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If you listen to local music, then you’ve heard of Tim Mays.   Mays is the cofounder and co-owner of San Diego’s mythic music venue The Casbah.   On this episode of "I Made it in San Diego," Voice of San Diego's podcast about local businesses and the people behind them, hear how Mays went from a kid handing out concert fliers to an indie music legend.   Mays started booking and producing shows in San Diego in the early 1980s as a way to make sure his favorite bands came through town. By the mid '80s, Mays and some of his friends also wanted to open a bar more geared toward his generation – with their music in the jukebox.   Mays' side gig promoting shows and the bar he helped open, The Pink Panther, both found quick success. He quit his day jobs and became a serial entrepreneur with a knack for opening businesses that grew to be local icons.   "I never said, 'I don't want to work for the man,' I just was lucky enough to not have to after a certain point."   After the birth of The Casbah, Mays continued to open new bars, restaurants and businesses in San Diego – Starlite restaurant, Vinyl Junkies record store and Krakatoa coffee shop among them. He's created opportunities for dozens of local bands and artists, helped turn neighborhoods into thriving communities and still finds time to think about what business he might open next.

Los Angeles is stepping up its game when it comes to public transit. This week, the Los Angeles City Council pulled the trigger on a $4.9 billion transit project to connect people to the Los Angeles International Airport. That news spurred some jealously here in San Diego, where our trolley doesn't extend to the airport. It also resurfaced the news that Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher is proposing legislation to kill the agency that oversees the San Diego International Airport, putting it back under the Port of San Diego's control. Gonzalez Fletcher told VOSD that the Airport Authority's independence cripples transit planning, and the switch would make things better. In a rare moment of alliance, Republican Supervisor Ron Roberts indicated he might support the proposal. He told CityBeat recently that the agency has done nothing to help with traffic congestion near the airport. Meanwhile, the agency's chairwoman says the Airport Authority is doing just fine. On this week's podcast, hosts Sara Libby, Andrew Keatts and Scott Lewis talk about San Diego's envy when it comes to L.A.'s new public transit connection to its airport, and what a shift in airport control in San Diego might mean. Also in the podcast, some reaction to the bill introduced by San Diego Assemblywoman Shirley that would narrow the circumstances in which police officers could kill, an update on the fractured local labor unions and a breakdown of two big water projects. In the second half of the show, Jen Campbell joins the hosts to talk about her bid to represent City Council District 2, which includes the city’s beach areas and part of Clairemont. Campbell's a medical doctor. She said she's running so she can help the city work through issues like homelessness, housing affordability and short-term vacation rentals. She also apologized for, and explained, the controversial statements she made about homeless people during a campaign speech in January. About vacation rentals – a hot-button issue in the city's coastal communities – Campbell said she's open to a ban of whole-home rentals and OK with people who rent out rooms in the homes in which they live. "We have to try and preserve our neighborhoods, preserve our zoning and be fair," Campbell said. "This is a new way of taking a vacation, and it's not going to go away. San Diego's a great vacation destination." Hero of the Week "Water Man Dave" is our hero. Longtime homeless advocate John David Ross died this week. He earned his nickname by driving around San Diego and giving bottles of water and hugs to homeless people. Goat of the Week The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department gets the goat. The agency restrains women inmates who are in labor as a matter of routine, despite a state law that says that should only happen in very limited circumstances.

