San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre hasn't been much of a friend to realtors and development interests during his controversy-filled tenure, so it's probably not that much of a surprise that the local Republican Party …

So-called behesting, in which an elected official asks special interests to make contributions to the officeholder's favorite charities, has become a frequent practice for San Diego city councilman Jim Madaffer. Under the City's ethics ordinance, …

We erred here last week when we said that the San Diego State University Research Foundation was replacing ex-GOP congressman Bill Lowery as its lobbyist. Lowery is still in the running to keep that job, …

Franklin Gatlin IV has been in a little trouble lately. Last year, the 26-year-old allegedly smashed a beer bottle in the face of a fellow partygoer at his mother's Rancho Santa Fe house and ten …

San Diego city councilman Ben Hueso is doing some reverse bundling in connection with his scheduled Tuesday swim across San Diego Bay this week. According to a recent news release by his office, Hueso is …

Thanks in part to a Washington scandal, the San Diego State University Research Foundation, a major function of which is to come up with federal money for various projects at the school, is looking for …

The state's community college lobby is pushing hard for passage next year of the California Community College Initiative, a ballot measure that would channel more state taxpayer money to the two-year institutions and place a …

San Diego's Bill Lerach, who cut a plea bargain deal with federal prosecutors two weeks ago that would send him to prison for at least a year for his role in a client kickback scandal, …

When presidential candidates come to San Diego, where do they spend their money? Mostly at the sorts of places where sought-after high-rolling campaign contributors hang out. Take the case of wealthy Democrat John Edwards, whose …

KPBS, the public broadcasting operation owned and operated by San Diego State University, financed in large part by state taxpayers, has released more of the documents requested by City Attorney Mike Aguirre under the state's …

Union-Tribune editorial pages have opened fire on City Attorney Mike Aguirre for asking for previously unrevealed details about the finances of KPBS, the public broadcasting operation owned and operated by San Diego State University. The …

WikiScanner is a hot new website that allows users to follow the history of editorial changes on Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia of almost everything. Created by a computer science grad student, WikiScanner allows the …

Back in March of last year, the Idaho Statesman ran a big story about the connections between fallen GOP Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Senator Larry Craig, then one of the most powerful politicians in …

The TV spots are already running, posters are up all over downtown, banners fly from the lampposts, and hotel reservations are presumably booked, and the speedy little airplanes of the Red Bull Air Race, set …

San Diego city councilman Jim Madaffer has been elected president of the League of California Cities, and one of the city's biggest special interests is throwing a party to celebrate. "It's Jim Time!" says an …

Two weeks ago Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger used his line-item veto to slash $30 million from the state budget earmarked for city and county governments for use in dealing with adverse impacts of Indian gambling casinos. …

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders's resigned development czar recently took out a big mortgage on his mansion on La Jolla Scenic Drive. According to a trust deed recorded April 12, Jim Waring, who departed city …

When KPBS TV shuttered its Full Focus public affairs show earlier this month, the move was greeted by a hail of criticism from loyal viewers of the seven-year-old steady stream of talking heads hosted by …

Ex-Democratic state senator Steve Peace, still peddling his plan to remodel San Diego's downtown waterfront, recently changed the articles of incorporation of the nonprofit he's been using to promote his agenda. Currently an aide to …

With the stock market melting down, it's getting harder to remember the money world's free-spending heyday, when exotic investment vehicles such as hedge funds were confidently prospecting for new money from public pension funds. But …

Like most of their cohorts in big business, executives of Sempra Energy have been opening their checkbooks for presidential campaigns. They include Jessie Knight, the first African-American executive director of the San Diego Chamber of …

Longtime cynics greeted last week's announcement that architect Hal Sadler has been chosen the next Mr. San Diego, to be awarded on August 23, with a hearty laugh. Sadler, a wealthy pillar of the local …

The state's Fair Political Practices Commission is set to approve a stipulation between it and ex-Chula Vista mayor Steve Padilla and Padilla campaign treasurer Donald Wroe that settled charges arising from Padilla's 2002 mayoral campaign. …

Qualcomm, the big La Jolla-based cell phone outfit, hasn't been having a lot of luck in its long-running patent battle with competitor Broadcom. Last week, George Bush declined to alter a ruling by the U.S. …

Steve Peace and John DeBello go way back. While still in high school in 1971, the pair, along with Costa Dillon and Mike Grant, put together a student movie called Do They Accept Traveler's Checks …

The Viejas Indian tribe has been spreading plenty of freebies around the state legislature of late. The tribe has disclosed a total of $7423.31 in lobbying "Activity Expenditures" from April through June. The biggest chunk …

