Daily Business Report: Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Jump starting electric car batteries:
Will supply problems stall California’s mandate?
By Julie Cart | CalMatters
After more than 30 years toiling in obscurity in the ultra-complex world of battery technology, Kurt Kelty and the other chemists, electrical engineers and minerals experts racing to design the next generation of electric vehicle batteries are at last having their moment.
Kelty, who ran Tesla’s battery cell team for more than a decade, now heads battery engineering at Sila Nanotechnologies, a Bay Area startup experimenting with new designs for EV power. When he started his career in the 1990s, Kelty avoided telling people at social gatherings he was in the battery industry because “you were relegated to the corner section of the cocktail party.”
“Now you go to parties and you are the center of attention,” he said. “Everyone wants to know what’s going on with batteries.”
Do they ever. For all of the policy hurdles and consumer reluctance bedeviling California’s transition to all-electric transportation, unlocking the battery puzzle is the most critical element to jump-starting the post-fossil fuel revolution.
Failure to deliver safe, affordable and efficient batteries for electric cars could mean that California fails to meet its landmark mandate, enacted last summer, to phase out new gasoline-powered cars by 2035.
Top photo: Excavators work in an open pit at Tenke Fungurume, a copper and cobalt mine near Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2013. (Photo by Jonny Hogg, Reuters, via CalMatters)
San Diego puts the City Hall complex on the market
San Diego’s Civic Center real estate, or roughly eight acres in the heart of downtown, is officially on the market. The city of San Diego published what’s called a “notice of availability,” kick-starting a solicitation process under California’s Surplus Land Act, which regulates how municipal agencies can offload their excess land and prioritizes the production of housing for low-income families.
The notice alerts affordable housing developers registered with the state that the city intends to sell or lease its surplus property at 202 C St., 1100 and 1200 Third Ave., 1101 and 1265 First Ave., 201 A St. and 101 Ash St. And it starts the clock on a 60-day window for interested bidders to respond with redevelopment plans that include at least 25 percent of residential units reserved for lower-income households.
Prospective buyers have through July 5 to submit a letter of interest. Proceeds from the sale or lease of the five blocks of advertised land will help cover the costs of a new City Hall on an adjacent block at 1222 First Ave., officials have said.
General Atomics delivers first new-build
MQ-9A drones to U.S. Marine Corps
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) and the U.S. Marine Corps are celebrating the delivery of the first new-build MQ-9A Extended Range UAS to Naval Air Systems Command on April 19, 2023. The delivery of the first new-build MQ-9A ER is part of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Unmanned Expeditionary Program.
The MQ-9A ER is designed with field-retrofittable capabilities such as wing-borne fuel pods and reinforced landing gear that extend the aircraft’s endurance to more than 30 hours while further increasing its operational flexibility. The aircraft provides long-endurance, persistent surveillance capabilities with Full-Motion Video and Synthetic Aperture Radar/Moving Target Indicator/Maritime Mode Radar.
City helps residents and business
owners obtain unclaimed money
The City of San Diego is urging anyone who did business with the City to check and see if they might be owed a refund or payment. According to the city’s Unclaimed Monies Report, there is $833,165 in unclaimed money that can be returned to more than 900 people and businesses. Check amounts range from $1 to $80,600. Updated quarterly and free of charge, anyone can review the Unclaimed Monies Report at any time or file a claim.
Unclaimed monies are checks owed to people or businesses due to refunds or vendor payments. The City regularly issues checks based on the addresses it has on file and, on occasion, receives returned checks that are undeliverable by the U.S. Postal Service. Checks that are returned to the City and remain uncashed after six months become unclaimed monies.
County experiences growing
number of Hepatitis A cases
Cases of Hepatitis A in San Diego County continue to grow, with 28 reported so far this year and 18 of them among people experiencing homelessness (PEH). The County typically reports about two cases of the virus each month with only one case reported in the PEH population last year.
While no single outbreak location has been identified, and no specific food or water source found, cases are running above baseline and the County is actively taking and expanding steps to prevent further spread of the disease. This current increase in hep A cases is a form of person-to-person transmission and not by food.
