"If we get up that hill ahead and down the other side without being stopped, I'm happy," Jeff says. We are on the road to Playas de Tijuana, the stretch where the border fence acts …

'On Monday of this week in the San Diego Schools, at Pershing Middle School, where my daughter attends, I had to go and file a sexual harassment complaint against children who were harassing my daughter, …

Wyatt Earp couldn't. Texas Rangers couldn't. But Enrique Mercado can and does. He chases murderers and rapists and child molesters across international lines to wherever they're hiding out. In the past 12 years he's pursued …

Papers in Los Angeles and Orange County are full of news that Padres owner John Moores is scouting about for a new stadium in Anaheim. Not for the Padres, but for a National Football League …

Potrero Regional Park hides in a spacious, live-oak-covered corner of Potrero Valley, near the forgotten south-county hamlet of Potrero -- east of the Tecate turnoff and west of Campo. The twisting but scenic drive to …

“We had to cross two fences,” he tells me. “One we had to go under, and the other we had to climb over. It was dark and the fence was too high for me.”

I’d be up until three or four o’clock in the morning, when I first started reading Hemingway, jumping up, saying, ‘Mom, listen to this, isn’t this something, isn’t it unbelievable?’ I’d shake her, and she’d wake up.

Dear Matt: I was wondering where and who I can inquire about commercial soundtracks. For example, the nice jazz for the Infiniti car commercials or the beautiful operatic piece on the original Bellagio hotel commercial. …

Matthew, Guru of All Worth Knowing: I have a question that I'm sure most people in this sunny region are wondering themselves. Why do clowns scare the hell out of people? Any folklore or myths …

Matmail: What ever happened to ordinary, basic self-defense training? What to do when an assailant swings a fist at you, jumps on your back, grabs at your lapels. Is such training available for civilians anywhere …

Dear Mr. Alice: My friends and I were watching a boxing match the other night and we came to the collective realization that we are all at odds as to the source of that strange …