Daily Business Report: Friday, Jan. 21, 2022
Danger in Droughtsville:
California’s urban water at risk
By Erica Yee | CalMatters
Droughtsville, California, is in trouble.
Its water supply is endangered as multiple crises intensify: worsening droughts, competition for scarce supplies, sea level rise, groundwater contamination, earthquakes, wildfires and extreme weather. All of these factors, and more, threaten Droughtville’s ability to provide clean water to its residents.
The city is fictional, but the threats are not.
A typical city in California faces multiple stressors that put drinking water supplies at risk — drought just happens to be the focus now. Huge volumes of water are transported hundreds of miles to Southern California and Bay Area cities via aqueducts. Other municipal water is stored underground in aquifers, potentially susceptible to contaminants and seawater invasion. And the intricate network of treatment plants and pipelines that carry water to people’s faucets is vulnerable to an array of natural and human-made threats.
CalMatters delved into the details of what scientists and planners have determined could jeopardize the water supply of a typical California city — and some potential solutions.
TOP PHOTO: The Los Angeles Aqueduct, which brings water from the eastern Sierra Nevada, is a major source of water for Los Angeles. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
Touchstone Communities reports sales figures
and new amenities at Park Circle in Valley Center
Touchstone Communities reports that 40 percent of the 632 homes built in the master-planned community Park Circle in Valley Center have been sold, and that a public park and multi-purpose clubhouse have been completed.
The Hangout is a private clubhouse exclusively for residents of Park Circle that features a swimming pool, fitness center and indoor/outdoor living rooms. The public 2.6-acre Harvest Park has sports courts, a civic stage and a lawn with a playground and covered barbecues.
Both recreational amenities will be open for tours during the Jan. 29 grand opening event at 10 a.m. at 27679 Park Circle Way in Valley Center. Harvest Park is slated to open to the public this summer.
Future amenities planned for Park Circle include two additional private recreation centers, 24,000 square feet of retail space at Park Circle Commons shopping center, and more than eight miles of trails and pathways.
Development on Park Circle began in June 2019. Shea Homes has sold all its Park Circle residences, while Beazer Homes is nearing sell-out of its homes in The Porches and just began pre-selling its new Trailside floor plans. KB Home, Meritage Homes, Richmond American Homes, and Wildflower are also actively selling new homes, which currently range in price from the $600,000s to $800,000s.
Senate confirms San Diego native to U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Senate on Thursday voted 48-40 to confirm President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s, nomination of Superior Court Judge Holly A. Thomas, a San Diego native, to serve as a U.S. circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Thomas was nominated for the judgeship on Sept. 20, 2021, and had her hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 20, 2021. Thomas will occupy a seat made vacant by Circuit Judge William A. Fletcher’s assumption of senior status.
Thomas was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown as a judge on the California Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles in 2018.
She previously served, from 2016 to 2018, as the deputy director of executive programs at the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the nation’s largest state civil rights agency.
She was appointed to that position by Brown in 2016.
Landscape architects chapter calls for entries
for Excellence in Design Awards 2022
The American Society of Landscape Architects, San Diego chapter (ASLA-SD), is calling for entries for its 2022 professional Excellence in Design Awards. The deadline to submit entry forms and payments is Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. Entry cost for ASLA Members is $150 and $230 for non-members.
Professional entries will be accepted for projects from any individual, firm, nonprofit organization, public agency or academic institution as long as one of the project’s participants includes at least one of the following:
1. San Diego Chapter – ASLA member and licensed Landscape Architect in the State of California (submitting projects at any location).
2. ASLA member and licensed Landscape Architect in any state (submitting San Diego projects only).
3. Non-ASLA member licensed Landscape Architect in the State of California (submitting San Diego County projects only)
NIH establishes Microbiome and
Metagenomics Center at UC San Diego
National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s All of Us Research Program is a national effort to build a large, diverse database of 1 million or more people whom researchers can use to study health and disease. The NIH is now awarding $170 million in grant funding to centers across the country to create a new consortium known as Nutrition for Precision Health, powered by the All of Us Research Program. The consortium will recruit a diverse pool of 10,000 All of Us Research Program participants to develop algorithms to predict individual responses to food and inform more personalized nutrition recommendations.
The Nutrition for Precision Health consortium includes $14.55 million to launch a new Microbiome and Metagenomics Center at UC San Diego. The center will analyze the microbiomes — communities of microbes and their genetic material — found in the stool samples of nutrition study participants.
Partial bone marrow transplant
‘rescues’ mice with cystic fibrosis
Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have found they can dramatically improve survival of mice with cystic fibrosis through a partial bone marrow transplant. Their new study in the Journal of Immunology shows that a partial bone marrow transplant helps these mice by introducing a population of healthy immune cells called monocytes.
