Daily Business Report: Tuesday, July 12, 2022
San Diego nonprofit mapping coastlines fouled by plastic
OpenOceans Global announced its launch of an online application allowing citizens to map coastlines around the world that are pervasively fouled by plastic. The goal is to visualize where marine plastic ends up, identify the source, and match the best solutions to stop the flow of plastic to the ocean.
“Public perception is that most ocean plastic gathers in five gyres in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans,” said Carl Nettleton, OpenOceans Global founder. “The surprising truth is that approximately two-thirds of ocean plastic is on the world’s coastlines. Furthermore, leading studies report most ocean plastic reaches the sea via rivers. Once pervasively-fouled coastlines are mapped, the scope of the problem can be visualized, the source of the plastic can be determined, and solutions can be implemented.”
To find and map fouled coastlines, the organization is using geographic information system (GIS) mapping software and other technologies provided by Esri. Esri’s mission is to “pioneer problem-solving with GIS to help you see what others can’t.” OpenOceans Global is unveiling its ocean plastic trash map, as well as an app for citizen scientists to map plastic-fouled beaches in conjunction with Esri’s annual conference in San Diego from July 11-15, 2022, at the San Diego Convention Center.
Online app to report plastic-fouled beaches
Categorized solutions to ocean plastic issues
Top photo: Coastlines like this one at Kuta Beach in Bali, Indonesia, can be found around the world. OpenOceans Global is seeking to locate these plastic-fouled coastlines to document the scope of the ocean plastic crisis. (Image credit: Shutterstock/Maxim Blinkov)
Cannabis company Element 7 opens new store in Chula Vista
Element 7 continued to expand its retail footprint across California this week the opening of its newest location in Chula Vista.
Element 7’s Chula Vista store expands the cannabis company’s footprint further into Southern California from its existing 11 cannabis operations in the Central Valley and Northern California. Chula Vista is the nation’s 7th fastest growing city which positions Element 7 for tremendous growth in this market. Positioned adjacent to major big-box retailers, Element 7 has high expectations for the store and how it will further resonate with the local Chula Vista and San Diego customer base.
The store will be managed by Element 7’s expanding retail team and will feature a range of brands and products from some of the state’s largest, and smallest, cultivators and manufacturers.
“The support and feedback we have had from customers has been overwhelming – they love the store vibe, our great customer service, and the all-inclusive pricing structure,” said CEO Robert DiVito. “There is no bill-shock at Element 7 – the prices on the shelf are the prices out the door which is important in today’s changing market and economy.”
Little Blue Penguins exhibit opens at Birch Aquarium
Beyster Family Little Blue Penguins officially opens at 9 a.m. today at Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Birch Aquarium is hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony from 8:30-9 a.m. Inside the exhibit, guests will come face-to-face with Little Blue Penguins as they waddle, swim and glide about their new home. This new attraction brings the world’s smallest penguins to Southern California for the first time.
The 2,900-square-foot habitat — made possible by philanthropic support from the Beyster Family — features an 18,000-gallon penguin lagoon, multiple cozy burrows, a sandy beach, and native plants that mimic the coast of New Zealand and Australia. Beyster Family Little Blue Penguins puts the spotlight on these fascinating seabirds, bringing attention to the important role they play in our ecosystems both in the ocean and on land.
There will be opening remarks by executive director Harry Helling, and vice chancellor for marine sciences and director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography Margaret Leinen.
Judge M. Margaret McKeown to receive prestigious
American Inns of Court Professionalism Award
Judge M. Margaret McKeown has been selected to receive the prestigious 2022 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Ninth Circuit. Chief Judge Mary H. Murguia will present the award to McKeown during the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference July 17-21 in Big Sky, Montana. McKeown has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1998.
Victoria Fuller, vice president and president-elect of the San Diego Appellate American Inn of Court, nominated McKeown for the award on behalf of the Inn. McKeown played a key role in launching the San Diego Appellate Inn in 2016. Formerly a judicial master for the Lewis M. Welsh American Inn of Court in San Diego, she is now judicial master for the Appellate Inn.
Moore, Schulman & Moore opens its
San Diego family law practice
Moore, Schulman & Moore APC has opened a tech-savvy office in San Diego “to meet the demands of practicing law in the 21st century.” From ultra high-speed Internet access to Bose speakers, and state of the art cameras and microphones, the office makes the best of technology available to its clients with user-friendly interfaces, says founding partner David Schulman.
