Daily Business Report: Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022
Study: Paid family leave in California keeps women in jobs
By Grace Gedye | CalMatters
In Summary:
For women with spouses who have serious medical issues, access to paid family leave reduces the likelihood that they leave work, according to a new study.
__________________________________________________________________
If you work in California and your sister is undergoing cancer treatments, or your spouse gets knee surgery, you might be able to get paid while you take time off work to care for them.
It’s a less well-known part of California’s paid family leave benefit, which also covers new parents who leave work to care for and bond with their babies. Although the number of Californians, especially women, using paid leave for reasons beyond new babies has soared in the past two decades, still roughly six times more use paid family leave to care for new children than use it to take care of seriously ill family members
While there’s broad support for giving new parents paid time off — a benefit that doesn’t exist across the U.S. — there’s less consensus around paid leave to care for ill family members. At the same time, research on the effects of paid family leave for anyone besides new parents has been limited.
A new study published Monday, though, finds that access to paid family leave decreases the likelihood that women leave their job if their spouse has serious health issues.
Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters; iStock
County home sales in November dropped 47 percent
The median home price in San Diego reflects that properties are holding their value, despite a drop in the number of homes sold in November compared to a year ago, according to the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors, which compiles housing statistics through the San Diego Multiple Listing Service.
As the holiday season commenced, the median price of a single-family home in the county was unchanged month-over-month, while the price of attached properties (condominiums and townhomes) dipped by a modest 2 percent. The price of single-family homes in November stood at $885,000 and attached properties settled just under $600,000. Prices of sold homes are still 12 percent higher year-to-date than in 2021.
Home sales, on the other hand, saw a dramatic drop of 47 percent last month compared to November of 2021, and cumulatively for the year, sales are down 27 percent. Yet the inventory of homes on the market continues to edge up, with approximately 60 percent more properties on the market in November than a year ago.
Most expensive single-family property sold for $17 million
The most expensive single-family property sold in November in San Diego County was an estate in the prestigious La Jolla Farms neighborhood boasting nearly 3 acres of gated grounds, according to the Breater San Diego Association of Realtors. Built in 1996, the main residence and guest house combined offer 9 bedrooms, 14 baths, and over 14,200 square feet. The home features a grand atrium, game room, disco room, and home theater.
Thw home sold on Nov. 18 for $17 million.
SDG&E offers customers bill-saving tips
as natural gas prices rise across country
As wholesale natural gas prices nationwide continue to soar higher and as cold weather leads to higher gas usage for heating, San Diego Gas & Electric is offering customers tips and tools to help them save on their energy bill, while cautioning that natural gas prices could rise even higher into January 2023. This week, SDG&E is sending direct emails to customers to keep them apprised, so they can plan accordingly as costs are rising across all utilities – energy, water and wastewater. Customers are encouraged to visit a dedicated webpage at sdge.com/MyEnergy for bill-saving and energy management resources.
“SDG&E remains committed to working with our customers as prices for a variety of goods and services, including natural gas, continue to surge across the nation,” said SDG&E Vice President of Customer Services Dana Golan. “It’s important that we help customers prepare as much as possible for colder weather and higher winter energy bills and that we provide access to financial assistance.”
Physics student honored for research
By Bradi Zapata
Cal State San Marcos physics student Ashley Corey was awarded best research by an undergraduate student at the American Physical Society Far West Section’s Annual Meeting at the University of Manoa Hawaii for her presentation, “Characterizing Gate Defined Quantum Dots in a Mesa-Etched Silicon Nanowire.”
For her presentation, Corey began working with Justin Perron, a physics associate professor and condensed matter researcher at CSUSM. Corey’s research work this fall is funded by Hologic. As a Hologic Scholar, Corey is part of a pilot program that is helping her continue her Summer Scholar research into the academic year. Corey’s project included making single electron transport measurements and investigating gate-defined silicon quantum dots.
Northrop Grumman demonstrates new
sensor capability for the emerging battlefield
By Neil Dhillon
Northrop Grumman Corporation successfully demonstrated a new multifunction, converged sensing capability for the U.S. government. The new “all-in-one” sensor capability rapidly closes the Observe, Orient, Decide and Act (OODA) loop by integrating four critical mission capabilities: sense, effect/jam, inject and communicate.
The demonstration, conducted at PAX River Military Installation in Maryland, showcased how Northrop Grumman’s Converged Sensor integrates sensing and effecting technology while incorporating third-party hardware and software in an open-architecture, platform-agnostic system. The modeled-mission scenario included Ground Radio Frequency test equipment like that of peer and-near-peer adversaries.
