“I took up car stereo seriously about a year ago. What’s required is good speakers and digital signal processing. I have a big subwoofer in the trunk. Oh, and you have to have a very quiet car.”

A Kansas City charter school operated by San Diego-based School Futures Research Foundation, which is backed by South Bay billionaire John Walton, has flunked a state-university audit and may be forced to close unless it …

“A natural bonsai is a tree that has grown in a very rugged environment and is naturally stunted.” Jackson collected some of his in Jacumba. California junipers; they are 500 or 600 years old.

The area we're hiking in burned last summer when Santa Ana winds blew a local man's trash fire into surrounding brush, scorching hundreds of acres. Now, the ground beneath us is black with soot.

Lorena González doesn't want to use the "B" word. " 'Bilingual' has too much history attached to it," she says. "And besides, from what I've heard, you're very anti-second-language out on the West Coast. Especially …

Who really owns the Padres? A limited partnership registered in Delaware, San Diego city officials say. In response to a recent request for public records about the team, Deputy City Manager Bruce Herring said the …

A college friend of mine who hailed from England harbored both disgust and distrust toward burritos. He thought of them as seeping, seething sacks of food, secretive and primitive in an unappetizing way. I, however, …

Dear Matthew Alice: Try this: Eat something crunchy (such as corn chips) while staring at a digital clock (such as on a microwave). The numbers bounce up and down! Why is this? And why don't …

Oh, All-Knowing One: I live in the flight path of Lindbergh Field in South Park (I love saying that), and I was wondering. Sometimes planes will flash their lights when approaching. Is it because there …

Real mountain bikers don't putter around on pavement, which is why (if you identify with this description) you should try the following route on mostly dirt roads through the western foothills of the Cuyamaca Mountains. …

“The one piece of advice I’ll give you is, when you go out the door of the plane, to make your body as relaxed as possible. Don’t tense up. Relax and enjoy yourself.”

“Oooh, what’s that?” Kelly says, touching the water. “There’s a shrimp.” He says it’s long and translucent. “See it?” What I can make out looks like a near-invisible minnow. Shrimp swim upside down, Kelly explains.

At 8:30 on weekday mornings, several small buses drop off 200 passengers at 9575 Aero Drive. The buses move at a brisk pace even though most of the passengers need some assistance getting off. By …

The man who decided to drug-test all the cops in Tijuana is satisfied. Marco Antonio González Arenas says the front-page color photos of police officers lining up at a table loaded with their urine samples …

Once again the Pulitzer Prize recipients have been announced, and once again the San Diego Union-Tribune has been shut out. Though the San Diego Evening Tribune won two of the coveted journalistic awards before it …

Dear Matt: How sanitary is the money that passes through our hands every day? I recently got some change back at the store, and one bill appeared to be spattered with blood. I was reminded …

Matthew Alice: Saw these parking meters near Seaport Village. They blink red when expired. This is Port District property. How unusual. What gives? -- Downtown Sam, downtown (where else?) Jetted down there hoping for a …

Dear Matthew Alice: I've enclosed an ad from the San Diego Union-Tribune which provides "8 Compelling Reasons Why: Christ Is Coming Very Soon!" I'm interested in your take on Item 4, which states, "A recent …

Santiago Peak is Orange County's point of highest elevation, offering probably the best urban/mountain/ocean view in all of Southern California. Under good atmospheric conditions, you can trace the coastline from Point Loma to Point Dume, …

Sherley and I were the same age, both of us writers, both of us descendants of slaves. In 1966 we became the first in our respective families to graduate from college.

Blue Sky Ecological Reserve, 700 acres of oak woodland and sage-covered hillsides purchased by the state for open space some 12 years ago, has become a bright star in Poway's constellation of city parks and …

Timing is everything. For self-employed journalist Evan Weiner, it was good. For Chargers football team owner Alex Spanos, it was bad. Their chance encounter and brief conversation in the luxurious Breakers' hotel in Palm Beach, …

When the kids get off the trolley at San Ysidro these spring evenings, you sense the bravado. With so much news about murders, cartels, allegations of government corruption, it's impossible to think about Tijuana the …

When it comes to her personal investing habits, San Diego mayor Susan Golding used to be mired in the so-called "old economy" of chewing gum (William Wrigley Jr., Inc.) and ready-made dessert cakes (Sara Lee). …

Heymatt: My silly friend D says there is adhesive in paint. I think that is ridiculous! I read your column in the Reader today and thought you might know. What do you think? -- Groverg1rl, …

Matmail: I went to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center for my birthday, and I noticed something odd. Upstairs they have, in a glass case, what they call "English Planetarium, circa 1810." It's really nice, …

Hi, All-Knowing One: Who picks up after guide dogs for the blind? Does the dog's blind master carry a pooper-scooper or plastic Baggie? If so, how do they know where the waste matter is located? …

April 3, 2000: “Your cleanup guy has a big day at the plate and your staff ace takes a shutout into the seventh inning, so you figure this should be a winning Opening Day. Well, …

She told me the indigenous people of California used four basic types of baskets: the seed beater, the burden basket, the sifter, and where bedrock mortars were not used, a mortar hopper was used to save seed.

It's not easy to take on the likes of San Diego Unified School superintendent Alan Bersin. Subject of endless rounds of favorable coverage in the Union-Tribune and the darling of its editorial board, son-in-law of …

Tucked away obscurely in two shady canyons behind the San Gabriel Valley community of Monrovia is one of the most beautiful parks in the Los Angeles area: Monrovia Canyon Park. Adding spice to the rich …

Gun ownership is illegal in Mexico. This statement has been heard more than once on Southern California talk radio. Sometimes a host or caller will qualify the comment by saying it is handguns that are …

Gil Reza, a Times reporter in Orange County said he is counting on management's assurances. "We've got to believe that. It wouldn't make sense for the Tribune to gut the staff, hurt the quality of the paper.”

The day Neon Systems, a Houston-based software maker, went public on March 5, 1999, its price shot from $15 to almost $27 a share, according to news accounts. And San Diego City Councilwoman Valerie Stallings …

‘We’re gonna work on our Jewel set now.… It’s called Jewelmania. Then we’ll do a spoken-word thing where each of us will interpret one of her poems. I’m doing mine in dance,” says José Sinatra …