Just weeks after San Diego State University emerged victorious in its $82 million bid to buy the city-owned land formerly known as Qualcomm Stadium, a closed-door power struggle has caused the resignation of San Diego's …

Residential sewer customers have been subsidizing San Diego's industrial wastewater control program, boosting the financial pain of those already stressed by years of faulty water billing by derelict city officials. Such are the findings of …

Politically incorrect Republican county supervisor Dianne Jacob, ending her career later this year due to term limits, is giving away wads of cash from her well-stocked campaign fund. Jacob collected the money over the years …

Otay Dreams In 1954 I sat on the school bus every day next to my best friend, Mark Robson. The ride home from Montgomery Elementary School in Otay was a straight shot east on Main …

A fog of intrigue has settled over San Diego city hall's muddled plans to redevelop the city-owned sports arena and surrounding real estate into a lucrative residential high-rise and pro-sports complex. It's a familiar story, …

Oceanside Laker Trump backer The COVID-19 pandemic may have cut the number of donations from San Diegans backing the reelection of president Donald Trump, but money continues to stream in. Among prominent contributors, per new …

He's said to be a friend of Mexico's president and one of the richest men in the country. He's the nephew of an ex-Tijuana mayor accused by many of being responsible for the killing of …

The sole Democrat on San Diego County's Board of Supervisors, onetime Assembly Republican Nathan Fletcher is looking to load up his county staff with social media and video makers to propel him to new political …

Liberally correct Just two days after a June 10 San Diego Reader report regarding Mercury Public Affairs and the controversial Los Angeles-based lobbying firm’s advocacy for a Tennessee ambulance company seeking a piece of San …

Trigger Happy or Just Plain Happy? Who is David Medina? Dressed neatly in a white oxford cloth shirt with a blue pullover sweater, David Medina, a.k.a. “Happy,” pursed his lips and appeared to listen closely …

More Moores wheels and deals Who will be the lucky bidder to turn the run-down, city-owned San Diego Sports Arena and dilapidated environs into a glitzy and lucrative forest of new high-rises? Judging by a …

COVID-19 has finally hit KPBS – the San Diego State University-controlled and funded public broadcasting operation – where it hurts: in the payroll. Three staff layoffs, along with a fifty percent cut in the hours …

Lobbying is way up at San Diego city hall. Anti-corruption enforcement by the city's Ethics Commission is another story. Those are the principal takeaways from the commission's June 11 meeting, held via online hookup due …

Faulconer’s Sara Jacobs play Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who has raised millions of dollars of special interest money for his nonprofit One San Diego, has a new politically related beneficiary. Per a June 5 filing with …

Does the growing budget of UCSD's campus police department need a closer look? So may show a new university audit calling out officials for failing to monitor employee overtime costs adequately. The report's findings coincide …

As the role of police labor unions has come under increasing scrutiny in the wake of the death of George Floyd, the financial means by which the organizations wield power and influence comes under the …

Lobbyist chasers A big-money battle over who will be San Diego’s next ambulance and paramedic service has heated up with the hiring of downtown super-lobbyist Clay Company by Knoxville, Tennessee-based Priority Ambulance, per a May …

Surrounded by controversies – from authoring anti-gig Assembly Bill 5 to a fiery tweet attacking Tesla's Elon Musk for reopening his car factory in the face of COVID-19 restrictions – Assembly Democrat Lorena Gonzalez may …

Street neighbor in the East Village Yes, I was on the street, but I was home-schooling my daughter. By John Brizzolara, July 26, 2013 When Vietnamese people say American they always mean white I grew …

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a bite out of San Diego's financial contribution to national politics, per the latest raw numbers posted online by the Federal Election Commission. From May 1 through May 20, those …

Richly Rath Phil Rath, the longtime Republican insider and close advisor to San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, continues to clean up on the local lobbying circuit, according to his latest personal statement of economic interests, …

After years of inaction, it took a countrywide inner-city meltdown and the political ambitions of termed-out San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer to end the city's long-controversial carotid restraint procedure, widely known as the chokehold. "We …

On May 5, San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott announced her office was joining a lawsuit against gig transit companies Lyft and Uber for violating Assembly Bill 5, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a fellow …

Lorena’s fantasy Disneyland has been closed since March 14, sending ripples of angst through the ranks of investors and tourists alike. But before the park locked its gates against the COVID-19 pandemic, a crew of …

San Diego politicos are finding some novel uses for federal COVID-19 bailout funds, judging from a review of coming city council agendas from the county's eighteen incorporated municipalities. In El Cajon, the police department wants …

