San Diego News Fix

The bullets were meant to kill Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein. Instead, they gave him new life. “I’m a new person,” the rabbi said, his hands mangled from injuries suffered April 27, when an anti-Semitic gunman attacked Chabad of Poway. One worshipper, Lori Gilbert-Kaye, was killed. Three others were wounded, including Goldstein. His right index finger was shot off and the bones in his left index finger were shattered. Those wounds are obvious, thanks to the blue bandages wrapped around his hands. Less evident, at least at first glance, are the changes that occurred inside. “I’ve been a rabbi 33 years,” Goldstein said. “I’m human, I’ve made mistakes. But I’m a different person now. I’m more patient, more understanding, more appreciative.” https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/people/story/2019-07-05/rabbi-goldstein-the-making-of-a-religious-superstar

San Diego Union-Tribune Education Reporter Kristen Taketa discusses her latestet stories on racism at Southwestern Community College and why charter school executives make so much money. Stories: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-07-08/southwestern-college-confronts-anti-blackness-racial-tensions-on-campus https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-07-06/some-charter-school-leaders-made-more-money-than-san-diego-unifieds-superintendent https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/south-county/story/2019-07-08/things-are-looking-brighter-san-ysidro-school-district-made-strides-under-new-leader

Southern California, Nevada and northern Mexico were jolted Thursday by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake that erupted near Ridgecrest, a small desert city northeast of Los Angeles, the US Geological Survey said. Seismologists warned that a 5.0 or larger aftershock is possible over the next 24 to 48 hours.

The University of Southern California has agreed to pay UC San Diego $50 million and to publicly apologize to the school for the way it wrested control of its prestigious Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study in 2015 during a raid that led to a highly contentious lawsuit. The penalty and apology have resulted in the settlement of a lawsuit the UCSD and the UC Board of Regents brought against USC in San Diego County Superior Court. The move also represents an extraordinary turnaround from four years ago, when USC took control of the program’s data, contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, and gave jobs to the program’s star researcher, Paul Aisen, and some of his staff. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/story/2019-07-02/usc-apologizes-to-uc-san-diego-for-wresting-control-of-its-renowned-alzheimers-research-program

Navy SEAL Chief Edward Gallagher was acquitted Tuesday on all murder charges, witness intimidation charges, and assault charges related to a 2017 deployment in Iraq. “I’m happy. I’m thankful. Thank God for freedom,” Gallagher said in a press conference after the verdict. A seven member jury panel, made up of Marines and two sailors, acquitted Gallagher on all but one count in one of the most closely watched military trials in the country. The jury convicted Gallagher on a single count related to Gallagher taking pictures alongside an Iraqi fighter’s corpse, which is the kind of charge that carries a maximum punishment of four months, court observers said. The jury is still deliberating punishment for that charge, which could potentially result in a loss of rank. Sentencing in the case resumes Wednesday morning. Story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/military/story/2019-07-02/navy-seal-chief-edward-gallagher-was-acquitted-on-most-charges-in-crimes-murder-trial

Prosecutors and defense attorneys in a nationally watched war crimes trial at Naval Base San Diego made final arguments Monday, and now the fate of a decorated Navy SEAL is in the hands of seven senior military jurors. San Diego-based Navy SEAL Chief Edward R. Gallagher was arrested on Sept. 11 based on the accounts of several members of his platoon from their deployment in Iraq in 2017. Gallagher, 40, is charged with premeditated murder in the alleged stabbing death of a wounded teenage Islamic State fighter brought to the SEAL compound near Mosul in May 2017. Story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/military/story/2019-07-01/jury-is-deliberating-in-navy-seal-murder-trial

Late last year just weeks before he retired, former San Diego County Assistant District Attorney Jesse Rodriguez ordered a secret investigation — using district attorney staff — into the ex-boyfriend of his daughter, who was locked in a contentious custody dispute over their infant son. The inquiry began in early November and appears to have lasted until the week before Christmas, according to internal documents obtained from the District Attorney’s Office under the state Public Records Act that outline the probe. The records show that Chief Deputy Dominic Dugo directed the investigation using a senior investigator, Tony Giralamo. The probe focused on finding evidence through the state Employment Development Department for a charge of fraud or perjury related to an unemployment claim filed in early 2017 by the former boyfriend, 44-year-old Nathaniel Moore, who was referred to in one of the emails as “our target.” Story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/story/2019-06-25/former-no-2-in-da-office-conducted-secret-probe-into-daughters-ex-boyfriend-records-show

