Eliciting an official response to your petition just got tougher. The White House now requires a petition on its We the People platform to get 100,000 signatures within 30 days in order to get an official response.

A City Heights art installation on childhood memory closed Jan. 4, but it isn't fleeting yet. An arts nonprofit in the neighborhood is now featuring the work in its formal gallery.

Veterans in San Diego County are younger and better educated than their counterparts elsewhere, and earn more money when working, but businesses could do more to help them find employment, according to a report released today by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

After a career of alternately charming, manipulating and strong-arming the media, former cycling champion Lance Armstrong is turning for redemption to a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the U.S. fleet of Boeing 787 planes to be grounded, citing an incident in Japan earlier today in which one of the jet's batteries emitted smoke. The Japanese report came a week after a similar incident occurred in Boston.

Childhood vaccines for diseases like measles, polio and whooping cough have repeatedly been proved safe and effective. Even so, some parents still worry that the schedule of vaccinations -- 24 immunizations by the age of 2 -- can be dangerous. That worry is likely misplaced, according to a yearlong review of all available scientific data.

Militants seized dozens of hostages, including Americans as we reported earlier, in a deadly raid on an Algerian gas facility Wednesday.

San Diego State University ditched plans for its football team to join the Big East Conference and to shift most of its other sports to the Big West, deciding today to stick with the Mountain West Conference.

As President Obama unveiled his gun control proposals Wednesday, he highlighted mass shootings at schools in Colorado, Virginia and Connecticut. He also mentioned another group of children, not in school -- the ones on the street corners of Chicago.

Manti Te'o, the Notre Dame linebacker who nearly won the Heisman Trophy this season, is at the center of what Deadspin calls a "hoax," in which the story of a lost love was created in order to bolster his personal myth. The site is questioning the existence of a girl Te'o has said inspired him to new heights. He has not yet responded to the story; we'll update this post with any new information as it emerges.

Rep. Duncan Hunter of San Diego County has introduced a bill that would protect military pay if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling.

When President Obama laid out his proposals Wednesday to reduce gun violence, he included a call for Congress to ban "military-style assault weapons."

San Diego may be known as America's Finest City, but it doesn't rank very high in the latest tobacco control report from the American Lung Association.

Millions of acres of marginal farmland in the Midwest -- land that isn't in good enough condition to grow crops -- could be used to produce liquid fuels made from plant material, according to a study in Nature. And those biofuels could, in theory, provide about 25 percent of the advanced biofuels required by a 2007 federal law.

A Tijuana nonprofit is opening the city’s first composting center with U.S. funding as part of an effort to reduce waste that affects both sides of the border.

Lucas Codognolla's hands shake as he waits in line at the Bridgeport, Conn., DMV for his turn to take the road test.

Blue Star Families has launched a professional network to make it easier for constantly-moving military spouses to find work in their new hometowns.

With temperatures dropping, people crossing the border illegally have been at risk of freezing to death in the wide open desert. The freeze has even affected humanitarian volunteers going out to help them.

Ray King can be quietly thoughtful and reserved when you first meet him. But ask him about his childhood in New York and soon he’s waxing poetic. And, it’s not hard to understand why.

Some of the steps outlined by President Barack Obama could have an impact on weapons trafficking across the border into Mexico.

In what could be the first spillover from France’s intervention in Mali, Islamist militants attacked and occupied a natural gas complex partly operated by energy company BP in southern Algeria on Wednesday. Two foreigners were killed and possibly dozens of others, including Americans, were taken hostage.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama outlined his package of proposals to “reduce gun violence” in the United States. But what do gun laws look like in Mexico?

The mayor's staff in Tijuana will focus on encouraging binational economic development.

The Republican governors of Nevada, New Mexico and now Arizona are all supporting Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, despite longstanding GOP opposition to the plan.

At a White House event with children who wrote him letters after the Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., President Obama is today announcing what he will do -- and wants to see done by Congress -- to reduce gun violence.

President Barack Obama is announcing a $500 million package of executive actions and legislative proposals aimed at reducing gun violence a month after a mass shooting in Connecticut killed 20 elementary school children.

Military working dogs will play a key role at President Obama's inauguration next week.

As supporters of President Obama prepare for his toned-down but glammed-up second inauguration over the long weekend of Jan. 19-21, the president's detractors are making other plans.

President Obama and Vice President Biden are due at midday to unveil the administration's plan for reducing gun violence. The National Rifle Association, which has made clear it opposes nearly all the things the administration is considering, is out in advance of the news with a video that accuses the president of being an "elitist hypocrite" for not supporting the idea of putting armed guards in all schools.

Rep. Joe Heck introduced this week the Stolen Valor Act of 2013, a measure that would make it illegal to "knowingly benefit" from lying about receiving military medals. He calls the bill "identical" to one that cleared the House of Representatives last year, but did not become law because the House and Senate couldn't agree on a final version of the legislation.

An iconic fixture on San Diego's South Bay skyline is about to become a memory as the clock is ticking on the life of a massive old power plant.

Four more deaths from influenza were reported in San Diego County Tuesday by the Health and Human Services Agency.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar intends to step down at the end of March, his office confirms to NPR's Jeff Brady.

SDSU film school grads Destin Cretton and Ron Najor took their film "I Am Not A Hipster" to Sundance last year. Yesterday, their film was finally released to the public.

The Mile High Gliding facility at the Boulder Airport in Colorado is one of Carol Fiore's favorite haunts. And it's a perfect day for flying: clear, breezy and with a gorgeous view of the Rocky Mountains.

Whole Foods has played a key role in propelling organic foods into the mainstream. The specialty supermarket chain has more than 300 stores and plans to continue expanding. But outspoken founder and co-CEO John Mackey is not the crunchy granola liberal one might conjure while perusing aisles of earnestly labeled blue corn chips and gently misted red peppers.