2025

Keeping those New Year’s resolutions

By the time February rolls around, most of us – perhaps as many as 80 percent of the Americans who make New Year’s resolutions – will have already given up. Why does our self-control falter, so often leaving us to revert to our old ways? The answer to this question has consequences beyond our waistlines and bank balances. Psychologists and economists have traditionally fallen into…


Harmony Grove story, nothing to do with Jimmy Breslin

Following the October approval of the Harmony Grove Village South (HGVS) project by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, the Elfin Forest / Harmony Grove Town Council and the Endangered Habitats League have filed a lawsuit challenging the County’s decision, citing serious wildfire safety risks and violations of state and local law. The approved project would allow more than 450 homes to be built…


Why are so few people born on Christmas Day, New Year’s and other holidays?

Christmas and New Year’s are days of celebration in many parts of the world when people gather with family and friends. One thing many typically don’t celebrate on those days is a birthday. That’s because Dec. 25 is the least popular day in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand to give birth. In England, Wales and Ireland, it’s the second-least popular, behind Dec. 26, when…


Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! A $7M lotto ticket was sold Christmas Eve 2015 at Nordahl Liquor

Maybe it’s time for another Christmas miracle in 2025. ten years after the fact. Who was it, you, to whom Santa brought a very supercalifragilisticexpialidocious holiday bounty down the chimney on Christmas Eve, 2015? Or was it a discarded scrap sitting amiably in an unattended drawer somewhere along the Highway 78 corridor around the Great Grapevine? Only the Shadow, possibly Santa, Mary Poppins and state…


Evergreen’s Christmas miracle a 2024 Gift of the Magi

In the season when hearts grow tender and hopes seem brighter, there is always room for a miracle, even one wrapped in fur and tucked beneath the fragrant boughs of a Christmas tree. Such a miracle came to light in the rolling hills of Valley Center, where December breezes carried the mingling scents of pine needles and chimney smoke. Amid this tableau of holiday cheer,…


Hanukkah is happening, what to know about it

The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, also known as the “Festival of Lights,” began Sunday night running through  Monday, Dec. 22. News 8 sat down with Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort to hear exactly how this Jewish holiday came about. Hanukkah commemorates the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem after a small group called the Maccabees defeated the Greek Syrian army. During the battle, the Jews had…


Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

No matter what holiday you honor in your home, we decorate our homes to please ourselves and to welcome family and friends during the holidays. Although this time of year seems to be hectic for most of us, transforming our homes with dazzling decorations for the tree, sprucing up the mantel (no pun intended), setting a new, inventive holiday table scape, or hanging an exquisite…


Hey Issa, party’s over thanks to trump, now get lost

Congressman Darrell Issa, who’s made it through three districts in Southern California in his years of peddling a bundle of arrogant lies, is officially on the chopping block for the upcoming election in the 48th Congressional District. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has added Rep. Issa’s congressional district to its list of California targets. This move comes after voter-approved (65-35) Proposition 50 redistricted (on a…


The giraffe who came to Orfila (and other things that probably shouldn’t happen at Escondido whine country)

A giraffe at Orfila Winery sparked member backlash and a PETA complaint. A surreal North County moment that felt straight out of a Christopher Moore novel. In North County, we pride ourselves on many things: avocados, sunsets, and our uncanny ability to form a traffic jam on El Camino Real at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday. But last month, Orfila Winery added a fresh bullet…


Don’t let the Grinch overcharge you for holiday gifts

The holiday season is back; the bells and the cash registers will soon be ringing. That means it’s the perfect time to remind everyone to always double-check your receipts to make sure you’re not accidentally overcharged by faulty cash registers and price scanners. While buying online has become a normal part of daily life, most of us are still heading to the stores and the…