Campfire’s octopus, chorizo, and celery-root entrée.
Gage Forster
San Diego, CA
San Diego librarians’ work now involves battling censorship
A handful of people lined up outside Rancho Penasquitos Library on a chilly morning last week, like eager shoppers on Black Friday.
“Morning, how are you?” asked Adrianne Peterson, the library’s branch manager, greeting patrons with matched enthusiasm. “Wow, everybody is showing up today.”
Peterson is a 30-year veteran of libraries. She studied art as an undergraduate at San Diego State University, but switched to library information science for graduate school at the University of Illinois after some self-discovery.
“I learned about myself as I got older, that what’s meaningful to me is to help people,” Peterson said. “Being a librarian is a way that I could help every person every day, from the littlest kid to seniors and everybody in between.”
She has built a career on helping people. She said libraries offer much more than books — early literacy programs, resume building, and helping people earn their high school diplomas. At a time of fraying social bonds and epidemic loneliness, she noted libraries are one of the last shared spaces open to everyone.
“You don’t have to pay to come to the library,” Peterson said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, rich or poor, educated, whatever your religious beliefs are, we don’t judge. We don’t tell you what to read.”
So she was shocked last June when she got a ransom note of sorts from two Rancho Penasquitos women objecting to a Pride Month display.
“I received an email saying that, ‘We protest this type of material being on display, and we’ve checked out the materials, and we will not return them until you remove the display,’” Peterson recalled.
She said the women did eventually return the books, but not before media coverage triggered a backlash to the attempted censorship.
“My phone rang off the hook,” Peterson said. “People sent books. I had Amazon packages piled up on my desk, and they asked, ‘Can we make a donation? Can I go buy some books at Barnes & Noble and drop them off to replenish your display?’ And on and on.”
Peterson said she drew two lessons from the incident. Support for libraries and inclusivity is far greater than for censorship. But at the same time, San Diego is not immune to a trend in recent years of people trying to control what others read, despite a long history of public libraries.
Benjamin Franklin built America’s first library in Philadelphia in 1731. More than a century later, industrialist Andrew Carnegie funded 1,700 new libraries, dubbing them “Palaces for the People.” These democratic cornerstones are now increasingly under attack amid the nation’s current divide.
The American Library Association reports there were 695 challenges to more than 1,900 books in the United States during the first eight months of last year in places like Virginia, Tennessee and Iowa. That’s a 20% increase over the same period in 2022, which was a record-breaking year.
The San Diego Public Library branches have received five official book challenges in the last five years: two in 2021, one in 2022, two in 2023. Patrons also air their grievances through online comments, like this one blaming the library for society’s ills:
“The library is a den of inappropriate material for minor children and adults as well! The filth, hate and psychological disease you promote is disgusting! You each should be ashamed of supporting and promoting filth and garbage to our citizens! Yet you wonder why our society is so immoral and mentally deranged now….”
Most of the challenges are to books on race and LGBTQ+ topics, said Robyn Gage-Norquist, who leads the San Diego city library system’s reconsideration committee, which reviews book complaints.
“It’s the two issues that we just can’t get away from in our country,” she said. “We want to categorize people and try to look for something that’s different about them and make that a challenge when it really shouldn’t be.”
She believes fear is driving censorship advocates.
“What’s happening is that people are now being frightened,” Gage-Norquist said. “They’re told to be scared of these books and that we’re taking them out to protect you.”
Jennifer Jenkins, San Diego Public Library system’s deputy director of customer experience, contends that libraries are under attack also because they are one of the last institutions that are publicly funded. She said dictating what libraries offer the public is part of a larger agenda to foster ignorance, because an uninformed population is more malleable.
“The concept of libraries is radical,” Jenkins said. “To have that democratic approach to providing information so that you have an informed citizenry, an informed constituency, is threatening because knowledge is power.”
Jenkins said she’s ready for the fight to preserve the ideals underpinning libraries.
Back in Rancho Penasquitos, librarian Peterson is equally resolute.
