Daily Business Report-April 21, 2020
Billionaire activist Tom Steyer will co-chair Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new economic task force. (Photo by Chris Stone, courtesy timesofsandiego.com)
Governor taps Tom Steyer
to help lead CA’s economic recovery
Former presidential candidate and businessman Tom Steyer will help chart California’s path toward economic recovery as co-chair of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new economic task force, Newsom announced Friday, a week after the resignation of his chief economic advisor, Lenny Mendonca. The 80-member task force includes big-name business leaders like former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Walt Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger and Gap CEO Sonia Syngal — as well as the four living former California governors and leaders of 10 labor unions. However, details of its focus are unclear, CalMatters’ Nigel Duara reports.
Steyer will co-chair the task force with Newsom’s Chief of Staff Ann O’Leary. Most of the members reside in California.
Steyer’s spokesman, Benjamin Gerdes, said in a press release that the task force will deliver recommendations to Newsom concerning three timeframes: a short-term set of recommendations to cover the 60 days after the task force was appointed; a second set of recommendations for the rest of the year; and a third set aimed at the long-term beyond 2020.
“In the coming weeks and months, we will bring together the public and private sectors, outside experts, organized labor, environmental groups and activists to develop recommendations for a recovery plan that works for all Californians, with an emphasis on those communities hardest hit by the pandemic,” Steyer said in a press release.
— CalMatters
_____________________________
Economic effects of coronavirus
on greater San Diego jobs
As part of a new California initiative, MoneyGeek has forecasted peak coronavirus related unemployment in Greater San Diego to be 28 percent. That’s 444,500 unemployed workers.
You can find the full forecast along with community resources for Greater San Diego by clicking here:
You’ll see our forecasted unemployment and our methodology, how it compares to the Great Recession, a breakdown of employment by sector, and local resources for people to find help during this time.
_____________________________
Glaring holes in state data on
nursing home COVID-19 cases
For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, California released the number of COVID-19 cases in nursing homes, showing that roughly 10 percent of the state’s 31,527 confirmed cases are found among the staff and patients at care centers for the elderly.
The state list was released late Friday evening, a few days after reports in CalMatters and The Los Angeles Times pointed out that much of what is known about the virus’ spread through nursing homes was shared through personal connections, rather than an official public source.
Still, the data have some glaring holes, The Los Angeles Times reported. Some nursing homes are not testing residents to avoid bad publicity, The Times found. Also, the state data only include information from 86 percent of California’s 1,224 skilled nursing facilities; it doesn’t reveal how many residents have died from COVID-19, and the data from smaller facilities are incomplete.
— CalMatters
_____________________________
How a SDSU professor makes
the most of virtual instruction
This semester, San Diego State University professor Nick Shikuma teaches an upper level undergraduate microbiology course with 141 students, and a graduate research course with three students. But class size doesn’t necessarily correlate to the complexities involved.
Across the nation, students are adapting to online classes under shelter-in-place orders, and some are experiencing anxiety. Shikuma finds he is part counselor and part professor as he addresses those concerns.
“My graduate students are stressed about the impact this will have on their research,” Shikuma said. “Among my undergraduate students, some are seniors who are sad to leave their friends since this is their last semester in college, and I can relate to that.”
During online office hours in recent weeks, he’s received a lot of questions about these concerns too, not just questions relating to class material and grades.
“They’re also looking to me for guidance,” he said. “It’s a tough place to be for everyone.”
Before the pandemic brought sweeping changes, Shikuma had already been using Top Hat, which enables interactive online learning, to gauge how much his students understood during his lectures. He had students install the app on their devices and gave them multiple choice questions they answered in real time. As his lecture progressed, he would track their responses and often observed that they shifted their choice as their understanding evolved over the course of the lecture.
Now, he has tapped the program to act as a stand-in proctor for online exams. For a recent exam before spring break, he provided questions that were only available for a certain length of time on the app, and combined it with Zoom to observe students.
_____________________________
USD teams to compete April 29 for Fowler
Global Social Innovation Challenge slots
The Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge is exactly that — a challenge. It’s both an educational exercise and an opportunity for University of San Diego student entrepreneurs to create an idea that matches up with the mission of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Students choose their idea, create it, build and shape it and then present it in full to judges first, and then, in shorter form, to a community audience.
On Wednesday, April 29, starting at 5 p.m., 18 USD teams will present their 90-second pitch — online only, via YouTube — to determine the two USD entrants who will earn a share of $10,000+ in seed funding and also advance to the global final, scheduled for June 13.
The 11th annual event, USD’s longest-running entrepreneurship competition, is happening in spite of challenges currently facing everyone around the world. Higher education institutions, like everyone else, have pivoted due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. All USD students are taking spring classes via online instruction, they were all moved off-campus in the middle of the semester and are continuing to try and maintain good, healthy practices.
The event is run by the Center for Peace and Commerce, which is a joint partnership of the USD School of Business and the Kroc School of Peace Studies.
_____________________________
UC San Diego Health launches novel
coronavirus blood testing to I.D. past exposure
Clinical laboratory physicians and scientists at UC San Diego Health have launched a pair of serological tests that will look for novel coronavirus antibodies — evidence in persons tested that they have previously been infected by SARS-CoV-2, the viral cause of COVID-19, even if they never experienced tell-tale symptoms.
The effort will be overseen by the UC San Diego Center for Advanced Laboratory Medicine (CALM), which houses the majority of UC San Diego Health’s Clinical Laboratories and related research activities and is already the hub for the health system’s in-house PCR-based diagnostic testing of patients and persons suspected of having COVID-19.
_____________________________
How robots can help combat COVID-19:
Science Robotics editorial
Can robots be effective tools in combating the COVID-19 pandemic? A group of leaders in the field of robotics, including Henrik Christensen, director of UC San Diego’s Contextual Robotics Institute, say yes, and outline a number of examples in an editorial in the March 25 issue of Science Robotics.
They say robots can be used for clinical care such as telemedicine and decontamination; logistics such as delivery and handling of contaminated waste; and reconnaissance such as monitoring compliance with voluntary quarantines.
“Already, we have seen robots being deployed for disinfection, delivering medications and food, measuring vital signs, and assisting border controls,” the researchers write.
_____________________________
Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai donate PPE
to San Diego health care providers
This week, nearly half a million pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) are expected to arrive from China thanks to a donation by Joe and Clara Tsai. Much of the donated equipment, which will provide assistance in combating the COVID-19 pandemic in the state of California, will be shipped to the University of California San Diego and other health care providers in our region.
Joe Tsai is co-founder of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba. His wife Clara and their children are residents of San Diego. The Tsai family asked UC San Diego to assist in distributing the donated equipment to health care institutions in the San Diego community as well as other areas in California.
The couple have been involved with the university for several years with various campus programs: Clara Wu Tsai is a member of the Associate of the Chancellor’s Thought Leaders Group, among other activities. Joe Tsai is involved with the 21st Century China Program at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, most recently offering unique insights at the program’s 2019 Sokwanlok Distinguished Lecture. Owner of the Brooklyn Nets, he also owns the San Diego Seals indoor lacrosse team which partners with UC San Diego Health for the team’s medical needs.
_____________________________
Horton Plaza owner ready to remake
mall into mixed-use office center
Downtown’s retail ghost town is on the cusp of construction activity with Horton Plaza’s owner now financially equipped to convert the property into a mixed-use office campus for elite tech tenants. Los Angeles-based Stockdale Capital Partners, which purchased the property in 2018, said (in March) it has closed a $330 million construction loan, meaning the first phase of the redevelopment project is fully funded on track for completion in early 2022.
