Daily Business Report-Oct. 15, 2020
San Diego economy got a boost
from military during COVID-19
An estimated 25 percent of the county’s gross regional product came from direct military spending, according to the San Diego Military Advisory Council’s Military Economic Impact Report for Fiscal Year 2020.
The military accounted for $33.6 billion in direct spending in San Diego County, with an increase of 5.7 percent over 2019.
The money is vital in a year when the coronavirus and steps to control the pandemic brought San Diego’s economy to a near halt.
The UC San Diego Rady School of Management faculty and students created the report that measures the economic impact of the military in San Diego.
“This report was a great way to understand and calculate what the military impact really means through the numbers,” said Andrew Ovrom, Rady School MBA student lead for the report. “By utilizing the academic resources at the Rady School and UC San Diego, along with the experts at SDMAC, we developed a report that concretely quantifies the impact of the military in numbers that are supported by data. With a mixed student group that contained active duty military, San Diego natives, and international students, we challenged ourselves to produce a report that highlights the importance of the military on the San Diego economy and the people in it.”
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City Council approves rent relief
and purchase of hotels for housing
The San Diego City Council on Oct. 13 unanimously approved using an additional $5 million in funding from the federal CARES Act to provide relief for San Diego renters struggling financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the same time, the Council authorized the San Diego Housing Commission to purchase two hotels, which will be transformed permanently into 332 apartments with supportive services for unsheltered San Diegans.
The $5 million for rent relief is part of nearly $35 million in CARES Act funding allocated toward homelessness solutions and community assistance. With this infusion, the city has now invested more than $20 million in the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, administered by the Housing Commission.
The two hotels that will be purchased are the Residence Inn Hotel Circle and the Residence Inn Kearny Mesa. The hotels will be purchased for a total of $106.5 million, funding for which, along with funding for ongoing operations and services, will come from a mix of local, state, and federal sources. In a separate vote, Council approved funding for People Assisting the Homeless and Father Joe’s Villages to provide property management and case management for residents.
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A Deep Look into Trust in Science in Uncertain Times
Science and communication experts to explore issues surrounding masks, vaccines, and public trust in science
The year 2020 has put science in the spotlight as never before. From wearing masks during the pandemic to questions surrounding vaccinations, science has been thrust into the center of our lives with social media, allegations of fake news and political mistrust fanning flames of doubt. In a program sponsored by UC San Diego’s Division of Biological Sciences and Research Communications Program, a panel of experts will discuss core issues of science communications, public distrust and authenticity, with a focus on issues intertwining the COVID-19 pandemic.
This event will be hosted on Zoom and includes a question-and-answer session. The public is welcome to attend.
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Mingei International Museum receives $227,000 grant
Mingei International Museum received a two-year $227,000 Institute of Museum and Library Services CARES Act Grant in support of its current distance learning programs, as well as new engagement programs to support seniors who are socially isolated due to the current pandemic. The museum is one of only 68 grant recipients in the country, and the only cultural institution in San Diego, to receive funding out of 1,701 applicants.
The museum had already reimagined community engagement prior to the pandemic. When the museum embarked on its major building renovation two years ago, it formed partnerships with local libraries, schools, community centers and other arts and culture hubs to continue sharing creative projects around the San Diego region.
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First members selected for county’s
new redistricting commission
Eight members of the County’s new Independent Redistricting Commission were selected during two random drawings at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday.
Clerk of the Board staff drew the names from a pool of 59 qualified applicants. Originally, there were 60 but one withdrew after he was accepted for another redistricting commission. Nearly 300 people had applied to serve on the county’s volunteer commission.
The commission will redraw the boundaries for the county’s five supervisorial districts based on the new numbers in the federal census. The 2020 census numbers will reveal new data on residents and whether one district is more populated than the others. Each supervisor should represent a diverse population of about 650,000 residents.
The eight new members are: David Bame, John Russ, Amy Caterina, Barbara Hansen, Chris Chen, Colleen Brown, Arvid Larson, Sonia Diaz.
The commissioners will meet to choose six more members from the remaining pool of the 51 most qualified applicants to round out a 14-member commission
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County’s Edgemoor facility
named best in California, again
For the second year in a row, the County Health and Human Services Agency’s Edgemoor Skilled Nursing Facility has been named the best facility of its kind in the county and the state by Newsweek magazine. The magazine analyzed more than 15,000 nursing homes in the Unites States and chose 400 winners in 20 states.
Under the umbrella of County Behavioral Health Services, Edgemoor patients receive 24-hour skilled nursing care, physical rehabilitation, as well as recreational, occupational and speech therapy. Patients at the 192-bed facility require specialized interventions from highly trained staff.
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Lavine, Lofgren, Morris & Engelberg
promotes 3 to manager positions
The accounting firm Lavine, Lofgren, Morris & Engelberg LLP announce the promotions of Quillyn Brown and Tracy Pham to the position of tax manager and Adam Kemp to audit manager.