Abby Dorsey isn’t the first rapper to embrace weed. Obviously. But the way she speaks about it is unique — more as a medicine than a street drug. Better known as MC Flow, Dorsey started smoking Philly blunts as a teenager and now advocates for patients through her music. She’s also found cannabis to be a useful tool in the creative process, something that stimulates the mind by quieting anxiety. "It turns my brain on in a way, and tunes me into this different frequency, that I tend to find invigorating," she told the Voice of San Diego Potcast. During an interview with Kinsee Morlan and me, Dorsey also talked about shooting a music video at the Urbn Leaf in Bay Pay and the complexity of consuming cannabis while raising a child. Her 2014 holiday single “Pot in the Latkes” is a celebration of getting stoned with your family on Hanukkah, and her latest record is “Her Highness,” which blends humor and politics. It includes a song about Charlotte Figi, a Colorado girl whose use of CBD-oil to alleviate seizures helped mainstream America re-evaluate the war on drugs. Dorsey has been surprised by the people — other moms, neighbors, even her parents — who’ve approached her in recent years, as the taboo began to lift, seeking advice. "People were emailing me and asking me questions and sharing stories, and it just made me realize how kind of desperate people were to talk about this in a way, because we've all been kind of taught not to talk about it," she said, adding: "The only way that we're going to learn and move forward and heal ourselves in a better way is if we actually come out of that closet." Also on the podcast, Morlan and I considered the Board of Supervisors’ race, Oceanside’s new medical ordinance and a report of steady recreational sales at dispensaries. We closed the show by talking with our friend and photojournalist Vito Di Stefano, who shared strange but true tales from the world of potlandia. Some moms are taking tiny amounts of cannabis to relax while avoiding a psychoactive high. And Colorado is finally getting a THC-infused beer. Email us your ideas for future episodes.

Adulting can be hard. Many kids have difficulties navigating the transition from high school to the "real world." Lots . There's a snappy new term for these 16-to-24-year-olds who don’t attend school or have a job — "opportunity youth." On...

A big decision looms: Will the city of San Diego start its own agency to buy and sell energy, or will San Diego Gas & Electric continue to control the energy market? The city says it can go gas-free and get to its legally mandated Climate Action Plan target of 100 percent renewable energy quicker than SDG&E, a utility that has the word "gas" in its name. SDG&E disagrees, and has a plan to hit the goal by 2035. VOSD's Ry Rivard joins hosts Sara Libby, Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts to break down what he's learned about the possible impending power shift. Two of the state’s only government-run power agencies, called community choice aggregators, are Marin Clean Energy and Sonoma Clean Power. Rivard explains how the two CCAs may not have made much difference in the fight against climate change because of "resource shuffling," or buying cleaner energy for themselves while the agencies selling off that green energy then replace it with dirtier power for their own customers. Meanwhile, SDG&E says it has a solid plan to get to renewables by the 2035 deadline. But a city-funded review by an outside consultant said SDG&E's plan isn't as solid as the company claims. Also, thanks to strings attached to a past deal, SDG&E might soon have to buy a $280 million gas plant in Otay Mesa. Also on the podcast, Lewis, Libby and Keatts talk about how taboos surrounding cannabis are starting to lift. Candidates at a recent county supervisor debate openly talked about their own experiences with cannabis. In the second half of the show, Councilman Chris Cate talks about his controversial SoccerCity memo leak, his exasperation over the City Council's inability to regulate the home-sharing industry, the housing crunch, shareable bikes and more. Cate said his office's priorities are public safety, infrastructure, economic development and civic engagement. He said he's running to continue to represent Kearny Mesa, Mira Mesa, Miramar and the rest of District 6 so he can continue those efforts. About that leak of a confidential memo from the city attorney's office about SoccerCity, one of two proposals to redevelop the Mission Valley stadium site, Cate said he paid a fine to the city's ethics commission and he considers the issue resolved. "I felt that I was acting within the law to gather information on a very important decision that was coming to the council," he said. "If I had to do it over again, I probably would do it in a different way." Earlier this year, when the City Council failed to pass short-term rental regulations, Cate said "inaction has proved that as a City Council we cannot govern." He's still frustrated about that, and said the city should set up a permitting system that can help generate fees to pay for enforcement efforts. And about all those bright, shareable bikes piling up around town that some folks love and others loathe: Cate said he digs them. "It's a disruptive technology," he said. "There's going to be kind of those speed bumps in the road at the beginning, but It'll work itself out and I think it's great to have them." Hero of the Week Roger Showley is the hero this week. The Union-Tribune reporter retired this month after 44 years. Most recently, he covered development, growth and land use. His goodbye column is worth a read. Goat of the Week The goat goes to San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore who, in an interview with the Union-Tribune this week, admitted that he's thought a lot about firing sheriff commander Dave Myers, who's running against Gore to be the county's top law enforcement officer. He's aware of the bad optics of that move, though, so he's not firing Myers yet. Good move, but even talking about firing your opponent is awkward.