“Most people are tolerant and encouraging of others and we should all learn how to be a team and find our similarities rather than our differences,” she said. “And I hope the library can help people do that.”
She said patrons help too by pushing for more inclusiveness. She said most of the complaints she receives aren’t about trying to remove books, but from people who believe the library’s collection isn’t diverse enough.
San Diego, CA
Solans, Luna, Guilavogui help RSL beat slumping San Diego, extend unbeaten streak to 6 games :: WRALSportsFan.com
SANDY, Utah — SANDY, Utah (AP) — Sergi Solans had two goals and an assist, Diego Luna added a goal and two assists, and Real Salt Lake beat San Diego FC 4-2 on Saturday night to extend its unbeaten streak to six games.
Morgan Guilavogui scored his first goal in MLS and had an assist for Real Salt Lake (5-1-1). The 28-year-old designated player has five goal contributions in his first six career games.
RSL hasn’t lost since a 1-0 defeat at Vancouver in the season opener.
San Diego (3-3-2) has lost three in a row and is winless in five straight.
Luna opened the scoring in the fifth minute when he re-directed a misplayed pass by Duran Ferree, San Diego’s 19-year-old goalkeeper, into the net.
Moments later, Solans headed home a perfectly-placed cross played by Luna from outside the right corner of the 18-yard box to the back post to make it 2-0. Solans, a 23-year-old forward, flicked a header from the center of the area inside the right post and past the outstretched arm of Ferree to make it 3-1 in the 37th minute.
Guilavogui slammed home a first-touch shot to give RSL a three-goal lead in the 45th.
Marcus Ingvartsen scored a goal in the 14th minute and Anders Dreyer converted from the penalty spot in the 66th for San Diego.
Ingvartsen has five goals and an assist this season and has 10 goal contributions (seven goals, three assists) in 16 career MLS appearances.
Rafael Cabral had three saves for RSL.
Ferree finished with five saves.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer
When John Resnick opened Campfire on a quaint little street in Carlsbad, Calif., in 2016, some locals weren’t sure what to think. The coastal enclave wasn’t exactly awash in innovative, chef-driven establishments, so it was a shock to see the dining room consistently full. Early on, one woman wondered aloud to Resnick, “Where did all these people come from?”
It’s a moment he remembers vividly. “I was struck by her statement, because I think she was surprised that so many other people in Carlsbad were there,” Resnick says.
The rest of the culinary world would take some time to catch up to what was happening. In 2019, when Michelin expanded to rate restaurants throughout all of California—not just the San Francisco area—Addison was the only one in San Diego to earn a star. But since emerging from the pandemic, the region’s food scene has grown dramatically. Driven by outstanding farms, ingredients, a bumper crop of talented chefs, and a G.D.P. approximately the size of New Zealand or Greece, San Diego County has become one of America’s most underrated dining destinations.
Perhaps no single restaurant is a better emblem for this shift than chef William Bradley’s Addison, which opened in 2006. After landing his first star, Bradley knew he wanted more. To get them, he transformed his French-leaning fare to serve what he calls California Gastronomy, which combines the cultures of SoCal with impeccable ingredients and wildly impressive techniques, prizing flavor over flair. Michelin responded, awarding Addison a second star in 2022, and making it the first Southern California three-star restaurant just a year later. The accolade has created a halo effect, attracting culinary tourists from around the world.
Berry beet tartlets at San Diego’s three-star stalwart Addison.
Eric Wolfinger
“Earning three stars forces the global dining community to pay attention to a place that may not have been on their radar before,” says chef Eric Bost, a partner in Resnick’s four Carlsbad establishments.
Resnick recruited Bost, who spent time at award-winning outposts of Restaurant Guy Savoy, to run Jeune et Jolie, which he led to a star in 2021. They’ve since taken over an old boogie-board factory down the street and converted it to an all-day restaurant and bakery, Wildland. The space also hosts an exquisite tasting-counter experience called Lilo, which was given a Michelin star mere months after opening in April 2025. And as Resnick and Bost grew their successful Carlsbad operation, chef Roberto Alcocer earned a Michelin star for his Mexican fine-dining spot Valle in nearby Oceanside.
