Daily Business Report: Tuesday, August 19, 2025
San Diego launches housing unit to address substandard conditions, code violations
By Jennifer Vigil | Times of San Diego
The San Diego City Attorney’s Office has established a unit dedicated to various housing issues, from code violations to substandard rental conditions, officials said Wednesday.
The Housing Protection and Civil Code Compliance Unit, according to City Attorney Heather Ferbert, aims to ensure that housing in San Diego is “safe, fair, and livable.”
The unit, Ferbert said in a news release, will take a “focused approach” to addressing persistent code violations, substandard conditions, unfair business practices and “patterns or practice of violating” the city’s Tenant Protection Ordinance or the Short-Term Residential Occupancy Ordinance.
California Energy Panel Defers Debate on Giving Gasoline Producers a Regulatory Break
By John Haughty | The Epoch Times
The California Energy Commission (CEC) has tabled a resolution calling for a pause in implementing a 2023 state law that would impose financial penalties on gasoline producers accused of accruing “excess profits” while “price gouging” consumers.
“Given the timing of this, we felt like it was best to have more time for public input and engagement in these issues and get that feedback,” CEC Deputy Director Jeremy Smith told the four-member panel during its Aug. 13 meeting in Sacramento.
“This is a really important decision for the commission to consider, and so [staff] felt that was the best course of action at this time,” he added, noting the proposal would be on the commission’s Sept. 10 agenda.
Alaska Airlines Adds 2 New Europe Routes, Further Growing International Presence
By Bailey Berg | AFAR
Alaska Airlines’ global footprint is growing again. Within the past year, the carrier has announced new service from Seattle, its hometown hub, to three overseas destinations: Tokyo, Seoul, and Rome. Now, it’s adding two more enviable landing spots.
Starting in spring 2026, Alaska will add a pair of transatlantic routes from Seattle: daily, year-round flights to London and a seasonal summer service to Reykjavík, Iceland. It’s part of a larger international push following the airline’s acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines in September 2024. (Hawaiian’s fleet of A330s and Boeing Dreamliners are longer range than anything Alaska had in its fleet prior to the merger.)
“Alaska has figured out that there are real opportunities at their home base in Seattle,” Gary Leff, a travel expert and the founder of blog View From the Wing, told Afar. “Customers don’t have to leave them—including for their major competitor in that market, Delta—when they travel abroad.“
