Daily Business Report-Sept. 21, 2016
San Diego Voters to Get Two-Card
Ballot for Nov. 8 General Election
As a result of a large number of contests in the Nov. 8 Presidential General Election, San Diego County registered voters will for the first time get a two-card ballot.
Contests will be listed on the front and back of each page. Considering the length of the ballot and what is traditionally a high turnout for a presidential election, the Registrar of Voters is urging voters to plan ahead and save time at the polls.
One way? Vote by mail. Sign up to be a permanent mail ballot voter at sdvote.com. More than 960,000 mail ballots will go out to homes starting Tuesday, Oct.11. When they arrive, mail ballot voters are urged to act on them as soon as they’ve made their decisions.
Voting by mail is secure. Seal your completed ballot in the provided envelope, sign and date it, add postage and mail it promptly so it is received well before Nov. 8.
The two-card ballot does weigh a bit more so you’ll need 67 cents in postage.
Voters interested in casting their ballots at their assigned poll on Election Day are encouraged to mark their selections on their sample ballot pamphlet before going to the poll. If you have your completed sample ballot pamphlet ready when you enter the voting booth, you can quickly fill in the official ballot and be on your way.
The polls will be open between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. The location is listed on the back of the Sample Ballot and Voter Information Pamphlet sent to your home or you can use the polling place locator online. Type in your address and click submit to find your neighborhood polling place.
For more information, call (858) 565-5800 or visit sdvote.com.
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General Dynamics NASSCO to Build
USNS Robert F. Kennedy in 2021
General Dynamics NASSCO is scheduled to build the USNS Robert F. Kennedy, the next ship of the next generation of fleet replenishment oilers, beginning in 2021.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced the name at a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
The Kennedy is part of the John Lewis-class of ships named in honor of U.S. civil and human rights heroes.
“This class of ships would be incomplete absent the name Robert F. Kennedy,” said Mabus. “He was a Navy man, a U.S. attorney general, a senator, and a leader who committed, and ultimately sacrificed, his life to pursuing justice, equality and freedom.”
Robert F. Kennedy, a U.S. Navy veteran, served as the U.S. attorney general from 1961 to 1964 and as a U.S. senator from New York from 1965 to 1968. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Virginia School of Law, Kennedy was appointed attorney general after his brother John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960.
Robert Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin in June 1968 at age 42. He is buried at Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery.
The future USNS Robert F. Kennedy will be operated by Military Sealift Command and provide underway replenishment of fuel and stores to U.S. Navy ships at sea and jet fuel for aircraft assigned to aircraft carriers..
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Littoral Combat Ship USS Jackson
Set to Arrive in San Diego on Thursday
The littoral combat ship USS Jackson is scheduled to arrive in San Diego on Thursday, completing the ship’s maiden voyage to her new homeport.
Following construction at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala., Jackson set sail for Mayport, Fla., conducting equipment checks, system tests and crew certification training along the way. While at Naval Station Mayport Jackson and her crew successfully completed Full Ship Shock Trials.
Upon departing Mayport, the ship continued testing and training and made port visits to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Balboa, Panama; and Manzanillo, Mexico before its arrival to San Diego.
“USS Jackson’s ability to arrive in its homeport of San Diego two months ahead of schedule and following successful completion of a comprehensive series of trials, including Full Ship Shock Trials, is not only a testament to the entire crew, but more importantly, it is a testament to the true sustainability and capability of this amazing warship. It’s something the entire LCS community should be very proud of,” said Cmdr. Troy Fendrick.
Jackson is the third littoral combat ship of the Independence variant, which features an innovative, trimaran hull. The unique hull design offers unparalleled stability for blue water operations, as well as operations in the littorals.
LCS vessels were designed to be high-speed, shallow draft multi-mission ships capable of operating independently or with an associated strike group. They are designed to defeat growing littoral threats and provide access and dominance in coastal waters.
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Immuron, Navy Medical Research Center
To Test Drug Against Stomach-Ailing Bacteria
By ExecutiveBiz
Australia-based Immuron has entered a research and development collaboration agreement with the Naval Medical Research Center in San Diego to test the bio-pharmaceutical company’s drug against gastrointestinal problems.
The company said it will test the Travelan dietary supplement against Campylobacter and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli gram-negative bacteria to help develop therapeutics in an effort to protect military and civilian populations from diarrhea.
