Daily Business Report-Dec. 6, 2013
Jamie Whiffen’s winning design
Cal State San Marcos Student Wins Postcard Competition
Jamie Whiffen, a visual arts student at California State University San Marcos, has won the “Leave Your Stamp” postcard competition sponsored by Balboa Park Celebration Inc., the organization planning the park’s centennial celebration in 2015. Jamie entered the competition for her graphic design class. She’s always loved Balboa Park, and her inspiration came from vintage tourist postcards.
“I love the diversity and culture of the museums,” said Jamie. “The art museum and the science museum are my favorite places there.” Jamie was born and raised in San Diego. Soon, you’ll be able to check out her work at jamiewhiffenart.com.
Financing Secured for The Outlets at the Border in San Ysidro
SAN YSIDRO — HFF said it has secured $40 million in financing for the development of The Outlets at the Border, a 140,000-square-foot retail outlet center in San Ysidro. Working on behalf of The Shamrock Group LLC, HFF placed the $40 million construction loan with Canyon Capital Realty Advisors. Slated for completion in October 2014, The Outlets at the Border is currently under construction and is in the pre-leasing stage.
The newly constructed outlets will be close to the San Ysidro Port of Entry, including the new pedestrian border crossing, slated to open in 2015, and is adjacent to the new vehicle entry into Mexico known as El Chaparral, which opened in November 2012.
The Outlets at the Border will be the final phase of the Las Americas Master Plan that includes the development of approximately 800,000 square feet of retail space
Dean Spanos Pledges $500,000 toward Athletic Center at UC San Diego
Dean Spanos, chairman of the board and president of the San Diego Chargers, has pledged $500,000 to UC San Diego to support a new Athletic Performance Center. The gift will support the expansion of the existing Alex G. Spanos Training Facility, located at the north end of campus. The revamped facility will be renamed the Alex G. Spanos Athletic Performance Center. The new center will include a strength and conditioning area, outdoor performance plaza, hydrotherapy room and more for student-athletes. Currently, strength-training equipment at UC San Diego’s Recreation, Intramural and Athletics Complex is shared by the entire student body, with space at times reserved for student-athletes.
County Supervisors Embrace Lifesaving App
The county Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed Thursday to begin negotiations with the maker of a smartphone app that notifies people with CPR training that someone nearby is suffering sudden cardiac arrest. County officials said sudden cardiac arrest occurs in outwardly healthy people, and claims nearly 1,000 lives daily throughout the country. It can be treated with early CPR, defibrillation, advanced cardiac life support and mild therapeutic hypothermia, which is most effective when started in three to five minutes, however, emergency response times are often six minutes or longer, Supervisor Ron Roberts said. “Clearly the faster first responders can get to the victim, the greater the opportunity for saving lives,” Roberts said.
The board directed staffers to open discussions between regional emergency response system operators and app-maker PulsePoint Foundation in hopes of establishing a countywide smartphone notification system to alert nearby off-duty CPR-trained responders, and to identify grants and other funding sources to cover the system’s start-up and initial operating costs. Scoop San Diego report…
H.G. Fenton Honored for Outstanding
Achievement in Rental Housing Market
For the 11th straight year, H.G. Fenton Co. has been honored for outstanding achievement in the San Diego County rental housing market, earning 25 Mark of Excellence Awards from the San Diego County Apartment Association. H.G. Fenton owns and manages 13 apartment communities with over 3,100 homes in San Diego County. The 2013 Mark of Excellence Awards honored the company across eight categories with multiple awards in several areas. Rental Community of the Year honors were awarded to Bella Del Mar in Del Mar; Club River Run in Mission Valley; Portofino in Mission Valley; Tierrasanta Ridge in Tierrasanta; and El Dorado Hills in Tierrasanta
Bird Flu Strain Poorly Adapted for Infection Humans
Avian influenza virus H7N9, which killed several dozen people in China earlier this year, has not yet acquired the changes needed to infect humans easily, according to a new study by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). In contrast to some initial studies that had suggested that H7N9 poses an imminent risk of a global pandemic, the new research found, based on analyses of virus samples from the Chinese outbreak, that H7N9 is still mainly adapted for infecting birds, not humans. “Luckily, H7N9 viruses just don’t yet seem well adapted for binding to human receptors,” said Ian A. Wilson, the Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and chair of the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at TSRI.
“Because publications to date have implied that H7N9 has adapted to human receptors, we felt we should make a clear statement about this,” said James C. Paulson, chair of TSRI’s Department of Cell and Molecular Biology.
The Wilson and Paulson laboratories collaborated on the study, which is reported in the Dec. 6 issue of the journal Science.
UC San Diego Undergraduate Research Portal is Launched
UC San Diego announced recently the launch of its Undergraduate Research Portal.The Portal is intended to be a one-stop-shop for all things related to undergraduate research. Faculty and research staff offering research-oriented opportunities in the form of part-time jobs, internships, volunteer positions, or course credits (e.g., independent study) can post those opportunities directly on the Portal. The Portal was developed by the Office of Research Affairs in campuswide collaboration with the Career Services Center, Office of Academic Affairs, Office of Student Affairs, Council of Provosts, and others.
