Daily Business Report — Dec. 24, 2009
State of the City Address
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders will deliver the annual State of the City address on Wednesday, Jan. 13, from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., in Downtown San Diego. A reception will follow in the U.S. Grant Hotel.
PriceSmart to Build Another Warehouse
San Diego-based PriceSmart has purchased 30,000 square meters of land in Northwest Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to build and operate a new PriceSmart Warehouse Club. It will be the company’s third warehouse in the Dominican Republic and is expected to open in fall 2010. PriceSmart now operates 26 warehouse clubs in 11 countries and one U.S. territory (five in Costa Rica; four in Panama; three each in Guatemala and Trinidad, two each in Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Honduras; and one each in Aruba, Barbados, Jamaica, Nicaragua and the United States Virgin Islands).
SDG&E Chooses Lockheed Martin for Microgrid
San Diego Gas & Electric has selected Lockheed Martin to provide systems engineering support for their Borrego Springs Microgrid demonstration project. The microgrid “proof of concept” project is one of the first utility-scale systems in the nation and will help SDG&E increase grid reliability, the company said. Microgrids are portions of the electric grid able to operate independently of the overall grid when necessary, and can include individual customer sites or separate circuits within a utility’s distribution network. Microgrids are becoming an important method for utilities to manage grid instability and to more effectively integrate renewable energy sources, electric vehicles and storage into the larger grid. “We are excited about the opportunity to bring our expertise in command and control and situational awareness to this important learning process for SDG&E and the energy market,” said John Mengucci, president of Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Services-Defense. “What we learn on this project using existing operating circuits will be extremely valuable to the utility industry for implementation of ‘smart’ grid technologies.” The project will establish the microgrid demonstration at the Borrego Springs Substation east of San Diego.
SAIC Receives $20 Million Biomedical Contract
Science Applications International Corp. has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Acquisition Center to support the Navy’s Chief Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED). The contract has a total value of $20 million if all options are exercised. Work will be performed primarily at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego and at BUMED facilities throughout the U.S. Under the contract, SAIC will conduct biomedical, epidemiological and clinical research to help prepare and protect Navy and Marine Corps personnel. In addition, the company will provide services in areas including medical modeling and simulation, warfighter performance, HIV/AIDS prevention, behavioral sciences and epidemiology. SAIC will also perform research on deployment and environmental health, and provide services in areas of psychological health including operational stress, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
NIRI President and CEO to Talk to San Diego Chapter
Jeff Morgan, president and CEO of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), will speak to the San Diego NIRI chapter on Jan. 14 at Leap Wireless, 5887 Copley Drive, San Diego. A networking reception will begin at 5 p.m. followed by the presentation from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Morgan will speak on the NIRI and the state of the industry. He became CEO in 2008 after more than 18 years in professional association management. The presentation is open to NIRI members, guests, and professionals from related fields. Admission is $45 for members and $60 for nonmembers if registration is received before 5 p.m. on Jan. 11. The cost for late or on-site registrations is $55 for members and $70 for nonmembers. Register by e-mail at: rsvp@nirisandiego.org.
Gubernatorial Appointments . . .
H.P. “Sandy” Purdon, 67, of San Diego, has been reappointed to the Boating and Waterways Commission, where he has served as a commissioner since 2005. He has served as the president of H.P. Purdon & Company, a management firm handling San Diego tidelands marinas, since 1977. Purdon is a member of the California Marina Recreation Association and San Diego Port Tenants Association. The position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Purdon is a Republican.
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Kevin Reilly, 49, of San Diego, has been appointed chief deputy director of policy and program for the Department of Public Health. He has been administrative manager and division chief of disease control and epidemiology for the Orange County Health Care Agency since 2008. Reilly served the Department of Public Health as deputy director of the center for environmental health from 2007 to 2008 and the Department of Health Services (DHS) as deputy director of prevention services from 2000 to 2007. Prior to that, he served the DHS Division of Communicable Disease as chief of the veterinary public health section from 1995 to 2000, chief of the vector-borne disease section from 1993 to 1995 and public health veterinarian from 1990 to 1993. Reilly was an associate veterinarian for the Tamalpais Pet Hospital from 1989 to 1990. The position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $156,000. Reilly is registered decline-to-state.
Scripps Institution to Develop Ocean-Probing Instruments
In an effort to plug gaps of knowledge about key ocean processes, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD have been awarded nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to develop a new breed of ocean-probing instruments. Researchers Jules Jaffe and Peter Franks are spearheading an effort to design and deploy autonomous underwater explorers, or AUEs, that will trace fine details of fundamental oceanographic mechanisms that are vital to tiny marine inhabitants.
While oceanographers have been skilled in detailing broad ocean processes, a need has emerged to zero in on functions unfolding at the small scale. By more clearly defining localized currents and focused data about temperature, salinity, pressure and biological properties, Jaffe and Franks believe AUEs will offer new and valued information about a range of oceanic phenomena. The miniature robots also can aid in science’s development of marine protected areas by following currents for determining critical nursery habitats, tracking harmful blooms of algae and potentially even contributingto monitor events such as oil spills and airplane crashes.
“The AUEs will fill in gaps between existing marine technologies,” said Jaffe, a research oceanographer with Scripps’ Marine Physical Laboratory. “They will provide a whole new kind of information.”
The AUEs will work through a system under which several soccer-ball sized AUE devices are deployed in conjunction with many—tens or even hundreds—of pint-sized AUE explorers. As they move about the ocean, the smaller-sized AUEs will use acoustic transmissions from the “mothership” AUEs to ascertain their positions. Collectively, the entire “swarms” of AUEs will help track fine ocean currents and flows that organisms at the small scale, tiny abalone larvae, for example, experience in the ocean.
A Free Day of Dance
The three resident dance companies at Dance Place San Diego, located at NTC Promenade at Liberty Station, have a holiday gift for the entire community: a Free Day of Dance on Dec. 26 beginning at 9 a.m. Malashock Dance, Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theater and San Diego Ballet invite the public into their studios for free classes that last throughout the day. This is the fourth year these companies have presented Free Day of Dance, an opportunity to sample the state-of-the-art facilities that are part of this growing art and culture district and learn more about what each company has to offer throughout the year. Classes are offered for all ages and levels, including one for ages 3-6. Classes include stretch, ballet, jazz, tango, modern and hip hop. A complete schedule and more information are available on their respective Websites: malashockdance.org, sandiegodancetheater.org and sandiegoballet.org.
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