Daily Business Report: July 27, 2026
‘This show was about us’: Stars align to celebrate 60 years of ‘Star Trek’ at SDCC
by Nicole Abrams | Times of San Diego
After 11 television series, 14 films and over 900 episodes, “Star Trek” celebrated a legacy of optimism and inclusion with a Saturday spotlight panel at San Diego Comic-Con.
Trekkies gathered at Hall H, the biggest room int the San Diego Convention Center, to celebrate the franchise’s 60th anniversary as well as the start of the fourth season of “Strange New Worlds,” a prequel to the original series that follows the voyages of Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the starship Enterprise.
Sacramento Report: The State-of-Play on San Diego’s Midway Rising Bill
by Nadia Lathan | Voice of San Diego
San Diego officials are moving full-steam ahead to get one of their chief policy priorities to the finish line before the legislative session wraps up next month.
Senate Bill 958 would make it easier to build a 165-foot-tall sports arena in the Midway District neighborhood by giving broad exemptions to building height restrictions in the California Environmental Quality Act, the state’s preeminent environmental law.
It allows the lawsuit-ridden Midway Rising project, which includes housing and the arena, to skirt the neighborhood’s 30-foot height limit for buildings near the coast.
California school boards grant themselves hefty pay raises following new law
School board members at dozens of California districts have voted to increase their own pay by thousands of dollars per year after a 2025 law raised trustee compensation limits for the first time in 41 years.
In the first six months of the year, Elk Grove Unified School District trustees raised their monthly stipends by 500% to $4,500. Trustees in the Beverly Hills, Oceanside, Orange, Carlsbad, Escondido and Antioch school districts increased their pay by 400%.
Effective this year, Assembly Bill 1390, raised the cap on board stipends to between $600 and $4,500 a month, depending on student enrollment. Previously, school district trustees could earn between $60 and $1,500 monthly stipends for their service, in what are typically considered part-time jobs. The law also allows school boards to increase their stipend 5% annually, even if it reaches beyond the maximum rate.
