Business

Encinitas goes to pot, other Prop 64 tales

It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. Encinitas leaders this month cleared the way for a commercial marijuana growing industry intended to cater to recreational marijuana users allowed to do their thing this January thanks to passage of Proposition 64 last fall. Recreational marijuana is now the lay of the land. Starting in January, pot and it’s varied forms no longer will…


World’s largest lithium-ion storage battery

Escondido got the world’s largest something this weekend, so that’s something big. Let us introduce to you the world’s largest lithium-ion bayberry presented Saturday by San Diego Gas & Electric. It’s online and humming, officially unveiled by the utility following a fast-track procurement process that began less than a year ago. The 30-MW, 120-MWh system supplied by AES Energy Storage, a Virginia-based company was built…


Crafting local independent online news

(Editor’s Note: The Escondido Grapevine last year was admitted to the Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION) den. Matt DeRienzo recently was named the group’s first full-time executive director. Kristen Hare of the Poynter Institute, one of journalism’s leading think tanks, today posted a Q&A with DeRienzo in the “innovation” section of Poynter’s online journal discussing LION and the future of independent online journalism like that presented…


Samsung Escondido battery array — world’s largest — goes online next month

After racing for months, engineers here in California have brought three energy-storage sites close to completion to begin serving the Southern California electric grid within the next month. They are made up of thousands of oversize versions of the lithium-ion batteries now widely used in smartphones, laptop computers and other digital devices. One of the installations, a 30-mehawatt facility at a San Diego Gas &…


Send your best, not a pest this holiday

Who would want a homemade holiday fruit basket — with creepy mealybugs? Or a clipping from grandma’s wreath with gypsy moth eggs nestled inside? Giant whiteflies hiding in hand-picked poinsettias, or some tree-killing bacteria in their holiday citrus? Nobody, right? But it can happen. If you’re one of the millions of Americans who will be traveling this holiday season, remember — don’t pack a pest!…


Hold on to price receipts, this holiday season

Santa is readying the reindeer. That means the “shop ‘til you drop” holiday season is back! It also means it’s time to remember to double-check your receipts when you hit the stores so you don’t get overcharged by faulty cash-register price scanners.  It can definitely happen. Every year, County inspectors from the Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures inspect thousands of local businesses, checking price-scanning…


Aldi set to open Escondido store Dec. 16

If ALDI is all but unknown west of the Mississippi River, Chicago and Germany, the unique, and much-beloved, high-quality, low-cost supermarket is planting its flag next month at Escondido. An ALDI was springing up at  1330 E. Valley Pkwy. #M, Escondido, CA 92027 with a grand opening open house scheduled for 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 15. The first North County Aldi opened in May…


Gas, housing and the Golden Door Spa

Escondido gasoline prices rise for seven straight days  Up and down, ye olde gasoline price merry-go-round is going up, up and away again. The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego County rose two-tenths of a cent Tuesday to $2.824, the seventh consecutive daily increase. The average price is 1.5 cents more than one week ago and 6.1 cents higher…


JetSuite: Getting there from here

Next up out of Carlsbad’s McClellan-Palomar Airport… “If you’re looking to link up with other airlines, JetSuite is not for you.” Another new airline took flight out of McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad on Oct. 17. It is the fourth such airline to try doing business out of the North County airport since United Express pulled out in April of 2015. The other three have failed,…


So, you want to work for Stone Brewing

A funny thing happened to Stone Brewing Co. on its way to global expansion and hotel entrepreneurship: 5 percent of its work force got laid off Thursday. ESCONDIDO, CA. — We don’t know how many employees were affected by this. Stone didn’t say.  However, the company website said it employs 1,100 people, and industry websites put the number of jobs eliminated at 50 to 75….