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SDG&E hasn’t been able to reach more than 200 East County residents whose medical devices could shut off if the power company cuts electricity to prevent a wildfire.
It’s not for lack of trying, SDG&E says. But the communication outage highlights the challenges facing the company as it tries to ensure “its most vulnerable customers are aware and prepared for potential electricity cuts as early as next month.”
It looks like the future is going to be a testing time for San Diego school principals, and not just for the usual reasons (pencils, books, teachers’ dirty looks).
The school district is developing “a new, more rigorous way of judging principals that would include whether student test scores, dropout rates and attendance had improved on their watch.” The new principals new union is examining this very closely, and a school board member sent us his thoughts.
We’re examining a treasure trove of White House emails about the mass firing of U.S. attorneys in 2006. “Get me the oxygen can!” cried the press secretary (and onetime San Diego resident) upon hearing about the firing plan, and then she pleaded for a “double shot” upon hearing about a targeted San Diego prosecutor and her bid to rid San Diego of a troublesome congressman.
At least that congressman had his mom on his side.
A local technology industry honcho tells Scott Lewis that the discussion about expanding the Convention Center is “yet another example of how little respect the true economic engine of this region (the tech cluster) gets in City Hall.”
Kevin Carroll, regional head of TechAmerica, says that if local officials really wanted to encourage the economy, and if they asked tech leaders what they need to do it, they certainly would not focus on building a new Convention Center.
Out in the Pacific Ocean, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography crew has reached the giant floating garbage patch, and the news is grim — and gross.
In commentary, columnist James O. Goldsborough introduces us to “seigniorage,” which he says poisons our economy.
Our readers have opinions too, and boy are they expressing them. Nearly 100 comments, almost all negative, opine on laid-off U-T editorial page editor Bob Kittle.
Kittle and 111 other U-Ters were laid off this week; only one company in the county has laid off more this year. We have a few more names of newsroom workers who got the ax.
Elsewhere, the U-T says San Diego suffered a dramatic defeat” in its bid to continue operating a sewage treatment plant below minimum pollution standards. If an appeal fails, the city would have to pay up to $1.5 billion for an upgrade, which is almost certain to mean higher sewer rates.
The U-T also reports that the San Diego Ethics Commission has “called for a rare special hearing against former Centre City Development Corp. president Nancy Graham over conflict-of-interest issues.” We broke the story of those “issues” last year and follow the ongoing narrative here.
The NYT takes a look at Iraqi immigrants who are struggling to adjust to life in America. San Diego is one of their top destinations.
And finally, the U-T reports that the exodus of its former staffers to City Hall continues: the mayor’s office has hired Alex Roth, one of the paper’s former top talents who had been in Atlanta working for the Wall Street Journal.