Immuron and NMRC researchers will carry out the tests under an Investigational New Drug application with the Food and Drug Administration in efforts to gain approvals for campylobacter and ETEC vaccine-based products.
Travelan contains the Immuron-developed Hyperimmune Bovine Colostrum Powder which is a source of antibodies that work to neutralize the ability of Enterotoxigenic E. coli to cause travelers’ diarrhea and its symptoms.
Immuron partnered with the U.S. Army‘s Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in June to create a shigella vaccine to protect against intestinal diseases.
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SDSU Professor Named First
Zahn Professor of Creativity
A noted authority on global technology, innovation and communication has been named the first Zahn Professor of Creativity and Innovation at San Diego State University.
John Eger’s appointment is in addition to his existing position as the Van Deerlin Endowed Chair for Communication and Public Policy, a post he has held for more than 20 years.
In his new role, Eger will encourage campus-wide collaboration that expands and diversifies entrepreneurial opportunities for students through both curricular and experiential learning. He will work closely with faculty and staff at SDSU’s entrepreneurial hubs, the Zahn Innovation Platform Launchpad and the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center.
The Zahn Professor of Creativity and Innovation is supported by the Moxie Foundation. In 2015, The Campaign for SDSU received a significant gift from the foundation, led by Irwin and Peter Zahn.
— By Coleen L. Geraghty, SDSU NewsCenter
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Allergan Buys Another Biotech
By Fierce Biotech
Within the same day that Allergan announced a $1.7 billion buyout of tiny NASH biotech Tobira, the Carlsbad Botox maker announced it had bought yet another fatty liver disease company, although for far less and for a much earlier stage candidate.
Allergan said in a statement that it will pay $50 million upfront for private biotech Akarna Therapeutics, with other milestone payments set to be added on top.
It gains for its relatively small upfront fee access to AKN-083, a preclinical receptor agonist in early development for the treatment of Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). liver disease.
This will sit at an earlier stage in its brand-new NASH pipeline, which on the same day also saw Allergan gain access to both a Phase III and a Phase I candidate from its Tobira buyout.
The company said its preclinical candidate could be “complementary” to its other new meds, although many questioned the price it paid for Tobira, which had a market cap of less than $100 million before the deal.
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Small Business Boot Camp
Scheduled for Oct. 1 by Accion
Accion, the San Diego nonprofit microlender, is hosting its annual Small Business Boot Camp, in partnership with The Hartford. It will be held on Saturday, Oct. 1, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Joe & Vi Jacobs Center on 404 Euclid Ave.
The free workshop is for owners of startup ventures and growing businesses and will feature an extensive resource center consisting of community partners, networking opportunities and two specialized programs led by a team of small business experts. The Start-Up Program will be for new and aspiring business owners and the Growth Program will be for seasoned business owners.
“At the Boot Camp, our knowledgeable experts from a variety of industries will give attendees the tools to tackle many of the common challenges they face when starting or growing a business,” said Accion CEO Elizabeth Schott. “Attendees will also get the chance to visit a resource fair where they can get connected with important community organizations that support local small businesses.”
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Interfaith Community Services
Receives $1 Million Grant
Interfaith Community Services has received a $1 million grant from Alliance Healthcare Foundation innovation initiative project “Recovery and Wellness Center: A Cost Effective Alternative to Jails & Hospitals.” The program is a way to provide behavioral health counseling and case management services to veterans and the underserved members of our community.
“Interfaith Community Services is filling a gap in the continuum of services necessary to solve and end homelessness,” said AHF Board Chair Elizabeth Dreicer. “Their Recovery & Wellness Center opens the path to sobriety and services that has not been available to the poor and homeless. It is this kind of systems change that AHF endeavors to make through our Innovation Initiative. By providing an alternative to jails and hospitals, this center will also reduce costs, increase capacity and be sustainable for years to come.”
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College Rankings Index puts CSUSM at
No. 11 out of nearly 1,200 universities
California State University San Marcos ranks No. 11 out of nearly 1,200 universities in the 2017 Educate To Career College Rankings Index.
The rankings designate CSUSM as a 2017 Top 100 Best Value College, which applies to the first 100 colleges out of 1,195 in the ETC rankings.
