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San Marcos, Travel January 7, 2026

Escondido Creek Conservancy adds Elfin Forest acreage

Hundreds of acres of land in North San Diego County are now protected in perpetuity by The Escondido Creek Conservancy (Conservancy) following the recent acquisition of two key properties: the White-Atterbury property, extending from Harmony Grove into San Marcos and Elfin Forest. These acquisitions represent critical components of the Conservancy’s Connecting Conservation Corridors Campaign, which aims to link fragmented native habitats so wildlife can survive…

Community January 3, 2026

SDWP pledges $4M to expand county youth services

Thousands of young people across San Diego County are looking for a pathway forward, whether that’s finishing school, landing their first job or building skills for a career. Too many, however,  face barriers that make those goals feel out of reach. Stark regional disparities are revealed in a recent report conducted by the San Diego Workforce Partnership to understand the workforce needs of youth ages 14-24 across…

Grapevine Investigation, Media December 3, 2025

Pink slime and the phantom newsroom: When bots like ‘San Diego City Wire’ pretend to be your neighbors

San Diego’s got sunshine, surf, and—who knew—synthetic journalism. Lately, a site called San Diego City Wire has been popping up in social feeds and search results, dishing out “local” tidbits about home sales, city meetings, and “community happenings.” It looks like any of the old-school weeklies that used to land on your porch in a blue plastic bag. The headlines are tidy, the writing reads…

Editorial, Opinion December 1, 2025

Common Sense 2025: Gilded fool who would be king

When I contemplate the present condition of America, I am struck dumb by the sheer theater of it all — the gilded spectacle, the red-hatted congregation, the rallies that thrum like tent revivals for a man who believes himself chosen not by Providence but by poll numbers. We have suffered under the reign of Donald Trump as our forefathers once suffered under monarchs — and…

Baseball, Sports November 12, 2025

Padres Hot Stove News: Offseason begins with a new manager and several unanswered pitching questions

The Padres checked the first box on their offseason to-do list when they hired Craig Stammen as their next manager. The second box is larger, louder and unavoidable: finding enough starting pitching for Stammen to employ. Every club at the Las Vegas General Managers’ Meetings this week claimed pitching as priority No. 1. A.J. Preller has said the same before. But this autumn the need…

Courts/Law, Fire, Police/Fire, San Diego, San Marcos October 24, 2025

Three Dot Lounge…people behaving badly special edition

We are going to consider a few outstanding three-dot items stripped from below, well below, today’s sundry headlines. But first, a reminder and salute about he who pioneered the three-dot way… It’s been over 25 years since famed San Francisco journalist Herb Caen (1916-1997) died. For journalists and San Franciscans, Caen was a superstar. Known as “Mr. San Francisco,” his columns were a vital piece…

Dean Weissmann presents October 20, 2025

What happens now? Walk the talk after ‘No Kings’ing

What happens now? That may well be the question being asked by “No Kings” protesters, who marched, rallied and danced all over the nation on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. Pro-democracy groups had aimed to encourage large numbers of Americans to demonstrate that “together we are choosing democracy.” They were successful, with crowds turning out for demonstrations in thousands of cities and towns from Anchorage to…

Entertainment/Arts, San Marcos October 9, 2025

CSUSM prof’s ‘Commune’ doc gets a 20-year redux tour

When Jonathan Berman came to Cal State San Marcos as a film professor in 2004, he was close to finishing a documentary about a Northern California commune during the counterculture era. The documentary was released the following year. Now, 20 years later, Berman is marking the anniversary of the film with a new digital restoration and a national tour of screenings and interviews. “Commune” is…

Blogs, Columns/Blogs, Opinion, Public Policy April 4, 2025

America, America. Land of the Cruel and Unusual.

Next weekend, April 5, there will be protests in 600+ locations in the US, with really big ones in Washington DC and London. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of our neighbors to the north choose to exercise their right to free speech in Canadian cities. These won’t be your ordinary protests. There are thousands of reasons to raise our voices. Everybody participating will own…