School. And more school. And even more school. Some postdoctoral researchers spend more than two decades in the classroom altogether, and they’d like to get nice jobs when they get finally out.
Good luck. As our story puts it, “even those who are smart, skilled and supremely qualified can have a tough time finding a job where their expertise can make a difference.”
We explain what happened (it hasn’t always been this way), why lack of business experience is a hindrance for local postdocs and what universities are doing.
In other news:
- A San Diego councilman is interested in exploring whether the redevelopment agency that serves southeastern San Diego could be folded into another city agency.
This may be a sticky wicket. Our reporter Liam Dillon says talk about yanking the agency’s authority or eliminating it all together “has run into roadblocks from those who say it does a better job managing redevelopment in its neighborhoods than the city would.”
- On national TV, Mayor Jerry Sanders bashed the state government and declared that the city has outsourced its information technology services. We ran this last claim through the truth-o-meter at the San Diego Fact Check Blog. Is it true? You’ll have to click through to the story to get the answer, but here’s a hint: BZZZZZZ!
- We fact-checked another statement: a claim made last November in the U-T by the Watchdog Institute, its nonprofit investigative partner that “More than 70 percent of registered sex offenders in San Diego County are violating a state law by living too close to schools and parks.”
The verdict?? Misleading.
- Remember the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers went there last August, and they’re now reporting that they found tiny bits of plastic — some as little as a grain of sand — in 5-10 percent of fish they gathered.
- The Photo of the Day paints a placid picture of life at UCSD.
- We know that it can be hard to read multiple stories on the web, especially when you have a limited attention span. Ooo, look, something shiny! Um, now where was I?
Oh yes. We’ve created a PDF of our Out of Reach series about the gaps in the county’s safety net for the poor. You can read it in one sitting or print it out and digest it over time.
Elsewhere:
- The internal politics of the local and state Republican Party are getting nasty.
The Sacramento Bee takes a closer look at some long-circulated rumors and says a “long-simmering controversy about the private life of California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring has erupted into a divisive public conflict within the political organization.”
The story is rooted in San Diego and includes allegations from an ex-girlfriend of Nehring who claims he abused her. Nehring formerly served as the San Diego County leader of the GOP, and Michael Crimmins, a member of the local party’s central committee, is facing potential expulsion “in part for sending an e-mail to state party leaders raising concerns about behavior by Nehring and Krvaric.”
- Local foreclosures and defaults dropped considerably last month, according to the North County Times.
- There’s a bizarre story out of a town in Northern California’s Gold Country: A politician is in hot water because he took a brain-damaged woman to San Diego and left her here after she apparently went missing. She was found after a three-day search.
- The U-T’s Logan Jenkins tackled local Rep. Duncan D. Hunter’s now-infamous clumsy comment on NPR about “hermaphrodites and transgenders” serving in the military, as did TV’s Stephen Colbert.
- Also: San Diego’s curfew law has been struck down by a state court, but an appeal is possible.
- Finally, a panel of San Diegans (along with people from Virginia) watched Super Bowl commercials for USA Today and ranked them. Among the losers: a terrible U.S. Census ad that cost $2.5 million. The winner: a very funny Snickers ad featuring Abe Vigoda and Betty White.
It seems that San Diegans think watching old people get tackled is awesome. My own personal Fact Check analysis: They’re absolutely right, as long as no actual old people were harmed during filming.