San Diego, CA

Daily Business Report: Jan. 3, 2024, San Diego Metro Magazine

Published

2 years ago

January 3, 2024

Press Room

Daily Business Report: Jan. 3, 2024, San Diego Metro Magazine

Visual Capitalist

Who Are America’s Most Popular CEOs?

What do the employees at America’s largest companies think of the leadership?

To answer that, we visualize CEO approval ratings gathered by professional social network Blind.

The results are based on a survey of 13,171 verified professionals in the U.S., conducted between Aug. 18–23, 2023. Respondents were asked if they approve or disapprove of the way their CEO is handling their job.

By far, the most popular CEO right now (according to Blind’s respondents anyway) is Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, with an astonishing 96 percent approval rating.

Huang’s numbers point to a theme in the data. Blind notes that there is a correlation between company stock performance and CEO approval rating. Nvidia’s critical role in the artificial intelligence hype train has sent shares up nearly 3x year-on-year. Their financials for the last three quarters show that profit is already up more than four-fold from last year.

Crucially, Huang also avoided layoffs that were otherwise rampant in the tech industry, helping his popularity among the staff.

In fact, the Blind survey uncovered that all of the 10 most popular CEOs, with the exception of Andrew Anag from AutoDesk, did not cut jobs in the last year.

View the infographic

The Least Popular CEOs by Employee Approval Ratings

Eric Nordstrom (Nordstrom) and David Goeckeler (Western Digital) shared the lowest approval rating possible in the poll: 0 percent. From Blind’s methodology section, this means not a single surveyed employee answered “strongly approve” or “somewhat approve” to the question.

Both companies cut nearly 200 jobs in 2023, with Nordstrom also responsible for the job losses amongst the company’s wage workers, who staffed the many retail stores the company shuttered.

Also featuring on this list of least-liked CEOs: Evan Spiegel (3 percent), who reduced Snap’s workforce by a fifth and Linda Yaccarino (4 percent), who heads X (formerly Twitter) that has been in turmoil since Elon Musk acquired the company in October, 2022.

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A woman passes by signs advertising Black Friday sales in 2021. (File photo by REUTERS/Jeenah Moon)

New California law will compensate

consumers defrauded by businesses

By Levi Sumagaysay | CalMatters

Businesses that defraud consumers sometimes pay a couple of thousand dollars in civil penalties under current California law. Or they’ll be ordered to pay millions of dollars, but close down or declare bankruptcy, leaving their victims without compensation.

A new law effective Jan. 1 will help change that: It will establish a restitution fund in the state treasury that can be used to try to fully reimburse consumers.

Assembly Bill 1366 will let the state attorney general pursue disgorgement, or repayment of ill-gotten gains, in cases where companies violate unfair competition or false advertising laws. The money recovered would go into the new fund.

“When a predatory business takes advantage of a consumer, it’s only right that the proceeds gained from illegal conduct should go towards compensating victims rather than remaining in the bank accounts of bad actors,” state Assemblymember Brian Maienschein,

a Democrat from San Diego who authored the legislation, said after the governor signed it in October.

NASA sets coverage for ULA,

Astrobotic Artemis robotic moon launch

As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program, United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Astrobotic are targeting 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, for the first commercial robotic launch to the Moon’s surface. Carrying NASA science, liftoff of ULA’s Vulcan rocket and Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander will happen from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Peregrine will land on the Moon on Friday, Feb. 23. The NASA payloads aboard the lander aim to help the agency develop capabilities needed to explore the Moon under Artemis and in advance of human missions on the lunar surface.

San Diego County Fair’s Street Banner Program announced

The San Diego County Fair is kicking off its 2024 community outreach efforts by

opening up applications for its Street Banner Program. The program is one of the more beloved activities of the community-centric San Diego County Fair, which also features myriad programs for youth, nonprofits, families, various diasporas, and others.

Cities and community organizations will have two weeks to submit an application to participate in the program this year.

