Editorials

Trash fee vote Monday will be a test of city leaders’ honesty

The City Council’s latest move to maximize the money it takes from the public — its Monday vote to begin charging for parking on Sundays and at the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park, to have $10-an-hour meters near Petco Park and to add more meters in many neighborhoods — triggered disbelief among some residents. It shouldn’t have. The disconnect...

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria delivers his annual State of the City speech in January. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Local House Juan Vargas, Scott Peters, Sara Jacobs and Mike Levin and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria held a press conference Monday to denounce Friday’s ICE raid in South Park. They were ed at the event by other local elected officials and leaders. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

ICE raid tactics unwarranted, reckless and not at all ‘by the book’

San Diego Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera is the leading advocate of a big hike in minimum wages for many visitor industry workers. (U-T)

Blaming the visitor industry for local poverty is laughable

Contaminated water signs are shown at Imperial Beach in 2019. Six years later, the sewage crisis is worse than ever. (U-T)

What The New York Times left out about our local sewage nightmare

By U T Editorial Board

May 30, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

The phenomenon of journalists heading to places they have little familiarity with and then instantly...

Despite dozens and dozens of state laws enacted since Gov. Jerry Brown's 2015 call for an intense focus on new housing, shelter costs remain the key factor in California having the nation's highest effective rate of poverty. (SCNG)

San Diego County is on the brink of a grim, telling housing milestone

By U T Editorial Board

May 23, 2025 at 5:53 p.m.

It’s been 14 years since the Census Bureau began issuing reports on poverty that factored...

Mayor Todd Gloria is shown at a 2024 event. (John Gastaldo for the Union-Tribune)

Ambulance story makes it official: Mayor Gloria has jumped the shark

By U T Editorial Board

May 23, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Has San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria jumped the shark, to use the snarky phrase coined...

Thousands of homes were burned to the ground in Altadena in January. This photo is from Jan. 19. (SCNG)

Massive L.A. fires could happen here without emphasis on fire ‘triage’

By U T Editorial Board

May 16, 2025 at 5:54 p.m.

Literally nothing will ever change the minds of millions of Americans who think the climate...

Phyllis Jackson, flanked by other loved ones of people who died while in county jails, speaks to of the media during a press conference at Athens Market in downtown San Diego on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)

How to limit jail deaths: Local attorney has a smart suggestion

By U T Editorial Board

May 16, 2025 at 5:05 a.m.

This week’s report about yet another death at a county jail run by the Sheriff’s...

San Diego City Hall intends to begin charging single-family homes a fee for trash and recycling collection in coming months. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

City must junk its dishonest trash initiative and start from scratch

By U T Editorial Board

May 12, 2025 at 10:15 a.m.

The May 4 U-T report showing that the city’s 2022 estimate of how much a...

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

May Pope Leo XIV be a ‘pontifex maximus’ — a builder of bridges

By U T Editorial Board

May 8, 2025 at 5:09 p.m.

Even in an era in which organized religion is a diminished force, the selection of...

The city of San Diego intends to start charging residents of single-family homes for trash collection, shown here as a greenery bin is picked up on Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Still more deceit, manipulation in Chapter 3 of city’s trash power play

By U T Editorial Board

May 5, 2025 at 12:50 p.m.

Can the city of San Diego’s shamefully deceptive and manipulative handling of its push to...

On April 9, about three dozen demonstrators from UC San Diego held a peaceful protest on campus over Trump istration policies, in particular the revocation of visas for some international students. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

How does hostility to international students help the U.S.?

By U T Editorial Board

May 2, 2025 at 5:03 a.m.

Perhaps the best hope that President Donald Trump will rein in the erratic excesses that...

During Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to the United States, an unidentified child reaches out to touch the pontiff’s face during a parade before Sunday Mass in Philadelphia. (AP)

The telling response to the death of Pope Francis

By U T Editorial Board

April 25, 2025 at 11:05 p.m.

As the distractions of a wired world change how people — young and old alike...

Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer speaks during the State of the County address at the Museum of Natural History on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in San Diego. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Lawson-Remer’s call for $1B county tax hike: ‘defiant’ or ‘delusional’?

By U T Editorial Board

April 25, 2025 at 5:03 a.m.

At a time when polls show sky-high levels of disillusionment about quality of life in...

This shows the county’s San Diego Central Jail on Front Street in San Diego. (Photo by Denis Poroy)

Ruling in jail death case invites misconduct by law enforcement officers

By U T Editorial Board

April 18, 2025 at 5:42 p.m.

A February ruling by a divided of three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit...

Upon hearing that a city employee was allowed to receive pay and accrue vacation while on a lengthy cruise, one U-T letter writer asked, "Where do I sign up

Time for bullied San Diegans to fight back, only starting with trash fee

By U T Editorial Board

April 18, 2025 at 11:30 p.m.

San Diegans already disillusioned with City Hall have new reasons for angst. In a bizarre...

EPA Lee Zeldin says Mexico must stop the sewage leaks fouling the South Bay coast as soon as possible. (AP)

EPA chief’s weighing in on sewage crisis is welcome. But there’s a twist.

By U T Editorial Board

April 11, 2025 at 5:18 p.m.

For two decades, visitors to San Diego have expressed bafflement about the U.S. government’s response...

President Donald Trump is shown at the White House in March. (AP)

Who will be next unfavored group added to Trump’s enemies list?

By U T Editorial Board

April 11, 2025 at 5:03 a.m.

For decades, the Internal Revenue Service has made taxpayer confidentiality a high priority, including strictly...

Gasoline prices are higher in California than every state but Hawaii, but years of claims that this is due to gouging have never been corroborated. (AFP/Getty Images)

If Newsom knocks ‘toxic’ Dem policies, what about gas-price con games?

By U T Editorial Board

April 4, 2025 at 5:51 p.m.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has been on a headline-grabbing roll of late, selling himself as a...

In this Oct. 9, 1930, photo, unemployed people gather outside City Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, to apply for jobs during the Great Depression. Tariffs adopted by the U.S. and other nations around the world played a role in the global economic downturn. (AP)

Massive tariffs will both punish Americans and help U.S. rivals

By U T Editorial Board

April 5, 2025 at 1:00 a.m.

Even before this week, the downside of the Trump White House’s brusque treatment of historic...

Roses are placed on graves at the Miramar National Cemetery on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in San Diego, California. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Severe cuts to VA betray Lincoln’s promise to veterans

By U T Editorial Board

March 29, 2025 at 2:14 a.m.

Is the U.S. at risk of a brutal fiscal crisis? No doubt. When 13% of...

San Diego City Attorney Heather Ferbert is shown. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

City attorney needs to back up her stand on trash outsourcing

By U T Editorial Board

March 28, 2025 at 5:03 a.m.

The bitter controversy over City Hall’s plan to implement new trash collection fees on 233,000...

ISTOCKPHOTO

Trump’s back-door attempt to break his Social Security promise

By U T Editorial Board

March 21, 2025 at 5:48 p.m.

In 2016, one of the keys to Donald Trump’s popularity didn’t get the attention it...

Is it common sense to have climate goals that are preposterous?

By U T Editorial Board

March 21, 2025 at 5:03 a.m.

As a Jan. 26 U-T headline observed, transit in San Diego “always seems to be...

OpenAI was founded by Sam Altman, Elon Musk and others in 2015. (AP)

Big Tech’s AI pitch seeks license to steal

By Medianews Group

March 17, 2025 at 3:39 p.m.

Open AI and Google, having long trained their ravenous bots on the work of newsrooms...

The national media believes it is a mortal lock that California Gov. Gavin Newsom will run for president in 2028. (AP)

Newsom on homelessness: The buck stops over there

By U T Editorial Board

March 14, 2025 at 5:01 a.m.

Gavin Newsom’s determination to keep himself in the national news — on display since his...

As a county supervisor, Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre is far less likely to accept the status quo of a slow-motion response to the South Bay sewage nightmare. (Aguirre campaign)

Endorsement: Paloma Aguirre for county supervisor

By U T Editorial Board

March 7, 2025 at 6:31 p.m.

