Daily Business Report-April 26, 2021
More thn 2 million Californian missing stimulus checks
By Nigel Duara | CalMatter
Two weeks ago, a contingent of United Way staffers descended on tiny Tulelake, three miles south of the Oregon border in Siskiyou County.
Ferrying laptops, printers, scanners and wireless hotspots to the area of the state where the highest concentration of people are missing their stimulus checks, they had one goal: help residents file tax returns so they can claim the latest round of $1,400 stimulus payments.
There are 8.8 million Californians receiving state benefits who are eligible for stimulus checks, according to a study by the California Policy Lab, and more than 2 million of them don’t earn enough to need to file taxes. But without those filings, the IRS can’t reach them.
The United Way staffers were there to help bridge that divide — the so-called stimulus gap. They helped a few people on their day trip, but not as many as the nonprofit agency had hoped.
As the May 17 tax extension deadline nears, the California Policy Lab study identified at least 2.2 million low-income Californians in the stimulus gap who could miss out on $5.7 billion. The UC Berkeley researchers say at least 1.4 million within that group could miss all three rounds of stimulus checks, or as much as $3,200 per adult and an additional $2,500 per dependent.
Joan and Irwin Jacobs gift $14 million to
School of Global Policy and Strategy
Joan K. and Irwin M. Jacobs have committed to provide a $14 million endowed gift to the University of California San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. The gift will support its Center on Global Transformation (CGT), as it drives inquiry on two major transformations of the 21st century: how global economic and political structures are changing and how advances in science and technology improve policy and alter the distribution of wealth around the world.
In recognition of the gift and at the request of the Jacobs, the center will be renamed to the Peter F. Cowhey Center for Global Transformation. Cowhey has served as dean of the School of Global Policy and Strategy for nearly two decades. On June 30, 2021, he will retire to become professor emeritus.
The gift also will support the center’s efforts to develop and maintain a network of global leaders through its signature Pacific Leadership Fellows program.
San Diego Community College District student to get
federal emergency grants due to COVID-19
The San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) Board of Trustees accepted an additional $97 million of federal stimulus money being awarded to support students through the federal Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). A minimum of $38 million will be provided in direct aid payments to help students financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the remaining funds will support instructional and operational costs to help the district cover added expenses due to the crisis.
Direct aid to students will be provided for food, housing, childcare, health care, or student fees to allow students to continue with their education during the economic and health crisis. The SDCCD and San Diego City, Mesa, and Miramar colleges, and the San Diego College of Continuing Education will use the remaining funds for additional expenses incurred during the pandemic, including the costs associated with transitioning to online instruction, purchasing laptops for students, additional student support services, and impact of lost revenue.
City of San Diego launches new electric
vehicle solar-powered charging stations
The City of San Diego has launched a pilot program that will use solar power to charge the city’s electric vehicle fleet.
“The EV ARC solar EV charging stations will allow the city to take advantage of San Diego’s most plentiful natural resource and reduce emissions from city operations that harm human health and contribute to the climate crisis,” said Mayor Todd Gloria.
Through this pilot, the city is partnering with Sorrento Valley-based Beam Global, to evaluate its Electric Vehicle Autonomous Renewable Charger (EV ARC) for the next six months.
The EV ARC is designed to fit inside a 9 by 8 feet parking space and can park on top of the ballast pad so no parking area is wasted, It can fuel up to five vehicles at a time.
The pilot program contributes to one of the goals of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) by reducing emissions from the ity fleet. The CAP sets targets of increasing the share of Zero Emissions Vehicles in the municipal fleet to 90 percen by 2035. Currently, the city has 20 electric vehicles out of 4,000 in the fleet.
California lost more than 160,000 students amid the pandemic
CalMatters
California’s public schools lost more than 160,000 students amid the pandemic, the largest enrollment drop in two decades and a likely harbinger of serious educational and financial challenges.
The sharp 2.6 percent decline, announced Thursday by the California Department of Education, doesn’t capture the full effects of the pandemic. The enrollment tally comes from a one-day headcount in October and doesn’t include students who may have left the public school system afterward. But the drop is already steeper than the 155,000-student decline state officials were projecting in January. And it’s disproportionately affecting the state’s youngest students: 88 percent of the drop occurred in kindergarten to sixth grade, while public preschool enrollment fell by more than 6,000 students.
Classy raises $118 million in Series D funding
Nonprofit fundraising softwre developer Classy raised $118 million in VC funding, joining San Diego startups Flock Freight, ClickUp, Seismic, and Tealium in major funding rounds. Classy, which employs 235, plans to double the size of its engineering and product teams, accelerate product development and immedialy repay its PPP loan.
Read more…
Palomar Health Rehabilitation Institute
opens in Escondido
Kindred Healthcare LLC and Palomar Health announced the opening of Palomar Health Rehabilitation Institute, a 52-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Escondido.
Palomar Health Rehabilitation Institute is dedicated to the treatment and recovery of individuals who have experienced a loss of function due to an injury or illness. The hospital offers intensive, patient-focused, specialized rehabilitation services with specialty programs dedicated to neuro, stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury and amputation.
The hospital has all private rooms; a secured acquired brain injury unit; in-room dialysis; and large multidisciplinary therapy gymnasiums with the latest therapeutic technologies, including augmented reality balance training, therapy bionics and a full body exoskeleton. In addition, the hospital features a therapeutic courtyard with varied surfaces; and a transitional living apartment designed to simulate a residential home to prepare patients for their daily living tasks before they are discharged home. For more information about Palomar Health Rehabilitation Institute, go to www.palomarhealthrehabinstitute.com.
Melissa Floca hired to lead cross-border
initiatives at Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice
Melissa Floca has been named program officer for cross-border initiative at the University of San Diego’s Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. In this role, Floca will develop and oversee a portfolio of research and programming focused on creating a more peaceful and inclusive U.S.-Mexico border region.
Prior to joining Kroc IPJ, Floca spent eight years at UC San Diego, where she worked with the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, Mexican Migration Field Research Program and Border Solutions Alliance on issues of innovation, education, workforce development and economic competitiveness. Before moving to the border region, she worked at the Mexico City-based office of McKinsey & Co., serving clients on projects related to financial inclusion, public health and low-income housing.
She holds a BA in political science and economics from Johns Hopkins University, an MBA from Columbia Business School and a graduate diploma in International Studies from SAIS Europe.
Cannabis use disorder rate rose among
pregnant women between 2001-2012
A study of almost 5 million live births in California by researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego reports that babies born to mothers diagnosed with cannabis use disorder were more likely to experience negative health outcomes, such as preterm birth and low birth weight, than babies born to mothers without a cannabis use disorder diagnosis.
The findings are published online in the April 22, 2021 issue of the journal Addiction . The National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, funded the study.
Cannabis use disorder is a diagnostic term with specific criteria that defines continued cannabis use despite consequent, clinically significant impairments.
Kratos awarded $30 million to support space-related
national security efforts
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. has received more than $30 million to support space-related U.S. national security efforts. The follow-on awards are to previous contracts, implementing advanced technologies to provide better system performance.
“Kratos enables technological approaches and modernization that were not possible even a few years ago, but can now support this program for many years to come with the inherent flexibility to upgrade and evolve at the speed of relevance,” said Senior Vice President Frank Backes. “Kratos’ broad space portfolio is focused on technology-leading products and services that realize the DoD’s vision of data being an asset. These advanced capabilities are scalable, flexible and resilient; allowing real-time data to flow from multiple domains in support of national defense.”
