REED SAXON / Associated Press Several homes on Conejo Lane in Santa Barbara were flattened by a major wildfire that started Thursday evening.

SANTA BARBARA – Firefighters were holding their own last night against a wildfire that destroyed more than 100 homes in a wealthy, celebrity-studded enclave, but authorities warned wind gusts later in the night could send the blaze on another destructive sprint. Much of the damage to homes, a monastery and a small Christian college occurred Thursday night, but several more homes burned yesterday in Montecito.

Trevor Hoffman liked how it worked out for Tony Gwynn, a Padres icon and San Diegophile who ended his career with the club and has remained a Padres ambassador. “I looked at how Tony Gwynn is viewed in this city – pretty special,” baseball's all-time saves leader said yesterday in his first public remarks since the Padres withdrew a one-year offer to him Monday. “It would have been nice.”

WASHINGTON – The worst monthly drop on record for retail sales set off new alarm bells about the economy yesterday, stepping up pressure on policymakers to figure out how to combat what increasingly looks to be a severe recession.

As the world now knows, last week's passage of Proposition 8 did little to end the roiling debate over whether gays and lesbians should have the right to marry. In fact, California's vote to ban same-sex marriage – the second in eight years – has only further divided the two sides by igniting a wave of protests and boycotts among supporters of such unions.

County officials have called off the auction of an extensive model-train collection that had been set for today after a story in The San Diego Union-Tribune  prompted family members to step forward.