CSUSM is the second-highest rated university in California behind only No. 1 UC Irvine and is one of four CSU schools in the top 100.
The ETC College Rankings Index is comprised of accredited four-year colleges with annual enrollments greater than 750 students. The Index analyzes data for almost 1,200 colleges, representing 96 percent of all students enrolled in four-year colleges.
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County Business Outlook Takes Another Dip
Confidence among San Diego County businesses continues to fluctuate in this month’s Silvergate Bank-sponsored Business Forecast, according to the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The Business Outlook Index (BOI) tests a new low as it moves to 15.6. The previous low, set only two months ago, was a tick higher at 15.7. The BOI ranges from -100 to +100, with zero being neutral, so the overall outlook is still in somewhat positive territory.
Some of the drop in this month’s outlook can be attributed to businesses offering fewer work hours to employees as summer ends. Currently, only 25 percent will offer more hours and 11 percent say they will decrease the hours their workers get.
The survey also shows that businesses within the city of San Diego have lost some momentum. The trend since the beginning of this year for business located in the city has been very stable, but this month their outlook has dropped to a poor 14. Looking outside the city, firms located in the county’s north inland area took the biggest hit. Businesses there went from a BOI of 16 the previous quarter to 7. And by business size, medium-sized businesses with 11 to 49 employees have taken the brunt of this month’s drop. They regressed from a healthy 28 all the way down to 10 in this month’s survey. The main culprit of all of this downward movement is the anticipated tightening of workforce hours.
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General Atomics’ Predator UAV
Series Sets Historic Industry Milestone
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. announced that its Predator-series family of aircraft — MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaperand MQ-1C Gray Eagle — has achieved a historic industry milestone: 4million flight hours. The milestone was crossed on Aug. 7 with 291,331 total missions completed and 90 percent of all missions flown in combat.
“Amassing four million flight hours is a testament to the reliability of RPA systems that are designed, built, and maintained by a dedicated group of skilled and innovative professionals,” said Linden Blue, CEO. “We are proud of our fleet’s contributions in providing round-the-clock ISR capabilities for our customers worldwide.”
The identification of the specific aircraft and customer that achieved the milestone is unknown as every second of every day, an average of 70 Predator-class aircraft are airborne worldwide. On Aug. 7, 79 GA-ASI manufactured aircraft were airborne when the 4 millionth flight hour was flown.
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DARPA Seeking Counter-UAS
Surveillance System
By AUVSI News
DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has unveiled Dragnet, a counter-UAS concept that would use persistent surveillance by unmanned aircraft to try to find other UAS that pose threats in complicated urban environments. Through a Broad Agency Announcement, DARPA is calling on industry to create a “threat-agnostic non-line-of-sight” surveillance system, which would would eliminate potential advantages that adversarial UAS have when they attempt to use their surroundings as ways to thwart detection.
Some components are ready for small UAS today, while others will be available in the future. For the program, designers are expected to improve upon current UAS technology, as opposed to creating their own systems.
“In future urban battlegrounds, U.S. forces will be placed at risk by small UAS which use buildings and naturally-occurring motion of the clutter to make surveillance impractical using current approaches,” DARPA said in the announcement. “The rapid proliferation of commercial UAS with increasing endurance and payload capacity drives the need for a future urban aerial surveillance system that can detect, track, and classify many different UAS types at longer ranges in urban terrain.
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Report: San Diego Streets
See Big Improvement
By City News Service
The condition of surface streets in San Diego has gotten significantly better over the past five years, but there’s still room for improvement, according to a long-awaited assessment released Tuesday.
The survey conducted by Cartegraph Systems Inc. is a follow-up to a 2011 report that found that San Diego’s 2,800 miles of paved streets and 200-plus miles of paved alleys earned an overall rating of 59 out of 100. The new rating is 72.
A street in good condition has a rating of at least 70. A figure between 40 and 69 means a street is in fair condition. Below 40 is poor.
“The record level of investment we’ve made into fixing our streets is paying off for our communities,” Mayor Kevin Faulconer said.
“With our aggressive approach, we’re turning the tide to get San Diego’s name off the list of cities with the worst roads and on to the list of cities with the best roads,” Faulconer said. “We’re going to keep paving until every neighborhood has smoother streets.”
The assessment team examined 97 percent of the city’s road network to assess the condition of pavement and the smoothness or roughness of the ride.
