Daily Business Report: Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Can Kevin Faulconer run for governor without the gimmicks?
By Ben Christopher | CalMatters
Kevin Faulconer is not the guy with the bear.
You’re thinking of John Cox, the mild-mannered Republican and unsuccessful 2018 gubernatorial candidate who spent much of May palling around the state with a 1,000-pound Kodiak named Tag, hoping to siphon off some of the bear’s starpower in his effort to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom in the all-but-certain recall election that could be as soon as September.
Faulconer is also not the Kardashian-adjacent, Olympian-turned-reality TV star whose campaign highlights include gabbing with Sean Hannity, selling merch and claiming, despite documented evidence, that she didn’t vote in the last election. That, of course, would be Caitlyn Jenner.
Nor is he the get-rich-quick YouTube star who insists he is “not a stalker” (that’s a different Kevin — Kevin “Meet Kevin” Paffrath). Nor the pink Corvette-driving 1970s billboard model (Angelyne). Nor the porn star (Mary Carey).
No, Faulconer is the other one.
A Republican former mayor of San Diego, he governed that once Republican but now reliably blue coastal city as a pro-immigrant, climate-change-believing, bilingual urbanist. He touts endorsements from the traditional quarters of state GOP leadership.
And he really wants you to take the recall election seriously.
So far, Faulconer has tried to make waves in a way that almost seems quaint in 2021: by releasing policy proposals.
PHOTO: Republican gubernatorial candidate Kevin Faulconer speaks during a news conference in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, 2021. (Photo by Jae C. Hong, AP)
ecoATM Gazelle raises $75 million of growth
capital to drive global smartphone access
ecoATM Gazelle, a San Diego company that recycles cell phones and tablets, has raised $75 million of new growth equity from existing investor Cowen Sustainable Advisors to accelerate the company’s global expansion and support product extensions to meet fast-growing demand for the purchase and re-sale of used smartphones. The company is majority-owned by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management Inc.
The investment will be used to:
• Build and deploy thousands of automated retail fulfillment kiosks across the US, Europe and Asia.
• Accelerate deployment of AI-enabled omni-channel mobile, web, and fintech retail product extensions to continue delivering customer convenience, environmental sustainability, and social impact.
• Support new market launches with increased multi-channel marketing campaigns and operational investments.
The company said that, June 2021, ecoATM reached 28 million smartphone and mobile device re-commerce units, indicative of the growing and critical demand for technology recycling.
Cal State San Marcos literature professor
rides ‘Weird Westerns’ to prestigious honor
By Brian Hiro | Cal State San Marcos
Rebecca Lush can thank pure happenstance for the latest honor of her scholarly career.
As a longtime professor of literature and writing studies at Cal State San Marcos, Lush is a member of the Western Literature Association and a past president of the organization. During the WLA’s annual conference in 2015 in Reno, Nev., she engaged in the standard hallway conversations with many colleagues from other universities, and in the process discovered that a few of them share her fascination with an increasingly popular sub-genre known as the weird Western.
They agreed that it would make a ripe subject for a book, and over the next few years Lush and her co-editors collaborated on what became “Weird Westerns: Race, Gender, Genre,” an essay collection that was published last summer by University of Nebraska Press.
Now, nearly a year after the book’s publication, Lush has an opportunity for an even bigger prize. “Weird Westerns” has been nominated for the Locus Awards as one of 10 finalists in the category of best nonfiction work. The Locus Awards are among the most prestigious in the area of science fiction writing, recognizing everything from bestselling authors to academic texts. They are presented by the Locus Science Fiction Foundation, which produces Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field.
Lush will find out if her book won on June 26 during a virtual Locus Awards event, but she already feels like a winner.
World’s largest outdoor earthquake
simulator undergoes major upgrade
A major upgrade to the world’s largest outdoor earthquake simulator reached a milestone mid-April when the facility’s floor–all 300,000 lbs of it–was put back into place. When completed this fall, the simulator will have the ability to reproduce multi-dimensional earthquake motions with unprecedented accuracy to make structures and their residents safer during strong shakes.
