Though the municipal government unveils a new mass-transit proposal every few years, the fact remains: Tijuana is a city of cars. But it isn't a city of new cars. Only the wealthiest of tijuanenses drive …

Eight of the 13 shots Palm fired traveled through Harper's body. Palm hid the gun in a nearby canyon, then returned home. Two hours and 40 minutes later, sheriff's deputies arrested Palm at his house. 

Morse and I sit down with Manaole and Netter, who are discussing one-pocket pool. "It's the chess of pool," Manaole says, "because you have to put your opponent in trouble to gain an advantage."

In 1986, the tiny Pequot tribe, which had no full-blooded members, started a bingo hall. In 1992, the Pequots opened Foxwoods Casino, which is now said to be the most lucrative single casino in the world.

Fifty miles east of downtown San Diego, 12 miles south of Interstate 8, Buckman Springs Road, approaching from the north, ends at State Route 94 as it turns east after a mile-long northward jog from …

On Boulevard Agua Caliente — "El Boulevard," as tijuanenses call it — a block west of the downtown bullring, stands the first and only Shineray motorcycle dealership in the Americas. Eight models of the Chinese-made …

There are three wax-figure museums in all of Mexico. Two of them, Mexico City's and Tijuana's, owe their existence to Ricardo Parra Montes. "I was the director of tourism for the Mexico City government in …

On January 1, 2004, a provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect that lifted all tariffs on new cars bought in one of the member nations and imported into another. Now, …

Both sides agree the seeds of the dispute were planted in 2000 when the County Board of Supervisors announced that the three county animal shelters -- in Carlsbad, Linda Vista, and Bonita -- would be …

The aging Chevy Blazer struggles to climb the grade into the Tijuana neighborhood of El Pípila, about ten miles southwest of downtown. Atop the hill, the dirty, potholed street wanders through one of the grittiest …

Wait six months. That's the message native vegetation experts seek to convey to backcountry landowners itching to replant and reseed the scorched shrubs and wildflowers and cut down the blackened trees on their properties. "That …

Prospective home buyers in San Diego have waited for months for prices to stop their upward climb. In Tijuana, they're no longer waiting. Many Tijuanenses are leaving the city's colossal rental market and buying their …

I see Asian gang cars some nights, in a long caravan down the Mira Mesa Boulevard. They meet at In-N-Out Burger before heading off for illegal street races on Kearny Villa Road or in Sorrento Valley.

A sense of humanity pervades this little community on San Diego’s eastern fringe, a sense that beauty matters to the souls of all men, not just those who can afford La Jolla. Though the name …

Broad, open grasslands in the topography of San Diego County are the exception to the norm, which is chaparral-covered mesas and barrancas. And most of the natural grasslands, Mission Valley for example, have been developed. …

Fire consumed John Heglin's Santee home in 1986. "I lost everything," he recalls, "and I was homeless for quite some time. But the worst thing was not losing everything but having to deal with the …

Diane Jones30Marketing DirectorMarriedCollege AreaInterviewed at the Natural History Museum, Balboa Park I’m grateful that my father — he’s 63 — is healthy and happy. He had an accident last year; he had a flesh-eating bacteria …

For the legions of nondriving workers who live in Tijuana's eastern colonias, the commute into downtown can be made one of three ways. One is route taxis, also known as collective taxis. They are the …

Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest operates one of the largest AIDS clinics in San Diego County. On any given day, some of its patients can be seen milling about in green hospital gowns near the paths, …

San Diego Municipal Code section 141.061 states, "Adult entertainment businesses shall not be established, enlarged, or undergo a transfer of ownership or control if the structure housing the business would be located within 1000 feet …

Rodolfo Anguiano, member of the Playas de Tijuana environmental organization Grupo Gaviotas (seagulls), wears a pair of latex gloves as he holds the gray metal cylinder, about a foot and a half long and three …

In February of 1999, superior court judge Frank Brown purchased 73 acres of land along Boulder Creek near Descanso at a tax auction. The property had been owned by a man named Otto Rollins, who …

The gate below the dam at San Vicente Reservoir in Lakeside is closed when I arrive just before 10:00 o'clock on a late-April morning. The lake is closed to recreational fishing today. But I'm here …

In late June, officials from the United States Department of Agriculture lifted a ban on picking Hass avocados that had been imposed on growers in Valley Center since Mexican fruit flies were found in the …

These days, Julian residents are seeing something that hasn't been seen in those parts for three decades: logging trucks laden with local logs growling down the mountain roads and returning empty. "Everybody in the community …

