Welcome to our new and improved version of the morning e-mail we have been sending for years now. Starting today we will provide you an easier-to-digest morning rundown of the stories we’ve made available since the last time you heard from voiceofsandiego.org.
You’ll still get the headlines to the right and below this section. But in this section, we’ll help you get startedwith a personal rundown of what’s new, what our talented reporters and writers have dug up and a quick summary of what’s going on so that you can remember to check in later if you don’t have the time right now.
Mr. Not Rogers: Today’s featured piece tells the story of a San Diego teenager named Michael Kinsell. You might have heard part of the story already: A guy bursts onto the children’s entertainment scene claiming to be nothing short of the next Mr. Rodgers. Randy Dotinga profiles how Kinsell persuaded many to participate in a plan to launch a new television program. And they did so because he convinced them other celebrities and important players were in on it too. “His plan was evidently to name-drop his way to success,” said Alex Boese, a La Mesa author and hoax specialist. (Read it here or e-mail it to a friend.)
Virtually Struggling School: Education writer Emily Alpert also has a new piece up revealing how fewer students are enrolled in a local virtual high school — iHigh Virtual Academy. Even though thousands of students have taken online classes, only a few are fully enrolled in the school and so the school district receives few of the funds it had hoped to collect from the state for launching the effort.
Alpert: “The new school was already expected to lose about $150,000 in its first year, when it was estimated to enroll 75 students, but with enrollment lagging far behind those predictions, it actually cost an additional $260,000 this year for a total of nearly $420,000 in the red.” (Read it here or e-mail it to a friend.)
Border Thinker Retires: As you no-doubt know, voiceofsandiego.org each week does a Q&A with someone interesting in the community and if you missed it this weekend, you missed a good one. UCSD Professor Wayne Cornelius, the founder and director of UCSD’s Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, took questions from reporter Adrian Florido. Cornelius declares that “Congress has never demanded evidence of efficacy” of its border enforcement efforts. (Read it here or e-mail it to a friend.)
Real Estate Rallying in Spring: voiceofsandiego.org housing and economics guru and author of the “Nerd’s Eye View” blog Rich Toscano says that “we are seeing a legitimate rise in home prices” but that doesn’t mean the bear market is over. Read his explanation here. Also if you somehow missed Kelly Bennett‘s excellent piece about what lurks in “Subprime’s Wake” go to the housing section and catch up.
Quick Hits: A major debate has erupted under this Vladimir Kogan letter “Those who think important government reforms should be made through direct initiatives should take warning from the unintended consequences of Prop 13.” The city’s firefighters union has cast its vote for who should be the next chief. The port of San Diego, one of the largest users of valuable water in San Diego, says it’s changing its ways.