To his parishioners in Old Town and Rancho Bernardo he was just another aging priest come West to enjoy a good-weather parish. A reward for years ministering in frigid Minnesota. To the fellow priests he …

Question: "Can people really get addicted to cybersex? I am spending more and more time at porn sites. My wife walked in on me a few weeks ago, only to find me in a compromised …

Does the blue-green sharpshooter spell doom for San Diego's nascent wine industry? The question is serious for the county's largest winery, Escondido's Orfila Vineyards. This year, with a combination of a warm, wet winter and …

Lawrence Graf says the San Diego Unified Port District has no right to build any convention-center extension on land reclaimed from San Diego Bay because it's an illegal authority. The bay belongs solely to the …

Larry Lawrence, the late owner of the Hotel del Coronado and Bill Clinton's one-time ambassador to Switzerland, achieved posthumous ignominy when it was revealed that his purported wartime service in the Merchant Marine was a …

Can malaria be predicted by changes in ocean temperatures? Can you foretell a dengue fever epidemic by reading atmospheric pressures? Does hantavirus disease follow El Niño? Are climatologists the doctors of the future? The answer …

The macaque monkey lets a golden stream tinkle from his perch on the upended tree trunk. Maybe he's nervous. He's five feet behind the fence here in the Sun Bear Forest area of the San …

Ask Janet -- not her real name -- and she'll tell you there are three things wrong with life in San Diego if you're a transsexual. "We need employment protection, we need homeless shelters that …

James Nesbit, the editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, sat quietly on deck, writing. He made out a will. He wrote notes to loved ones. He wrapped the documents in oilskin and tied them to …

When is a SEAL not a SEAL? Too often, says Darryl Young, an ex-SEAL who trained in Coronado. Young heard of so many many SEAL impostors that he helped form a group called the "U.S. …

Captain Thomas McPhatter, 74, USN, retired from the Navy Chaplain Corps, stands up. He looks gravely at the dozen people gathered around, mostly African-Americans like him. The meeting comes to order. "In your own way, …

If the bears had not ripped Fred Gilbert's arms off, he might never have made the connection with Maria Amparo 40 years later. The accident happened when he was a boy. He'd gone to see …

A friendly item by Union-Tribune columnist Diane Bell about pregnancies among the staff of Mayor Susan Golding has inspired a not-so-friendly anonymous hit by a group calling itself "City Moms." According to the October 7 …

Is more marijuana grown in San Diego, Orange and Riverside counties than in Humboldt, Mendocino, Trinity and Del Norte counties? And do Mexican nationals produce close to 90 percent of San Diego County's crop? Yes …

Legalize it, legalize it, being in America should be about being free/ Legalize it, legalize it, it's a basic right for you and me. First off, Norman "Kyoti" King has a CD out. Second, he's …

"San Diego is the right place to have this. It's a tourist town with naval history. It's like trying to have a steak house in Kansas City. You have to blow it for it not to work."

The headline that brought me to a Navy seal reunion in Coronado is simple and startling. "seal training caused murder, lawsuit says." The story was published in the Virginian-Pilot, a daily paper out of Norfolk, …

'Pst psst. Kitty kitty. Tsk tsk tsk." "Not so loud! They'll hear...." It's 2:00 a.m. The only time we can feed our illicit colony without alerting the neighbors. "Dzit dzit dzit." At the bottom of …

'Racism is alive and well in the funeral industry," says the Reverend George Walker Smith. "You can quote me on that." Reverend Smith, pastor of Christ United Presbyterian Church of San Diego, is speaking out …

When 50 African-American U.S. sailors were arrested for mutiny 53 years ago, assistant U.S. Attorney Randy K. Jones wasn't even born. Yet Jones, 39, a San Diego federal prosecutor since 1987, wants President Clinton to …

A former San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau executive has become enmeshed in a sex-and-money church money church scandal that's making headlines in Florida, Wisconsin, and Tennessee. "Baptist Leader Linked to Second Woman Who's Not …

Why is Roman Catholic priest Rudolph Kos, a.k.a. Rudy Edward, a.k.a. Father Rudy, whom a Dallas jury found liable for sexually abusing 11 boys, able to live without supervision near an elementary school in downtown's …

"He should be killed! We want him dead!" says Mr. Sokha, in the Trieu Chau restaurant. "Don't bother with a trial. Three million people died because of him. We want to know he's gone."