It was an unusually newsy week for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, whose work often goes under the radar. In this week’s podcast, Sara Libby and Scott Lewis dive into the various ways in which the board made headlines. VOSD’s Maya Srikrishnan broke the news this week that the board is considering following Orange County’s lead and jumping into a lawsuit between the Trump administration and the state of California – on Trump’s side. The lawsuit is over the state’s sanctuary policies that limit police cooperation with immigration enforcement. The supervisors will meet in closed session to discuss that issue, and another fight Trump and California are having over the 2020 census. Also on the podcast, our hosts discuss an interesting move being made by one of the Board of Supervisors candidates in District 5. Jacqueline Arsivaud is banking on the idea that residents are anti-development, and is tying her candidacy to the Safeguard Our San Diego Countryside initiative on the November ballot, which would force a public vote on developments that don’t fit within the county’s zoning plan. If passed, the initiative would be a harsh blow to developments that have been pushing for the board’s approval for years. Also on the podcast: Lewis and Andrew Keatts interview Christian Ramirez, who is running to represent District 8 on the San Diego City Council. Ramirez was at one point diagnosed with lymphoma – which he attributes to growing up in a pollution-heavy San Diego neighborhood where industry and residential homes sit next to each other. As an adult, Ramirez says he still suffers from health issues, but now he wants to do something about it. “I have a 4-year-old kid now and I want to make sure that he grows up in a healthy, clean environment,” he said. “And that's really the reason why I am running for office.” Prior to joining the race, Ramirez worked in Washington D.C. on border and immigration policy issues for Alliance San Diego, an organization that advocates for social justice. He says he returned home because he wants to represent San Diegans who have been underserved for decades. “It’s shameful that 40 years later, Otay Mesa, Logan Heights and Barrio Logan are among the most polluted communities in the county of San Diego,” he said. “All in District 8.” Beyond environmental issues, Ramirez is looking to take a firm stance on other issues that affect local minorities, something he says Councilman David Alvarez isn’t doing. “I think David has done as much as he could for District 8. I think that often times political ambitions may have gotten in the way of reaching agreements that we needed in the Council to improve the quality of life of District 8,” Ramirez said. “That’s not what I’m about.” Hero of the Week Our hero this week goes to Cali Brown, who was named California's Deputy First Dog earlier this week. She's a two-month-old bordoodle — a mix of a poodle and a border collie  — and will assist "First Dog Colusa Brown in herding staff at the State Capitol," the governor's office announced. Goat of the Week 97.3 The Machine gets the goat this week. San Diego's new sports radio station faced a big-time backlash after one of its hosts, Kevin Klein, posted a tweet that joked about suicides at the Coronado Bridge. The Padres, which had just announced a partnership with the station, aren't happy and urged the station to change direction.

An Encinitas-based company that connects marijuana companies with workers got media attention recently when it posted an advertisement for a “420 product tester.” The stories practically wrote themselves, revolving around the same theme: Get paid to smoke pot. But the legal industry is much bigger than that. Local recruiters are also looking for marketers, purchasing directors and, of course, budtenders, the people who walk the floors of dispensaries answering questions about strains and potency and whatnot. With these and other job skills in mind, Christine Fallon has created a course at the San Diego Community College District’s Cesar Chavez campus. It’s broken into three sessions that cover horticulture, pharmacology and the law, with an emphasis on the permitting process. Fallon hopes to expand on these lessons and turn the course into a certification program, giving marijuana workers a greater base of knowledge for things like pesticides. "It's the industry that needs to demand it," she told the Voice of San Diego Potcast. "It's us, it's the customers. We need to go into the dispensary and say, 'Hey, are you getting your buds tested?'" For the time being, Nathan Lou, a health and wellness consultant who teaches the session on horticulture, said the course provides a lot of information in a short period of time without overwhelming the audience. "After the class, we leave students with a very broad scope of understanding about how the field could work," he said. "But of course with more knowledge comes more awareness that you need to know more details out there.” Not all the jobs pay well. Some budtenders and deliverers are lucky to get $15 an hour. The same goes for some security guards. Marijuana is becoming a retail trade like any other, and whether it can sustain good careers — or devolve into the fast-food model — is still an open question. Morlan and I also talked about one of my recent stories. The California Bureau of Cannabis Control has sent cease-and-desist letters to at least 375 illegal operators of marijuana in the San Diego region in recent weeks, as part of a statewide crackdown. The city of San Diego has only 12 legal dispensaries. Those numbers suggest that the black market is doing just fine, and some local law enforcement is skeptical that bad actors are going to willingly leave the industry. Last week, District Attorney Summer Stephan suggested that pot wasn’t high on her list of priorities, especially if it meant fewer resources for murder or domestic violence or child abuse cases.

