Morning Report: Former Staff Review DeMaio as Manager

On his way to becoming a candidate for Congress, Carl DeMaio has left a lot of controversy in his wake, and a lot of former staff, too. While he now carries on campaigning underneath an accusation of sexual harassment from a former staffer, Scott Lewis set out to find how DeMaio’s former co-workers remember their former boss. He was “disrespectful,” according to one. “Empowering,” said another. DeMaio’s former driver said he felt like a “doormat” and was encouraged to break traffic laws.

But what was true for all of them was that the claims of inappropriate sexual behavior didn’t ring a bell. “[No one] I spoke to said they had ever heard of or seen DeMaio do anything sexually inappropriate,” Lewis wrote.

• inewsource broke down the money coming in and out of the campaigns of Rep. Scott Peters and Carl DeMaio, who are vying for a seat in congress.

Tijuana Is On A Roll

Things just keep getting better and better for cross-border relations with Tijuana. Catherine Green noted that while a cross-border Olympics may be out of the question, Tijuana is racking up big wins besides. Dozens of new northbound border-crossing lanes are a “game changer” for the regions’ ability to move traffic between the two border cities efficiently. Ground has been broken on a cross-border airport terminal. And more.

“San Diego is in a better position than ever to join forces with our neighbors down south,” Green wrote.

Keeping The Bolts: San Diego Explained

Los Angeles is eager to woo a NFL football team to the new stadium, which they plan on building the moment a team signs on. This puts the Chargers in the spotlight, since the team will either strongly object to another team moving into their market, or will simply move to LA themselves. Scott Lewis joined NBC 7’s Catherine Garcia to break down what options exist for the Chargers, and what options San Diego has for keeping them, in our most recent San Diego Explained.

One Fake Disease Scare, Two Real

All eyes were on Southwestern College in San Diego on Thursday when reports of a sick student at the school blew up into a full-scale Ebola scare. A local news reporter later apologized for earlier distributing incorrect information, which was then followed by conflicting reports and communications from school officials. “NO EBOLA ON SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE CAMPUS,” read the final press release. The hysteria began when a Southwestern student falsely used the Ebola claim to prevent being dropped from a class, NBC 7 reported. The student later recanted.

• The real danger on Thursday wasn’t at Southwestern, but at San Diego State. A student diagnosed with meningitis was said to be “gravely ill” and up to 400 students may have been exposed. The disease spreads through close contact.

• As if that wasn’t enough, health officials are warning that the deadly hantavirus has been found in rodents trapped in Fallbrook. You can avoid catching the virus by not inhaling infected rodent droppings.

Pesky Disclosure Laws Too Pesky

U-T San Diego reported on how “state investigators found that just 22 out of 282 public officials obligated to disclose gifts from bond firm Stone & Youngberg did so.” Stone & Youngberg is a firm that helps the state issue public bonds, and then apparently throws parties for state officials, who then fail to report some meal gifts they receive from the firm. Among those officials who ran afoul of the law: former San Diego Chief Operating Officer Jay Goldstone, who failed to report a meal worth $99. Also caught up in the investigation was Malliga Tholandi, Poway Unified’s associate superintendent of business, for failing to report “$38 of brownies.”

• Meanwhile, some other politicians met and agreed that political consultants are the ones who are unethical. (Times of San Diego)

News Nibbles

• Opponents of the new minimum wage increase have turned in enough signatures to put the issue on hold in lieu of further action by City Council. (NBC 7) The Council can simply back off and rescind the minimum wage hike or leave it and voters will decide its fate on the June 2016 ballot.

• California’s high-speed rail system cleared a big legal hurdle this week when the state’s supreme court declined to hear an appeal that would have stopped the financing of the new system. (KPBS)

• Escondido’s City Council decided it wasn’t interested in opening a shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children. (LA Times)

• What are the chances that when you walk out you walk out your front, you’ll see someone of a different race? inewsource compiled a diversity map of San Diego’s neighborhoods to find out where that is most likely to happen.

• Should the port of San Diego give homeless people a one-way bus ticket out of town? (Fox5)

• It’s been a little while since anyone filed a lawsuit over humans and seals co-mingling at the Children’s Pool in La Jolla. Let’s fix that. (San Diego Reader)

SD Rescue Trucks, Mini-fied

Thanks to work being done between the city and toy maker Mattell, you will soon be able to purchase toy cars cast in the shape of San Diego’s emergency rescue vehicles. “Mattel is planning to market 150,000 of the San Diego-branded miniatures of fire rigs and lifeguard vehicles over a 3-year period,” NBC 7 reported. The bad news? There doesn’t appear to be any plans to miniaturize San Diego Unified’s ill-fated MRAP military vehicle in any color. Cities still can’t send the things back to the military fast enough.

Seth Hall is a local writer and technologist. You can email him at voice@s3th.com or follow him on Twitter: @loteck.