The roots of the San Diego Bay restoration effort date to 1999, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expanded a national wildlife refuge at the edges of Chula Vista and Imperial Beach. Its formation followed 20 years of lobbying by conservationists who wanted to protect the wetlands, mud flats and eelgrass beds for fish and birds.

Since the mid-1800s, coastal wetlands in Southern California have shriveled from roughly 50,000 acres to about 13,000, federal figures show. Navy activity and commercial development have reduced San Diego Bay’s “near shore” marine habitat.

San Diego County could be headed for its wettest week in more than a decade. A succession of storms is expected to bring heavy rain beginning Monday, and there may be only a few short breaks through Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

The county is spending $105,000 to promote a Web site that spells out how families should brace for emergencies. The Board of Supervisors yesterday directed its staff to negotiate with local radio and television …

San Diego’s Nathan Williams is more famous for what he’s done wrong than for what he’s done right. Williams, otherwise known as the rock band Wavves, recently threw an on-stage hissy fit that became one of the gossipiest Internet stories of the summer.

“Social Climbing,” the title of the 20-artist exhibition at Seminal Projects, should be taken ironically — at least in part. It draws attention to the idea of a pecking order in a given art scene, with a skeptical eye. The point, as the news release for the show says, is that hierarchies are often arbitrary.

Before meeting Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and U2’s The Edge for the first time in “It Might Get Loud,” suitably awed fellow guitarist Jack White of the White Stripes makes a vow. “I’m going to trick them into teaching me all of their tricks,” he says of the two guitar legends.

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A little more than 30 years ago Willie Nelson released ‘Stardust,’ an album of standards largely culled from what’s now identified as the Great American Songbook.

Everyone knows the common bar doorman’s favorite one-liner come 2 a.m.: “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” That’ll happen around midnight at Street Scene, which leaves you with a pair of prime hours to scour the town.

Rock music, an extreme zone, roller coasters and pages on Facebook and MySpace. This year’s Feria de Tijuana, running through Sept. 20, is trying to attract a younger crowd, who had been somewhat forgotten in recent editions of this traditional annual event.

When Ricardo Arjona takes the stage at the San Diego Sports Arena on Saturday, he’ll be singing without a plan. He will tour the history he’s been writing in his records, playing his hits along the way, seeing where inspiration takes him.

When Street Scene was launched in 1984 on a single block of downtown’s then largely abandoned Gaslamp Quarter, no one realized it was the start of what has become an annual San Diego tradition.

I disagree with your advice to “Perplexed Mom in New York” (June 20), who is requiring her son to live at home his first semester of college because of “less than stellar” behavior during his senior year of high school.

Costa Brava is a coastal region of northeastern Catalonia, Spain, known for pleasant summers, good fishing and nice beaches. Brava means “rugged” or “wild” in Spanish, and while the Pacific Beach restaurant that takes its name from the region may be near the coast, it is the dining experience that can be best described as rugged or wild.

In addition to Wavves, there are four other San Diego/Tijuana bands performing at Street Scene.

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From your many years of advising people, what do you think are the main things that make a marriage happy and lasting?

There are two love stories, six actors and 18 songs in “I Love You Because,” the musical that opens North Coast Repertory Theatre’s new season next week. There are, however, exactly zero zombies.

I am a recent high school graduate who is starting college soon. I am blessed to be part of a great family. The problem is, my mother is good. She has always been kind and loving, but she insists on doing everything for me.

For all its pleasures, the restaurant at Del Cerro’s KnB Wine Cellars is like a delicious but half-assembled salad. It’s been tossed, but not dressed. We enjoyed the food from the limited-but-creative menu and loved the nearly-unlimited beverage choices.

“Casi divas” is a Mexican chick flick. But unlike these types of comedies made in Hollywood, this Mexican film goes beyond gender stereotypes and gives viewers a different view of Mexico, says one of its stars.

For the three Platt Brothers, performing at the Celebrate Dance Festival shouldn’t arouse much stage fright. A few weeks ago, the Platts brought their comedy-acrobatics-movement act to national television as quarter-finalists on “America’s Got Talent.”

If anyone looks as if he might be in the possession of a troubled soul, it’s the actor Paul Giamatti. With his doubting eyes and gently defeated posture, he tends to come across as a man carrying a burden, though one not necessarily or wholly of his making.

Patriotism. Femininity. Love. Fate. All will be played out in high heels, huge wigs and haute apparel during the Timken Museum of Art’s second annual “Art of Fashion” fundraiser Aug. 29, in Balboa Park.

Being in a rock band on the road is almost a continuation of childhood for the three Followill brothers in Kings of Leon. As boys, they often slept in the car as their Pentecostal preacher father took his family from town to town.

Following a six-year break between full lengths, alt rock veterans Third Eye Blind again walk a fine line between aggression and a deft pop sensibility on their latest, “Ursa Major.”

There’s enough to worry about on a first date without the stress of “where do we eat?” So we’ve got you covered. What kind of impression do you want to make? Being propped up on Moroccan pillows while indulging in North African foodstuff. Coastline views

I ended a relationship VERY badly. Essentially turned it into a yo-yo for three months while I was making up my mind. I’ve apologized but can’t seem to get past it in my own head. It’s not the kind of person I like to think of myself as, and I hate that someone is walking around with bad feelings toward me

“I’ve always been an arrogant SOB with overblown ideas of what I can and can’t do,” said Stewart Copeland, whose attributes clearly do not include a gift for understatement.

When summer arrives, the Joseph Bellows Gallery regularly finds a way to present an exhibition that embodies the season. Of course in the right hands, sea and shore are exceedingly photogenic — and gallery director Carol Lee Brosseau, who curated “Summer Selections,” is obviously aware of this.