I was on Chris Reed’s radio show on Sign On Radio this morning, an Internet radio station run by the San Diego Union-Tribune. Chris is an editorial writer and blogger at the San Diego Union-Tribune.

We started talking about Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s request for a commutation, but then Chris asked me about a piece I wrote back in February on San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre.

That piece caused a bit of a stir, I guess, because I asked a question that nobody else was asking. Aguirre, our elected city attorney, called the mayor “schizophrenic” and told a San Diego Union-Tribune that he was “pathological.”

That struck me as odd because many people say privately that Aguirre is the one with mental problems. But if you, as a reporter, raised this issue, Aguirre suddenly got defensive. Or hinted at forces out to stop him. Or wrote a letter to your editor telling you to get out of the office more.

Then today I spotted news that Aguirre’s brother, a wealthy attorney, is working as an “unpaid intern.” Double the fun!

I voted for Aguirre because I thought we needed someone to shake things up in paradise or Enron-by-the-sea as The New York Times called us.

I just don’t like bullies.

It’s the end of an era: Copley Press announced today that it’s exploring a sale of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The U-T’s president and CEO said the newspaper is caught up in a “perfect storm” affecting all media organizations.

“Part of it is secular – that is, brought about by forces that are fundamentally changing our business model and making it impossible for us to continue doing business as usual. The other part is cyclical, brought on by the collapse in the real estate market that is affecting the entire country, but is slamming Sun Belt cities especially hard.”

It’s a big day for San Diego, and for people who resent the old order that Copley represented and the virtual stranglehold that the U-T had on the city, it’s a happy one. Copley and the U-T were the only game in town for many, many years, intimately tied in to the city’s and the GOP power structure in a way that few newspapers ever were.

I’ve written about some of this before: James Copley allowed his news service to provide cover for CIA operatives. Editors like Herb Klein and Jerry Warren moved back and forth from journalism into the Nixon White House.

The newspaper was a kingmaker in this law-and-order town, and it was part of what kept San Diego the lone conservative bastion on the Left Coast. It nurtured people like Bill Kolender, the city’s former police chief and current sheriff. He was hired on as an assistant to the publisher while he pondered his next political move. Lately, the U-T has tangled with progressive City Attorney Mike “We’re Marching On” Aguirre.

Copley was once a chain of newspapers in the Midwest and Southern California. All were sold in the hopes, I suppose, of saving the Union-Tribune, the crown jewel. Even in its weakened state, the newspaper remains a powerhouse. Its estimated revenues in 2006 of $387 million were more than all the local TV stations in town combined.  But the company can’t limp along any more.

In the end, it was the mortgage and real crisis that pushed Copley to this. Which is ironic, because the Union-Tribune, like the old L.A. Times under Colonel Otis and the OC Register, were relentless promoters of growth. Think big.  Build it and they will come.

But what goes up must come down.  San Diego just can’t expand any more because nobody wants to live in Temecula and pay $4 gas for the privilege of driving hours back and forth to work every day. Something’s gotta give.

Gene Bell, the Union-Tribune president and CEO, says newspapers aren’t dying. Maybe, maybe not. But the once mighty newspaper will never be the same.

The San Diego Union-Tribune story today on the outcry over the name of the largest Hispanic organization in the United States.

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – The National Council of La Raza spends most of its time protecting and advancing the rights of Latinos through advocacy and community work. But as it wraps up its convention downtown, it has found itself defending its name.That’s because activists who oppose illegal immigration are saying in e-mails, during street protests and through the media that “La Raza” means “The Race,” and have been calling the organization a hate group.

Activists are saying that, are they? Well, my Spanish-English dictionary also happens to say the same thing. Not so, according the folks at La Raza:

Many people incorrectly translate our name, “La Raza,” as “the race.” While it is true that one meaning of “raza” in Spanish is indeed “race,” in Spanish, as in English and any other language, words can and do have multiple meanings. As noted in several online dictionaries, “La Raza” means “the people” or “the community.” Translating our name as “the race” is not only inaccurate, it is factually incorrect. “Hispanic” is an ethnicity, not a race. As anyone who has ever met a Dominican American, Mexican American, or Spanish American can attest, Hispanics can be and are members of any and all races.

It’s an interesting debate, but only now that the convention’s over does the newspaper feel comfortable enough to write about it. The Union-Tribune is acting more and more like the house organ of the Convention & Visitors Bureau. We wouldn’t want to upset all those conventioneers spending their dollars in America’s Finest City, would we?

This debate has been going on for quite a while now. There was an outcry when the City Council declared July 8 La Raza Day in San Diego. Right-wing talk show host Roger Hedgecock was beating this like a drum all last week.

Hedgecock appeals to the basest, most virulent nativist instincts. He described La Raza as the “Ku Klux Klan with a tan.” The group’s true goal was “the dismemberment of the United States of America.” He makes Lou Dobbs seem like an intellectual by contrast.

Hedgecock was once a “progressive Republican” former mayor who left office when he was CONVICTED of conspiracy and perjury. He then shifted gears and decided to make a living bashing Mexicans. Last week, he was chatting up his idea for his own group — “La Raza Blanca” — until a listener gently reminded him that … ahem … you might want to knock that off.