Brown has been with the firm since 2017 and has experience providing a wide range of accounting and tax services to S corporations, partnerships and high-net-worth individuals. She is active on LLME’s community service committee and is a member of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Pham has been with LLME since 2015 and has experience providing a wide range of accounting and tax services to small business owners, partnerships, LLCs, S corporations and high-net-worth individuals.
Kemp has been with LLME since 2016 and has experience providing accounting and auditing services to manufacturing, marketing, investment and non-profit companies, as well as broker/dealers and employee benefit plans.
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Full parking enforcement operations
to restart today in City of San Diego
All parking regulations for the City of San Diego will again be enforced across the city starting today. Restarting parking enforcement will allow for increased turnover at parking meters and businesses, ensuring accessibility for patrons visiting local stores and restaurants. Parking enforcement resumed on Oct. 1 with a two-week grace period, during which violators received written warnings.
The city temporarily suspended parking regulations on March 16 following the COVID-19 stay-at-home order, limiting enforcement to holiday or Sunday regulations only. Citations continued to be issued for vehicles parked illegally at red, white and blue painted curbs.
The resumption of enforcement will allow city sweepers to once again sweep debris and dust pollution along the curb line.
Drivers should be aware that other cities and jurisdictions have continued to enforce parking meters and other parking regulations. Always follow posted signage when looking for a parking space.
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State strongly discourages trick-or-treating
CalMatters
Californians should skip trick-or-treating this Halloween to prevent household mixing amid the pandemic, the state’s top health official, Dr. Mark Ghaly, said Tuesday. The state Department of Public Health unveiled a list of alternative activities for Halloween and Día de los Muertos, including online costume contests, indoor candy scavenger hunts and virtual altars. The news comes a few days after the state released holiday guidelines that restrict gatherings to three families outdoors. Still, the overall coronavirus picture appears to be improving in California: 11 counties moved into less restrictive reopening tiers Tuesday, and none moved backward. Meanwhile, the state’s 14-day positivity rate has fallen to an all-time low of 2.6%. Intensive-care admissions are also at an all-time low and hospitalizations are at a level not seen since early April, CalMatters’ tracker shows.
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Women-owned cannabis business
launches in Southern California
Pink Haze LLC, San Diego-based cannabis lifestyle brand, announced its maiden line of premium cannabis products launching in dispensaries across Southern California this month. The brand, Pink Haze, will offer packaged indoor premium craft cannabis in flower eighths and full-flower one-gram pre-rolls; both available in three different strains – Paint the Sky, Above the Clouds, and Supermoon.
As its cultivation partner, Pink Haze tapped Clade9 Los Angeles, the 2019 recipient of the Cannabis Business Awards for Lifetime Achievement in Cultivation. Clade9 produces some of the most sought-after genetics and indoor flower popular among cannabis connoisseurs.
Founders of Pink Haze, Patty Roe and Summer Edwards, entered the cannabis industry in 2016 through a medical cannabis delivery platform, where the majority of patients were women. Roe and Edwards felt their clients deserved a higher-quality experience, in both products and community, so they changed focus from delivery to brand development and founded Pink Haze.
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Sempra Energy receives
award for diversity and inclusion
Sempra Energy’s board of directors has received the National Association of Corporate Directors’ NXT Award recognizing boards that have made transformative efforts in the areas of diversity and inclusion.
Sempra Energy received the award due to its exemplary diversity and inclusion programs held across its family of companies, according to the citation. This includes launching Community Conversations, a series of employee dialogues held in the wake of racial injustice issues this summer. These dialogues, as well as strategic guidance from Sempra Energy’s board of directors, accelerated the efforts to drive substantive and enduring change across the Sempra family of companies with a view toward ensuring every employee is valued, respected and enabled to reach their full potential.
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NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, crewmates
arrive safely at International Space Station
NASA astronaut and UC San Diego graduate Kate Rubins and two Russian cosmonauts arrived aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday, returning a medical researcher to the orbiting laboratory ahead of the 20th anniversary of uninterrupted human presence in space.
Rubins, Sergey Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov join Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, who have been aboard the complex since April.
This is the second spaceflight for Rubins and Ryzhikov and the first for Kud-Sverchkov, who will live and work aboard the outpost for six months. The trio will conduct research in technology development, Earth science, biology, human research and more.
During Rubins’ first spaceflight in 2016, she became the first person to sequence DNA in space. She earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from the University of California, San Diego, and a doctorate in cancer biology from Stanford University.
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RayzeBio announces $45 million Series A financing
RayzeBio Inc. announced today a $45 million Series A financing to advance the development of its broad pipeline of targeted radiopharmaceuticals. Co-lead investors venBio Partners and Versant Ventures were joined by Samsara BioCapital.
“The field of radiopharmaceuticals represents one of the most attractive untapped opportunities in oncology,” said Ken Song, M.D., president and CEO of RayzeBio. “We have a clear and systematic strategy to tackle this space, including key partnerships and a suite of rationally designed radiopharmaceutical medicines that can meaningfully impact outcomes for cancer patients.”
