La Jolla–based military contractor General Atomics, maker of the Predator drone and other lucrative pieces of battle-ready hardware, also provides radiation monitoring systems for atomic reactors. The company’s latest installation came in July of this …
Chargers honcho Dean Spanos has pledged to soon reveal whether the team is moving to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, an Orange County city infamous for a 33 percent jump in crime last year is at work …
With another rough year for the newspaper business come and gone, the answer to the question of who will control the fate of the controversial tronc publishing empire — including the L.A. Times and San …
Wealthy Republican Ray Ellis lost out to Democrat Barbara Bry for the First District city-council seat representing La Jolla, but at least he got a refund. According to a December 2 closeout filed at city …
Carlsbad’s Eric Noonan, a warden with the private prison business known as GEO Group, was one of San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer’s most uniquely employed contributors, kicking in $1050 on election day, June 7. Other …
Former U-T publisher and mayoral moneyman Douglas Manchester has been stirring the genteel reaches of the late Helen Copley’s Foxhill estate ever since he bought the lavish spread up the hill from the La Jolla …
Have staff ethics at San Diego's city hall deteriorated under the rule of mayor Kevin Faulconer? Critics there say so, citing an increasingly opaque veil of secrecy the Republican has cast over his staff's dealings …
Nowhere is America's face-off with mainland China in the dawning era of president-elect Donald Trump more materially mapped than the corner of Broadway and Harbor Drive in downtown San Diego. There, ex–Union-Tribune publisher and Republican …
San Diego County environmental health honchos have been lax dunning local landlords for cleaning up hazardous chemicals left over from busted methamphetamine labs on their property, an audit has found. “Although 10 collection notifications were …
When David Copley sold the Union-Tribune to Tom Gores and his Beverly Hills–based Platinum Equity back in 2009, the vulture capitalist with Palestinian roots vowed that he was in the newspaper business for the long …
A legal appeal to stop ex–Union-Tribune publisher and Donald Trump moneyman Douglas Manchester from building his so-called Navy Broadway Complex on downtown's waterfront has been spurned by the U.S. Supreme Court, a move that could …
As the battle for the presidency of the newly reconstituted San Diego City Council heads for a showdown, the contest is increasingly shaping up as a way for Mission Valley development interests to strengthen their …
Jim Madaffer, who first linked up with second wife Robin a decade ago when he was a Republican member of the San Diego city council and she was a big-money city hall lobbyist, continues to …
Sidewalk critics of ex–Union-Tribune publisher Douglas Manchester’s under-construction Austin, Texas, high-rise hotel, called the Fairmont Austin, have expressed disappointment with its increasingly frugal appearance, including what photos show to be a five-story featureless wall at …
The changing of Sacramento’s mayoral guard occurs this week, with the exit of Kevin Johnson, once a municipal wunderkind, now tarred by a graphically documented sex scandal and a series of political funny-money charity deals. …
About a block from the U.S.-Mexico high-tech border fence that president-elect Donald Trump has pledged to turn into an impregnable wall, a select group of San Diego and Tijuana big-money establishment names are set to …
In memoriam David Copley, the late Union-Tribune publisher who died at age 62 in a solo La Jolla crash of his Aston Martin on November 20, 2012 — almost four years after unloading the paper …
Onetime Republican assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, who switched his registration to independent when the local GOP declined to endorse him for San Diego mayor — and later flipped to the Democrats after he went to work …
Democratic House member Scott Peters of La Jolla likely assumed the person of the hour would be different when he procured a stash of official presidential inaugural tickets. Now he’s handing them out for free, …
Defeated Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton departed the field with the most campaign cash from San Diego County, per data from the Federal Election Commission, reporting a total haul for the October pre-election disclosure period …
How much do retired executives of KPBS, the San Diego State University–run, tax-funded public broadcasting operation that spins local news in ways seen by critics as benefiting the university’s donors — including the ultimately failed …
Republican San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, who recently came in second to Democratic ex–San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom for California governor in the latest Field Poll, continues to collect big special-interest donations to One San …
An extensive list of financial irregularities and transparency transgressions committed in the name of in-house charities has been uncovered at San Diego State University by auditors for the California university system, raising a series of …
San Diegans in the political know are well familiar with the recently forged, political-money-fueled alliance between La Jolla Democratic billionaire Irwin Jacobs and Republican mayor Kevin Faulconer, widely said to be lining up campaign donors …
It was a big-money military contractor's dream. Build a fleet of futuristic underwater robots to replace the Navy's famous corps of mine-hunting dolphins and sea lions, headquartered at their San Diego base. "In general, we’re …
