Daily Business Report: Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Electric school buses, trucks, cars and bikes coming
to San Diego school areas impacted by pollution
Students at Lincoln High School and its surrounding elementary and middle schools will soon see electric school buses, trucks, community event vehicles, and bikes in their neighborhoods under a new pilot program made possible by a $9.6 million grant awarded by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to the San Diego Unified School District.
The program aims to bring clean transportation to schools located in areas of the state most heavily impacted by pollution.
“CARB has provided more than $1 billion to clean up dirty school buses over the past two decades, and there is now more in the pipeline for zero-emission buses like these at the Lincoln cluster of schools,” said CARB Chair Liane Randolph.
The program serves the 14 schools in the Lincoln High School Cluster and includes 13 electric school buses, electric food delivery trucks, electric landscaping and maintenance equipment, an electric van and carpool vehicle, a large electric vehicle for community events, charging stations, and battery storage to support the electric buses with clean energy. The electric bikes are part of a pilot program for participating Lincoln students and staff.
The elementary, middle, and high schools in the Lincoln High School Cluster suffer from some of the worst air quality in San Diego County. The program serves students in the communities of Barrio Logan, Mountain View, Logan Heights and Lincoln Park.
PHOTOS: Electric buses and bicycles at the San Diego Unified School District.
We Need a Carbon Tax Now
Dear Editor:
As an English Teacher, I find it so immensely frustrating that the kids that I teach are going to bearing the brunt of this climate emergency and its long-term effects even more than I am. It’s so frustrating that we have the technology, but not the will, to make the change. And I worry that by the time we decide to do anything, it’ll be too late.
Personally, I believe that we need a carbon tax now. Fossil Fuel companies are subsidized by the government, and we bear an external cost are nature and our livelihoods are obliterated. A lot of the time, this isn’t even brought up. But I think it’s an essential strategy for ensuring that the future belongs to our children and not just money.
Sincerely,
Matthew Maichen
mailagent@thesoftedge.com
San Marcos
Charitable giving increased during pandemic
in areas hit hardest by COVID-19
by Christine Clark
Charitable giving increased in counties that experienced COVID-19-related deaths, according to a new study from the University of California San Diego’s Rady School of Management published in Nature’s Scientific Reports.
The findings reveal that during the study period from March to August of 2020, charitable giving increased in 78 percent of counties that experienced greater threat from COVID-19. Human services charities—organizations that help mitigate the effects of the pandemic—benefited the most from increases in generosity. These charities feed the hungry, shelter homeless, or care for the elderly or young children.
“While giving increased overall in areas affected by COVID-19, we also did not see decreases in donations to any charity categories, such as education or environmental issues,” said lead author Ariel Fridman, a PhD candidate in behavioral marketing at the Rady School. “This is surprising given that a record-high majority of Americans reported a worsening financial situation during the same time. This contradicts some prior work suggesting that when people experience such financial scarcity, they act out of their own self-interest to acquire financial wealth. For example, there was a decline in charitable giving during the 2008 financial crisis.”
Planet Based Foods forms distribution
partnership with US Foods Inc.
Planet Based Foods Global Inc. in San Diego has formed a new distribution partnership with US Foods Inc., a leading supplier of food service products throughout the United States.
The company’s popular plant-based options will be initially distributed by two of US Foods’ most important divisions, La Mirada and Corona, which supply a variety of products to restaurants, business and industry, health care and many key independent and multi-unit operators throughout the Southern California region.
Both divisions will stock The Original Burger, Mild Breakfast Sausage Patties and The Italian Sausage Crumble, while the Green Chili Southwest Burger and Hot Breakfast Sausage Patties will also be available via special order.
Planet Based Foods was founded in 2019 in San Diego with a mission to build a better food system by providing hemp-formulated superfood products.All Planet Based Foods products are 100 percent vegan.
Northrop Grumman and AT&T collaborate
to develop digital battle network
Northrop Grumman Corporation and AT&Tentered into a collaboration agreement to research and develop a digital battle network, powered by AT&T 5G and Northrop Grumman’s advanced mission systems, to support the U.S. Department of Defense.
The companies plan to deliver a cost-effective, scalable, open architecture solution that will help the DoD connect distributed sensors, shooters and data from all domains, terrains and forces – similar to how smart devices connect and share data in our everyday lives.
