The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
When we last checked in on SeaWorld CEO Jim Atchison exactly one month ago, he was tempering more bad news for the company with hope – SeaWorld was retooling its ad campaigns and messaging, so that ought to right the ship, he told investors.
“The company has weathered months of bad news and it’ll likely require more than a glossy new ad campaign to overcome it,” Lisa Halverstadt wrote at the time.
It looks like SeaWorld agreed – and on Thursday, the company announced Atchison was out as CEO (NBC). Here’s the Orlando Sentinel with more context.
SeaWorld also announced it will be cutting jobs – though it didn’t say how many, or how the cuts would be spread across its many parks.
San Diego Republicans to the Poor: No.
So you want to kill a minimum wage hike. OK … now what?
That’s the big question facing San Diego Republicans, Scott Lewis writes. Republicans in California have been pointing to poverty as evidence California is not recovering. But as they oppose minimum wage increases, it might be time for them to offer another way for the public to see how things might improve, he writes.
Republicans are in a good spot right now. They’ve got the mayor’s office and a new leg up on the City Council. But so far they’re only talking about vague aspirations around education and job opportunities when it comes to addressing the poor.
How UC Tuition Hikes Could Thwart Jobs
Toni Atkins isn’t the only local Assembly member standing against the UC tuition hikes.
In a new op-ed for us, Republican Assemblyman Brian Maienschein argues that the move could put a chokehold on the supply of highly skilled workers into San Diego’s economy.
“I’m supporting Assembly Bill 42, which would freeze tuition and fees at our public colleges and universities while Proposition 30 is in effect,” Maienschein writes. “I will do everything I can to keep college affordable and accessible.”
San Diego’s Healthy Outlook
With a wide range of health-care providers, research institutions, a thriving tech community and a lot of pharmaceutical giants in town, San Diego has all the makings to be Obamacare’s biggest success story.
That’s the conclusion Joe Mathews, a longtime California journalist, comes to after surveying how Covered California is working throughout the state.
“Navigating Obamacare is an unpleasant chore, but it might be a little less unpleasant in America’s Finest City,” Mathews writes.
• It’s not all rosy when it comes to health access, though: A new review by the Bureau of State Audits shows California is doing terribly when it comes to children’s dental care.
Quick News Hits
• City Attorney Jan Goldsmith says he supports efforts to legitimize medical marijuana in the city. But cops are still raiding shops. What gives? The city’s stance on medicinal pot is the subject of our latest San Diego Explained.
• San Diego is ground zero for California’s whooping cough epidemic. (Associated Press)
• “Spent nuclear fuel at the idle San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in northern San Diego County will be stored in an underground facility,” the plant’s owners said Thursday. (City News Service)