San Diego Unified’s iHigh Virtual Academy, “a tuition-free public high school offering students the opportunity to earn a high school diploma primarily online,” per its website, has an overspending problem. So says a report for …
It’s November, extra cash time for executives at San Diego State University, where bonuses are being handed out by California State University trustees for “established goals met.” Provost and senior vice president for academic affairs …
Wealthy out-of-town contractors doing business with the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG for short) continued right up until the end to give big money to the agency’s ultimately failed sales-tax-raising Measure A, which fell …
If all the ex–San Diegans on president-elect Donald Trump's reputed short list for administration posts get their gigs, the city could be one of the best represented in Washington's new era. Billionaire University of San …
They appeared to be some of the darkest days of Doug Manchester’s life back in the summer of 2014, as the San Diego developer and Republican kingpin struggled to find enough cash to finance a …
Speculation regarding which San Diegans are in and which are out in the dawning age of Donald Trump's Washington is well underway, with strong opinions by Forbes contributor Tim Worstall about the accelerated status of …
Two big San Diego losers in this week's election are looking for a big-money, tax-funded consolation prize in the form of a hurry-up city-council power-play that could ultimately forever emblazon the name of Qualcomm and …
Assemblyman Ben Hueso sat down to talk with representatives of San Diego–based Sempra Energy at Chula Vista’s Country Waffles on September 8, according to the company’s recent third quarter lobbying report. His tab was $13.89. …
Word from city hall has it that Democratic billionaire Irwin Jacobs’s deal to bulldoze a new road through Balboa Park to a big automated parking garage he favors is exceeding cost estimates, requiring taxpayers to …
As votes are counted for this year's San Diego general election, Wall Street analysts are likely to have their eyes on an experiment that could have a crucial effect on the ultimate survival of the …
A San Diego State University-affiliated website has weighed into the big-money controversy over North County's proposed Lilac Hills Ranch housing development, going after what it says are undisclosed campaign contributions from an alleged "dark money" …
San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer — whose ambitions for higher office are said by critics to have motivated his behind-the-scenes deal with the wealthy Republican Spanos clan to back a new tax-subsidized stadium and meeting …
Presidential politics is about the imperial exercise of power, but this year, agents from a much older empire have seemingly penetrated the deepest realms of America’s ruling establishment, scattering secrets both profound and embarrassing across …
An old Bill Clinton White House hand has shown up in the WikiLeaks dump of Hillary Clinton campaign honcho John Podesta’s emails, singing the free-trade praises of La Jolla Democratic House member Scott Peters. “I …
San Diego Republican mayor Kevin Faulconer, a veteran of the high-dollar public relations world via the firm of NCG Porter Novelli, has tapped a Democratic practitioner of the art of spin to run his flagging …
With the election little more than a week away, questions continue to bedevil San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer regarding the motives behind his deal with the Chargers to endorse the team's tax-subsidized downtown stadium and …
It may be curtains for media giant Gannett's multibillion-dollar deal for tronc, the Chicago-based newspaper chain that owns San Diego's Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, leaving employees of the troubled print-based business in more …
The Union-Tribune’s Successful Aging Expo last month featured booths for Carefree Vacations and Eyeglass World. But one sponsor raised eyebrows among some: the Hemlock Society, with tips on how to best use the state’s new …
A bid by the San Diego Association of Governments, otherwise known as SANDAG, the tax-financed public agency in charge of funding everything from freeway routes to trolleys and buses here, has run into some resistance …
The ghosts of two of San Diego's most controversial real estate moguls live on among the ranks of September San Diego donors to the Clinton and Trump presidential campaigns. Son of a San Diego bootlegger …
The old downtown public library was notorious for hosting legions of homeless inebriates haunting the stacks. Now the city is looking for a vendor who can purvey the hard stuff to higher-dollar crowds. “From a …
San Diego Republicans are facing off against liberal billionaire George Soros in an improbable big-money brawl about whether the city should change its election laws. The way it is now, candidates for city office who …
As questions continue about why San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer has endorsed a hike in the city’s hotel tax to pay for a new $1.8 billion Chargers downtown stadium and meeting venue, the controversy has …
The man most responsible for the expansion of Qualcomm stadium for the Chargers in 1997, ultimately handing the team a taxpayer-funded venue and a controversial ticket guarantee — along with an out-of-town exit pass — …
As the cost of running campaigns in San Diego has grown, so has the influx of major corporate and union contributions. An example is the big money rolling into the San Diego Chamber of Commerce’s …