Qualcomm unveils newest high-performance
network offering for the home
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. on Tuesday unveiled its newest high-performance network offering for the home, the Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 Immersive Home Platform. Built to support the latest high-speed broadband connections and an array of high-performance devices populating today’s hyper-connected homes, the Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 Immersive Platform delivers more than 20Gbps of total system capacity in a compact, power-efficient, cost-effective network chipset architecture. The platform introduces Qualcomm® Multi-Link Mesh, a breakthrough in home networking connectivity ushering in a new era of extremely high throughput and real-time responsiveness. Read more…
Platform Science and Netradyne collaborate on driver safety
San Diego-based Platform Science, a leading connected vehicle platform, and Netradyne, a leader in artificial intelligence and edge computing focusing on driver and fleet safety, announced a new collaboration to offer Netradyne’s Driver-i solution in Platform Science’s industry-leading marketplace of solutions. Powered by AI and edge computing, Netradyne’s Driver-i is an advanced vision-based fleet safety camera platform built to reinforce good driving behavior. Platform Science’s innovative transportation solutions make it easier for fleets to develop, deploy, and manage mobile devices and applications on commercial vehicles.
Sirenas and Hume Supernatural
collaborate on personal care products
Sirenas, a San Diego chemical discovery company harnessing computational metabolomics for “Natural Product” drug discovery, and Hume Supernatural Inc., a leading personal care product company, announced that the companies have entered into a collaboration to bring new natural ingredients from diverse marine and terrestrial sources into the personal care space. The companies plan to work together to identify, test and bring to market ingredients that enhance the efficacy of Hume’s personal care products including deodorants, body oil and more.
Shield AI boosts Series E to $225 million
Shield AI, a fast-growing defense technology company building AI pilots for aircraft, announced it has raised additional equity capital from the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT). This additional raise was done at the company’s Series E price and closes out the round at $225 million, with $150 million in equity and $75 million in debt. The initial part of Series E was closed in June, which made the company the fourth venture-backed, multi-billion-dollar defense-technology startup in 20 years. The company has offices in San Diego, Washington, D.C., Dallas, and Abu Dhabi.
Kyriba launches Receivables Finance solution
San Diego’s Kyriba, a leader in cloud-based financial and IT solutions, announced the launch of Kyriba Receivables Finance. The solution provides finance teams with greater control over factoring or securitization programs as well as enabling selective invoice financing. The multi-funder solution integrates all vendor programs into a single platform, providing a real-time overview of credit facilities, utilization, limits, and program performance.
Pack closes $3 million in seed financing
Leading headless commerce solution Pack, a San Diego company, announced a $3 million seed funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with notable participation from returning investor Alpaca and new investor Vanterra Ventures. The financing will enable continued company growth, focusing on accelerating Pack’s engineering, product, design, and go-to-market. Pack will also leverage the funding to generate opportunities for strategic partnerships that will propel the company in creating industry-leading solutions in the headless commerce space. The new round brings the company’s total funds raised to $6 million.
Tandem Diabetes Care to acquire AMF Medical
Tandem Diabetes Care Inc., a San Diego-based insulin delivery and diabetes technology company, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire AMF Medical SA, the privately held Swiss developer of the Sigi Patch Pump. The Sigi Patch Pump is under development and not commercially available. It is designed to be an ergonomic, rechargeable patch pump that reduces the burden of managing diabetes through its use of pre-filled insulin cartridges and its compatibility with automated insulin delivery technology.
Jack in the Box CFO Tim Mullany to leave company
Tim Mullany, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Jack in the Box, will be leaving the ompany for personal reasons, effective Feb. 2, 2023. Dawn Hooper, VP,controller and financial reporting, will assume a temporary role as principal financial officer.
Hooper has been with Jack in the Box Inc. for 22 years and held various leadership positions within Finance.
She will report to Darin Harris, CEO, until a successor is named.
Mullany joined the Jack in the Box Inc. team in January 2021 and most recently led the Del Taco acquisition.
He made significant contributions over the past year in support of the Shared Services organization.
2 San Diego beer companies collaborate
on Dog Beach Double IPA
Second Chance Beer Company and Coronado Brewing Company have collaborated to brew Dog Beach Double IPA, a limited release available on draft and in four-packs to go.
The beer, which was brewed at Second Chance’s Carmel Mountain headquarters and has an 8 percent ABV, is the first collaboration between the San Diego breweries. It is available at Second Chance’s Carmel Mountain and North Park locations, as well as on draft at Coronado’s taprooms in Bay Park, Coronado, and Imperial Beach.
Dog Beach has Mosaic, Strata, and Talus hops with aromas of citrus, pine, and slight earthiness.
It is full bodied, with the citrus and dank notes carrying the flavor alongside subtle tropical fruits.
As with all Double IPAs, the finish is bitter with a mild malty sweetness.
