Daily Business Report: Tuesday, October 14, 2025
UCSD alum wins Nobel Prize for research on human immune system
By Esmeralda Hernandez | Times of San Diego
Key discoveries in the human immune system have led UC San Diego alum Fred Ramsdell to receive a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The award is given annually by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
Ramsdell graduated from UCSD in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and cell biology. His research, which was conducted with Mary Brunkow and Shimon Sakaguchi, uncovered molecular and cellular mechanisms that explain how the body protects the immune system.
Test scores jump in San Diego, across state, but students still catching up post-pandemic
By Carolyn Jones | Calmatters
California’s K-12 students are emerging from the pandemic malaise, posting the most significant academic improvements in years, according to new state test scores.
The Smarter Balanced standardized test results show increases for almost every student group and every grade, in every subject. Some of the biggest improvements were among students who have struggled the most.
“This is good news, we love to see this kind of improvement,” said Lupita Cortez Alcalá, executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education, a nonpartisan research organization. “It shows that the state’s investments in student mental health and other initiatives are working.”
California’s incarcerated firefighters to see ‘historic’ pay increase in laws Newsom signed
By Cayla Mihalovich | Calmatters
Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed a set of bills meant to recognize incarcerated firefighters, including a historic measure to raise their pay to meet the federal minimum wage during active fires.
The wage increase, funded through the state budget, follows years of advocacy to improve pay and working conditions for incarcerated labor. That effort took on a new urgency after hundreds of incarcerated firefighters were deployed to battle deadly wildfires that hit Los Angeles in January.
State lawmakers this year introduced a seven-bill “Firefighting to Freedom” package to protect incarcerated firefighters and support job opportunities upon their reentry. Five of those bills were signed into law today, marking the most comprehensive changes to incarcerated firefighting in the state’s history.
