Matthew: I was on vacation in Pahoa, on the island of Hawaii, recently, and I had trouble with my camera. Sometimes the autofocus wouldn't work, or the shutter. A resident of the town told me …
January 21, 1999
United States
Does the volcano in Pahoa, Hawaii have an effect on electronics?
During World War II, were Germans rounded up by Ecuadorian governments and sent to concentration camps in Texas?
Matmail: On vacation in Ecuador, I met an 80-year-old man who claims that during World War II, he and his German parents were rounded up by the Ecuadorian government at the request of the U.S. …
November 29, 1998
Veronica Salazar from San Ysidro strung up and beaten in Michigan
Was Veronica Salazar strung up like a piñata and beaten to death in Michigan? Does anybody care? When the San Diego mother of three was murdered last September 1, the event rated 74 words in …
October 29, 1998
A Mystifying Murder And the Del Mar Doc
'I was hoping it would stay away from San Diego," she said, compressing her meaty lips and furrowing her broad fore-head. She had not expected Californian curiosity to find her here, crammed with other unhappy …
October 15, 1998
Salk lab in Pennsylvania loses Army contract
The end of a once-controversial era has finally arrived for the Salk Institute's Biologicals Development Center in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania. The 20-year-old lab, which at its peak in the early 1990s employed a staff of 110 …
September 24, 1998
Price Club's Sol Price buys big ads in the Washington Post against Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr
A twice-convicted Omaha drug dealer who bailed out of jail, moved to San Diego five years ago, and got a degree from California Western law school may soon be heading home to do some hard …
July 30, 1998
What happened to Ted Kaczynski's cabin from Montana?
Dear Sir: The Mad Bomber, Ted Kaczynski, lived in a decrepit cabin in Montana. During his trial, the government seized it and hauled it to Sacramento. Whatever happened to it? Rumor has it that it …
June 4, 1998
Padres boosters threaten the Virginia alternative
John Moores and his San Diego Padres haven't yet said the "V" word out loud, but plenty of other locals, including sports writers and editorialists for the Union-Tribune, have been mouthing it. The word is …
April 9, 1998
The Tijuana-San Diego life of man executed in Virginia
'Mexican Hit Man Laughs, Forgives Before Execution," headlines read the morning after the State of Virginia killed 26-year-old Mario Benjamin Murphy. "It's a good day to die," he was reported as saying when strapped to …
October 9, 1997
Does Coronado train killers?
The headline that brought me to a Navy seal reunion in Coronado is simple and startling. "seal training caused murder, lawsuit says." The story was published in the Virginian-Pilot, a daily paper out of Norfolk, …
September 25, 1997
Arkansas Dems hire San Diego's Bill Lerach
Just another Arkansas Bill In Arkansas, it's always smart to do what the natives do. That seems to be the policy adopted by San Diego's Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes and Lerach, the lawyers famous for …
July 17, 1997
Monica Pollard has every right to return to Oceanside
San Diego may soon be home to a notorious New England killer. On a hot summer day in July 1985, in the northwest Vermont farming town of St. Albans, a man named Monica Pollard plunged …
February 6, 1997
Arizona Republic writer ignores nastiness of MTV Spring Break
Last year, MTV rolled into town for a spring break taping session at Mission Beach, and the Union-Tribune opened the floodgates of hype, churning out column after column about how hip and harmless the event …
March 23, 1995
San Diego, Texas
Our namesake lies due west of Corpus Christi, past flat miles of sorghum, wheat and cotton fields, and towns with shops smelling of blood that, for pennies per pounds, will butcher the deer you shot …
January 27, 1994
Okies at heart remember home state in Balboa Park
An August Sunday afternoon, lemonade weather. Leaves drooped on Balboa Park's giant eucalyptus. The Home States picnic, an annual event of America's Finest City Week, sponsored by the San Diego Junior Chamber of Commerce, drew …
December 1, 1988