Homeless convention When Measure C, a $5.8 billion convention center expansion and homeless relief plan to hike the tax on hotel stays, died at the polls last March, some backers vowed to challenge the public’s …

While a host of local public bodies are vowing to slash programs and lay off staff in the face of the financial onslaught that is the COVID-19 pandemic, the newly hatched San Diego Community Power …

Mommy, why are they shooting at us again? “I don’t take my kids to the park anymore on Sundays,” says Luís, a young Tijuana father of three — eight- and six-year-old sons, and a five-year-old …

San Diego State's growing contempt for undergrads “We have pulled resources out of undergraduate education in order to build expensive, elite PhD programs that cater to very few students proportionately." By Joe Deegan, March 27, …

Those wondering why Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s twitter attack on electric car and space rocket maven Elon Musk for opening his Tesla-making plant in violation of COVID-19 quarantine rules wasn't more widely endorsed by fellow Democrats …

Exceptional failures UCSD, unscathed by last year’s college bribery scandal, still has had its share of problematic admissions practices, says a March 31 report by the university’s Audit & Management Advisory Services unit. “UCSD did …

For better or worse, Lorena Gonzalez has long had a special way with tweets. Even before the rise of twitter-master Donald Trump, the Assembly Democrat, married to county supervisor Nathan Fletcher, has been sharing her …

As the battle between Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro and the Chinese government mounts regarding whether laboratories of the Wuhan Institute of Virology were ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic, one of his former academic …

Viral influence peddling The COVID-19 crisis continues to provide a cornucopia of new work for San Diego city hall lobbyists. Latest to benefit is the Intesa Communications Group, whose principals include Maddy Kilkenny, onetime aide …

Already under siege by cost overruns and litigious contractors, San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer's $1.4 billion plan to turn the city's sewage into drinkable water faces new doubts and questions of increased costs brought on …

As COVID-19 continues to ravage the world, officials at UCSD's Moores Cancer Center are no longer spending heavily on global travel and entertainment, at least for the time being. But just months before the pandemic …

Buy low, sell high The ostensibly humanitarian work of finding places for the city’s homeless legions to live during the COVID-19 onslaught may also be lining the pockets of some of San Diego’s wealthiest real …

The intra-partisan battle to succeed Democratic House member Susan Davis in California's 53rd Congressional district has taken a back seat to the COVID-19 pandemic. But already there is an emerging winner, at least when it …

Race for a big-bucks cure Newspaper advertising has fallen off, so billionaire Los Angeles physician Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, is using his papers to promote a …

90 Years of Curl Elwell says Kahanamoku surfed the OB Pier, and when he did, he asked a teenaged lifeguard named Charlie Wright if he could store his board in Wright's beach shack. By Jeannette …

When billionaire physician Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the L.A. Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, and a raft of other papers two years ago, many hoped that he was finally the Daddy Warbucks with enough free cash to …

Faulconer’s COVID-19 bust Add San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer to the list of locals hit directly in the pocketbook by the coronavirus shutdown of San Diego’s tourist business. Last year, Restaurant Events, the convention-related food, …

Due to talk of draconian layoffs appearing inevitable at San Diego city hall, insider attention is shifting to the expense of maintaining the political and public relations operatives employed by termed-out GOP mayor Kevin Faulconer. …

The San Diego hotel lobby has long used other peoples' money in the form of an ever-growing tax on transient room occupants to underwrite its developments and finance its powerful sway over city hall. Most …

It was a municipal battle of life and death, witnessed by the frightened citizenry of century-ago San Diego, crowded into the musty confines of city hall, an ornate Victorian building at the corner of Fifth …

Viral lobbyists Mega-developer H.G. Fenton Company became the first registered San Diego influence seeker to jump into the fray over the financial impact of coronavirus legislation. Fenton wants “new policies regarding eviction moratoriums during COVID-19,” …

A two-year-old lawsuit involving a ream of explosive sexual harassment allegations by an 18-year veteran of San Diego's fire and rescue department has been settled with a $525,000 payment quietly approved by the city council …

Fun with Ralph: Excerpts From a Busy Man's Calendar Councilman Inzunza’s frantic lunch hours. “Virtually every business day at the stroke of 12 noon, the 34-year-old councilman can be seen strolling out of his 12th-story …

Hillcrest: gayborhood or ghetto? “I was only in West Hollywood for four years and I came from the East Coast by way of Las Vegas,” he says. “To me, Hillcrest is just normal. At least …

A snap audit by agents for the Veterans Affairs inspector general has called out San Diego region Veterans Health Administration staffers for failing to properly screen visitors for the coronavirus and asserted that local V.A. …