Surprising and Strange

Disbarred RSF Casey Anthony attorney Macaluso gets jail for $13M cocaine scheme

Summary: The former attorney of accused-murderer Casey Anthony, who has since been disbarred, was convicted of drug smuggling. (Editor’s note: It is with great pleasure we present this tale of justice served in the case of Todd Macaluso, former Casey Anthony attorney and Rancho Santa Fe reprobate. As editor of various Rancho Santa Fe newspapers and websites, I had the “honor” of being threatened with…


Heaven’s Gate survivor 20 years later

A former Heaven’s Gate member is looking back on the time he spent with the cult 20 years after dozens of its members committed suicide together at Rancho Santa Fe. The man, who goes by the name Sawyer, told Inside Edition that he spent 18 years with the cult, reaching the rank of “overseer” before leaving in 1994. He recalled his conversations with the leader of the cult,…


Fake or real? Esco HS party turns viral

Video of an Escondido Charter High School teacher violently reacting to a group of students intruding on his class has drawn widespread criticism from Australia to Cape Verde – but more than one viewer insists not all was as it seemed. Footage showing Escondido Charter students entering the classroom of a teacher was uploaded to streaming website Streamable earlier today. Wearing party hats, stick-on moustaches, sombreros and…


Heaven’s Gate and other ‘cult’ architecture

Religions have inspired some of the great architecture of human history. Reims Cathedral. The Blue Mosque. Angkor Wat. But what about those faiths that aren’t exactly major? Or are controversial? Or aren’t religions at all? Since many fringe religious groups tend not to mesh well with society, they often take to the country. In the process, they sometimes employ innovative planning strategies, as is the…



Krispy Kreme Tuesdays bites off more than it can chew at North County mall

 Krispy Kreme Tuesdays Burbank apparently bit off more than it could chew at Escondido’s Westfield North County regional mall last night. When the police and fumes cleared the vast parking lot and its environs, namely freeway feeder lanes and nearby exit/entrances, an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 Southern California vehicular flash mob enthusiasts were gone, if not forgotten. Not so coincidentally, the car show flash mob…


Nerd was the word at Nerd Con 2016

Nerd Con 2016 has come and gone from the California Center for the Arts, Escondido and its immediate environs. Gone, but not forgotten, as evidenced by memories, and when those memories fade, Vblog accounts. Over 3,000 nerds and fellow travelers descended over, under, around and about the California Center doing what nerds do and heaven can wait. Major emphasis of the big show that ran…


Nerd Con 2016 this way comes

“Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies And ev’ryone goes, ’cause everyone knows…” (Nerd Con 2016 is in the air.) Nerds rule. For three days, anyway, Aug. 26-28, at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido for the second annual Nerd Con. About 3,000 fans of comic books, sci-fi, cosplay, video games and anime came to the California Center for the Arts in Escondido for…


Bad hair day at En Salon

This bit of Escondido-mania has blown up on social media since Wednesday. Desiree Bates of iHeartMedia sent me the “scoop” saying, “Thought I’d send this to you since it’s relevant to Escondido.” No sale. I wrote her back, saying, “Whoa, what is this thing? Don’t think our viewers are into it though.” Wow, was I wrong. This sucker has blown up all over the Internet….


People behaving badly, and strangely

Luckiest guy at San Marcos It’s one thing to get hit by a speeding commuter train. Safe to say, it’s a whole ‘nother thing to get hit by the train, get up, walk away and still be at large. Such was the case, and fate, of an unidentified man who was struck by a train Thursday night near Palomar College in San Marcos. Like the…