Area wildfires mostly contained CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune Northern California firefighters Brian Oliveros (left) and Tim Valadez looked for hot spots from the Juliet fire as they walked along a large firebreak yesterday between the Wilmont Ranch housing development and Camp Pendleton. The fire, which burned about 4,000 acres, started Monday. The cause of the blaze is under investigation. Click for larger image

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NEW YORK – The euphoria that swept Wall Street on Monday gave way to a sober reality yesterday: a recession, perhaps the deepest one in decades, may be unavoidable. A day after the stock market staged one of its biggest rallies in history, buoyed by the government's plan to rescue banks, investors retreated once again.

City officials overseeing rubble removal from homes destroyed in last October's wildfires were alerted within weeks to overcharges, questionable quantities of debris and conflicts in records documenting what two city-hired companies hauled from the lots. E-mails among those in charge of the project show they attempted to correct some problems, but invoices indicate they didn't always follow through.

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of “waterboarding” and other interrogation techniques against al-Qaeda suspects – documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.

2008 VOTE: PRESIDENT

BLUE BELL, Pa. – Sen. John McCain proposed $52 billion in tax breaks yesterday that aim to encourage savings and provide relief to seniors and the unemployed, ensuring that both presidential candidates will head into their final debate tonight armed with fresh plans to ease middle-class burdens.

The currency changes once you get there. So does the language, similar as it's supposed to be. Why, blimey, even the clichés are different. Instead of taking things “one game at a time” – in keeping with the mantra of Norv Turner and virtually every other head coach in the history of American sport – the Chargers are being forced by the NFL's global-outreach program to expand their own focus over the next 10 days.

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