The stylish tasting counter at Michelin one-star Lilo in Carlsbad.
Kimberly Motos
About 25 miles to the south, another affluent coastal community is going through its own culinary glow up. In La Jolla, chef Tara Monsod and the hospitality group Puffer Malarkey Collective opened the stylish French steakhouse Le Coq. Chef Erik Anderson, formerly of Michelin two-star Coi, is preparing to launch Roseacre. And last year, Per Se alums Elijah Arizmendi and Brian Hung left New York to open the elegant tasting-menu restaurant Lucien, lured by the ingredients they’d get to serve. “A major reason we chose San Diego is the quality and diversity of the produce,” Arizmendi explains. “San Diego County has more small farms than anywhere else in the U.S., and its many microclimates allow farmers to grow an incredible range of ingredients year-round.”
Wildland’s spicy Italian sandwich.
Gage Forster
Chef Travis Swikard has also been a tireless advocate for the region’s ingredients since he returned to San Diego, his hometown, and opened Mediterranean-influenced Callie in 2021. There’s no sophomore slump with his latest effort, the French Riviera–inspired Fleurette in La Jolla, where he’s serving his take on classics like leeks vinaigrette and his San Diego “Bouillabaisse” with local red sheepshead fish and spiny lobster. Its food is bright, produce-driven, and attentive in execution, while the dining room maintains a relaxed and unpretentious style of service. And Swikard sees that approach cohering into a regional style with a strong network of professionals behind it.
“It’s really nice that we are developing our own identity, not trying to be like L.A. or any other market, just highlighting what’s great about the San Diego lifestyle and ingredients,” he says. “Similar to New York, a chef community is starting to develop where chefs are supporting each other. There is a true sense of pride to be cooking here.”
Top: In La Jolla, Lucien serves ocean whitefish with tomatoes turned into concasse, sabayon, and other expressions.
Authors
Little Debbie is officially expanding its doughnut range.
On April 14, the brand announced a new sweet snack: Chocolate Old Fashioned Donuts. The company says there was “massive consumer demand” for the original Big Pack Old Fashioned Donuts, which quickly became a top seller. Now, they’re just giving the people what they want.
The new snack is a chocolate old-fashioned cake doughnut finished with a sweet glaze and is launching in two formats:
- The Big Pack Carton: This box contains six doughnuts in a retro-inspired package that reflects the brand’s heritage.
- Single-serve doughnuts: There are also 3-ounce, individually wrapped Chocolate Old Fashioned Donuts, which the brand suggests pairing with a morning coffee or eating on a midday break.
The original, which includes six individually wrapped cake-style doughnuts with a vanilla glaze, first hit stores in June 2025 and, according to the brand, has been “consistently selling out.”
“We saw an incredible response to the Old Fashioned Donut we introduced last year,” said Scott Brownlow, Little Debbie’s brand manager, in a press release. We’re doubling down on what works and giving both loyalists and new fans an irresistible reason to head back to the store.”
Little Debbie’s Chocolate Old Fashioned Donuts are rolling out now to major retailers, grocery stores and convenience stores nationwide. As with the original Old Fashioned Donut, they become a permanent addition to the brand’s snack lineup.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
-
New Mexico6 minutes agoASU baseball to host New Mexico State, Baylor
-
North Carolina12 minutes agoThree Underrated UNC Football Seniors To Watch in 2026
-
North Dakota18 minutes agoFinley, North Dakota without water after watermain leak.
-
Ohio24 minutes agoBonnie Sue Reed-Tilton-Hetzel, East Liverpool, Ohio
-
Oklahoma30 minutes agoIowa State wrestling adds Brayden Thompson from transfer portal
-
Oregon36 minutes agoOregon Ducks Recruiting Target Darius Johnson Announces Finalists
-
Pennsylvania42 minutes agoPennsylvania utilities appreciate market signals — but not market prices
-
Rhode Island48 minutes agoPulled funding creates a bike path to nowhere. Let’s hope RI fixes it.