Where I live, no major high-volume road cuts apart the 'hood. People can cross the street without becoming dead. The amoeba-shaped Balboa Park Municipal Golf Course and grid-busting canyons have made a rabbit warren of the streets.

While in Ramona on an escape from city life a year ago, I unexpectedly ran into an old friend, Karen Webster, on one of the town's back streets. She was on her horse. At first …

In Holland in the 17th Century, "tiles migrated from floors to walls," says Steven Kern. "Why? Because ceramic is soft-baked, not like ironstone or stonewear. When you walk on it, it's going to chip." But …

In contra dancing you get a new partner after each set of dances. During the set, you and your partner dance with another couple for a round -- one pair being the active couple. Then …

Scott Tulloch, director of San Diego's Metropolitan Wastewater Department, believes that the 2.66 inches of rain on October 27 showed how effective improvements to the city's sewer system have been over the past three years. …

At the start of each February, organizers for San Diego's Parade of Lights put the event's theme for the coming year on their website. "That's when we start to make drawings of our 41-foot Hatteras," …

'We are lucky that he failed," says Leslie Klinger of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. "He had a practice as an ophthalmologist in Portsmouth. Then he moved to London where he didn't get any business. With …

'One time I wondered," says Ana Valdivia (her maiden name), "with the hours my husband was putting in, if maybe he was having an affair. But we laughed when he said, 'I'd be too tired. …

Mattresses, boat parts, toys, cans of insect spray, plastic trash bags, and Styrofoam packing fodder are only some of the trash that the local Audubon Society takes out of San Diego County wetlands every year. …

"Some people obsess on Mexican immigrants and are virulently against them," says North County Times columnist and former KOGO radio talk show host Raoul Lowery Contreras. "They cite the problems illegal aliens cause -- and …

In the aftermath of World War II, small Jewish communities came to life again in Eastern Europe. The Jews who rebuilt them had survived the Holocaust by using aliases, escaping concentration camps, or fleeing to …

Late in 2003, Hawkeye Management Company, hired by the city of San Diego, began calling residents of De Anza Cove mobile-home park on Mission Bay. They wanted residents to sign contracts specifying terms of departure. …

'It's a chess match -- with guns," says Pure Promotions director John E. Favourite. From each team, seven players carrying paintball guns get seven minutes to grab a flag a little over halfway across a …

On August 14, 2002, elevator doors opened to let Neil Rico into the lobby of the Comerica Bank building in downtown San Diego. As Heritage Security Service's supervisor in the building, Rico figured he knew …

Bouquets of roses and daisies stand on either side of the casket. The left half of its lid is open. Overhead, eight-inch stained boards slant toward the crest of the ceiling. The Cypress View Chapel …

When Franke Lauria said, "Click on the 'My Computer' icon," he says, the customer told him, "I'm a Protestant and I don't believe in icons." "Why don't you click on the little picture called 'My …

Mark Ruford (not his real name) understands that the cab company he works for makes plenty of money off people stranded when their cars are towed at the beach. He drives them so often to …

With the election approaching, I went looking several weeks ago for bumper stickers that might signal the way San Diego is leaning in the presidential race. My investigation got its impetus from an August 30 …

A funny thing has been happening to the old Coronado Branch Railroad on its way to recognition as a historical landmark. The California Historical Resources Commission designated the rail historic in the fall of 2001. …

When reporters call him, says Bob Turner, he often thinks they have run out of airplane crashes. "The news media love mountain lions," he says. "They can hardly wait for attacks." So Turner wasn't surprised …

Last November Rolando Park residents formed the Rolando Park Community Council to address concerns such as stop signs and red curbs on their streets. Now the council's top priority is to fight the possible loss …

Leihua Smith figured that the man who volunteered to be a witness for her in court must have been an angel. "I gave him a kiss on the cheek after the hearing," she says, "but …

The online publication of "Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz's journals has a San Diego man on the hot seat. "Wilson," not his real name, says he turned down interviews by Today's Katie Couric, the …

In an October 2002 interview he said he had run into the Dalai Lama in the Holy Land. "I went up to him," said LaHaye, "and asked if anyone had ever explained to him who Jesus Christ really is."

