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NFL lies about Super Bowl benefits
Aside from substance abuse problems, don't forget that the workers in both fields are artificially enhanced to proportions never approached in nature. The general audiences for both seem to care not a wit about the artificial enhancement, and in fact, workers of each often frequent the establishment of the other. Birds of a a hugely inflated feather, so to speak.— January 29, 2010 3:02 p.m.
Pension Costs Reach 69% of City Payroll, Says DeMaio
No, JWs pension is NOT going to be slashed, and it shouldn't be. Bankruptcy is no more going to relieve the city of its pension obligations than it relieves private companies of their 401k obligations. Goldsmith is (probably intentionally) confusing the issue, because in fact municipal BK can invalidate all of its union contracts. That would include voiding the current pension going forward, but would not change what the city is already obligated to pay its past and present employees for time worked through today. The two things that drive me absolutely batty about the pension mess: 1) The pension multiplier was increased retroactively. That should not be legal (whether or not it technically is) and should have been challenged in court. I don't like it, but I think the city is obligated to pay the higher multiplier for the years it was in effect, but not for the years before it was in effect when no increased payments were being made to cover them. 2) When the crisis first hit in 2004, the pension multipliers should have IMMEDIATELY reverted back to their prior levels for that time forward. It is one thing to pay the extra pension multiplier for the 5,10, (or whatever) years that it was in effect, but it is inexcusable that the increased multiplier has remained in effect for an additional 6 years.— January 21, 2010 8:40 p.m.
Wal-Mart's Sam's Club to Close Vista Store
Costco was established in San Diego very early on (through Price Club), and my understanding is that Walmart never wanted to compete with them in an already saturated San Diego market. What they wanted, was to use Sam's Club as a carrot to expand their lucrative Walmart Superstore business. My father-in-law in Orange County loves Sam's Club and never goes to Costco. That is because he can go there almost every morning and get his free coffee and muffins with no crowds whatsoever. Costco is always so packed that he doesn't want to deal with it. It's great for him, but I don't understand how they stay in business.— January 13, 2010 9:32 a.m.
Hedgecock Dropped by Los Angeles Station
Visduh said: "As I remember things, Hedgecock had that restaurant long before anyone was talking about a downtown ballpark" FYI: I looked up the ABC license for Rogers on Fifth, and it was first issued 15-OCT-1999. Before that it was the Blue Tattoo, under different ownership. It looks like Rogers on Fifth opened after Prop C but before Petco construction began. That was probably just speculation after the fact on his part. It makes sense that Hedgecock changed his public stance for the reason Don gave above.— January 12, 2010 8:45 p.m.
Hedgecock Dropped by Los Angeles Station
"As I remember things, Hedgecock had that restaurant long before anyone was talking about a downtown ballpark, and had probably closed it or sold his interest in it by that time" ================================================================ I don't know when he bought the restaurant, but I have a vivid recollection (which may be entirely different than an accurate one!) of him announcing his new restaurant on his show, and having an "aha" moment because it suddenly made sense why he had so obviously flipped his position. I do know (because I found a reference) that he sold his interest sometime around September 2002, which was 2-1/2years into the actual construction but before it opened in April of 2004. The campaign for Prop C started in 1997 and went through the election in November 1998, so a solid 4-5 years before he sold the restaurant. The radio slot mentioned by Don makes sense as a reason. He may have tried to cash in once he decided to change his stance. Either way, the timing sent up little red flags to me at the time.— January 12, 2010 7:58 p.m.
Hedgecock Dropped by Los Angeles Station
Don said "(We certainly didn't agree on subsidizing the Padres and Chargers! He was for it.)" I recall Hedgecock being rather negative on Petco at first, before flipping and becoming a cheerleader. Who knows what exactly happened behind the scenes to cause him to flip, but I do know that he opened a restaurant in the Gas lamp not long after. Either way, after that I didn't think much of his personal opinion on local matters.— January 12, 2010 3:26 p.m.
Wal-Mart's Sam's Club to Close Vista Store
My recollection is that Walmart had no real interest in building a Sam's Club in Vista, but agreed to do so in exchange for allowing them to build/expand Walmart superstores. I recall they waited to build the Sam's Club until they were threatened by whichever government agency made the deal (I can't remember whether it was Vista or the County). Maybe someone else has a better memory of how that went down.— January 12, 2010 9:48 a.m.
Hedgecock Dropped by Los Angeles Station
Don said: "Another factor is radio itself. It is sinking, although not as fast as daily newspapers." At least radio has a captive audience for commute times. There is competition from satellite, but that is still basically radio competing with itself. Its a bit like TV, where viewership is still high but the channels are diluted, as opposed to newspapers, where readership itself has dropped and gone to other types of media. Personally I am annoyed with the amount of syndication in radio and would be in favor of the FCC requiring a higher amount of local content. It seems highly appropriate that a large percentage of content should be sourced within the radio signal footprint itself as a requirement to hold a license. One of my favorite parts of traveling the country by car used to be listening to all the different local radio stations and getting a flavor of where I was. Now when I take a trip it seems I mostly find nationally syndicated blowhards.— January 12, 2010 8:53 a.m.
Hedgecock Dropped by Los Angeles Station
"When Roger's show went national I lost interest in listening, and switched to John & Ken on KFI AM 640" ========================================= I totally agree. Whether I agreed with him or not (and I found myself agreeing with his opinions less and less) he had excellent local knowledge and contacts. He brought interesting people together to talk about topics important to San Diego. I found he had nothing to add to national topics and haven't listened to him since the switch. I don't think he can now even recapture what he had going on locally. He made himself irrelevant.— January 11, 2010 10:56 p.m.
Roski Wants to Buy Bills or Jags Outright, or Parts of Other Teams Such as Chargers
Add'l response to #44: I forgot to add that basketball refs have an ability to massage a game that is probably only matched in major sports by a baseball umpire calling balls and strikes.— January 8, 2010 8:54 a.m.