Daily Business Report: Monday, Nov. 29, 2021
Outgunned: Why California’s
groundbreaking firearms law is failing
By Robert Lewis | CalMatters
Two decades ago, California legislators added a new weapon to the state’s growing arsenal of gun-control measures, already among the toughest in the nation. Their motivation came from 2,000 miles away in a shaken Chicago suburb.
It was there that a gunman open fire in an engine factory where he’d worked for nearly 40 years. He killed four people and wounded four others before pulling the trigger on himself. It was soon revealed that some of the weapons he smuggled inside should have been earlier confiscated because of his pas criminal conviction.s
In the wake of the rampage and with lofty expectations. California became the first state in the country to create a database identifying thousands of people who’d legally purchased guns but were now deemed too dangerous to be armed.
In a rare display of bipartisanship, — especially on an issue as fractious as gun control — The California Legislature wanted to give state and local authorities a methodical way to remove firearms from individuals who’d lost the right to bear them because of violent crimes, serios mental health issues or active restraining orders.
But what seemed at the time like a straight-forward approach to the enforcement of existing gun laws has instead become mired in chronic shortcomings, failing for years to make good on its potential. Successive administrations have vowed to fix the problems, but all have fallen short.
Kratos receives initial production order
for high-performance jet engines
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. has received an initial production order for a new, affordable, high performance jet engine for an aerial vehicle application from a national security related customer.
Kratos is currently under contract from several government and other national security related customers for the development of next generation, affordable, high performance turbojet, turbofan, and other engine types for unmanned aerial system (UAS) aircraft, cruise missiles, powered munitions, and other related leading technology systems.
Work under this new, initial production order will be performed at a secure Kratos manufacturing facility.
American Indian studies lecturer named
to California Native American Heritage Commission
Stanley Rodriguez, a lecturer in American Indian studies at Cal State San Marcos, has been appointed to the California Native American Heritage Commission by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Rodriguez was one of six appointments announced by Newsom last month. Five of them were to the Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC).
The NAHC is a nine-member body created in 1976 that identifies, catalogs and protects Native American cultural resources – ancient places of special religious or social significance to Native Americans and known ancient graves and cemeteries of Native Americans on private and public lands in California.
Rodriguez, 63, of Santa Ysabel, has been a lecturer at CSUSM since 2017. He also has been director of Kumeyaay Community College since 2018, Kumeyaay language instructor at Kumeyaay Community College since 2005, and instructor and adviser at the Navy Drug and Alcohol Counselor School since 1995.
Rodriguez served as an E-5 in the U.S. Navy from 1985 to 1991.
Sister Cities Project launches a digital
marketing agency for black youth
On Tuesday, Sister Cities Project will be running the second cohort of its Digital Marketing Workforce Training Program called the (Eco)Agency. The (Eco)Agency is one part of an ecosystem of programming aimed at lifting communities of color through economic empowerment, racial equality and cultural understanding.
That ecosystem includes job creation through the (Eco)Agency, small business growth through a private online community for Black women entrepreneurs called the (Eco)Hub and the affluent and underserved community partnership discussions called (Eco)Exchanges.
The SCP (Eco)Agency will provide Black youth ages 18 to 24 the opportunity to start a career in digital marketing through comprehensive training and hands-on learning experiences. For their first 90 days, these local youth will provide services for small businesses in Southeastern San Diego, one of the most underserved communities in San Diego County.
Their final 90 days will be spent providing services in some of the most affluent communities in San Diego county, including Del Mar, Solana Beach, Carmel Valley and Encinitas through partnerships with the Chambers of Commerce in those areas.
SDSU expands support, study of
family child care providers
In refugee and immigrant communities across San Diego County, family child care providers are an indispensable part of daily life. These licensed small businesses — typically based in private homes and run by women — often provide culturally and linguistically responsive child care services to hardworking parents, many of whom have been essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thanks to a new $245,000 grant from the Blue Shield Foundation, San Diego State University’s Center for Excellence in Early Development (CEED) is expanding its role in empowering these important community fixtures while informing statewide policy on the child care sector.
