I got a chance to pay a visit to The Salk Institute last night. It was established 40 years ago on land overlooking the Pacific by Jonas Salk, who invented the Polio vaccine.

The site was designed by architect Louis I. Kahn. The impact of the site’s centerpiece, the concrete courtyard seen above, is almost beyond words. The image that popped into my mind was the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It seems timeless, like it has always been there.

So what do you do when your university is the subject of one of, if not the biggest campus drug raid ever. Tell everyone how proud you are?

That’s the response of San Diego State University, after an undercover drug sting on frat row led to last month’s arrest of dozens of students.

It’s clear the university has a drug problem. I spent the past few months teaching journalism at SDSU. Before the raids, several students wrote stories about drugs on campus — the ever-present smell of pot in the dorms, cocaine use in sororities, and a touching story about a young SDSU student who overdosed. (Interestingly, after the raids, my students were surprised at the frats that were busted. The ones they said had the real reputation for drugs weren’t caught.)

SDSU’s response has been, well, to pat itself on the back. The school is running public service announcements on its public radio station, KPBS, that feature well-known coaches, alumni and staff talking about how proud they are of SDSU. Here’s a taste. Of course, Tony Gwynn, Steve Fisher and the others don’t explain why they’re prouder than ever of SDSU right now.

No wonder the school has a drug problem. The administration is behaving like a bad parent, putting a happy face on an ugly problem.

The school has condoned the wild parties that SDSU has long been famous for. Playboy, consistently ranks SDSU on its annual lists of top party schools.

Here are SDSU students doing what they do best at a Playboy-hosted party:

This video, by the way, which features lesbian kissing and a woman shouting “Let’s get naked!” was uploaded to YouTube May 25, 2008 — several weeks AFTER the raid.

Playboy has no problem convincing young SDSU students to shed their clothes for the camera. Miss May 2006 was an SDSU grad student. Each year, the magazine also attracts throngs of young women when it comes to campus scouting for new, young nubile bodies to feature in the magazine. Jenae Nicole, the blond SDSU Playmate at left in the photo, told The Daily Aztec that she got to represent the school she sees as top-10 party school material:

“I think it’s just a great place to get an education and balance a great social life at the same time,” Nicole said. “It’s the best of both worlds; that’s why it’s such an awesome school.”

She must be prouder than ever.

Eric Bidwell is a T-shirt salesman who’s running for mayor of San Diego. On his MySpace page he says he lives in a van, smokes pot frequently, doesn’t believe in monogamous relationships, and doesn’t bathe everyday.

What he doesn’t say is he has more ethics and integrity than the two leading candidates. During Thursday’s mayoral debate, Bidwell revealed that Michael McSweeney, campaign manager for Mayor Jerry Sanders, had written a statement for him.  

The statement blasted fellow candidate Steve Francis, who is spending millions of dollars of his own money to unseat Sanders, as a “hypocrite.” (The fact that McSweeney actually believed someone as independent as Bidwell would do his bidding is mind-boggling.)

Here’s the video of Eric spilling the beans. He also had some choice words for Francis, a Republican who’s attacking Sanders for being Republican:

The upshot: On Friday, Sanders campaign manager Michael McSweeney resigned.  Tom Shepard, Sanders’ campaign “consultant,” calls it an isolated incident. Shepard’s client list includes two councilmembers, all five county supervisors, the county sheriff and on and on. How deep down the rabbit hole will we go?Mit anderen Worten , die meisten von uns, wenn Sie Poker online poker turniere wollen, die abends oder am Wochenende ein Spielchen tippen.

Any of you attorneys who read this blog ever use a private investigator named Victoria Tade? Uh oh.

Tade ran a San Diego private eye firm named C.I. Inc.. Last week, she was indicted in Tacoma, Washington on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and illegal solicitation of tax and Social Security information.

According to the indictment, Tade would pay Emilio and Brandy Torella, who ran a husband and wife private eye firm in Washington, for “confidential employment, financial, tax or medical information.” The Torells would then obtain the information under false pretenses by what’s known as “pretexting.”

Tade was hired by insurance companies, attorneys and collection companies who wanted her to uncover background information on opposing parties and witnesses and to uncover assets and income to satisfy debts.

The indictment doesn’t identify Tate’s clients, but I’ll keep you posted.