$10 million from InnerScience Research Fund
will fuel study on meditation to combat disease
By Jade Griffin | UC San Diego
Meditation and mindfulness are thought to have a wide range of benefits for overall wellbeing and mental health, but could they help individuals battle cancer, anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s disease or diabetes? InnerScience Research Fund has committed to provide up to $10 million to the University of California San Diego over the next five years to support research on how meditation may impede the progression of serious terminal and chronic illnesses that affect millions of people each year.
InnerScience Research Fund is a nonprofit organization with the mission of fueling research on the biological and physiological effects of meditation on the human body. The funds will be directed to research that explores how meditation may affect the body and brain, and how it could potentially be utilized in the clinical setting to help relieve symptoms, and even limit the progression of various conditions.
R•E•S•P•E•C•T — A Review
By Martin Kruming
Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin (first woman singer in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame), Tina Turner, Nina Simone, Leslie Gore. How could you not admire these incredible singers and their music? Individually, they produced some of the biggest hits of the 1970s, including Respect, which Rolling Stone magazine called the No. 1 song of all time.
These were the musical icons of the 60s and 70s, and R•E•S•P•E•C•T at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado was 90 minutes (no intermission) of non-stop singing that had an almost full house clapping, standing and even singing with them at times.
It was music but it was also history as told in songs such as “Chains, Chains”; “It’s My Party”; “You Don’t Own Me”; “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”and “It’s A New Day,” “What The World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love,” and of course, “Freedom.”
“Overall, I enjoyed it a lot,” said Herb Edelman, a former unit production manager and co-producer in Hollywood who attended with his wife, Nancy. “It brought back some memories of some good music” and the “set design was good; the staging was good.”
Edelman, whose father came to America from Ukraine during World War II, worked on such television series as “Hill Street Blues,” and on the movies, “Hoosiers” and “No Way Out.” “There were no slow parts” in the play, he said.
“R•E•S•P•E•C•T was fantabulous,” said Deb Madsen, who attended with her friends. “The show took me back to my youth, playing records in my bedroom and singing into my hairbrush. The performances were spectacular. I felt as if I was at a concert that I did not want to end. It was difficult to stay seated and not get up and dance. I was with my high school girlfriends and we all loved it.”
R•E•S•P•E•C•T, directed by Kerry Meads, has been extended to June 4.
Martin Kruming (martin@kruming.com) is a retired journalist and lawyer who teaches at San Diego State University and chairs the Global Neighborhood Project.
The Ken Blanchard Companies
announce rebrand to ‘Blanchard’
SAN DIEGO — The Ken Blanchard Companies has completed a major rebranding, including a streamlined name and a new logo, mission, vision, tagline, and website, all to better represent their expansive set of modern offerings. The company has officially rebranded to Blanchard with a new visual and emotional identity that better reflects what they do: engage leadership experts to provide proven content and dynamic learning experiences designed to maximize individual achievement and drive organizational performance.
X Border Holding LLC receives
investment from Caprice Capital Partners
SAN DIEGO — Caprice Capital Partners LLC underwrote, agented, and served as the sole lender for the upsize of its existing credit facility with X Border Holding LLC. The follow-on investment will provide growth capital for the company to execute its expansion strategy. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in San Diego, California, XB Fulfillment is an innovative eCommerce logistics platform that provides fast-growing U.S.-based eCommerce and omnichannel brands with bespoke fulfillment and value-added warehousing services.
FMG Suite achieves 400 percent
growth in enterprise relationships
SAN DIEGO — FMG Suite, a company specializing in marketing content, automation, and websites for financial advisers, announced that it has achieved 400 percent growth of its enterprise business relationships since 2021. This growth is a result of FMG’s investment in people and technology dedicated to the enterprise business, coupled with new product offerings and the expansion of its position as a respected industry thought leader.
Mitchell report highlights increase
in electric vehicle collision claims
SAN DIEGO — Mitchell, an Enlyte company and leading technology and information provider for the property and casualty claims and collision repair industries, reported that electric vehicle repairable claims frequency increased in the first quarter 2023 to 1.13 percent in the U.S. and 2.41 percent in Canada. The data was featured in the company’s latest Plugged-In: EV Collision Insights publication, which provides up-to-date EV claims and market information to the auto insurance and repair industries.
