The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
There’s something unusual about the case of San Diego police officer Anthony Arevalos: Police asked the district attorney’s office to pursue charges against him but prosecutors declined, so he was sent back to work.
He stands accused of sexually assaulting women, soliciting bribes and falsely imprisoning them. As Keegan Kyle writes, “police knew of an allegation more than a year before he was arrested and fired. But he stayed on the job after the incident and retained the authority that prosecutors say he used to solicit sexual favors or assault five other women.”
One woman has filed a $5.5 million claim against the city, saying police didn’t properly investigate and discipline Arevalos before he sexually assaulted her.
Arevalos is just one of several San Diego cops who stand accused of a variety of serious offenses.
No Water Rate Increase for Now
The city of San Diego won’t pass on about $9 million in increased water rate expenses to residents for the first half of 2012, the U-T reports, and will instead use more water from city reservoirs and cut spending.
When a Non-Profit Gets into For-Profit Business
A non-profit foundation creating an arts and culture district at the former Naval Training Center ran into a major hiccup earlier this year: it ended up with surprise tax bills. It all had to do with for-profit subcompanies. What are they all about?
Also in arts, the North County Times says the Surfing Madonna mosaic in Encinitas has been removed without harm to the artwork.
Library Funding Talks Continue
As we told you earlier this week, library boosters still need to raise $28 million to pay for the new downtown central library, which is now under construction, and they’ve gotta do it in a hurry. A library foundation representative says money talks are continuing, City News Service Reports: “We’re talking to a $20 million donor who is talking about (putting) their name on the library. We’re talking to a $10 million donor who is interested in the courtyard.”
Local Legislator Angry over Pay Cut
Assemblyman Marty Block has joined the ranks of state legislators who are miffed that the state controller cut off their pay in a snit over the budget. His action “raises significant constitutional issues about the balance of powers, the separation of legislative and executive branches,” Block said, according to a Sacramento TV station.
The station says legislators are losing $400 a day, saving the state $50,000 daily. Wow. Can we do this every year?
Color Commentary
Dick Enberg, who’s covering Wimbledon for ESPN before returning home to broadcast Padres games, is getting some mockery online for a perfectly innocent (and perfectly naughty-sounding) on-air remark about a fuss over the color of tennis balls.
Mayor Jerry Sanders, who has his own special vocabulary, was caught actually growling the other day during the opening of a new brewery location. We’ve posted a photo of the mayoral moment as proof.
Better Beaches
An opinion piece in the U-T says that the beach booze ban has shown over the past three summers to be a very good thing. “Alcohol-related crime is down. Violent crime is down. Vandalism of homes and yards has decreased. The number of underage drinking violations is less than one-third of the city’s total. Police have reduced the number of officers on holidays, preserving a big slice of the department’s overtime budget.”
Mitt in Cali
Mitt Romney is fundraising in California this week, including SoCal. He owns a house in La Jolla, about which the Reader has lots of links and details, including that “ex-San Diego mayor Maureen O’Connor and her late husband Bob Peterson, founder of Jack-in-the-Box, once owned the elegant old residence.”
Not Getting Whitey
In 2006 a cop in San Diego said he saw now-captured killer James “Whitey” Bulger leaving a movie theater in San Diego in 2006, but nobody believed him. The movie was “The Departed,” Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning movie about the mob Bulger. Dianne Bell had a bit about in the U-T at the time.
Reality Rejection
Residents of La Jolla’s Bird Rock neighborhood are none too thrilled that MTV’s “Real World” reality show may be coming their way and setting up a home for a season’s cast there, the Reader reports. Councilwoman Sherri Lightner is worried enough to bring up the idea of changing zoning rules to corral future productions.
Updated Explainers
The latest edition of our San Diego Explained video series updates some of our previous explainers on the Convention Center expansion, medical marijuana rules, the NFL lockout and the Chargers stadium search.
Bug Expert Spins Regional Web
An entomologist from UC Riverside has sent out an alert: he wants brown widow spiders and their egg sacs. He’s doing research into their habitat and ways of exterminating the critters, who have been giving black widows a run for their money by squatting where they live in Southern California, including coastal San Diego County, the Riverside paper says.
The story includes a nice photo of a brown widow spider, whose stunning body markings make it look like a product of a modern painter.
It goes to show you that you can find art outside the museum or gallery. Just make sure it doesn’t bite. Unless it’s really experimental art, of course.
Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.