In the special election to fill the District 1 vacancy on the county Board of...

Revered San Diego community leader Leon Williams was 90 when this photo was taken in 2012. (Eduardo Contreras / U-T file)

R.I.P. to Leon Williams, an inspiration to the San Diego community for decades

By U T Editorial Board

March 7, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

The death of San Diego civic legend Leon Williams at age 102 triggered outpourings of...

You may be a Petco Park-loving local fan of the Padres, but you’re not necessarily a San Diegan, according to a City Council member. (Photo by K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Here we go again: Time for new fight over minimum wage

By U T Editorial Board

February 28, 2025 at 5:30 p.m.

A City Council committee’s initial embrace Thursday of a $25 minimum wage for some tourism...

Flooding in many parts of San Diego in January 2024 showed huge problems with city storm infrastructure. Above, Kolby Qualls, front, and Evan Anderson paddle across a flooded Abbott Street in Ocean Beach after a powerful storm. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Evidence keeps growing that city finances are in awful shape

By U T Editorial Board

March 3, 2025 at 3:38 p.m.

The report that the city of San Diego’s funding shortfall for much-needed infrastructure projects has...

San Diego will soon start charging single-family homes a monthly fee for trash collection, but it is likely to be about double what voters were told to expected in 2022 when they agreed to change the law on when such fees could be charged. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Mayor’s response to criticism of costly trash plan far from persuasive

By U T Editorial Board

February 21, 2025 at 5:31 p.m.

It’s becoming clearer how the budget debate is going to play out at City Hall...

A jogger runs in front of the Phillips 66 refinery in the Wilmington area of Los Angeles. It is expected to close by year’s end. (AP)

Blame state, not the usual suspects, for energy policy headaches

By U T Editorial Board

February 21, 2025 at 5:01 a.m.

California’s global leadership on environmental issues, dating back to its pioneering crusade against smog in...

San Diego City Hall intends to begin charging single-family homes a fee for trash and recycling collection in coming months. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Time may have come for voter revolt over city’s trash fee bait-and-switch

By U T Editorial Board

February 14, 2025 at 5:31 p.m.

Was the Jan. 16 report that a frustrated City Council was eager to challenge Mayor...

Musk bid for OpenAI exposes hypocrisy of business model

By Chicago Tribune Editorial Board

February 14, 2025 at 12:00 p.m.

In a court filing Wednesday, lawyers for Elon Musk said that he would withdraw his...

Local residents participate in a rally against the mayor’s proposal to convert an empty warehouse by Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street into a 1,000-bed homeless shelter on Friday, June 14, 2024, in San Diego. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Dead plan walking: Gloria finally gives up on Middletown shelter

By U T Editorial Board

February 14, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Since he was first elected in 2020, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s homelessness policies have...

In March 2023, Paloma Serna looks on during a rally and vigil in El Cajon for her daughter Elisa Serna, who died in a county jail in 2019. The county paid $14 million to settle a lawsuit over her death. (Kristian Carreon / U-T file)

Why sheriff’s refusal to heed new law on jail deaths is no surprise

By U T Editorial Board

February 7, 2025 at 5:14 p.m.

In 2023, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 519 to require sheriff’s departments to...

Donald Trump has given Elon Musk, right, unprecedented government authority for a private citizen. AP

‘Ready, fire, aim’ approach yields MAGA applause, not results

By U T Editorial Board

February 7, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

The most consequential moves by Donald Trump since his return to the White House —...

Firefighters battle winds and flames as multiple beachfront homes go up in flames along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu in the Palisades Fire on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Why the county needs a regional fire safety czar ASAP

By U T Editorial Board

January 31, 2025 at 5:47 p.m.

It’s now been nearly a month since both the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire...

Meals on Wheels services, which are 37 percent funded by the federal government, were disrupted in several states by the freeze on the federal grant used by the program, which provides food to homebound seniors. This photo shows program volunteers in Redlands. (SCNG)

What the spending freeze is really about: maximizing tax cuts

By U T Editorial Board

January 31, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget’s stunning order Monday freezing hundreds of billions of...

