Cover Stories
MEN, READ NO FURTHER. THIS STORY CONTAINS THINGS YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, things you probably don’t care about anyway. The heaviness of face cream has never been a big concern of yours, for example. Coating one’s …
"When I was a kid growing up here, during the war years, Eden Gardens was little more than a place to contain Mexican farm workers,” Frank Renteria said, folding his hands on his desk and …
We also didn’t want to find ourselves short of water, but twice we came perilously close. I remember giving my fiancee my canteen and telling her to hold that last swallow as long as she could in her mouth.
The two young men were dressed in Gestapo-like uniforms, complete with military hats, boots, and black-leather pistol holsters. They introduced a resolution that favored Die Weltbund — their home planet. The representative from the Legion …
As Judith Wilson opens the front door of her Chula Vista home, a minuscule Yorkshire terrier barks and runs to her side. Next to Wilson, the terrier seems big as a Great Dane. Wearing a …
In a morning’s work in Alpine, Larry Himmel has interviewed Aggie McGuffie at her soda fountain, provided some smart-ass, on-camera commentary poking fun at the Alpine Mobile Estates sign, spent five minutes trying to get …
Very early one morning in April of 1983, David G. Smith met his death in a downtown Oceanside motel room. It was an ugly, painful, panic-stricken departure from this life. When his body was discovered …
Sam Spital. He’s the attorney who advertises on television all the time, the one who asks in all sincerity if you’ve been in an auto accident lately. San Diegans may not be familiar with U.S. …
Anyone not familiar with the curious habits of Louis Ortiz might mistake this rasty-looking character rooting through the fire pit at Moonlight State Beach for just another beach wino out on his dawn patrol, rummaging …
One of the eeriest forests in the world is located just a mile or two from the center of San Diego. Very few people enter it, though there is one safe, and convenient way to …
FIRST AWARD WINNER Jason Salmons Age 11 Santee Elementary School Santee There I was. Jason Salmons. Mr. Wonderful! Standing in front of the mirror getting ready for school. Yeah, I’m a pretty hot boy! I …
FIRST AWARD WINNER Pedro Ponce Age 14 San Diego High School, Golden Hill If was an ordinary summer day. I woke up at 8:00, washed, and got myself a bowl of cornflakes. Then I turned …
When two Mexican police officers and two FBI agents showed up at his beachfront Playas de Tijuana apartment on October 17, James Gibson had reason to suspect that his attempt to start a new life …
"I've come down here every morning for twenty-seven years. To this day, I like it. My wife comes in every afternoon. She’s the soup maker and waitress. Only once, for two days, that’s the longest …
Apparently the horse thieves drive as far as they can down the rough dirt roads south of Anza, then ride into Coyote Creek on horseback. “They go in and rope the young foals.”
Roberto DePhilippis, the owner of the Butcher Shop Steak House, got very angry one night last spring. In fact he had been seething since November of 1985, when his landlord, the Plaza International Hotel in …