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Stories by Sheila Pell

Bank-card fees heaped upon child-support recipients

It was a good year for collecting child support in California. More aggressive collection efforts helped the state bring in $38 million more in the fiscal year that ended in June. San Diego ranked 22nd ...

Sonoma County Supervisor Arrested at Downtown Nightclub

It wasn’t the first time this year that someone left a rap concert downtown on a stretcher. What made the Labor Day brawl unusual was the identity of one of the players. Not Rayan Jastaniyah, ...

Cal Fire’s Mission Has Changed

Get the benefit, pay the bill.

California State Assembly Bill x1 29 calls for an annual “fire prevention benefit fee” of up to $150 per “habitable structure.”

Can living near a major road be dangerous to your health?

As any urban dweller knows, all traffic is local. But what’s inside its dark spew, and how it affects people nearby, is a mystery. Two new air monitors coming to San Diego will help answer ...

Late To Change Lanes

“Forty years of no real action is a long time.”

In Coronado, alternative transportation mostly means bikes, scooters, skateboards, legs. The options end at the bridge, where a link to San Diego is provided only for cars and motorcycles. Some say the bridge favors traffic ...

The Ghost Fleet of Suisun Bay, California

They are a floating museum, revered by some, reviled by others. But no trip to the Bay Area is complete without viewing the huddled battalion of old military ships that haunts its northern reaches, where ...

Smart Meter? Her Heart’s Not in It

When a San Diego Gas and Electric technician asked Susan Foster how the company could allay her concerns about smart meters, her reply left him speechless. “Can you get me a new heart?” Foster stood ...

Toxic Waste Is History

The deadline looms for aviation and architectural buffs to claim a piece of San Diego history. Chandeliers, floors, decals, and aviation emblems are among the items offered to museums, archives, non-profit groups, and the public ...

Big Bore Banter

Will some Coronado voters be confused by the wording of a June ballot measure and support a tunnel they don’t want? Councilmember Barbara Denny thinks so. She considers the draft ballot language “unintentionally misleading” and ...

Who Put the Dogs Out?

San Diego is on the map as one of the dog friendliest of cities. Beaches, hiking trails, and even some stores and cafés accommodate four-legged visitors. It’s all here, from dog sports to doggy daycare. ...

Jellybean Pizza Butt

A rare Sparrow, one of 285 of the eye-popping electric cars ever made, was recently spotted in Encinitas. The owner wasn’t around to provide details, but an internet search revealed that the car was a ...

Good Driver Wanted

At about 9:45 p.m. on Sunday, December 13, a driver speeding down Sixth Avenue lost control of his car after taking a sharp turn onto Palm Street. The errant driver’s car hit and smashed a ...

Festival of Car Lights

“December Nights” in Balboa Park kicked off with a lurch, leaving winners and losers in an all-night battle over parking. The two-day event opened Friday; a night to forget, according to a would-be attendee who ...

The Scariest Part of Halloween

On a blustery afternoon, just down the road from a Mission Valley lot that’s already advertising Christmas trees, costumed sign bearers point the way to a recently opened Halloween store. Every October “they just pop ...

Tony's Friend

Kurt and Tony are friends who travel together for safety. At night they sleep in one of San Diego’s many “cubbyholes,” as the homeless call the spaces behind bushes and buildings. Kurt Wiley said he ...

Dogs’ Deathbed Gift

At 2:00 a.m. on August 26, Donna Liebrich left San Diego and headed east on I-8 for the Mexican border. Mexicali, her destination, is a good two-hour drive, depending on the Border Patrol checkpoint and ...

Stopped in Their Tracks

At about 5:30 p.m. on October 1, cops swarmed the grounds outside Balboa Park’s Sixth Avenue bathroom across from St. Paul’s Cathedral. Soon after, a tall, thin man wearing sweatpants, sneakers, and a baseball cap ...

Transients Attack Cop

“I was taking a little siesta,” said a man lying on the grass in Balboa Park, observing an unfolding crime scene on September 25. Just down the hill, a section of north Balboa Park had ...

Tunnel Vision

The Coronado Tunnel Commission met on September 10 to discuss the next step in their proposal to build a 1.4-mile underground tunnel that would redirect military traffic between the bay bridge and North Island naval ...

Mayberry Modernized

Todd Shallan, president of the Coronado Chamber of Commerce and general manager of the Hotel Del, began a presentation to Coronado City Council on May 5 by saying, “Our economy is not going to get ...

Coronado Underground?

On March 12, the Coronado Tunnel Commission (CTC) — a group formed to seek funding for construction of an underground tunnel to ease the town’s traffic congestion — held a meeting at the Coronado Police ...

Newspapers: Dead or Alive

On February 27, the day the Rocky Mountain News published its last edition and just a few days after owners of the Philadelphia Inquirer filed for bankruptcy, a panel convened at the Museum of San ...

For Whom the Tolls Irk

Seven years after the toll for the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge was dropped, a controversial proposal to bring it back is in the works. The toll would fund construction of an underground tunnel or underpasses ...