La Jolla Ca

Summer Dunsmore, 19, glanced over her shoulder at the 50 or so harbor seals snoozing on a small horseshoe-shaped beach beside the Children's Pool in La Jolla. "Look at them," said the La Jolla High graduate who is now a student at San Diego Mesa College. "They're such peaceful creatures."

Four of five La Jolla men initially charged with murder in the beating death of a professional surfer pleaded guilty to lesser charges Friday. The fifth defendant, accused of delivering the fatal blow, rejected a plea bargain and still faces murder charges. What began that night in May 2007 as a barroom argument ended in a fatal confrontation -- with Emery Kauanui, 24, bleeding from his head outside his mother's La Jolla home.

SAN DIEGO -- Oblivious to the 15-year legal and political fight their presence has caused, harbor seals loll in the water off the Children's Pool in La Jolla. They come ashore to sun themselves, bark their distinctive barks and, during pupping season, give birth to adorable little bundles on the beach. But they also poop, on the sand and in the water, extensively.

SAN DIEGO -- A landslide that tore away a chunk of a pricey hilltop neighborhood caused an estimated $48 million in damage, according to city officials. The amount includes $26 million for broken sewer and water mains, and $22 million for private property losses in the upscale La Jolla area, officials announced last week. The initial estimate probably will change as geologists continue their investigation into why the land gave way, city homeland security program manager Donna Faller said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Monday for the city of San Diego, five days after a landslide in a La Jolla neighborhood destroyed a busy road and sent houses sinking into the crevasse. The declaration clears the way for the state transportation agency to ask for federal assistance for cleanup and reconstruction. City officials said the slide caused more than $25 million in damage to roads and public utilities. Private property losses were estimated at $22 million.

LA JOLLA INDIAN RESERVATION, Calif. -- One by one, they returned from the fire lines and steered their clunkers into a gravel parking lot. The dust from their wheels rose into the Pauma Valley and blended into the smoke billowing from three mountaintops behind them. One had two chain saws in the bed of a rusty pickup truck, another a portable generator and a shovel in the back of an SUV. One walked with a limp; another was covered in tattoos.

The firestorms that swept much of Southern California recently were especially cruel to this hardscrabble reservation clinging to the southern slopes of Mt. Palomar. Residents described flames sweeping over lush hills and valleys, burning 94% of the reservation and destroying 59 of its 170 houses. Thick forests of live oak that once shaded homes and provided acorns for generations of Native Americans are gone now, replaced by black scars of ash.

The Supreme Court of California this week refused to get involved in a 15-year-old political and legal fight over the presence of harbor seals on the beach at the Children's Pool in La Jolla. The high court declined consideration of an appeal of a lower court ruling that the city should clean the beach even if it means chasing the seals out to sea. Seal feces have presented a health hazard on the beach. The city is working on a plan to dredge the beach to create a greater tidal flow. -- --

They are sons of La Jolla, five friends who came of age on the edge of the Pacific. They all played on La Jolla High School's football team. One was the defensive player of the year. Another was a star quarterback mentored by former pro standout Doug Flutie, who said he'd be proud to have the boy as his own. Off the field, they cruised around town and hung out in picturesque coves beneath bluffs lined with spectacular homes.

Dr. Richard Houghten did not choose his parents wisely. His father died at 58, his mother at 51. One grandfather died at 57, another at 47. An uncle, three brothers and his sister all have Type 2 diabetes. He is 59. The awareness of his own mortality drives Houghten, president and director of the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies. It drives the rest of us too, of course, but Houghten and the other biotech cowboys on La Jolla's "Science Mesa" are actually doing something about it.