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Good morning from Hillcrest.
- We’ll lead the day, as we often do, with pensions. A roundup of pension pressures on the budgets of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego leads with our fair city. Here’s the key line:
San Diego, struggling with its self-inflicted problem for years, is an example of how difficult getting a grip on pension costs can be, even when faced not with fuzzy future estimates but a well-publicized budget crisis currently cutting services.
- Debate over local union-led contracting is heating up, with this U-T story leading with harsh words from an anti-union contracting director.
- San Diego will see a big decline in its cruise business this year with a departure of the region’s only year-round cruise ship. The San Diego Unified Port District is still pushing ahead with a $28 million cruise ship terminal.
- The head of the regional association of local governments received a $50,000 raise over the next five years, the association’s board decided Friday.
- San Diego City Councilman Todd Gloria was wrong about the extent of pension and retiree health care cuts the city has made, our Fact Check blog reports.
- You can also check out a new installment of Fact Check TV, our partnership with NBC 7/39.
- Which San Diego politician is looking for a ghostwriter for his memoirs? We don’t know either, but check out the advertisement.
- Murtaza Baxamusa, an analyst from left-leaning think tank Center on Policy Initiatives, is the latest on the hot seat from our own Scott Lewis.
- An afternoon on the soon-to-be gone Sunday bus route from U-T columnist Michael Stetz.
- In news from other cities around San Diego County, Lemon Grove should cut pension costs before increasing sales taxes, a U-T editorial says. An Illinois surgeon is buying up land in downtown Escondido and worrying some residents about his plans. A North County Times columnist lampoons the situation. And if there’s major budget problems, that means it’s blue-ribbon commission time. Oceanside is now looking into one.
— LIAM DILLON