Not So Squeaky Clean
Inside
IF YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF BAJAGUA, you’re probably in the majority. This San Marcos company wants to build a wastewater-treatment plant just across the Mexico border. The stated aim: to supplement the work done by a U.S. treatment plant in San Ysidro. Good news, right? Actually, it’s a political quagmire.
And it’s a story investigative reporter s.d. liddick strongly believes is deserving of your attention. It’s a complicated tale. Liddick writes about a San Ysidro plant that was built out of necessity but never got the funding it needed to do its job fully. And he reports on the political ties between Bajagua and two of San Diego’s U.S. representatives, Brian Bilbray and Bob Filner——shaky at best.
The reach of the Bajagua tale goes all the way to the White House and Dick Cheney——with stops along the way in the offices of presidential candidate Duncan Hunter and jailed bribe collector/former representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham. The story is called “A Sewer Runs Through It.” Invest some time in liddick’s latest work. See if the Bajagua machinations——never reported so thoroughly——pass your smell test.
AS SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE was in the stretch run for publication of this issue, firestorms began ravaging the county. We put a quick hold on a couple of other features, and sent four writers in search of fire stories. Not content with one opus in the magazine, liddick spent a long stretch of time with the displaced folks at Qualcomm Stadium, which was doubling as an evacuation center. Marcia Manna compares notes from couples who lost homes in the 2003 Cedar fire and the 2007 Witch fire. Adam Elder found volunteers who helped out both at Qualcomm and in New Orleans after the Katrina hurricane. And Thomas K. Arnold completely rewrote his Northern Exposure column to chronicle the goings-on in North County before, during and after the fires.
YES, WE ALSO NOTE December is the holiday month. Art director Laurie Miller helps us celebrate by producing a photo spread of happy holiday scenes around town. Look for the cheery, light-lined masts of the Star of the Sea and the ice-skating rink that appears of winters late, just off the beach at the Hotel del Coronado.
And when we think holidays, we think . . . chocolates. Miller and associate editor Julia Beeson teamed up to find the most unique confections around. Chocolate cakes. Chocolate foot rubs. Hot chocolate, chocolate martinis and even a chocolate chess set.
Let the chocolate games begin. Enjoy the issue.
RON DONOHO
Executive Editor
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