The new tech savvy office is the perfect compliment to the award-winning lawyers who have been practicing law for more two decades at Moore, Schulman & Moore.
The Certified Family Law Specialists provide time-tested efficient guidance for family law matters such as divorce, custody schedules and prenuptial agreements.
From mediation to complex litigation their team of skilled attorneys can guide clients through whatever legal issues they might face.
The award-winning San Diego divorce lawyers have generations of experience and board-certified attorneys.
Their recognitions include Super Lawyers, AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated Law Firm, SDCBA 100 Percent Club, and San Diego Top Attorneys.
Chuck Reiter joins CBRE as a senior vice president
Chuck Reiter has joined CBRE’s San Diego office as a senior vice president, partnering with Ryan Grant and Jeff Oesterblad to lease Class A office buildings Downtown and in other high-profile San Diego neighborhoods on behalf of landlords and investors.
Reiter brings more than 16 years of multi-tenant office leasing experience to CBRE.
Before joining CBRE, he served as a leasing director for Irvine Company Office Properties, where he was responsible for leasing and marketing strategies for the company’s 32 million square feet of office properties in Orange County.
At Irvine Company, Reiter participated in leasing the company’s Orange County portfolio and was directly responsible for leasing and marketing Newport Gateway, UCI Research Park, and Market Place Center, among others.
Since 2017, he has executed approximately 4.6 million square feet in leases, averaging more than 100 transactions per year and working with high-profile tenants in the interactive entertainment, higher education, nonprofit, technology, energy and financial services industries.
James M. Cox Foundation awards $500,000
grant to Sharp Health Care Foundation
To help transform health care in San Diego, the James M.Cox Foundation has awarded Sharp Health Care Foundation a $500,000 grant for its technology immersion lab at the future Prebys Innovation an Education Center in Kearny Mesa. The James M. Cox Foundation is the charitable arm of Cox Enterprises, the parent company of Cox Communications.
The Prebys Innovation Center and Education Center’s five simulation labs is where nurses and other medical caregivers will learn technical acute and soft skills.
The simulation rooms will provide hands-on training to prepare workers for an ICU environment and simulate the chaotic nature of an emergency room.
The Foundations of Sharp Health Care support Sharp’s respected regional medical centers and specialty hospitals through philanthropic investment and collaboration.,
Sapient receives $9.2 million grant from
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Sapient, a San Diego biomarker discovery organization focused on rapid, large-scale biomarker profiling, has been awarded a new grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to use its rapid liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based platforms for population-scale discovery metabolomics analysis in broad support of the foundation’s programs across maternal, newborn, and child health, nutrition, and vaccine development, among other priority research areas. A large portion of the $9.2 million grant will provide bioanalytical capacity for studies aimed at identifying metabolic pathways and biomarkers to inform novel nutritional, disease-prevention, and disease-treatment interventions for health issues that disproportionately affect women and infants in developing countries.
K2 Parametric partners with Homesite
to write natural catastrophic coverage
San Diego-based K2 Parametric Insurance Services LLC, a subsidiary of K2 Insurance Services LLC, is announced their first capacity relationship with Homesite Underwriting Managers LLC, the program business unit for Homesite Insurance Group, which has a Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) from AM Best. Under the partnership, K2 Parametric will be able to offer commercial Parametric Natural Catastrophe polices for U.S. earthquake and hurricane risks with limits up to $10 million per policy.
A Parametric Insurance policy provides payment based on the location and intensity of a natural catastrophe event. Coverage can be customized to an insured’s specific geographic needs. Upon triggering, the policy responds quickly, in as little as 30 days, and the proceeds can be used for any economic costs not covered by other insurance or recoveries.
Aethlon Medical announces FDA approval
of Hemopurifier COVID-19 study amendment
Aethlon Medical Inc., a San Diego medical therapeutic company focused on developing products to diagnose and treat cancer and life threatening infectious diseases, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an amendment to the protocol of its ongoing clinical trial investigating the Aethlon Hemopurifier for patients with severe COVID-19. The newly approved protocol amendment eliminates the inclusion criteria that patients must have a dialysis catheter in place and have tolerated dialysis at the time of screening.
The Aethlon Hemopurifier is a therapeutic blood filtration system that can bind and remove life-threatening viruses and harmful exosomes from blood. Aethlon is currently evaluating the safety and feasibility of the Hemopurifier in an active Early Feasibility Study.
