On May 5, San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott announced her office was joining a lawsuit against gig transit companies Lyft and Uber for violating Assembly Bill 5, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a fellow …

Lorena’s fantasy Disneyland has been closed since March 14, sending ripples of angst through the ranks of investors and tourists alike. But before the park locked its gates against the COVID-19 pandemic, a crew of …

San Diego politicos are finding some novel uses for federal COVID-19 bailout funds, judging from a review of coming city council agendas from the county's eighteen incorporated municipalities. In El Cajon, the police department wants …

Homeless convention When Measure C, a $5.8 billion convention center expansion and homeless relief plan to hike the tax on hotel stays, died at the polls last March, some backers vowed to challenge the public’s …

While a host of local public bodies are vowing to slash programs and lay off staff in the face of the financial onslaught that is the COVID-19 pandemic, the newly hatched San Diego Community Power …

Mommy, why are they shooting at us again? “I don’t take my kids to the park anymore on Sundays,” says Luís, a young Tijuana father of three — eight- and six-year-old sons, and a five-year-old …

San Diego State's growing contempt for undergrads “We have pulled resources out of undergraduate education in order to build expensive, elite PhD programs that cater to very few students proportionately." By Joe Deegan, March 27, …

Those wondering why Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s twitter attack on electric car and space rocket maven Elon Musk for opening his Tesla-making plant in violation of COVID-19 quarantine rules wasn't more widely endorsed by fellow Democrats …

Exceptional failures UCSD, unscathed by last year’s college bribery scandal, still has had its share of problematic admissions practices, says a March 31 report by the university’s Audit & Management Advisory Services unit. “UCSD did …

For better or worse, Lorena Gonzalez has long had a special way with tweets. Even before the rise of twitter-master Donald Trump, the Assembly Democrat, married to county supervisor Nathan Fletcher, has been sharing her …

As the battle between Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro and the Chinese government mounts regarding whether laboratories of the Wuhan Institute of Virology were ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic, one of his former academic …

Viral influence peddling The COVID-19 crisis continues to provide a cornucopia of new work for San Diego city hall lobbyists. Latest to benefit is the Intesa Communications Group, whose principals include Maddy Kilkenny, onetime aide …

Already under siege by cost overruns and litigious contractors, San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer's $1.4 billion plan to turn the city's sewage into drinkable water faces new doubts and questions of increased costs brought on …

As COVID-19 continues to ravage the world, officials at UCSD's Moores Cancer Center are no longer spending heavily on global travel and entertainment, at least for the time being. But just months before the pandemic …

Buy low, sell high The ostensibly humanitarian work of finding places for the city’s homeless legions to live during the COVID-19 onslaught may also be lining the pockets of some of San Diego’s wealthiest real …

The intra-partisan battle to succeed Democratic House member Susan Davis in California's 53rd Congressional district has taken a back seat to the COVID-19 pandemic. But already there is an emerging winner, at least when it …

Race for a big-bucks cure Newspaper advertising has fallen off, so billionaire Los Angeles physician Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, is using his papers to promote a …

90 Years of Curl Elwell says Kahanamoku surfed the OB Pier, and when he did, he asked a teenaged lifeguard named Charlie Wright if he could store his board in Wright's beach shack. By Jeannette …

When billionaire physician Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the L.A. Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, and a raft of other papers two years ago, many hoped that he was finally the Daddy Warbucks with enough free cash to …

Faulconer’s COVID-19 bust Add San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer to the list of locals hit directly in the pocketbook by the coronavirus shutdown of San Diego’s tourist business. Last year, Restaurant Events, the convention-related food, …

Due to talk of draconian layoffs appearing inevitable at San Diego city hall, insider attention is shifting to the expense of maintaining the political and public relations operatives employed by termed-out GOP mayor Kevin Faulconer. …

The San Diego hotel lobby has long used other peoples' money in the form of an ever-growing tax on transient room occupants to underwrite its developments and finance its powerful sway over city hall. Most …

It was a municipal battle of life and death, witnessed by the frightened citizenry of century-ago San Diego, crowded into the musty confines of city hall, an ornate Victorian building at the corner of Fifth …

Viral lobbyists Mega-developer H.G. Fenton Company became the first registered San Diego influence seeker to jump into the fray over the financial impact of coronavirus legislation. Fenton wants “new policies regarding eviction moratoriums during COVID-19,” …

A two-year-old lawsuit involving a ream of explosive sexual harassment allegations by an 18-year veteran of San Diego's fire and rescue department has been settled with a $525,000 payment quietly approved by the city council …

Fun with Ralph: Excerpts From a Busy Man's Calendar Councilman Inzunza’s frantic lunch hours. “Virtually every business day at the stroke of 12 noon, the 34-year-old councilman can be seen strolling out of his 12th-story …

