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Supreme Court Justice Asks: Who Passed Bribe?
The state only needs to prove that the pension board members acted differently because of some consideration they received aside from their statutory salaries. You don't even need to prove who, exactly, did the bribing. (The law assumes that everyone knows that public officers get salaries, and that those salaries by themselves are not a bribe to do anything but give honest service. If it were only so.) Fortunately, a jury decides whether the board strayed. It'll be a very tough case to prove unless a board member can be flipped or e-mails or notes give away their thoughts. Of course the case is toast if the state Supreme Court decides that enhanced emoluments awarded mid-term to one public body from another are, as a matter of law, always innocent grants. This unseemly appearance of inter-agency bribery is one reason why the President and Congress cannot get mid-term raises. We'll not distinguish San Diego's public officers by comparing them to the President, but you get the idea.— November 5, 2009 2:49 p.m.
Here's A New One: U-T Owners Understate Claimed Readership
They continue to cling to the ancient "Sign On San Diego" brand, as though it were a bad idea to be too closely associated with the Union-Tribune name. They're going to have a difficult time unifying their news products as long as they have no integrated branding. Readers might rightly wonder what the difference is. (Maybe they should, but that's another matter.)— November 3, 2009 10:13 a.m.
Fabiani Quote Suggests Chargers L.A. Move May Be Done Deal
To #8: Have you ever seen the City of Industry? There's no environment to ruin. Just freeway interchanges and the concrete-lined San Gabriel River. Not exactly the Everglades.— October 23, 2009 3:08 p.m.
Fabiani Quote Suggests Chargers L.A. Move May Be Done Deal
San Diego residents have no one to blame but themselves for this mess. The Chargers saw the city -- which is in a severe financial bind -- lie prostrate for the Padres' outrageous stadium demands. They drew the obvious conclusion: Threats work. When the Chargers cynically moved their training camp to Carson from U.C.S.D. in 2003, the city again went into a panic despite the obvious nature of the ploy. One of the smoggiest places in Southern California was never going to be a permanent venue for a serious NFL franchise. Meanwhile there is no evidence that the City of Industry proposal will get any commercial financing, nor is it obvious how the Chargers plan to market their product in a city that failed to support two previous NFL teams and one AFL team -- the selfsame Los Angeles Chargers (a pass-happy team led by Sid Gillman in 1960). One can argue that L.A. is just not a football town: Los Angeles's support for college teams has been lukewarm since the 1960s (Cal States Fullerton and CSU Long Beach finally dropped football altogether) and large crowds and souvenir marketing is generally limited to USC and UCLA. Los Angeles politicians know that supporting football doesn't garner votes there, and even the City of Industry's mayor seems to be motivated by personal financial gain rather that vote-getting. Let the Chargers depart the sixth-largest city in the United States. SD State could use Sundays to practice at The Q.— October 23, 2009 1:46 p.m.
Fabled Borrego Springs Resort, Development May Close Nov. 30
From the Borrego Ranch Resort & Spa web site: "Borrego Ranch Resort & Spa is Southern California's newest luxury resort destination offering a blend of simple pleasures and extraordinary experiences for adults only." No kiddies, it seems. Some resort.— October 22, 2009 7:39 p.m.
Fabled Borrego Springs Resort, Development May Close Nov. 30
When making a reservation, potential guests are greeted with this warning: "*Borrego Ranch is an adult oriented property, we welcome guests 18 years of age and older. Should you cancel within 7 days prior to your arrival - your deposit will be forfeited. A one night deposit is required at the time of reservation for all rooms and casitas." Not exactly the kind of warm, welcoming message and generous terms that will attract visitors to a troubled business. With room charges of $250 to $500 per night, I'd say they are doing everything exactly wrong. No one wants to lose $500 if they get the flu a few days before vacation, and no mother wants to be told that she can't take her 16-year-old daughter on a spa getaway.— October 21, 2009 6:59 a.m.
