I was up at UCSD this afternoon shooting some portraits and spent a little while afterward taking pictures around the campus. It's a beautiful place and I'm always amazed at the amount of different languages I hear spoken as I walk across the university's grounds.

This afternoon, I was at the top of a staircase shooting pictures of students traveling across the campus. When I got back to the office and looked at the images, this one stood out as having a very collegiate feel to it.

-- SAM HODGSON

Speculation about the future of the Southeastern Economic Development Corp. is continuing in the wake of last month's news about its shaky financial picture.

San Diego City Council President Ben Hueso wants to see if the city would save money by folding the nonprofit development group back into the city's existing Redevelopment Agency, which handles redevelopment activities in neighborhoods such as City Heights and North Park. Hueso and Councilman Tony Young represent the four neighborhoods managed by SEDC.

"I'm opening up the possibility to see if the Redevelopment Agency coming in to save money is an option," Hueso said.

The fate of the corporation has been a hot button debate since 2008 when SEDC's former director was ousted following a voiceofsandiego.org investigation into the corporation's bonus and development practices. In the scandal's aftermath, Mayor Jerry Sanders kept the corporation intact, but has asked for more oversight in its operations. But last month, new financial reports showing major budget deficits led city officials, including a staunch supporter in Young, to question the corporation's ability to survive.

Hueso said the corporation's financial reports pushed him to request a study on changing SEDC's duties, but that doesn't mean he wants to get rid of it.

"I'm raising the idea of folding it into the Redevelopment Agency, but not necessarily eliminating it," Hueso said.

Hueso said that meant potentially keeping SEDC's board and advisory structure, but possibly doing away with its administration. Personnel costs make up 10 percent of the corporation's $15 million budget.

"There might be a savings in that area," he said. "Right now we have one director and one controller for the entire (Redevelopment) Agency. I'm seeing if they can handle the additional work of four more project areas."

Hueso's request came in an interesting form. Two weeks ago, he sent a memo to Young, chairman of the city's budget and finance committee, with his ideas for solving the city's day-to-day operating budget deficit. He used folding SEDC into the Redevelopment Agency as an example of a cost-savings measure. But the Redevelopment Agency's budget and the city's operating budget are separate. Hueso said his memo was intended to address citywide cost savings measures. He said he'd follow up on his request for a study on SEDC within two months.

In an interview, Young said he didn't believe Hueso's memo had requested a study of SEDC and he wanted to speak with Hueso before asking for one. Young said Hueso had never told him he wanted to change SEDC's duties and any conversation would need to include redevelopment activity all over the city.

Meantime, Young is offering a stronger endorsement of SEDC than he did when he first learned of the corporation's budget deficit, though he remains interested in seeing the corporation's plan to close a $3 million gap.

SEDC has sent out a survey asking if it should remain independent, and Young wholeheartedly supported the corporation in his weekly newsletter.

"What I've said over and over again is that I believe SEDC should continue to exist, but the question is how we can best provide these services with less revenue," Young said in an interview. "That's the same question I'm asking about the city of San Diego."

-- LIAM DILLON

Good morning from Point Loma.

• We'll lead off today with an interesting story on criticism about the city's Ethics Commission from city elected officials. Councilwoman Marti Emerald, who will have a hearing before the commission later this month, plans to make her hearing about the commission itself, not her case.
• A permanent homeless shelter in San Diego remains stalled as long-running questions over funding and a site haven't been solved.
• San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn likely has a safe re-election bid this June, the North County Times concludes. That's despite an anti-incumbent term-limit measure on the ballot and some controversial decisions. Horn's $100,000 in the bank doesn't hurt.
• This week, the California Coastal Commission will decide the fate of the North Embarcadero redevelopment project's current plan. The commission should approve it because the project needs to get started, the U-T editorializes. 
• The Coastal Commission also will hear from opponents of a desalination plant in Carlsbad with another ruling expected on the plant's fate. The commission should continue its support, the U-T editorializes.
• The U-T's editorial board did celebrate something: A public-private land swap that is expected to lead to development on Chula Vista's bay front. 
• Tailgating will need to be done differently at the proposed downtown stadium for the Chargers, as there will be no more giant parking lot.
• Our football developer friends in Los Angeles, who reportedly attended yesterday's Super Bowl, had some news surrounding them this weekend. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he couldn't "guarantee a team" would be in Los Angeles and discussed the difficulties of financing the project. And state political columnist Dan Walters has a paean against public funds for stadiums.
• The issues raised in Out of Reach, our project on social services in San Diego County, were debated on KPBS's San Diego Week. 
• A study of a city of San Diego controversial pension benefit, the Deferred Retirement Option Plan, or DROP, needs to happen as soon as possible, the U-T's editorial board says.
• Those considering bankruptcy for the city of San Diego took what appears to be a major hit to the underpinnings of the bankruptcy argument. The bankrupt city of Vallejo is not touching pension debts as part of their initial workout plan.
• There's a third way to save city budgets, the U-T editorializes. It's not just service cuts or tax increases, but pension reform.
• In Escondido, a local contractor has bought an asphalt patching truck and is repairing city potholes for free. A city councilman calls the contractor "the ultimate citizen."
• In Chula Vista, candidates for four city elections have raised nearly $200,000.
• In National City, officials have decided to return $45,000 in fees it collected last year for business tax licenses. Its decision came after a court threw out a similar program in San Diego.
• And last, want to see a city that's cutting so far back that it's turning out streetlights? Check out Colorado Springs. 

