Relocation notice!
Effective October 17, 2013, News Ticker has moved out of the blogs and into the News & Stories section.
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Entries
Great Outdoors: Mural lobbyist joins big billboard graphics fray
Partially completed Blue Moon mural on side of downtown bar building complies with city code and is protected by the First Amendment, proprietor maintains
2013 seems to be shaping up as San Diego's year of the great billboard battle, as noted here earlier this week in Dorian Hargrove's report about the intense behind the scenes lobbying at city hall for high tech electronic signage, …
San Diego Superior Court judge presides over difficult case
Jury must decide who is lying
The Honorable Judge Kathleen Lewis now presides over a difficult trial in which an Escondido man has been accused of child-rape. Defense claims the case is the result of an ugly divorce and child-custody battle. In opening statements, defense attorney …
Construction allowed to begin...again on Centerpoint development near SDSU
The Mayor and developer have stepped down from their 4-week standoff.
It's settled, developer Carmel Partners are permitted to get back to work on a 332-unit building on the corner of 63rd Street and El Cajon Boulevard near SDSU in Rolando. The developer and Mayor Bob Filner were at a standoff …
San Diego tourism lags other California coast metros
Local figures up moderately -- others up stoutly
April occupancy rates in San Diego County hotels dropped slightly from 71.1% in April of last year to 71% the same month this year. However, average daily room rate rose from $126.42 to $131.19, according to Smith Travel Research. For …
Study finds unfair, unsafe working conditions for San Diego taxi drivers
A group of graduate students at San Diego State University led by Professor Jill Esbenshade teamed with the labor-friendly local think tank Center on Policy Initiatives to produce Driven to Despair: A Survey of San Diego Taxi Drivers, which was …
Carrier suit against U-T begins tomorrow
Carriers say they were misclassified as independent contractors
Preliminary matters in the case of newspaper carriers suing the Union-Tribune begin tomorrow (May 24) in the Superior Court department of Judge John S. Meyer. Persons who signed contracts with the U-T as home delivery carriers beginning in 2005 say …
Save San Onofre Coalition accuses transportation agency of trying to resurrect a plan to build a toll road to Trestles
Group files two lawsuits in San Diego Superior Court against the Transportation Corridor Agency
The Save San Onofre Coalition, a coalition comprised of basically every environmental advocacy group in California, is accusing the Transportation Corridor Agency of moving forward with plans to build a controversial 16-mile expressway through Orange County and North San Diego …
Brown appoints new Superior Court judges
Amid considerable grousing about budget cuts in the state’s court system, Governor Jerry Brown has announced the appointment of eleven new California Superior Court judges, two from San Diego, Courthouse News Service is reporting. Patricia Guerrero, a graduate of UC …
Much-hyped Venter Big Oil algae deal heads back to drawing board
UCSD alumnus and self-styled emperor of the worlds genomes recasts not so miraculous $300 million deal with ExxonMobil for genetically engineering fuel from algae, reports MIT Tech Review
As first reported here in November 2008, La Jolla's Craig Venter, the self-styled human genome king, had grand plans for altering the DNA of algae to produce a variety of so-called biofuels, hopefully to replace the world's rapidly depleting supply …
City Attorney finds gaps in Mayor Filner's effort to remove traffic from Balboa Park's Plaza de Panama
In a May 15 memo, City Attorney finds issue with Filner's so-called temporary plan.
Not so fast, Mayor Filner. That's the gist of a May 15 memo from the City Attorney's Office regarding the Mayor's plan to close the Cabrillo Bridge, thus removing traffic in the Plaza De Panama. Filner's announced his proposal shortly …
Baja authorities searching for missing 11 year old girl
Child disappeared from home on May 18 without a trace
Baja California authorities and family members are asking for help in locating a missing 11 year old girl. Cristina del Rosario Cancino Cota vanished from her grandmother’s home in Ensenada on the evening of May 17th. No trace of the …
There was no answer at the front door, so burglars went around to the back
Neighbors in Carlsbad no longer at ease after home invaded
A fifteen-year-old girl was home when two intruders went around to the back of the house in Carlsbad and kicked in the doggie door to gain entry. The terrified girl was already on the phone with her mother and screamed …
Third conspirator pleads guilty in plot to kidnap San Diegans
Antonio Zermeno Garcia has joined co-defendants Luis Miguel Salas Rodriguez and Carlos Alberto Andrade-De La Cruz in pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping, U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy has announced. His partners in crime had already pleaded guilty in April. …
Blonde burglar sentenced to 4 years prison
Woman admitted stealing jewelry and wrestling with homeowner
A woman who confronted a burglar leaving her Oceanside home five months ago was in court yesterday afternoon to see the criminal sentenced to four years prison. Homeowner Kathleen was able to briefly stop the tall, thin woman whom she …
Escondido man who ran over women in crosswalk is sentenced
Judge wants felony-bad-driver to pay restitution
Aaron Danny Hernandez, 25, was sentenced to 365 days custody plus 5 years formal probation in San Diego’s North County Courthouse late yesterday, May 22, 2013. Hernandez made a plea deal, admitting his guilt after he drove his Expedition into …
Appeals court reinstates discrimination case against Ace Parking
Superior court wrongly dismissed racial, age discrimination complaints
Richard Hodges, an African American aged 63, claimed in a Superior Court suit that he was wrongfully terminated by Ace Parking in 2009, ostensibly because of a business slowdown, but actually as a result of racial and age discrimination, harassment, …
Tax preparer gets 15 years for stealing 292 identities, $515,000
He fled to Mexico, but returned to do more mischief -- and got nabbed
Tax preparer Neil Thomsen was sentenced today (May 22) to 15 years in prison. He was convicted in a jury trial in late 2011 of using 292 stolen identities to cheat the Internal Revenue Service of $515,000 in fraudulent tax …