? The Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute received a $10 million pledge from La Jolla philanthropists Steve and Lisa Altman. Construction of the CTRI facility officially began on Jan. 10. The Altmans donated the $10 million on the condition that the facility would include a pediatric diabetes research center.
The $260 million building will be 359,000 square feet and seven stories high with wet and dry research labs, lab support and office space, a clinical research area, an auditorium and a cafe. CTRI is scheduled to open in early 2016 and will be located close to the UCSD Health System La Jolla facilities.
? UCSD’s LGBT Resource Center was burglarized the weekend of Friday, Jan. 11. Director of UCSD’s LGBT Resource Center Shaun Travers announced that three laptop computers, a video camera and a set of keys were stolen sometime over the weekend. The burglary was discovered Monday morning by the center’s staff. With no other signs of forced entry, Travers wrote on his Facebook account that the burglar must have climbed in through the windows, which were found ajar.
A special newsletter sent to the LGBT community said the crimes were directed at objects and not the community as a whole. The building’s locks have been changed.
? Vivienne Parra, an Oceanside resident, is suing Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, her former employer, for allegedly unjustly firing her for taking medical and family leaves of absence. In 2009, Parra took three weeks off of work for a mastectomy as well as three weeks off to deliver her baby. The following year, Parra had to take another leave of absence for a second precautionary mastectomy. Soon after the second mastectomy, Parra was fired because “she no longer desired employment,” as stated in a Jan. 18 NBC 7 San Diego article, “Cancer Survivor Allegedly Fired for Taking Medical Leave.” Parra’s attorney David Scher said that companies use leaves of absences as reasons to fire employees. He also said that Parra’s dismissal violates the Family Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
? A 9-year-old girl was approached by a suspicious man outside of La Paloma Elementary School in Fallbrook on Jan. 17. Around 4 p.m., the girl was waiting for a family member to pick her up from the front of her school when an unknown man pulled up in his white truck. The man stopped near her and tried to coax her into his truck, but the girl backed away. Another student’s parent took the girl to the principal’s office and called the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.
The girl described the man as “a heavyset white man between 40 and 50 years old, with redness on his skin in the neck and arm area,” according to a Jan. 18 NBC 7 San Diego article, “‘Suspicious’ Man Approached Child Outside School: Deputies.”
? A person was stabbed at a high school party held in La Jolla on Sunday, Jan. 20. According to police, a group of uninvited people came to the party and a fight broke out after the host asked them to leave. The re were more than 30 students in attendance when the incident occurred at 1 a.m. One person was stabbed twice in the back during the fight. The wounds were non-life threatening.
