JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune San Diego County plans to tear down all but one of the 27 buildings on the Edgemoor Hospital grounds, including the three barns seen on the left.

SANTEE – The three utilitarian, beige and green buildings on the Edgemoor Hospital grounds don't look much like dairy barns anymore.

With so much equity built up in his Imperial Beach home, Michael Ortiz thought he and his family could rent out their place and buy a new, bigger, better house. “So that's what we did. We moved closer to the beach,” he said. That was 2004 – near the peak of a booming housing market.

SAN DIEGO – County Supervisor Greg Cox dared to think big yesterday. Very big. Cox, one of 13 local officials charged with shaping a vision for Lindbergh Field, suggested a showcase transit center that has been embraced as part of the airport's future could be akin to New York City's famed Grand Central Station.

Would illegal immigrants voluntarily surrender to immigration authorities at the federal building in downtown San Diego? It may seem unlikely, but this is what federal immigration officials hope will happen starting Tuesday.

Several local nonprofits that provided volunteers to run concession stands at the U.S. Open in June have accused a catering contractor of misleading them after receiving far less for their services than they expected.