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Weekly Edition
March 8 - 14, 2010

  
Jerry Sanders speaks at a news conference in which Kyocera said it would start making solar panels at its Kearny Mesa plant in June. Also in the photo, from left, are Jim Avery, Victoria Bradshaw, Irene Stillings and Rod Lanthorne.
Jerry Sanders speaks at a news conference in which Kyocera said it would start making solar panels at its Kearny Mesa plant in June. Also in the photo, from left, are Jim Avery, Victoria Bradshaw, Irene Stillings and Rod Lanthorne.
3/8/2010
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  Finance - Shoddy loan underwriting, extending additional credit to already overextended borrowers, and a portfolio chock-full of defaulting land development and construction loans were just a few of the problems cited by federal regulators when they seized $3 billion La Jolla Bank last month.
  Law - In August 2008, an employee of Konami Digital Media noticed something strange while visiting a Toys ”R” Us store in the Los Angeles area.
  Energy - San Diego continued to burnish its status as one of the nation’s most solar-friendly cities last week when Kyocera Solar Inc. announced it would begin making solar panels at its Kearny Mesa plant in June, creating about 75 jobs.
  Innovation - When a UC San Diego computer science and engineering professor discovered that the university ranked among the county’s largest energy users, he wanted to get to the bottom of it.
  SDBJ Insider - I’m outta work! Now whatta I do? Former North County resident and freelance journalist Candice Reed teams up with comic and writer Kitty Martini to pen a new self-help tome, “Thank You for Firing Me!”
  Transportation - A key highway project in the South Bay, state Route 905, was awarded a $20.2 million grant through funds allocated from the $787 billion federal stimulus package.
  Medical Devices - A U.S. Food and Drug Administration push for more accurate blood glucose meters for managing diabetes has caught the attention of local device makers and developers testing next-generation products.
  Biotech - Serial entrepreneur Eckard Weber has spent years picking through promising pharmaceutical compounds that originated in Asia but, for one reason or another, were shelved by drug makers or used for treating only certain illnesses.
  News in Brief - Bridgepoint Education, a San Diego-based business that offers online college degree programs, said March 2 that it more than doubled its annual revenue in 2009 over 2008. Net income also grew dramatically.
  Regional Report - Leading off this week's compilation of news from around San Diego County: Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. said Feb. 22 that it received $2 million worth of work on security, video surveillance and fire alarm systems.
  Law - A recent speech delivered by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., seems to have reinvigorated the push for patent reform.
  Medical Devices - A San Diego startup company has hopes of making a major impact on the health care market, with products that offer noninvasive ways to screen for diabetes and perform daily glucose monitoring.
  People - Pamela Isaacson has been promoted to executive vice president and chief administration officer of First Business Bank.
  Kudos/Giving - California Bank & Trust associates raised $102,680 through their branch network of 100 offices for the United Way statewide fundraising campaign.
  Nonprofit Profile - Michelle Martin is executive director of Karuna International, a nonprofit organization promoting cross-cultural awareness through international volunteerism.
  Executive Profile - Kim Young is executive vice president and regional president of Wells Fargo’s community banking in Southern California.
  Finance - Last year’s results for local banks show profits were tough to find.
  Real Estate Roundup - The $260 million Rady Children’s Hospital Patient Care Pavilion construction project is on track to be San Diego’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified health care facility, and the first LEED-certified Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development facility in California with the help of McCarthy Building Cos. Inc.
  Sales and Leases - Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services has retained the exclusive listing for Poway Royal Estates, a 399-space, 51-acre mobile home community in Poway. The listing price of $44.5 million represents $111,529 per space at a 5.75 cap rate. Douglas Danny, vice president, investments, and senior director of the firm’s National Manufactured Home Communities Group in San Diego, will be representing the seller, the city of Poway. The property is currently 99 percent occupied and is one of the premier manufactured home communities in Southern California.
  Fundraising - Ask members of the nonprofit community what they need these days, and chances are you’ll hear a common theme emerge: money. It’s not unlike the message we have all heard before, but this time there’s a new urgency for many nonprofits in town. Stories of increasing demand and decreasing funds putting the squeeze on San Diego’s nonprofit community have become increasingly common.
  Education - As Harvey White and Pete Garcia, both former executives on the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. board of trustees, have argued, “We need STEAM, not just STEM” to ensure our leadership in the 21st century. We need to put art back into our curricula.
Real Estate/Construction/Energy
  Energy - After suffering a brutal year for business in 2009, the commercial solar industry is starting to see the sunlight again. Signs of a stronger economic forecast, combined with federal, state and local solar tax credits and incentives have local solar companies beaming, especially as commercial clients turn toward the sun for their energy production needs.
  Solar - When people thought of solar panels for residential use a decade ago, many of them had a vision of an eco-friendly log cabin-like house situated in the middle of a forest several miles from civilization and the power grid. Today, photovoltaics, or PV, are being used more and more by suburban dwellers. For many of these homeowners, it’s not just about being “green.” It’s about hard economics.
  Design - For homeowners and homebuilders attuned to aesthetics, unsightly solar panels on a rooftop used to be a serious deal breaker for installing a solar energy system. But the ugly side of solar has become a lot prettier in recent years, thanks to new materials, tidier installations, building-integrated systems and creative design solutions.
  Installation - As one of the nation’s top solar generating cities, San Diego is a popular place for the business of solar installation. The city has the most solar installations and generating power in the state and more solar rooftops than either Los Angeles or oh-so-green San Francisco, according to advocacy group Environment California.
  Loan - Already top-ranked for solar installations in the state, San Diego is about to get even more solar friendly once the city gets the final approval for a financing scheme that will tie loans to install power-generating systems to the property on which they’re installed through the tax assessor’s bill.
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