News Under the Radar
Dia de los politicos Facing a big-money 2022 reelection challenge from termed-out state senator Ben Hueso, Board of Equalization member Mike Schaefer, a fellow Democrat, has taken to the Union-Tribune’s paid obituary section to tout …
Lorena’s new gig Outflanked by ex-Assemblymember (and now California Secretary of State) Shirley Weber and her Assemblywoman daughter Akilah Weber, and fresh from a double mastectomy for breast cancer, Lorena Gonzalez abruptly vacated her state …
Merry, merry payoffs Chris Cate, San Diego’s only Republican city council member, got $5000 for his well-publicized annual Christmas Tree giveaway from city vendor CGI Technologies and Solutions, Inc. On November 3, CGI issued a …
Battle-weary posh He didn’t get combat pay, but House Republican Darrell Issa, widely regarded as the wealthiest member of Congress, took off for Beirut last month on a trip entirely paid for by the American …
KPBS’s public money windfall The finances of the KPBS public broadcasting stations, which are owned and operated by taxpayer-financed San Diego State University, have bounced back a bit from the darkest days of 2020’s Covid-19 …
UCSD’s new ethics gumshoe Faced with a growing number of critical audits, UCSD’s Office of Ethics & Compliance is seeking a senior investigator to help root out fraud, corruption, and all-around bad ethics at the …
SDG&E’s sitting ducks The first annual Safety Culture Assessment of San Diego Gas & Electric by the state’s Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety is out, giving the local utility generally high marks, with a significant …
Audit hotspot UCSD is again suffering an auditor’s unflattering scrutiny. This time, it’s State Auditor Elaine Howle, who has released a report accusing the school of failing to apply for millions of dollars of minority …
UCSD faculty’s hooky play A September 21 report by UCSD’s Audit & Management Advisory Services has some words of tough love for errant faculty members discovered to be taking too many paid vacations and not …
Juan Vargas, holy man Yet another member of San Diego’s delegation to the House of Representatives has reemerged on the free international travel circuit in the wake of waning covid-19 worries. A freshly filed disclosure …
Million-dollar miss An October 20 report from San Diego city auditor Andy Hanau argues some unspecified user fees at municipal parks and other public recreational facilities are too low, and should be hiked. “Parks & …
Sidewalk vids It may seem an audacious request for a mayor and council having difficulty finding their way through the trials and travails of running a big city, but according to a document posted online …
Border body snooping Mexican border crossers afoot at inspection gates in San Ysidro, Tecate, and Nogales, Arizona, will soon be the first guinea pigs in a test of the federal government’s latest high-tech snooping technology. …
Talking Todd’s debacle Democratic San Diego mayor Todd Gloria’s first comic video turn on behalf of the Downtown San Diego Partnership, an economic development association that sometimes dabbles in partisan politics, went viral for all …
Faulconer’s leavings Mike Pompeo, who served as Secretary of State under President Donald Trump, is bringing his proto-presidential fundraising campaign to San Diego. “We invite you to an incredibly unique opportunity to join Secretary Mike …
Soon-Shiong’s hat-passing scheme San Diego Union-Tribune en Español, a free weekly broadsheet, has long struggled to gain traction after its predecessors, Hoy, and for years before that Enlace, were shot down by corporate economizers. The …