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The dirty tricks of North River Farms
True, but who will do the charging? Our DA? The defendants should not have to pay an attorney to keep thugs off their backs. But I suppose the system works that way now.— February 5, 2020 5:18 p.m.
The dirty tricks of North River Farms
Alex, these people are not "nut bags" at all. They don't feel like having another piece of badly designed development shoved into their city, aided and abetted by the city council. (Of the five votes on the council, two are appointees, and one of those is the mayor.) Then there's the councilman who was very open and loud in his support for the development, even before it came before the council. These folks have a legitimate objection to the design and the way it has been pushed. The developer now seems to be getting desperate, seeing the approval slipping away, along with all the bucks it spent getting it this far along. The suits may intimidate a few people, but they may also backfire on the developer. If it does go that way, it would serve them right.— February 5, 2020 8:38 a.m.
Local destroyers Howard and Pinckney unprepared for shooting war
Doesn't this just make you feel so assured that the Navy is on the job and on the ball? Those ships cost $ millions to buy and $ millions to staff. And yet those two destroyers, and the rest of the class, cannot be counted on to fulfill their missions due to shortcomings in training. Then I fail to follow the statements in the report referring to the "Deputy Commander." Isn't the Commander of the fleet in charge? Or is the Navy now into delegation of responsibility? It's pathetic to have such a report say that an entire class of ships is unprepared for battle. That's what they are for, folks, and nothing more or less.— February 5, 2020 8:28 a.m.
San Diego's City College squeezes the adjunct profs
What did I expect? Absolutely nothing, and I haven't been disappointed. Dumanis was forced to act some years ago in So County, and her staff came up with 275 criminal complaints, a large percentage felonies, lodged against 15 defendants. Then the judge assigned to the cases took 8 months to get ready to hold hearings, and Bahnee went wobbly on most of them. All the defs pleaded guilty to a single charge. Three went down on felonies, and the two males headed to the county slammer for a few weeks. The female def was given house arrest. The rest paid a fine and went on their merry way. That was Dumanis' legacy of rooting out local corruption.— January 30, 2020 8:04 p.m.
San Diego's City College squeezes the adjunct profs
This is an excellent report. The San Diego community colleges are not the only local community colleges to suffer from mismanagement and scandals. Here in No County both of ours (Mira Costa and Palomar) have had their share of scandals and firings in recent years. The situation with Mira Costa is really hard to fathom in that it is the richest such college in the county. Then there was Southwestern which was part of the So County scandals, prosecutions, jail sentences, etc. about five years ago. So, this sort of thing seems to be the norm nowadays in the community colleges. If you think that auditors, the people who sell themselves to the world as a bulwark against fraud and mismanagement, really dig deep enough to find the evidence of crooks at work, think again. The Enron mess of a couple decades ago was enabled by one of the "most respected" audit firms in the world, Arthur Anderson. Who knows how much worse the picture really is? Today these community college district boards are filled with well-meaning folks who are unfortunately in over their heads. And I mean really over their heads on the day they arrive and still over their heads the day they depart. The usual approach is to hire a dictatorial career administrator to run things, and let her/him run amok until the abuses just get too blatant to ignore. They they "fire" (with a fat severance package) the supe and hire another one of the same kind. What Joe describes here borders or crosses the line into fraud. And where is our DA in all this? Well, yesterday she had a showy gathering in E County to announce another step to be taken to prevent and detect sex and other human trafficking. That crime cluster seems to be her cause du jour every day. Does she ever mention rooting out local corruption and fraud by office holders? Not that I ever recall. Does that mean there is none? uh, no it means no such thing. The crooks are busily at work ripping off the county, the cities, and other districts with no real fear of detection, let alone prosecution.— January 30, 2020 8:47 a.m.
Look at the San Diego radio casualty list
I'm unfamiliar with most of the names mentioned, and that's 'cause I didn't listen to those stations. I do or did (?) listen to 760 KFMB from time to time. I'll miss Mike Slater, but as to Brett W, good riddance. While he may be the brightest guy on local radio, his rapid fire talk and strange syntax would wear thin in about 30 seconds. Mark Larson? Fuhgeddabouthim.— January 29, 2020 9:01 a.m.
San Diego's auditor finds stolen water, mother supervising son, city cars parked in red zone
That scandal should be front page on the Light News every few days, and not "just the facts" but some commentary. Yet it just doesn't happen. I fear that the lease was a typical thing that came out of the "strong mayor" charter change that was sold to the voters a few years back. Turn the city over to a strong mayor and all will be well. The first of such mayors was Sanders. Strong? LOL Oh, there was Filner, but he had no time to really get traction. And now we have Mayor Sunny-boy, and he presided over this wretched lease. Worse yet, it isn't over; we can look forward to lawsuits, more delays, and ballooning costs. I still have the misfortune to drive my car in the slobberin' city of SD, and the streets are improved but still are a mess. Just think of how many miles of potholed streets could have been repaired with the money wasted on rent for this albatross building. San Diego city government got into this mess over decades, and no mayor, strong or weak or otherwise, cannot dig it out. Kev-boy isn't really even trying to fix it; he just talks about it— January 27, 2020 8:30 p.m.
San Diego's auditor finds stolen water, mother supervising son, city cars parked in red zone
You are thinking just about what I was thinking. He's uncovered some scandals and abuses, but those mentioned are definitely small fry stuff. Who knows what big rip-offs are getting past him, or are being ignored because of the people involved?— January 27, 2020 9:12 a.m.
Hotel del Coronado expels prince
A closer reading of this piece reveals a pair of foolish comments attributed to Nancy Cobb. The first is calling Coronado a "dirt pile" in 1920. Surely it wasn't as prettied up and wildly overpriced then as it is now, but it had a nice little town then, and one that was appreciated by (most of) its residents. Her second faux pas is the claim that "Britain might have lost its monarchy" due to Wallis. It didn't lose its monarchy at all; he quit and his unprepared brother assumed the throne. Keep in mind that the British royal house has just about no authority to govern. It's all for show, and as long as the Brits like the show, is harmless. Oh, it is great theater, too.— January 27, 2020 9:05 a.m.
Hotel del Coronado expels prince
After decades of over-hyping itself and its history, the hotel may have finally grown up. Or maybe it is just another overpriced beachfront California resort hotel now. The string of guests that stayed there over the years wasn't exactly a who's who of the best that society had to offer. Oh, and then there was owner and fake war veteran M. Larry Lawrence.— January 24, 2020 3:42 p.m.