California is projected to have another budget surplus this year and is required by law to pass some of it on to residents. This would likely mean another round of tax rebate checks like the ones that went out in 2021. Some lawmakers have suggested the…
Eddie Vedder blasts off with new solo tour and album, ‘Earthling,’ while gearing up for Pearl Jam reboot
Can anyone top Eddie Vedder when it comes to fostering unlikely musical convergences that span generations, let alone being a key link between The Beatles and Ramones? That is — to invoke the title of an obscure 1997 Pearl Jam song — hard to imagine. I…
Tom Krasovic: Will Rams offense produce Super Bore again?
SAN DIEGO — Watching Super Bowl 56 will be as fun as driving over a spike strip if the Los Angeles Rams match their offensive futility of Super Bowl 53. Those Rams scored no touchdowns and banged nine punts. Other than Patriots fans, most spectators wo…
Report finds the US deported Cameroonian asylum-seekers to torture back home
Cameroonian asylum-seekers warned in late 2020 that if they were deported from the United States, as was imminently scheduled, they would be imprisoned and abused by their government back home. Attorneys and other advocates called on the Trump administ…
Scamming pandemic jobless benefits was easy. Going after the scammers is proving to be hard
SAN DIEGO — It was a three-person operation based out of a compact, single-story home on Windsong Lane in Escondido — just one small piece of the massive fraud that scammed at least $20 billion in unemployment benefits intended for California workers w…
3 arrested on suspicion of shooting Tijuana journalist Lourdes Maldonado
TIJUANA, Mexico — Three suspects were arrested Tuesday for their alleged involvement in the fatal shooting of veteran Tijuana reporter Lourdes Maldonado López. Maldonado was shot to death in her car Jan. 23 with a single gunshot to the face. She was th…
Camp Pendleton Marine charged in ‘sextortion’ scheme involving nearly a dozen women
SAN DIEGO — A Camp Pendleton-based Marine has been charged with cyberstalking several young women, accused of demanding sexually explicit photos and videos online and then repeatedly harassing and threatening them when they refused to comply, according…
A dean’s divisive tweet casts SDSU into nationwide debate over academic free speech
SAN DIEGO — In a 2016 essay about life in academia, Monica Casper said that “in a shallow Twitter zeitgeist” you need to speak in a nuanced way when talking to the public about hot-button issues. She recently learned how ugly things can get if you choo…
Journalism under siege: Recent murders highlight Mexico’s elusive justice
SAN DIEGO — Even as journalists in dozens of cities across Mexico held vigils and demonstrations in recent weeks to protest vicious killings of two of their colleagues, the threats against local Tijuana reporters continued to pour in on social media an…
Caltrans is eyeing a vertical steel net as a suicide barrier on the Coronado bridge
SAN DIEGO — Caltrans has moved closer to installing a suicide barrier on the San Diego-Coronado Bridge with a new report that identifies a vertical stainless steel net as the best option. The net would be 8 to 10 feet tall, according to the report. It …