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Florida jury awards $1 billion to Lennar
Yes, the misspelling was parody.— December 4, 2013 11:11 p.m.
Study on fast-food workers reveals reliance on tax dollars
I read a study that said increasing fast food workers wages to $15 an hour would result in a 25% increase in prices assuming the companies passed the wage increase on to consumers. I am personally in favor of a $20 per hour minimum wage. Costco gets by with 15% gross margins and is still able to pay $22 per hour. I look at Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Target and see that there 20 or more cash register stations but only 2 or 3 are staffed at any one time. This indicates to me that there are too many stores relative to demand and not enough volume at each location. If Home Depot and the others closed stores they could use the overhead savings to pay employees a living wage with no decrease in profits.— December 4, 2013 11:05 p.m.
Florida jury awards $1 billion to Lennar
Marsch's wife is president of Las Patronas. If Marsch and his wife are forced to give up their beachfront estate in La Jolla and move to Clairemont because of the judgment, I fear the wife will be expelled from Las Patronas. I doubt the Pimplemouse Restaurant will give Marsch a good table after the bad publicity. Minkow's the only guy who came out ahead on this deal. He gets three hots and a cot free each day from Uncle Sam and has access to a gym and athletic facilities at no cost. http://www.lajollalight.com/2013/05/30/las-patron…— December 4, 2013 9:41 p.m.
Psychologist loses license over meth
The accusations described in the Michalski decision appear to be far worse than the accusations against Filner. Yet Michalski was not charged while Filner was threatened with financial ruin and serious jail time if he did not plead out to lesser charges and resign from office. The Michalski decision proves that Filner's alleged actions were no more than garden variety sexual harassment and not crimes. It's clear that Filner was railroaded out of office by a pack of jackals and thugs. http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/D0622…— December 3, 2013 11:37 p.m.
Local hotel business will lag state through next year
The thirsty tourists Psycholizard describes are an overall detriment to the tourist industry and spend very little money and cause nothing but trouble. They discourage tourists with money from coming here due to their drunken behavior. Thirsty tourists do nothing to fill Terry Brown's or Papa Doug's cash registers. These tourists do not generate revenue expensive hotels need to pay their mortgages. That's what the occupancy rate is all about: hotels need a certain percentage level of occupancy to generate enough cash to pay the banks and an even higher level to eke out a small profit. When tourists with money to spend go to the beach areas and see drunken derelicts stumbling around and tattooed gang bangers walking around with no shirts, they go home and tell their friends to stay away. It's not the quantity of tourists that count, it's the quality. The bar scene in Pacific Beach is a race for the bottom.— November 29, 2013 12:24 p.m.
Local hotel business will lag state through next year
The tourists the tourist industry wants to attract do not smoke or hang out in bars. The industry wants well-off tourists to fly in from New York with thick wallets. Tourists like this easily spend $3,000 or more on $275 a night hotel rooms, rented cars, eating at top restaurants, and expensive clothes at shopping centers. The smokers and drinkers typically drive in from places like Long Beach four to a car and stay at the Motel 6 packed in a single room at $60 a night and spend next to nothing. If drinking at the beach was not illegal, these tourists would simply sit on the beach for free getting drunk on $5 six packs from Seven Eleven and eating $3 meals at Taco Bell. The lower tier clog the parking lots at the beaches and to a great extent are driving away the well-heeled clientele the hotel owners want to attract.— November 28, 2013 2:24 p.m.
Layoffs expected at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
No extra money for the Predator has been appropriated. Funding for the Predator has been coming from the Air Force repair and maintenance budget to the tune of almost $1 billion per year. The Predator is basically worthless as a military weapon. In the event of a war with China, the Chinese would jam the radio signals that control the Predator and the Predator could not fly. The Predator is extremely slow and an enemy could deploy low speed helicopters or even civilian propeller driven aircraft and shoot down the Predator with a shot gun. Almost half the Air Force fleet of fighter planes no longer fly because funding for the Predator is sucking the Air Force's maintenance budget dry. Tough funding decisions have to be made and continuing to fund a toy like the Predator is a poor one.— November 23, 2013 10:32 a.m.
Ex-San Diegan Art Laffer goes to Texas, blasts California
Laffer probably sold his Rancho Santa Fe estate to raise cash to pay his legal bills. He's plastered his name on some crazy investments and has been a lightning rod for lawsuits. I have not heard anything positive about Laffer. The Laffer curve is rubbish.— November 19, 2013 11:58 p.m.
North County radio mogul fights IRS
It looks like Arthur hasn't been sitting on his Astor: he appears to have made a lot of money. He claims to own 270 antique cars and has his own private museum. The square footage and cost of storing 270 cars must be enormous. Maybe Papa Doug could help Art out and let him store some cars at U-T Headquarters. I never heard of Astor before this. It appears that there are many wealthy individuals operating businesses in San Diego that are unknown to the public. http://www.astorclassics.com/about.html— November 19, 2013 11:45 p.m.
Compulsive gamblers may be wired to prefer money to sex
This thesis explains why Bob Filner doesn't have a gambling addiction and why Mayor Mo married an elderly rich man with a short life expectancy.— November 16, 2013 2:10 p.m.