It wasn’t actually Cinco de Mayo, but the signs were unmistakable: Norteño music, traditional dance performances, party games and the enticing aroma of Mexican food.

The children of Vista Soccer Club are making the calls on the field as part of the club’s Junior Referee program.

Sheriff’s Capt. Ed Prendergast has been promoted to the rank of commander after two years of service as the city’s chief of police. The popular 53-year-old will now head the Southeast Command, overseeing departments across the eastern half of the county as well as Imperial Beach.

Harry Potter went on trial April 24 for turning Draco Malfoy into a ferret; however, a jury of his peers deadlocked on whether the world’s most popular sorcerer was acting in self-defense.

Dozens of locals lined up to have their vintage treasures appraised at North County’s own version of the “Antiques Roadshow” held April 13 at the Gloria E. McClellan Senior Center.

The process of returning former farmlands to their natural state at the Buena Vista Creek Ecological Reserve continued April 12 as volunteers watered and weeded infant riparian willows.

How is making music like baking a cake? Nearly 200 parents and children attended the San Diego Symphony’s Cooking Up Music show April 12 at the Avo Theater to find out.

A 50-year-old man pleaded guilty April 10 in a San Diego Superior Court to striking a man with a steel pipe on a Halloween outing last year.

City Council confirmed the nine-member Project Area Committee, or PAC, at a supplemental meeting April 1.

The Vista Sheriff’s Department added 11 pint-sized sets of eyes and ears to its force at the 10th Junior Deputy Youth Academy Graduation ceremony held April 1 at the Boys & Girls Club of Vista.

The Vista Sheriff’s Department, from its bomb squad to the K-9 patrol, turned out in force to St. Francis Church on April 5. They didn’t come to respond to a call, but to participate in the community Safety Fair.

The 2007 Tobacco Retailer License Program report, prepared by Vista staffers, presents a sunny snapshot of the precipitous decline in tobacco sales to minors in the city, but the true situation may be more complicated.

Parents, teachers and sponsors cheered them on as 250 Vista High School students made several circuits around and through their campus. It was a first for the high school — a 5K run for academic funding.

For most people, the city is an invisible entity. It charges taxes, collects trash and puts on Christmas parades, but what really goes on behind the doors of City Hall? What is it that the hundreds of city workers do every day to make Vista what it is?

The women of Soroptimists International of Vista, a charity organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls around the world, gathered at the Shadowridge Country Club to donate $4,000 to 11 nonprofit charities March 21.