Follow the confidential e-mail trail.

Four years ago, the City of San Diego hired Republican Patrick Garahan, a Coronado-based lobbyist, to persuade the United States Congress to pay for a multimillion-dollar pedestrian bridge. The bridge would link downtown's Petco Park …

When beer magnate Pete Coors was pulled over in May by a Colorado cop for drunk driving, officials at UCSD probably weren't too sympathetic. Coors and his hard-partying siblings, heirs to the beer empire bearing …

Spending too much time waiting for freight trains to cross César E. Chávez Parkway (formerly Crosby Street) at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal in Barrio Logan? So apparently are staffers for the Port of San …

Backers of moving San Diego International Airport to Miramar put their identities and some of their money on the table earlier this week, as revealed in a financial disclosure report filed Monday by the "Coalition …

Divorce is seldom a happy event, and UCSD has been especially hard-hit this year. Campus counsel Ann Parode has split with her husband of 16 years, R.B. "Buzz" Woolley, the wealthy La Jolla financier and …

Among the expenses of the Brian Bilbray congressional campaign is a payment of $1137.75 to Dogs R Us of Richmond, Virginia, for "food for fundraising event" on June 30. But don't worry, the Washington lobbyists …

The fortunes of San Diego city taxpayers may be in free fall as city hall awaits long-delayed audits and possible indictments of city officials in the great retirement-fund scandal, but city-council staffers aren't feeling the …

While Union-Tribune editorial writers and the United States Marines gear up for a nasty electoral fight this fall over a Miramar airport, Leon Campbell has another idea. The La Jolla lawyer has long been peddling …

A group of San Diego Democrats has put together an organization intended to match the local GOP's Lincoln Club in fundraising prowess and ideological pragmatism. According to a blurb on its website, the newly hatched …

The sentencing of John D'Intino, ex-cook, gun dealer, and onetime chief aide de camp to San Diego Cheetahs strip-club owner Mike Galardi, has been put off yet again, this time until September 28. The voluble …

Connecticut Democrat Connecticut Democrat Joe Lieberman, Al Gore's VP candidate in 2000 and Middle East hardliner, is locked in a tough Senate primary race with liberal Ned Lamont, a rabid opponent of the war in …

Bay-front developer Doug Manchester, who has taken to calling himself "Papa Doug," has made a big chunk of his multimillion-dollar fortune doing deals with the Port of San Diego. The onetime life-insurance salesman found his …

San Diego's city ethics commissioners and staff have filed their annual statements of economic interest for 2005, revealing a raft of gifts. Executive director Stacey Fulhorst reports getting "2 invites to a party" from San …

While Democratic candidates for governor were bloodying themselves in their bitter spring primary battle, GOP incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger was quietly building up his campaign war chest. As usual, San Diego Republicans, along with some Democrats, …

On his official website, San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders solemnly promises that he will run an open government, featuring what he calls "transparent decision-making." But some of his people apparently haven't gotten the message. Take …

San Diego's On Broadway Event Center, famous for its glitzy disco action, has been sanctioned by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission for allegedly failing to properly report $12,931.26 in campaign contributions it made to …

After that hot trudge across the parking lot to wait in the long lines at the gates of the San Diego County Fair, do you dream of being appointed to the board of the 22nd …

Ex-Democratic state senator Dede Alpert, once mentioned as a possible San Diego mayoral candidate, is making waves in the state's capital by promoting the interests of the cable TV industry without bothering to register as …

One of the biggest local donors to a single cause so far this political season has been R.B. "Buzz" Woolley, the La Jolla investor, who gave $94,700 to the EdVoice Independent Expenditure Committee on April …

As of early this week, only one campaign committee weighing in on the move of San Diego International Airport from Lindbergh to Miramar had filed its official papers with the county registrar of voters. A …

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders has quietly approved a $50,000 contract to appraise the 80 acres under Qualcomm Stadium owned by the city's Water Department, which holds it in trust for the benefit of its …

San Diego Metropolitan magazine is out with its annual issue dedicated to the "Tribute to Women and Industry," a dinner run by the YWCA recognizing local female professionals. Part of the celebration includes dozens of …

Each new chapter of the bribery scandal that began last June with the unmasking of now-imprisoned former GOP congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham seems to bring a new local character to light, revealing to the nation …

Someone's been out polling on the airport issue, paying a Houston, Texas, public opinion survey company an unknown amount of money to conduct an elaborate 30-minute telephonic question-and-answer session with likely voters about their position …

