Defense expert will examine Petraeus report
One of Washington’s most trusted advisors is coming to the University of California, San Diego, to share information with the public about the war in Iraq and the recent controversies surrounding the report Gen. David Petraeus gave to Congress.
On Thursday, Sept. 27, Lawrence Korb, formerly the assistant secretary of defense to President Ronald Reagan, will speak at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, UCSD.
Korb presides over think tanks in Washington and is considered a defense expert. He is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and senior advisor to the Center for Defense Information. He was director of national security studies for the Council on Foreign Relations, said Barry Jagoda, UCSD director of communications.
“Korb will be weighing in on controversial topics from a position of deep knowledge,” Jagoda said.
The lecture is free and open to the public. It will be held at 4 p.m. in the Gardner Room.
For more information, call Katherine Mayfield, (858) 534-1465, e-mail [email protected] or visit http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu.

Pot merchant to serve concurrent sentences
A judge on Sept. 11 gave a five-year prison term to a La Jolla man who operated a medical marijuana dispensary known as the Purple Bud Room in Pacific Beach. But the judge ruled the five-year term can be served concurrently with the five-year sentence in federal prison also involving marijuana cultivation.
This means John Thomas Sullivan, 39, will serve no more prison time and San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Walsh said he can serve the whole term in federal prison. Sullivan was given credit for 189 days already spent in jail.
Probation was denied and Walsh fined him $1,040. Sullivan pleaded guilty in state court in 2006 to possession of marijuana for sale and to filing a fraudulent insurance claim after falsely telling his auto insurance company his car had been stolen. The car was discovered in a storage facility after Sullivan was delinquent in paying storage fees.
Sullivan operated the Purple Bud Room on Garnet Avenue and Tender Holistic Dispensary on Cass Street before both were shut down in drug raids in July 2006. Fourteen others were arrested with Sullivan, but he was the biggest target and received the longest sentence.
The medical marijuana dispensaries operated because of California Proposition 215, which voters approved in 1996. It allowed for ailing persons to use a small amount of marijuana if a physician recommends it for medical purposes. But it is still illegal to transport and cultivate marijuana. The law was vague and is still open to debate.
Federal law did not make allowances for medical marijuana, and it is still illegal to possess it even if one has a medical reason to do so. Sullivan was given five years in federal prison on Aug. 27. He had pleaded guilty to illegally cultivating 300 marijuana plants.
Patients who use medical marijuana have obtained identification cards they show to police. In general, officers do not make arrests of people with very small amounts of marijuana if they claim the purpose is for medical use, but they can still be arrested if they commit another crime or are in possession of other illegal drugs.

Zoo says ‘it’s a girl,’ but not much more
The fourth giant panda cub born to the San Diego Zoo had residents anxiously awaiting the announcement on whether the black and white fur-ball was a boy or a girl. Now San Diegans wait for a chance to glimpse the female panda and to take part in the naming process.
Sept. 13 brought an end to the wonder, when zoo officials announced that the cub is a girl.
“We do a weekly exam in the mornings, and that’s when we determined the sex,” said zoo spokeswoman Yadira Galindo.
Zoo officials were close-mouthed, however, about the naming process that occurs 100 days after the birth in keeping with Chinese tradition. The mother, 16-year-old Bai Yun, had the cub six weeks ago in August.
The first cub, Hua Mei, who was born in the United States in 1999, was named out of respect for the Chinese. The second cub born at the zoo was Mei Sheng in 2003, whose name was discussed with the Chinese. In 2005, zoo officials came up with five names, cleared them with China, then posted them on an Internet site. They let the world pick Su Lin as the name of the third cub, Galindo said.
Although officials are tight-lipped about the cub’s name, the public should be able to view her by December, Galindo said.
If people want to see the panda cub now, they can view the zoo’s panda cam, http://www.sandiegozoo.org.