Daily Business Report-Sept. 3, 2020
Prime Air (Courtesy of Amazon)
Amazon’s drone delivery fleet
hits milestone with FAA clearance
Retail behemoth Amazon.com Inc. took a big leap toward delivering goods from the sky by becoming one of only a handful of companies certified by the U.S. government to operate as a drone airline.
The Federal Aviation Administration designated Amazon Prime Air an “air carrier,” the company said Monday. That allows Amazon to begin its first commercial deliveries in the U.S. under a trial program, using the high-tech devices it unveiled for that purpose last year.
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Scripps receives NOAA award
to study clouds, one of the largest
uncertainties in climate change
Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography have received an award from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to study low cloud “hot-spots,” one of the greatest uncertainties in climate change models and predictions.
The project will be led by Scripps Oceanography climate scientists Nicholas Lutsko and Joel Norris as part of NOAA’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) Program. NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Climate Program Office is supporting the Scripps-led MAPP project with around $410,000 in funding.
The Scripps team will focus on specific regions of the globe where the variability of clouds can tell us how sensitive Earth’s climate is to increased carbon dioxide concentrations. This “climate sensitivity” is generally defined as how much Earth’s global mean surface temperature would warm up if CO2 concentrations were doubled compared to pre-industrial levels.
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City is halting rent payments on 101 Ash St.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer has decided to stop paying rent to the city’s landlord at 101 Ash St. in a bid to try and untangle one of the worst real estate debacles in its history. For weeks, city leaders have been reeling over the hundreds of millions of dollars it could take to fix or walk away from the Downtown high rise that has for months sat vacant. Now Faulconer and other city officials have decided to go on offense.
“After consultation with the city attorney’s office and the city’s financial team, I have directed staff to suspend lease payments for the 101 Ash St. property because the city is unable to use the building for the intended purpose,” Faulconer wrote in a statement. “By suspending payment, the city will also have the ability to assess all financial and legal options to ensure taxpayers are protected and hold all parties accountable for their roles in this agreement.”
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Longer waits and fewer buses: Pandemic
worsens shortfalls and service cuts
Transit agencies across California are grappling with a three-headed foe amid the pandemic: unprecedented revenue shortfalls, steep declines in ridership and increased expenses from new health policies.
Though the agencies received nearly $4 billion in federal funding, they say it won’t be enough to prevent additional cuts in service next year.
The cuts are hitting low-income essential workers and Californians with disabilities hardest, many of whom are forced to adjust their schedules around limited bus and rail schedules
Mariah Thompson of California Rural Legal Assistance: “When the bus only comes once a day, you plan your entire day around that one time bus time, and life doesn’t work like that.”
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UC San Diego student wins $5,000
Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship award
San Diego resident Jessica Lam won one of four $5,000 Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship awards from global cybersecurity company ESET, whose U.S. headquarters are also based in San Diego.
Jessica, a second-year student at the University of California, San Diego, is majoring in computer science and currently leads the membership committee for UC San Diego’s cybersecurity division of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) chapter.
Lam is also a member of CyberDEI and Women in Cybersecurity, and has won several awards, placing first in the Secure Code Warriors competition hosted by Women in Cyber Security Silicon Valley and earning fourth place in the New York edition.
As employers work to fill more STEM jobs with women, and with an estimated 3.5 million global cybersecurity jobs expected to be unfilled by 2021, ESET established the WIC scholarship awards five years ago to help inspire more women to work in the industry.
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Cal State San Marcos wins top diversity
award for seventh straight year
Cal State San Marcos has received the 2020 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.
As a recipient of the annual HEED Award — a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion — CSUSM will be featured along with 89 other recipients in the November 2020 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.
This is the seventh straight year that CSUSM has been named a HEED Award recipient.
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More than $46 million available to
create and preserve affordable housing
With the ongoing need for more rental housing that San Diego families with low income can afford, the San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) announces more than $46 million is available from federal and local funds SDHC administers to create and preserve affordable rental housing units, including homes for individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
This funding includes $21.6 million set aside, for the first time, specifically to preserve or extend the affordability of existing rental housing units in the City of San Diego—a significant need identified in the SDHC report Preserving Affordable Housing in the City of San Diego.