-- LIAM DILLON

In San Diego, a criminal defense attorney has not tried to win an election to become judge since 2002 and one hasn't actually succeeded since 1990.

But this year may be different. For once, a local judicial race is actually becoming quite interesting. 

In June, voters will decide between the well-known criminal defense attorney Tom Warwick and Deputy District Attorney Richard Monroy for a spot on the Superior Court. Warwick has successfully secured the endorsements of many judges and former Sheriff Bill Kolender, who bizarrely has actually endorsed both candidates.

This is a fascinating challenge to the person we recently described as the most powerful politician in the land: District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. The DA's power has come from her ability to influence these types of races and she endorsed her deputy Monroy for the post. In the past, that would have been enough. Will it be now?

In other news:

• Southwestern College is in trouble. The state's accreditation agency put the college on probation Tuesday. Faculty members have been banned from campus for inciting students to rally against the college's president. And three board who oversee the president are being targeted in a recall campaign.
  
  At the center of it is the controversial leader of the school, Raj K. Chopra. He had a reputation for turning school systems around when he came to the school in 2007, but not without conflict. Is he giving Southwestern tough medicine to swallow or the wrong kind?
• We have a new edition of Fact Check TV up on the site today. Check it out -- we review a local congressman's worry that if gays are allowed to serve openly in the military, the floodgates will open for ... well, we'll let him tell it.
• For the last several weeks, I've been rolling out a series of Q&As with local thinkers. The latest one is with City Councilwoman Donna Frye (who still won't say if she's running for a new job).  
  
  The series was meant as sort of a beginning-of-the-year exercise where I would ask them all the same questions about what they were looking forward to. Each received a few customized questions too. But I got such a tremendous response, it's stretched into February.  I've been rolling them out as fast as I can, but there are more.
• The Union-Tribune checked in on the rising tension between the city of San Diego's Ethics Commission and the city's elected officials -- most specifically those elected officials who are getting fined by the commission. They are rebelling against what they say are excessive fines and unnecessary interrogation practices. But the commission didn't create the laws it enforces. In a Q&A last month, the departing chairman of the commission gave an interesting answer to a question about its annoying fines.
• In that U-T story, a certain former mayor we never hear from these days chimed in about the effectiveness of the commission he created. Since 2006, I've only seen him in two press appearances: One was a random Election Day sighting we caught of him going to the polls and the other was in CityBeat where the editor saw him at a concert with his son at the famous Casbah. Can you think of others?
• The U-T, on Saturday, said it uncovered an audit critical of the county's treasurer-tax collector. But the North County Times had the story the day before claiming an exclusive. That paper also got the official in question on the record. Someone either didn't want the U-T to be the only one with the story or the U-T's not right that it was the one to discover the situation.

A note to readers: We didn't have room in Saturday's Weekend Report for some weekly features. Here they are:

The Coffee Collection (stories to enjoy over a cup of joe):

One Counselor, 277 Students: As middle-school counselors in the San Diego school district go, Rafael Ocampo has it easier than some: He only has 277 students to look after, while others have as many as 500. Still, as our story shows, he has plenty to do -- and plenty to worry about. His job, among many others, may be cut.

A Big Challenge for Cops: Crime rates are down, but San Diego cops are dealing with more suicidal people, and the police predict they'll be coping with more of the mentally ill as services for them decline.

Quote of the Week: "Middle school is the Bermuda Triangle of education. Either we get a hold of them -- or we lose them." -- Ocampo, the middle-school counselor.

-- SCOTT LEWIS