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Schmooze and Partake
Published Aug. 13, 2008
Another top executive at utility behemoth Sempra Energy has given big money to the campaign to ban gay marriage in California. On August 1, Darcel Hulse contributed $5000 to the ProtectMarriage.com - Yes on 8 committee. ...
Criminals Decriminalized
Published Aug. 13, 2008
Where did San Diego’s most prominent political givers place their bets during this year’s California primary? Padres owner John Moores gave $15,000 to the ill-fated “Yes on Prop 93” campaign to loosen up legislative term ...
Game Over
Published Aug. 13, 2008
With the Union-Tribune up for sale, executives are rushing to clear the decks of as many unwanted encumbrances as possible. At least one is apparently now history, after a federal judge late last month dismissed ...
Electrifying Published Aug. 6, 2008
Sempra Energy, lobbying hard to build that controversial power line across Anza-Borrego state park, has taken its battle to the stomachs of legislators and their ... More Comment (1)
Blasts from the Past Published Aug. 6, 2008
Ex-KFMB Channel 8 TV weathercaster and part-time Mission Beach stand-up comic Larry Mendte has been making the wrong kind of headlines in his adopted hometown ... More Post a comment
Summer Fun Published Aug. 6, 2008
The Gill Action Fund, a political arm of the Colorado-based Gill Foundation, which recently named ex–Jerry Sanders PR aide Fred Sainz its director of communications, ... More Post a comment
Meet and Confer Published July 30, 2008
How will the convention business hold up in an oil-starved world? Will video conferencing start to trump air travel and hotel stays? Nobody yet knows, ... More Post a comment
Showboating Published July 30, 2008
Last week’s announcement that publisher David Copley is looking for someone to buy the Union-Tribune marks the end of an era for San Diego, which ... More Comments (2)
Alex, Mike, and Jerry Published July 23, 2008
San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre and Chargers owner Alex Spanos finally may have something in common. At loggerheads for years over Spanos’s attempts to ... More Post a comment
Right wing light Published July 23, 2008
KPBS, the San Diego State University–owned public broadcasting operation that has been suffering financially of late, is looking for a new voice from the right. ... More Post a comment
Who’s bundling whom? Published July 23, 2008
Both Barack Obama and John McCain have released updated lists of their so-called bundlers, fat cats who hit up their friends for the maximum amount ... More Post a comment
Veteran’s hang-up hell Published July 16, 2008
Patients experiencing interminable delays in scheduling appointments for care at the San Diego Veterans Administration hospital aren’t just imagining things. So concludes a health-care inspection ... More Comments (5)
Booze and electricity Published July 16, 2008
When Saint Louis–based brewing giant Anheuser-Busch, owner of SeaWorld, gets taken over by a Belgium-based beer maker, will state politicians be left out in the ... More Comment (1)
Out and about Published July 16, 2008
A major figure in the dark saga of Andrew Cunanan, the gay serial killer from San Diego who made international headlines when he murdered fashion ... More Comment (1)
Saint Patrick’s in July Published July 9, 2008
Is San Diego due for a wave of undocumented Irish immigrants? With increasingly hard economic times on the Emerald Isle, officials there are predicting that ... More Comment (1)
Poseidon adventures Published July 9, 2008
“Jerry Brown 2010,” the campaign committee expected to fund the likely gubernatorial bid of the Democratic state attorney general, collected $5000 from Stamford, Connecticut–based Poseidon ... More Post a comment
Streaming Larry Smarr Published July 9, 2008
UCSD’s California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, which spends a tidy chunk of its taxpayer-furnished budget on public relations, has recently outdone itself, coming ... More Comment (1)
Boozing with Shamu Published July 2, 2008
With St. Louis brewing giant Anheuser-Busch battling a hostile $46.4 billion takeover attempt by Belgium’s InBev, locals are bracing for the possibility that SeaWorld, the ... More Comments (3)
Tuning out Published July 2, 2008
With the imminent departure of station manager Doug Myrland and yet another round of staffing cuts, has the time come to pry KPBS from the ... More Comments (2)
Gaily, gaily Published July 2, 2008
The impending ballot battle over gay marriage continues to pick up local financial backing from those on both sides of the issue. Latest to donate ... More Post a comment
Fine whine Published June 25, 2008
Ex-Democratic congresswoman Lynn Schenk, fresh from the local campaign trail as Hillary Clinton’s San Diego chairwoman, has circulated a lengthy email to volunteers and contributors ... More Comments (6)
Falling sky Published June 25, 2008
Problems aboard a San Diego–based “mini-jet” have caused the temporary grounding of the nation’s fleet of Eclipse 500s, a new generation of light executive jets ... More Post a comment
Fly like an Egyptian Published June 18, 2008
La Jolla’s Blue brothers aren’t the only locals in the business of making unmanned aerial vehicles. In fact, San Diego is such a hotbed of ... More Post a comment
Updates Published June 18, 2008
Former Union-Tribune enterprise reporting editor Susan White has departed the paper and is now in New York working as an editor for a new foundation-funded ... More Comment (1)
Big Blues Published June 18, 2008
It’s been a very good San Diego election cycle for Linden Blue, proprietor with his brother Neal of General Atomics, the La Jolla defense contractor ... More Comment (1)
Ephemera Published June 11, 2008
The library at UCSD has just purchased some letters and related miscellanea belonging to Gary Snyder, a Northern California poet famous for hanging out with ... More Comment (1)
