U-T Managers Get No News on Sale of Paper, Other Than Something They All Knew
Union-Tribune managers in their meeting Thursday did not get any news of a sale of the newspaper, which put itself on the block last July. Gene Bell, president of the U-T, said he would retire when the company is sold. …
Minkow Scores Again; CEO of MGM Mirage Resigns over MBA Questions
Barry Minkow, pastor of Miramar's Community Bible Church, and separately head of the Fraud Discovery Institute, is now pursuing executives who don't have the degrees they claim to have. The latest blowup: J. Terrence Lanni, one of the casino industry's …
Qualcomm, One of County's Major Employers, Stops Hiring After Orders Plunge
Paul Jacobs, chief executive of telecom superstar Qualcomm, told Bloomberg News today (Nov. 12) that the company has stopped hiring following a "dramatic drop" in chip orders from mobile phone makers. The company has also eliminated some research projects. Last …
City Pension Fund Is Only 58 Percent Funded, Council Will Learn Tomorrow. Will It and Mayor Listen?
Joe Esuchanko, a consulting actuary for the City, will tell council tomorrow (Nov. 12) that the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System was only 58 percent funded as of Oct. 31. City Attorney Mike Aguirre warned the council Monday that …
Bell to Meet with U-T Employees November 18. Meeting Announcement Spurs Rumors of Paper's Sale
Union-Tribune management today (Nov. 10) posted a notice on the bulletin board that President Gene Bell will hold a question and answer session with employees Nov. 18 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Employees wanting to attend must sign up with …
While Public Was Fixated on $700 Bailout's Passage, Treasury Quietly Gave Banks $140 Billion Tax Windfall
The Washington Post reported today (Nov. 10) that in late September, while the public was enraged about the $700 billion bailout package, and Congress was debating it, the Treasury pulled a fast one that was probably illegal. Unilaterally and quietly, …
Federal Reserve Refuses to Say Who Got $2 Trillion of Emergency Loans, or What Kind of Junk the Institutions Put Up as Collateral
Bloomberg News reports a blockbuster this morning (Nov. 10). For more than a year, the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, has made loans to troubled financial institutions; last week, the total hit $2 trillion. This is NOT the Fed's …
Goldsmith Memo Proves What Many Suspected: He is not the Sharpest Tool in the Shed, and is Tool of the Mayor
Jan Goldsmith, who has been elected city attorney, sent a horny-handed memo to the city attorney staff the day after the election. "It devastated morale," says one attorney in the office. First, it used the City of San Diego seal …
Qualcomm Reports Profit Drop, Gives Disappointing Forecast. Stock Hit
San Diego telecom company Qualcomm reported today (Nov. 6) that earnings per share for the quarter ended Sept. 28 were 52 cents, down 22 percent from a year earlier. The company forecast 2009 revenue of $10.2 billion to $10.8 billion. …
Because of Computer Problems, I Have Not Been Able to Respond to Your Posts for a Week. I Hope to Resume Soon.
For some electronic reason, I have not been able to respond to posts for a week. That's true of both columns and blogs. I have spent parts of three days working on the problem with a technician. He thinks the …
Some U-T Employees See Signs That Sale May Be Imminent. Warning: There Have Been Such Signs Before
Some Union-Tribune employees believe there are three reasons to suspect the sale of the paper (which went on the block in July) may be near. First, there have been no employee United Way pledge solicitations. They normally come in October/November. …
Suit Charges Investors Fleeced of $86 Million to $106 Million in Ponzi Scheme
San Diego attorney Matthew Powell filed suit yesterday (Oct. 30), charging that a group of real estate operators with a firm named Corporate Funding Financial of America fleeced more than 100 investors of $86 million to $106 million in what …
First Big Shoe Drops in Next Crash; Citigroup Reports Big Loss in Credit Card Securitization
New York's Citigroup this evening (Oct. 31) reported a $1.4 billion third quarter loss as a result of securitizing of credit cards. For more than a year, savvy observers have known that this time bomb would go off throughout the …
Filner, Aguirre Say Sempra's $100,000 Gift to Lincoln Club Smacks of Attempt to Buy Election
Congressman Bob Filner and City Attorney Mike Aguirre held a press conference in front of headquarters of Sempra Energy today (Oct. 31). They pointed out, as Matt Potter showed in the current Reader, that the utility holding company gave $100,000 …
San Diego Lead Indicators Plunge from Year Ago; All Local Components Down
The lead indicators of the San Diego economy compiled by economist Alan Gin of the University of San Diego continued their decline in September. The index for September was 115.4, down from 116.3 in August and down from 133.5 in …
Here Is Double Talk That Only a Corporate Welfare-Loving Jock Worshipper Could Disregard
Get this: Mark Fabiani, lawyer/spokesman for the Chargers, is quoted saying the following on KFMB News today (Oct. 29): "We just can't do business with San Diego while Mike Aguirre is there. So we tell people that. We're not taking …
The Next Duke Cunningham? Hank Paulson, Treasury Secretary
The felonious former San Diego County Congressman Duke Cunningham started on his way to ill-gotten riches by getting a person seeking political favors to pay an outlandish price for the Cunningham house. Duke parlayed that -- plus other scams -- …
San Diego Lags State, Los Angeles Area in New Car Sales Year to Date
For the first nine months of this year, the San Diego market lags both the state and Los Angeles/Orange counties in new light vehicles sold at retail, according to the California New Car Dealers Association. San Diego car sales are …
San Diego Home Prices Continue Sharp Declines in August; Now Down Almost 33% from 2005 Peak
San Diego County home prices dropped 2.3 percent from July to August, according to Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, published this morning (Oct. 28). Only three metro areas among the largest 20 notched a bigger August decline: San …
Is San Diego Back to Old Tricks of Publishing False Financial Information?
On Oct. 22 on this blog (see below), I published information from the San Diego Retired Employees' Association (SDCERS), a group of retired City employees. According to notes taken by a reliable amanuensis, the president of the organization told members …