Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug. Right now, the California state budget might feel like both.

A San Diego veteran has launched his own business selling a new brand of hot sauce, based on his love of raw, edible plants.

A financing mechanism to raise money for expanding the San Diego Convention Center is on uncertain legal ground, the city attorney said today.

Home Post Blog: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters today the United States is looking to end combat operations in Afghanistan by the second half of next year.

A new report finds California women and children got financially pummeled in recent years, first by the economy, then by state budget cuts.

The Democratic leader of the California State Senate says he thinks his party can win enough seats this year to reach a two-thirds supermajority. That’s the margin required to raise taxes and place measures on ballots.

Something exciting is always happening at NASA, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. In this final episode from Houston, Texas, host Mark L. Walberg experiences this excitement firsthand when he is joined by appraiser Gary Piattoni at the Houston Space Center for a briefing on NASA collectibles. Highlights include a magical collection of Wedgwood Fairyland Lustreware; a gold charm that once belonged to Lucille Ball; and a romantic English Regency rosewood settee that makes the appraiser swoon as he declares an estimated value of $9,500.

The second California snow survey of the year found a little more snow on the ground—but not enough to make up for the dry conditions so far this season. Hydrologists are reporting some of the lowest snow measurements on record.

In Eugene, Oregon, host Mark L. Walberg and appraiser Kathleen Bailey head to the picturesque King Estate Winery to discuss what to look for in the pursuit of collecting wineglasses and decanters. Highlights include: a playful pair of beautifully preserved tin toys: a ca. 1938 Marx car and a battery powered dump truck; a circa 1861 Civil War cavalry guidon that may have been used in the Battle of Shiloh; and the “guardian of Venice,” a 1960 jeweled gold moretto valued at $40,000 to $60,000.

A memorial wall was unveiled Wednesday on Camp Pendleton for Marines from the base who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said a tiny amount of radiation could have escaped into the atmosphere from the San Onofre nuclear power plant after a water leak prompted operators to shut down the reactor as a precaution.

Facebook made a much-anticipated status update Wednesday: The Internet social network is going public eight years after its computer-hacking CEO Mark Zuckerberg started the service at Harvard University.

As a black woman who was a feminist before the term was invented, Daisy Bates refused to accept her assigned place in society. This program tells the story of her life and public support of nine black students who registered to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, which culminated in a constitutional crisis — pitting a president against a governor and a community against itself. Unconventional, revolutionary and egotistical, Bates reaped the rewards of instant fame, but paid dearly for it.

When 19th century British novelist Charles Dickens was 45 years old and married with nine children, he met Nelly Ternan, an 18-year-old actress with whom he fell hopelessly in love. Thus began an ongoing clandestine relationship that he kept secret for the rest of his life. This program reveals how this very public figure kept his private life secret via Byzantine financial arrangements, meticulously planned railway journeys, networks of safe-houses and the burning of personal papers and private letters. Ultimately, the strain of his double life resulted in a premature death for the highly gifted yet deeply troubled artist.

For the first time, life science companies in southern California got a microscopic look at the financial impact they have on each other and the local economy.

A $5-million projection system recently installed at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center’s planetarium will allow visitors to view the skies as if they are in space. The center's director and an astrophysics expert explain the new system and its ability to bring black holes to life.

A key hearing Monday may be the last phase in deciding whether a rock quarry north of San Diego can go forward. A supporter and opponent of the Liberty Quarry projects argue their sides.

The San Diego Unified School District Board of Education voted 3-2 to approve Superintendent Bill Kowba's preliminary recommendation to lay off more than 1,100 employees and increase class sizes.

A nuclear reactor at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station remained off-line today due to an equipment problem that sent a small, non-hazardous amount of radioactive gas into an auxiliary building and possibly into the atmosphere, authorities said.

Northrop Grumman is assessing the possible impact of Pentagon budget cuts to the Global Hawk, an unmanned surveillance plane developed in San Diego.

The city has become the latest of many nationwide to pass land use laws meant to promote food production in urban areas.

San Diego police are cracking down on the illegal sale of bath salt and Spice.

Could swapping homework problems for video lectures change the way schools work?