President Donald Trump talks with California Gov. Gavin Newsom after arriving on Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Triage must be goal of state leaders in new Trump era

By U T Editorial Board

January 24, 2025 at 5:52 p.m.

Whatever your views of Donald Trump, his first week back in the White House showed...

A sign warns people of the contaminated ocean water in Imperial Beach, which has been plagued by untreated sewage from Tijuana for years. (U-T)

Fixing sewage nightmare ‘beyond the capabilities’ of our leaders

By U T Editorial Board

January 24, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

It’s been more than 30 years since toxic sewage from broken infrastructure in Tijuana reaching...

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria delivers his annual State of the City speech in January. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

To escape budget rut, San Diego needs a Gorbachev-style leader

By U T Editorial Board

March 9, 2025 at 9:58 a.m.

In delivering his fifth State of the City address on Wednesday, Mayor Todd Gloria offered...

Two people walk along a road in the fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades on Monday. (AP)

San Diego and state must meet challenge of scary new fire era

By U T Editorial Board

January 16, 2025 at 4:15 p.m.

It seems likely and perhaps inevitable that the devastating, deadly and staggeringly costly fires that...

The Blue Line trolley extension and zoning changes along its route did not yield the housing gains that City Hall counted on. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Lesson of latest housing initiative to flop: Central planners don’t know best

By U T Editorial Board

January 10, 2025 at 5:17 p.m.

When it comes to the state’s intertwined problems of housing and homelessness, the glib assumption...

In this Dec. 6, 2017, file photo, one of the elevated sections of the high-speed rail project is shown under construction in Fresno, Calif. More than seven years later, it still appears it will be many years before the initial Central Valley segment is completed, because of both a lack of funding and difficulty in obtaining needed land. (AP)

Sticking with bullet train fiasco a bad look for Democrats

By U T Editorial Board

January 10, 2025 at 5:01 a.m.

The Democratic reaction to Republicans winning back the White House and control of Congress initially...

When she was an Assembly member, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber told the U-T Editorial Board that people who believed San Diego Unified had a 91% graduation rate probably also believed in “unicorns.” (AP)

San Diego school board must worry about more than finances

By U T Editorial Board

January 4, 2025 at 2:10 a.m.

As San Diego Unified deals with a budget deficit recently estimated at $113 million, it’s...

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn are shown in 2009 at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta. Rosalynn Carter died in Plains, Georgia, in November 2023. (AP)

Editorial: Rest in peace, Jimmy Carter, America's greatest ex-president

By U T Editorial Board

December 29, 2024 at 5:34 p.m.

Jimmy Carter’s death at 100 in his hometown of Plains, Ga., on Sunday will lead...

San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas listens to people speak during a Dec. 10 board meeting in San Diego. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Supervisors must call special election to replace Vargas

By U T Editorial Board

December 27, 2024 at 4:10 p.m.

The immediate reaction to county Supervisor Nora Vargas’ bombshell announcement on Dec. 20 — that...

SUT-L-Christmas-Eve-Service-XOL05

The mystery and message of Christmas

By The Editorial Board

December 25, 2024 at 9:48 a.m.

Christmas reminds us of the responsibility and necessity to seek and value all that is...

A report commissioned by the property’s owner warns of possible asbestos and lead paint issues at the warehouse in Middletown that Mayor Todd Gloria wants to turn into a huge homeless shelter. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

After Ash Street, Gloria’s lack of due diligence on shelter plan is shocking

By U T Editorial Board

December 21, 2024 at 12:47 a.m.

The saga over whether the City Council will go along with Mayor Todd Gloria’s push...

SANDAG owns the state Route 125 toll road. (U-T)

SANDAG needs to abandon its imperious, oblivious ways

By U T Editorial Board

December 13, 2024 at 5:01 a.m.

The recent board meeting of the San Diego Association of Governments, the region’s lead transportation...

