Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña is concerned about the North Pacific Gyre, an island of plastic debris floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Saldaña's also concerned about the plastic caps from soda and water bottles …

The question that San Marcos residents ask Mayor Jim Desmond most often: What's going on with the unfinished Marriott hotel project? The project, on the corner of Las Posas Road and Los Vallecitos Boulevard, has …

Sitting on a park bench at Prescott Promenade on a hot July afternoon, John stares at a brawny tattooed man in his 50s smoking a cigarette under a “No Smoking” sign. “Who knows what this …

On Thursday, August 20, San Diego Unified’s school board president Shelia Jackson stood in front of a dozen reporters and read a statement concerning superintendent Terry Grier's likely departure to run a Texas school district. …

Call it an insurrection, an uprising, a rebellion; what else could you call it when four out of a five-person city council demand the resignation of one of their own? That's what happened in Poway …

December 8 will be a day that lives in infamy, at least for Oceanside city councilmember Jerry Kern. That's when residents decide whether to recall the first-term councilmember from office. Three weeks ago, activist group …

Tony Gidlund, bassist, guitarist, and vocalist for math-rock band Fever Sleeves, has written songs with two guitar parts since 2005, around the time when the band started to consider adding a new member. Four years …

Escondido city councilmembers want to be fair when adjusting water rates, but water is scarce, and over the past year regional water suppliers have raised rates by 17.5 percent while reducing water allocations by 8 …

April was a busy month for three-piece slowcore act Little White Teeth. Apart from recording 13 songs in a blistering four-day session with Pall Jenkins at his SDRL studios and a trip to Japan, (where …

The fight rages on for Myssie McCann, the wife of Chula Vista councilmember John McCann. For the past three weeks, ever since her husband left for a yearlong deployment to Iraq, McCann has been critical …

According to the San Diego County district attorney's office, the Imperial Beach City Council's appointment of former mayor Diane Rose to the city council wasn't a smooth political move; though, it isn't enough for a …

August is going to be a busy month for the city clerk of Chula Vista. On August 7, the clerk's office began accepting applications to fill the vacant council position left after councilmember John McCann's …

For years, Chula Vista City Council Chambers has served as the battleground for many political wars. The latest battle continues more than a month after Deputy Mayor McCann’s deployment to Iraq. During last Tuesday’s city …

“It came as a pretty big surprise,” says John Cota, guitarist and vocalist for San Diego hardcore act Hostile Comb-Over, after sipping from a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon inside North Park’s Live Wire. Last …

On a Tuesday afternoon in June, Barry Jung, Dole Food Company’s general manager of West Coast operations, drives his white Ford pickup toward a green-and-black freighter. Every Monday since 2002, when Dole moved its West …

Looking for ways to slow traffic down in their community, Banker's Hill residents are gaining ground on bringing in additional stop signs along 4th, 5th, and 6th avenues. The residents compare the streets to speedways, …

Fabio Marchi is not your typical politician; in fact, he's not much of a politician at all, and he's the first one to say it. In June, Marchi, a 48-year-old North County general contractor and …

For years, medical marijuana advocates have urged San Diego city officials to establish clear guidelines on the rights of medical marijuana patients. They lobbied the city for regulations on medical marijuana collectives and asked them …

Residents of Imperial Beach dig that laid-back Southern California beach vibe of the ’50s and ’60s. So much so, the town's logo has "Classic Southern California" written under an image of a "Woody" station wagon …

Sitting in the mixing room of Archival Studios in North Park, the four members of Rats Eyes listen to two of the ten raw tracks they recorded the day before. There’s a discernible SoCal skate-punk …

For Rob Hagey, founder and promoter of Street Scene, San Diego’s largest music festival, adding the Beastie Boys to the lineup on July 10 was an unexpected coup. “It was a nice surprise. They fell …

Residents of Talmadge are crying foul to San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Terry Grier after awaking July 23 to their neighborhood streets laden with litter, including empty beer cans, red plastic cups, and balled …

Chula Vista councilmember Steve Castaneda was late getting to the July 21 city council meeting. The second-term councilmember showed up just in time to join his three colleagues as they considered placing a 45-day hold …

Looking to save money to record their debut six-song EP, North County folk-punk trio the Howls transformed the online merchandising warehouse in San Marcos where singer-guitarist John Cooper used to work into a makeshift recording …

The unlikely duo of councilmembers Carl DeMaio and Donna Frye took on a mission to reform city council and bring transparency to local government. Now the two councilmembers share a new cause: pension reform. Last …