During the 2023 Fair season — after a three-year Street Banner Program hiatus that was driven by the COVID-19 pandemic — more than 800 street banners were installed in 17 communities around the county, within the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, and Lemon Grove.

Community leaders are encouraged to visit the Fair’s website and submit an online application to participate in the program no later than Monday, January 15, 2024. Photo sessions are scheduled to take place during the month of February.

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Scripps scientists study atmospheric

rivers with Hurricane Hunter flights

Hurricane Hunter flights gathering data on atmospheric rivers to improve weather forecasting led by Scripps scientists in La Jolla have resumed for the winter. Atmospheric rivers are relatively long, narrow atmospheric regions, typically several thousand kilometers long and only a few hundred kilometers wide, that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics. They can carry a greater flux of water than Earth’s largest river, the Amazon, and have been increasing slightly in intensity over the past century.

To better understand and forecast atmospheric rivers, “Hurrican Hunter” aircraft from the U.S. Air Force Reserve 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron began flights in November over the Pacific Ocean to last through March. It is part of the Atmospheric River Reconnaissance program led by the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Scripps to pay $6.8 million, rescind mandatory retirement age policy

Scripps Clinic Medical Group has agreed to pay more than $6.8 million to resolve allegations that it imposed a mandatory retirement age on physician employees. The settlement agreement stems from age and disability discrimination allegations filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. According to the EEOC, a subsequent investigation concluded there was “reasonable cause to believe that Scripps Clinic Medical Group violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).”

GoMacro benefits Feeding San Diego and Solutions for Change

GoMacro, known for its organic, plant-based nutrition bars, announced their continued partnership with Feeding San Diego and Solutions for Change for the eighth year in a row. As part of GoMacro’s Give Back Bar program, a percentage of annual net proceeds from the Everlasting Joy MacroBar is donated to the two nonprofit orgganizations.

Southern Border Coalition seeking nominations

The California Jobs First’s Southern Border Coalition is seeking members of the community to serve as leaders in shaping a resilient carbon-neutral economy in San Diego and Imperial counties. They will play a key role in creating an inclusive economic development plan focused on green jobs in disinvested communities. Interested parties may apply using the Sector Lead Nomination & Application form, which describes the 15 sectors as well as sector lead responsibilities.

Oceanside names new assistant chief of police

Oceanside Police announced that Capt. Taurino Valdovinos will be the department’s next assistant chief of police, replacing assistant chief Sean Marchand, who retired. Valdovinos has been with Oceanside Police for 20 years and has worked on a variety of specialized assignments, including the Gang Suppression Unit, Special Enforcement Section and the Neighborhood Police Team, according to the department.

Oceanside accepts Fish and Wildlife funds for sand dune project

The City of Oceanside has accepted a $56,876 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to install and monitor dunes on the backend of several northern city beaches as part of a pilot project to restore habitat and retain sand. The City Council unanimously approved the Oceanside Coastal Dune Restoration Project funds at its Dec. 20 meeting. The project will test a nature-based sand retention solution by installing dunes to help protect the shoreline from rising sea levels and coastal flooding by elevating the beach, acting as a buffer between the ocean and local infrastructure.

Carlsbad to consider increasing affordable housing minimums

The Carlsbad Housing Commission voted on Dec. 14 to recommend increasing the minimum affordability requirements for new residential developments and rezoning city-owned land to help meet the city’s state-mandated affordable housing goals. The commission’s approval sends the proposal to the City Council, which is set to review and consider the proposed changes on Jan. 30, 2024. The city is addressing the gap between planned affordable housing and actual construction by setting higher minimum affordability requirements.

County Water Authority to drop lawsuit over Rainbow, Fallbrook departures

The San Diego County Water Authority has agreed to drop its lawsuit over the proposed departure of two North County water agencies, it was announced Dec. 21. The lawsuit filed earlier this year challenged a decision by the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission to allow the Rainbow Municipal Water District and Fallbrook Public Utility District to leave the water authority. The recent settlement allows Rainbow and Fallbrook’s water agencies to depart and includes a $25 million payment from both agencies, plus other costs and fees.