Architect Homer Delawie, who survived his share of scandal and political heat during many years as one of then-San Diego mayor Pete Wilson's appointees to the planning commission -- including long-ago battles over the future …

Medicine is very lucrative for physician Jim Dunford, part-time medical director of the City's Emergency Medical Services. According to his statement of economic interests, filed March 15, Dunford, professor of clinical medicine and surgery at …

How hard is it to get information out of San Diego State University? Very, says attorney Anne Brunkow, an opponent of the school's plan to build 540 units of faculty housing and a hotel in …

Oakland mayor Jerry Brown, the ex-governor and former presidential candidate now regarded as favored to capture the Democratic nomination for state attorney general in next week's primary, has been picking up sizable support from some …

With less than a week to go until the June 6 primary, last-minute money continues to roll into local campaign coffers. Among the more notable contributors, Rancho Santa Fe's Robert Spencer Douglass. Douglass owned the …

Congress has been busy talking about reforming its ethics in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal, but that hasn't stopped a lot of members from hitting the road thanks to freebies offered by lobbyists, …

After more than a year of preparation, the City of San Diego is about to introduce electronic filing, which will allow the citizenry to look up and sort through the campaign finance disclosure records of …

Last-minute money continues to pour into local congressional campaigns. The latest donations, made in the last week, include many from big corporate interests. On May 18 Republican Brian Bilbray, running against Democrat Francine Busby, posted …

A popular part-time teacher of advertising in the School of Communication at San Diego State University has been dumped, and he claims it's because old-line professors were upset that he criticized the system that guarantees …

Despite a bit more reportorial enterprise and jazzy Sunday front pages, circulation at the Union-Tribune continues its long decline. According to numbers released last week by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, in the six-month period …

San Diego's legislative delegation continues to chow down and otherwise carouse at the expense of the Third House, Sacramento's nickname for the horde of free-spending lobbyists who frequently exercise more power over the fate of …

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders has filed a disclosure statement covering the income and expenses of the Inaugural and Transition Fund, set up in late January by a group of wealthy donors. It was ostensibly …

That big two-page ad in the Sunday Union-Tribune of April 16 touting San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders's proposed budget was the brainchild of Pam Hardy, "communications director" for Councilman Scott Peters, according to documents obtained …

Padres owner John Moores has given $100,000 to Rebuilding California, a so-called issue advocacy committee controlled by state senate leader Don Perata. Since the beginning of February, Democrat Perata has raised $570,000 to promote his …

The timing couldn't be better, at least from the standpoint of termed-out San Diego assemblyman Juan Vargas, who's trying to unseat congressional incumbent Bob Filner in June's 51st District primary election. At the same moment …

The National Republican Congressional Committee has launched a barrage of negative TV spots against 50th Congressional District Democratic candidate Francine Busby in order to soften her up for June's runoff against ex-GOP congressman Brian Bilbray. …

By far the best-traveled member of San Diego County's congressional delegation is Darrell Issa, who ranks 24th among all House members on a list of taxpayer-paid travel compiled on Washington's PoliticalMoneyLine website. Since 2001, multimillionaire …

High flyers Top members of the San Diego airport authority's board have been traveling in style. Example number one: when Bill Lynch, Joe Craver, and Xema Jacobson went back to Washington this February in a …

Deep cover Backers of moving San Diego International Airport out of Lindbergh Field insist that they are going about their business in full public view. But sources inside the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority …

Triple bogey, redux The San Diego city property agent who blew the whistle on a pending sweetheart lease renewal for Carlton Oaks Golf Course has been fired, and the timing of the move -- sanctioned …

Il duce During the past two decades, since political consultant Tom Shepard was forced to plead guilty to campaign-law-related violations in the 1985 political money-laundering case against his ex-client, fallen San Diego mayor Roger Hedgecock, …

Close up on the man at the helm of our ten-campus university system.

Triple bogie Call it a small piece of good news for San Diego taxpayers: a bid to renew the sweetheart lease of the Carlton Oaks Golf Course has been thwarted by a recently hired property …

Crooks like them What did the feds know and when did they know it? That Nixon-era catchphrase might also apply to the ongoing intrigue enveloping the end stage of the Randy "Duke" Cunningham bribery scandal. …

Friend in a high place Two secretive brothers in La Jolla and some associates in west Texas stand to add to their fortunes if their friend George W. Bush prevails in his initiative to push …