Tijuana

Bette Winks, the one-time model adoptive parent who spent almost six months in a Tijuana jail on a child-stealing charge, is back home in central Illinois. Winks, who is suffering from an unspecified ailment, appeared Monday at the McLean County courthouse in Bloomington and posted a $200 cash bond on a pending misdemeanor charge of obstructing a police officer, according to the office of the circuit court clerk in Bloomington.

Undaunted by a failed leveraged buyout plan by management and seeking cheaper labor costs, Santa Barbara-based Computer & Communications Technology Corp. next month will relocate its magnetic recording heads manufacturing to its Tijuana plant and move its corporate headquarters to San Diego. The moves will save "millions of dollars" per year, according to Everett Bahre, who is chairman, chief executive and president.

Since the start of June, there's been a big dance contest going on here with a grand prize no self-respecting vaquero, or cowboy, can resist: a mare valued at $5,000. So take it on faith that every Tuesday night from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., practically every 10-gallon hat in Tijuana is at La Cueva del Dragon (the Cave of the Dragon), a gritty Western honky-tonk on Agua Caliente Boulevard.

As XTRA-AM (690) prepares to switch to a news-talk format, its competitors are grumbling about the station's "325B permit," a key factor in XTRA's ability to easily do news-talk. For announcers and guests of XTRA, the permit is akin to a letter excusing them from ever having to go to a dentist.

The Mexican government's efforts to prosecute former Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon collapsed Tuesday after a federal judge tossed out weapons charges and another judge blocked authorities' last-ditch efforts to keep him under arrest on a new murder charge. Hank, whose highly publicized arrest June 4 seemed to puncture the bubble of impunity that had long protected him, smiled as he walked away from detention at a hotel in Tijuana. Flanked by his attorneys, Hank's motorcade made its way back to his estate behind the historic Agua Caliente racetrack, which he owns, as supporters in cars honked their approval.

Before KNX-AM (1070) offered "all news, all the time," and before KFWB-AM (980) promised to give you "the world" in 22 minutes, there was XTRA-AM (690). XTRA made its debut May 6, 1961, when the Hollywood Reporter called it the nation's first all-news radio operation. It was also one of the most unusual. First, it wasn't based in the United States; it was located in Tijuana, and occasionally the studio received surprise visits by farm animals and reptiles. XTRA didn't have a reporter in the U.S., let alone Southern California.

An auxiliary Tijuana police officer was badly injured early Sunday during a dispute with three unidentified people in a parking lot near the tourist drag of Avenida Revolucion, Mexican police said. The officer was in serious condition with head injuries at the Istecali Hospital in Tijuana, authorities said. The three suspects fled the scene in a blue car with California plates, said Mexican authorities, who were in touch with San Diego police about the case. Details on the incident were sketchy and conflicting Sunday.

Police in Tijuana found a man's naked, mutilated body hanging by the neck from an expressway overpass. The prosecutor's office of Baja California state said the body "showed multiple blows" and cuts. Prosecutors had not determined a motive. The unidentified victim was believed to be between 55 and 60 years old, the office said in a statement. Police said prosecutors also reported finding the mutilated body of a woman in a reservoir in Tijuana. Her hands and head were missing.