EDUARDO CONTRERAS / Union-Tribune Loren Velasquez baked bread yesterday at the Bread & Cie bakery in San Diego. The bakery has been hard-hit by rising costs.

The soaring price of flour – once the cheapest of staples – hasn't soured Bread & Cie bakery owner Charles Kaufman's sense of humor. But it has given it an edge. “I'm thinking of renting our bread,” said Kaufman, wryly. “If I don't want to raise prices, the only other reasonable options are to rent the bread or get rid of the parking lot and plant a wheat field.”

After enrolling remarkably few patients, the county may soon lose $13 million in federal funds for a highly touted program that cares for poor people with diabetes and high blood pressure. As of March 31 – seven months into the project's first year – the county had signed up only 95 of the intended 3,260 patients.

Drooling, biting your lip and talking like you have marbles in your mouth after a visit to the dentist could soon become a thing of the past. A drug that reverses the numbing effects of local anesthesia used by dentists was approved yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration for patients as young as 6 years old.

San Diego State University President Stephen Weber was unaware federal agents were posing as students to crack a campus drug ring until about two weeks before the end of the five-month undercover effort. Weber said yesterday that he didn't learn about the federal role in Operation Sudden Fall until April 21, shortly before the yearlong investigation culminated Tuesday with the announcement of 96 drug-related arrests that included 75 students.

The quest for the legendary big bass is over. The fish with a worldwide reputation as the largest bass ever hooked was found floating yesterday morning on Escondido's Dixon Lake. The Florida-strain largemouth bass, nicknamed Dottie for a distinctive birthmark spot below her jawline, had been dead about a day.

On Mother's Day, millions of Americans turn to greeting cards to thank their moms for spending Saturday mornings watching Sponge Bob instead of sleeping late, forgiving them for spilling nail polish remover on the carpet and generally being the person who likes them best in the world.