The city of San Diego’s plans for major changes in trash collection will cost hundreds of thousands of residents more than they were led to believe. (U-T)

Poway Unified’s illegal money grab dwarfed by San Diego’s legal power play

By U T Editorial Board

December 6, 2024 at 5:08 p.m.

In a news cycle packed with major breaking events, it got little attention last month...

Jerry Sanders is shown in 2022. (U-T)

Jerry Sanders’ journey and what it says about state GOP

By U T Editorial Board

December 6, 2024 at 5:01 a.m.

The announcement that Jerry Sanders, 74, is retiring in coming weeks after 12 years as...

In 2019, then-President Donald Trump talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a summit in Osaka, Japan. Xi has repeatedly warned Trump that Beijing will at least match U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. (AP)

Economies of CaliBaja and the world at risk in a trade war

By U T Editorial Board

November 29, 2024 at 6:13 p.m.

When it comes to the lessons of the 20th century, the parallels between Donald Trump’s...

Election_2024_Trump_19536

Trump’s immigration earthquake: No one’s coming to the rescue

By U T Editorial Board

November 22, 2024 at 5:32 p.m.

Donald Trump says so many seemingly off-the-wall things that many Americans may hope it’s all...

Are San Diego residents ready to pay for “world-class” trash collection services? (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

City leaders must heed lessons of Measure E. Will they on trash plans?

By U T Editorial Board

November 22, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

The defeat of Measure E — which would raise the city sales tax from 7.75...

Loved ones of inmates who died while incarcerated in county jails speak during a press conference in downtown San Diego on Wednesday. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Supervisors’ share of blame in county jail deaths keeps growing

By U T Editorial Board

November 15, 2024 at 4:53 p.m.

In 2019, after The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Watchdog team first documented excessive deaths at the...

The Medi-Cal program, which helps 14 million state residents with health care, relies on federal funding. (SCNG)

State must protect its policies. But Newsom’s grandstanding doesn’t help.

By U T Editorial Board

November 15, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

In November 2016, though shocked by Donald Trump’s unexpected victory, many pundits predicted that as...

Problems with city infrastructure were a factor in the severity of January flooding in several parts of San Diego, including the stretch of Imperial Avenue shown in this photo. City officials say a sales-tax hike is crucial to funding improvements. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Here’s how to ensure sales tax windfall is used responsibly

By U T Editorial Board

November 8, 2024 at 4:50 p.m.

The city of San Diego was not witness to the incumbent purges seen elsewhere in...

SANDAG has itted to knowingly overcharging s of the State Route 125 toll road, which it operates. (U-T)

Board must force change on SANDAG for agency to achieve goals

By U T Editorial Board

November 8, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

It’s still possible that Measure G — which would raise the sales tax by a...

Smash-and-grab robberies, such as this one at a Manhattan Beach jewelry store in 2023, have surged in recent years. (Manhattan Beach Police Department)

After Props. 36 and 47, it’s time for this smart criminal justice reform

By U T Editorial Board

November 5, 2024 at 9:33 p.m.

The U-T Editorial Board welcomes the landslide victory of Proposition 36 — the most significant...

County Supervisor Nora Vargas, Maria-Elena Giner, commissioner of the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Ann Patterson, Newsom’s aide, tour the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant on Oct. 28. (Office of San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas)

No, ‘expansive’ federal law doesn’t prevent sewage disaster declaration

By U T Editorial Board

December 9, 2024 at 7:43 a.m.

In normal circumstances, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to visit the region to personally review one...

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s allies on the California Air Resources Board are about to adopt rules that would push gasoline prices to all-time highs. But the air board refuses to answer questions about the policy’s effect on the cost of driving. (SCNG)

Don’t reward deceptive state leaders by backing Props. 2 and 4

By U T Editorial Board

November 1, 2024 at 5:01 a.m.

When deciding whether to state Propositions 2 and 4 — which would each authorize...

This shows a federally funded SpaceX launch on Thursday after it left Vandenberg Space Force Base along the Santa Barbara coast. (Gene Blevins, Contributing Photographer, SCNG)

Newsom right to knock commission’s punishment of Musk

By U T Editorial Board

October 25, 2024 at 5:35 p.m.