Some migrants in Tijuana are trying to purchase children from vulnerable single mothers in local shelters so they can more easily cross into the United States, according to shelter directors, migrants and Tijuana law enforcement authorities. Migrants in Tijuana shelters said they are alarmed after reports of single mothers being approached by groups of men who have offered to buy children to improve their chances of safely crossing into the United States. A decades-old legal document, known as the Flores agreement, says migrant children should only be held briefly in U.S. border custody, which often means they are released, along with the parent or guardian with whom they crossed while they wait for their asylum cases to make their way through clogged immigration courts.

The defense had a star witness testify in favor of Edward Gallagher yesterday in the ongoing war crimes trial of a San Diego Based Navy SEAL. Edward R Gallagher stands accused of killing a wounded ISIS fighter in Iraq by stabbing him in the neck, as well as shooting at civilians multiple times. He has denied all charges and pleaded not guilty. Giorgio Kiryolo says that several SEALs are liars, and that Gallager never stabbed the fighter or shot at civilians. As the defense wraps up its case, the jury will have to decide through hearsay who is telling the truth.

County leaders gave their blessing on Wednesday to a hotly contested development east of Chula Vista that critics said would place people into the path of dangerous wildfires. After three hours of discussion, the Board of Supervisors voted three to two to approve the upscale 1,119-home project, known as Adara at Otay Ranch. Supporters repeatedly stressed the region’s desperate need for housing. Supervisor Greg Cox led the push for approval after engaging in a lengthy dialogue with Cal Fire San Diego Unit Chief Tony Mecham, whose agency reviewed and approved the wildfire evacuation plan for the development. “There’s no guarantee that I can give anybody that any community is going to be perfectly safe,” Mecham said, “but I feel today they have taken every appropriate measure that they can to address the fire safety concerns.” Schedule: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/growth-development/story/2019-06-26/san-diego-supervisors-approve-otay-ranch-development-over-wildfire-climate-concerns

The defense continues to lay out its case in the war crimes trial of a San Diego-based Navy SEAL. Edward R Gallagher stands accused of killing a wounded ISIS fighter in Iraq by stabbing him in the neck, as well as shooting at civilians multiple times. He has denied all charges and pleaded not guilty. Yesterday, the Navy Announced that Corey Scott -- the man who says he killed the ISIS fighter by asphyxiation after the stabbing -- may be charged with perjury. And today, more witnesses offer different stories as to what happened in the Mosul sniper towers.

San Diego County grocery workers, along with thousands of others across Southern California and parts of Central California, have voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing their union leadership to call a strike should contract talks with major supermarket chains stall in the coming weeks. The United Food and Commercial Workers announced Wednesday morning the outcome of a strike authorization vote conducted at multiple locations on Monday and Tuesday. Some 46,000 unionized workers, from north of Santa Maria all the way to the U.S.- Mexico border, are covered by the vote. Employees with Ralph’s and Albertsons Companies, which owns Vons and Pavilions, are still working under a three-year contract that expired March 3.

The war crimes trial of San Diego-based Navy SEAL Edward R Gallager is ongoing, with the prosecution wrapping up its case this morning. He stands accused of killing a wounded ISIS fighter in Iraq, as well as shooting at civilians multiple times. He has denied all charges and pleaded not guilty. Yesterday, we heard from forensics exports that provided more context about the stabbing of the fighter, and today the defense begins its case.

Rep. Duncan Hunter began living with a woman other than his wife early in his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives, one of a series of personal intimate relationships prosecutors say he began with three lobbyists and two congressional staffers during his elected service. One of the women Hunter allegedly took up with was on his own staff; another worked in the office of a member of the House of Representatives leadership, new court records state. In a sweeping series of court filings this week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego accuses the six-term Republican from East County of engaging in a litany of extramarital affairs and paying for some of them with campaign funds while serving in Congress. Prosecutors outlined the behavior in a filing aimed at convincing the judge that the spending was not for campaign purposes, one of the presumed arguments that may be put forward by Hunter’s criminal defense attorney. Full story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2019-06-25/hunter-moved-into-washington-d-c-area-home-of-lobbyist-early-into-his-political-career-prosecutors-say

Hear the latest in the ongoing war crimes trial of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher. Andrew Dyer tells us about forensics experts who provided additonal testimony on the events before and after the stabbing of the Iraqi fighter, and the first phase of a cross-examination of a NCIS investigator.