Therapy Dogs Help Students Cope With Final Exams Stress
EL CAJON — Therapy dogs Muddy and Kimo and their canine friends made their temporary homes outside the Grossmont College Library on Dec. 4. Their missions were to help reduce stress among students preparing for their final examinations. Among the students who enjoyed petting and cuddling the four-legged volunteers from the Independent Therapy Dogs organization was Morgan Rain, who said the dogs were a perfect opportunity to give her mind some respite from upcoming exams in economics and calculus. ”I think animals are of a different type than humans,” she said. “They are accepting, and when you pet them you kind of forget about your stress and you are able to connect with another creature.” Muddy is a 2 ½-year-old golden retriever and Kimo is his 5-month-old son. Their owner, Sandy Story, said that in order to qualify as therapy dogs, the two also had to pass various tests — although they didn’t stress over them like some humans do. “They have to be able to sit, be able to stay, and want to be petted,” she said.
The therapy dog program on campus was organized several years ago by librarian Nadra Farina-Hess, after she took her own Boxer dog to a hospital to visit her ailing mother, and found that everyone — patients, nurses, doctors and other staff — all enjoyed petting the dog.
Educator Raye Clendening Honored with Aleshire Award
SAN MARCOS — Civil rights advocate and educator Raye Clendening was honored with the Fran Aleshire Award for her outstanding leadership and regional involvement at the San Diego North Economic Development Council’s Annual Business Luncheon on Thursday. Clendening is a 2013 graduate of Leadership North County, a program of California State University San Marcos that seeks to cultivate leaders who will address issues unique to the North County region.
Clendening, a retired educator, is a board member and immediate past president of the Vista Community Clinic and founding member of the North County African American Women’s Association. She has nearly thirty five years of experience in K-12 education. Clendening has served as principal in the Fallbrook Union Elementary School and Oceanside Unified School Districts.
San Diego’s ShareTV Wins Trademark Infringement Case
ShareTV, a community-based website that tracks information for every major television series aired since 1930 on networks based in the U.S., UK, and Canada, has prevailed in a trademark infringement case and was awarded the domain sharetv.com after a long battle with a foreign infringer, reports the San Diego law firm of Fish & Richardson, which handled the case. The firm said the case sends a cautionary warning to start-up businesses about the importance of properly securing intellectual property rights, including domain names.
When ShareTV was founded in 2007, the company discovered that the domain “sharetv.com” was owned by a Korean-based individual who was using the domain as a “parking site’” — a website that doesn’t have any significant content or just displays revenue-generating sponsored links. When ShareTV management contacted the individual on multiple occasions and requested to purchase the domain, he responded with a demand for an exorbitant payout, significantly higher than the value of the domain.
ShareTV instead used the domain “sharetv.org” to market the firm and as a portal for service delivery. The company grew rapidly and gained prominence in the online entertainment industry, including securing a deal with industry leader Hulu.
The company’s success spurred the individual owning the desired domain to put content on the sharetv.com website, suggesting that he soon would be offering services similar to the services offered by ShareTV, causing confusion among consumers and potentially causing harm to the ShareTV brand. “Potential and current users of our services were going to sharetv.com and not realizing that it wasn’t our company or a legitimate website,” said Chris Richmond, founder of ShareTV. “We have worked hard to establish our brand, as well as be a leader in the entertainment industry, and to have someone infringe on our name had the potential to do tremendous damage to our company.”
Requests by Fish & Richardson to take down the website were ignored, forcing the law firm to file a lawsuit on behalf of ShareTV. The individual also ignored the lawsuit. Armed with proof of consumer confusion as well as ShareTV’s valid trademark of its name, the court awarded the domain to ShareTV.
ShareTV is now the rightful owner of the sharetv.com domain and is now actively using the site.
Interim Mayor: Council Should Not Back Down on Barrio Logan Plan
Referendums attempting to overturn the Barrio Logan Community Plan Update are likely headed to San Diego voting booths. Interim Todd Gloria said Thursday that he does not want the City Council to backtrack on the plan, KPBS reports. Earlier this week, a San Diego judge denied a temporary restraining order in the challenge to the referendums, which want to do away with the plan to rezone Barrio Logan. The plan is opposed by shipbuilders who share the neighborhood with Barrio Logan residents.
So the City Council now has a choice. It can repeal the plan to avoid a public vote on it, or stay the course. Gloria chooses staying the course.
“To repeal that plan would be to consign Barrio Logan to this mish-mash of uses that are unhelpful for kids and that are bad for businesses in that community,” he said. “I’m not interested in repealing the ordinance or the resolution. Of course that means that the proponents of the referendum are going to cost taxpayers a significant amount of money for us to pursue it. So be it. I think that’s regrettable, I hoped that we wouldn’t come to this point.”
Gloria spokeswoman Katie Keach said the City Council will likely vote on whether to repeal the Barrio Logan Community Plan Update on Dec. 17. Click here for more…