NCTD board approves Shawn Donaghy as next CEO

The North County Transit District Board of Directors unanimously approved Shawn M. Donaghy as the agency’s new CEO. Donaghy will take over for interim Executive Director Paul Ballard – who was brought on after the retirement of long-time Executive Director Matthew O. Tucker. Donaghy’s appointment follows a four-month, nationwide search by the board of directors. Most recently, Donaghy was the CEO of C-TRAN in Vancouver, Washington.

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San Diego, CA

San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Elephant Valley: Get closer to elephants

Published

7 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Elephant Valley: Get closer to elephants

Todd Martens
| Los Angeles Times

San Diego — Before we see elephants at Elephant Valley in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, we come face to face with destruction, only the wreckage is beautiful. A long, winding path takes guests around and under felled trees. Aged gray tree hunks form arches, for instance, over bridges that tower over clay-colored paths with hoof prints.

The design is meant to reorient us, to take us on a trail walked not by humans but traversed and carved by elephants, a creature still misunderstood, vilified and hunted for its cataclysmic-like ability to reshape land, and sometimes communities.

“It starts,” says Kristi Burtis, vice president of wildlife care for the Safari Park, “by telling the story that elephants are ecosystem engineers.”

Elephant Valley will open March 5 as the newest experience at the Escondido park, its aim to bring guests closer than ever to the zoo’s eight elephants, which range in age from 7 to 36, while more heavily focusing on conservation. The centerpiece of the 13-acre-plus parkland is a curved bridge overlooking a savanna, allowing elephants to walk under guests. But there are also nooks such as a cave that, while not previewed at a recent media event, will allow visitors to view elephants on their level.

In a shift from, say, the Safari Park’s popular tram tour, there are no fences and visible enclosures. Captive elephants remain a sometimes controversial topic, and the zoo’s herd is a mix of rescues and births, but the goal was to create a space where humans are at once removed and don’t impede on the relative free-roaming ability of the animals by keeping guests largely elevated. As an example of just how close people can get to the herd, there was a moment of levity at the event when one of the elephants began flinging what was believed to be a mixture of dirt and feces up onto the bridge.

“Our guests are going to be able to see the hairs on an elephant,” Burtis says. “They can see their eyes. They can see the eyelashes. They can see how muscular their trunks are. It’s really going to be a different experience.”

Elephant Valley, complete with a multistory lodge with open-air restaurants and bars, boasts a natural design that isn’t influenced by the elephant’s African home so much as it is in conversation with it. The goal isn’t to displace us, but to import communal artistry — Kenyan wood and beadwork can be found in the pathways, resting spaces and more — as a show of admiration rather than imitation.

“We’re not going to pretend that we’re taking people to Africa,” says Fri Forjindam, now a creative executive with Universal’s theme parks but previously a lead designer on Elephant Valley via her role as a chief development officer at Mycotoo, a Pasadena-based experiential design firm.

“That is a slippery slope of theming that can go wrong really fast,” she adds. “How do we recognize where we are right now, which is near San Diego? How do we populate this plane with plants that are indigenous to the region? The story of coexistence is important. We’re not extracting from Africa, we’re learning. We’re not extracting from elephants, we’re sharing information.”

But designing a space that is elephant-first yet also built for humans presented multiple challenges, especially when the collaborating teams were aiming to construct multiple narratives around the animals. Since meetings about Elephant Valley began around 2019, the staff worked to touch on themes related to migration and conservation. And there was also a desire to personalize the elephants.

“Where can we also highlight each of the elephants by name, so they aren’t just this huge herd of random gray creatures?” Forjindam says. “You see that in the lodge.”

That lodge, the Mkutano House — a phrase that means “gathering” in Swahili — should provide opportunities for guests to linger, although zoo representatives say reservations are recommended for those who wish to dine in the space (there will also be a walk-up, to-go window). Menus have yet to be released, but the ground floor of the structure, boasting hut-like roofing designed to blend into the environment, features close views of the elephant grazing pool as well as an indoor space with a centerpiece tree beneath constellation-like lighting to mimic sunrises and sunsets.

