The Usual Suspects ...

I on San Diego

THE HARD SELL: The bloody drug wars along the Mexico border have seriously impacted leisure travel to Baja this spring. Even vacation destinations out of the direct path of the violence have suffered. Fighting back, the historic Rancho La Puerta spa in Tecate has taken its case to its Web site, noting the ranch is well removed from Tijuana, Rosarito and Ensenada, and pointing out that almost all of the drive from San Diego (45 miles) is within the United States, with only the last 4 miles on Mexico soil. “Did the actions of Al Capone and the criminal gangs of Chicago once represent the entire United States?” the site asks. “Of course not, and neither does the situation in Mexico warrant distorted views about travel to Mexico.”

NEWS THAT FITS: The non-surprise announcement last month of Sheriff Bill Kolender’s early retirement set the political handicappers in motion. Former FBI man and current undersheriff Bill Gore seems the odds-on favorite in next year’s election to succeed Kolender. But former San Diego police chief David Bejarano has an impressive résumé. On the other hand, that could work against him. Within a decade, Bejarano served as police chief (four years), U.S. marshal (two years) and Chula Vista School Board member. He also was in and out of a race for state assembly and talked of resigning from the marshal’s job to join the district attorney’s office. “David’s a solid guy,” says a colleague, “but he has career ADD.” ... The Channel 6 decision to lop a half-hour off its 10 p.m. newscasts is a matter of trading news for old news. The second half-hour is being replaced by reruns of the 1990s series Seinfeld. Remember the ’90s? ... Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay kicks off next month with some big-name summer headliners who would look equally at home on an AARP marquee: Joe Cocker, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Joan Baez, Gregg Allman, The Beach Boys and Chicago.

VERY TOUCHING: Perhaps the British press has mellowed over the past quarter-century. First lady Michelle Obama’s touching experience with Queen Elizabeth during her recent European tour raised precious little indignation among the journalists covering the affair. Whatever happened to that hard-and-fast hands-off policy? San Diegans with long memories recall a similar episode on San Diego soil when Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited here in 1983. During a tour of the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park, Deputy Mayor Bill Cleator was escorting the queen when his left hand briefly grazed the back of her suit jacket. It was a gesture seen ’round the world. The British newspapers excoriated Cleator, describing a look of annoyance on the queen’s face and noting a breach of centuries of protocol. One tabloid headline screamed, “Get Your Hands Off Our Queen!” Meanwhile, if the royal couple were offended, it didn’t show. At a farewell ceremony, the queen thanked Cleator graciously, and Prince Philip, noting Cleator’s Isle of Man tie, inquired, “Are you a Manxman?” No, Cleator said, but ancestors were. “Be sure to wear that tie election day,” the prince advised. “It’ll bring you good luck.”

ON THE RECORD: “Honestly, I never thought I’d be a career politician. And this is a very tough job. I’ve seen myself age quickly. So that decision comes on a month-to-month basis.” — San Diego councilman Ben Hueso, in an interview for the March issue of San Diego Magazine, on whether he had higher political ambitions. Month-to-month basis, indeed. A month later, he announced he was running for state assembly.

THE POKING NOSE: The FBI apparently hasn’t wrapped up its investigation of former Southeastern Economic Development Corporation boss Carolyn Smith, fired last year after she was accused of giving six-figure bonuses to herself and some staff members without board approval. Agents, who last fall interviewed members of the SEDC board of directors, have more recently been talking to members of her former staff, with questions about Smith’s management style and personality traits ... Readers may have been surprised, but those closest to The San Diego Union-Tribune were not. The extensive story on the sale of San Diego’s only daily newspaper to an out-of-town private equity firm included not so much as a single word on the sale from the seller, chairman and publisher David Copley, the last of the Copley line ... Less than two weeks after the announced sale of the newspaper, giant oil paintings of Jim and Helen Copley ——which hung for decades in the lobby and publisher’s office of the U-T’s Mission Valley headquarters — were pulled down.

THE BOTTOM LINE: “When I was young, I had a tough time deciding whether to join the Army or the Navy. As an incentive, the Army offered a $5 meal ticket. I chose the Army. That was the cheapest I ever sold out.” — former senator and presidential candidate George McGovern, accepting the National Conflict Resolution Center’s Peacemaker Award at the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina.

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