San Diego ordered to remove cross or pay $5,000 a day
May 5, 2006

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- After a 17-year legal battle between the city and a self-described atheist, a judge has ordered San Diego officials to remove a giant cross from a hilltop park or start paying $5,000 a day in fines.

Defying the order is something that cash-strapped San Diego can ill afford. Its pension fund is more than $1 billion in debt, the federal government is investigating, and there's been talk of bankruptcy.

Still, Mayor Jerry Sanders said he would ask the city attorney to appeal. the rest