NELVIN C. CEPEDA / Union-Tribune Construction workers got a 12-inch water main ready to be connected to a new pipe yesterday on Soledad Mountain Road.

LA JOLLA – It's been a year of putting up with commotion from heavy machinery – 10 hours a day, six days a week – and frustrating traffic disruptions. A year after the Mount Soledad landslide destroyed three homes and left eight others uninhabitable, residents are still waiting for a return to normal.

TIJUANA – The bloody turf war involving Tijuana's drug traffickers claimed eight more lives yesterday, including two men who had been decapitated. Officials say the men were the latest casualties in an ongoing battle among organized criminal gangs.

SDG&E's plan to turn off electricity in parts of the backcountry during strong Santa Ana winds to prevent fires is being applauded by some as a positive move, and condemned by others as potentially causing worse problems than it solves.

Carolyn Smith's $100,350 in severance pay from the Southeastern Economic Development Corp. already has been controversial, and now the agency is asking the city for more money for her.

Lalo Rojas, 59, laughs painfully: “I caught a fish with my face.” He was the boater mentioned in my Tuesday column who was smacked in the face by a mullet that literally jumped into his jet boat as he rode near De Anza Cove last month.