion icon Gianni Versace before killing himself in 1997, is on the prowl for a new “Head …

Those posh new digs for UCSD's chancellor will have to wait at least another month or so. In the face of protests from historical preservationists and Native Americans, the University of California Regents, meeting in …

A firm run by San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders's key political advisor has lobbied city hall during the run-up to Sanders’s re-election bid, raising conflict-of-interest questions for a mayor who has repeatedly touted his ethical …

There’s been another development in the slow but steady liquidation of the newspaper holding company of late Union-Tribune owner Helen Copley. Last week Copley Press quietly recorded a document giving GP Associates LLC, run by …

The California Tribal Business Alliance, a well-heeled political action committee backed by six Indian tribes, including the Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians and the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, staged a lavish “back-to-the-session bash,” an …

With Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposing draconian cuts — including closing 48 state parks and beaches, slashing Medi-Cal and school funding, and releasing 22,159 “low risk” inmates from state prisons — it might not seem like …

A limousine operator in Washington, D.C., linked to the Randy “Duke” Cunningham scandal is suing the Copley Press for libel, alleging that Union-Tribune business writer Dean Calbreath falsely reported that company limos “would pick up …

If past behavior is any guide, last weekend’s playoff game between the Chargers and the Tennessee Titans resulted in a full house at the City’s Qualcomm Stadium box, to which each San Diego city council …

Charger owner Alex Spanos, who has proclaimed Chula Vista the ultimate locale of his new football stadium — if it is to be built in San Diego County at all — has been putting a …

San Diego city councilwoman Toni Atkins’s significant other, Jennifer LeSar, has asked the City’s Ethics Commission for some conflict-of-interest advice about her relationship with several unnamed clients who apparently may soon be doing business at …

Speaking of private flying, the most dangerous local airport of 2007 turned out to be County-owned McClellan-Palomar in Carlsbad, with a total of five fatalities in two separate accidents. The first, on April 29, involved …

Old Globe impresario Jack O'Brien has sold his Mission Hills mansion, built a house in Connecticut, and is finally retiring after 26 years to spend more time directing Broadway hits and, most likely, collecting more …

Did 2007 finally mark the beginning of the end for KPBS, the public radio and television station pair owned and operated by San Diego State University? With public contributions flat and growing competition from streaming …

The former public relations aide to Alan Bersin during his stormy tenure as superintendent of schools here made some headlines of her own up the road in Fresno in 2007. After leaving the school district …

PR move of the year The former public relations aide to Alan Bersin during his stormy tenure as superintendent of schools here made some headlines of her own up the road in Fresno in 2007. …

Hold on to your checkbook: an employee of the City-owned San Diego Convention Center is emailing local groups asking for participants to join a new Convention Center Expansion Task Force to help drum up public …

San Diego school board member Mitz Lee, who in June filed papers declaring her intent to run next year for the District 5 city council seat being vacated by termed-out Brian Maienschein, has dropped out …

Los Angeles Democratic mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has hired Jennifer LeSar, a close friend of San Diego city councilwoman Toni Atkins, to "orchestrate development" of what a news release calls a "visionary plan" to redevelop Central …

Struggling liberal radio network Air America, thrown off KLSD-AM here last month, is making a San Diego comeback of sorts. Come February 23, the first Air America Radio Cruise is set to depart from downtown's …

La Jollan Mark Fabiani, who once worked for the late L.A. mayor Tom Bradley and Vice President Al Gore, has in recent times been toiling for Republican mega-millionaire Alex Spanos in a seemingly never-ending quest …

The racing season is long over at Del Mar, but 20 state legislators and their relatives no doubt have happy memories of the meet, thanks to the generosity of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. According …

The federal Centers for Disease Control has just released 2006 statistics for sexually transmitted diseases, and San Diego County ranks near the top in two categories. In numbers of reported chlamydia cases, we're 7th nationally, …

The California state auditor has come out swinging against lax oversight of top executives' pay and fringe benefits at the California State University system, including San Diego State and its president, Stephen Weber. Issued earlier …

California's Office of Historic Preservation has just announced the recipients of the Governor's Historic Preservation Awards for 2007, and it happens that one of the winners is dear to the heart of the office's director, …

Sempra Energy spent the third quarter of this year handing out the usual raft of free food, drink, and frivolity in Sacramento and elsewhere around the state to legislators and their staffers. The utility giant …

Any doubters of Jesse Unruh's old adage that "money is the mother's milk of politics" need only look at the 2007 endorsement questionnaire issued by the county's GOP Central Committee for city council candidates, technically …

Democratic congressman Bob Filner ranks as one of the most liberal members of the House, frequently castigating the Bush administration about everything from its economic policies to its invasion of Iraq. Yet Filner and some …

Long a big financial backer of KPBS, the public broadcasting operation owned and operated by San Diego State University, the Union-Tribune seems to have switched horses. The newspaper currently has a push on to promote …

San Diego district attorney Bonnie Dumanis has been spending public money lobbying the legislature up in Sacramento. According to official filings with the secretary of state, her office spent a total of $35,680 during the …

Marine Captain Duncan D. Hunter, who's running in next year's GOP primary to replace his father Duncan L. Hunter in Congress, has picked up some heavyweight financial support from none other than Donald Rumsfeld, the …

May 15 is the target date for release of a new book by best-selling financial writer Roger Lowenstein entitled Mortgaging the Future: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, …

Now that the name of ex-schools superintendent Alan Bersin is being bandied for a possible challenge to City Attorney Mike Aguirre's reelection bid, many eyes are turning to his personal financial statement, on file with …

Give the Union-Tribune credit for ingenuity in the face of disaster. During this week's county fire calamity, the paper's main website was sometimes slow, apparently unable to handle the high volume of users desperate for …

Wealthy La Jolla socialite Lisa Barkett has agreed to pay a $2340 fine for failing to report in a timely fashion a $10,000 contribution to the unsuccessful June 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary campaign of Phil …