This digital battle network is expected to bring together the high speeds, low latency and cybersecurity protections of private 5G networks with the flexibility and scalability of AT&T’s commercial 5G capabilities and offer a critical capability to support the DoD’s vision for Joint All Domain Command and Control.
General Atomics introduces new Eagle Eye radar
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. has introduced the Eagle Eye radar, a high-performance radar system for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) that delivers high-resolution, photographic-quality imagery that can be captured through clouds, rain, dust, smoke and fog at multiple times the range of previous radars.
The new system is installed and has flown on a U.S. Army-operated Gray Eagle Extended Range UAS. Eagle Eye joins General Atomics’ line of radar products, which includes the Lynx.
Asian Egg Bank offers free fertility testing
and egg freezing to combat infertility
Asian Egg Bank in San Diego is offering free fertility testing and free egg freezing options for qualifying candidates of Asian ancestry. Donate Love Donate Eggs’ approach to educating young women about their fertility health has been in the works at Asian Egg Bank.
“The industry has become oversaturated with using a monetization approach when it comes to egg donor recruitment,” says Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Peter Fuzesi. “We wanted to change the conversation and give back to the egg donors with free fertility education and egg freezing options.”
The egg freezing cycle can cost anywhere between $6,000 to $20,000 and is generally not covered by insurance. The Donate Love Donate Eggs campaign can offer candidates a solution to freeze their eggs for free after successfully donating to Asian Egg Bank once.
Cardea Bio completes planned launch
of CRISPR QC Inc. as separate business
Cardea Bio Inc., a San Diego producer of biocompatible semiconductors, announced a significant milestone with the launch of CRISPR QC Inc. as a separate business using Cardea’s CRISPR-chip technology for a range of quality control services for CRISPR gene editing. The company said the milestone is an important move on its mission to realizing real-world applications of its Biosignal Processing Unit Platform.
After recently establishing dedicated lab facilities and office spaces, as well as completing the initial investor funding, CRISPR QC is now ready to offer analysis services for R&D groups in therapeutics, animal breeding, plant biology, and academics in need of advanced insights to their CRISPR efforts.
New appliance repair company opens in San Diego
Asurion Appliance Repair has opened an office in San Diego to provide in-home repairs of major appliance brands including Whirlpool, Samsung, GE, Electrolux and more. The company says its personnel are able to complete many repairs in a single visit.
“Whether it’s a broken ice maker, a freezer that stops freezing or a washer that leaks, our appliance repair experts can help,” said Anthony Zarco, manager.
San Diego-area customers can call to schedule an appliance repair or book an appointment online. A technician will arrive at the home to complete the repair as soon as the next day. Service visits include a $99 diagnostic fee, which is waived when Asurion Appliance Repair is hired to fix an appliance.
Visit appliance-repair.asurion.com
Surglogs launches new instrument tracking
system for health care facilities
Surglogs, a Coronado software platform that digitizes regulatory compliance processes for health care organizations, has launched a new module called Sterile Processing Records that trcks sterilization loads for health care facilities of all types.
With this new module, sterile processing department staff can easily keep records of the sterilization and storage of all of their instruments in an easily retrievable digital format. Using Surglogs’ web platform or its Android and iOS apps, health care workers can now save and view compliance reports for tests, indicators, and custom cycles as medical supplies pass through the sterile processing department at a hospital or ambulatory surgery center.
The Sterile Processing Records module couples with Surglogs’ flagship module, Surgical Logs. This is especially helpful to facilities that currently have an instrument tracking solution but could use a tool to manage quality control and all audits such as tracers or tosi tests.
SDSU School of Public Health draws top 20 ranking
San Diego State University’s School of Public Health, which participated in the forefront of the County of San Diego’s COVID-19 testing, prevention and mitigation efforts, is No. 19 in new rankings of the nation’s best graduate programs by U.S. News & World Report.
The College of Education received a first-ever ranking of No. 26 in educational administration, a category that encompasses its graduate program in educational leadership, and the college itself rose to No. 52 overall in the publication’s 2023 Best Graduate Schools.
The College of Engineering’s aerospace engineering program climbed into the top 50 of its list, released March 29.
The ranking for the School of Public Health, founded in 1981 and part of the College of Health and Human Services, is up from No. 31 last year. The school offers master’s degrees in environmental health, epidemiology, health promotion and behavioral science, and health management and policy, and was one of 190 schools assessed by U.S. News for the 2023 rankings.