Hillcrest: gayborhood or ghetto? “I was only in West Hollywood for four years and I came from the East Coast by way of Las Vegas,” he says. “To me, Hillcrest is just normal. At least …

A snap audit by agents for the Veterans Affairs inspector general has called out San Diego region Veterans Health Administration staffers for failing to properly screen visitors for the coronavirus and asserted that local V.A. …

Wartime messiah Ex-House Republican Darrell Issa, seeking this fall to reclaim a congressional seat in a new district, has a potent political weapon in his arsenal called the Issa Family Foundation, which he runs with …

As the worldwide coronavirus crisis rages on, San Diego's tourist economy has cratered, bringing down with it a small army of maids, bartenders, drivers, and service workers cast out of their jobs for an indefinite …

Adam Parfrey goes to the San Diego Zoo It is not generally appreciated that famous publisher Adam Parfrey once lived just off Lincoln Boulevard, a dismal stretch of gasoline-alley slightly east of Venice, California, and …

Fake news filter Aethlon Medical Inc., a San Diego biotech star of the 2014 Ebola virus scare, is in hot water with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission over what the firm calls the Hemopurifier. …

Walter Mencken [descending stairs]: Oh, hello! Welcome to my humble abode, situated in the renovated bomb shelter on the estate of Mt. Helix’s famous Grindle House. (As ever, don’t try to find it on Google …

San Diego House Democrat Susan Davis, once the queen of congressional travel freebies thanks to special interests, has been dumping personal travel-related assets of late, gaining the notice of the Washington press corps. "Previously unreported …

Cartel tunnels to Otay Mesa are infrastructural marvels The amount of warehouse space in Otay Mesa has nearly quadrupled since the mid-’90s, and the expansion has been almost as frenetic in Garita de Otay. Forklifts, …

Voluntary leave-takings The other shoe remains to fall in what local media watchers are calling the great Union-Tribune buyout of 2020. The story starts on February 20 with reports by CNN that Los Angeles Times …

Udo was gone Despite the occasional car and North County bus whizzing by, they rode in perfect harmony, each rider knowing when it was time to pick up the pace or leapfrog to the front. …

What is Urban Associates, Inc., and why has it so far spent $50,000 on a rough-and-tumble bid to elect Senate Democrat Ben Hueso to the San Diego County board of supervisors? An elaborate trail of …

Sierra Club’s top enemy Developer Newland Sierra lost the campaign for Measure B, its ballot battle against the high-end Golden Door spa over a massive residential project in North County in last week’s election. The …

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney roots deep and wide in San Diego It is Matt Romney who takes public credit for calling his part of the Romney clan to San Diego County. “My wife and I …

Dad was a bum Mike Elliott’s father disappeared when he was 13 years old. Not disappeared as in vanished mysteriously. Disappeared as in left and never came back. Some 27 years later, on a rainy …

When San Diego's hotel lobby, backed by a host of out-of-town operators, began its quest for an expanded downtown convention center via a 2018 tax hike initiative, some local political professionals were skeptical. Their doubts …

Fractured ethics With official data showing a continuing slide in the enforcement of conflict-of-interest and campaign spending laws by the city’s ethics commission, the group’s soon-to-retire executive director Stacey Fulhorst is spinning hard. “In terms …

A San Diego Charger football game is one thing, fandom is something elseSilva's powder blue coffin was trimmed with gold — Charger colors. His body was dressed in a jersey honoring his favorite player, Lance …

Behesting, the practice by elected officials of raising money for charitable, governmental, and semi-political causes by soliciting special interest donors for the cash, has burgeoned over the past decade as a major tool of influence …

Nathan’s change of heart While the high-profile races of California’s March primary in San Diego are already awash with special interest cash, some smaller contests are picking up sizable contributions here. County supervisor Nathan Fletcher, …

Tijuana is the first stop to suicide Faye Girsh, vice president of the Hemlock Society of San Diego, knows that Exit International has been publicizing the Mexico option for its members. “But we do not …

Yet another torrent of special interest money, produced by unions and corporations lobbying the California legislature, is making its way to San Diego on behalf of Assembly Democrat Todd Gloria, seeking to replace termed-out Republican …

Salvation Mountain The Slabs are Slab City, three miles east of Niland, between the sultry Salton Sea and the Chocolate Mountains. Years ago the concrete slabs supported the barracks of Camp Dunlap, where General George …

Facing Facebook While tourist industry advocates of San Diego’s Measure C, the proposition to hike hotel taxes for expansion of the convention center and homeless relief, inch towards a multi-million-dollar funding goal, Michael McConnell is …