Daily Business Report: Monday, Jan. 31, 2022
Northrop Grumman, NASA celebrate
Arrival of Webb Telescope
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, built in partnership with San Diego’s Northrop Grumman, has arrived at Lagrange Point 2, where it will orbit the sun. This marks the completion of its million-mile journey and the start of its half-year-long commissioning period where it will adjust its optics prior to operation. Webb will collect data and images from the earliest stars and galaxies to help scientists understand the origins of the universe.
Webb launched from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Dec. 25, stowed inside an Ariane 5 rocket. Over the course of two weeks after its historic launch, the space observatory successfully deployed its sunshield and mirrors during a series of complex deployments and maneuvers, the first of its kind ever attempted in space.
The team is turning its attention to making a series of fine adjustments to the telescope’s optics over the coming weeks and months to bring the telescope’s optical train into precise alignment. NASA anticipates that the observatory will be ready to send back its first science by mid-summer.
TOP PHOTO: For the last time on Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope opened its primary mirror in May 2021 at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California where final deployment tests were completed. Webb’s iconic mirror is the world largest and most powerful ever built for space. Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman
Nearly $200 million in federal relief money given
to San Diego arts, entertainment and tourism groups
The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program — created in response to the lengthy COVID-19 shutdown of live events that began in March 2020 — is proving to be a crucial and major source of relief funding for scores of independent San Diego County arts, cultural and tourism venues, organizations and related businesses.
The federal relief program provided nearly $200 million to 162 recipients across the county between last June and late December.
The biggest recipients include the USS Midway Museum, the Zoological Society of San Diego and the music talent booking agency Sound Talent Group. Each received $10 million to make up for lost revenues incurred by the COVID-19 shutdown. Close behind are the Belly Up Tavern and the Old Globe Theatre, which received $8,085,115 and $8,000,001, respectively.
San Vicente Energy Storage Facility
Proposal moving forward
The City of San Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority will begin negotiations on a project development agreement with the BHE Kiewit Team to develop Phase 1 of the potential San Vicente Energy Storage Facility Project, which could generate enough energy for about 135,000 households.
The proposed project is subject to a full environmental review and regulatory approvals. If the Water Authority and City of San Diego decide to proceed after completing environmental review, the San Vicente Energy Storage Facility would provide up to 500 megawatts of long-duration stored energy upon completion to help meet peak electrical demands throughout Southern California and help meet California’s renewable energy goals.
Pumped energy storage projects, such as the San Vicente Energy Storage Facility, are designed to store excess renewable energy from solar and wind during the day, and then discharge that energy when energy use increases in the evening and renewable energy is not as plentiful.
Fraudulent claims continue to hound
California’s unemployment department
CalMatters
Two years into the pandemic, fraudsters continue to target California’s unemployment department. The Employment Development Department, which last month froze about 345,000 disability insurance claims it flagged as suspicious, announced that it suspects that a whopping 98 percent of the 27,000 medical providers associated with those claims are fraudulent.
So far, EDD said, only 485 providers have managed to verify their identity. The agency couldn’t say how much money it might have paid for those scam claims.
Although EDD has made progress on key reforms after paying at least $20 billion worth of fraudulent claims amid the pandemic, challenges remain. The agency noted Thursday that some legitimate providers and claimants were ensnared in the mass freeze and will have to go through additional verification procedures before payments can resume.
Chemist identifies new ways
of finding extraterrestrial life
By Sarah White
Have we been looking for extraterrestrials in all the wrong places? San Diego State University chemists are developing methods to find signs of life on other planets by looking for the building blocks of proteins in a place they’ve never been able to test before: inside rocks.
After collaborating with researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in La Cañada Flintridge in 2019, Jessica Torres, a doctoral student studying chemistry at SDSU, is experimenting with ways to extract amino acids from porous rocks that could be used on future rovers. Previous research has looked for evidence of other life forms in water and soil, but not from solid materials.
Current methods for identifying amino acids can’t differentiate versions created by a living organism from those formed through random chemical reactions.
And existing techniques usually require water — which would freeze or evaporate if placed on a space probe traveling to Mars or Europa, the ice-covered saltwater moon of Jupiter that some regard as a prime candidate for extraterrestrial life because of its subsurface ocean.
Three local nonprofit boards honored
by The Nonprofit Institute at USD
The boards of three nonprofit organizations — Jewish Family Service of San Diego, Just in Time for Foster Youth and Border Angels — have been named 2022 winners of the Kaleidoscope Award for Good Governance by the Nonprofit Institute at University of San Diego.
“In light of the extraordinary circumstances of the past year, The Nonprofit Institute is recognizing three organizations —small, mid-sized, and large — for the exceptional work of their boards in providing crucial leadership, guidance, and oversight to the nonprofits they serve,” said Stephen Chin, who chairs The Nonprofit Institute’s Advisory Board and leads Account Management and Community Relations at Sharp Health Plan.
New Youth Transition Campus
completed in Kearny Mesa
A new Youth Transition Campus, designed to be less like an outdated correctional facility and more like a therapeutic, rehabilitative campus, is complete in the Kearny Mesa area of San Diego.
The Youth Transition Campus supports young people with longer stays in custody and has been designed to reflect national best practices that promote positive youth development and staff well-being. The standards reflect the San Diego County Board of Supervisors’ commitment to provide the resources that help young people succeed and thrive.
Codex DNA, Pfizer partner to expedite
Vaccine production
San Diego’s Codex DNA and Pfizer have inked a deal to help speed up the production of vaccines. The collaboration will allow Pfizer access to Code DNA’s high-fidelity, complex gene synthesizing technology for its mRNA-based vaccines and other biopharma products — accelerating vaccine and biotherapeutic research and development programs for the benefit of humanity.
Nucleix raises $55 million for early
cancer detection technologies
San Diego-based Nucleix, a company revolutionizing cancer treatment by detecting the disease earlier via liquid biopsy, has secured $55 million in funding. The biotech company will utilize the funds to continue the rapid advancement of its unique EpiCheck technology, which minimizes sample loss while detecting minute cancer epigenetic signals with greater sensitivity than other technologies.