The number of prescription drug and other opioid-related deaths in San Diego County are on the rise. Human trafficking has long been a problem in San Diego. Those are two of the big issues that have the attention of the district attorney’s office. In this week’s podcast, District Attorney Summer Stephan sat down for an in-depth interview with hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts to talk about her priorities as the region’s top law enforcement official, and to answer a wide range of questions. Stephen, who’s running to keep her seat, talks about her approach to plea offers and who should benefit from them. She shares her thoughts on an impending endorsement from an influential reform-minded political action committee, discusses her distaste for partisan politics, shares her her ideas about keeping immigration enforcement separate from the work the DA does, explains her shift on marijuana enforcement efforts and more. And in the most detail she’s provided to the public yet, Stephan explained why she recused herself from the investigation of City Councilman Chris Cate for his disclosure of a confidential city attorney’s memo related to the SoccerCity proposal to redevelop the stadium site in Mission Valley. Stephan said while she felt her office could have conducted the investigation fairly, she passed it to the attorney general since there could have been a public perception of conflict for a few reasons. The biggest issue, she said, was that her campaign treasurer April Boling has been an outspoken proponent of the SoccerCity proposal. “I look at it as are people going to have confidence in this decision,” Stephan said. “Are they going to have trust? Are they going to think about it? And that’s one of the things that I considered in addition to talking with the attorney general’s office. And I think we both reached the conclusion that that was the right decision.” Also on the podcast, Lewis and Keatts talk about the difference between bikes and homeless people. If homeless people block public sidewalks with their stuff, they can get ticketed by police officers. But the fleets of shareable bikes being left in the public right-of-way don’t suffer the same fate. A recent report by VOSD’s Lisa Halverstadt brings up a valid question: What is the legally defensible distinction between bikes and homeless people? If officers are giving encroachment citations to homelessness people, shouldn’t the bike owners be ticketed, too? And a quote in Lewis and Keatts’ Politics Report by former Navy SEAL Josh Butner, a Democrat running to represent California’s 50th District, caused quite a stir. In it, Butner said military service should be a prerequisite for running for political office. A U-T reporter picked up on the comment and ran a story. Other journos followed suit. Hero of the Week Michael Turko is retiring. He’s our hero this week. After 20 years at KUSI, where he became known as a reporter who stood up for the little guy and investigated cases in which San Diegans felt they’ve been wronged, Turko announced his retirement this week.  Check out this interview we did with Turko on the podcast. Goat of the Week The local cities that can hardly wait to delete their records are the goat this week. California law requires cities to keep emails for a minimum of two years, but half of the cities in San Diego County delete most of their emails from city servers in much less time. That ain’t right.

Tech jobs abound. Our education system isn't churning out enough students with computer science training to meet the . But schools in San Diego are trying to catch up. Locally, only 10 percent of San Diego County high schools  as recently as...

Steph Johnson says there's a perception problem when it comes to homelessness. The local jazz musician founded  in 2016. In the beginning, Johnson simply wanted to  for people sleeping on the streets. She found a rehearsal space and...