San Diego’s Arab and Islamic communities have mixed feelings about September 11, 2001. Some blame Osama bin Laden, some fault the United States, and still others blame all parties involved. With one exception, these speakers …

Are you a business fat cat who wants to get up close and personal with the military brass and hardware at the upcoming Miramar Marine air show? How about purchasing a "Corporate Hospitality Chalet" right …

Hey, Matt: Why is it that "WE" who live in the United States need to know what "THEY" who live in Canada pay on consumer items/goods???? (i.e., greeting cards/flower vases, etc.) And why is it …

Haymatt: Could you tell me why the pilot sits in a cockpit? Why is a cockpit called a cockpit? Did Orville and Wilbur think up the word? Do other countries use this same term? In …

As September grades into October and the sun swings ever lower across the southern sky, the high-desert landscape around Anza-Borrego's Blair Valley becomes comfortable enough for an early-season visit. It's warm, dry, and desolate out …

Monday, July 22, 2002, 9:38 a.m. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 284.52 points to 7734.74. I push on a glass door and enter into a small lobby. This is the downtown Charles Schwab …

According to Dr. Robert Gunn of the county health department, the term "venereal" was phased out in favor of "sexually transmitted disease" (STD) in the 1970s because "the term 'venereal' comes from Venus, the goddess …

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 …

Padres owner John Moores, who raised a stink when he held a January fundraiser at his posh Rancho Santa Fe estate on behalf of fellow UC regent Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action "Racial Privacy Initiative," has …

Matthew: I was in high school when the 805 was built and open for business. I seem to remember hearing that the day before it was open to cars, it was open to the public …

Dear Matthew: A friend says that if I paint myself with house paint, I would drown. Could this be true? I wanted to paint myself silver, but now I'm not so sure. -- Cindy, San …

Hey: Other than an occasional victory cigar, we've never seen pictures of our U.S. presidents with a cigarette in their hand. Were there any modern-day presidents that actively inhaled while in office? -- Ken, Cardiff …

The two major subdivisions of the California desert (the Mojave and Colorado Deserts), plus an outlying stretch of chaparral habitat, intersect in the 4500-acre Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, north of Palm Springs. Bighorn sheep, bobcats, …

On January 18 of this year, Joanne Branch, a "contract specialist" with the San Diego Unified School District, sent architect Ralph Roesling a letter full of good news. His firm was being retained to do …

"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?

Published on September 12, 2002 Voting Made Simple By Robert Kumpel San Diego voters are not likely to see any chad controversies in upcoming elections as November's election will be the last election in which …

As school-board elections approach, San Diego Unified chief Alan Bersin continues to haul out the big guns to tell his side of the highly contentious story. Word has leaked from district headquarters on Normal Street …

Hello, Matt: I was going through that scary area under my bathroom sink the other day and found a bottle of shampoo I had purchased two or three years ago. It got me to wondering, …

Heymatt: I live in the Jamul darkness, and I was wondering why the Milky Way is always in view? Same place, any season, never changes. Have any ideas? -- Lions Peak Lookout I sure do. …

Hey, Matt: I'm seeing lots of advertisements for "malt beverages" that have the flavor of rum or vodka or any other liquor. Why don't the alcohol companies just make a regular rum and Coke beverage …

In 1850, people poured into California, greedy for gold. Fortunes bulged. All of this led to planning on a grandiose scale. Entrepreneurs envisioned cities on bare patches of dirt — or better sites for what …

There are only a few places along the Southern California coastline where you can walk for miles in a single direction and hardly see any highway, railroad tracks, powerlines, houses, or other signs of civilization. …

Just about everyone remembers that moment on September 11 when he or she first heard that hijacked airliners had flown into the World Trade Center. Here, 101 men and women tell how that moment that …

The spot came to be known as Punta de los Muertos, “Point of the Dead,” or just Punta. Gray camped at Punta and saw the obvious: protected, accessible to ships, deep anchorage, “the logical location for a port city.”

"1 really wanted to try and get a pure sensation of what it felt like to have the thing on, to feel that that was the only recourse, was to wear this thing, to be driven to wear it.”

As the hysteria over the West Nile virus moves westward, California appears to be the inevitable destination of the mosquitoes that carry the deadly virus. Even though San Diego has a relatively dry climate and …

The complete financial impact of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center will never be accurately calculated, but among those most hurt are travel- and tourism-related businesses. Many of San Diego's travel and tourist …

Insiders say last week's carefully orchestrated release of test-score numbers by the San Diego Unified School District shows just how closely district superintendent Alan Bersin intends to work with Union-Tribune editors in the weeks leading …

Hi: The other morning I woke up and found salsa splattered everywhere, a sort of minor explosion, it appeared. One of those small round plastic containers of salsa had blown the lid and its contents …

Hey: What is a shrift, and why do I care if I get a short one? -- Rick Greenburg, San Diego Shrift: noun; (1) confession of sin; (2) absolution following confession. Short shrift: noun; (1) …

Hey, Elf Master: I have a couple of questions for you about Ping Pong balls: what are they made of and how are they made? I know there are more profound questions I could ask, …

Saddle Peak, a notable high point along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains, consists of two 2800-foot summits: one topped by antennas and fenced off, the other one barren but viewful. Both preside over …