San Diego Hotel Occupancy Down 6.7 Percent in October; Some Other Markets Worse
San Diego hotel occupancy dropped 6.7 percent in October, according to Smith Travel Research. Los Angeles was down 9.2 percent and San Francisco down 5.2 percent. However, the November 16-22 week jumped. San Diego occupancy was up 5.7 percent. But …
County Home Prices Continue to Decline Among Steepest in the Nation
Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller home price data for September reveal that San Diego County prices dropped 2.4 percent from August. Only six metro areas out of the top 20 did worse. Over the last 12 months, local prices plunged 26.3 …
San Diego Unemployment Rate Rises to 6.8% in October from 6.5% in September and 4.8% a Year Ago
San Diego County lost 12,200 jobs over the last year as October's unemployment rate soared to 6.8% from 4.8% a year ago and 6.5% in September, according to the Employment Development Department. Construction jobs were down 5,800 over the year. …
Copley Puts Tiny Borrego Sun Up for Sale
Copley Press, which has been trying to unload the Union-Tribune since July, has put the small bi-weekly Borrego Sun newspaper of Borrego Springs up for sale, according to the Editor & Publisher trade paper. Copley has been operating the newspaper …
Deflation Here? Consumer Prices Drop. So Do Stocks, Residential Real Estate, Commodities, and Consumer, Investor Confidence
Signs are mounting that the efforts of the government and central bank to fight deflation may be contributing to it by destroying consumer and investor confidence. All the bailout talk that escalated in earnest in September with the passage of …
Emeryville Hotel Workers, 300 Strong, March on City Hall, Claiming San Diego Company Owes Them Back Wages
The Emeryville city council last night (Nov. 17) deferred until Dec. 1 a decision on back pay that workers at Woodfin Hotel say they are owed. Some 300 of the immigrant workers purportedly marched on city hall last night to …
Flight of Fancy Evanesces. Gaylord Won't Build Convention Center Complex on Chula Vista Bayfront
One of San Diego County's sillier planned projects finally went up in smoke today. Nashville's Gaylord Entertainment won't build the big, proposed, highly-subsidized resort project on the Chula Vista bayfront. It was always a question of when this project would …
U-T Managers Get No News on Sale of Paper, Other Than Something They All Knew
Union-Tribune managers in their meeting Thursday did not get any news of a sale of the newspaper, which put itself on the block last July. Gene Bell, president of the U-T, said he would retire when the company is sold. …
Minkow Scores Again; CEO of MGM Mirage Resigns over MBA Questions
Barry Minkow, pastor of Miramar's Community Bible Church, and separately head of the Fraud Discovery Institute, is now pursuing executives who don't have the degrees they claim to have. The latest blowup: J. Terrence Lanni, one of the casino industry's …
Qualcomm, One of County's Major Employers, Stops Hiring After Orders Plunge
Paul Jacobs, chief executive of telecom superstar Qualcomm, told Bloomberg News today (Nov. 12) that the company has stopped hiring following a "dramatic drop" in chip orders from mobile phone makers. The company has also eliminated some research projects. Last …
City Pension Fund Is Only 58 Percent Funded, Council Will Learn Tomorrow. Will It and Mayor Listen?
Joe Esuchanko, a consulting actuary for the City, will tell council tomorrow (Nov. 12) that the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System was only 58 percent funded as of Oct. 31. City Attorney Mike Aguirre warned the council Monday that …
Bell to Meet with U-T Employees November 18. Meeting Announcement Spurs Rumors of Paper's Sale
Union-Tribune management today (Nov. 10) posted a notice on the bulletin board that President Gene Bell will hold a question and answer session with employees Nov. 18 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Employees wanting to attend must sign up with …
While Public Was Fixated on $700 Bailout's Passage, Treasury Quietly Gave Banks $140 Billion Tax Windfall
The Washington Post reported today (Nov. 10) that in late September, while the public was enraged about the $700 billion bailout package, and Congress was debating it, the Treasury pulled a fast one that was probably illegal. Unilaterally and quietly, …
Federal Reserve Refuses to Say Who Got $2 Trillion of Emergency Loans, or What Kind of Junk the Institutions Put Up as Collateral
Bloomberg News reports a blockbuster this morning (Nov. 10). For more than a year, the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, has made loans to troubled financial institutions; last week, the total hit $2 trillion. This is NOT the Fed's …
Goldsmith Memo Proves What Many Suspected: He is not the Sharpest Tool in the Shed, and is Tool of the Mayor
Jan Goldsmith, who has been elected city attorney, sent a horny-handed memo to the city attorney staff the day after the election. "It devastated morale," says one attorney in the office. First, it used the City of San Diego seal …
Qualcomm Reports Profit Drop, Gives Disappointing Forecast. Stock Hit
San Diego telecom company Qualcomm reported today (Nov. 6) that earnings per share for the quarter ended Sept. 28 were 52 cents, down 22 percent from a year earlier. The company forecast 2009 revenue of $10.2 billion to $10.8 billion. …
Because of Computer Problems, I Have Not Been Able to Respond to Your Posts for a Week. I Hope to Resume Soon.
For some electronic reason, I have not been able to respond to posts for a week. That's true of both columns and blogs. I have spent parts of three days working on the problem with a technician. He thinks the …
Some U-T Employees See Signs That Sale May Be Imminent. Warning: There Have Been Such Signs Before
Some Union-Tribune employees believe there are three reasons to suspect the sale of the paper (which went on the block in July) may be near. First, there have been no employee United Way pledge solicitations. They normally come in October/November. …