A Sampling of Clips for September 21^th, 2009

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

The Race for U.S. Smart-Grid Cash
Reuters, Sept. 18 – Utilities across the United States are rushing to a federal stimulus program that is doling out money to create a “smart grid” — systems that will upgrade the electricity grid. In this story, Reuters correspondent Eileen O’Grady looks at the tough job facing the U.S. Department of Energy: They have to divvy up $4.5 billion in smart-grid money among some 565 applications. (Mentions UCSD) More

Similar story in Fox 5

Billions for a US-Mexico Border Fence, But is it Doing Any Good?
Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 19 – Some $2.4 billion has been spent since 2005 on a still-unfinished project to erect more than 600 miles of new fence along the US-Mexico border – a finding that is being met with surprise, anger, and consternation by immigrant groups and at least some border residents. A report, released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), also says $6.5 billion will be needed to maintain the new fencing over the next 20 years. So far, it has been breached 3,363 times, requiring $1,300 for the average repair. The US Border Patrol, for its part, agrees with some findings but says several conclusions are unknowable because building the wall has no precedent. And the agency defends the new fencing as effective at deterring illegal immigration. (Quotes Wayne Cornelius, director emeritus of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UCSD) More

UCSD Becoming Lab for Energy Innovation
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 20 – On a roof overlooking a parking garage at UCSD, Byron Washom pulls out his laptop and calls up an in-house Web site. Within moments, he's advising that the photovoltaic panels atop the garage are pumping out 243 kilowatts of electricity, down from their peak of 271 kilowatts. A graph on his screen shows the ups and downs of the electric production. “You can see the morning fog,” he says, looking at his computer, not the sky.” More

Lunch with the FT: Mario Testino
Financial Times, Sept. 18 -- Testino, the world’s most in-demand fashion photographer, does not take place at lunchtime. “I’m here one day,” says Testino. “Tomorrow I go to New York, Thursday I go to LA, Saturday I go to Milano. What am I doing in LA? I shouldn’t be talking about that. The last two days I was in Capri. Before that I was two days in Venice, and before that I was a week in Paris.” (Mentions UCSD) More

A Little 'Disputation' is Good for the Soul
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 20 -- On two sides, true believers. In the middle, a monumental text, from which each party draws its gospels. And all around, dissension, resentment, even rage. That’s the volatile setting of “The Savannah Disputation,” the Old Globe Theatre’s new play whose key conflict involves starkly opposed visions of Christianity and the Bible’s dictates. But it could almost as easily describe current political life, with Americans staking out positions and ramping up hostilities over, say, health-care reform and what the endless pages of proposed legislation do or don’t say on matters of life and death. (Quotes Kim Rubinstein, professor in UCSD’s theatre and dance department) More

To Get by, City Hires Recent Retirees
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 20 -- Nearly 620 city employees retired earlier this year, many to avoid reduced retirement benefits that took effect July 1. But not all of them are off San Diego's payroll. The city has rehired 50 of those pensioners temporarily as it grapples with the exodus, which officials say is a smart way to manage during the transition.
Critics say it allows for double dipping, as the workers now receive a pension and a paycheck from the city. So far, the workers have been paid $369,000 for nearly 9,400 hours of work and collected $670,000 from their pensions since retiring, an analysis by The San Diego Union-Tribune shows. (Quotes James Hamilton, an economics professor at UCSD) More

El Niño Likely Won't Ease State's Drought
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 20 -- Anyone counting on El Niño to wipe out California's drought this winter may be counting chickens long before they've hatched. Long-range forecasters are less and less bullish about El Niño, a global atmospheric condition that could bring extra precipitation to San Diego County. Most of them say the odds still slightly favor a wetter-than-normal rainfall season in California, which could use a drenching after three straight years of drought. But the fledgling El Niño is showing signs of losing steam. (Mentions UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

Top Research Universities Create News Service
Voice of San Diego, Sept. 21 -- A consortium of the nation's top research universities have established a nonprofit science news wire service that they say is needed because of cutbacks in science coverage by the mainstream media. Among the 35 universities involved are some of the biggest names in research, including Stanford, Yale and University of California, Berkeley, according to this San Jose Mercury News story. Officials at UCSD and San Diego State University have checked out the site, but haven't yet signed up. More

Continuing the Redevelopment Discussion
Voice of San Diego, Sept. 21 -- I e-mailed former voiceofsandiego.org staffer and UCSD doctoral student Vlad Kogan once I posted our new weekly feature that previews each San Diego City Council agenda. I've had discussions about redevelopment with Kogan so I asked for his perspective on the reform proposals for Centre City Development Corp. and Southeastern Economic Development Corp. that are up for first reading at council next week. More

UCSD Breaks Ground on Two New Oceanography Facility Projects
San Diego Daily Transcript, Sept. 18 -- The largest construction project in San Diego funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is now officially under way as a groundbreaking ceremony took place at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD on Tuesday. More

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