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Best and worst of times for Soon-Shiong
You are absolutely correct about "improvements" in the U-T. It has steadily deteriorated over the past decade (actually longer than that) in its news coverage and accuracy. The newsroom is decimated, and as far as editors go, fuhgeddaboudit!— November 22, 2018 7:12 a.m.
Best and worst of times for Soon-Shiong
I did some backgrounding on BH Media, and learned that Berkshire Hathaway bought the Omaha paper and six others in 2011. Perhaps Buffett wanted to insure the local paper there stayed in business. For the most part the papers it owns aren't in big cities, although there are some exceptions. Last summer BH turned over management of the papers to Lee Newspapers, while retaining ownership. There was a report in the Omaha paper about Buffett being troubled with the prospects for daily papers. My take is that he and BH are not really deeply involved in media, and don't see those papers as important for the corporation. What I didn't learn was how much BH paid for those papers. If they paid little, that's one thing. If they shelled out a half-billion, well, that was foolish. Interesting situation.— November 21, 2018 1:29 p.m.
Best and worst of times for Soon-Shiong
I still find it inconceivable that he shelled out a half-billion bucks for two shrinking and struggling newspapers. They could not have been profitable, given the trends in the industry, and if a business isn't producing a profit, it is worth nothing at all. He, we can presume, thought that they could be made profitable in some way, but a turnaround in newspaper readership (printed copy style) is not going to happen, ever. Not such a smart dude, is he?— November 21, 2018 9:42 a.m.
Transient beat down at Pedro's Taco Shop
Is it noteworthy that just a few days ago we had reports of the neighbors of Brother Benno's complaining about the misconduct of the clientele of that facility? There is no brotherhood among these homeless who depend upon charity to survive. Some are truly dangerous people who are psychopathic or worse. But there's no place to lock them up and get them out of circulation, and few or no laws allowing that anyway. And so we have attacks by the stronger or more numerous upon the weaker ones. Great, isn't it?— November 17, 2018 5:59 p.m.
Did Qualcomm use GOP oppo research against Apple?
Those gifts along with the naming of places, buildings, etc. are typical. In fact, institutions avoid putting names on many things until they can sell them to rich benefactors. Definitely transactional. Good ol' Irwin and his sons were giving to non-controversial civic causes initially. (I'd say the Symphony was non-controversial, for example.) But then they realized that relatively small gifts could buy political favor and guarantee favorable outcomes. Hence we have Kev and Nate Fletcher accepting their financial support, and hoping for more. It is very hard to avoid temptation to dip into the Jacobs bottomless pit of wealth for things you want to accomplish and parade to the voters. We can anticipate more of that, especially from Fletcher, in the coming years.— November 17, 2018 7:14 a.m.
The epitome of California canyon living
Just how does one perform a renovation that results in open floor plans (not something that would have been done in the 1920's) with “maintain[ing] every historic detail?" Maybe some details are more historic than others? It sounds like a marvelous place, and the fact that it sold for the price of a tract home in Mira Mesa back in 2003 is most surprising. We can only assume that fifteen years ago it was a fixer-upper of a fixer-upper. Oh, that mention of Kate Sessions sounds like some unnecessary name-dropping to me.— November 15, 2018 4:27 p.m.
Mayor Dedina welcomes Marines to I.B.
I fully agree. There is much more to this controversy, but for now it is worth noting that Trump is not Hitler, and never will be. He's thwarted at every turn it seems by courts that rule against his executive orders, even those that only cancel executive orders issued by his predecessors. This move was unnecessary, but it might be recalled that the presidential oath of office includes language about defending the nation from "enemies both foreign and domestic." These caravans exist because of complicity of the Mexican government, which is staying silent on them this time. Yeah, there's a new presidente coming into office there in a couple weeks, and that begets a wait-and-see attitude. Let's just remember that up until a decade ago, or thereabouts, the Mexican government had tight control of its border with Guatemala, and allowed little leakage, for whatever their reasons. Now they escort and transport the caravans across their sovereign territory. Organized caravans of foreign nationals who declare their destination to be the US border can be alarming and intimidating. Letting this pass unchallenged or at least unanswered is a sure fire way to encourage more of it. But this reaction is no slippery slope toward military occupation of our own territory. I'd be far more concerned about a rogue FBI running rampant among the citizenry.— November 14, 2018 10:24 a.m.
Democrat Peters goes after McMillin
That piece of property was a crown jewel, and a once-in-a-city-lifetime opportunity for reuse. Why did it have to be handed over to a single developer? While the slobberin' city might have made a botch of some things it did with the area, the decisions would/could/should have had plenty of public scrutiny, and would have been subject to voter influence. Instead we got this second-string developer with its short-sighted reuse plans, and a greedy one to boot. Thank you Susan Golding and your sycophantic council.— November 14, 2018 10 a.m.
The slow end of the Kalasho regime
It comes across as if the local, co-religionists of the Chaldeans are doing some self-policing and telling him to go away. If they want to be accepted, that's the best way to do it. I'm as mystified as anyone about him being elected in El Cajon. Although there are some critics who see the city taken over by these mostly refugees, they don't have the whole city yet, and may never get there. Kalasho has been successful at getting attention, but as far as doing anything for the Chaldeans, I'd guess he's been a negative.— November 11, 2018 7:45 p.m.
Phil Rath fined again
Yes, there SHOULD be a criminal aspect to such violations. But if you depend upon the DA in San Diego County to prosecute such things, or any other political corruption, you will be sorely disappointed. This new DA, cast in the same mold as her predecessor, has no appetite for going after crooked politicians or their minions. I"m told that she's really tough on "human trafficking" though. Which of those sets of criminal behavior does more damage and affects more citizens? There's your answer.— November 10, 2018 8:55 a.m.