Daily Business Report: Tuesday, August 23, 2025
Nearly 95,000 San Diego Unified students return Monday under new phone ban
By Elizabeth Ireland | Times of San Diego
Backpacks: check. Notebooks: check. Cellphones: powered down and put away.
Nearly 95,000 San Diego Unified students will return Monday to a decidedly different classroom experience as the district launches both the 2025-26 academic year and its new mobile phone rules across 175 schools.
The district will begin enforcing phone-free school day guidelines aimed at reducing distractions and supporting students’ mental health and academic performance.
California’s stubborn poverty crisis will hamper Newsom’s national climb
By Dan Walters| CalMatters
Gavin Newsom is pursuing what appears to be an image-building prelude to a 2028 presidential campaign and much of that effort involves appearances on widely popular podcasts.
Those podcasts, such as the one featuring comedian Joe Rogan, are the 2025 equivalents of the radio talk shows and newspaper interviews that ambitious politicians frequented in the past.
Famously, a little-known one-term governor of Georgia named Jimmy Carter burrowed his way into the presidency in 1976 by spending months traipsing around the country with aide Jody Powell, sharing rooms in cheap hotels and seeking interviews by radio DJs and local journalists.
Clinical trial by SD company proves promising for drug that targets colorectal cancer
By Swasti Singhai | Times of San Diego
San Diego-based biotechnology company Cardiff Oncology has reported positive data from a drug targeting metastatic colorectal cancer.
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, resulting in 50,000 deaths annually in the United States alone. When metastatic, or spread beyond the colon, the five-year survival rate is approximately 15%.
Cardiff Oncology tested the drug ovansertib in two dosages — 20 mg and 30 mg — and also compared its effects against the existing treatment of chemotherapy in conjunction with the drug Avastin.