Throughout there are animal wood carvings and beadwork, the latter often hung from sculptures made of tree branches. The ceiling, outfitted with colorful, cloth tapestries designed to move with the wind, aims to create less friction between indoor and outdoor environments.

There are, of course, research and educational goals of the space as well. The Safari Park works, for instance, with the Northern Rangelands Trust and Loisaba Conservancy in Kenya, with an emphasis on studying human-elephant conflict and finding no-kill resolutions. Nonprofits and conservation groups estimate that there are today around 415,000 elephants in Africa, and the African savanna elephant is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Studies of the zoo’s young elephants is shared with the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in the hopes of delivering care to elephant youth to prevent orphanage. Additionally, the Safari Park has done extensive examination into the endotheliotropic herpes virus. “The data that we collect from elephants here, you can’t simply get from elephants in the wild,” Burtis says.

One of the two entrances to Elephant Valley is outfitted with bee boxes; bees are known to be a natural elephant deterrent and can help in preventing the animals from disrupting crops or communities. To encourage more natural behavior, the plane is outfitted with timed feeders in an attempt to encourage movement throughout the acreage and establish a level of real-life unpredictability in hunting for resources. Water areas have been redesigned with ramps and steps to make it easier for the elephants to navigate.

With Elephant Valley, Forjindam says the goal was to allow visitors to “observe safely in luxury — whatever that is — but not from a position of power, more as a cohabitor of the Earth, with as much natural elements as possible. It’s not to impose dominance. Ultimately, it needed to feel natural. It couldn’t feel like a man-made structure, which is an antiquated approach to any sort of safari experience where animals are the product, a prize. In this experience, this is the elephant’s home.”

And the resulting feel of Elephant Valley is that we, the paying customers, are simply their house guests.

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San Diego, CA

Man fatally struck by hit-and-run vehicle in San Diego

Published

19 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Man fatally struck by hit-and-run vehicle in San Diego

A man in the Mission Bay Park community of San Diego was fatally struck Sunday morning by a hit-and run vehicle, authorities said.

The victim was also struck by a second vehicle and that motorist stayed at the scene to cooperate with officers, the San Diego Police Department reported.

The initial crash occurred at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday in the area of West Mission Bay and Sea World drives.

The pedestrian was in the southbound lanes of the 2000 block of West Mission Bay Drive when he was struck by a silver vehicle also in the southbound lanes. That vehicle fled the scene, continuing southbound, police said.

A 28-year-old man driving his vehicle southbound ran over the downed pedestrian.

“That driver remained at the scene and is not DUI,” according to a police statement. “The pedestrian was pronounced deceased at the scene.”

Anyone with information regarding the initial crash was urged to call Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.

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San Diego, CA

Here are the 9 San Diego County communities that set or tied heat records

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Here are the 9 San Diego County communities that set or tied heat records

San Diego County is known for having wet, cold weather in February. But it had numerous hot spells this year. And when the month ended on Saturday a high pressure system produced heat that broke or tied temperature records in nine communities from the desert to the sea, the National Weather Service said.

The most notable temperature occurred in Borrego Springs, which reached 99, five degrees higher than the previous record for Feb. 28, set in 1986. The 99 reading is also the highest temperature ever recorded in Borrego in February.

Escondido reached 95, tying a record set in 1901.

El Cajon reached 92, three degrees higher than the record set in 2009.

Ramona topped out at 88, five degrees higher than the record set in 2009.

Alpine hit 88, four degrees higher the record set in 1986.

Campo reached 87, four degrees higher than the record set in 1999.

Vista hit 86, four degrees higher than the record set in 2020.

Chula Vista reached 84, one degree higher than the record set in 2020.

Lake Cuyamaca rose to 76, four degrees higher than the record set in 1986.

Forecasters say the weather is not likely to broadly produce new highs on Sunday. Cooler air is moving to the coast, and on Monday, San Diego’s high will only reach 67, a degree above normal.

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