Daily Business Report: Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021
Could a conservative replace Gavin Newsom?
By Allysia Finley | | Wall Street Journal
What are the odds that California would elect a conservative Republican governor in the 2020s? Slim to none, one might have said. But that was before Larry Elder entered the room.
When the California Patriot Coalition launched an effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom in February 2020, their effort looked hopeless. It still seemed implausible in April 2021, when the secretary of state certified that the effort had enough signatures to trigger a vote. Most polls showed a majority or a substantial plurality opposing the recall, and no other high-profile Democrat entered the race to succeed Mr. Newsom if he is recalled. There was little enthusiasm for the Republicans who’d joined the race, including Caitlyn Jenner, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and John Cox, who lost to Mr. Newsom in 2018.
But suddenly it’s a contest. Ballots for the Sept. 14 vote will start being mailed in the coming weeks, and three recent polls show Mr. Newsom is vulnerable. An Inside California Politics/Emerson poll this week found that only 48 percent of registered voters would vote to keep Mr. Newsom in office while 46 percent would remove him, within the margin of error. On Wednesday Survey USA released a poll that showed Mr. Newsom losing the recall vote, 51 percent to 40 percent.
PHOTO: Conservative radio host Larry Elder. (Courtesy of Larry Elder for Governor Campaign)
Is Larry Elder an easy target for Newsom?
By Ben Christopher | CalMatters
Gov. Gavin Newsom is happy to talk about Larry Elder.
Hammering the conservative radio host turned top replacement candidate in the upcoming recall race seems to be the latest strategy from Team Newsom. For the last few weeks, the governor’s consultants and aides have been busy pumping out tweets, press releases and fundraising emails highlighting Elder’s outside-the-mainstream views on the minimum wage (Elder believes there shouldn’t be one), climate change (a “crock,” he’s said) and race relations (“racism in today’s America approaches insignificance”).
Newsom’s focus on Elder has taken some pressure off the other GOP candidates, who have so far been reluctant to go after a front-runner so popular with the party base.
Elder leads the pack of replacement candidates in the polls and has already outraised most of the competition despite entering the race at the last minute. That alone could give Newsom reason to fixate on Elder.
But there’s another reason — one that the governor stated explicitly at a digital meeting of progressive activists on Monday:
Newsom: “Why is it important to focus on Larry? Well, to put in perspective what’s at stake here. Some say he’s the most Trump of the candidates. I say he’s even more extreme than Trump.”
General Atomics celebrates shipment of world’s
most powerful magnet to ITER site in France
General Atomics marked the successful completion and shipment of the first module of the ITER Central Solenoid, the world’s most powerful pulsed superconducting magnet, with a celebration at the firm’s Magnet Technologies Center (MTC) in Poway.
The Central Solenoid is a critical component of the ITER experiment, an international collaboration of 35 nations that will demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy. Fully assembled, this massive magnet will be 59 feet tall and 14 feet in diameter, and will weigh a thousand tons. Often referred to as the “heart of the ITER facility,” it will drive 15 million amperes of electrical current that will be used to shape and control the fusion reaction.
The Central Solenoid modules are being manufactured under the direction of the US ITER project, managed by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Under the ITER agreement, all members share equally in the technology developed while funding only a portion of the total cost. The United States is contributing approximately nine percent of ITER’s total construction costs.
Guillermo ‘Gil’ Cabrera to become chair of
San Diego County Regional Airport Authority board
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has appointed Guillermo “Gil” Cabrera to serve as the next chair of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority Board of Directors, effective Aug. 16. Cabrera currently serves as a board member.
Outgoing Chair Johanna Schiavoni will remain an active member of the board moving forward.
Cabrera has practiced law in San Diego for more than 20 years and has been an engaged member of the community, serving on a number of public and private boards and commissions. His experience includes serving on the board of directors of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of San Diego and the San Diego Ethics Commission where he served for five years, two as its chair.
During his chairmanship of the Ethics Commision, it implemented a significant number of major reforms to the city’s lobbying regulations, seeking to increase transparency of lobbyist activity. Cabrera has also served on the San Diego Convention Center Board of Directors, serving as chair in 2017 and 2018. His experience includes serving on the San Diego LGBT Community Center Board of Directors, Alliance for Hope International Board of Directors, and the Sharp Health Care System Board of Directors.
Defaulted tax bills are being mailed
to over 26,000 property taxpayers
San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan McAllister announced his office will begin mailing defaulted tax bills to property owners who have prior year unpaid property taxes. “We’re sending 2,580 fewer defaulted bills than we sent last year,” said McAllister. “These numbers are a positive sign that our economy is continuing to improve.
The Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office (TTC) sent reminder notices to late taxpayers in June, warning them that they will have to pay more if their taxes go into default. Those parcels that remained unpaid will receive their defaulted bill in the coming week.