The researchers believe that partial bone marrow transplants are a promising route for giving patients long-lasting relief from cystic fibrosis symptoms.
“This research suggests a new strategy to improve the symptoms of cystic fibrosis, especially the body’s ability to fight infections,” says study first author Zhichao Fan, a researcher with LJI and the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.
“The transplant is enough for a better life—at least in mice,” adds senior author LJI Professor Klaus Ley, a member of the LJI Center for Autoimmunity and Inflammation.
Guild Mortgage names Victoria Garcia DeLuca
vice president of marketplace diversity strategy
Guild Mortgage has selected Victoria Garcia DeLuca as its first vice president of marketplace diversity strategy to lead the company’s initiatives to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in lending.
The new position was created as part of the company’s long-term strategy to expand its position as a specialist in purchase loans for first-time homebuyers to more diverse and underserved markets. DeLuca is bilingual in English and Spanish and has almost 20 years’ experience in the mortgage industry, including leadership positions creating programs for Hispanic and Black markets in the Midwest and South.
DeLuca is a Chicago native of Mexican and Honduran descent. Prior to joining Guild, she served almost three years as senior vice president of Federal Savings Bank, Brentwood, Tenn., where she led a team that focused on supporting homeownership within Hispanic and Black communities. Her other recent leadership roles include serving as area sales manager for more than five years with Wintrust Mortgage, Chicago, and four years as sales manager, diverse segments specialist, with Wells Fargo, also in Chicago.
Viasat’s new communication antennas ready
to support lunar, deep spade and DOD missions
Viasat Inc. announced the availability of its most advanced class of large-aperture antennas, which will be capable of providing the United States and other spacefaring nations with enhanced space-to-ground communications for upcoming Earth observation missions, manned and unmanned missions to the Moon, Mars and other deep space and Department of Defense initiatives.
The new class of full-motion multi-band antennas, which range from 19.7 to 24.0 meters in diameter, offer revolutionary capability enhancements when compared to other legacy solutions that still use decades old technology.
There is tremendous interest in earth observation, defense-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and deep spade/lunar link communications, which our latest class of full-motion large-aperture antennas were built for,” said Kent Leka, vice president and general manager of antenna systems at Viasat.
Salk Institute announces departure
of Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte
The Salk Institute announced that Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a world-renowned researcher who has pioneered innovations in developmental biology, regenerative medicine and aging research at the Salk Institute, will be closing his Salk laboratory to join Altos Labs, a newly created life sciences company centered on human health research.
Izpisua Belmonte, who has been at Salk for nearly 30 years, will depart to lead the San Diego division of Altos Institutes of Science to study cellular rejuvenation programming with the goal of improving human health.
SDSU launches suite of online cyber security
certificates in partnership with Noodle
San Diego State University is launching a suite of online cyber security certificates in partnership with Noodle, the online learning network. The SDSU Cyber Tech Academy, in affiliation with the Homeland Security Program, is currently enrolling students.
The Cyber Tech Academy, which includes a series of 14-week professional certificates focused on the most critical topics in cybersecurity, brings together prominent current and former government, military, and industry practitioners focused on developing a workforce that can defeat the threats posed by nation-states and advanced cyber criminals. The certificate program is separate from SDSU’s graduate degree program in Homeland Security.
University of San Diego partners with
Circuit Stream to offer XR courses
The University of San Diego Professional and Continuing Education has partnered with extended reality (XR) educational provider Circuit Stream to offer courses for San Diego learners. The project-based training will connect students with certification and skills in the high-growth 3D technology industry.
Students enrolled in the program have three possible XR learning tracks to choose from. Each course follows Circuit Stream’s proven curriculum that teaches skills for developing technology for real-time 3D, AR, VR, and more broadly, Metaverse applications.
Upon course completion, learners will receive certifications that verify their skills to employers, including a digital badge from USD Professional and Continuing Education and Circuit Stream.
MiraCosta College’s spring 2022 classes begin Jan. 24
MiraCosta College’s spring 2022 classes begin Jan. 24, with hundreds of classes in a range of subjects offered. Like all colleges and universities in San Diego County, MiraCosta College is having to make difficult and data-informed decisions to uphold the safety of all students and employees. San Diego County is currently experiencing a winter surge in cases of the Omicron variant and reports record numbers of those infected daily. As cases rise, disruptions in services ranging from childcare, K-12 education, and transportation are impacting the lives of many.
To curb the spread, maintain a safe learning and work environment, and mitigate the impact of the highly contagious variant, the majority of classes will temporarily transition to an online format. Remote instruction will extend through Feb. 21 for on-ground and hybrid courses (scheduled online courses, will proceed online). Following Presidents’ Day weekend, if the peak has passed and the indicators look good, students enrolled in on-ground and hybrid courses will resume instruction face-to-face as of Feb. 22.
