The Morning Report
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A Republican candidate for a local state Senate seat says California needs to do something about all the businesses that are fleeing the state. In fact, he said, statistics show that about three corporations leave for Texas alone every week.
But, as San Diego Fact Check finds, Hector Gastelum’s claim is misleading. There are also many businesses that relocate from Texas to California.
According to one estimate, California actually loses about 1.5 businesses a week to Texas.
Gastelum, who’s a huge underdog in a Democratic stronghold, says his point stands: “Both numbers are horrible. That’s why California is in the situation we are.”
The Nonprofit that Builds Big
Nearly two decades ago, the nonprofit Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation came to southeastern San Diego and promised to revitalize long-troubled neighborhoods. It bought dozens of acres, opened a shopping center, planned for big developments and more.
Then big troubles came within the past few years: a leadership crisis, major layoffs, a deficit. But the organization (funded by the Jacobs Family Foundation, not related to Qualcomm’s Irwin Jacobs) still wants to develop big. That means an In-and-Out Burger, a Walmart, a health clinic and more in a new urban center.
Our story checks in on the organization’s progress and the hurdles that it’s facing.
How Money for Homeless Is Spent
As we reported last week, the San Diego metro area ranks third nationwide when it comes to the number of homeless who live here, but it’s far from third when it comes to federal spending to combat the problem. Now, we take a look at how money that makes it here is actually spent.
District Central Office Bulks Up
The San Diego school district has “boosted central-office personnel in recent months, raising salaries and adding jobs even as it prepared to sell off surplus property, increase class sizes and pare back its teaching force through attrition to help balance its budget,” U-T San Diego reports.
The school board president said: “When principals call with questions, they need support. When finance clerks have problems, they need support. When unions have labor issues, we need to give them support.”
The U-T also offers an online survey, asking readers if they support adding instructional days or boosting office staff and pay. Surprise! As of Sunday, 91 percent of those responding supported more instructional days.
What’s next? A survey about whether weekends are a good idea? (Don’t get any ideas, U-T!)
Padres Fans vs. Time Warner, Time Warner vs. Fox
The U-T and the mayor actually agree on something other than (presumably) that puppies are delightful: The Padres should be on TV, darn it! Time Warner Cable, that is, which serves only about 1 in 5 local residents with cable, a number that seemingly includes miffed legions of bloggers and newspaper columnists. (In an unrelated matter, Miffed Legions would be a good name for a band.)
The LA Times offers a story summarizing the long-lasting dispute between the team and the cable company, which won’t air Padres games because it can’t (or won’t) reach a deal with Fox Sports.
Who cares? Just about everybody: The mayor, the city attorney and council members are all going to bat for Padres-less citizens. But there’s little they can do other than huffing and puffing and threatening cable cancellations. And Times Warner is publicly sticking to its position, saying the price to carry the games has skyrocketed.
If they want to stick with their cable company, Times Warner subscribers may have to watch games the old-fashioned way — in person.
Pity the 800-Pounder
A few weeks ago, a spokesman for the sheriff’s department sent local media types into a tizzy by publicly questioning whether anyone can call themselves a journalist: What about the 800-pound disabled man who’s stuck in bed, wears fuzzy slippers and likes to blog?
At issue: Who deserves to get media credentials? Law enforcement-issued press passes don’t just allow reporters to closely cover crime and disasters.
The AP examines the debate from a national and local perspective, including information about a lawsuit from a “rough around the edges” local freelance videographer and comments from our own Sara Libby: “It’s the journalism that’s produced — how it’s presented, the service it performs — that matters.”
My advice: Whatever the 800-pound disabled man wants, the 800-pound disabled man gets. Especially if it encourages him to go outside and cross a police line.
Randy Dotinga is a freelance contributor to Voice of San Diego. Please contact him directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.
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