The Morning Report: The New Frugality, Entrepreneur Edition

Artistic Hub, a company that customizes software and marketing campaigns, doesn’t have a very fancy office. In fact, it’s based in the North Park apartment of one of its founders.

There are plenty of challenges at the home office, from a talkative visiting parrot to overloaded power circuits in the summer. There’s a crowd too: one company’s based in the apartment and another person rents a desk for her own business.

What’s going on here? You could call it the new frugality, entrepreneur edition. Local web startups like Artistic Hub are raising money without traditional investors — it’s called “bootstrapping” — and keeping their expenses low. There are no executive chefs or conference rooms here. Instead, a mix of caution and ideas rule.

• What’s that smell? It’s probably not something awful: sewage spills are way down in San Diego compared to 10 years ago.
• One of our contributing writers went to the big scientist shindig over the weekend and got her head examined. Well, it was her hippocampus to be precise. How did her test go? I’m not telling (nor am I making any rude remarks about the test failing to turn up anything). You’ll have to read her story to find out what happened.

  We’ve got another story out of the scientist conference, this one about the intelligence of dolphins and whether it’s ethical to keep them in captivity. We also look into how dolphins can warn about trouble ahead for humans.

• You may have read last weekend’s Q&A with an Iraqi refugee whose son was kidnapped in that country and remains missing. Refugees like him face all kind of heartache, says a local graduate student who’s working with the Survivors of Torture, International organization.
• How fancy are public schools getting these days? The Photo of the Day has a hint.

Elsewhere:

• The U-T reports that the president has officially nominated a local federal prosecutor, Laura Duffy, to become San Diego’s next U.S. attorney. We broke the news about her nomination last month. Our story includes details about her career and why she was once called “The Lady from the Sky.”
• The healing at UCSD hasn’t started yet: Hundreds of students walked out of the school’s teach-in yesterday, which was designed to address the recent racial strife at the school. (U-T)
• Also in the U-T: It looks like any new City Hall proposal will have to go before voters.
• San Diego’s SeaWorld shut down its killer whale show after a killer whale attacked and killed a trainer at the park in Orlando. This AP story recalls how a single killer whale attacked a trainer here three times. There’s also a disturbing detail about how the attacking orca in Orlando was acting like “an ornery child” before it killed the trainer.
• The mother of two people killed when a Lexus accelerated out of control last year in East County testified tearfully before Congress yesterday. Her daughter, son, son-in-law and granddaughter all died in the crash, which sparked investigations into Toyota products.

  “Prior to today, we cannot say that Toyota was a great company, perhaps not even a good company,” Rep. Darrell Issa said at a hearing, the U-T reported.

• Local Assemblyman Joel Anderson is continuing to make a stink about how, in his words yesterday, California’s public employee pension plan has “completely thumbed your nose at the Legislature.” At issue: two state pension plans stand accused of ignoring California’s requirement that they sell “investments in foreign companies operating in Iran’s defense and energy industries.” (LAT)
• Well hello, average. A J.D. Power & Associates customer survey ranks Lindbergh Field at the middle of the pack among mid-sized airports with three stars out of a possible five for “overall satisfaction.” Food and retail services get an especially poor grade. What, fish tacos and McDonald’s aren’t enough for some people?

  Speaking of Lindbergh, it gets a mention in an AP story about unique attractions at airports.

  What’s special there? The unusual artworks, perhaps? Nah. The story only mentions the airport’s rocking chairs.

  Color me unimpressed until they put in some La-Z-Boys. Then they’ll be cooking with gas.

— RANDY DOTINGA