The simulator, or shake table, will be able to test the world’s heaviest and tallest structures to gauge how well they would withstand various types of earthquakes. The shake table will be equipped with the ability to reproduce all the six possible movements of the ground, known as six degrees of freedom. The first test following the upgrade will feature a full-scale, 10-story, cross-laminated timber building.
“This facility will save a large number of human lives by making the places we live and work in safer during earthquakes,” said Joel Conte, the shake table’s principal investigator and a professor of structural engineering at the University of California San Diego. Conte and colleagues lay out the details of the upgrade in a paper published in January 2021 in Frontiers in Built Environment.
Scripps Research collaborates with The Rockefeller
Foundation on digital COVID-19 surveillance
Scientists at the Scripps Research Digital Trials Center are collaborating with The Rockefeller Foundation to expand efforts to create a sensor-based early warning system for COVID-19 and other viral outbreaks. Efforts will center on expanding and refining Scripps Research’s ongoing DETECT study, which has already enrolled more than 38,000 participants across the United States.
Bolstered by a new grant from The Rockefeller Foundation, the DETECT team will expand outreach efforts to further increase participation, with a primary focus on underrepresented and high-risk communities across San Diego County.
The scientists also received support in the form of computing credits from the Amazon Web Services Diagnostic Development Initiative
The app-based DETECT study, launched in March 2020, uses sensor data from smartwatches and activity trackers of consenting participants to gain new insights into physiological and behavioral changes associated with viral illness—and more recently, physiological response to vaccines. The team’s goal is to detect COVID-19 or other illnesses before symptoms appear.
General Atomics acquires Synopta GmbH
General Atomics (GA) announced the acquisition of Synopta GmbH. Synopta is a leader in the development and production of complex opto-electronic instrumentation for space and terrestrial applications.
“Synopta’s pioneering expertise and innovative developments in communication, beam control, pointing assemblies, and stationary and transportable optical ground systems will supplement the diverse portfolio of laser communications, sensors, and ground systems which enable delivery of dependable solutions to government and other customers,” said Scott Forney, president of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Group. “Synopta will continue to serve its European customer base but will expand now also to customers in the United States and other countries, while contributing to GA’s systems and strategic objectives. Under its new name General Atomics Synopta GmbH, the company will form a technical center of excellence within the General Atomics group of companies.”
Founded in 2004 in Eggersriet, Switzerland, Synopta develops opto-electronic instrumentation and provides strategic and technical consultancy services. Synopta’s customers include a wide range of European organizations, national agencies, and international corporations active in the fields of defense, space, and capital goods.
‘Bad Fat’ suppresses killer T cells from attacking cancer
In order for cancer to grow and spread, it has to evade detection by our immune cells, particularly specialized “killer” T cells. Salk researchers led by Professor Susan Kaech have found that the environment inside tumors (the tumor microenvironment) contains an abundance of oxidized fat molecules, which, when ingested by the killer T cells, suppresses their ability to kill cancer cells. In a vicious cycle, those T cells, in need of energy, increase the level of a cellular fat transporter, CD36, that unfortunately saturates them with even more oxidized fat and further curtails their anti-tumor functions.
The discovery, published online in Immunity on June 7, 2021, suggests new pathways for safeguarding the immune system’s ability to fight cancer by reducing the oxidative lipid damage in killer T cells. Identifying factors like these that cause immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment can lead to the development of novel immunotherapies for cancer.
Ascent extends scholarship program
access to millions of students
Ascent Funding announced the launch of its third annual 50 Days of $1,000 Scholarships Giveaways plus more scholarship opportunities launching this summer.
Students, including international and DACA status students studying at U.S.-based colleges, universities, bootcamps, and accelerated learning programs, can now enter for a chance to win Ascent’s 50 Days of $1,000 Scholarships through Aug. 20, 2021. A new scholarship will be posted on Ascent’s Instagram pageevery weekday this summer. Students will be asked to share feedback on topics ranging from financial wellness, budgeting, applying for jobs, and have the opportunity to submit original creative pieces such as memes, photos, and short videos.
To enter Ascent’s 50 Days of $1,000 Scholarships and Community Champions Scholarships, students do not need an Ascent loan to participate and will have multiple chances to win. For more information, visit AscentFunding.com/Summer-of-Scholarships-2021.
