“Living in Tijuana is easy. It’s surviving that’s hard.”

Omar Martinez

Mommy, why are they shooting at us again?

The Tijuana state of mind known as “the psychosis.”

“I don’t take my kids to the park anymore on Sundays,” says Luís, a young Tijuana father of three — eight- and six-year-old sons, and a five-year-old daughter. “Too many shootouts. We stay home, play Game Boy, watch TV, or rent videos.”

By James Iverson, April 1, 2009 | Read full article

Matt Romney, Mitt’s son, who currently lives in Rancho Bernardo, takes public credit for calling his part of the Romney clan to San Diego County.

San Diego is Mitt Romney country

Miles Park Romney and his many wives gave us many descendants

Clyde Romney, who served almost five years as bishop of the church’s Palomar Ward, Escondido South Stake, often bragged that his drive and organization of the county’s Saints had made the difference for Congressman Packard.

By Matt Potter, Oct. 24, 2012 | Read full article

Cárdenas isn’t sure what form of body hacking he may perform on himself or what the end of his transsexuality will be. “I’m still a work in progress.”

Omar Martinez

My Gender Is Bunny

What taxpayers pay for at UCSD

I’m sitting on a leather couch in the middle of a darkened black-walled, black-ceilinged room talking to a man who, at taxpayer expense, takes hormones to become more like a woman yet is in the middle of an experimental performance in which he seeks to become a dragon.

By Ernie Grimm, March 25, 2009 | Read full article

Stay Away From Pinto Canyon

Surreal signs of life in the desert.

The drawings were stick figures of men, rectangular grids, and most notably, a tall sailing ship, complete with a mast and furled sail. It sounds stupid, but after waiting a lifetime to see a petroglyph I was unhappy to find a drawing of a sailing ship. Damn! Where were the woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers?

By Robert Marcos, June 3, 2009 | Read full article

Daugherty at Barter Island, Alaska, 1983. It was the place to be in summer.

Work 10 Weeks, Take 10 Months Off

My life on the Alaska Pipeline

Dear reader, union men and women slaved in the Arctic outback just to keep your ungrateful ass alive, and did it for a lousy $1800-a-week in 1980s dollars.

By Patrick Daugherty, Nov. 9, 2011 | Read full article

Another rope held strips of freshly killed deer meat.

Citizen Pot Bust

Hikers stumble on pot irrigation line in state park.

“Wow! This is huge!” said Reed. Thousands of five- to seven-foot-tall marijuana plants, with bud tips as fat around as Louisville Sluggers, blended in with the native mountain lilacs.

By Chuck Harper, Feb. 8, 2012 | Read full article