Daily Business Report: Aug. 23, 2022
Dial 988: State’s new mental health crisis hotline
By Jocelyn Wiener | CalMatters
People experiencing mental health crises need to remember just three numbers to dial for help: 988.
The new federal number — which debuted in California and across the country in July — is billed as an alternative to 911 for people experiencing mental health emergencies. Here, advocates say the shortcut will make it simpler for people in crisis to tap into the state’s network of 13 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline call centers.
The plan has been in the works for nearly two years.
In October 2020, then President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan bill to establish 988 as a national number. That law also gave states the option to fund call centers and mental health crisis services by attaching new fees to phone lines. So far, only four states have succeeded in doing so; California may soon be poised to be the fifth.
With the added funds from those fees, along with county, state and federal investments, the architects of 988 eventually envision it leading to an expansive, national overhaul of the mental health delivery system — one in which callers tap into a crisis response system that keeps police out of the equation.
At this point, that bigger system, first promoted by the federal government, is mostly still just a vision. But mental health leaders in California say they hope a blueprint for the project, including a means to fund it, will begin to crystallize in the coming year.
Top: llustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters; iStock
Labor unions have a week to agree on housing bills.
Can they do it?
By Manuela Tobias | CalMatters
Days from the end of the legislative session, political observers are once again asking themselves whether a bitter, unresolved battle over labor standards will spell the end of California’s most ambitious proposal to solve its housing affordability crisis.
Assembly Bill 2011, which would unlock commercial real estate for residential use, potentially leading to more than one million apartments across the state, has splintered organized labor.
While affordable housing developers, the state’s carpenters union and even the largest unions representing teachers and health care workers support the bill, it faces fiery opposition from the formidable Building and Construction Trades Council and the even bigger California Labor Federation behind them. The council, colloquially known as the Trades, represents 450,000 workers in nearly every other construction industry.
Cox Business becomes a founding
partner at Snapdragon Stadium
San Diego State Athletics has announced a seven-year agreement with Cox Business as a founding partner of Snapdragon Stadium at SDSU Mission Valley.
“There is no better partner to help connect our fans with an exceptional gameday experience than Cox Business,” said San Diego State director of athletics John David Wicker. “Cox and SDSU have a long history together and I’m excited to have them as a Founding Partner in Snapdragon Stadium. The partnership will provide fans in the Cox Business Club with a unique experience of watching the team take the field from inside the club and getting to feel the excitement up close.”
“Keeping people connected during events and activities at San Diego’s newest state-of-the-art venue is another exciting way for us to invest in the communities we serve,” added Rebecca Rosen, senior director of marketing West Region for Cox Business.
In addition to offering one of the most unique and luxurious experiences in collegiate athletics, the Cox Business Club will feature a robust combination of premium menu items and traditional gameday fare. Excitement for this product has led to a recent sellout of all available club seats and loge boxes in this area.
A new neuromorphic chip for AI on the Edge,
at a small fraction of the energy and size
An international team of researchers has designed and built a chip that runs computations directly in memory and can run a wide variety of AI applications–all at a fraction of the energy consumed by computing platforms for general-purpose AI computing.
The NeuRRAM neuromorphic chip brings AI a step closer to running on a broad range of edge devices, disconnected from the cloud, where they can perform sophisticated cognitive tasks anywhere and anytime without relying on a network connection to a centralized server. Applications abound in every corner of the world and every facet of our lives, and range from smart watches, to VR headsets, smart earbuds, smart sensors in factories and rovers for space exploration.
The research team, co-led by bioengineers at the University of California San Diego, presents their results in the Aug. 17 issue of Nature.
Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C Fire Scout completes
first Advanced Base Operations Exercise
Northrop Grumman Corporation’s MQ-8C Fire Scout, the U.S. Navy’s autonomous, runway-independent helicopter system, successfully completed operations under the Expeditionary Advance Base Operations (EABO) concept, providing persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting capabilities.
Fire Scout is the Navy’s only unmanned helicopter with the ability to deploy from a ship or land at the extended range required for future warfighting, according to Capt. Dennis Monagle, U.S. Navy. “The system is vital in expeditionary use for situational awareness and critical decision-making,” said Monagle.
MQ-8C Fire Scout was launched from the Vertical Take-Off and Landing Tactical Unmanned Air Vehicle Maintenance Detachment at Naval Base Ventura County in Point Mugu, California, simulating a ship-based departure. The Navy conducted a control system hand-off of the MQ-8C Fire Scout from Point Mugu to San Clemente Island, demonstrating the ship-to-shore transition capability of the platform in a maritime expeditionary environment.
With the Navy’s Portable Mission Control Station (MCS-P), the system was recovered and redeployed rapidly for operational flexibility.
Student’s short film wins
Emmy awards for impactful message
By Bri Phillips
Salma Rodriguez had trouble choosing a topic for her final project for her audio and videography class.
Rodriguez’s Cal State San Marcos classmates wanted to do their final video project on something lighthearted, but she had something different in mind.
Rodriguez saw the assignment as an opportunity to highlight the personal stories of those who have immigrated from Mexico to the United States. She was hesitant at first because she didn’t know how it would be received by her classmates. But Rodriguez’s topic certainly made an impact.
“The media is desensitizing people because they forget that these are actually real people and real experiences,” said Rodriguez, an arts, media and design student. “We’re just swiping left or right, and just endlessly scrolling through all these tragic stories.”
Luke Bisagna, Rodriguez’s professor, thought her short film “Border Line Fears” could be spread further than the campus community when he saw the rough cut. Bisagna encouraged Rodriguez to submit her video to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Pacific Southwest Chapter Emmy Awards, and won in three student programming categories: short form; student craft – writing; and student craft – editor.