Copley La Jolla Headquarters, Library for Sale
While working at the old SD Union I once tried to make an appointment to browse the famous Copley library during a trip to Copley HQ in La Jolla. The curt response was that because I wasn't engaged in legitimate academic research, I could not be admitted. I tried to point out that Helen Copley employed me as a reporter and that I was constantly conducting research in the course of said employment, but to no avail. No such attitude at the Rancho Penasquitos branch library!— October 14, 2009 5:41 a.m.
Scholar Says He Is "Misrepresented" in Convention Task Force Report
Conventions are very good at several things: 1) Creating many temporary or seasonal low-paying service jobs. Most people forget for that every day of an active convention, there is a built-in move-in and move-out period of two days followed by many hiatus days between conventions. This is not a "normal" job for most unskilled workers. 2) Causing excess hotel capacity immediately around the convention center. 3) Creating endless municipal and state subsidies, since the highly competitive market for hosting conventions inevitably leads to bidding wars for high-profile customers such as political parties. 4) Corruption, caused by the unavoidable hiatuses between conventions. This leads unions and contractors to artificially maximize their income during the relatively few peak activity periods. 5) Most conventions only use part of a convention center. Very few customers book the entire building. This means that larger convention centers must book more conventions to sell their annual inventory of floor space. It is not unusual for some huge convention centers to book three or four different customers simultaneously and still have unsold facilities. Build it and they will come? Who is "they"?— August 29, 2009 3:27 p.m.
U-T to Stay in Mission Valley for Now; Vows Return to Profitability
Mrs_Abbott_was_right: Setting aside perceptions of the pep rally and guesswork about Don's sources, the U-T faces some daunting problems that are incontrovertible: The layoffs have dismembered the newsroom, drastically reducing the experience level and the number of people who produce a very labor-intensive product; lack of capital investment has left the U-T at a severe technical disadvantage -- among other things, it is the largest daily newspaper in North America that is not paginated by computers, which greatly affects is ability to repackage and resell the newsroom output; its web site suffers from being tied to an ancient newsroom editorial system; the U-T has no significant strategic news partners; the U-T has virtually no aftermarket sales (archives sales, primarily); circulation has plunged; the senior editors have no history of producing the kind of independent journalism that attracts loyal readers in both print and on the web; and the U-T is trapped in an early 1970s building that is both in a flood plain and lacks amenities that potential renters might find attractive, including adequate parking (even with the layoffs). The new ownership brought in consultants who themselves own newspapers that are in poor financial condition, and they paid a price that is indicative of a fire sale; the Copleys obviously thought this was the best price they could get. The fact that looming (and vitally necessary) capital investments will probably cost a significant percentage of the sales price tells me that Platinum took this into account when negotiating with the Copley kids. Toss into this mix the marketing, circulation and production departments that must basically reinvent themselves in the next few months, since everything they know is being scrapped in the hyperlocalism plan. And that's not to mention any debts that Platinum assumed, including pensions, nor cost of rebuilding a reputation that has been deeply scarred by both the bad layoff publicity and the Copley's decades-long litany of self-inflicted wounds. I believe that any sober analyst would conclude that the U-T can be saved, but only with further major restructuring and extremely painful personnel changes. At least that's my take.— August 19, 2009 7:22 p.m.
U-T to Stay in Mission Valley for Now; Vows Return to Profitability
To #38: Fair enough. Pep rallies are a legitimate part of rebuilding morale. But U-T needs major capital investments. A news pagination system -- which allows rapid page layout and output in various formats -- is probably a $5 to $10 million investment (including training for both the news and production staffs) for a paper the size of the U-T. Unfortunately, the major systems are European and the dollar is weak. A new web site is several million more. A news and photo assignment database tied to BlackBerries and reporters' other telecom devices is $100,000 to $800,000, depending on the functionality. And that's not to mention a video and audio content management system; a new archive sales system to help the U-T get revenue from reselling its news and photos over and an over 9though a third party can do this, for a substantial cut of the action); the cost of digitizing the Union and Tribune archives; or a general upgrade to the corporate network to support all of the above. Lowering costs and boosting morale makes sense, but Platinum better keep its checkbook handy -- and not just to write severance payments.— August 18, 2009 11:19 a.m.