From the day of the catastrophe, Sept. 25, 1978, there’s been speculation over the precise cause of the deadly collision between a PSA jet and a Cessna over North Park. To Leo Leonard, though, there’s no question where the blame lies. “Air traffic control,” he said. “Air traffic control cleared PSA to land, knowing there was an aircraft it had on the radar in the landing pattern.” A co-founder of Pacific Southwest Airlines, Leonard is 99 years old. The Del Cerro resident says he’ll devote the rest of his days to clearing the reputation of the men and women of PSA Flight 182.

Two Navy SEAL snipers testified Friday that their chief, Edward R. Gallagher, shot at civilians on at least two occasions during their 2017 deployment to Iraq. Gallagher, a chief special warfare operator, is charged with killing a wounded ISIS prisoner by stabbing him in the neck while providing medical treatment. He’s also charged with shooting civilians and, on other occasions, shooting indiscriminately at Iraqi non-combatants.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is disputing President Donald Trump’s comments that Faulconer thanked Trump for his efforts on the border wall during a Tuesday meeting between the two men at the White House. Trump said on Fox News Wednesday night that Faulconer expressed gratitude for local upgrades to the wall and declared that they had been highly effective. “The mayor was just up in my office - great guy,” Trump told Sean Hannity. “He came up to thank me for having done the wall because it’s made such a difference. He said it’s like day and night. He said people were flowing across and now nobody can come in.” Faulconer’s spokesman Craig Gustafson said the president’s recollection of the meeting is flat wrong.

Hear the latest on the ongoing war crimes trial of Edward Gallagher.

Defending San Diego County against rising seas would cost about $1 billion, according to a new study that estimated that the cost of coastal armoring would be at least $22 billion for California, and more than $400 billion for the United States as a whole. And that’s just a “minimum down payment for short-term defense against rising seas in California,” says the study released today by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Climate Integrity and the environmental engineering firm Resilient Analytics. Titled “High Tide Tax; The Price to Protect Coastal Communities from Rising Seas,” the study illustrates the expense of coastal protection by calculating the cost of seawall construction in areas threatened by inundation. For San Diego County, that could total $984 million. The city of San Diego, the report estimates, faces a $357 million price tag for those defenses, the highest for any city in California. Imperial Beach would need $212 million to armor its coastline, leaving the city of 27,000 people with the eighth-largest potential bill in the state. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/environment/story/2019-06-19/paying-the-toll-of-sea-level-rise-tax-seawall-coastal-armoring-climate-change

A key witness in the Navy SEAL court-martial trial said he, not Chief Edward Gallagher, killed a wounded Isis fighter in Iraq in 2017, testimony which appears to up-end the prosecution’s main claim in a nationally-watched murder and attempted murder case. Corey Scott, a first class petty officer, testified that he was there and saw Gallagher stab the wounded ISIS fighter in the neck but, he said, he killed the fighter afterward. Scott said he used his thumb to cover the breathing tube that had been inserted to help the fighter breathe and he watched the man die. He said he did it to spare the fighter from being tortured later by members of the Iraqi Emergency Response Division, who also were fighting ISIS.

San Diego’s immigrant communities are bracing for another round of ramped-up enforcement after President Donald Trump promised action as soon as next week. Trump wrote in a tweet Monday night that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would “begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States.” “They will be removed as fast as they come in,” Trump said, praising Mexico for taking actions to enforce its southern border. Immigration officials have been developing a plan aimed at sweeping up and deporting thousands of migrant family members in U.S. cities who were ordered to leave the country after their cases were evaluated by immigration judges. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/story/2019-06-18/san-diego-immigrant-communities-preparing-for-increased-enforcement-after-trump-tweet

A long-delayed effort to let motorists cross the railroad tracks separating Park Boulevard from Harbor Drive just south of downtown San Diego’s Petco Park stadium will be fully funded thanks to the state of California, which is directing $21 million to the project. Friday, State Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) announced the major financial commitment to the Park Boulevard at-grade vehicle crossing project alongside other one-time budgetary allocations for the region, including nearly $9 million for Balboa Park projects and $6.1 million to help stabilize Del Mar bluffs. The bonus checks are included in the state’s $214.8 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, which was passed by the California Legislature last week and includes a $21.5 billion surplus. The state’s $21 million infrastructure investment represents a tangible path forward for the $23 million railroad crossing project that has become exponentially more expensive over time.

