San Diego schools have pulled the plug on a proposal that would have brought advertising to campuses and the district website.
The ads would have been allowed at middle and high schools, and most principals and vice principals who were surveyed approved of the idea with limits. But the school board last night turned down a plan that district officials thought could reap $100,000 a year from the district website alone. “I don’t want to be a part of using kids to sell stuff,” said one trustee.
In Other News:
• A low-income senior housing complex in Clairemont may have a new owner on the horizon, and residents aren’t happy to learn it’s a firm founded by two former executives of a company rocked by allegations of manslaughter and elder abuse.
The two former executives haven’t been charged in regard to the allegations, unlike some of their ex-colleagues. The Clairemont center’s management company said there’s no reason to worry, but some residents are raising an alarm.
• Mark the date: We’re holding a debate on Sept. 30 on Prop. D, the financial reform/sales tax hike measure. Two councilmen — Todd Gloria and Kevin Faulconer — will take opposite sides.
• Fire protection — or the lack of it — has become an issue in the county supervisor race between longtime incumbent Ron Roberts and challenger Stephen Whitburn, and they went at it during a supervisor board meeting yesterday. Meanwhile, board members approved some new funding, delayed some discussion of new spending until 2012 and lauded themselves for supporting fire protection.
• Looking at the Photo of the Day may be a religious experience for some of you as it was for me: from an unusual perspective, Balboa Park’s Cabrillo Bridge has the arch-friendly beauty of a classic cathedral.
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Elsewhere:
• In the U-T: federal prosecutors have “decided not to appeal a judge’s ruling that threw out the indictment against five former members of the San Diego pension system.”
• His four colleagues refused to allow Supervisor Bill Horn to resurrect a grant for a group which critics say is too religiously based to get public funds. At a board meeting yesterday, Horn said the anti-abortion group “is not a religious organization.” Its own supporters seem to not know this: Its vice president’s husband, a pastor himself, called it a “ministry” and a board member reportedly called it “a Christian organization.” (CityBeat)
• Wow: Middle schools in Vista have canceled after-school sports programs with the district “citing budget cuts and a lawsuit filed against the state of California over fees charged for such activities,” the NCT says.
• In response to parent complaints, the school district that serves the Poway area is slightly changing the way it alerts students at a middle school that they don’t need to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Legally, students don’t have to say the pledge. Parents were upset that the district made this clear to the students. (U-T)
• The famous graduates of La Mesa’s Helix High School (now a charter school) include actor Dennis Hopper, basketball player Bill Walton and football star Reggie Bush. The school may not be so proud of that last one: Bush is forfeiting his Heisman Trophy amid allegations of wrongdoing while at USC. (WaPo)
• This is in the running for Weirdest Story of the Week: District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis reportedly asked a local gay newspaper to not take her photo at a forum for gay/lesbian/transgender/bisexual candidates. The paper took a “beautiful, flattering” photo but declined to publish it. It did, however, include her in an editorial cartoon.
Why the reluctance to be included? Gay San Diego reports that Dumanis implied it had something to do with an investigation into another local gay publication.
• The Sacramento Bee reports there will be a sing-along today about the nine statewide propositions to appear on November’s ballot. Here are the lyrics.
• Finally: “Congressman Darrell Issa and his wife, Kathy, are trying to sell the Vista headquarters of the company that made Issa one of the richest men in Congress,” the NCT reports. Issa made his money in car alarms, and the newspaper says it’s his voice behind that famous phrase “Step away from the vehicle.”
If the GOP gains control of the House, you’ll be hearing a whole lot more of Issa’s voice: he’s likely to become high-profile. Perhaps he’ll go after an even higher position: “Step away from the Oval Office …”
Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.