City Lights
The gate below the dam at San Vicente Reservoir in Lakeside is closed when I arrive just before 10:00 o'clock on a late-April morning. The lake is closed to recreational fishing today. But I'm here …
If you are going to squirrel ill-gotten money in an offshore tax haven, you need the mental acuity and swiftness of a mountain lion -- not a squirrel, or in the case of a married …
When Steve Scatolini walks through Sunset Cliffs Natural Park, it becomes home. He knows the vegetation by smell, taste, and name — buckwheat, coastal sage scrub, California sunflower, ladyfinger, lemonade berry, and acacia. Scatolini has …
First District city councilmember Scott Peters won't be recalled this year, but his cozy relationships with developers -- and their possible behind-the-scenes role in fighting the recall -- could provide anti-Peters fuel if he runs …
For many years, those all-purpose letters, "Etc.," served Anthony W. "Tony" DeSio very well. He built Mail Boxes Etc. into a highly successful national chain that managed to compete with the post office and also …
In late June, officials from the United States Department of Agriculture lifted a ban on picking Hass avocados that had been imposed on growers in Valley Center since Mexican fruit flies were found in the …
La Jollan Alfred Louis "Bobby" Vassallo claims that he knows President Bush well, mowed Ross Perot's lawn as a lad, and was personally feted at the Monaco Grand Prix by none other than Prince Albert. …
A wealthy San Diego developer wants to construct what appears to be a first in American history: a private family cemetery on a public golf course, specifically designed as the final resting place for a …
In late 1983, U.S. troops invaded and quickly routed the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada on fears that it would become another Cuba. Today, Grenada is known as home of the most malodorous offshore banks …
The wife of embattled San Diego data-processing chief Roger Talamantez, under an ethics cloud for his campaign- fundraising work on behalf of city councilman Jim Madaffer, who has in turn tended Talamantez's job-related interests, is …
The city and the Chargers are in secret kiss-and-tell negotiations. True to historical precedent, the city is kissing the Chargers' rear hip pads and not telling anybody. The Chargers, meanwhile, are openly telling people their …
Though he kept a low profile, the late Barry Eugene White, that purring bass-baritone king of disco who died in Los Angeles last week at the age of 58 of complications from high blood pressure, …
When a stranger showed up with his surfboard at the Windansea surf break last December, the locals knew he was a troublemaker.“He was a biker-surfer type,” said Mark Dephilippis, a 43-year-old Windansea local who was …
Bouquets to Ronald Duane Brouillette Jr.: He could spend more time in the pokey than his nationally notorious mentor, Harold Bailey (B.J.) Gallison. The latter is scheduled to be sentenced early this month, and the …
A couple of weeks ago Jay Leno did a gag about how the Japanese had offered to send troops to help out in Iraq. "Great timing," he said, the message being that the Japanese had …
This week's big story about the Barona Indians attempting to buy water influence in Sacramento came in for distinctly different treatments by the Union-Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle. The U-T began by saying, "The Barona …