Interviews with alpaca owners, spinners, and weavers who live in San Diego’s East County mountain region.

In an April 17, 2013, deposition, former San Ysidro School District superintendent Manuel Paul pleaded the Fifth 43 times in less than an hour in a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed against the district by EcoBusiness Alliance/Manzana …

Sometimes one mattress is not enough for one pickup truck. How about 21 of them? My neighbor rescues mattresses (and many other things) bound for landfills and donates them to folks in Mexico who can …

This week a redesigned BMX track opened at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. Tyler Brown, manager of the track since October 2012, developed the new look. A pro racer for the past ten …

Cruising down Garnet, heading for the #30 bus at Mission and Felspar, when I find myself crossing Bayard. It’s closed off to traffic. Huh. Oh, yeah, it’s Tuesday. Must be the farmers’ market. Lots of …

"You’re such a bee,” David said. “Why? What did I do?” “No, no, not that kind of bee! The bug kind,” David clarified, as if that made things any clearer. There were lots of ways …

Drinks in the John Wayne room at the Longhorn Café in Grantville.

Those bands worth a listen because they are so different, but not so far out there that you can’t get a grip on the music — I hate it when that happens. VietNam is from …

On April 29 at the Casbah, Mad Traffic will debut their City EP, produced by Grammy-nominated Bell Biv Devoe collaborator Jay Henry. “We may play our version of Bell Biv Devoe’s ‘Poison,’” says singer Blaise …

Belgian singer-songwriter Carl Durant, a mainstay of the local circuit for the past several years, is heading home. Durant arrived with his wife in San Diego during 2002 to work at an early-stages startup company …

Drive to Escondido, take a step back in time.

The good news about the Rep’s Federal Jazz Project: music lovers unfamiliar with the name Gilbert Castellanos are in for a surprise, maybe even an epiphany. The San Diegan’s a world-class trumpet player who can …

Lawrence Herkimer, the “father of cheerleading.”

In order to help underwrite their addiction to steroids and dumbbells (and also to impress the bitches), a trio of meathead bodybuilders resorts to a life of crime by kidnapping an unscrupulous Florida businessman (Tony …

Pianist Dan Frost talks about his “American Dream” project, to record to video a 50-state solo concert tour and cut it into a documentary feature film.

Interview with former Ike Turner drummer Bill Ray, about the many projects he’s working on.

Were it not for the photographic evidence, Figment could have been a hallucination. The annual Chicano Park festival is how American families everywhere would be spending their Sunday afternoons if Jello Biafra had been elected …

Bill Traylor: Drawings from the Collections of the High Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, on view at the Mingei International Museum until May 12. 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. 619-239-0003; …

A translation of a front-page headline on Baja’s daily El Mexicano on Tuesday, April 23, reads, "They Might Charge to Cross to the U.S.” beginning in 2014. The story was about the U.S. Department of …

According to the Jacksonville Electric Authority, San Diegans pay the highest electricity rates in the U.S. There are examples that point to the fact that UCAN doesn’t do the best job at lobbying the California Public Utilities Commission to give residents a break; in fact, their relationship could be called “cozy.”

Kevin Waddell didn’t know that transit authorities were watching him break into that spiffy Dodge Challenger at a North County Park & Ride.

Shallow and Mindless I grew up in the ’70s, before AIDS changed everything. Maggie’s exposé (April 18 cover story: “In P.B. the Hotter You Are the Easier It Is Not to Care”) of hot booze-addled …

The worst enemies of permanent cosmetics exposed.

Knowledge and memory are imperfect, so we rely on a balance.

First of all consider you (good people) that penance is a gift of God, as the Scripture saith. God hath given and granted penance to the Gentiles for life and salvation (Acts 21). And it …

A wealthy squire he lived in our town And he was a man of high renown He had one daughter, a beauty bright And the name he called her was his Heart’s Delight. Many a …

Local brewing company going big by going small in niche metro community.