Stocks and Muir behind 2010 Lincoln Club hit piece?

During the 2010 election, we wrote about the curious hit piece by the (Republican) Lincoln Club of San Diego attacking reform candidates Teresa Barth and Tony Kranz and implicitly supporting union-backed, corrupt Democrat Dan Dalager (who has since pled guilty) and his neophyte ally Kristin Gaspar.

We wrote to Lincoln Club board members inquiring about the bizarre hit piece at the time, and received a response that perhaps they could use more help vetting candidates in the future.  It still seemed very odd to us that the Lincoln Club would have dumped thousands of dollars into a hit piece in a small-town election about which they knew nothing.

Until now.

An Encinitas Undercover source sends along this gem.  Right before the Lincoln Club hit piece came out, guess who donated to the Lincoln Club's mailer campaign. 

Encinitas Firefighters Association PAC    10/27/2010    $3000.00  Prop 22
Jerome Stocks                                        10/27/2010    $4000.00  Prop A

So the Encinitas Firefighters Association PAC suddenly found an urgent need to support California Proposition 22, which was cruising to an easy 60-40 victory, right before the election. 

And the same day, Jerome Stocks, who has made a political career out of supporting the unions and increasing their pension benefits, decided he wanted to personally contribute $4000 to the Lincoln Club for Proposition A against the unions?

And completely coincidentally, the Lincoln Club sent out a hit piece attacking Stocks' rivals Barth and Kranz just four days later?

I doubt there would be anything illegal about Jerome Stocks and Mark Muir's firefighter union's PAC donating directly to the anti-Barth and Kranz hit piece, so the sleight-of-hand subterfuge is probably just to avoid the tawdry appearance of tawdry reality.

Chicago-on-the-Pacific.

Encinitas Ho-down

Union-Trib:

A prostitution detail in Encinitas led to four arrests Friday evening, a San Diego Sheriff's Department release said.

Unlike the Union-Tribune and the North County Times, Encinitas Undercover will not publish the suspects' names, as we do not believe attempting to participate in a voluntary transaction for consensual sex merits permanent branding as a social outcast and permanent damaging of someone's employment prospects. If you agree, please contact the puritans at the U-T and the NCT.

Libertarian lecturing aside, where is the hotbed of prostitution in Encinitas? I do declare, there was a time when I was so lonesome I would have taken some comfort there. Have you seen women out on El Camino like on El Cajon Boulevard?

Welcome to Walmart!

The new Encinitas Ranch Walmart opens June 13th. 

Thanks to an anonymous commenter who tipped us off to the parking lot being re-striped with lots of compact spaces to accommodate more cars.

How many Walmart shoppers do you think drive compact cars?  Have you seen Walmart shoppers?

Incidentally, this could free up a lot of space at San Elijo campground as Walmart allows RV camping in its parking lots.



The bright side for Encinitas Ranch homeowners is that researchers say that a new Walmart within a mile will increase their property values by 1-3%.  Yay Walmart!  Although I'm pretty sure they don't have a lot of million-dollar homes in that sample.

Just askin'

One wonders what tonight's Wisconsin, San Diego, and San Jose election results mean for Encinitas' union-backed, pension-crisis-denying mayor, Jerome Stocks.

Happy Birthday, Rachel

One of the better do-it-yourself birthday Kook costumes. You wouldn't believe some of the crap people put up there.

Happy birthday, Rachel. And congratulations on your choice of UC Berkeley. Despite corruption and administrative bloat, it's still one of the best education values out there.

Now don't take on any bankruptcy-proof student debt. And don't eat the brown acid.

#HALLPARKFAIL: Bids come in higher than expected; broke city to screw kids out of skate park

We can't afford a skate park for the kids, but at least city employees can all retire rich at 55.

Patch:

The base bids are a package that contain the grading and basic infrastructure of the park, including items like removal of gas mains, earthwork and putting in sports fields. The city initially estimated the base bids would cost $10.9 million. But five contracting firms submitted base bids of about $13.8 million, $14.7 million, $14.6 million, $14.6 million and $15.2 million. You can review all of those bids in the PDF files attached to this story.

In contrast to the base bids, the alternate bids, items like the skate park, dog park and softball field, may not all be built during phase one. Depending on funding, the city will choose whether to build all or a select number of alternate bid items on an individual basis. Alternate bid items that are passed up for phase one may be built during future phases, according to Frenken.

A group of skateboarders is expected to congregate at the next city council meeting to discuss the proposed skate park. Under the alternate bids, there are three versions of the skate park, ranging from a full park to a stripped down version. The city initially estimated the full skate park would cost $1.1 million. The five contracting firms submitted base bids of about $1.1 million, $1.3 million, $1.4 million, $1.4 million and $1.9 million.

Who not to vote for

Thanks to the sheriffs union for providing this handy guide.

If the sheriffs union is for them, I'm against them.