For the past three years, SDSU and nonprofit partners Chicano Federation, Horn of Africa and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) — with funding from Price Philanthropies and The San Diego Foundation — have run Steps to Family Child Care Success (STEPS), a program that studies and supports providers in the Somali refugee community in City Heights and the Latinx immigrant communities in City Heights and Barrio Logan.
Scripps research scientist receives
Katz Early Stage Investigator award
Scripps Research staff scientist Daniel Murin has been named a recipient of the Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Murin is the very first recipient of this award in the United States since the opportunity was announced in January 2021.
The highly regarded R01 grant, which will provide $1.25 million in funding over five years, will support Murin’s research studying how antibodies enable Natural Killer (NK) cells of our innate immune system to target HIV, for which the precise mechanisms remain unclear. The knowledge attained will form guiding principles to engineer HIV antibody therapeutics and vaccines aimed at eliciting more potent immune responses.
“This award is a turn in the tide for young investigators and a sign that the NIH is following through with many of the initiatives that they began in previous years,” says Murin. “I am proud to be able to share this award with Scripps Research and continue to be part of the growing, world-class research environment here.”
Cal State San Marcos receives
$200,000 gift to expand nursing program
Cal State San Marcos has received a $200,000 gift from the Henry L. Guenther Foundation that the university is putting toward its nursing simulation and skills labs in San Marcos and Temecula.
The funding will be used to equip three lab complexes with advanced technology and equipment, including virtual reality, simulation manikins and industry-standard instruments that will mirror real health care settings.
According to Wendy Hansbrough, director of the university’s School of Nursing, the program utilized the funds where they saw the most need. This includes updated IV infusion pumps and syringe pumps, new vital signs machines, simulation pads, simulation capture audio/visual system for simulation rooms, equipment that will help students learn better ways to do health assessments on newborns and more.
Regulus Therapeutics announces
private placement of equity
Regulus Therapeutics Inc., a San Diego biopharmaceutical company, announced that it has entered into a definitive securities purchase agreement in connection with a private placement to certain institutional investors and other accredited investors. The financing was led by the Federated Hermes Kaufmann Funds and New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from other new and existing investors.
Upon the closing of the financing, which is anticipated to occur on or about Nov. 30, 2021, the company expects to receive gross proceeds of approximately $34.6 million. The closing of the financing is subject to customary closing conditions.
SVB Leerink is acting as the lead placement agent for the financing. H.C. Wainwright & Co. is acting as a co-placement agent for the financing.
MG Properties Group acquires
Maris at Martinez apartments
MG Properties Group, a private San Diego-based real estate investor and operator, is expanding its presence in the Bay Area with the acquisition of Maris at Martinez, formerly known as Terra Martinez. Located in the East Bay hills, the 168-unit community offers a location off State Route 4, connecting it to shopping, dining, and recreation options. The class B property was constructed in 1985.
State stem cell agency awards $4 million
for blood cancer immunotherapy at UCSD
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine governing board has approved a $4.1 million grant to enable University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers to advance a new chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy from the laboratory into the clinic.
In this type of cancer therapy, a patient’s own T-cells, a type of immune cell, are collected from a blood draw and genetically modified in the lab so that they can recognize proteins on tumor cells. After infusion back into the patient, the CAR T-cells kill the targeted cancer cells.
The work will be led by principal investigator Ezra Cohen, M.D., professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine, and Charles Prussak, director of the Cell Therapy Translational Laboratory at Moores Cancer Center.
Snapdragon Developer Kit for Windows PCs
now available as cost-effective resource
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announces commercial availability of the Snapdragon Developer Kit for Windows on Snapdragon PCs. First debuted during the company’s
Virtual Announcement this summer, the Snapdragon Developer Kit is an ultra-small and cost-effective device built for independent software and application vendors to test and validate their solutions.
With this resource, Qualcomm Technologies and Microsoft lower the barrier to entry for ISVs committed to optimizing their application experience on the growing portfolio of Always On, Always Connected PCs (ACPCs). This unit will help advance the Windows on Snapdragon ecosystem and, in turn, enable superior experiences for end users as applications leverage the full capabilities of Snapdragon compute platforms.
