Daily Business Report-Dec. 3, 2019
Companies are spending $55 billion to comply with the 2018 law. (CalMatters)
California is rewriting the law on online privacy
Come Jan. 1, Californians will gain greater control over their personal data, when a landmark privacy law takes effect.
California in 2018 became the first state in the nation to pass a law giving consumers more control of their digital data. Companies are spending $55 billion to comply.
What to expect:
- Notices from companies that have updated their privacy policies
- More ways of knowing what information is being collected
- The right to request that businesses delete the data they have about you
- Buttons on websites allowing you to opt out of having your data sold
- An expanded right to sue over data breaches
What’s unclear:
- Whether you’ll have to pay more for online services if you instruct companies not to sell your data
- Whether Gov. Gavin Newsom will make a serious proposal to compensate Californians for the value of their data
What’s ahead:
Tech industry lobbyists hope Uncle Sam will preempt California with a national standard. That seems less than likely given the U.S. House of Representatives is led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, and the bill implementing the law was embraced by lawmakers from both parties.
Privacy advocate Alastair Mactaggart, the 2018 law’s main backer, is proposing an initiative that would go further for the 2020 ballot.
CalMatters’ Laurel Rosenhall breaks down what it means for you.
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Neurocrine Biosciences and Xenon Pharmaceuticals
announce pact to develop epilepsy treatment
San Diego-based Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. and Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced a license and collaboration agreement to develop first-in-class treatments for epilepsy.
“We are excited to enter into this agreement with Xenon and leverage their expertise in precision medicine drug discovery to benefit the lives of people with epilepsy and serious neurological disorders,” said Kevin Gorman, chief executive officer of Neurocrine Biosciences. “The agreement with Xenon strengthens Neurocrine Biosciences’ diverse and growing pipeline and reinforces our long-term commitment of becoming a leading neuroscience-focused biopharmaceutical company.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Neurocrine Biosciences will be responsible for development costs associated with the programs
Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. is based in Burnaby, British Columbia.
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Sanford Burnham Prebys awarded $3.58 million
grant to advance treatment for opioid use disorders
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded a $3.58 million grant to Sanford Burnham Prebys to advance a potential treatment for opioid-use disorders, called SBI-553.
With this funding, the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics (Prebys Center) at Sanford Burnham Prebys, one of the most advanced drug discovery centers in the nonprofit world, will collaborate with Duke University to complete preclinical testing of the compound to ready it for study in humans.
If this milestone is achieved, NIDA will grant an additional $6.3 million to complete a Phase I study that evaluates the safety of the compound in healthy individuals. The grant was awarded as part of the Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or the NIH Heal Initiative, which awarded a total of $945 million in fiscal year 2019 to accelerate scientific solutions to address the national opioid crisis.
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Cal State San Marcos’ Couger Career
Closet gives students clothes for success
By Eric Breier | Public Affairs Specialist, CSUSM
Cal State San Marcos student assistants who work at the Cougar Career Closet have become accustomed to correcting a common misconception.
“When students first hear about it, they ask, ‘So I have to return the clothes?’ ” said Sophie Cruz, a career peer in the Career Center and a third-year psychology student. “When we tell them it’s completely free, they’re kind of taken aback by it. Anything free is great for college students, especially professional wear, which is so expensive for students.”
The Cougar Career Closet was founded by the Latin@ Business Student Association in spring 2017 to provide free professional clothing for any CSUSM student needing proper attire for career-related events. While the LBSA is still heavily involved with marketing and acquiring donations, CSUSM’s Career Center now runs the daily operations.
“LBSA was phenomenal in jump-starting it,” said Brenda Dumas, recruiting and events coordinator for the Career Center. “They had so many donations from the get-go and just really jumped in and created it. We were just thrilled to be able to house it here and be a part of it.”
The closet was an immediate success and has continued to grow each year, serving 469 students in 2017-18 and 538 in ’18-19. More than 200 students have already been helped this academic year.
“Students are extremely happy with the program, and it’s very beneficial for them,” said Christina Marquez, lead student assistant in the Career Center and a criminology and justice studies student who will graduate in May.