Saturday, June 27, was a sad day for Cindy Funkhouser. It was the day she was to host a memorial service for her grandmother at her South Park residence, near the corner of 32nd Street …

One day after Dustin Vogel went to Chula Vista city hall and submitted an application to open a medical marijuana collective (where patients go to purchase marijuana from growers at no profit to the business), …

On July 9, one day after the Budget and Finance Committee meeting at which councilmember Carl DeMaio accused representatives from San Diego City Employees Retirement System of withholding financial data on the Deferred Retirement Option …

Ten minutes into the July 8 meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee, councilmember Carl DeMaio issued a challenge to David Wescoe, chief operating officer for the San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System: Provide the …

The idea of building a new downtown library has been teetering on the brink of fiction and non-fiction for over a decade. But during recent months, dwindling fundraising efforts, a ballooning city deficit, increasing project …

Not long after the monthly meeting of the Greater Golden Hill Maintenance Assessment District began on Monday, July 6, committee member John Kroll read a prepared statement to the 40 or so residents that sat …

According to San Diego County assessor/clerk/recorder David L. Butler, the assessed value of all taxable property in the county has dropped to a 25-year low -- an overall decrease of 2.3 percent from the previous …

San Diego city councilmember Carl DeMaio has some questions for the Port of San Diego before he’s ready to endorse the city’s convention center expansion. In a June 30 memo issued by his office, the …

“Worthy Gubbins is like odds and ends, rubbish, maybe like a lucky rabbit’s foot or a favorite ring,” writes guitarist and vocalist Tyler Stolnack in an email. He’s defining the sound and feel of his …

For Solana Beach city councilmember Lesa Heebner, cigarette smokers should be confined to their houses with their doors and windows shut tight when they spark up. “My father died from smoking,” said Heebner during the …

Chula Vista Deputy Mayor John McCann wants the San Diego Chargers to build a new stadium in Chula Vista. During the past few years, the councilmember has gone on the offensive to get the team …

With two of the six members of Spanish alt-rock band Marquez! living in Jalisco, Mexico, three living in San Diego, and one living in Tijuana, the band has had to find creative ways to record …

At the Tuesday, June 23, meeting of the County Board of Supervisors, county supervisors heard an amendment, introduced by county supervisor Bill Horn, Sheriff Bill Kolender, and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis that “prohibits illegal medical …

Still upset over last week’s decision to include car allowances for top-level management into their base pay and looking for new ways the city can save money, despite already passing a balanced budget, Chula Vista …

Bella, Jeff’s five-year-old Labrador mix, crouches five feet from her owner at a park in San Carlos. She stares at the rubber ball inserted in a sort of handheld catapult called a “Chuckit!” Jeff rears …

In the grips of a $6.7 million deficit, the City of Escondido is grabbing for every penny in savings. So far, revenues have dropped by $4.1 million. This year’s expenditures are $6.6 million less than …

At the Wednesday-morning meeting of the San Diego City Council’s rules committee, councilmembers Tony Young, Kevin Faulconer, Donna Frye, and Todd Gloria (council president Ben Hueso was at a Coastal Commission meeting) requested that the …

When the Imperial Beach City Council decided to forego a special election and appoint former mayor Diane Rose to fill the vacant council position left after councilmember Fred McLean passed away from cancer, the city …

Delta Spirit’s next full-length, set to come out in 2010, will be titled Natalie Portman Says This Album Will Change Your Life, riffing on a line from the 2004 movie Garden State. In the movie, …

Many Escondido citizens have reservations about contributing $18.9 million toward a $67 million luxury hotel downtown. Most thought the proposal was dead in the water when developer C.W. Clark was unable to acquire funding by …

Fifteen minutes before the Wednesday, June 3, meeting of the Imperial Beach City Council was set to start, a dozen residents, a few reporters, and a television news crew congregated outside council chambers. The residents …

After two years of playing drums for alternative rockers Demasiado, Wade Youman has decided to move on. “There were some creative issues with me and the bass player [Eric Shefstad]. We were banging heads, and …

On Sunday morning, just before dawn, David Larson can be found in front of the DMV on Normal Street in Hillcrest picking up trash scattered around the grey-and-blue stucco building or sweeping the gutters along …

During the May 27 meeting of the Solana Beach City Council, councilmembers made permanent a ban outlawing brews, wine, and cocktails, making dry the last of San Diego County’s beaches during busy summer months. (Del …

Officials from the Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) continue on their cross-city public relations tour to promote the construction of a new downtown civic center. Last week, the group showed their stuff to a near-empty …