Daily Business Report-June 22, 2018
Photo by Elizabeth Castillo for CALmatters
Out with the soda, in with the milk:
California lawmakers consider
limiting drinks for kids meals
By Elizabeth Castillo | CALmatters
As the food court at a Sacramento mall buzzed with families on a recent summer day, Emily Wickelgren and her daughter Thea were enjoying lunch at Subway. The 7-year-old opted for water with her sandwich instead of soda or juice.
“I do have unusual kids in that neither one of them likes soda and they don’t really like juice,” said Wickelgren, the mom of two daughters.
This is what many legislators hope will be the new norm for more California families. Under a bill advancing in the Capitol, restaurants could only offer water or milk with meals marketed for children. Not soda. Not juice. Not chocolate milk.
Those sugary drinks would still be available, at no extra cost, but only upon request. They couldn’t be advertised alongside kids’ meals or offered as a default option. If the bill becomes law, cashiers would ask customers ordering a Happy Meal at McDonald’s, for instance, if they want water, milk or a non-dairy substitute like almond milk. California would become the first state in the nation with such a requirement.
It’s the Legislature’s latest attempt to combat obesity and diabetes by limiting how much soda Californians drink. Research shows that kids often get extra calories in their diet from sugary drinks like soda. The extra sugar puts them at a higher risk for tooth decay, type two diabetes and obesity, according to Public Health Advocates, a sponsor of the bill. Some health experts think changing the drinks offered with kids meals will cause a long-term behavioral shift, leading other kids to become more like Thea and prefer water over pop.
“It’s a thoughtful approach to giving families choice, making sure the choice is a healthful one but not taking away the right if they want to order the sugar-sweetened beverage,” said Sen. Bill Monning, a Carmel Democrat who has been fighting the soda industry for years.
His past legislation—including bills to tax sugary drinks and slap warning labels on them—died under strong opposition from the beverage industry. But his latest bill to regulate the drinks offered with kids meals has faced surprisingly little push-back, other than criticism that it empowers the government to make decisions that should be made by parents. It passed the Senate with bipartisan support and is now being heard in the Assembly.
The California Restaurant Association has not taken a position on the bill, and the American Beverage Association is neutral, writing in a letter to Monning that it “is committed to increasing access to beverages with less sugar and smaller portions in stores and restaurants.”
The group has already embraced guidelines that say elementary schools should offer only water, milk and 100 percent juice, which may explain why it’s not fighting the proposal to get soda out of kids meals at restaurants.
Some fast food chains are voluntarily taking similar steps. McDonald’s stopped advertising Happy Meals with soda in 2013 and in February removed chocolate milk as a default option, though it’s still available upon request. The meals are now advertised with plain low-fat milk or an apple juice drink that has half the sugar of 100 percent apple juice.
At the local level, cities have started to tackle the issue too. Berkeley passed an ordinance last year with the same requirements as Monning’s bill. Other cities—including Stockton, Daly City and Long Beach—have passed similar ordinances.
Nonetheless, the bill still raises debate about how much government is too much.
“I trust parents and I thought parents can make those decisions,” said Sen. Joel Anderson, a Republican from Alpine who voted against the bill.
Jennifer Nevarez, a Sacramento mother of four, echoed the same sentiment when told about the proposal at the mall’s food court. “That’s not going to work,” she said. “I feel like it should be the parents’ choice.”
Nevarez said she only buys water and apple juice for her children at home, so the soda is typically a treat when the family eats out.
Still, some experts worry that drinking sugary drinks at a young age can cause problems later on.
“What we know is that the eating habits we establish when we’re young, often carry with us as we get older,” said Flojaune Cofer, director of state policy and research for Public Health Advocates. “If we consume more sugar, we tend to crave more sugary things when we get older.”
CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California’s policies and politics.
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CityMark to unveil 21 new urban
row homes Saturday in Bankers Hill
XPO-Bankers Hill, a collection of 21 urban row homes at the edge of Balboa Park in Bankers Hill, will be unveiled on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. The public is invited for tours of three furnished homes. The name XPO is a nod to the 1915 Panama-California Exposition held at Balboa Park. This new development by CityMark is located at 6th Ave. and Hawthorn St. in San Diego.
“Balboa Park, one of San Diego’s most remarkable assets, will become the front yard for these new homeowners,” said Russ Haley, vice president of CityMark Development. “In addition to this incredible location and walkability to restaurants and shopping, XPO residents can enjoy private view decks, contemporary architecture, and modern appointments.”
