If you tuned out news over the past two weeks, we’ll forgive you just this once. But the news never sleeps. And neither do we, at least since we got those new-fangled brain implants installed installed installed. (Oops. Still buggy.)
Over the holidays we had breaking news, Q&As and commentaries, along with looks back at 2010 and peeks at the year ahead. If you missed them, here are some recent highlights from our site.
Look Who’s Here
David Malcolm and the South Bay Power Plant go hand in hand: it’s linked to his greatest triumphs and failures. Seven years after the law snared him over his dealings with the plant, he’s back in talks about its future.
Questions of Ethics
Financial companies footed travel bills for two County Office of Education investment program employees, gifts that went unreported and that experts say could present ethical problems.
Transit’s Moment to Move
If you’ve ever tried to go without a car for a day or two (or a year), you know how hard it is to get anywhere in San Diego County by using public transportation. If it actually goes where you want, it takes forever to get there or breaks down on the way or service gets cancelled. But as the population grows over the next 40 years, are more roads the answer? Or more trolleys and trains and buses?
Local officials are trying to hash this all out and public transit advocates are pushing to move their projects to the front of the queue. Let’s hope they leave home early enough to make it to their meetings on time.
Fighting Back on Balboa Park
Irwin Jacobs, the Qualcomm founder, is fighting back against the San Diego Zoo’s unhappiness with plans for the future of a section of Balboa Park. Parking is turning out to be the major sticking point.
Forget the Townhouses. Save the Ikea!
The heavy rains prompted us to resurrect a 2006 story about the major flood risk that faces those who live, work and shop in Mission Valley. Commenters were quick to lay blame and offer solutions.
Call to Question
• L.A. Times reporter Sam Farmer, who follows the mysterious machinations of the NFL, ponders whether the Chargers will leave San Diego and head north.
He Sees Dead Data
A UCSD sociology professor is the world’s top expert on who dies around the holidays and why. He tells us what he’s learned by studying statistics about those who have bought the farm in recent decades. If you’re reading this now, consider yourself fortunate: you just survived the two deadliest days of the year when it comes to natural deaths.
Looking Back on 2010
• Don’t mess with Mrs. Bilbray. Watch out for an unnamed City Hall employee who’s finally lost his or her marbles. And beware of “jack weenie,” whatever he (or it) is. These are among the lessons you’ll learn from our compilation of the Quotes of the Year.
— The 10 most popular stories on our site in 2010 present quite a picture of the interests of San Diegans. The headline says it all: Nude, Chargers, Condos, Quake: 2010’s Most Read.
• The local words of the year say a lot too: they include junk, bomb factory, brownout, Geezer Bandit and Zapf’d.
• We recapped the year in photos and took a look at the seven most fascinating education ideas of the year.
Looking Forward
• The top of the education agenda this year is absolutely packed with storylines.
Who will sit on the school board? Where will neighborhood schools be allowed to exist? How will education reform play out? What services will be cut?
• The arts world will also be preoccupied by cutbacks this year in both public and private funding. We’ll keep an eye on those stories and continue to follow how local artists stay afloat and make a difference in our lives.
Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.