First it was a country/western restaurant and dance hall. When that failed, it became a biker restaurant called the Roadhouse. For the past year, the low white building on the west end of Ramona's main …

Donna Heilman, manager of Birdland in North Park, takes no chances when it comes to protecting her store full of birds, from $5 finches to $10,000 macaws, which can live over 70 years. "We have …

Last winter's rains have greened the empty fields and rutted the dirt roads of La Gloria. The area, on the southern outskirts of Tijuana along the free road to Ensenada, is an odd mixture of …

On January 26, 2000, Oceanside police entered DeAnn Sutton-Griffith's home with neither search warrant nor permission and confiscated her dog. Preceding the home invasion was a dispute Sutton-Griffith had with the woman who sold her …

Wirsing says Ferguson's pro-bridge campaign "put us all to sleep because we had heard all that crap before. We thought Jesse didn't have anything to worry about. Well, we were wrong."

Fear of kidnapping has long spurred the upper classes in Tijuana to build high walls around their homes and mansions. Some even purchase insurance policies that will pay ransoms. But the literary community, never feeling …

It's only 35 or 40 minutes from downtown San Diego to the junction of Interstate 8 and State Route 79. And just a couple of minutes north of there lies the rural town of Descanso. …

The demolition order stated that the buildings on the site would be razed unless they were brought up to compliance. "It was dated December 2. Our meeting had been on December 3.”

Viewed on a street map, the 32nd Street canyon, as locals call it, is a patch of blank page interrupting the north-south grid of Golden Hill between Cedar and C Streets to the north and …

On January 6, 2003, Suzee Vlk, a 49-year-old resident of Linda Vista, was walking her small dog around the plaza at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. It would be her last walk. The …

'Five years ago, stolen vehicles were a very big problem for insurance companies in California." Speaking is Angel Escobedo, owner of Recuperadora Internacional de Vehículos Robados, a private stolen-car recovery business based in the Rio …

Two researchers, Dr. Derek Lovley, of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Massachusetts, and Dr. Dimitri Deheyn, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, have conducted research in San Diego Bay that challenges some prevailing wisdom …

The three lanes of Torrey Pines Road between the state reserve of the same name and Del Mar crown a half-mile sand berm separating the Pacific Ocean to the west and Los Peñasquitos lagoon to …

Since July 18, 2002, every other Thursday night at 6:00, a motor home has pulled up to the curb on the east side of 15th Street just south of F Street, across the street from …

Something about me must say "gringo" to the dozen taxi drivers awaiting as I emerge from the clanking turnstiles that lead in to Tijuana. Though I'm surrounded by others crossing on foot at about 5:45 …

One detects a strange sense of pride mixed with despair and anger when listening to environmental activist Silverio de la Mora talk about Tijuana. Once an electrical contractor who worked on many government contracts and …

One night in 1999, eight illegal immigrants died during a spring snowstorm in the mountains of San Diego County. Such alarming statistics spurred the Border Patrol to expand its mission to form two teams to …

Just north of Third Street, on the east side of Avenida Revolución, florista Esperanza Cervantes and her husband José Arias sit in metal folding chairs. Their backs are to the street. Across the street, American …

Tijuana is becoming a destination for European youth looking to spend long-term stints in a new culture. But they're not coming to the border city for great weather, nightlife, or proximity to San Diego. Five …

Despite the early hour, the group of seniors standing on the sidewalk in front of Ann Evans's home in Del Cerro joke, tease, and laugh with each other. It's 7:20 in the morning, and Natalie …

In 1996, the San Diego Union-Tribune started its "Street-Side Hawker Sales Program" in which over 40 mostly homeless people sold copies of the daily newspaper directly to motorists at busy intersections from Mira Mesa to …

In San Diego County, treated sewage is discharged four miles out to sea from six treatment plants dotting the coast from the border to San Onofre. In Mexico, one treatment plant at San Antonio de …

It's hot and it's dry in Bear Valley, in the foothills northeast of Escondido. The grass in the fields crackles underfoot. The live oaks on the hillsides and in the barrancas appear half dead, a …

"I get a little heated about this," Singer says, "because it's frustrating to me. If this was so important to the neighbors, why did it sit there all these years just the way it is?

In mid-July, Tijuana's newest newspaper, Frontera, a daily with a circulation of 18,000, was involved in an incident that in many ways symbolizes the three-year-old paper's standing in Tijuana. "We had some problems with distributors …