In California, there’s a way parents can use money from the government to buy multi-day Disneyland Park Hopper passes, San Diego Zoo family memberships, tickets to Medieval Times and dolphin encounters at SeaWorld. Parents can enroll their children in a “home school charter.” There are a handful of charter schools that give students’ families as much as $2,800 to $3,200 — tax dollars sent to the charter schools — every year to spend on anything they want from a list of thousands of home school vendors approved by the charters, according to the schools’ websites. Some home school vendors offer tutoring, curriculum, books and other traditionally educational services. Other vendors sell tickets to theme parks that are billed as field trips, or extracurricular activities that are billed as P.E., including parkour classes, acting classes, ice skating lessons, horseback riding lessons and more. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-06-15/home-school-charters-let-families-use-state-dollars-to-buy-disneyland-tickets-private-lessons-and-more

San Diego State University failed to award $20 million in available scholarships over the past decade due to a variety of problems, preventing money from flowing to thousands of students who were trying to cope with rising education costs. Campus officials said SDSU has been hobbled by an outdated scholarship management system that can make it difficult for students to find and apply for the awards. The university also says it needs to convince more donors to make their scholarships open to a larger number of students. Since 2008, SDSU allotted slightly more than $63 million for scholarships and made roughly 24,000 awards, helping about 18,700 students. But university documents show that only $42.9 million — or 68 percent — of the money was spent. Full story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-06-10/sdsu-on

Years of cavalier spending of her husband’s political contributions culminated in a guilty plea Thursday for Margaret Hunter, the wife of Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter who was co-indicted last year in a sweeping campaign-finance investigation. During a change-of-plea hearing in the federal courthouse in San Diego, Margaret Hunter formally admitted that she illegally used thousands of dollars in campaign donations for her personal expenses. Specifically, Margaret Hunter pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy. She faces up to five years in federal custody and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced Sept. 1. She also could receive up to three years of supervised probation following her release from prison.

There may be new life for the nearly 100-year-old California Theatre on C Street. Preservationists have struck a deal with a developer that intends to construct a multi-million dollar 41-story condominium tower on the site of the historic theater. The compromise will preserve more of the building’s exterior and lobby, as well as use original ornamentation. A dispute between preservation group Save Our Heritage Organisation, or SOHO, and the developer halted the demolition in March 2018. The new plan still calls for tearing down the heavily dilapidated building, but more of its exterior will be saved and a stronger effort will be made to faithfully reconstruct the building. The California Theatre, made up of a 2,200-seat theater and nine-story office building, closed in 1990.

A Vista judge declared a mistrial on eight counts in the case of ex-NFL player Kellen Winslow II, who was accused of committing several sex crimes against women in North County last year, including rape. Although the Superior Court jury was split, it leaned in favor of convicting Winslow on all remaining charges. The District Attorney’s Office likely will announce Friday whether they plan to retry Winslow on any or all of the deadlocked charges.

The war crimes charges against a San Diego-based Navy SEAL will stand, a Navy judge ruled Friday. However, the SEAL and his defense team will benefit from other decisions the judge made. Chief Special Warfare Operator Edward R. Gallagher is facing charges that he killed a wounded teenage ISIS fighter brought to the SEAL's Mosul, Iraq compound for medical treatment in 2017. Gallagher also is accused of shooting at civilians, posing for photos with a corpse, and holding his reenlistment ceremony next to the body, according to court documents and prosecutor statements. Gallagher has denied all the charges and pleaded not guilty. On Thursday the judge, Navy Capt. Aaron Rugh, moved Gallagher's trial date from June 10 to June 17 at defense lawyers’ request. Rugh's ruling Friday contained details about how the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and former lead prosecutor, Cmdr. Chris Czaplak, sent emails containing a hidden tracking link to defense attorneys and a Navy Times reporter in May. The link allowed them to see when the emails were opened and forwarded. The tracking was supposed to help detect leaks. Navy prosecutors said the link, which they called an "audit tool," did not meet the legal threshold of a wire tap and so did not require a search warrant. Defense attorneys called it prosecutorial misconduct and filed four motions with the court last week, including motions to get the prosecutor disqualified and to have Gallagher's charges dismissed. Rugh granted some of their requests.

