Daily Business Report-Oct. 27, 2020
A General Atomics SkyGuardian drone is pictured at a 2018 air show in the United Kingdom. (Image via Shutterstock)
Drone test flight moved out of San Diego
following safety concerns
By Jesse Marx | Voice of San Diego
A military-grade drone project that will help open up U.S skies to new forms of surveillance was scheduled to take flight over San Diego earlier this year, but the company rerouted its path after encountering resistance from federal regulators.
Last week, the U.S. attorney’s office confirmed as part of a Voice of San Diego lawsuit that General Atomics, a local defense contractor, would need to reapply for permission if it wants to test the SkyGuardian over the densely populated metro in the future. The drone originally slated for the San Diego demonstration instead flew in the desert in early April.
A spokesman for General Atomics, C. Mark Brinkley, said the company still managed to complete its objectives by picking a different route. “With the flight complete, there was no need for a flight over San Diego, so we canceled it,” he wrote in an email.
General Atomics is repurposing its drone technology, developed primarily for the U.S. Air Force during the war on terror, for both domestic and international uses. The company has portrayed the integration of its drones into American public and commercial life as a civilian project — a “persistent eye in the sky” for planners and emergency responders.
Yet newly released court documents suggest that General Atomics intended to use the San Diego flight to impress foreign military diplomats, months before the Trump administration loosened restrictions on international arms sales.
Hundreds of pages of emails also show that regulators had safety concerns about the drone and expressed frustration over the timeline they’d been given.
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Manchester Financial Group receives $212 million loan
for development of Navy’s Region Southwest HQ
Funds managed by Brevet Capital, a specialty finance provider with a focus on the government sector, announced the successful completion of a $212 million term loan provided to Manchester Financial Group L.P., a San Diego-based hotel and commercial real estate developer.
Proceeds of the loan were used to finance the development and construction costs of the U.S. Navy’s Region Southwest Headquarters located at Manchester Pacific Gateway, a three million-square-foot mixed-use development with office, hotel, and retail accommodations that Manchester Financial says would transform San Diego’s waterfront and port district into an iconic destination that will drive local economic growth and expansion. The Navy is moving into its new headquarters in October 2020.
The Gateway project, which recently announced plans to develop a significant life sciences hub within the master plan, is expected to contribute more than 4,000 permanent jobs, $50 million in annual taxes and fees, and over $15 billion in economic benefits.
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California Democrats swamp Republicans
in early voter turnout
By Dylan Svoboda | CalMatters
With more than a quarter of the ballots processed, early returns show California Democrats are turning out in proportionately far higher numbers than Republicans and independents.
About 32 percent of registered Democrats — upwards of 3.2 million — have already voted in the November general election, according to Political Data’s ballot tracker. In comparison, 23 percent of Republicans and 21 percent of independents have had their ballots processed as of Thursday evening. Nearly 650,000 more Democrats have voted than Republicans and independents combined.
It’s a trend seen across the country, according to Eric McGhee, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. McGhee said this election cycle experts are seeing “signs that the Democrats are more amenable to voting early and by mail than Republicans are.”
That might have to do with recent claims by Trump regarding absentee voting, McGhee said. The president has repeatedly and fraudulently characterized mail-in voting as rigged while encouraging Republicans to vote in-person. McGhee expects Republicans will turn out in greater numbers come Nov. 3.
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California praised for recent handling of pandemic
As COVID-19 cases surge alarmingly around the nation, California is in its own zone. And it’s a better place than it was.
Fourteen states, including Kansas and North Dakota, recently set records for the number of patients needing to be hospitalized, but California’s hospitalizations have declined.
So, too, have the state’s daily confirmed new case counts, dropping from July and August peaks of more than 12,000 to a 14-day rolling average of 3,280 as of Oct. 21.
California “holds a lesson for all of us,” Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, recently tweeted, praising “strong leadership” from Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s health and human services chief, Dr. Mark Ghaly.
Jha credited the state’s “huge boost” in testing and county-by-county “micro-targeting” as “smart policies” that have helped control the virus. California has averaged nearly 124,000 COVID-19 tests each day for the past two weeks.
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Helix receives expanded emergency use
authorization for COVID-19 test
Helix, a genomics company with a location in San Diego, announced that it received an expanded Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the Helix COVID-19 Test. With this expansion, individuals can now self-collect their samples without the supervision of a health care professional. Additionally, the test is now indicated for use in asymptomatic individuals for screening or population-based testing.
By eliminating the need for a health care professional to oversee collection, as is currently required with most COVID-19 tests, organizations using the Helix COVID-19 Test will have significantly more flexibility in how they stand-up and operate testing sites and collection centers, the company said. This also helps to reduce collection costs and address shortages in clinical staffing across the country to ensure those resources are directed to where they are needed most.
