Carlsbad news & stories

The ethics of covering someone else's art with yours

Would a tiki offend Oceanside Samoans?

Oscar-winning artist John Lamb is not happy how his “beach-billy” mural was painted over. “It looks like somebody scribbled over my art,” says Lamb about how a new mural replaced his hundred foot hand-painted art-piece ...

Thrown out of a North County Democratic meeting

Esther Sanchez barely misses endorsement for Oceanside mayor

Has an organized Democrat group become too petty for its own good? I was given a heads-up that the September 29 DEMCCO meeting (Democratic Club of Carlsbad Oceanside, self-billed as North County’s largest Dem group) ...

The meaning of Marcel Duchamp’s Lhooq

This anachronistic Carlsbad place is about old books

Alexander Dafnis is up a tree. “This way?” he shouts down. “No. Now it’s tilting more,” says Alejandra, the gal looking up from the wood-decked courtyard. The camphor tree, originally from China, provides dappled shade, ...

Discover Village H and related trails in Carlsbad

Enjoy views of one of the most historic landscapes in North County

These trails take you to view-points overlooking one of the most historic landscapes in San Diego’s North County, as well as areas of rapid suburban development. You will also have close contact with remnants of ...

Lhooq Books shocked by lease loss

Carlsbad gentrification apace

Sean Christopher says his Lhooq (pronounced “look”) Books in Carlsbad is one of only about seven independent book stores left in the county. “I have the final hand-typed draft of the Pulp Fiction screenplay with ...

Del Mar, Solana Beach fret over San Onofre

How long will those cannisters be here?

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station may be retired, but to many area residents, it's a sleeping giant. In July, it stirred. That's when its operator, Southern California Edison, was allowed to resume loading spent nuclear ...

Oceanside's conservative Anglicans out of St. Anne's, then in, now out again

Settled in at Carlsbad Community Church

Founded in 1883, the congregation of the St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Oceanside was torn apart ten years ago when the more liberal, establishment part of the church embraced female priests and gay bishops. The ...

Maybe Coronado will become a beacon of tiny houses

How they will add 1000 homes without high-rises

Coronado, one of the county's smallest cities, can't see how it will ever meet its share of the region's housing goals. Home to two large Navy bases, the land-locked, built-out, high-priced city was allocated 1,000 ...

San Diego's hard seltzer summer

It's not beer, but breweries are experimenting with the fruity, diet-friendly adult beverage

During a recent, beachy afternoon out by the Oceanside Pier, I walked a short distance to the colorful new Kilowatt Brewing Oceanside Taproom. Parched from the sunshine, and in need of refreshment, I bellied up ...

Bed bugs in Leucadia?

Union protest at John Moores' Encinitas Beach Resort

Warning . . . Crime is coming to Leucadia. Robbery. Prostitution. And worse yet . . . an infestation of bed bugs. That’s according to a two-week-long protest by a construction union. Carpenters Local 619 ...

What Vons, Albertsons, Ralph's customers will do

So many non-union alternatives

Thousands of retail clerks in Southern California, workers for Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions, and Ralph’s grocery stores, overwhelmingly approved their union to organize a strike, if needed, in the near future. Their union’s contract with the ...

Carlsbad succumbs to the Orange County look

"There is nothing beautiful about these new buildings"

At least eight businesses in Carlsbad’s downtown Village area have been told they must prepare to move out as their buildings make way for a sleek new restaurant/retail complex. In what seems to cement the ...

It’s soft shell crab season at King’s Fish House

Chesapeake Bay blue crab, shipped live and easy to eat

My last trip to the East Coast, I found Charleston, South Carolina on the cusp of its soft shell crab season. The first night in town, a friend and I visited a highly regarded seafood ...

Birthplace of skateboarding – Encinitas and Carlsbad

Forget about Santa Monica

It started in 1974 at the Bahne surfboard manufacturing shop on Westlake Drive in Encinitas, and quickly spread to a street known as Black Hill in La Costa. Within a few years, skateboarding was a ...

How to spend Oceanside money – pools or police?

High schools want Olympic-sized pool at El Corazon like Carlsbad’s Alga Norte, but...

Oceanside is on a spending binge. Thanks to an extra $11 million coming in this year from the Measure X sales tax increase approved in November, the city council voted to rebuild its downtown fire ...

A tip top Top Choice Fish

Fresh and frozen, local and exotic, smoked and alive; Carlsbad fish market has it all

Carlsbad mainstay Tip Top Meats has been around more than half a century, and remains an incredible deal whether you’re there for the butcher, the market, or the authentic German restaurant. I stop in every ...

North San Diego County GOP survivors: Chris Rodriguez, John Franklin, Rocky Chavez

Rodriguez attends Democrats' meeting but poked into leaving

“The Republican party asked me to run against [Congressman] Mike Levin in 2020,” says GOP-up-and-comer Christopher Rodriguez. The Hispanic father of six checks a lot of political boxes. He’s a Purple Heart-decorated, USMC Iraq War ...