From 2014 through 2018, violent crime has doubled — or more — in about 17 percent of all census block groups in the city. That’s an increase from the previous five-year period examined in the first “Crime Counts” story published in March, which showed 13 percent of census block groups had violent crime go up by 100 percent or more from 2013 to 2017. The updated analysis includes data from 2018, and shows the average number of violent crimes among city census blocks was 27. The San Diego Union-Tribune examined neighborhoods with violent crimes at or above that average and calculated a percent change from 2014 through 2018 to focus on areas with a sharp increase or a large raw number of crimes. Story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/story/2019-06-05/more-city-neighborhoods-see-increase-in-violent-crimes-new-data-analysis-shows

When asked to reflect on the tragedy that forever changed Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein 39 days ago, he thinks back to advice he received from a spiritual leader as a 17-year-old student of the Jewish faith: the way to push away darkness was with light. That advice has never been more significant than now, as Goldstein heals from physical wounds to his hands as a result of the shooting at the Poway synagogue he founded, and as he rises to meet a call to action. “I chose to react in a very specific way,” Goldstein told a packed auditorium at the University of San Diego on Wednesday night. Rather than leave him paralyzed, the trauma that left him without an index finger, killed a congregant and wounded two others has transformed him. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/story/2019-06-05/chabad-poway-hate-forum-usd

Re-enacting a parachute jump he made 75 years ago in the early hours of D-Day, retired Coronado school teacher Tom Rice, 97, invaded Normandy again Wednesday. The tandem jump, strapped to the chest of a younger parachutist, came as world leaders and thousands of spectators gathered in England and France to commemorate the June 6, 1944 assault that was a key turning point in World War II. “It went perfect,” Rice told reporters after landing in a field of flowers near Carentan, not far from where he landed the first time. “I feel great. I’d go up and do it all again.”

San Diego joined the world’s dining elite Monday, when the city’s first Michelin star was awarded to the luxurious Carmel Valley restaurant Addison. At a ceremony for the inaugural Michelin Guide California in Huntington Beach, which was attended by a who’s who of the state’s top chefs and restaurateurs, Addison executive chef and San Diego native William Bradley accepted the illustrious award for the 13-year-old bastion of fine dining at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar. “We’re just so happy and so honored to be part of such a prestigious guide representing San Diego and Addison. It’s just amazing,” Bradley said after the awards were given out. “It was surreal. To be standing on that stage with that backdrop and with all those amazing chefs. It’s a dream.” Among the celebrated chefs in attendance were José Andrés, Michael Cimarusti, Michael Mina, Niki Nakayama, and Ludo Lefebvre. A total of 90 California restaurants were awarded stars at Monday’s reveal event, 69 with one star (for “High quality cooking, worth a stop”), 14 with two stars (“Excellent cuisine, worth a detour”) and seven with three stars (“Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey”). Among the three-star recipients, all were repeat winners; no new three-star designations were given. Story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/dining-and-drinking/story/2019-06-03/san-diego-joins-dining-elite-as-first-michelin-star-goes-to-addison

Local judges are pushing back on what they see as potential due process violations in the implementation of the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols. Read the story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/story/2019-05-31/san-diego-immigration-court-overwhelmed-by-remain-in-mexico-cases

Exasperated by reports of a flood of illegal border crossings, President Donald Trump summoned his top immigration advisers to demand action. Responding to his mounting concern, including his extreme threats to entirely close the U.S.-Mexico border, they prepared an alternative but still-inflammatory plan to levy escalating tariffs on all Mexican imports to the United States. Thursday night’s surprise announcement of the plan by Trump, threatening to upend ratification chances for his own revised North American free trade pact, demonstrated the lengths to which the risk-taking president is willing to go to crack down on illegal immigration, even in the face of bipartisan criticism, legal challenges and polarized public feelings. He’s setting the tricky politics of immigration and trade — the two issues that defined his candidacy and bedevil his presidency — on a collision course and injecting new tensions into his relations with political allies as he struggles to show results in his campaign for a second term.

Two charter school leaders illegally pocketed more than $50 million of state funds by siphoning the money through a network of 19 online charter schools across California which falsely enrolled thousands of students, prosecutors alleged Wednesday. The schools include three that were authorized to operate by the Dehesa Elementary School District in San Diego County: Valiant Academy of Southern California, California Academy of Sports Science and University Prep. Dehesa’s superintendent also is facing charges and has pleaded not guilty. San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan said that leaders of the charter schools enrolled thousands of students into their schools, often without their knowledge, and collected millions of dollars in state funds. Many students were already enrolled in private schools or in youth athletic groups, and the charter school leaders bought their information to claim them as their students, Stephan said.

