UCSD named top research university The Center for Measuring University Performance (CMUP) has named the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) among the top 25 research universities in the nation in its annual “Top American Research Universities” publication. The report cited UCSD’s numerous faculty awards, high SAT/ACT scores of entering freshmen, doctorates granted and post-doctoral appointees. The CMUP provides data for more than 600 institutions each year. Local lawyer wins $10.8 million case La Jolla attorney Joe Lavelle won a $10.8 million jury verdict for a mother and daughter who were struck by a Pizza Hut delivery driver on Clairemont Drive in November 2008. Olena Marie Novak, 87, and her daughter, Shari Marie Novak, suffered serious injuries. Shari now requires 24-hour care after the driver drifted across lanes and caused a head-on collision. The Pizza Hut driver was an 18-year-old girl who the company claimed had suffered a seizure caused by previously undiagnosed epilepsy. The judge determined that evidence existed to show the driver knew she had a previous condition, and awarded Olena Novak $2.2 million and Shari Novak $8.6 million. California Sea Grant funds marine projects Seventeen marine research projects have received a total of about $550,000 in funding from the California Sea Grant. Part of the funding will benefit traineeships for 13 graduate student researchers. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s (NOAA) California Sea Grant College Program sponsors research at multiple universities throughout the state, administered by Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It is the largest of 32 California Sea Grant programs. Lightner supports reform ballot measure First District City Councilwoman Sherri Lightner voted along with six colleagues to request that the City Attorney’s Office to draft a “Reform Before Revenue” ballot measure, which would “require all reforms to be implemented” before a proposed half-cent sales-tax hike can be enacted, Lightner said. “My district has been one of the most impacted by the last round of budget cuts to public safety, especially with two browned-out fire engines in Rancho Penasquitos and University City and the removal of year-round lifeguard coverage from Black’s Beach,” she said. Lightner added, “The end goal remains the same: getting a proposal before the voters that allows us to maintain existing levels of city services and achieve important reforms.”