Morning Report: Decision Day for Pot Supply Businesses

It’s decision for the supply side of the marijuana business today.

The City Council is set to consider whether to allow testing, distribution, cultivation and other related pot businesses.

Scott Lewis has written the definitive FAQ about the state of marijuana in San Diego.

One interesting tidbit: The police chief wants none of the “supply chain” businesses in the city, except for testing. That, of course, would mean a lot of pot would be brought into the city from outside locations.

City staff has offered two options: Only allow pot-testing facilities, or only allow two supply-side facilities in each Council district and only in certain areas per zoning.

• One thing the Council is not set to discuss is the status of marijuana businesses in the city. Many operators of those business, however, are launching a Hail Mary effort, hoping the Council will reconsider.

“The city decided months ago that only licensed dispensaries can operate delivery services,” Lewis writes. “Right now, only 17 groups have gotten those permits. Those 17 facilities will also be the ones likely to get the state permits needed to sell marijuana. Only eight currently have delivery services.”

Do You Even Skate, Bro?

In many neighborhoods of San Diego, you may go days without seeing a skateboard. But not so in the parts of the city where young people hang out. Photographer John Francis Peters says the skateboard is “a logistical form of transportation but also a style accessory” here. When he spent summers in town growing up, “every single skater, whether it was a girl or guy, had a completely different style.”

In a New York Times photo essay, Peters captures images of skateboarders and other young people.

What the Sex Abuse Scandal Cost S.D. Diocese

A decade ago, the local diocese of the Catholic Church paid big-time for decades of failing to protect children from sex abuse by priests: It paid a settlement of almost $200 million to 144 people.

“The San Diego settlement was the nation’s second largest, trailing only the Los Angeles diocese’s $660 million,” the U-T reports. “By at least one measurement, though, San Diego’s settlement was more significant. After legal fees, the 508 victims in L.A. averaged a payout of $780,000. In San Diego, the average was $825,000.”

The diocese tried to go file for bankruptcy, but a judge wouldn’t allow it.

Now, the U-T examines what has happened since to the diocese and some of the victims.

The newspaper also examines files about four local priests who abused minors, including the notorious Rev. Paul Shanley. He became infamous as the Catholic sex abuse scandal unfolded in Boston, but he also worked at parishes here for a time. He was released from Massachusetts prison in July.

• It’s been quite a while since a botched prosecution caused a San Diego County district attorney to lose his job at the hands of infuriated voters. And earlier this summer, the County Board of Supervisors didn’t seem to be bothered by concerns about prosecutor Summer Stephen’s significant role in the bungled case of the murder in 1998 of Stephanie Crowe, a 12-year-old girl from Escondido. Crowe’s parents scorched Stephan in a 22-page letter to the board, but the supervisors were unmoved and appointed Stephan to be interim district attorney to replace veteran DA Bonnie Dumanis.

Now, Dumanis wants to become a county supervisor, and the U-T says she could face political attacks over how her office handled a domestic violence case that culminated in the murder of a woman in a City College restroom at the hands of her estranged husband. The case “raised important questions about how the county handles particularly dangerous domestic violence cases,” the U-T writes.

U-T Columnist: Keep Your Opinions to Yourself

U-T sports columnist Nick Canepa has heard quite enough out of you already, so shut your trap: “Do I need people who don’t know how to do my job who think they know how to do my job telling me how to do my job? Ah, no.”

What’s his beef about? He’s miffed that readers are daring to tell the paper that they don’t want coverage of the departed-team-that-shall-not-be-named. “What’s not understandable is telling me or anyone else what to write or read when it’s so easy to avoid it,” Canepa writes.

Perhaps U-T readers have a right to a say because so many of them pay for the paper. And maybe the guy whose job is to spout opinions shouldn’t be so upset when he hears someone else dare to express one.

• Meanwhile, we won’t be hearing the opinions or musings of another longtime Union-Tribune journalist. Columnist Dan McSwain writes that he’s leaving the Union-Tribune and journalism altogether. McSwain writes that he’s been struggling recently to write his regular column, and has been trying to understand whether there’s a more serious health problem at work:

“Over the last six months or so, it has gotten noticeably and suddenly harder. My productivity, as measured by quantity adjusted for quality, has dropped. I’ve been making too many mistakes. Mild cognitive decline is the chief suspect. One question is whether it’s normal or something worse,” McSwain writes. Thankfully, his doctors seem to have ruled out many of the scariest possibilities.

Quick News Hits: The Cardiff Chill

• “The union representing 10,000 San Diego County employees announced Saturday it has reached agreement on a new contract that will avert a potential strike,” Times of S.D. reports.

The county and union workers still need to approve the deal. For background about the labor dispute, check our coverage of the union’s unusual move of hoping to initiate sweeping policy changes as part of the negotiations.

• In a bizarre twist to the deadly hepatitis A outbreak, an image of an arm with a “GET VACCINATED” tattoo on it is freaking out at least a couple tattoo fans, the Reader reports. The image appears on fliers downtown that urge people to get vaccinated. “People are getting the wrong ideas about getting tattoos and tattoo shops,” says a man who’s tattooed on 90 percent of his body.

• Uh-oh. (Scary-clown-in-the-gutter trigger warning!)

• If you go on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia will tell you about about the famous people produced by local cities. For example, here are a few of the actors from here: Mario Lopez (Chula Vista), Dennis Hopper (La Mesa) and Annette Bening (San Diego).

Recently, a denizen of Reddit checked out the Cardiff-by-Sea entry on Wikipedia and noticed an unusual entry under “Notable Residents”: “Logan Ahlgren, v v chill resident.”

Hmm. That’s v v interesting. Maybe we should run this by VOSD’s San Diego Fact Check service to see if the claim about Mr. Ahlgren is true.

Hello? Is this thing on? No one at the Fact Check department is answering my messages about this. They’re v v busy and v v important, apparently.

Randy Dotinga is a freelance contributor to Voice of San Diego. He is also immediate past president of the 1,200-member American Society of Journalists and Authors (asja.org). Please contact him directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.