Daily Business Report-July 18, 2019
The Cross-Border Business Forum will be staged on Aug. 28.
Cross-Border Business Forum
to give taste of Cali-Baja craft beer industry
San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce
Recognized as the Craft Beer Capital of America, San Diego County is home to 130 craft breweries which produced over 1 million barrels of beer in 2017. San Diego’s beer selection is as diverse as each of the neighborhood breweries that put their spin on classic and truly distinctive styles. The county’s breweries have brought back 45 medals from the Great American Beer Festival since 2014. The craft beer industry supports 6,275 jobs in San Diego County and produced an economic impact of $1.1 billion in 2017.
South of the border, Baja California’s brewing scene continues to grow, strategically positioning as a complement of the BajaMed culinary experience. In fact, Baja breweries brought back 42 medals from Mexico’s national beer competition “Copa Cerveza MX” in 2018. Now home to 80 breweries, Baja produces 18 percent of Mexico’s artisanal beer. This has opened the door to a new kind of partnership for Cali-Baja, allowing San Diego breweries to open the first independent American brewery with a tasting room and full-time brewing operations in Mexico.
The upcoming Cross-Border Business Forum on Aug. 28 will give a taste of the binational region’s unique craft beer industry with a panel discussion featuring representatives from the tourism and craft beer industries that will answer key questions such as:
- How are San Diego and Baja California working together to grow the craft beer industry on both sides of the border?
- What are the biggest challenges for local breweries?
- How can breweries stay relevant in today’s market?
- Are brewery-to-brewery partnerships the best opportunity for craft beer entrepreneurs to expand across the border?
Date: Aug. 28, 10 to 11:30 a.m., San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, 402 W. Broadway, Suite 1000, San Diego.
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Still lots of all-male corporate boards
Many San Diego companies pride themselves on innovative solutions to complex problems.
Yet nearly two dozen major San Diego companies, including a number of large biotech companies, have yet to find a solution to a new state law mandating that the state’s publicly held corporations have at least one woman on their boards of directors by the end of the year.
Sara Libby found that about 20 San Diego corporations still have all-male boards and that at least 27 other San Diego-based companies with boards of five people or more have just one woman, meaning they’ll be subject to another requirement that kicks in on Jan. 1, 2021 requiring more than one woman on a board.
Libby’s analysis follows the recent release of a California secretary of state report that revealed that only 184 out of 537 publicly traded California general corporations or registered foreign corporations currently had at least one woman on their board of directors as of July 1.
A separate 2018 report found that San Diego County was home to the largest share of companies without women on their boards in the state.
If those companies fail to comply, the secretary of state has the go-ahead to levy up to $100,00 fines – and companies with multiple violations could be saddled with multiple $300,000 fines.
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General Atomics’ Predator A
remotely piloted aircraft turns 25
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA‑ASI), a leading manufacturer of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) systems, marks the 25th anniversary of its Predator A unmanned aircraft this month. Predator A completed its first flight in July 1994 and made its operational debut in 1995. More than 320 Predator A’s have been delivered to customers in support of global security throughout the world, and the product line remained in production until 2011. Predator A’s have flown close to 141,000 missions and over two million total flight hours. More than 90 percent of those hours were flown supporting combat missions.
Over its 25 year history, the Predator series fleets have flown close to six million flight hours. GA-ASI is now developing the newest version of the series, MQ-9B SkyGuardian, which complies with airworthiness certification and air traffic management requirements that will enable the RPA to operate in the National Airspace System (NAS).
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U.S. Small Business Administration in new
collaboration with California Chamber
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and California Chamber of Commerce (CalChamber) today announced a new Strategic Alliance supporting California’s 4 million small businesses.
The SBA’s six California offices will work with CalChamber to strengthen and expand small business development in California, including in rural areas which support important industries such as timber and natural resources, and in Opportunity Zones which spur growth in low-income communities.
The new partnership will kick off in July with a free training webinar for California small business owners on state labor and employment laws.
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CNBC names UC San Diego among top
public colleges that pay off in higher earnings
The University of California San Diego has been ranked the 11th best public university in the country among colleges that pay off the most in a new ranking by CNBC. The rankings measured UC San Diego’s costs, financial aid packages and the earnings for alumni at the start of their career ($61,300), as well as the mid-point ($94,050) and after they have been in the workforce for more than ten years ($126,800).
The CNBC ranking methodology calculated college costs after subtracting scholarships and grants for median U.S. households (families making between $48,001 and $75,000, an income range established by the Department of Education). The rankings also utilized data from the Payscale College Salary Report for alumni ranging from those with less than five years of experience, to those with more than 10 years of experience. The ranking gives greater weight to workers’ earnings in the years immediately after college, when individuals are the most impacted by college costs and student debt.
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San Diego wins $15 million in lead paint case
City Attorney Mara W. Elliott announced that San Diego will receive approximately $15 million to settle a lawsuit filed against paint manufacturers that knowingly put toxic lead in their paint products long after its destructive health consequences were known.
The funds will be used to remove lead paint from homes in the city of San Diego. Though banned by the federal government decades ago, residual lead paint poisons tens of thousands of children across California each year.
The funds are part of a $305 million settlement agreed to by The Sherwin-Williams Company, ConAgra Grocery Products Company, and NL Industries, Inc., to resolve litigation filed by nine jurisdictions, including the City Attorney of San Diego on behalf of the People of the State of California.
The manufacturing of lead paint was banned by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission in 1978, but it remains in many older homes, often covered by layers of newer paint. It becomes a health hazard when it deteriorates and turns to dust. A tiny amount swallowed by a child can damage reproductive organs and result in a lifetime of learning difficulties, behavioral problems, and even death.
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Allen Matkins partner accepted into
American Board of Trial Advocates
Amy Wintersheimer, labor and employment partner with Allen Matkins, has been accepted into the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). The board dedicates itself to the preservation and promotion of the Seventh Amendment, which guarantees the right to civil jury trials.
Members in this prestigious invitation-only group must have tried a minimum of 10 civil jury trials to conclusion. More than 7,600 lawyers and judges are involved in ABOTA chapters in all 50 states.
A trial lawyer, Wintersheimer defends employers in state, federal, and appellate courts in cases involving critical employment-related issues. In addition to trying cases, she also has an extensive counseling practice, assisting clients with issues such as equal pay, gender disparity and pregnancy discrimination.
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What to expect from mosquitoes in 2019
With the rise of global temperatures, along with the rise of human activity, comes a better environment for mosquitoes to proliferate and spread across the world.
The warmer and wetter it is, the more mosquitoes will be around. Looking back to late 2018, a long stretch of rain (3 to 12 inches over two weeks) in Michigan caused mosquito populations to triple or quadruple. More rain means more standing water, which means more mosquitoes. Similar bouts of rain are expected in 2019, which will no doubt lead to similar increases in mosquito populations.
These warmer and wetter conditions allow diseases that mosquitoes carry to be spread quicker and easier. Currently, different parts of the world are facing outbreaks of yellow fever, dengue, Zika and chikungunya, according to a Boston Children’s Hospital study. Many parts of the U.S. still don’t have substantial communities of the primary disease-carrying mosquitoes that exacerbate outbreaks and epidemics. However, researchers believe that by 2050, almost every section of the United States will have communities of mosquitoes at some point during the year.
Click here for mosquito forecasts for the Northeast, Midwest, Southwest, Northwest, Hawaii and Alaska.