Liquid Instruments announces
release of Moku Version 3.0
SAN DIEGO — Liquid Instruments announced the release of Moku Version 3.0 for its flexible, FPGA-based Moku:Pro, Moku:Lab, and Moku:Go products. The latest software upgrade improves consistency in user experience and code portability across devices, as well as enhanced development efficiency to speed up future feature releases. The release also brings significant upgrades to Moku:Lab, the company’s original product, underscoring Liquid Instruments’ commitment to developing software-defined test and measurement solutions that get better with new features over time.
Planet Based Foods expands product
line for Oregon-based grocery chain
SAN DIEGO — Planet Based Foods Global Inc., headquartered in San Diego, said it will expand its product line for the Oregon-based grocery store chain New Seasons Market to include Planet Based Foods’ Original With Cheese Taquitos and Southwest Style Taquitos across its in-store locations in July 2023. New Seasons Market is a privately owned chain of grocery stores that serve the Portland, Oregon, metro area, southwestern Washington, and Northern California.
CUSO Financial announces new
partnership with Mobiloil Credit Union
SAN DIEGO — CUSO Financial Services L.P. (CFS), a San Diego-based subsidiary of Atria Wealth Solutions Inc., announced a multi-year agreement with Mobiloil Credit Union (Mobiloil) to support and grow its wealth management program. Established in 1935 as Magnolia Employees Beaumont Texas Federal Credit Union, Mobiloil serves nearly 75,000 members with over $1 billion in assets from 12 branches throughout southeastern Texas. Credit unions and banks have contracted with CFS and SPF to make non-deposit investment products and services available to credit union members and bank customers.
iXCells expands CRISPR-Cas9 cell products
SAN DIEGO — iXCells Biotechnologies, a provider of cell products and drug discovery services to the worldwide academic, biotech and pharmaceutical communities, announced expansion of its CRISPR-Cas9 product and custom services offering, with special focus on induced pluripotent stem cell derived cell models. iXCells’ team of scientific experts in gene editing have already introduced several iPSC derived human motor neuron disease models that include gene mutations useful for studying neurological diseases such as familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Inseego launches 5G indoor router with UScellular
SAN DIEGO — Inseego Corp., a leader in 5G edge cloud solutions, announced the launch of the next-generation 5G indoor router FX3100, with UScellular. The new upgraded FX3100, which includes the Qualcomm Snapdragon X62 5G Modem-RF System, adds new capabilities to the current generation FX2000 that has been well received in the market. The new FX3100 solution brings blazing fast broadband internet to residential, enterprise and SMB customers in an attractive and small form factor that can be easily deployed by end users. The UScellular Inseego Indoor Router FX3100 packs 5G, LTE and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity into a compact design that can fit into any space
Airgain launches EZ Connect antenna platform
SAN DIEGO — Airgain Inc., a leading provider of wireless connectivity solutions that creates and delivers embedded components, external antennas, and integrated systems across the globe, announced the launch of the EZConnect platform, a new, versatile antenna design featuring 1-foot cables with standard connectors that connect seamlessly to a customizable cable harness. The first antenna to launch exclusively with the EZConnect configuration is Airgain’s innovative new MULTIMAX 5G fleet antenna. Airgain also announced a new online configurator tool to help customers customize cable lengths and connectors to better meet their needs.
Classy releases annual report on philanthropy
SAN DIEGO — Classy, an affiliate of GoFundMe and giving platform that empowers nonprofits to connec and build lasting relationships with donors, released its sixth annual “The State of Modern Philanthropy 2023” report. The interactive digital report is Classy’s most comprehensive yet, encapsulating data from Classy and GoFundMe’s combined community of 150 million. To view the report, click here.
Nielsen Biosciences enters license agreement
with Maruho Co. Ltd. for warts treatment
SAN DIEGO — Nielsen BioSciences Inc., a San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company, announced that it has entered into a license agreement with Maruho Co. Ltd., granting Maruho exclusive rights to market CANDIN in Japan for the treatment of Verruca vulgaris (common warts). CANDIN is an approved diagnostic skin test and currently not approved by the FDA or Japan’s PMDA for the treatment of common warts. Enrollment in Nielsen’s phase III trial for common warts treatment is expected to begin in the second half of 2023.