Reiss thinks that "less than 2900 people [taking] their cars off the freeway" is a "drop in the bucket," especially in light of the 260,000 cars Caltrans says go through the I-5/805 merge every weekday.

If a San Diego County jury had not acquitted Beau John Maloney of terrorizing his father and younger half-brother in July 1998, a renowned Texas artist might still be alive today. Until her murder, Helen …

Two years ago Mary Schenk received notification that her daughter Donna was self-mutilating. (Family members' names have been changed to protect the child's privacy.) "The school nurse called," says Schenk, "and it was the day …

It was the winter of 1980, and the employees of the now-defunct Hafer Steel Company in Grantville had to go onto the roof. "A helicopter came and asked whether or not we wanted to be …

Special religious diets in San Diego County's jails sometimes make prisoners who receive regular fare feel shortchanged. How else can you explain why several men in the system, who said they were white supremacists, once …

Cloud 9 is the only company in San Diego, so far, to make chauffeurs independent owner-operators. In the new approach, "There are responsibilities the drivers have. But hard workers should be able to do well."

“I see a large empty whiskey bottle floating above your head” is how the Reverend Chris Meredith addresses Linda Hackett, who is on the other side of the aisle and closer to the little chapel’s …

How it works is an industrial secret, say the founders of Aqua Genesis LLC, a San Diego company that intends to clean up the Salton Sea and in the process make thousands of acre-feet (one …

Fernando Suarez del Solar didn't even know who actor/director Sean Penn was. But Penn already knew Suarez. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 14, Penn, while in the Amsterdam airport Schiphol on …

Sooner or later, according to Bill Farrar, president of the San Diego Police Officers Association, tragic events will expose how understaffed the city's police force is. At 1.65 per 1000, San Diego has one of …

The old Le Meridien Hotel appealed so much to Roger Perez as the reception locale for his 1993 wedding to wife Renee that one day on his lunch hour last summer he went back to …

Lonnie Glasco shows off photos of a bevy of 18-wheelers and cars parked up and down his street, Dunbar Lane, in the East County community of Blossom Valley. Pictured also are vehicles strewn all over …

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.

Innocence of the 1950s variety still draws me once in a while to the Grinder sandwich shop on the corner of Second and Greenfield in El Cajon. Afterward, to conjure up memories of my father’s …

Ellen Browning Scripps had intended to create a safe place for children, the handicapped, and the elderly to swim in the ocean. The beach was smaller and farther back from the water then.

On a recent Friday night at 11:00 p.m., a lone policeman sits in his patrol car watching from 50 yards away a group of souped-up cars in the Target parking lot on Balboa Avenue. "It …

'I met Scott Peters at the opening of our YMCA when he was running for city council for District One in 2000," says Fred Mangarelli. "I introduced myself, but he didn't say, 'Hello,' and he …

During mid-April of last year, a large group of cowboys came into the Branded Oak restaurant on Maine Street in Lakeside. They had come from the rodeo grounds several blocks down the street, where tryouts …

A fog of paranoia surrounds the U.S. Department of Justice's Immigration Court in San Diego. The mentality suffuses not only the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the former INS) in its constant watch for …

'Things may change in Iraq between now and June 18," says Judge Ignacio Fernandez in reference to the next date Ayad Fawsi Suliman is due in court. "Should we have an asylum hearing?" The judge's …

The following day, Court TV's Harriet Ryan wrote that when Westerfield's son took the stand, the usually stoic Westerfield's "body began to shake in an even more pronounced manner than it has at other points during the trial.

Perhaps because it started as Physicians Insurance Company of Ohio and still reports to shareholders as an insurance business, PICO Holdings of La Jolla doesn't like to answer questions about water-resources development. The firm refers …

'It sure will take up a lot of room," says Allen Beddoe about the USS Midway mooring this fall at Navy Pier, where it is scheduled to become the permanent home to the San Diego …

There have been numerous other people that are somewhat connected to this family that we have tested, and everyone up to this point has passed the test. The only person who has failed on this test... DW: Is me.

After graduating from Southwest High School in South San Diego in 1997, Roberto Hernandez went off to study at UC Berkeley, where a successful undergraduate career has led to his acceptance into the school's Ph.D. …

The 805 coming north out of the South Bay is known as one of the most congested areas on San Diego County's freeways in the morning, but it is hardly the worst.