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Fine meat abounds at Siesel’s
Siesel's has a Clairemont vibe and neighborhood-y location, but its contents remind me of the old La Jolla Jonathan's Market and its smaller predecessor Jurgenson's, both gone now. Great meat and weird stuff in that back freezer, but also Bread & Cie bread and German Christmas spice cookies and much more packed into a small space. Plus very helpful and friendly workers, butchers, cashiers. A wonderful store.— December 13, 2015 9:10 p.m.
UCSD's $516,000 temporary executive
I love it -- "a temporary increase of 43.7% in interim target cash compensation" for Ms. Maysent while she's filling the expensive shoes of UCSD's hastily-departed Dr. Viviano. Aside from UCSD's amusing convoluted description of the deal, the only saving grace in this story is that they were smart enough to ante up equal pay for the the female temp.— December 11, 2015 3:03 p.m.
More golf courses are closing than opening
I have to admit I am irrationally disappointed to read that Patrick has taken up golf. I can see roadrunners, coyotes and birds for free in Anza-Borrego. Golf courses in CA use a lot of water and golf is a game for hard-drinking old white guys who used to be in fraternities at USC.— December 10, 2015 6:21 p.m.
KPBS and U-T plug Jacobs airport-moving scheme
What was "ugly" about a statement of fact? Do you really think that change was embraced by Marine brass? It was mandated by the Secretary of Defense.— December 8, 2015 6:34 p.m.
Restaurant chain thrives; owner’s flagship dies
Sammy Ladeki closed Roppongi shortly after a "kitchen fire" closed his Sammy's Woodfired Pizza, also located in La Jolla. The latter still has not reopened. Seems fishy to me....— December 8, 2015 6:27 p.m.
The best way to experience Handel’s Messiah is at a sing-along
Three hours of the Bach Collegium's "Messiah" at the North County Greek Orthodox Church of Saints Helen and Constantine last weekend was gloriously not a communal sing-along or learning experience of the sort you describe. Bach Collegium Director Ruben Valenzuela provided brilliant soloists, an excellent chorus and wonderful musicians playing period instruments in a twinkly-mosaic-filled church. There were some sleeping children, but every sentient adult left a better person without having sung a note. Too bad you missed it.— December 8, 2015 6:22 p.m.
From Broad's mouth: Rupert was wrong
At what point do we quit speculating and just accept that any "deal" may be non-existent, preliminary or impossible to call because of financial complexities and the hard-ball principals, Eli Broad and Tribune Company? This is getting old.— December 8, 2015 6:04 p.m.
KPBS and U-T plug Jacobs airport-moving scheme
Malin Burnham was crowing on the radio about how wonderful a Pendleton airport would be for residents of Riverside and other areas of OC. Thanks a lot, Gumby, for reviving this zombie idea which, even if it is undead, will never happen. I also heard that the "study" claims Lindbergh Field will have outgrown its site within about 20 years, which must be labeled the barefaced lie that it is. Nobody fact-checks anything anymore. Stay strong, Marines, even if Jacobs' Semper Fi boy Nathan Fletcher comes around, lobbying for a change of venue. You've had to accept women in the ranks, but you can hang on to your real estate.— December 7, 2015 10:38 p.m.
Murdoch says L.A. Times to be sold
We seldom cavil with esteemed financial writer Bauder, but the original objective of charter schools was to prevent fed-up voters from passing vouchers -- an idea born of public dissatisfaction/desperation over declining public education quality which continues today. Vouchers would have taken public tax dollars and dispersed them to any fly-by-night or even private or parochial school that put in for the funds. Voters rejected extreme vouchers but okayed charters. Charters were to be a middle way to prevent wholesale dismantling of the public school system. Charter schools tend to be non-union, student-centered, communal in feeling and enjoy strong parental support. Maybe that's why Eli Broad is interested in financing a raft of charters in beleaguered Los Angeles. It's the California Teachers Association, the most powerful lobby in Sacramento, who says charters are designed to break unions. At present, public school teachers' unions have a contractual lock on teacher hiring, firing, school and classroom assignment, work hours, compensation and standards for teacher dismissal. Unionized California public school teachers have had a quid pro quo going for years: highest salaries in the country in return for largest class sizes in the country -- compounded by California's rock-bottom per capita education spending per child. It provides a living for teachers, but the result is a lousy education for most children.— November 29, 2015 9:53 p.m.
Murdoch says L.A. Times to be sold
Eli Broad is one of a bunch of self-made billionaires (Jacobs, Gates, Walton, Bloomberg, others) who support charter schools. Charter schools are publicly-funded public schools loosely accountable to the district or state that charters them and to their own federation. Charter schools usually (though not always) have no teachers' union -- or encumbering union rules that uniformly determine teachers' economic status but have no relation to the academic status of students in classrooms. In general, charter schools have a record of mixed academic success -- no different from the traditional public school system's track record anywhere. Some local charters are academically demanding and serve first-time college candidates such as UCSD's Preuss School. Some are organized along lines of business-style project-based learning like High Tech High and its middle schools. Some are foreign language-immersion schools like Einstein Academy. Others, such as Gompers and O'Farrell, draw students from poor communities of color, enjoy charismatic devoted leadership and deep support from parents who are grateful to have their kids in an attentive, orderly, caring, academic environment. Some charters have failed because of financial mismanagement, or for other fiscal reasons -- such as one sponsored by our own SDEA teachers union and one formed but never launched by the San Diego Chamber of Commerce after seed-money was spent. The problem with Eli Broad as a publisher is not his support for charter schools, but his known autocratic personal style, lack of newspaper experience and possibly cavalier attitude toward the notion of respect for independent journalism. I heard a joke this afternoon that newspaper obituaries are now called "subscriber countdowns." I hope to see SoCal civic honcho Eli Broad publishing the LA Times and the Union-Tribune rather than the rapacious Tribune Company out of Chicago. The waiting is excruciating and I hope the sale happens soon. The charter school thing is a a red herring.— November 28, 2015 4:55 p.m.