The city of San Diego has been paying about $18,000 a day for the past three years to lease the former Sempra Energy headquarters. But asbestos issues have prevented the city from occupying the building. It has been empty for all but one month since January 2017. When a local TV station obtained documents that showed, among other things, the city did not seek an independent assessment of the building, City Attorney Mara Elliott opened a criminal investigation of how reporters got the material. The station posted to social media a copy of a letter from Elliott warning it of the investigation. Hours later, after numerous complaints from the public, the city announced it was dropping that investigation.
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