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Kratom crackdown
But, but, but . . . it's a natural product. And natural things are good for you, aren't they? Just the way pot is good for you, which is a natural substance. There are thousands of unregulated "natural" products out there on the market, and most are generally harmless, and a few may be beneficial. But the way they are marketed so often, with claims of "clinical proof" that they work, makes me wary. Is there a happy medium between banning a product and just letting it be sold, regardless of the things that are known about its hazards? Maybe requiring that it be sold with warnings and cautions would be the way. But then, since many users of the herbal materials are suspicious of anything coming from government and/or the pharmaceutical industry, would such warnings be heeded?— February 9, 2018 7:33 a.m.
Gas-tax repeal campaign prompts motorists to drive
How many of those who lined up actually purchased any fuel? You can only move those lines about so fast, and many who lined up probably fumbled around and took their time. Costco manages the keep their lines moving and one reason is that there are no window cleaning supplies provided. And all the well-trained Costco members know how to get to the pump, swipe the Costco card, pause, swipe the credit or debit card, grab the hose, select the grade, and start the flow and do it quickly. I'd love to get a tankful of 87 octane for that price myself, but the deal sounded like a real mess to run, and I passed on it. Now I'm happy I did.— February 8, 2018 2:24 p.m.
Rabobank banked millions in untraceable cash
The notion that a corporation can plead guilty to a crime, let alone a felony, is a strange concept. People employed by Rabobank were those who failed to obey the laws about handling large amounts of cash, and it was those same people or others also employed who impeded the examination. Yet there's no mention of any of them being personally charged, and if a case could be made that the bank broke the law, it was by tracing actions of individuals. It looks as if the Dutch bankers are as slimy, dishonest, and crooked as the Swiss.— February 8, 2018 2:18 p.m.
SDSU: to Tbilisi with love
A careful reading of the comments, as quoted, makes me conclude that Hirshman undertook this on his own. Then he refused to comply with internal CSU procedures for review and approval. If the comments from the CSU vice- chancellor, Larry Mandel, are true, the CSU had ample grounds to fire Hirshman for cause, more than a year ago. It didn't do that, and allowed him to find another academic perch back East. This is the absolute first mention I've seen or heard about the connection to Central Asia. How about the rest of you? The funds expended were all or partly state or student funds, and had no controls in place. How about that Hirsh got approval first from either the chancellor, or better yet the board of trustees? Doesn't look as if either was the case. Yes, Rich Gibson, SDSU needs a satellite campus in Chula Vista for more than one in Central Asia, in the former Soviet Union. That's what makes all this more outrageous.— February 7, 2018 7:10 p.m.
Tronc planning to sell L.A. Times and Union-Tribune
I have to correct my comment about the shut-down of the Mission Valley printing operation. It wasn't Manchester who did it, it was tronc. Manchester kept the building in Mission Valley and wanted to do other things with it. So, the U-T moved out and when it did the printing went to a LA Times plant.— February 7, 2018 8:03 a.m.
Broadcom makes another Qualcomm offer
Yes, in that post-Cold War defense industry downturn, GD unloaded many divisions and just shuttered others. The impact in San Diego was large. "The Susan" was mayor at the time, and we heard scarcely a peep from her, other than an occasional expression of regret about another closure. You need to contrast that with the reaction from local pols of all levels whenever the squids or jarenes trim the staffing levels. Lose a few billets from the local economy and the howling is intense. Yet most of those billets are enlisted ones, don't pay all that well, and have a negative impact on the local governments due to the amount of public resources they consume. It makes no sense at all, but it has always been that way here, and will probably stay that way. Losing Qualcomm as a locally headquartered operation will be devastating in some sectors of employment, and will make a huge hit if/when it comes. But that seems the way of San Diego: pioneer an industry or at least create a powerhouse operation, and it gets bought up or bought out by some corporation from elsewhere, and it ends up shrunken or moved away.— February 6, 2018 9:25 p.m.
Tronc planning to sell L.A. Times and Union-Tribune
Does he really think he can make a profit from newspapers? David Copley realized too late that the paper wasn't profitable and unloaded it. (There was some real estate packaged up wasn't there?) Platinum managed to screw up the paper worse than it already was, and yet flipped it to Dougo M for more than they paid. He tried to make a go of the papers (bought the North County Times and watched ti evaporate when he shut it down.) And now we have tronc. None have turned the papers around and/or made them profitable again. Those papers are, as it stands now, essentially worth nothing. If he wants to play philanthropist and run the papers on a break-even basis or at a slight loss, that might be a worthy effort. But he shows none of the characteristics of a typical philanthropist. Those U-T employees quoted are whistling in the graveyard. When Platinum sold it to Manchester, he soon shut down the presses and moved printing to a consolidated plant to the north. Didn't we learn that one hundred, more or less, workers lost their printing jobs? Those won't be coming back, and if any of the editorial folks are trimmed, those jobs don't come back. It's all downhill from here in that industry as it circles the drain.— February 6, 2018 8:33 p.m.
Broadcom makes another Qualcomm offer
The regulatory "uncertainty" is very likely regulatory certainty, where it is certain that some key regulator will refuse to allow it. I'm no fan of Qualcomm as you know, but Broadcom doesn't look like the solution to anything.— February 5, 2018 11:18 a.m.
The ol' annual Super Bowl shakedown
So often when some controversial use of funds comes along, a reporter will dutifully say how the misuse of government money is going to "hurt people." All this public funding of sports palaces falls, or should fall, into that category. To take that to an extreme, would putting $ millions into a stadium not take food out of the mouths of babes, medical care away from the critically ill, shelter away from the innocent homeless children, teachers out of the classroom, and on and on and on? Of course. But how often has a newspaper, news magazine, TV station, or anything else in the mainstream media ever taken up the cause in that way? It must have happened sometime along the line, but on the whole it is rare to nonexistent. No, for those media outlets, sports fans are their mainstay, and they don't rock the boat. Will it ever change? Maybe, but I don't expect a sea change soon.— February 4, 2018 7:32 p.m.
Policeman punched at Patriot Picnic protest
If it really matters to you, and I wonder if it does, you can be assured that anyone who does anything to upset a cop gets the book thrown at him/her. But with the current release policies, whatever the sentence is, the perp will serve no more than half of it, and likely even less.— February 4, 2018 7:22 p.m.