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SDG&E Gets CPUC Rejection of Minimal Third-Party Smart Meter Audit Standards
A link to the proposed CPUC decision... http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/efile/PD/125407.pdf— December 4, 2010 4:31 p.m.
Southwestern College Superintendent Raj Chopra Resigns
Hopefully for SWC, the two-year last-chance WASC probation period is measured from the January 2010 letter referenced in your article. I based my earlier estimate on August-October 2011 as the end of the two-year probationary period on the August 2009 publication of the WASC junior college committee report that stated Southwestern College was on accreditation probation almost half a year before the January 2010 WASC letter was sent to the College. The August 2009 report was what would have been available to perspective students preparing to enroll for the Fall 2009 semester. In the updated WASC junior college list published in August 2010, I count perhaps 8-10 institutions on accreditation probation, with SWC leading the pack as to time on probation since publication of the previous August 2009 list. http://www.accjc.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/a… In any case per the January 2010 WASC action letter to SWC, the last part of SWC's responses to WASC's recommendations for coming into accreditation compliance is still due in March 2011, only three months away... including holidays and vacations when no SWC accreditation committee work can be done.— December 3, 2010 10:04 a.m.
So-Called Recovery Sputters. Unemployment Rises, Jobs Barely Up
It appears that early December DJIA gains are very much leading indicators as to employment and thus the economy improving sometime in the distant future, but not supported by current job numbers. If overly inflated, this may contribute to a possible double dip scenario in Spring 2011 as mentioned in one of your previous blog posts?— December 3, 2010 9:42 a.m.
Bankruptcy — Good for San Diego
RE http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/01/ci… : Of course, all of our civic leadership who were demanding passage of Proposition D failed to inform us that even with a $70+ million budget deficit, there would still be this payout. It would have made a lot better sense to have applied it to future scheduled pension liabilities. Instead, we get an object lesson in how much fat is still left in the municipal operations budgets. At the same time, city retirees can't say they didn't get their stimulus checks right before Christmas. I wonder how much will get spent immediately at Wal-Mart.— December 2, 2010 9:20 a.m.
Is Federal Reserve "Banker to the World?"
As more facts are revealed, the financial sector is less and less of a black box with unknown functionality and unknown relationships. What is revealed has interesting complexity issues relating to the national-significance complexity of insurance and re-insurance that meant AIG was a too-big-to-fail institution. There is an amazing record here of... interconnected stuff. As for Goldman Sachs, maybe what they meant to say at the time was that they hadn't received any federal funds that WE had any means of knowing about... I imagine that we can hear the high-level behind-the-scene rationalization now: "Our institutional financial health and how we maintain it is a trade secret!"— December 2, 2010 9:08 a.m.
Bankruptcy — Good for San Diego
RE "As a result of this financial disaster, the state repealed the city charter and installed a three-member, state-controlled board of trustees": This seems to be a precedent that shows our civic situation is not as "vested" as some elected civic leaders have recently suggested... It also points out that there are seldom-used state executive powers that just might appear useful if our strong mayor/council form of government cannot rise to the challenge of running a financially-disciplined municipality.— December 1, 2010 11:42 a.m.
San Diego Home Values Dropped in September
If there is a potential for a double-dip scenario to be evident by spring, I am wondering if further reductions in overseas troop levels will increase housing demand here, as Marines and other service members experience a less-hectic deployment cycle... a drop in price may be beneficial for them while an increase in demand may mean some sort of price firming, a plus for agents and others on commission.— November 30, 2010 11:31 a.m.
I NEED HELP
And for anybody still at least a year from transfer, find a campus issue worth rallying on by all students and get students rallying by involving yourself with campus student government. Yes, it's true that real progress might be damn slow that way, but it will be your ability to propose solutions more than pointing out problems that will pretty much guarantee the support of deans, department chairs and other administrators in getting you transferred to the best universities... with scholarship money. If you're an effective student leader, the money will be found for your transfer... quite likely to a highly competitive PRIVATE university with a top-notch reputation...— November 30, 2010 8:14 a.m.
I NEED HELP
I was on the original City College-UCSD TAG committee maybe 20 years ago, when we set up a two-tiered scholarship package for accepted sophomore transfer students and for those already-transferred students finishing their junior year at UCSD. Don't take any part of the application for granted, especially to a competitive public institution that operates on the more-intense quarter system instead of semesters. If you are married to the idea of doing the essay as a journal entry, then it can't be ordinary or pedestrian: it should include your selfless contributions to others in great need, even if it's just volunteer tutoring at a local high school. It's far better if you describe how you manage other volunteers for successful community outcomes.— November 29, 2010 11:29 a.m.
Chamber of Commerce Wages
Legion: the number of San Diego's former administrative assistants who have schmoozed their way into the chief executive compensation bracket. This wouldn't be so bad but for the inverse relationship between increasing personal enrichment and decreasing rendered public good.— November 29, 2010 11:03 a.m.