The 1,321- to 1,888-square-foot, three-story townhomes come with two to three bedrooms and two-and-one-half to three-and-one-half baths. Each home offers storage space and a two-car garage with direct access. Pricing at XPO starts from the $800,000s.
Those interested in learning more can visit XPOparkLiving.com and join the interest list for exclusive updates, or begin the prequalification process at xpobh.com.
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Indian gaming faces big consequenses
from U.S. Supreme Court ruling
Axios
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling that allows states to legalize sports betting could have a negative effect on Indian gaming. Bottom line: Many tribes risk losing their exclusive gaming rights within states, which could lead to significant revenue losses. Moreover, they also pay states for such rights, and Indian gaming leaders argue that those contracts must be changed in states where such exclusivity has become moot.
The National Indian Gaming Commission says gaming on Indian lands is currently unaffected by the Supreme Court’s ruling, but tribal stakeholders believe billions of dollars at risk because of exclusivity rules.
(Note: San Diego County is home to a multi-billion-dollar Indian gaming industry)
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Report: Water Authority invests more than
$2.4 billion on water projects in past 2 decades
A report by the San Diego Regional EDC said that more than $2.4 billion has been invested by the San Diego County Water Authority in five major water reliability projects over the past two decades. Those projects generated $4.8 billion in total economic impact, supporting an average of 1,475 jobs annually over two decades and creating more than $1.8 billion in local wages and salaries. The report also found that access to safe and reliable water supplies supports $482 million in total regional sales of goods and services daily – equivalent to the economic impact of nearly three Comic-Cons each and every day.
In addition, the report shows that more than 2,800 people work in the water and wastewater sectors at the Water Authority and its 24 member agencies.
“We all know that water is essential for the viability of our communities, but we often take that for granted and that is a luxury,” said Janice Brown, chair of the EDC’s Board of Trustees. “Without the infrastructure: pipelines, dams, treatment plants — we would not have reliable water. Reliable water makes us economically competitive.”
For the full report, click here
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Athletic fields at MiraCosta Community
College District slated for improvements
MiraCosta Community College District has announced that a major site improvement project under the Measure MM Bond Program is now in the design phase. The track and field area at the district’s Oceanside campus will be renovated to allow for more sporting activities, a new building and increased storage.
The existing track will be removed to facilitate the addition of an international-sized soccer field and a multi-purpose field in its place. A walking/jogging path will be located around the perimeter of the athletic fields. This will help to create a small athletics field complex to better utilize the “bowl” area. The softball/ baseball field will be relocated to the east of the new gym complex.
The renovation project will be combined with construction of a new athletics field support building, which will replace the existing storage building, and also provide restrooms and equipment storage for the new track and athletic fields.
Voters in the MiraCosta Community College District successfully passed Measure MM in November 2016. The $455 million bond program will be spent on the approved list of capital improvements on the district’s Oceanside and San Elijo campuses and the Community Learning Center in north Oceanside. Before the November 2016 vote, it had been more than 50 years since MiraCosta College passed a bond to repair or improve facilities.
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Researchers create new Center for Innovative
Phage Applications and Therapeutics
With microbial resistance to antibiotics growing into a major global health crisis, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, in collaboration with national research institutions and private industry, are leveraging hard-won expertise to exploit a natural viral enemy of pathogenic bacteria, creating North America’s first Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH).
Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that specifically target and consume bacteria. They are ubiquitous, found wherever bacteria exist and were once considered a promising therapeutic tool. The advent of modern antibiotics in the 1930s redirected research interests, but with 10 million people estimated to die from “superbug” infections by 2050, they are getting a second look.
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Personnel Announcements
Alan Krasner joins Crinetics Pharmaceuticals
Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc., a San Diego clinical stage pharmaceutical company, announced the appointment of Alan S. Krasner, M.D., as chief medical officer.
Krasner joins Crinetics from Shire Pharmaceuticals where he was a senior medical director and served as global development lead for Natpara, the first recombinant human intact parathyroid hormone treatment for hypoparathyroidism.
Prior to Shire, he worked at Biodel and Pfizer, conducting clinical research at various stages of development in diabetes and obesity. He obtained his undergraduate and M.D. degrees from Northwestern University and received his clinical training in internal medicine and endocrinology at Johns Hopkins University.
“We are delighted to welcome Alan to the Crinetics management team,” said Scott Struthers, founder and CEO of Crinetics. “Alan has extensive experience in clinical development of endocrine drugs at both big pharma and smaller biotech companies. We are fortunate to have his leadership to oversee our development programs as we advance our product candidates into and through the clinic.”