It’s been more than nine years since a Fallbrook family of four disappeared, leaving authorities stumped. The discovery of the family’s SUV near the U.S.-Mexico border led many — including law enforcement — to suspect they left the country. Nearly four years would pass before the remains of the McStays — Joseph, 40, Summer, 43, and sons Gianni, 4, and Joey Jr., 3 — were found, their bodies buried in shallow graves outside Victorville, more than 100 miles from their home, in November 2013. A year later, authorities arrested Charles “Chase” Merritt, a business associate of Joseph McStay. Merritt was charged with four counts of murder. He pleaded not guilty. Joseph McStay sold indoor water features and fountains, and often hired Merritt, a welder, to craft them. Prosecutors say Merritt had been dipping into McStay’s business account. Merritt’s attorneys pointed the finger at another McStay associate.

At a forum in Ramona on Saturday, Rep. Duncan Hunter also addressed the pending court martial case against San Diego-based Navy SEAL chief Edward Gallagher and Army Capt. Mathew L. Golsteyn. Both are charged with committing war crimes during their service — Gallagher in Iraq and Golsteyn in Afghanistan. Gallagher is charged with several crimes including killing a teenage Islamic State fighter who was brought to his unit for medical treatment. He’s accused of stabbing the fighter in the neck. Prosecutors also said he texted a photograph of himself next to the dead fighter and wrote he “got him with my hunting knife.” As he recounted the allegation of Gallagher posing next to a dead body for a photograph, Hunter, also a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said “a lot of us have done the exact same thing.” He said he, too, had a photo taken of himself next to a dead combatant, but said he did not text it or post to social media. Hunter called the military justice system “corrupt,” run by lawyers and bureaucrats intent on pursuing “war fighters.” He said he would support a pardon of the two men from Trump, who has indicated he was considering doing so. Hunter also said the civilian justice system was as bad as the military, saying ambitious prosecutors were simply out to get “wins” under their belts.

Forget fish tacos. In these polarized times, perhaps the one thing San Diegans of all stripes can agree on is that this town has ascended to burger heaven. Whether they’re pressed on a flat top, diner-style, grilled at a gourmet restaurant or made to replicate a fast-food classic, San Diego’s burger-sphere is sizzling. No casual joint nor serious eatery worth its ketchup — no mustard! — would dare to not have an expertly crafted burger on its menu.

In one of the biggest physical and social changes in school history, UC San Diego will create its first "front door," a grand entrance meant to appeal as much to the public as students and ease crowding on a campus where enrollment could hit 40,000 this fall. Plans are being drafted for a gateway that will blend art, culture, entertainment, dining, education and research — the same mix that helps funnel people from Westwood Village to UCLA. UCSD will exploit public transit, placing everything from an outdoor theater to an art-filled plaza to a consumer-oriented design building next to the Blue Line trolley station that's being built on campus, near Geisel Library. The school also will add a massive student center nearby, and. in a bit of whimsy, it is proposing to hang 20 play swings on cables attached to the bottom of the depot. "Anybody who comes to San Diego should have this campus as a destination in addition to Balboa Park or the Gaslamp district," said UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla.

Six San Diego State University executives have announced that they are leaving for other schools, jobs or retiring, including a dean who says she grew tired of the turnover and leadership issues the school has experienced over the past two years. All of the changes have occurred in the past six months, and mark a high degree of turnover during Adela de la Torre’s first year as president. The departures include two deans, an acting associate dean, the director of the School of Accountancy, the university’s chief fundraiser, and SDSU’s enrollment director. It is not clear whether de la Torre asked one or more people to leave, or whether the executives sought change.

A federal Judge has ruled that Qualcomm violated antitrust laws by using its top position in smartphone chips to extract excessive patent license fees for its cellular inventions, striking a major blow to the San Diego company’s business model. After four months of deliberations, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh found against Qualcomm in an antitrust lawsuit brought two years ago by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/technology/story/2019-05-22/federal-judge-rules-qualcomm-violated-antitrust-laws

Reporter Jennfier Van Grove gives an update on the planned redevelopment of Horton Plaza; and Rob Nikolewski explains why slipping automotive sales could be the first indicator of an economic recession.

