JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune Camile Colt checked in for her ExpressJet flight Friday. ExpressJet will stop service at Lindbergh Field on Sept. 2. Other airlines are cutting back on flights to and from San Diego.

SAN DIEGO – Lindbergh Field is bracing for the first significant decline in commercial air traffic since after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks nearly seven years ago.

The Chargers are gearing up for a new season that could – but probably won't – be their last at Qualcomm Stadium.

The buzz started with early-morning raids on apartments and fraternities around San Diego State University on May 6, then built as students were corralled into Cox Arena for questioning.

San Diego's leaders are often accused of thinking small. That's never been Richard Chase's problem. Chase thinks big. He dreams big. Real big. Manhattan Project big. Let's-put-a-man-on-the-moon big. Napoleon-invading-Russia-in-winter big.

SAN DIEGO – The nu'u tutai (islands) are a vasa (ocean) away – 4,792 miles as the seagull flies – but in San Diego the la (sun) was warm, the savili (breeze) gentle and the pese (songs) recalled a distant aiga moni (home).