San Diego Union-Tribune Columnist Michael Smolens' recent piece, "Why San Diego's marquee initiatives might not make the ballot" is a great read that raises a lot of important questions on the possibility that four region changing initiatives might not make it onto the November ballot.

Smolens raises a number of questions including:

• Will the courts throw out the SDSU West and SoccerCity initiatives?
• Will Convention Center backers meet their signature gathering goal in time to be eligible for the November ballot?
• And will County Registrar Michael Vu finish recounting the Fair Voter Participation Act initiative so it makes it onto the November ballot?

For now, these issues might only be of interest to political insiders, but collectively the initiatives have the potential to completely change the future of our region.

Columnist Smolens joined me on the IVN Podcast to talk about his piece and discuss where he thinks all this is headed: