Detective "Vaguely" Recalls Threat against Kessler, Family

I am curious if statements made in both the mayoral and the above depositions resulted in additional depositions being taken afterward, around the time that City of San Diego requested additional discovery time. I don't need to know anything more than that, as that would tell me that defendant City will have sought the kind of supporting documentation to justify what I see coming as a seven or even eight-figure settlement to avoid trial. I can't imagine that anybody with a legal mind will allow any sort of personal exposure to liability in this mess but would definitely want to appear duly diligent here... even to the point of discovering the truth of parties still undisclosed but possibly necessary for inclusion at trial as implicated under oath.
— December 31, 2010 10:19 a.m.

SDG&E’s Escondido Transformer Fire Nontoxic?

Escondido residents can only hope for a non-toxic evaluation by state regulators. The good cheer of the holiday season prevents me from commenting on the California Department of Toxic Substance Control handling of things that led to guilty verdicts in the federal environmental crimes matter of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. SDG&E (2007, dismissed before new trial): http://www.justice.gov/usao/cas/press/cas70713-SD…
— December 30, 2010 11:46 a.m.

CCDC Paying For Convention Center Development A Wise Move? You Bet!

For a different view (with a Maasian twist), see today's Sunday paper for the lead editorial "A redevelopment revolt turns ugly": http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/26/a-… If CCDC is all that it's cranked up to be at the U-T, then can somebody please tell us why it takes private donations and a sky-high charter high school without proper seismic considerations to get private donors and the unified school district (which coincidentally lost millions in funding from the secret Sacramento Fletcher earmark) contributing tens of millions before San Diego can get a new main library built downtown INSIDE THE CCDC PROJECT AREA? Obviously, libraries of any sort are not happening without passing the hat, even with CCDC around...
— December 26, 2010 12:29 p.m.

A Mentally-Ill Man Looks at Christmas

It is no small thing to bring one's past into the present light. There are blessings for the one who brings good news to others, and it is not surprising that God grants us now at the end of this age the tool of the Internet to communicate in a manner that is at the same time intensely personal and triumphantly global. There is a prophecy of an abomination that will be made known around the world, at the same instant. That prophecy may have already been fulfilled. May we have the chance to speak truth for others to hear. There is a truth in the coming together of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and all other people who believe in the truth of the Creator of all things seen and unseen. There are truths on this web page that may not be wished by certain ones of us to be known, but they are truths nonetheless. I do not rigorously practice the old Yaqui ways of my distant ancestors in Mexico, but there is a concept of who a wise man is, one who can find a comfortable place to be and observe the connections between every single thing without getting spun away. I believe that the connections are themselves real things, as are the connections between connections, so that wisdom becomes not a destination but a path to the Creator in whom all things are connected; otherwise, not seeing the connections between ourselves and all children can be a tragic thing for an entire nation. Interestingly enough, in a left handed tantric way, this path (at least for me) must at some point be one and the same with the the coming to God of Abraham through the teachings in the Gospel, not to say that we all must become part of any particular sect in a given family of religions to get along, but if we are to have the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of true eternal happiness, then we must come to know God as the reason for the season. I am not hear to convert anybody, as we are deep enough into the 4th quarter that time will expire soon, and we might as well be honest about who we are when the belief in God is confirmed by empirical science, something that has still yet to become a tool for finding all of the connections that be. At the same time, the reason for the season is to show all of us that the Path is there, waiting for us to travel it to the Tree of Life, to become part of the Tree of Life and be protected under its outreaching branches. God is God. God of Abraham is great. Eventually, peace on Earth and goodwill toward all of us who survive the pruning of dead branches from the Tree of Life.
— December 24, 2010 4:50 a.m.

CCDC Paying For Convention Center Development A Wise Move? You Bet!

