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San Diego's Carrizo Gorge railroad doomed once more
So what's the gag here, stock scam or what? Running an actual railroad doesn't seem to be on the agenda, yet they continue to shell out a lot of money for that annual payment. Also, did those investors (what were they thinking?) actually get their money back or was that debt owed by one of the former corporate shells that has no assets?— January 27, 2016 8:58 a.m.
U-T circulation plunging
Much of that kind of thing is now on the Internet, available from the primary source, in this case http://www.sandiego.gov/citycouncil/ - it's rather like the old days when newspapers filled several pages with prices for individual stocks: when those started showing up online, there was no need to waste ink and paper on them.— January 21, 2016 9:27 p.m.
U-T circulation plunging
Some sobering numbers. Newpapers have long been the prime source of information for other media: the wire services and TV reporters got their stories by rewriting what was in the newspaper. Now what passes for news are blogger's opinion pieces and TV coverage of accidents, disasters and the pet of the week from the local animal shelter. I am grateful that I had a chance to be a print journalist during the heyday of the profession, when newspapers had competitors AND a large circulation, and we worked our butts off to scoop the other guys and uncover wrongdoing. Journalism was once, by its very nature, investigative and we really did act as the eyes and ears for the community. Yes, there were sacred cows, but in time even their bad deeds were exposed in banner headlines. As I recall, journalists did not lean Democrat or Republican - we disliked everyone! The large circulations meant that people had a much more common frame of reference on public affairs than today. Now they glance at headlines on Facebook sidebars or scroll the list of news, opinion and sponsored links that passes for Yahoo News, or they get a email summary from a special interest group. It's all quite filtered and served up piecemeal to satisfy narrow-minded perspectives.— January 21, 2016 11:37 a.m.
Delaware North to California: Drop dead
"she should have capitulated to a higher rent. " She paid a percentage, so every time her sales increased, the rent increased too. And, yes, the people who handled concessions for state parks at the time were dolts, but with civil service protection. Their goal was not to get the best deal for the people of California: their goal was to get rid of Diane Powers because they were jealous of her success. Delaware North was only needed to create the illusion that there was a "better" alternative than Powers, and once that trickery has served its purpose DN was allowed to do its disappearing act.— January 19, 2016 7:55 a.m.
Delaware North to California: Drop dead
"as I recall Ms. Powers still paid $1 a year in rent" No she paid a percentage of her gross and 25% of ALL rent collected statewide by the Parks Department was paid by Powers.— January 17, 2016 6:06 p.m.
Edison's cost of corruption: $16.7 million
Don't get to charge fines to the ratepayers?— December 4, 2015 8:33 p.m.
So 1860s: Robert E. Lee Elementary
Do we have schools named after these US Presidents who owned slaves? Here's how many slaves each owned: George Washington 250-350 Thomas Jefferson 200 James Madison 100+ James Monroe 75— December 3, 2015 1:40 p.m.
National Football League warms to gamblers
"Looks like stocks need to be banned as gambling, too." It is indeed gambling. Shareholders in most companies did not invest a dime with the company and are not "investors." Instead they bought their stock from a third party with hopes that someday it would go up (or down for those who like to go short). There is often a real disconnect between the performance of a company and the performance of its stock because the company performance is driven by, in most cases, consumer response to its goods, but the stock performance replies on the "point spread" of stocks - quarterly earnings projections. A company can be making money hand over fist but if the reported earnings are a few cents shy of those mystical analysts projections, the gamblers will devalue the stock. If anything, "playing the market" supports the case for extending the realm of legal gambling, which society has been doing for quite some time what with state lotteries, Indian casinos, satellite betting at race tracks, etc. Local and state governments who habitually overspend are always open for new gambling opportunities if you can show them how they can get their share of the action (I think the mob called that the "take"). At some point they will be softened up enough that the NFL will be able to start touting their own brand of wagering where they and government's big spenders get to split the action - "Why let some other crooks get all the money?" they might say.— November 25, 2015 8:24 a.m.
Campaign cash pays for Atkins Cuba jaunt
It's good to be the Queen: in a period in which she really was not campaigning for anything she spent over $380,000 on wining, dining and a family trip to Cuba, all of it tax-free money. Even after this latest spending binge, she still has over $1.8 million more of tax free money floating around in three accounts. Ever wonder why politicians work so hard to get reelected: this is it. That money buys comfort AND influence and you can just as easy use it to crush opponents as you can to pay $3,700 restaurant bills and $5,000 galas. It's bad enough and then to try to justify, say, the trip to Cuba with "The Assembly wants to do everything we can to create more jobs and business in California." Yep Toni, the Cubans needed to hear you tell them that they should create some new jobs and businesses in California. Maybe some Florida-style Cuban cafeterias in former Roberto's sites might work. I don't care who wins the Marty-Toni faceoff but when we see this kind of influence-peddling for and by an elected official it's clear the public loses. Toni is an alleged progressive, but her special interests donor lists looks a lot like what a top state Republican politician would have too (if we actually had such a thing as a "top" Republican) SEMPRA, the beer companies, insurance companies and big unions: those are the constituents of the Toni Atkins and the state legislature, but no wonder - they treat her better than you or I do. When was the last time you bought her lunch or dinner?— October 19, 2015 6:44 p.m.
Absolutely malled in Carlsbad
The mall formerly known as Plaza Camino Real has been open just shy of half-a-century so it's not like it didn't have some staying power. The owner until 2014 was the Westfield Group of Australia, which has always seemed like a weird outfit. For one thing they have tried to push Westfield brand at the expense of the well-known original names for its centers, such as Plaza Camino Real, North County Fair, University Town Centre, etc. But let's face it: shoppers at UTC ideally don't want to be shopping at a place that has the same Westfield brand as Parkway Plaza in El Cajon. I've often though the push for the Westfield brand was some sort of misguided corporate ego trip by Australians who had no clue about marketing in the USA. They reorganized the company in 2014 so that US and European operations have different managment than their operations down under, but the Westfield brand still seems to carry all the cachet of say "K Mart" or "Target." I don't think they'd have much of a problem getting the site re-zoned for housing: the site really is somewhat removed from the rest of Carlsbad, surrounded by lots of apartments and condos and out-of-sight for those living in the tonier neighborhoods of Carlsbad. I've always thought that Plaza Camino Real was a mall built for Oceansiders but just happened to be located across the freeway in another town.— October 18, 2015 8:56 p.m.