In addition to the preservation funding, up to $25 million is available to support the development of new affordable housing units or to rehabilitate existing affordable housing. This includes $10.6 million for permanent housing with supportive services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
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SDSU announces kickoff event
Sept. 16 for new five-year strategic plan
After a full year of planning and preparation to launch the implementation period, San Diego State University is hosting a kickoff event Sept. 16 for its new strategic plan, “We Rise We Defy: Transcending Borders, Transforming Lives.”
The event will be held virtually due to COVID-19-related concerns and restrictions. All members of the SDSU and general communities are invited to RSVP online and watch the streamed event on SDSU.edu at 10 a.m.
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Historic trees of Kensington need your voice
This tree is over 110 years old and was planted in 1910 when the Kensington Park subdivision was first planned. It is an integral part of the historic fabric of this neighborhood. The Center for Urban Forest Research Tree Carbon Calculator estimates that this tree provides an annual benefit in emission reductions (CO2 equivalents) of 141 lbs. So it’s both pretty and it is doing its part to help reduce the carbon in our air.
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James Vinograd joins
Lavine, Lofgren, Morris & Engelberg LLP
James Vinograd has joined the Lavine, Lofgren, Morris & Engelberg LLP law firm as a client accounting services manager.
Vinograd is a CPA with 20 years of experience providing accounting services to closely held small- to medium-sized businesses in a wide variety of industries. He specializes in working with business owners in financial statement preparation and accounting and tax consulting.
Prior to joining LLME, Vinograd worked as an audit manager at a regional accounting firm in the San Francisco Bay Area and as a controller of a privately held defense contractor in San Diego.
Vinograd received his Bachelor of Arts degree in business economics with an emphasis in accounting from the University of California, Santa Barbara and holds a Masters in Taxation from Golden Gate University.
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Maria Stipp to become new
CEO of Stone Brewing
Stone Brewing, the country’s 9th largest craft brewery, announces the hire of Maria Stipp to the position of CEO. Stipp will join Stone beginning Sept. 14.
Stipp spent the past five years as CEO of Lagunitas Brewing Company. Previously, she was president of ecoATM, a company launched in Stone’s hometown of San Diego.
Before ecoATM, Stipp was executive vice president at Activision, where she was responsible for Call of Duty and Guitar Hero, and, further in the past, Miller Brewing Company and Kelloggs.
Stipp will oversee Stone’s East and West Coast brewing production facilities, two Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens locations, seven Stone Brewing Tap Room locations and distribution to all 50 states and more than 40 countries.
As CEO, she will lead Stone Distributing Co., which distributes more than 40 brands of craft and specialty beverages throughout eight counties of Northern and Southern California. She will also hold a seat on the Stone Brewing Board of Directors.
Stone Brewing was founded by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner in 1996.
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Suffolk appoints Zak Hammond
as general manager in San Diego
Suffolk, a builder and real estate enterprise, announced the hiring of Zach Hammond as general manager of the San Diego office.
Hammond will be responsible for business planning and development, market analysis and talent recruitment. In his role, he will be tasked with leading Suffolk’s operations in San Diego and expanding the company’s presence across various industries, including residential, hospitality, education, science and technology, aviation and others.
As a 14-year veteran of the company, Hammond will leverage his experience at Suffolk, the construction industry and the region to partner with key organizations and stakeholders in the San Diego community.
Before joining the San Diego team fulltime, Hammond served as a project executive in the Boston area. Most recently, he led operations for Parcel 12 in Boston, a $400 million development project in air rights – the rights to owning, renting and receiving the rights to use and develop the space above land without interfering with other buildings.
His appointment as general manager marks a return to San Diego. He previously worked in Suffolk’s San Diego office between 2012 and 2014 to help the team secure new projects and grow their operations.