The fundamental importance of the government acting in a neutral fashion in handing its basic...

If you think the new revenue from the proposed city sales tax hike will be used for what leaders now say, that amounts to a leap of faith. (SCNG)

Endorsement: No on Measure E. Don’t be duped by City Hall.

By U T Editorial Board

October 24, 2024 at 4:54 p.m.

The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board’s deep and amply justified concern about the judgment of...

“I Voted” stickers are displayed at a polling place. (SCNG)

Union-Tribune Editorial Board endorsements for Nov. 5 election

By U T Editorial Board

November 5, 2024 at 10:00 a.m.

Here are all of The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the Nov. 5...

Sean Elo-Rivera, left, and Terry Hoskins are shown. (U-T)

Endorsements: Cusack, Elo-Rivera for San Diego City Council

By U T Editorial Board

October 18, 2024 at 4:18 p.m.

The homogenization of San Diego City Hall has led to unhealthy groupthink among elected officials....

Crystal Trull (U-T)

Endorsement: To protect students at San Diego Unified, elect Crystal Trull

By U T Editorial Board

October 18, 2024 at 2:19 p.m.

Except for the divisions over school closures during the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic,...

SANDAG owns the state Route 125 toll road. (U-T)

Endorsement: More proof a vote for Measure G is a vote for chaos, waste

By U T Editorial Board

October 18, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

The San Diego Association of Governments wants county residents to approve a half-cent increase in...

Ronald McDonald is shown in 2012 in Anaheim, when Happy Meals at McDonald’s were a whole lot cheaper.

Endorsement: Unless you like California status quo, reject Prop. 32

By U T Editorial Board

October 17, 2024 at 11:21 a.m.

Proposition 32 — the latest state ballot measure seeking to raise the minimum wage —...

San Diego Mesa College is one of the schools involved in PATH. (U-T)

Endorsement: No on Prop. 2, yes (barely) on Measure HH

By U T Editorial Board

October 11, 2024 at 4:39 p.m.

With enrollment down in most parts of California but with compensation costs still going up...

Mayor Todd Gloria and challenger Larry Turner shake hands at the end of a debate at the KPBS studios at San Diego State University on Oct. 3. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Endorsement: Despite missteps, Todd Gloria is the clear choice for mayor

By U T Editorial Board

October 10, 2024 at 12:41 p.m.

In March, after San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria scored an anemic victory in the primary...

sandiegouniontribune default image

Endorsement: Reject Measure G. SANDAG is dishonest, dysfunctional.

By U T Editorial Board

October 6, 2024 at 11:16 p.m.

It’s impossible to recall a ballot measure backed by a major local government that had...

In 2016, the Faulconer istration said all the decrepit 101 Ash Street tower in downtown San Diego needed was a power wash before it could be used by hundreds of city workers. This and many related false claims hang over Kevin Faulconer’s bid for county supervisor. (U-T)

Endorsement: Lawson-Remer for county supervisor. Ash happened.

By U T Editorial Board

October 4, 2024 at 5:15 a.m.

Before the March primary, The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board endorsed incumbent county Supervisor Terra...

Heather Ferbert (Ferbert campaign)

Endorsement: Heather Ferbert the clear choice for San Diego city attorney

By U T Editorial Board

October 3, 2024 at 11:27 p.m.

In a city that has a 30-year history of making bizarre mistakes on pension funding...

Bags and boxes of chocolate candy are shown for sale behind locked, transparent, protective plastic to prevent shoplifters from stealing them. Stores have been much more likely to use such measures in California in recent years. (AP)

Endorsement: Yes on Prop. 36: Time to free the detergent

By U T Editorial Board

November 4, 2024 at 4:16 p.m.

The coming landslide win for Proposition 36 will be a triumph for truth over spin....

