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In San Diego County, the business of beer is hopping. And not just for those who make and sell the sudsy stuff.
We check in with local beer-preneurs: the couple behind Tap Hunter, a startup internet operation that catalogues craft beers around the region, and the man and son-in-law who are wooing local beermakers to buy their unique crop.
As our story explains, “San Diego is a burgeoning beer town. And where beer is made and cherished, there’s business for more than just brewers.”
How much business remains to be seen. But there’s plenty of enthusiasm — Tap Hunter has its own iPhone app thanks to an excited friend who created it for free — and lots of rhizomes in Ramona.
Rhizomes? Read about them.
By the way, there’s no word yet on what actor Tab Hunter, who’s still around, thinks of Tap Hunter. But I know the co-author of his biography and will see if I can find out. (We’re just a bunch of curious types here at voiceofsandiego.org. And. . . OMG, Tab Hunter!!)
In other news:
- Maybe it’s a case of spring (cleaning) fever. The San Diego school district is “poised to reorganize its central offices again, scrapping ‘school improvement officers’ who are assigned to elementary or secondary schools for ‘area superintendents’ who will handle a geographic cluster of schools.”
This would reverse changes made by the previous superintendent, who in turn switched things around from the way the boss before him did things.
- How many of the students in San Diego city schools are single moms? Would you believe. . . 25 percent? A KPBS show host mentioned that figure the other day. The Fact Check blog checked it out and found out that the claim is absolutely, positively, without a doubt. . . well, see for yourself.
- We’ve got another Fact Check, this of a statement by a councilman about how much the city of San Diego is saving by outsourcing the municipal IT help desk. (Yes, just like the one you call at work when your computer goes on the fritz.)
And the verdict is. . . we’ll save you the suspense this time. Feel free to make your own loud buzzer sound (bzzzzzz!): It’s false. More details are here.
- It’s time for our weekly Photo Caption Contest. Let us know what you think is going through Supervisor Bill Horn’s mind in the photo, in which he looks like much less than a happy camper.
And if you have the maturity of a 12 year old (please come sit by me if you do), be aware that someone has already beaten you to one of the obvious captions, which coincidentally appeared in one of our stories earlier this week.
Elsewhere:
- There were lots of fireworks over City Hall politics yesterday, and the pyrotechnics didn’t just play out in a meeting room.
As the U-T reports, “San Diego City Councilwoman Marti Emerald’s attorney waged a six-hour battle with the Ethics Commission Thursday in which he questioned the integrity of the panel, refused to focus his questions as directed and threatened to appeal any fine to Superior Court.”
The hearing isn’t over and will resume later this month.
Even more interesting, at least to those of us who like to watch the interaction between journalists and the people they cover, is how U-T reporter Craig Gustafson covered the meeting while twittering sarcastic remarks and defending himself when his coverage came up as a topic.
- Among other things, Emerald’s lawyer reportedly said Gustafson apologized for a previous story. Gustafson led his tweet about this statement with the words “next falsehood” and said “that never happened.”
- Earlier this week, the new editor of the U-T told CityBeat that he wasn’t happy, not happy at all, about the paper’s very sluggish online response to Sunday’s earthquake. Guess how long it took the paper to tweet about yesterday’s aftershock? A matter of minutes.
- It sounds like journalists actually listened to their boss for once. I really hope this isn’t some sort of trend. (Editor’s note: Ahem. I’m right here, you know.)
- The activist UCSD professor you read about on our pages earlier this week — the one who’s being investigated over his controversial work — “turned a meeting with university officials yesterday into a two-hour exercise in nonviolent protest.” (U-T)
- The U-T takes an even deeper look at the “boogeyman” behind that double slaying in Poway.
- Insert your own “grass” joke here: “The latest trend in smuggling pot across the border at San Ysidro appears to be stuffing it inside lawnmowers,” the U-T says.
- Borrr-ring. The “Ho-Hum Bandit” — yes, that’s really what authorities call him — appears to have struck again, this time robbing a bank in La Jolla. He got the nickname for being, well, rather a bit under-extraordinary. (U-T)
- Finally: If you’re a politics junkie, you’ve probably read the work of Maureen Dowd, one of the most well-known and influential columnists at the New York Times. Now, it seems, she’s got competition.
- “In the old days, the columnists were on Mount Olympus,” Dowd said at a forum this week. “Obviously things aren’t like that anymore. An electrician in San Diego can easily have something more original to say than I do, and faster.”
Attention all San Diego electricians: Maybe you should try to switch jobs with Dowd. You’ll probably get a raise, and she’ll learn her way around a fuse box. It’s a win-win!