Kellen Winslow goes after 18-year-old after school, 77-year-old at Crunch Fitness

Played footsie in the jacuzzi, says prosecutor

A judge ordered ex-NFL tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. to be held without bail, after new accusations that he inappropriately approached two more women in Carlsbad, while he was at liberty on $2 million bail ...

Double rainbows over downtown San Diego

Alexander's band helps

In the last couple of weeks, the elusive “double rainbows” have been spotted throughout San Diego County. “It was surreal,” said Chris Mannerino, “On February 5, I saw it out of my new office and ...

Man and sons skate from Oceanside pier to Ocean Beach pier

"How cool would that be?"

A Carlsbad man and his three kids skateboarded from the Oceanside Pier to the Ocean Beach Pier on December 30, making it his fifth pier-to-pier skate and his youngest boy's first. “It was a solid ...

Slacklining over water draws heat from lifeguards

"Hey, you aren’t allowed to be here"

There is a section of Carlsbad Boulevard which crosses over the Batiquitos Lagoon, north of Ponte State Beach. Here, people “waterline”, walking suspended lengths of flat webbing above water. “We’ve had incidences when lifeguards come ...

Carlsbad transient threw rocks at moving cars

Broke two windshields

Charles Jack Seiler, 30, looked happy and smiled and nodded while a cop described his alleged rock-throwing activity, during a court hearing on December 11. Carlsbad police officer Michael Byrne said that on November 24, ...

How much dough is put into these donuts?

Superior ingredients are just part of the story in Carlsbad

“There are two sides to every story.” This phrase has been following me around for several weeks. Maybe it’s the alternative facts-age replacement for that cliché of acceptance, “It is what it is.” Whatever the ...

Carlsbad, Cardiff dinging RVs

$10 charge for black water

Cheryl Brandstrom of Escondido recently made her annual camping trip to South Carlsbad State Beach campground. She had campsite on the bluff, great weather, good fishing, and yet came away miffed. Prior to the summer, ...

Carlsbad

Finally a landing and take-off

CPAir starts service from Carlsbad

After a failed launch of California Pacific Airlines on November 1, due to a maintenance issue, the rescheduled maiden flights of a new Carlsbad-based airline took off on November 2. It’s been nine years in ...

Once more from Carlsbad

Trying to recreate the feel of PSA

One has to give credit for tenacity to 97-year-old Rancho Santa Fe millionaire Ted Vallas. Since 2013, he’s tried several attempts to get his Carlsbad-based California Pacific Airlines in the air. After two Federal Aviation ...

San Diego's last ocean front lots

32 empty spaces left – from Oceanside to Imperial Beach

Thirty-six years ago, the Reader surveyed the San Diego County coastline in search of any remaining vacant, buildable land along the coast. In January of 1982, we found a scant 79 parcels of land remaining, ...

San Marcos carrying water for developers

Their Vallecitos water district ups rates for average user

Tom Scaglione was assistant general manager and CFO at San Marcos’ Vallecitos Water District. He retired in May and now teaches at Palomar College in their water/wastewater technology program. He’s become a critic on a ...

San Diego judge upholds Julie Harper’s 40-year sentence

Because of new California laws, she will now be eligible for “good conduct credits”

San Diego Superior Court Judge Blaine Bowman looked Julie Harper in the face and told her that “the interests of justice will not be served” by reducing her sentence. This morning, Wednesday October 24, Julie ...

La Costa Hills bike theft story confused

Cannondale Synapse Carbon mountain bike goes to homeless camp then back home

The witness said she saw a man reaching for the door handle of her friend’s apartment and she called out to him, “Do you live here?” It was still dark, before sunrise, the morning of ...

That time the affordable sushi didn't sell out

Prices already too good to be true

The man had a problem that I could help solve. And all I had to do was eat good, well-made sushi at a bargain price. I’d shown up to Yoshino Japanese Deli, late, like I ...

Off to a caliente start

Papa Marce's feels like Baja, drinks like San Diego

The pair of Brewery Igniter turnkey brewhouses along the Carlsbad stretch of El Camino Real got off to a rocky start. The dudes behind Rouleur Brewing and Wiseguy Brewing were relative newcomers to San Diego, ...

A difference in breakfast sandwich philosophy

Crackheads a place to hang, not grab and go

There’s this undeveloped lot at the corner of Carlsbad Village Drive and State Street, the main crossroads of Carlsbad Village. Well, mostly undeveloped. For some time there’s been a little juice bar doing business out ...

Prosecutor argues against early release of Julie Harper

Will Jerry Brown's law and Kamala Harris' inaction help convicted murderer?

“Defendant deserves each and every day of her 40 years-to-life sentence,” prosecutor Keith Watanabe stated in papers he filed last week, arguing that a reduction of Julie Harper’s sentence “is not in the interest of ...

In-filling with 130 houses in South Carlsbad

If you thought I-5 traffic was bad now...