Former San Diego Unified Superintendent Cindy Marten, now U.S. deputy secretary of education, is shown in 2022 at Renaissance High School for the Arts in Long Beach. (SCNG)

Scandals keeps mushrooming at San Diego Unified

By U T Editorial Board

September 27, 2024 at 5:01 a.m.

Are the San Diego Unified School District’s elected leaders aware of bad conduct and dysfunction...

Experts say artificial intelligence has immense promise to improve many different areas of health care. (AP)

Endorsement: No on Prop. 35. It’s more about doctors than patients.

By U T Editorial Board

September 26, 2024 at 12:01 p.m.

Proposition 35 — the “Provides Permanent Funding for Medi-Cal Health Care Services” initiative statute —...

This subsidized government “affordable housing” project opened in Long Beach in June. Its 77 small units cost more than $600,000 each. That’s a bargain in a state where such developments have cost $1 million per unit in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco since 2022. (SCNG)

Endorsement: No on Prop. 5, which rewards state’s broken status quo

By U T Editorial Board

September 20, 2024 at 4:03 p.m.

A key selling point for Proposition 5 on the Nov. 5 California ballot is that...

Forest thinning to reduce fire risks is among the projects that Proposition 4 would pay for using borrowed funds. (CalMatters photo)

Endorsement: No on Prop. 4, $10 billion bond with too much unfocused spending

By U T Editorial Board

September 20, 2024 at 4:02 p.m.

The practice of local and state governments using 30- or 40-year borrowing to pay for...

(SCNG)

Endorsement: No on Prop. 33. Rent control makes problem worse.

By U T Editorial Board

October 29, 2024 at 1:20 p.m.

For the third time in recent years, state voters are being asked to expand cities’...

This shows San Diego Unified School District headquarters on Normal Street. (U-T)

Why appalling report on San Diego Unified was no surprise

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

August 20, 2024 at 9:55 a.m.

For more than 180 years after the nation’s founding in 1776, America’s attitudes toward sexism...

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria (U-T)

Mayor keeps making the case that San Diego needs a city manager

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

August 9, 2024 at 5:01 a.m.

The never-ending stories coming out of City Hall that make San Diegans incredulous, angry or...

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, got Senate Bill 357 enacted over the warnings of law enforcement authorities who said its permissive approach to prostitution would promote exploitation. AP

Sting a grim reminder of human trafficking’s local prevalence

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

August 2, 2024 at 3:44 p.m.

The announcement last week that a sprawling multiagency effort targeting human trafficking during Comic-Con had...

An unidentified man walks along Broadway Street last month during Comic-Con. (Laura Castañeda / U-T))

San Diego can’t afford to lose tourists who visit for Comic-Con

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

August 2, 2024 at 4:12 p.m.

Last week, San Diego hosted one of its biggest tourist events of the year, Comic-Con...

A sign warns people of the contaminated ocean water in Imperial Beach in April. It’s been closed for years because of sewage drifting north from from Tijuana. (U-T)

There is a huge problem we know how to fix. Get on with it.

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

July 26, 2024 at 4:05 p.m.

California is full of problems that its leaders are unable to fix, starting with the...

President Joe Biden speaks at a news conference following the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., on, July 11. (AP)

Biden made the right decision to drop out. What’s next?

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

July 21, 2024 at 3:16 p.m.

Joe Biden’s announcement Sunday that he was dropping out of the presidential race was the...

In this photo from 2023, homeless encampments are shown on the freeway over on J Street in downtown San Diego. (U-T)

If mayor won’t, City Council must sweat details on mega-shelter

By U T Editorial Board

July 19, 2024 at 3:29 p.m.

The fact that homelessness remains so pervasive in San Diego — despite a dozen-plus years...

A bloodied Donald Trump is rushed off stage by Secret Service agents after shots were fired at a campaign rally on Saturday in Butler, Pa. (Eric Lee/The New York Times)

Divided America must not keep going down this road

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

July 14, 2024 at 11:14 p.m.

The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday in Butler, Pa., was a...

President Joe Biden, left, and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy pose at the NATO summit on Thursday shortly after Biden referred to Zelenskyy as “President Putin.” (AP)

Democrats must consider political, security risks if Biden remains nominee

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

July 12, 2024 at 4:12 p.m.