'I want this to come out in print," says Walter Velechovsky. "What happened to my son. Why they could blow him away. I haven't even had the guts enough to ask my daughter what happened. …

Does Bill Clinton's favorite hostelry, the Hotel del Coronado, need saving? By all appearances, the 109-year-old, 692-room historic landmark is doing fine. Depending on whether you talk to the town's mayor or the hotel's manager, …

Some would say Richard Barnett and Sheldon Sherman are in the ill-gotten gains business. The two downtown attorneys earn money honestly, all right, but not always from honest people: they often help drug dealers get …

I make a call to the San Diego Police Department's Sex Crimes Unit. "Have you ever heard of a priest named Rudy Kos? He's accused of molesting 11 boys - most of them altar boys …

The murders have sent gays in San Diego into a panic. From the Chee-Chee Club downtown to the International Male fashion store in Hillcrest, people said they "knew nothing" about Cunanan or were unwilling to talk.

Where do you find a refuge from the 20th Century? Down a dusty drive in the highland backwoods of Potrero, about 45 miles east of San Diego. It sits huddled beneath clusters of century-old olive …

The SS Catalina is about to move again. This time she's being hauled south from Ensenada to Puerto Vallarta, to be turned into a party gambling ship. And J.C. Wilkinson wants to know why she …

Come September, Tecate's border crossing, the hilly country 43 miles east of San Diego, will get a $10 to $12 million expansion. San Diego entrepreneur Tom Hom hopes this signals the birth of the border …

It's a perfect morning for spying. The water glints metallic blue in the sun. Marietta, the harbor cruise boat, slicks by, crammed with Zonies on its upper deck. You can hear the female guide's voice …

"Let's say you figure the guy is going to live two years," says Ted Martin. "Here's the way a breakdown would work: You take his $100,000 [life insurance] policy. You're going to pay the guy, …

I was selling rum in Venezuela in the '60s," says John Norton, "when I met some girls from the Swedish Embassy. One finally became vice consul in L.A. She suggested me for the job of …

Last time I saw Sara Gagliardi, she was bent double. Sweat poured off her brow. She was in pain. She limped to the back of the health food store where she was working and sat …

Two years ago he returned to Marcel Marceau in Ohio and told him the ancient story of the first deer hunt from the Kupa people up in Warner Springs. “I wanted to make a mime of it."

Was it a coincidence this summer when 8000 tilapia-loving pelicans, including the endangered brown pelican, suddenly died on the beaches of the Salton Sea, the biggest pelican die-off in recorded U.S. history?

"We had to wade across the river. More and more of my friends dropped out. From the 1st grade to the 12th grade, more than 1000 dropouts. Till, in the end, I was the only one still going."

Jessie has a smile that doesn’t agree with his fierce black eyes. Take care,” says Oscar. “This area is dangerous.” He leans over the bar, brings his face close to mine. “The police have no …

The arc of a singular life from Vietnam to Imperial Beach.

Eight a.m. The man glances around quickly. He saunters toward the high wall. Then, like a cat positioning for attack, leaps to the top. He hesitates for a moment, then is gone down the other …

Vallecito has always been Marjorie’s favorite. “In the ’30s, I’d come up here and walk up there along the old road through this valley. Oh, I'd find little tiny kids’ shoes — I think they were from the Mormon Battalion, probably.”

Six o’clock in the morning. “Help me! Help me!” "Hi, Miss Bue. Let me wipe your chin. What do you want? "I want to go home!” "You are home, dear." "No! I want to go …

The mackerel’s wide-angle eyes are attracted to shiny, moving objects. “Mackerel are top-fish. They’re hunting, they bite. Not like bottom fish, which have lips and suck, looking for dead stuff or leftovers,” says Rita.

“We had seven little carriers, converted oil tankers, and I think 11 small destroyer escorts. The Japs came in with their big guns and their big battleships.”

“The rich school district gets the best teachers. That has not changed. Except here on Coronado we had a rich district with a poor tax base and citizens too mean to raise them."

Of course, Chopra is well on the way to realizing his own infinite possibilities. He sold a million copies of his book Ageless Body, Timeless Mind and that’s just the hardback figure.

It all starts on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. "Au revoir, Jerome! Au'voir, Stefanie! Sois gentille, Laura!" Mme. Calvel waves to the yellow bus as it warms up outside the French preschool CLTl on Claremont Mesa Boulevard, …

“To have your hand in someone’s belly, helping surgically correct something that will allow them to live or palliate their pain, it’s an...experience. Especially if you know the person. Your eyes, your hands, all your senses are involved.”

“San Diego? This isn’t a county, it’s a country!” This how it starts. Dave, sounding off after a couple of beers. Dave’s latest rave is San Diego County. You might call him a county nationalist. …