The defaulted bills total over $111 million; last year, $127 million in defaulted taxes was due. The deadline to pay the 2020-2021 annual tax bill was June 30. Per California Revenue and Taxation Code, beginning July 1, each late bill will incur a 1.5 percent penalty each month (18 percent per annum) that it remains unpaid. That is on top of the 10 percent penalty added for each late installment.
JUNO secures $3.5 million in seed funding
JUNO, a software company that connects and educates people in virtual environments year-round, has secured $3.5 million in seed funding to expand its all-in-one platform for digital engagement.
“With this funding JUNO can expand its offering to include more AI-powered, collaborative learning experiences and present more impactful data analysis to help organizations maximize participation and results,” said Josh Hotsenpiller, co-founder and CEO of JUNO.
JUNO spun out of a decade-old community software company, CrowdHub, in August 2020 and since then has helped thousands of users across five continents come together with over 30 million minutes of streamed educational content.
The funding from Jerry Murdock, co-founder of Insights Partners, and Walter Scott of TeamViewer comes as JUNO scales to meet the strong demand that has continued through the pandemic. Virtual events and online community engagement continue to grow as a sector with the massive digital transformation taking place across industries and companies.
80-unit Echo Pointe Apartments in La Mesa
acquired by The Bascom Group for $26.8 million
The Bascom Group LLC has acquired an 80-unit multifamily community, Echo Pointe Apartments in La Mesa, for $26.8 million, or $355,000 per unit.
Echo Pointe Apartments consists of large, two- and three-bedroom floorplans across 20 fourplex buildings in La Mesa.
Brightspire Capital provided the debt financing for the acquisition and was arranged by Brian Eisendrath, Cameron Chalfant, and Jake Vitta of CBRE Capital Markets. Apartment Management Consultants will provide property management services.
Spine & Sport Physical Therapy acquires
Envision Sport Physical Therapy & Pilates
San Diego-based Spine & Sport Physical Therapy has acquired Envision Sport Physical Therapy & Pilates to create a foothold in the Irvine market.
“We are excited to expand our Spine & Sport Physical Therapy team into the Orange County communities with Envision Sport,” said Brett Raasch, CEO of Spine & Sport.
“Melissa Walls and Darrin Yee have fostered a successful business since 2013 with their strong clinical care, values, culture and tremendous team.”
Spine & Sport operates 32 employee-owned outpatient physical therapy clinics. The company’s outpatient clinics provide active based treatment to patients suffering from musculoskeletal impairments associated with accidents, sports injuries, surgeries, and various other medical conditions.
Alto Pharmacy to expand into San Diego
and Austin, Texas markets
Alto Pharmacy, a patient-centric telehealth pharmacy based in San Francisco, announced that it will launch its full-service telehealth pharmacy services in San Diego and Austin, Texas this fall. The addition of these two new markets brings Alto’s total coverage area to more than 41 million people across 10 major metropolitan areas.
Alto will launch in San Diego, a market of 3.3 million people, on Aug. 16, and in Austin, a market of 2.2 million, on Nov. 15. Given the size of each market, Alto sees a combined $4 billion market opportunity. The company said this geographic expansion builds on the strong first half of 2021 for the company, during which Alto entered New York, Dallas, and Houston, surpassed 20,000 weekly prescriptions delivered, and doubled revenue from the first half of 2020.
Asteres reports 3 million ScriptCenter
locker prescription pickups in 31 states
Asteres, a San Diego company that develops ScriptCenter kiosks and lockers for the secure and convenient pickup of prescriptions and health care products, announced 3 million prescription pickups in 31 states across the U.S. and Europe. Asteres serves retail, military bases, VA facilities, employer groups and hospitals, including Mayo Clinic, Baylor Scott & White, Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic and Vanderbilt.
Over the past year, while pharmacies had to offer alternative pickup methods, Asteres has seen an increase in pickup frequency at ScriptCenter automated lockers and kiosks, expanding options for customers to pick up medications at a time convenient for them, including hours when the pharmacy is closed, the company said.
Asteres is expanding rapidly across the country and is proud to serve even more customers, supporting medication compliance and prescribed treatment plans,” said Asteres board member and former Wal-Mart executive Karim Bennis. “The future of pharmacy is here.”
SBA calls for applicants for Shuttered
Venue Operators grants
The U.S. Small Business Administration is announcing a call to all eligible Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) applicants seeking economic aid for live entertainment small businesses, nonprofits, and venues. New applications will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. PT on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. The SVOG program has so far awarded $8.4 billion in grants to more than 10,800 businesses to assist in getting the nation’s cultural institutions, which are critical to the economy and were among the first to shutter, back on track.
For more information, visit COVID-19 relief options.
