News Under the Radar
Party before the storm Utility giant Sempra Energy and its subsidiary San Diego Gas & Electric, enmeshed in a bevy of California controversies — including an ongoing effort to resist so-called Community Choice Aggregation in …
e-scooter pay-off The Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University is out with a study likely to gladden the hearts of San Diego e-scooter riders, plagued by a rash of accidents and beset by …
Anti-Trump trumped A flurry of last-minute advertising on Facebook attacking president Donald Trump wasn’t enough to get Republican Lorie Zapf re-elected last week against anti-Trump Democrat Jen Campbell. “Lorie Zapf will stand up to Trump’s …
La Mesa’s foreign freebies Taking off on an all-expense paid junket to the Middle East, courtesy of a non-profit fund closely tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which styles itself as “America’s pro-Israel …
Kelley’s next stand Former Union-Tribune political cartoonist Steve Kelley, who departed the paper in the aftermath of a 2001 dispute over “butt cracks” he allegedly snuck into print, is back behind the inkwell, this time …
Bombs away San Diego’s bigger-than-life public art world is in turmoil. A proposed million-dollar pair of oversized plastic straws designed in Los Angeles to grace the entrance of San Diego’s new toilet-to-tap water plant has …
Jerry’s female side The San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee led by Republican ex-mayor and former police chief Jerry Sanders has come up with a creative name for its latest political venture: …
Tax dollars at play Now that termed-out San Diego county supervisor Greg Cox has become president of the National Association of Counties, insiders are on the lookout for a flood of staff junketing. The first …
Leaky drones U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which surveils San Diego from the skies with costly state-of-the-art drones, is not being mindful enough of the privacy and security of the citizenry below. So concludes a …
Payoff for play A pair of staffers for state Assembly Democrat Todd Gloria of San Diego picked up some high-dollar tickets to a glitzy Gloria Trevi and Alejandra Guzman concert at downtown Sacramento’s Golden 1 …
Corn-fueled junket The Midwest farm lobby, trying to counter Donald Trump’s threats to water down federal biofuel mandates, is spending big to make its point to the administration and the Republican Congress. As reported by …
Death of an ex-U-T journalist A former Union-Tribune reporter linked to investigative websites funded by the Koch brothers and allied conservative donors has died of unannounced causes in Houston, Texas at the age of 47. …
Cruel and unusual lack of showers Inadequate showering at the county jail has become a target for criticism at the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, where staff has sustained complaints that unidentified guards failed to …
Adela’s big fat salary It didn’t take long for new San Diego State University president Adela de la Torre, on the job for less than a week, to collect a tidy boost to her already …
Summer with Susan Davis Democratic House member Susan Davis, accustomed to partaking of free travel to exotic world locations courtesy of the Aspen Institute, stuck closer to home for her most recent all-expense-paid junket, two …
U-T’s bitter medicine San Diego’s Union-Tribune, beset by plunging circulation and falling advertising, is filling its pages with display ads from a controversial new sponsor closely tied to billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, who acquired the struggling …