First District San Diego city councilman Scott Peters may be married to multimillionaire Lynn Gorguze, but that hasn't kept him from accepting a bunch of handouts from local builders, an ambulance service provider, and a …

San Diego city council campaign financial disclosures are in, and perhaps not surprisingly, only four donors to the candidates with the biggest bankrolls claim to be "developers": Ure Kretowicz of Cornerstone Communities ($270 to April …

Former Republican San Diego city councilman Bill Mitchell, who was once quoted as saying that the fire department could save money by not answering false alarms (he said the attribution was false), has become a …

That recent report on the City's Sunroad office building debacle by Mayor Jerry Sander's in-house ethics officer Jo Anne SawyerKnoll has cleared fellow mayoral aide Julie Dubick of any involvement in her husband's dealings with …

The San Jose Mercury News reported last week that Democratic assemblywoman Lori Saldaña's 2005 Honda Accord Hybrid, owned by the state, got crunched in a "chain-reaction crash" here on December 2, 2005. That earned her …

It's been ten years since the Miami murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace by Andrew Cunanan, the onetime San Diego gay party boy turned serial killer whose murderous saga transfixed the nation and terrorized Hillcrest …

How much is it costing to convince the federal Securities and Exchange Commission that it's safe for investors to buy all the debt the San Diego City Council wants to encumber taxpayers with? Plenty, according …

Union-Tribune owner David Copley's 164-foot yacht Happy Days has departed Monaco; on July 11, it was spotted at the docks of Luka Gruz harbor in Dubrovnik, Republic of Croatia. ... San Diego Magazine editor Tom …

The wife of Steve Peace, the former Democratic state assemblyman and senator most famous for his role in the disastrous state utility deregulation follies of the 1990s and now chief political advisor to Padres owner …

Almost six years ago, on July 30, 2001, the San Diego city council, led by Mayor Dick Murphy, voted to give $1 million to the San Diego Library Foundation, a small nonprofit group incorporated only …

The great debate over the demise of the Union-Tribune's freestanding book section rages on, led by outspoken Del Mar literary agent Sandy Dijkstra. "My point is that even though the U-T's revenues may not be …

The City's ambitious behind-the-scenes quest to build a municipal Wi-Fi network is virtually moribund, according to a slew of e-mails obtained from city hall last week under the state's public records act. The saga began …

The case of 24-year-old professional surfer Emery Kauanui, savagely beaten after a May 24 bar dispute with old childhood chums outside the La Jolla home he shared with his mother Cynthia, is fodder for plenty …

The University of California has finally released cost and attendance details of that 150-person "V.I.P. Cocktail Reception" held for visiting ex-vice president Al Gore before his May global warming speech at UCSD. According to a …

When ex-vice president Al Gore parachuted into town to give a speech at UCSD on May 21, many locals seemed starstruck. Four thousand free tickets to Gore's "multimedia lecture," based on his Inconvenient Truth, the …

The chief executive officer of San Diego's taxpayer-funded Economic Development Corp. and a big backer of last year's failed campaign to move the airport to Miramar, Julie Meier Wright, has quietly agreed to pay a …

It's summer on the Riviera, and U-T publisher David Copley's 164-foot yacht Happy Days is making good progress through the balmy waters of the Mediterranean. Spotted at the International Yacht Club of Antibes on May …

The late-spring syphilis epidemic at San Diego State is ostensibly over, according to county health officials. Only 3 active cases have been attributed so far to the SDSU "cluster," news of which broke May 3. …

Developer Aaron Feldman and employees of his Sunroad group of companies currently enmeshed in the Montgomery Field office-tower dustup have long bankrolled many local GOP candidates and their causes, including ex-mayor Susan Golding and current …

Ex-National City mayor Nick Inzunza, whose wheeling and dealing in the ramshackle residential properties of Barrio Logan was first revealed on these pages a little over four years ago, is continuing to expand his inner-city …

Fighting a two-front war with the Federal Aviation Administration over the too-tall high-rise he is building near Kearny Mesa's Montgomery Field and two towers he's proposing for Harbor Island near Lindbergh Field, Sunroad Enterprises' Aaron …

Padres owner and nominal Democrat John Moores is hedging his bets in the presidential race. On March 30 and 31, he is listed as giving a total of $4600 to Hillary Clinton's "exploratory committee." On …

When the board of directors of downtown's private Harborside School announced last week they were shutting it down because there wasn't enough money to pay the bills, no one was more disappointed than headmaster Stephen …

Anybody who's tried to sign on to municipal Wi-Fi in San Diego knows there isn't any. While other big cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle forge ahead with ambitious plans to provide residents and …