San Diego mayor pays a visit to Bird Rock Elementary School<\/p>\n
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria took up an invitation to speak in one of Bird Rock Elementary School\u2019s second-grade classrooms March 24.<\/p>\n
The visit was part of teacher Mary Ann Beaver\u2019s lessons on letter writing and city government. Students wrote a letter to Gloria asking him to come to their classroom, and he obliged.<\/p>\n
Gloria discussed government officials\u2019 different roles, his own job and facts about his life.<\/p>\n
Judge orders changes in ballot language backing tax on second homes<\/p>\n
Parts of the ballot language backing a tax on second homes in San Diego are misleading and must be amended, a judge ruled March 26.<\/p>\n
The order stems from a legal challenge filed by former San Diego City Council member Scott Sherman, who argued that the title, description and analysis submitted by the city of San Diego about Measure A for inclusion on the June ballot contain \u201cfalse and\/or misleading statements, all of which should be stricken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Superior Court Judge Blaine Bowman agreed with some of those arguments, particularly about the measure\u2019s description and title of the proposed \u201cempty homes tax,\u201d which now is to be called the City of San Diego Non-Primary Homes Tax on the ballot.<\/p>\n
The court ordered other changes. Throughout the summary and analysis of the proposed ordinance that will be printed on the ballot, \u201cnon-primary\u201d must replace the word \u201cempty.\u201d Second, the judge said the language of the question must be modified in a way that also reflects that update \u2014 leaving out \u201cempty\u201d and using \u201cnon-primary\u201d instead.<\/p>\n
The judge also ordered that the phrase \u201clike housing and infrastructure\u201d be trimmed from a description of where the tax revenue could be used.<\/p>\n
The city submitted the changes March 27.<\/p>\n
La Jolla researchers develop new resource for gene study<\/p>\n
Newly published research from La Jolla-based Sanford Burnham Prebys has created a resource for studying how inherited changes in genes can lead to common diseases, along with demonstrating a new method for quickly and inexpensively predicting the length of repeating sections of DNA called telomeres, enabling larger experiments.<\/p>\n
The research team obtained data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project, a major National Institutes of Health Common Fund initiative that was launched in 2010, and were able to train their computational model on scans of 5,263 histopathology slides containing tissue samples used to diagnose diseases and study tissue structure. The slides were made from routine biopsy samples of 18 tissue types donated by 919 individuals.<\/p>\n
From this information, scientists developed what is being called the TLPath model based on the hypothesis that modifications in the shape and structure of cells and tissues could be used to predict the length of telomeres.<\/p>\n
Researchers have determined that the length of telomeres is correlated with chronological age throughout a person\u2019s life. After tracking health outcomes in large populations, telomere length was found to predict patients\u2019 risk of chronic diseases associated with aging.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has the potential to transform our ability to \u2026 learn more about human aging and ultimately help people preserve better health as they age,\u201d said Sanju Sinha, an assistant professor in the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys.<\/p>\n
Bird Rock council looking to increase community engagement<\/p>\n
The Bird Rock Community Council is looking to increase grassroots activism and community engagement this year.<\/p>\n
At a meet-and-greet-style event March 17 held instead of the council\u2019s regular meeting, BRCC President Joe Parker<\/a> said his goal is to \u201cbring this community back to our grassroots [because] Bird Rock has a long history of being activists.\u201d<\/p>\n To do that, he said, meetings need to be more engaging to increase attendance.<\/p>\n \u201cI want us to get together; there is a lot of energy here,\u201d Parker said. He added that meetings will have an entertainment and social aspect, alongside regular discussion items.<\/p>\n \u201cI will call on you to come to our monthly meetings,\u201d he said at the meet-and-greet. \u201cI want everyone to have fun, but we also want you to come to meetings when there are important issues to discuss.\u201d<\/p>\n