This week, The New York Times zoomed in on school foundations and compared what Coronado, with donations from parents, is able to do compared with San Diego Unified School District.
Mario Koran gathered all the recent news and studies about foundations into a helpful post. The bottom line: “In recent years, foundation money has turned into a kind-of budget staple at cash-strapped schools, paying for things like librarians, teachers aids or school nurses – things that schools need.”
Sacramento’s Tough Vacation
The state capitol is half empty this time of the year because many legislative staffers are off on vacation — not to relax, but to help get other candidates elected. That’s the theme of our weekly Sacramento Report. Our Sacramento contributor Brian Joseph also checks in on the race for governor and a few other races coming up in November.
Smart Parking Meters Are Coming
You might recall a piece from me several months ago about an effort to install smart parking meters in the city of San Diego. It was derailed by a mysterious “personnel matter” at City Hall.
But the city put it back on track by deciding to partner with the city of Sacramento on the procurement.
On Tuesday, the new smart meters that take credit cards and let the city know when they break will start hitting the streets. San Diego is home to one of the pioneering companies behind this technology and we’re finally getting to take advantage of it on our streets.
DeMaio Plagiarism Story Challenged
At the heart of Carl DeMaio’s rebuttal to a former staffer who has alleged that DeMaio sexually harassed him is the claim that that staffer was fired for plagiarism. DeMaio says the former staffer, Todd Bosnich, is retaliating for that.
But Bosnich wasn’t fired until a week after that plagiarism controversy. And now, another former staffer on DeMaio’s campaign, a Republican operative working on a campaign in Ohio, has come forward to say Bosnich was not fired for plagiarism.
“I worked at the Carl DeMaio campaign as the Deputy Campaign Manager in May 2014 and can confirm Todd was not fired for plagiarism. Carl was very involved with the report and referred to it as his ‘baby,’” said Alison Rentschler in a statement posted by CityBeat.
Earlier this week, I posted a timeline of the bizarre saga.
Finally, there’s been quite a bit of intrigue and debate about a series of embarrassing emails that Bosnich has released to the media. DeMaio’s campaign manager apologized for one. But then DeMaio’s team began implying that other emails were fakes. This led some reporters to seek out technical verification.
No need. DeMaio’s campaign seems to be claiming now that the emails are real, he just didn’t send them.
A Wall Street Journal columnist decided to give DeMaio a boost. “If Mr. DeMaio wins, he will instantly become a poster child for California’s camp of progressive Republicans,” writes Allysia Finley.
What We Learned This Week
• A measure in Escondido that would allow a developer to put hundreds of homes on a former golf course has provoked a very acrimonious battle with unusual alliances on both sides (think GOP on same page as the League of Conservation Voters).
• San Diego’s Convention Center is, indeed, all booked up.
• San Diego doesn’t offer as much venture capital funding for software startups as other regions and it might be costing us a lot of economic growth.
• I predicted this post about an environmentalist calling out other progressives for NIMBYism would get 100 comments rapidly. It got 99.
• Mar Vista High School teacher Gene Chavira helped lead the charge for a new election process for Sweetwater schools. He’s excited about what’s to come.
• This is a good story: Kacie Bluhm says an SDPD officer mistreated her outside her home. Witnesses back up key parts of her story.
Quick News Hits
• The Chargers confirmed Friday that Jahleel Addae suffered a concussion in Thursday night’s game against the Denver Broncos. A video of Addae stumbling spooked a lot of fans after local blogger Brady Phelps posted a six-second clip on Vine. Addae kept playing after the injury.
• Mike Florio from NBC Sports says it’s actually the St. Louis Rams who are most likely to move to Los Angeles. Four San Diego-area mayors say they would contribute to a new Chargers stadium rather than leave it up to the city of San Diego alone. KUSI gathered their comments on the topic from a recent forum.
• The U-T’s Robert Krier noted that Friday was the 61st day of the year where the temperature peaked above 80 degrees. Last year, there were only 33 such days.
• San Diego school trustee Kevin Beiser, a teacher, misses a lot of school but the teacher’s union and others don’t care. In a profile recently, we found that Beiser has some major political ambitions. In a new profile, this time by the U-T, Kevin Beiser denies having higher political ambitions.
Quote of the Week
“Having 430 families in new homes buying food in a unionized grocery store would seem like something they would support” —Escondido City Councilwoman Olga Diaz, who is running for mayor, on the United Food and Commercial Workers’ unexpected opposition to her and a controversial development she supports in Escondido.