In a small laboratory in Sorrento Valley, scientists at BlueNalu are growing fish parts — just the muscle and fat — from cells. The tissue will one day be stacked into familiar shapes like freshly caught Mahi-mahi fillets, red snapper or flaked tuna using something akin to a 3D printer. Instead of printing plastic, the scientists are using ink made of cells. The startup’s experimental food is a far cry from the plant-based meat products that keep popping up in headlines and are designed to look like something they’re not. BlueNalu’s “alternative seafood” will be made of real fish cells — they’re just grown outside the fish’s body. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/technology/story/2019-05-18/would-you-eat-lab-created-fish-this-san-diego-startup-is-carving-new-path-in-alt-meat-industry

Inside the San Diego Museum of Man, the dead wait in a locked, climate-controlled room. Known as The Willows, this chamber contains 16,000 bone fragments, skeletons and mummies, the remains of at least 5,000 human beings. For more than a century, these relics were excavated from caves, burial grounds , battlefields and construction sites in Egypt, Peru, Vietnam, India and throughout San Diego County. Inside the museum, they were studied by scientists and gawked at by visitors. Or so they were in the past. Today, The Willows is off-limits to casual observers and researchers alike. Instead, the dead wait while the museum tries to deliver them to their final resting place, home with their ancestors.

The real estate developers who wish to permanently change the purpose of San Diego’s once-celebrated Horton Plaza mall are just days away from getting what they need to move forward — so long as city leaders sign off on their plan. Monday, City Council members will be asked to decide whether the center’s new owner, Stockdale Capital Partners, can remake the 900,000 square-foot mall into a mixed-use office campus meant for elite tech firms. Their buy in is needed because of an existing land-use restriction that dates to 1981. The contract stipulates that the site must maintain a minimum of 600,000 square feet of retail shops through August 2036. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/growth-development/story/2019-05-15/will-city-ok-horton-plazas-275m-makeover-as-a-tech-campus

San Diego restored its ability Tuesday to prohibit homeless people from living in cars on city streets with a new law that local police say they plan to use only as a last resort. Supporters of the law say a crackdown is necessary because San Diego’s beach communities have been flooded with homeless people living in cars since a federal judge ruled a previous version of the law was too vague last summer. Citations can’t be written under the new law unless people living in cars refuse to move to one of several “safe” parking lots in the city, and police say they will issue warnings for first offenses and carefully evaluate each situation before writing a ticket. Critics say the new law will unnecessarily criminalize homelessness, punish people already struggling to turn their lives around and further deepen the local cycle of poverty. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/san-diego/story/2019-05-14/san-diego-approves-law-prohibiting-homeless-from-sleeping-in-vehicles

In the weeks since the shooting at a Poway Synagogue, leaders have tried to grapple with the task of combating hate. For two former skinheads, leaving the mindset of hate was a choice they were able to make. Tim Zaal and TM Garret are speaking about how they have learned to stop hating other people. Men like these serve as a sign of hope, and that there is life after hate. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/story/2019-05-11/cure-for-hate-former-skinheads

Gary Robbins discusses the possibility of a 100MPH commuter rail and congestion pricing with the San Diego Union-Tribune's transportation reporter, Joshua Emerson Smith. New details of a controversial plan to prioritize rail over widening freeways are starting to emerge — from laying hundreds of miles of high-speed commuter rail to charging drivers to use many of the most congested freeways. Officials with the San Diego Association of Governments told the Union-Tribune last week that the agency plans to run trains along highway corridors that travel as fast as 100 miles an hour. The most current plan calls for no further expansion of the trolley system, which only goes about 35 miles an hour on average. At the same time, SANDAG plans to roll out so-called congestion pricing on those stretches of freeway, which would charge drivers a fluctuating toll based on traffic conditions. Experts say this ambitious, multi-billion-dollar proposal could be the first of its kind in the country. This story: http://bit.ly/30h9co6 Other news: http://bit.ly/2Vhr52h

There's one idea in the battle over immigration policy that has near-universal support among the key players: finding a way to give permanent legal status to young people here temporarily under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Democratic and Republican leaders have said they want to find a solution. So has President Donald Trump, even though his actions have made the future uncertain for people in the DACA clearance. With such common ground, a DACA fix would seem comparatively simple amid fights over Trump's border wall, the asylum process and visa policy.