October 2022

TERI and the Zables team up for SM arts complex

TERI (Training, Education, Resource Institute,) a non-profit organization serving children and adults with special needs, has successfully completed the $1 million challenge grant awarded earlier this year by the Warren J. and Betty C. Zable Foundation. Thanks to a philanthropic response by TERI families and supporters, funding is now secured for the construction of the Zable Performing and Fine Arts complex at the San Marcos,…


California grants add senior and at-risk adult housing

California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week announced $53 million in new housing grants intended to create more residential care options for older adults and adults with disabilities, including people at risk of experiencing homelessness. “California is making significant housing investments to support some of our most vulnerable residents – low-income older adults and adults with disabilities – to live with safety and dignity in their communities,” Newsom said…


SANDAG Audit: Show us the contract money

The San Diego Association of Governments increased vendor contracts by tens of millions of dollars more than their original amounts, internal auditors revealed in a new report this week. As with the regional planning agency’s other spending, the Office of the Independent Performance Auditor found SANDAG’s contract process lacks adequate oversight, proper documentation and sufficient employee training. Auditors found the agency’s 10 vendors with the…


SD County supervisor district boundaries a bit of a twist

The Legislature has created commissions to redraw county supervisor districts in five counties after every census. However, unlike the state redistricting commission, these local bodies are stacked in favor of a county’s dominant political party. California once had a history of epic political and legal battles over redrawing legislative and congressional districts after each decennial census. The Legislature, dominated then as now by Democrats, would…


California inflation relief refunds go out to taxpayers

Get that up to $1,050 California direct tax refund today? Fret not, the first direct payments for about 23 million Californians are going in the direct deposit account Friday, state officials said. Part of the $308 billion state budget signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on June 30, one-time payments known as the Middle Class Tax Refund (MCTR) will be sent to taxpayers starting Friday, Oct.7…


Columbus Day? ‘California Dream,’ indigenous peoples

The California Dream is a myth for many California Indian peoples and tribes. Since settlers arrived, California Indians’ reality has largely been one of land dispossession, cultural assimilation and even genocide. If California Indians were to design their own dream it would place decolonization at its core. Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, part of what I study as a scholar of Native American studies….


San Diego named greenest city in America by WalletHub

A study released this month ranked San Diego as the greenest city in America, thanks to copious amounts of renewable energy and an overall healthful environment. San Diego was followed by Portland and Honolulu in the ranking by Washington, DC-based WalletHub, a financial information website. The least green of the 100 largest cities in America were three in the Phoenix suburbs: Gilbert, Glendale and Mesa….


Move over avos, ornamental trees-shrubs No. 1 crop now

San Diego County has a new number-one crop for the first time in 12 years, other crops racked up double-digit value increases, and agriculture remained a key industry at $1.75 billion in value in the County’s new Crop Report. However, the report, which covers the 2021 growing season, also showed total crop and commodity values fell for the first time from the previous year since…


Before Babe Ruth, there was Gavvy Cravath

(Editor’s Note: Gavvy Cravath was an Escondido native, perhaps the first Major League Baseball star from San Diego County. Patrolling right field at the historic Baker Bowl for the Dead Ball Era Philadelphia Phillies, he led the National League in home runs six times in the years just prior to Babe Ruth’s arrival on the scene. Later, a Laguna Beach municipal judge, the crusty Cravath,…