Blackwater Cancels Expansion Plans
Mercenary firm Blackwater USA, under investigation for its alleged role in the killing of 11 Iraqis, has called off a $5.5 million deal to buy 1,800 acres near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for a training facility. Blackwater wants to put …
What's Behind U-T/Sanders Assault
A few weeks ago, City Attorney Mike Aguirre requested documents from the local public radio/TV station, KPBS. Those documents, which Aguirre has posted on his website, show poignantly how the Copley family's donations have slanted KPBS's news reports. (The station's …
Topside Shakeup at Copley?
Is the man who knows where the bodies are buried at Copley Press on the way out? Or out? According to a good source, attorney Karl ZoBell, who is on the Helen K. Copley revocable trust along with David Copley …
San Diego Slowly Grasps Water Crisis
San Diego imports about 90 percent of its water and big issues such as global warming and small issues such as tiny smelt make the situation perilous. Slowly, residents seem to be grasping the crisis. A poll by San Diego …
State Department Shields Blackwater
Blackwater USA, the mercenary firm that wants to build a training facility at Potrero in East County, is getting protection from the U.S. State Department. The company has been charged by the Iraqi government of killing 11 people in Baghdad. …
Why Sports Owners Deserve Welfare
John W. Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, has paid $16 million for an 18,000 square-foot home in tony Brookline, Massachusetts, not far from where Larry Lucchino, former Padres honcho, lives. For Henry, the $16 million home is a …
Sudden, Deep Slashes at U-T
The Union-Tribune suddenly slashed its newshole by 20 percent on Thursday of last week -- effective immediately. Stories in the works for Sunday were eviscerated. The Monday personal technology section, sports features and financial agate were slashed without notice. The …
Qualcomm Cheers; Market Yawns
Qualcomm says chip and phone sales will increase in its fourth quarter. This morning (Tuesday), it raised its earnings per share fourth quarter forecast to a range of 52 cents to 53 cents. Earlier, it had looked for 49 cents. …
In the Rough?
Stock of Callaway Golf lost 4 cents Monday to $15.81, even though Wedbush Morgan Securities said that the company's new products in 2008 should sell briskly, and the stock could hit $24. On the other hand, the Motley Fool notes …
Seattle Looking Like San Diego
Seattle Supersonics owner Clay Bennett has been hinting he will move the NBA team to Oklahoma City. He just filed to get arbitration. He says the KeyArena (completely rebuilt in 1994) is obsolete. The real complaint is that too much …
La Jolla and the Missing $9 Billion
Famed reporters Donald Barlett and James Steele report in the October 2007 issue of Vanity Fair how in the first fourteen months of the Iraq war, $12 billion in U.S. currency was shipped from the U.S. to the Coalition Provisional …
Four San Diegans Among Nation's Richest 400
Four San Diego County residents make this year's list of the 400 richest Americans as compiled by Forbes Magazine. Number 165 at $2.5 billion is Charles Brandes, the highly-successful money manager. Number 220 at $2.1 billion is Ernest Rady, who …
Filner Introduces Bill to Block Blackwater USA
Representative Bob Filner today (September 20) introduced a bill that, if passed, would effectively block mercenary firm Blackwater USA from building a training center in Potrero in East County. Potrero is in Filner's district, athough Blackwater has been getting a …
Shipione the Hero, San Diego the Goat -- Again
One again, Diann Shipione, the former whistle-blowing member of the City's pension system, has been proved right and her establishment San Diego critics proved wrong. On September 19, the Securities and Exchange Commission slapped pension adviser Callan Associates with a …
Does Channel 4 Only Want Establishmen Sopranos?
The city attorney's office is hitting pay dirt in its request for documents from local public radio and TV, KPBS. All along, one of the areas of interest is Cable Channel 4 televising the "Editors Roundtable" show. Channel 4 televises …
Rancho Santa Fe 3rd Priciest Zip Code
According to Forbes.com, Rancho Santa Fe has the third priciest zip code (92067) in the U.S. The median price on the ranch is $2.58 million. Tied for first place are Alpine in northern New Jersey and Fisher Island (Miami Beach) …
Rates Lower, but Will SD Housing Jump?
On September 18, the Federal Reserve unexpectedly lowered the federal funds rate by half a percentage point and the discount rate by the same amount. Wall Street was elated: stocks leapt 2.5 percent. Warning: the dollar continued to plummet and …
Blackwater License Being Pulled
The Iraqi government is revoking the license of Blackwater USA, the mercenary firm tht wants to put a training camp in East County's tiny Potrero. Iraqi officials said eight civilians were killed and 13 wounded when Blackwater contractors opened fire …
GAO To Criticize SEC
According to the Wall Street Journal, the General Accountability Office will shortly issue a report critical of the Securities and Exchange Commission over its firing of San Diegan Gary Aguirre. Two Senate subcommittees have already issued a joint report saying …
Naked Packing
Some say that Mayor Jerry Sanders's move to pack the charter review committee with a pro-establishment/real estate majority was slick. Make that sick. Not only does the overall committee have an establishment majority; so do the subcommittees. The five-person subcommittee …
Chargers Aim To Leave
Chargers' spokesman/lawyer Mark Fabiani, who wants people to believe he is intelligent, keeps letting the cat out of the bag at an inopportune time. For several years, the Chargers have been angling to desert San Diego. But they have to …
Market Rewards Good News
Stocks of three San Diego companies rose sharply Thursday (Sept. 13) after receiving good news. Biotech ISIS Pharmaceuticals announced a collaboration with a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson to work on drugs for type II diabetes and obesity. Earlier this …
More sports welfare
Pro sports teams always have a new reason for wanting a taxpayer handout. The San Antonio Spurs basketball team plays in an arena that is only five years old. The team wants Bexar County to extend $75 million to $164 …
Death of a Buzzword
Wireless Facilities to change a now-besmirched name.
San Diego's Wireless Facilities said today (Sept. 11) that it will write down $55 million for the backdating of stock options and related irregularities that took place from the time the company was preparing to go public in late 1998 …
Risky retirements
Under headline "Can Retirees Afford This Much Risk?" Business Week Magazine in its September 17, 2007 issue talks about ailing public pension systems -- including the city's and the county's.
San Diego pension funds are cited prominently in Business Week Magazine's September 17, 2007 look into ailing public sector pension funds. "What's driving the high-risk investment policy is the pension system's deficit," says City Attorney Mike Aguirre in the article. …
Maxwell drop
Maxwell Laboratories warily eyes new Texas company that claims to have invented a device permiting a motorist to plug in a car for 5 minutes and drive 500 miles without gasoline.
On a day in which stocks were up stoutly, San Diego-based Maxwell Laboratories dropped 12 cents to $12.22. One reason may be excitement about a new Texas company that claims to have a device permitting a motorist to plug in …
Bridge untroubled
805 bridge has been inspected recently. Caltrans says it is in good shape.
A reader recently expressed concern about the 805 bridge over I-8 in Mission Valley. Councilmember Donna Frye asked for information from Caltrans. The bridge was built in 1972 and last inspected on Nov. 29, 2006. The northbound span is structurally …