Daily Business Report-Oct. 27, 2014
San Diego Silver Sisters pose in Balboa Park after a hair, makeup, fashion and styling presentation about graying gracefully.
Silver Sisters Strut Against
‘Beauty Terror’
“Guru of gray” Diana Jewell brought her “megatrend” campaign to San Diego over the weekend to promote women’s natural allure with gray hair in a rebellion against what one fan called “beauty terror.”
“I really love this new movement of being gray and being natural because I think that’s the way to go,” said Sabina Reichel, a German who wrote a book about the topic and attended the Balboa Park event.
“It’s a healthy, wonderful attitude especially of the ’60s generation, and I say: ‘Let’s be as rebellious as we have always been. Let’s carry on that spirit of independence.’”
Reichel said she was reminded about how good women look with natural hair, “especially if you are proud. I call it Gray Pride.”
Jewell, founder of Silver Sisters, organized the event Saturday to preach authenticity, empowerment and confidence with the natural look during sessions about fashion, hair, makeup and style experts at the Prado.
Jewell has taken her message to Las Vegas, New York, Chicago and North Carolina. Besides being an author, Jewell is a former marketing director of Vogue, and promotion director of Seventeen Magazine.
Jewell hosts GoingGrayLookingGreat.com and Café Gray based on her book, “Going Gray, Looking Great.” There women get support in making the decision or the transition from colored to natural hair color.
The presentation concluded with about 50 women locking arms in solidarity in their “Silver Sisters Strut” in front of the fountain at Plaza de Panama near the Museum of Art.
Some women had already gone gray; others came to gather information about the movement. The event sponsors were Jhirmack, CHANEL, Marquis O3 and Go Raw.
“It’s a feminist thing, quite frankly,” Reichel said, “and basically we have to give up this kind of beauty terror like once you hit 40 you have nothing to say or are not sexy. You know, the big fears women usually have.
“What it takes is just to be different. Go for it. You change the world by being different. I think it’s a great start. If they see other women, they say: Hey, that looks good. I can do this, too.” Others concurred.
— Times of San Diego
Why People With Down Syndrome
Invariably Develop Alzheimer’s Disease
A new study by researchers at Sanford-Burnham reveals the process that leads to changes in the brains of individuals with Down syndrome — the same changes that cause dementia in Alzheimer’s patients.
The findings, published in Cell Reports, have important implications for the development of treatments that can prevent damage in neuronal connectivity and brain function in Down syndrome and other neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Down syndrome is characterized by an extra copy of chromosome 21 and is the most common chromosome abnormality in humans. It occurs in about one per 700 babies in the United States, and is associated with a mild to moderate intellectual disability.
Down syndrome is also associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. By the age of 40, nearly 100 percent of all individuals with Down syndrome develop the changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, and approximately 25 percent of people with Down syndrome show signs of Alzheimer’s-type dementia by the age of 35, and 75 percent by age 65.
As the life expectancy for people with Down syndrome has increased dramatically in recent years — from 25 in 1983 to 60 today — research aimed to understand the cause of conditions that affect their quality of life are essential. “Our goal is to understand how the extra copy of chromosome 21 and its genes cause individuals with Down syndrome to have a greatly increased risk of developing dementia,” said Huaxi Xu, professor in the Degenerative Diseases Program and senior author of the paper. “Our new study reveals how a protein called sorting nexin 27 (SNX27) regulates the generation of beta-amyloid — the main component of the detrimental amyloid plaques found in the brains of people with Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s. The findings are important because they explain how beta-amyloid levels are managed in these individuals.”
Stingaree Nightclub to Become Omnia San Diego
The Stingaree nightclub in Downtown San Diego will shut down for good following a Nov. 2 closing party and the space will undergo a remodel for Omnia San Diego, a nightclub brand owned by Hakkasan Group.
Omnia San Diego will open in spring 2015 shortly after the debut of the brand’s flagship nightclub at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
“We selected San Diego as the next location to expand our newest nightlife concept as it is such a vibrant and booming city and we believe it will complement the existing offerings in the area,” said Neil Moffitt, CEO of Hakkasan Group.
Sandag OKs Funds for $14.5M
Bike Path Along Interstate 15
A $1.8 million budget adjustment that will help pay for a safer pathway for bicyclists who wish to ride between the Mid-City and Mission Valley was approved Friday by the board of directors of the San Diego Association of Governments.
The regional planning agency is developing the $14.5 million State Route 15 Commuter Bike Facility Project to build a one-mile path that would run along the side of the freeway between Adams Avenue and Camino del Rio South.
If funding comes through and everything remains on schedule, the path could open to cyclists by January 2017, according to SANDAG documents.
Currently, the only bike routes between Mission Valley and neighborhoods like Talmadge, Kensington and Normal Heights are Fairmount Avenue and Texas Street.
Final approval of the project could come in January, according to a SANDAG timeline.
— City News Service with KPBS
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Meets Tonight on San Onofre Plant
CARLSBAD — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet tonight to discuss and answer questions about Southern California Edison’s plan for the remains of the San Onofre nuclear power plant. The public meeting will be from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Omni La Costa, 2100 Costa Del Mar Road in Carlsbad.
A community engagement panel has been meeting for several months to review the plan, but that group is convened by the utility itself. This is a chance for the public to appeal to the regulator if there are concerns.
Rochelle Becker of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility is concerned about how the NRC will oversee casks storing spent nuclear fuel on the plant’s site.
An NRC inspector general report recently confirmed claims made by consumer advocates before San Onofre was shut down that regulators should have required a license amendment before allowing Edison to install new steam generators. It was a fault in the design of those generators that led to the premature shut down of the plant last year.
“So now we go forward with another process in which San Onofre is a sort of guinea pig, with high burn-up fuel, with being on the coast of California, with salt water issues,” Becker said. “Will these casks hold up over time?”
Stainless steel casks will store for decades the spent nuclear fuel rods on the bluffs, less than 60 miles north of Downtown San Diego.The NRC is still researching what kind of casks will do the job.
— KPBS
Personnel Moves
Genevieve Ruch Joins Kirby Noonan Firm
Downtown San Diego law firm Kirby Noonan Lance & Hoge has added Genevieve Ruch as an associate attorney. Ruch previously worked for a national law firm, concentrating on legal issues related to nationwide mortgage-backed securities class actions. She also worked as a legal intern for NBC Universal in Los Angeles.
Ruch earned her J.D. cum laude from the University of San Diego School of Law and received a bachelor of arts degree in political science from San Diego State University. While in law school, she was also a member of the San Diego Law Review and served as its comments editor. A member of the San Diego County Bar Association, Lawyers Club of San Diego and the American Bar Association, Ruch was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2012.
