Cover Stories
On October 12, 2011, my husband and I signed two hours’ worth of paperwork and forked over a $2450 earnest-money deposit on a four-bedroom, four-bath townhome in Chula Vista. For years, we’d fantasized about escaping …
When Tom (not his real name) decided to enlist with the United States Marine Corps in 2008, he had been renting a bedroom in his older sister’s El Cajon home for over a year. His …
When my cell phone rang at 9:17 p.m., it was Officer Rohatan calling to tell me that he and a few colleagues were planning a surprise visit to our street. "Tomorrow night, between 7:00 and …
“You play basketball, you play football — it doesn’t work when you say you ‘play wrestling.’” So sayeth Wayne. Who’s Wayne? That would be Wayne Branstetter, the winningest coach in the history of California prep …
It was March 2009 when the British-born siblings Gillian Ison and John Graham Watson met at Zermatt, a resort in the shadow of Switzerland’s Matterhorn. There, with family members, they indulged a passion for skiing: …
You know that commercial where a man and a woman sit across the table from each other, engaged in what appears to be an intimate conversation, but the guy keeps sneaking looks at the football …
"This is Steve Reed with the DEA," said the man on the phone. “You called the DEA several months ago about a possible irrigation line you found in Cuyamaca State Park,” he continued. “I have …
A few words about my bike. I call him GT, but his real name is GT LTS 3. He is a brute. He was born in 1998 and listed for $4295. My wife Debra bought …
“In the old days, you had kingmakers who would put in the people they wanted over the objections of those in the community,” says Donna Frye.The former city councilwoman is speaking of the two major …
Sumach Ecks, aka Gonjasufi, went from under-the-radar beat producer and rapper to a dreadlock-shrouded icon with the 2010 Warp Records A Sufi and a Killer, a collection of psychedelic hip-hop tracks featuring Ecks’s craggy, overdriven …
I wanted to be the Julia Child of the art world. I would bring fabulous art and artists into your living room — inspiration was on its way! How hard could it be to get …
Tony McCoy found his bookie through a friend of a friend. It was October 2011, four weeks into football season. He’d spent all of last season testing a new betting system he’d created, and it …
Most of us onlookers conquered the mountain the easy way — by car — and had gathered for the big moment, trying at the same time to exploit the 10,857-foot elevation for an alpine vista. …
Scott: The first inkling that Christmas was not a holiday for Hebrews came from a neighbor kid, the fine Aryan specimen Timothy Murphy: “My Uncle Roy says Jews celebrate Christmas by staying home and counting …
My introduction to Elizabeth Cooper-Schultz comes by way of a text message in which she refers to Mary Birch as “that hospital that claims to be mother and baby friendly.” When I arrive at the …
Midsummer. Japatul Valley, south of Alpine. Too hot to sleep indoors. Warren Storm-thunder snoozes in his hammock. He has slung it under trees down by a creek bottom near his isolated valley home. Then, around …