Clinton’s minions Published June 11, 2008
Now that Hillary Clinton has finally bowed out of the Democratic presidential race, the bets placed by local contributors can be tallied. Perhaps the biggest ... More Comment (1)
Stealthy Published June 11, 2008
Last-minute political expenditures made in local campaigns are often an indication that the people spending the cash don’t want their identities to become an issue ... More Post a comment
In the lobby Published June 4, 2008
With election results now in hand, members of the city’s lobbying corps can adjust their strategies as needed. And despite the threatened economic recession and ... More Post a comment
Not in the lobby Published June 4, 2008
An engineer from Burlingame, California, has been told by the City of San Diego’s Ethics Commission that he doesn’t have to register as a lobbyist ... More Post a comment
Small world Published May 28, 2008
Late last month, San Diego voters began getting so-called robo calls on behalf of city councilman Scott Peters, one of four candidates running against incumbent ... More Comment (1)
Block vote Published May 28, 2008
A bevy of some of California’s biggest plaintiffs’ attorneys are lining up behind San Diego Community College District Board president Marty Block in his Democratic ... More Post a comment
Smoke and fire Published May 28, 2008
A good example of how money is channeled through state campaign committees, obscuring the original, sometimes controversial sources, can be found in the recent campaign ... More Post a comment
Top heavy Published May 21, 2008
The University of California just hiked annual student fees by 7.4 percent, but that hasn’t stopped the hallowed institution from handing out of ever-higher salaries. ... More Post a comment
Jerry’s favorite Published May 21, 2008
General Atomics megamillionaire Linden Blue and ex–Jerry Sanders chief operating officer Ronne Froman have been an item for more than three years now, showing up ... More Post a comment
Condemned Published May 21, 2008
The League of California Cities, operating out of a posh Sacramento office, is funded by cities with taxpayer dollars to lobby for legislation dear to ... More Comments (7)
Copping tickets Published May 14, 2008
In his latest annual financial disclosure statement, filed last month, San Diego police captain Bob Kanaski reported receiving four tickets to the Chargers-Colts game in ... More Comments (6)
Ms. in-the-chips Published May 14, 2008
San Diego State University has been getting more than its share of bad ink lately, what with the campus drug raid last week. But at ... More Post a comment
Money talking Published May 14, 2008
Average San Diego citizens who have a hard time getting through to Mayor Jerry Sanders and the city council might be amazed at how easy ... More Comments (2)
Rock and rip Published May 7, 2008
EdVoice, that controversial Sacramento lobbying organization, has already rolled out at least two mailers on behalf of 78th District Democratic assembly candidate Marty Block, chairman ... More Post a comment
Indian givers Published May 7, 2008
The long-running dispute between the Barona Indians and their neighbors over pumping water for the tribe’s golf course apparently demanded a recent firsthand inspection by ... More Comments (2)
Mystery meat Published May 7, 2008
Some San Diego city hall insiders are expecting the investigation announced this week by Mayor Jerry Sanders of that controversial Otay Mesa Blackwater training facility ... More Comments (2)
Tough guys Published April 30, 2008
The by-now-infamous F-word meltdown by San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders is only the latest instance in a long history of bad-boy behavior by the onetime ... More Comments (3)
Political dowries Published April 30, 2008
Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins — the former law firm of now-imprisoned superlawyer Bill Lerach — is throwing a fund-raiser for Mike Lumpkin, running ... More Post a comment
Never mind Published April 30, 2008
Political observers are scratching their heads over the unfortunate strategic timing of a new mailer being sent out by the campaign of Auday Arabo, the ... More Comment (1)
Duke’s legacy Published April 23, 2008
The United States Navy is still using software sold to it by ADCS, the Poway outfit founded by Brent Wilkes, convicted of bribery, fraud, conspiracy, ... More Post a comment
Scenes from a divorce Published April 23, 2008
It’s campaign season, time to delve into some colorful divorces of San Diego’s more-or-less rich and sort-of famous personalities. Earlier it was GOP city attorney ... More Comments (2)
The K word Published April 23, 2008
Thirty-Ninth District Democratic state senator Christine Kehoe is the chairwoman of the senate’s Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee, holding life-and-death power over bills crucial to ... More Comments (2)
Eat, drink, and be lobbying Published April 16, 2008
While the State of California is threatening to slash funds for everything from school teachers to parks, higher-ups out at UCSD continue to party on. ... More Post a comment
What recession? Published April 16, 2008
More UCSD spending: recently appointed UCSD health sciences counsel Anthony Perez is being paid an annual base salary of $210,000 and will be eligible for ... More Post a comment
Ghost of Nixon’s past Published April 16, 2008
Maybe it’s something in the water, but many of San Diego’s top Republican political players have lived to a ripe old age. Banker C. Arnholt ... More Comments (2)
Pete’s return Published April 9, 2008
Ex-mayor Pete Wilson, who retired as governor to a tony house in Los Angeles, returns to San Diego only occasionally these days to accept tributes ... More Comment (1)
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