Daily Business Report: July 9, 2026
The Learning Curve: Meet the New Bond, Just Like the Last Bond
By Jakob McWhinney | Voice of San Diego
Over the past few months, San Diego Unified officials have been ironing out the details of a new construction bond measure, set to go before voters in November. Construction bonds, if passed, raise property taxes to fund school construction and renovation.
At a board meeting late last month, staff gave the public its first real look at the new $3.5 billion bond ask.
Many of the features of the bond – from what officials say it will fund to how they say it will impact taxpayers’ pocketbooks – are essentially identical to previous bonds they’ve passed. That’s not entirely surprising, because that pitch has worked like a charm on previous bond measures.
After months of prep, Waymo nearly ready to launch driverless service in San Diego
by Jennifer Vigil | Times of San Diego
Waymo cars have been all over central San Diego for more than a year, but always with drivers at the wheel. Ready or not, that’s about to change.
The company said Wednesday that Waymo vehicles will soon begin fully autonomous operations — meaning without human drivers — in four new cities, including San Diego.
It will be a soft start, with rider-only operations initially offered solely for employees. Waymo, in a blog post, said only that it expects “to welcome the public soon.” Officials with the venture, which is majority owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said local residents can learn when Waymo goes live to the public by downloading the app for notifications.
California school libraries blindsided by ‘catastrophic’ budget cut
by Carolyn Jones | CalMatters
California librarians were stunned when a last-minute budget change stripped K-12 schools of a trove of research materials, potentially leaving thousands of students without resources to do reports, projects or homework assignments.
Without notice to schools or librarians, the Legislature last week canceled $5.5 million that pays online fees for the Encyclopedia Britannica, New York Times, PBS videos such as Ken Burns documentaries, scientific journals and thousands of other online materials used by students and teachers. The cut goes into effect on July 1, 2027.
“We had no idea this was coming,” said Greg Lucas, head of the California State Library, which helps oversee the program for California’s 10,000 public schools. “This will have a huge impact on California students.”
