La Jolla

Starbucks Smackdown: Judge Orders $100,000 In Back Tips To Baristas

Dish

Swoosh Buckling

How a Zorro clothed in pop culture makes us laugh and think

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Conundrum

At the same time hundreds of dead gray whales were washing up on beaches, their birthrate was plunging. Theories abound, but little hard data has been gathered to solve this environmental puzzle.

Cell Therapy

Bay Area researchers are using a particular cancer to produce neuronlike cells that, when injected into the brain, seem to reverse the effects of stroke. Is the treatment a historic medical breakthrough, or a reckless ploy to attract investors?

Russian Roulette

The Western Pacific gray whale, once thought extinct, clings to life in a remote Siberian sea. Biologists fear their research is serving as cover for massive oil drilling that could wipe out this lost tribe once and for all.

American High

With Traffic, Steven Soderbergh takes on the unwinnable war

W.L. Brown: A Public/Private Partnership

Mayor Willie Brown has made official decisions benefiting business entities that are partners in the mayor's own private business endeavors. Is this intersection of Brown's public decisions and private finances a coincidence - or a conflict of interest?