When then–Superior Court judge Dick Murphy was running for mayor in the fall of 2000, he made ethics his number-one campaign theme. It seemed like the perfect antidote to the Valerie Stallings influence-buying scandal and …

Hey, Matt!: Are all the local beaches equally cloudy on any given day? Or do I have a better chance of actually seeing the sun at PB instead of Del Mar? Could you send the …

“There were two different swimming holes. The girls would have one and the boys would sneak up there, and the girls would be swimming nude and we would try to swipe their clothes.

Sacagawea carried him all the way across the country and back again. When she rode through rapids in a dugout canoe, she rode with her baby; when food was scarce, both she and her baby went hungry.”

When it was announced last month that America's richest community, measured by average per capita income, was Rancho Santa Fe, a flurry of stories appeared in the national media, most of which spun the woodsy …

In New York, they're debating what sort of memorial to build on the six-acre site where the World Trade Center once stood. Three thousand miles away, in Tijuana, one such memorial of the attacks of …

Around San Diego's city hall, the more things change, the more they stay the same. It's been almost 17 years since Mike Turk, a Pacific Beach builder and business partner of then-mayor Roger Hedgecock, testified …

It's been said that the number of people on a wilderness trail diminishes in proportion to the square of the distance and the cube of the elevation gain from the nearest road. Perhaps that explains …

Squads of men in denim, flannel, and baseball caps with the names Oscar de la Hoya, Budweiser, Corona, John Deere, and Jack Daniel’s, as well as whole phrases: Mi Vida es un Madre, shuffle with …

Hi, Matt: I am a fearful flyer, and I heard there are ships that you can take from the West Coast through Panama and on to the East Coast and Europe, which is where I …

Matthew: I've got two calendars. One says Thanksgiving this year is November 28. The other says it's November 21. Which is right? The calendar that says it's November 21 this year says it's on November …

“I don’t want any help. Every time you involve another person, there’s a personal interaction: who they are, who you are, what they smell like, what they talk like, everything else like that.”

San Diego is not immune to the kinds of fires that have devastated Arizona and Colorado. Richard Hawkins, the chief of fire aviation management for the Cleveland National Forest, believes the potential exists here for …

It's illegal for a child under 16 to work in Mexico. Doubtless, the law was passed to prevent the exploitation of children and to keep kids in school. But sometimes the law denies children from …

As the scandal on Wall Street spreads, both Democrats and Republicans are trying to make political hay. But, in San Diego at least, it seems that some prominent Democrats have been the biggest players in …

Indians called it Mountain of Moonlit Rocks, an appropriate name for a landmark visible, even at night, over great distances. Later settlers dubbed it Cobbleback Peak, a name utterly descriptive of its rugged, boulder-strewn slopes. …

Guest lists were hush-hush. But word circulated around town that John Wayne, Zsa Zsa Gabor, or Elizabeth Taylor had been spotted — or Betty Grable, Jimmy Durante, or Joan Crawford. “Crawford always carried her own flask of vodka.”

The Keenans prowl V17.

In 1950, he had a “chance meeting” with Miguel de Ulloa, who claimed to be a descendent of Francisco. Miguel said two members of the Trinidad expedition survived. One of them wrote a document about the odyssey.

Dear Matthew Alice: What is that white gook that rises to the surface when you cook fish? -- Elaine Boyd, the net Ewwww. Grandma Alice says the white gook is melted collagen, perhaps a little …

Hey, Matt: Is it true that Balboa Park was designed by the same dude that designed Central Park in New York? -- Paul Broadway, San Diego Common misconception. Well, maybe not common, since most people …

Hey, Matt: Why are people still messing up AM and PM in terms of noon and midnight? -- Anup, the net So what are you saying--noon is AM? Noon is PM? Noon is neither. Noon …

Matt: Long-time reader, first-time writer. I watch too much foodtv and have often heard that to keep your knife sharp, you should slice green peppers and such from the inside, not the skin side. It …

Tucked behind a Toyo Tires shop, where Tijuana's Centro and Rio zones meet, stands a boys' home operated by Desarollo Integral de la Familia (integral development of the family). Better known by the acronym DIF …

With San Diego City Council elections coming up in the fall, city officials continue in secret settlement negotiations with two billboard companies that have filed a federal lawsuit to void a municipal ordinance restricting liquor …

The "Idlehour Descent" -- not really an idle descent at all -- is a one-way, 11-mile, mostly downhill hike through ever-changing terrain in the San Gabriel Mountains above Altadena and Pasadena. The name "Idlehour" comes …

On November 25, the Los Angeles County judge, Augustin Olvera, advised Juan Antonio to contact Garra about the uprising. “If Garra could explain his grievances,” Olvera wrote, “the problem could be settled without further violence.”

There’s a reason why Italian cooking is one of the world’s great cuisines, and it doesn’t have much to do with four-star chefs, innovative cooking techniques, or secret ingredients. The reason can be summed up …

Dear Matthew Alice: In Rex Reed's People Are Crazy Here, in the chapter on Alfred Hitchcock he writes, "His favorite people in history are Lizzie Borden, Jack the Ripper, and a man who murdered his …

McNab told me recently that he refuses to quit his crusade against the McMillin plan. “There are bodies buried everywhere when it comes to this deal, and we’re out there with shovels and we’ll keep digging.”

"The tribe’s constitution in Jamul requires that to be a member, you had to have half-blood or more as far as the degree of Indian blood. The problem is that [some new members] are quarters, sixteenths, sixty-fourths."

These days it's called Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center, in honor of a $20 million pledge that Padres owner and UC regent Moores made at the height of his power and influence in …

Right off the 94 Freeway in San Diego's Oak Park neighborhood, a dense grove of eucalyptus trees conceals one of the more pleasant oases of the inner city: Chollas Lake Park. On any warm, summer …