In any fair discussion of whether President Joe Biden should remain a candidate for re-election,...

This shows a rendering of an EV charging project planned in Riverside County. The federal government’s $7.5 billion investment in EV charging, billed as a crucial part of the nation’s response to the climate emergency, has only led to the opening of eight stations since 2021. (SCNG)

Elected leaders’ warnings about climate crisis not reflected in their actions

By U T Editorial Board

July 11, 2024 at 3:53 p.m.

Three weeks into summer, the climate emergency is demanding attention as heat waves across the...

Michael Serna, father of Elisa Serna, who died in a county jail in 2019, speaks at a rally in 2023. (U-T)

15 million more reasons to fault oversight of county jails

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

July 5, 2024 at 3:23 p.m.

In November 2019 — less than two months after a lengthy investigation by The San...

A supermarket worker takes a container of Tide laundry soap from a locked cabinet. (AP)

Cynical attempts to block Prop 47 fixes must end

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

June 28, 2024 at 4:09 p.m.

On a key question involving criminal justice, states across the nation have made a basic...

SANDAG is pushing for billions and billions of dollars in improvements to the imperiled coastal rail corridor in North County. Critics say officials have never done a cost-benefit analysis that justifies the spending. (U-T)

Push to fix lightly used rail corridor at immense cost is nuts

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

June 28, 2024 at 11:57 a.m.

The debate over how to respond to the crumbling coastal bluffs in Del Mar that...

ISTOCKPHOTO

Why Biden’s immigration order is both humane and smart

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

June 28, 2024 at 12:02 p.m.

President Joe Biden’s newly issued executive order allowing hundreds of thousands of spouses of U.S....

Why should restaurants be the only California businesses allowed to add additional fees to the cost of what they’re selling? SCNG

No, restaurants should not have the right to lie to customers

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

June 21, 2024 at 1:33 p.m.

The people who represent the region in the state Legislature face a character test in...

According to a 2023 survey, teens spend an average of more than seven hours a day viewing content on phones and other devices. Getty Images/iStockphoto

Newsom is right to seek limits on phone use in schools

By Union Tribune Editorial Board

June 20, 2024 at 11:11 a.m.

The evidence that smartphones and social media have had a painful to a catastrophic effect...

San Diego, California - June 04: Migrants from India seeking asylum wait along the border wall in the Tijuana River Valley on Tuesday, June 4, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Why Joe Biden’s botched handling of immigration should please no one

By San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board

June 8, 2024 at 12:20 a.m.

The ability of presidents to make immigration policy decisions unilaterally has long been plain. Barack...

San Diego, CA - April 27: City Attorney Mara Elliott stands outside the California Theatre building on Thursday, April 27, 2023 in San Diego, CA. The city is suing the owner of the property to remedy all municipal code violations or allow the city to do so at the owner's expense. (Adriana Heldiz / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Time for City Council to let voters strengthen the San Diego Ethics Commission

By San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board

June 1, 2024 at 6:50 p.m.

The cynicism that many San Diegans have about how their city government is run is...

San Diego, CA_12/30/2010_Recognized as "America's Largest Balloon Parade" the San Diego Big Balloon Parade features more giant helium-filled character balloons than any parade in the country. Inflatables slated to soar include Thomas the Tank Engine, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Betty Boop, Hello Kitty and Bob the Builder. In all, the balloons flying in the 2010 parade will require 46,000 cubic feet of helium. NBA hall of famer, Emmy award winning broadcaster and native San Diegan, Bill Walton, will be leading the fun as Grand Marshal. Basketball legend and broadcaster Bill Walton(cq)was the Grand Marshall of the parade. Mandatory Photo Credit: JOHN GASTALDO/Union-Tribune/Zuma press

Bill Walton, R.I.P. He was a legend in his sport and in San Diego, his beloved hometown.

By San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board

May 28, 2024 at 7:40 p.m.

The announcement Monday that Bill Walton had died at 71 after a lengthy battle with...

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