1. San Diego Water Chief Accused of Drunken Smear of Board Member, Rival Agency Employee
Maureen Stapleton, who has led the Water Authority for over two decades, accused a male board member of having an affair with a woman who works for the Metropolitan Water District. There is no evidence such an affair took place. The incident suggests that a long-standing rivalry between two water agencies has devolved into personal attacks. (Ry Rivard)
2. Inside the Fight to Make Public School Misconduct Records Public
In November, Voice of San Diego asked every public school district in the county for records involving substantiated instances of employee sexual misbehavior. Twenty districts claimed to have no records, one denied the request outright, three are still gathering records and three more were taken to court by current or former teachers. At the heart of the legal battle is an uncomfortable question: How much does the public get to know about the people educating their children? (Ashly McGlone)
3. The City Is Suing SoccerCity and SDSU West
City Attorney Mara Elliott claims both initiatives illegally infringe on the mayor and City Council’s authority. The move could end up throwing both of them off the November ballot. (Andrew Keatts)
Five years into San Diego Unified Superintendent Cindy Marten’s tenure, the district has moved the needle in some ways, floundered in others and at times behaved in ways that contradicted the “be kind, dream big” rhetoric on which Marten has staked her image. While districtwide test scores have risen, the achievement gap Marten pledged to tackle has gone virtually unchanged. (Mario Koran)
5. The Surge in Border Crossing Prosecutions Is Causing Chaos and Confusion in Federal Court
It’s been less than two months since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a “zero tolerance” policy at the U.S.-Mexico border, and the resulting flood of misdemeanor cases for those caught trying to enter the country illegally is wreaking havoc on San Diego’s federal court and beyond. (Maya Srikrishnan)
Assemblyman Rocky Chavez tries to find a middle ground on the state’s immigration and law enforcement debate. Why the city attorney is suing both SoccerCity and SDSU West. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher makes his case to potential donors in San Diego’s cannabis community. (Andrew Keatts and Scott Lewis)
7. Everything We Know About Summer Stephan’s Role in the Stephanie Crowe Murder Case
Interim DA Summer Stephan has defended her role in prosecuting three teen boys for the murder of 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe, and suggested major decisions were made before she joined the prosecution. But interviews with key players, media reports and court records shed light on how important she was to the case and what went wrong. (Ashly McGlone)
8. Opinion: If We’re Serious about Solving Homelessness, Every Neighborhood Needs to Do Its Part
My neighbors in Clairemont are trying to stop a housing project that would get people off the streets and provide them with necessary services. Passing the responsibility for our crises onto other communities solves nothing. (Shawn VanDiver)
9. The Black Mountain Home That’s No Home at All
If you ever find yourself driving northwest on San Dieguito Road just past Camino Del Sur in the Black Mountain Ranch neighborhood, take a gander up and to the left. You’ll see an adobe-style house with peculiar tiny second-story windows. “Looks like Irving Gill designed a prison,” one reader said. It’s actually a bundle of cellular antennas. (Randy Dotinga)
10. Opinion: Our Businesses Depend on San Diego Building More Housing
As employees are lured away from the high cost of San Diego, or are pushed into commutes that challenge our environmental goals and impair employees’ quality of life, our region becomes less competitive. (Opinion)