Donors provide all of the clothing for the closet, from men’s suits to women’s blazers and much more. With CSUSM Giving Day today, Dumas and Student Services Coordinator Monica Gillie are hoping that donors will also be inspired to help the Cougar Career Closet reach its $1,500 fundraising goal, money that will be used to provide students with gift cards if they’re unable to find clothing in their size and assist with tailoring and dry-cleaning costs.
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Musical piece inspired by climate
change wins Grawemeyer music award
Chinese-American composer Lei Liang has won the 2020 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for an orchestral work evoking the threat posed by climate change and the opportunity it offers for redemption.
Boston Modern Orchestra Project commissioned the winning piece, “A Thousand Mountains, a Million Streams,” which premiered in 2018 in Boston’s Jordan Hall with Gil Rose conducting.
“The world we live in today is dangerous,” Liang said. “Our very existence is threatened by global warming, which is causing violent disruptions to the living things on our planet and being made worse by human irresponsibility.”
The half-hour piece takes listeners on a journey through a virtual landscape that first sings and dances but later jolts and collapses into fragments. Near the end, the sound of rain emerges and resurrects nature.
“When creating the work, I wanted to convey the importance of preserving our landscapes, both physically and spiritually, to sustain a place where we and our children can belong,” he said.
Liang, 47, is a music professor at University of California, San Diego, and research-artist-in-residence at Qualcomm Institute, the UC San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology. He has composed more than 100 works, including pieces addressing other contemporary social issues such as human trafficking and gun violence.
“Xiaoxiang,” his concerto for saxophone and orchestra, was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2015.
Schott Music, a company founded in 1770 in Germany now with offices worldwide, publishes all of Liang’s compositions. BMOP/sound record label released a recording of his Grawemeyer-winning piece in 2018.
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Affirmed Housing holds grand opening
for 160 affordable homes in Grantville
Affirmed Housing hosted a grand opening celebration for Stella and Bluewater on Tuesday, two new affordable housing communities located in the Grantville community of San Diego.
Adjacent to each other, Stella and Bluewater are located within a half-mile of the Grantville Trolley stop, and close to grocery stores, restaurants, and health care services. Stella features a mix of 80 studios and one-bedroom supportive housing apartment homes for formerly homeless individuals or those with special needs. Located at 4304 Twain Ave, Stella offers on-site services to residents through its partners, Interfaith Community Services and the VA.
Bluewater consists of 80 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments for low-income households earning between 30 percent and 60 percent of the area median income (AMI). Bluewater, located at 6121 Fairmount Ave., features on-site management, energy-efficient appliances, and airy common areas.
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The Old Town Model Railroad Depot
to remain open under new ownership
The Old Town Model Railroad Depot, a model railroad museum based in San Diego’s historic Old Town district, will remain open under new ownership. The Depot, which was founded in 2014 by Gary Hickok, was scheduled to close on Nov. 30. One month prior to the anticipated closing, David Lizerbram and Mana Monzavi, a married couple based in North Park, acquired the Depot, renewed the lease, and are keeping the Depot open. Hickok will remain actively involved in the Depot, as will the many model railroad enthusiasts who operate their collectible trains on the O-gauge (Lionel size) tracks.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to help this wonderful museum live on for years to come,” said Lizerbram. “My father and I spent many hours working on our train layout when I was growing up in North County, and it’s an honor and a pleasure to share this hobby with our visitors from San Diego and around the world.”
In September 2019, Lizerbram and Monzavi visited the Depot for the first time with their two-year-old son, Miles. They fell in love with the museum and were upset to find out that it was soon to close. They couldn’t bear to see it disappear. A few weeks later, they found themselves in possession of the keys to one of San Diego’s hidden gems, with big plans for the Depot’s future.
A visit to the Old Town Model Railroad Depot will take you back in time to the 1950s, where various trains travel over a 2,000-square-foot custom-built layout. The highlight is a city at night including over 100 buildings with lights and flashing neon signs, a ballpark, zoo, depot, industrial district, and even a working drive-in movie theater. Continuing on your journey, you will pass a large farm, a quaint country town, a beautiful mountain range, a large lake (complete with sharks), and a dam with trestles traversing over a large gorge.
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Zero Waste Symposium returns on Feb. 11, 2020
The seventh annual Zero Waste Symposium, “The Price of Convenience,” will be staged on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the San Diego County Operations Center, 5520 Overland Drive, San Diego 92123.
For more, click here