“I’m so very proud of her,” Bisagna said. “She has a rare and amazing gift for emotional storytelling. I knew the first time I saw her rough cut of ‘Border Line Fears’ that she had done something truly special.”
Stone IPA celebrates 25 years with amped-up beer
SDNews
Stone Brewing is celebrating 26 years of brewing bold, carefully crafted IPAs. Today, Stone Brewing announces Stone 26th Anniversary Imperial IPA, an amped-up nod to the beer that started it all, Stone IPA. Twenty-five years ago, Stone celebrated the first anniversary of the fledgling brewery with a beer that was a far cry from the craft beer norms of the time. It was far too intense. It was far too hoppy and bitter. Yet it became the shot heard ‘round the world, and beer history was changed forever.
This year, to celebrate the beer that (eventually) launched generations of hop fanatics, the brewery presents an imperial version that made Stone’s name among the budding craft beer legions. Stone IPA is still Stone’s best-selling beer.
Stone 26th Anniversary Imperial IPA is loaded with gloriously bitter notes of piney, citrus, resinous dankness. It’s full-bodied and warming at 9.7 percent ABV. Heaps of Centennial hops make this everything there is to love about Stone’s classic West Coast IPA style. Pair it with other bold flavors like shiitake garlic noodles, mango habanero shrimp tacos, and summery peach cobbler.
Source BioScience launches Sanger
Sequencing Service in San Diego
A leading provider of Genomic services in the UK and Ireland, Source BioScience, a part of SourceBio International plc, is now bringing decades of expertise and customer satisfaction in Genomic services to San Diego. Source is able to immediately serve biotechnology, pharmaceutical and research organisations in California and neighboring states with plans to expand its reach further across the U.S. in the coming months.
With further plans for rapid growth in the Genomics space, Source will also soon be offering plasmid extraction and Next Generation Sequencing services as part of its portfolio.
Source has already established close relationships with pharmaceutical and life science companies through its dedicated Stability Storage service.
Sanger Sequencing services are available via the Source BioScience website (us.sourcebioscience.com), providing access to top quality genomic services with publication-ready data at unrivalled turnaround times.
Illumina Genomics Forum to feature 23andMe
co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki
and CEO of 23andMe
Illumina, Inc., a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies announced that it will feature Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and CEO of personal genomics company 23andMe, at its inaugural Illumina Genomics Forum (IGF) on Oct. 1.
In a spotlight session titled “Disruption Ahead,” Wojcicki will speak with biotechnology journalist Luke Timmerman about putting the consumer at the center of health care, drawing from her personal experience disrupting the health care status quo, and improving patient lives through genomics innovation.
During the conversation, Wojcicki will discuss how a consumer-first approach to health care continues to guide her as she leads 23andMe into its next growth phase.
Late last year, 23andMe acquired Lemonaid Health, a telemedicine platform and digital pharmacy, to advance its vision of individualized primary care and empower consumers to live healthier lives.
Wojcicki will also share her vision for industry standards to guide data privacy and sharing, as well as her views on key actions needed to improve and accelerate drug discovery.
IGF will take place in San Diego from Sept. 28 through Oct. 1.
For more information and to register for the conference, go to illuminagenomicsforum.com.
Prominent neurosurgeon joins Leucadia Therapeutics
Leucadia Therapeutics, a company working to cure Alzheimer’s disease, has hired a global chief medical officer practiced in skull base neurosurgery needed to implant the company’s revolutionary Arethusta device, which drains disease-causing toxins from the brain.
Dr. Javed Siddiqi, M.D., a board-certified neurosurgeon who completed his doctorate at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and an MD in Canada, is an expert on the skull base. The skull base includes the cribriform plate that serves as a drain for cerebrospinal fluid that helps to clear toxic metabolites from regions of the brain where Alzheimer’s disease emerges.
Widely regarded as an innovator, Siddiqi brings more than 21 years of surgical, administrative, academic, and leadership experience to Leucadia.
Siddiqi was the founding president of the Arrowhead Neuroscience Foundation, a non-profit research and education foundation committed to mitigating the individual and community after effects of common but devastating neurological conditions that alter brain and spinal cord function, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Neurelis, Little Angels Service Dogs
to present ‘Barks ‘n Blues Music & More’
Neurelis and Little Angels Service Dogs are proud to present the “Barks ‘n Blues Music & More” concert for epilepsy awareness at the Quartyard, 1301 Market St., San Diego, Thursday, Aug. 25 at 5 p.m. Featured performers include five-time San Diego Music Award winner Whitney Shay, San Diego Music Award nominee Ron Houston & The Berry Pickers, and former American Idol finalist Jessica Meuse.
The event kicks off a two-year partnership between Neurelis and Little Angels. Neurelis is sponsoring two puppies who will undergo extensive training to become seizure-response dogs that live and assist a person with epilepsy. Throughout their training process the puppies will appear at epilepsy-related events like Barks ‘n Blues to drive awareness about the disorder along with the critical role of seizure management.
Nierenberg Prize awarded to atmospheric scientist
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has awarded pioneering atmospheric scientist Warren Washington with the 2021 Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest. Washington is an internationally renowned scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) who has specialized in climate research—particularly climate modeling—for more than five decades.
The Nierenberg Prize, which includes a bronze medal and $25,000, is awarded for outstanding contributions to science in the public interest. Previous awardees include biochemist Jennifer Doudna, who was recently awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry; former NASA astronaut and administrator Charles Bolden; filmmaker Sir David Attenborough; and primatologist Dame Jane Goodall, among others.
Washington was selected to receive the Nierenberg Prize in 2021, but a formal event to honor this achievement was postponed until July 2022 due to the pandemic. In lieu of a large, in-person lecture, Washington participated in a recorded interview at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. with fellow atmospheric scientist Vernon Morris.