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Cubic appoints David A. Whelan
as senior VP and chief scientist
Cubic Corporation announced the appointment of David A. Whelan, Ph.D., NAE as senior vice president and chief scientist where he will be responsible for establishing product line technical strategies and engineering excellence to drive the company’s overall growth strategy. Whelan will collaborate with Cubic’s innovation, strategic, business and technical leaders to produce customer-centric, innovative and cost-effective technical solutions for new and improved products to enhance Cubic’s technology portfolio.
Throughout his career, Whelan has successfully led and directed cross-functional portfolios of multi-billion-dollar projects in both the public and private sectors. He has transitioned technologies to enable breakthrough artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned submarines, space-based surveillance and robotic satellite servicing. He has also contributed to applied research in quantum technologies for miniature atom-based clocks, computing, gravimetry and inertial sensing, enabling the resilient navigation/positioning/timing of multiple GPS systems.
Prior to Cubic, Whelan served as the vice president of engineering and chief technologist for Boeing where he created growth strategies, oversaw profit and loss and guided research and development budgets for new products.
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USD professor’s new book aims to separate
myth from reality in U.S. immigration debate
A new book by Greg Prieto, Ph.D., aims to cut through common narratives and half-truths that surround the immigration debate and provide a short, fact-based primer on immigration in the U.S. “Myth and Reality in the U.S. Immigration Debate” (Routledge) gives readers a sense of the empirical reality and history behind immigration so that they can enter the debate with both facts and heart.
“The constant drum of social media and the day-to-day news cycles can make it hard for the average person to feel informed about immigration,” said Prieto, an associate professor of sociology at the University of San Diego. “Arming people with clear and concise knowledge about the actual effect of immigration on society is critical so people can make informed choices in November and beyond.”
In a short 80 pages, Prieto seeks to boil down the essential dimensions of the immigration debate, sharing key insights that typically stay siloed within academia and making them accessible to a broader audience.
The book’s chapters look at the enforcement and public policy sides of immigration, provide a brief history in the U.S., debunk common myths, show how collective political choices have created the current system, and address the racial overtones that surround the immigration debate.
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Truvian Sciences announces
submission of COVID-19 Antibody Test
Truvian Sciences, a health care company, announced its submission of the Easy Check COVID-19 IgM/IgG Point-of-Care (POC) Antibody Test to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization. Additionally, the company released clinical study data for the Easy Check POC Antibody Test with a fingerstick sample, and reported the test’s completion of the Section IV.D notification process under FDA’s Policy for Coronavirus Disease-2019 tests during the public health emergency.
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The Sully Band to stage live virtual fundraiser
concert to benefit MD Anderson Cancer Center
The Sully Band, recently named “Best Live Performer” at the 2020 San Diego Music Awards, will stage a live virtual fundraising concert on Thursday at 7:30 pm at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. The concert can be viewed at bellyuplive.com/sully and is free to watch. To help MC the event, well known on-air personalities, Little Tommy and Russ T. Nailz, will be in attendance along with Susan Taylor (formerly of NBC News) on behalf of the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The Sully Band is partnering with The B.A.G Networking, an established 501c3 Non-Profit professional networking group that promotes business, charity, and philanthropy within the San Diego, Orange, and Riverside County communities, on this event. The goal is to help raise funds that would have been raised at B.A.G. Networking’s annual large-scale fundraiser “Carnival Against Cancer.” This event through the years has collected over $35,000 for the new Scripps MD Anderson Cancer Center. This year it had to be canceled due to Covid-19.
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Ally Welborn joins Reality Changers
Ally Welborn recently joined Reality Changers as its new marketing and communications manager.
Welborn comes to Reality Changers from The San Diego River Park Foundation where she managed the Community Engagement Program.
She has a B.S. in Ecology from UC San Diego and is currently volunteering as the board president for the Normal Heights Community Association.
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Grocer ALDI to open first Poway store
ALDI, a leader in the grocery industry, will open its first store in Poway as part of its national expansion plan to become the third-largest U.S. grocery retailer by store count by the end of 2022.
The new store 13440 Poway Road opens onWednesday, Nov. 4, at 8 a.m. The Poway store will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
“We are dedicated to providing the communities we serve the best groceries at the lowest-possible prices, and we look forward to introducing Poway to their new neighborhood grocery store,” said Tom Cindel, Moreno Valley Group director of operations and logistics for ALDI. “We are focused on continuing to expand and open new stores across the country because we want to do our part. We know now, more than ever, easy access to fresh food and household essentials is invaluable.”
This year ALDI has integrated several new safety features in all its stores across the country. The health and safety of customers and employees are the company’s top priorities, and ALDI optimizes its stores to provide the cleanest and safest shopping environment possible.
