SAN DIEGO (SDJW) — State Sen. Marty Block (D-San Diego) won unanimous approval from the State Senate for a bill that would authorize 15 community colleges in California to offer four-year bachelor’s degrees, provided they are in subjects not already offered by nearby state colleges and universities. U-T reporter Karen Kucher noted that the statewide Community College Board of Governors and Chancellor will decide which 15 colleges will participate in the pilot program. Said Block: “It’s wishful thinking to believe we cn meet the challenge of producing another 60,000 bachelor degrees a year without using community colleges, and the longer we delay in using them, the further behind we will fall.”
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U-T columnist Logan Jenkins wonders about Bob Brewer’s strategy in trying to unseat District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. His commercials emphasize an alleged unsavory connection between Dumanis and eccentric Mexican billionaire Jose Azano Matsura, who contributed money to her campaign and to those of other politicians in the 2012 mayor’s race. But in Logan’s word, the TV commercials lack a “money shot, a picture worth a thousand words.” So, he wonders, will “the conjured image of Dumanis schmoozing with a Mexican Daddy Warbucks stick in the minds of late-breaking voters – or did the tableau just blend into the tiresome silly-season blather?”
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His name wasn’t mentioned in Lori Weisberg’s business report in the U-T about Strategic Hotels & Resorts becoming 100 percent owner of the Hotel del Coronado, instead of a 36.4 percent shareholder, but I’m willing to bet that the late M. Larry Lawrence would have been proud that the 757-room luxury hotel and landmark is now valued at over $1 million per room, putting it in a rather exclusive club. During the time of his ownership of the hotel, Lawrence added to it extensively.
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Compiled by San Diego Jewish World staff