According to the report, 60 percent of the network is in good condition, 34 percent is fair and 6 percent is in the poor category. That compares to the 2011 assessment, in which only 34 percent of the roads and alleys were in good condition, 44 percent were fair and 22 percent poor.
Since the assessment five years ago, 520 miles of surface streets have been repaved, 11 miles of concrete roads have been replaced and slurry seal has been applied to 856 miles, according to the city. Slurry seal is a coating designed to maintain roadways in good or fair condition.
“This report demonstrates how much progress we’ve made on repairing our streets and also what still needs to be done,” said Councilman Mark Kersey, chairman of the City Council’s Infrastructure Committee.
The updated assessment, which officials will use to prioritize repaving projects, is scheduled to be presented Thursday to the City Council’s Infrastructure Committee.
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Personnel Announcements
Reed Vickerman Joins New Children’s Museum
Reed Vickerman has joined the senior leadership team at the New Children’s Museum as chief operating officer and chief financial officer.
Vickerman has 25 years of leadership experience in high-tech, biotech and nonprofit organizations in San Diego, having worked for Hewlett-Packard, Price Waterhouse, General Atomics and Amylin Pharmaceuticals. His experience includes finance, IT, human resources and facilities, including the design and construction of Amylin’s research headquarters in San Diego and manufacturing campus in Ohio.
Vickerman spent two years at the San Diego Museum of Art and is a founding member of the Balboa Park Online Collaborative. Vickerman has a degree in economics from Carnegie-Mellon University, executive training from Harvard and UCLA, and has chaired the UC San Diego scholarship fundraiser, the Triton 5K, for over 10 years.
Vickerman will oversee financial activities, facilities, operations, IT and HR at the museum.
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Crowe PR Promotes Olga Walsh and Sarah Kinsella
Crowe PR announced the promotion of Olga Walsh to associate director and the promotion of Sarah Kinsella to account executive.
Walsh joined the company in October 2015 as account supervisor and has been instrumental in spearheading the company’s media relations and social influencer campaigns, particularly in the fitness and technology spaces. In her new role, Walsh will be responsible for client relations, account strategy, team management, and new business development.
Walsh has over six years of public relations experience, including management roles at several PR agencies and in-house. She holds a journalism degree with an emphasis on public relations, and minors in business and communications from University of Oregon.
Kinsella joined Crowe PR in January 2016 as junior account executive, supporting the company’s hospitality and lifestyle divisions with writing, research and media relations. In her new role, Kinsella will lead media relations and social media campaigns and oversee junior staff. Kinsella started her public relations career nearly four years ago, working with a variety of brands in the health care, technology and lifestyle space. She graduated from the University of San Diego with a communications and marketing degree.
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Kent Lee Named Executive Director
Of Nonprofit Pacific Arts Movement
Kent Lee has been named executive director of the nonprofit Pacific Arts Movement, a media arts organization that focuses on Asian American and Asian international cinema.
Lee succeeds founding Executive Director Lee Ann Kim, who retired earlier this year after 16 years of service.
Since 2010, Lee has been involved in Pac Arts in various ways, starting as a volunteer for special events and on various committees. He eventually joined the board of directors in 2014 and from there, was named board secretary in 2015 and chairman of the board earlier in 2016.
Lee will oversee staff and operations, develop community engagement efforts, and work alongside staff and the board of directors to serve the Pac Arts mission with creativity and commitment to inclusion and diversity.
Lee was the director of development and marketing for the Boy Scouts of America, San Diego-Imperial Council and had been involved in the company for nine years.
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Challenged Athletes Foundation
Names Todd Setter as Director of Events
The Challenged Athletes Foundation has announced the hire of Todd Setter as its new director of events, effective immediately.
Setter joins Team CAF as an experienced professional who has held numerous leadership roles. Most recently, Setter was the senior vice president of events for Ride 2 Recovery, a national nonprofit that supports injured veterans through cycling-based programs. Previously, he worked at ZERO – The End of Prostate Cancer, a national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer, as the director of community engagement. He was the national director for the run/walk event series for the Colon Cancer Alliance.
Setter spent the first part of his career working in the construction materials industry, taking on a variety of roles from business development to marketing and sales. He joined the nonprofit community in 2010.