This clueless commentary writer is receiving an education by comment... especially with the live link to the Pat Flannery piece. Given the Legislature's finding on redevelopment's fundamental purpose to increase low income housing, was the Fletcher earmark a clever circumvention of prior legislative intent? RE "ReDev Project Area can spend its Low/Low Mod. Funds EITHER inside its own boundaries or in another ReDev. Area... This is why Liberty Station (NTC | Naval Training Center) is not building ANY Low/LowMod housing in it's ReDev. Project Area": This opens up a major political issue in general. As for specifics, we can ask this: Is Liberty Station "too good" for low income housing, and if so, says who and why? If not there, then where is good enough? Is it enough?
— December 23, 2010 7:13 p.m.

Grantville Redevelopment Money Transfer Ruled Permissible

If the funding transfer from Grantville to County's administration building in CCDC's project area is affirmed on final judgment, then it appears that CCDC ought to be responsible for the transfer of City of San Diego general fund revenues as tax increment funds diverted from public safety and needed infrastructure repaits into Convention Center redevelopment debt servicing. If CCDC can't afford the merely $9.2 million annual payment for that Convention Center debt servicing, then there is no way that there can be hundreds of millions in CCDC coverage of a new NFL stadium downtown any time soon. It's either that, or I am in serious need of a math tutor who can make sense of CCDC financing and is also not clueless about Health & Safety Code municipal redevelopment law...
— December 23, 2010 2:53 p.m.

CCDC Paying For Convention Center Development A Wise Move? You Bet!

So let's look at the logic here in SanDiegoWatchDog's comment. ---- San Diego has a tax increment cap and becomes "the most successful redevelopment area in the country" when all other California redevelopment areas have no cap and must be by the same argument less successful. Now that the cap is removed, how does CCDC remain all that successful? Empirically, what prevents it from being like the rest of the redevelopment areas in California except more special legislation in Sacramento? ---- "In a redevelopment area, property owners pay the same property taxes as everywhere else, but in the case of a redevelopment area, upwards of 66% to 80% of the taxes they pay REMAIN in the redevelopment area for REINVESTMENT back into the area. That's how it works." In this "most successful redevelopment area in the country", just how many schools, police stations, libraries, fire houses, and health care facilities has CCDC built with its tax increment revenues, compared to the number of still-unsold condos that are slowly being converted to rentals? ---- "If you KILL the goose that lays the golden eggs, then you will have NO MORE seed money to bring more reinvestment into the redevelopment area. Improvements to downtown did not happen by themselves." So CCDC must therefore be the developers' corporate welfare bank that provides other peoples' money because developers risking their OWN money is obviously too much to ask in a free real estate market. That pretty much sums up what confidence developers have WITHOUT skimming billions in tax increment revenue off the City of San Diego general fund. Let's face it: the real reason why "improvements to downtown did not happen by themselves" is that virtually all developers are only PARTIAL DEVELOPMENT SPECIALISTS. Their concentration is on building housing units, not on building the appropriate infrastructure with those units that turns a collection of housing units into a functioning neighborhood... or maybe most of us were not looking when Prop. B passed regarding a place where schools, police stations, libraries, fire houses, and health care facilities do not exist per that area's design by the partial development specialist involved. HELLO AND BE AWARE, TAXPAYING VOTERS OF SAN DIEGO. Demand more up front, so that we are tax-incremented less for decades to come!
— December 23, 2010 1:08 p.m.

Diana Gonzalez Murder Case Prompts March on San Diego D.A.’s Office

I have made the point in other blog comments that not all of our best and brightest should be IN government but OUTSIDE LOOKING IN. or all we are is sheep waiting to be fleeced. The stature of our "peanut gallery" here is greatly enhanced by the presence of all who come with prior legislative, legal representation, AND judicial experience. Let freedom ring.
— December 23, 2010 11:48 a.m.

Division

Finding the trestle was no problem. It was trying to find the part of McCain Valley where the vehicle was afterward that emptied our canteens a day and many miles later! Since then for decades, I have never trusted anyone to shoot an azimuth and plot a course that I couldn't take care of myself!
— December 23, 2010 12:20 a.m.

Chargers: Look at Petco Park Failure

It's just a way of putting active links into comments as requested by laplayaheritage. Of course, I'm known for causing confusion!
— December 22, 2010 8:24 p.m.