Pressure to develop a project on one of North County’s last, large coastal properties may be coming to a head, but not if the residents in the South Carlsbad community of Ponto have anything to ...

One more beach sport

Brazilians bring footvolley to Mission Beach and Carlsbad

On September 6, I saw a group of guys volleying a soccer ball back and forth over a net – on a sand-volleyball court. They were feet away from the playground and water at Bonita ...

The girl must learn to follow the guy

Watch them tandem surf at Cardiff, Tourmaline, Oceanside Harbor

On August 22, Carlsbad residents Brian and Illa McEvilly placed fourth in their tandem surf heat at the Duke's OceanFest in Waikiki, HI. "Tandem surfing is performed with two people on one board that catch ...

Julie Harper gets another chance

Appeals decision on six-year-old murder case

Julie Elizabeth Harper, a Carlsbad housewife who became notorious for shooting her husband in their upstairs bedroom while their children played downstairs, has been granted a new chance at sentencing, by the Fourth District court ...

You can never win in Carlsbad

Episcopal church wrestles with retirement home and pickleball

The Carlsbad By The Sea Retirement Community’s ten-year waiting list makes it one of the more popular residences of the ten-facility Front Porch Retirement Community group. The minimum entry fee for the 147-room complex on ...

Carlsbad license plate reader found the stolen car

Police used facial recognition technology to ID the driver

Rigoberto said his car went missing from his home near downtown San Diego on May 5. He got the silver, 2004 Volkswagen Beetle from someone who owed him $2,500, so he figured that is what ...

No more county animal shelter for Carlsbad, Del Mar, Encinitas, San Diego, Santee, and Solana Beach

But yes for Bonita, Borrego Springs, Fallbrook, Julian, Ramona, Spring Valley, Valley Center

The San Diego County Department of Animal Services just got a lot smaller. As of July 1, the county no longer provides animal services – rescues, adoptions, enforcement, to the cities of Carlsbad, Del Mar, ...

Carlsbad resident James Panther Jr. charged in stock fraud

Offshore havens include British Virgin Islands, Seychelles

The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday (May 15) charged Carlsbad’s James P. Panther Jr. (also known as Jaime or James Suqui) and three accomplices with fraudulent sale of a penny stock, usiing offshore havens in ...

We're not L.A.

But still no more burnouts in the La Costa parking lot

Every Thursday night at the La Costa Town Square shopping center, a scene from the 1950s and 60s boulevard car cruses repeats itself. Instead of slow street cruising, 200 car enthusiasts park, hang out, talk ...

Woman who sells sensual massage accused boyfriend

Defense said she fears losing her child

The defense attorney said of the accuser, “She lies.” Michael Jonathan C., 33, is now on trial, accused of assaulting his 48-year-old girlfriend two years ago. Carlsbad police arrested C. the night of March 16, ...

Meh

Lunch at Green Dragon Tavern & Museum

A year and a half ago I attended a special dining event at Green Dragon Tavern & Museum, and I’d been meaning to get back to sample from the regular menu. But, because it's all ...

Carlsbad husband claims wife got bruised in jiu jitsu class

“Rear naked choke hold”

The attorney for Juan S., 40, suggested that his wife got those bruises on her throat during her Brazilian jiu jitsu classes. Prosecutor Jared Coleman alleged that Mrs. S. was injured when her husband choked ...

Who can save San Diego's airport from drowning?

State bill pits port cities against rest of county

There is a “very real threat of sea level rise that could leave our airport literally under water,” stated Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (CA-80) in a March 30 Union Tribune commentary. Gonzalez Fletcher wants to ...

Drones invade Carlsbad flower fields

Playing cat and mouse with guards

On the morning of April 8, many of the visitors inside the Carlsbad Flower Fields were distracted, despite the flowers still being in bloom. "OMG," yelled a teen taking a selfie with her friend inside ...

Two more abuse victims in Carlsbad

District paid $1.8 million to two others

In 2010 third-grade teacher from Carlsbad, Raymond Firth, pleaded guilty to fondling two of his students. In exchange for the plea, the district attorney's office agreed to drop six counts of child molestation. In 2012 ...

Don't even think about hiking there

Carlsbad's Ridgeline Trail is ok, though

The Ridgeline Trail is a highly scenic trail through native chaparral and coastal sage scrub habitat. It has inspiring views of the Batiquitos Lagoon and the Pacific beyond as it takes you along a ridge ...

You want more chicken

Carlsbad Mexican broilers — yum

Three armed guys come through the door. They’re all chunky hardbodies, wearing what look like bulletproof vests. Written across their backs, one word: PROBATION. They head for the counter. Maria, Rosana, and Carmen face them ...

Easy trail near a tough golf course in Carlsbad

Golf-course trail connects to undeveloped habitats and parklands

The Crossings at Carlsbad Golf Course was designed by Greg Nash with the preservation of habitat and the city’s trail system being an important consideration in creating a challenging course. The holes for this city-owned ...

Carlsbad news & stories

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