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Here’s a quick rundown of some of the best or most important news from voiceofsandiego.org in August for those of you that took vacation during any time in the last month:

Aug. 6 — Aug. 10

• A fascinating look at how the son of billionaire Ernest Rady stockpiled an illegal weapons cache in the wake of the invasion at his parents’ La Jolla home.
• An in-depth profile of school board President Luis Acle, which looks at his spotty campaign finance record and his frequent absence from the district he represents.

Aug. 13 — Aug. 17

• Using videos obtained from a former Minuteman, Will Carless detailed the destruction of a migrant workers’ camp by individuals that have been served search warrants in a police investigation into a similar attack months later.
• A peek at downtown’s stalled facelift.

Aug. 20 — Aug. 24

• This piece, based on internal e-mails that revealed that a key building inspector at the city of San Diego had objected to allowing further construction on the Sunroad building, led to the dismissal of a top administration official, Marcela Escobar-Eck.
• Ground Zero in San Diego’s mortgage mess is Little Lake Street in Chula Vista, where foreclosures are a constant neighbor. (This story came with two great interactive features, a searchable database that breaks down foreclosures by ZIP codes and an interactive neighborhood map with details of each home.)

Aug. 27 — Aug. 31

• Kelly Bennett‘s look at the city of Chula Vista’s bleak financial outlook at the hands of the slumping real estate market and the decreasing revenue growth that comes with it. Just last year, city officials had boasted of snagging workers from struggling city of San Diego with the promise of a more robust financial foundation.

We also had three in-depth pieces on campaign finances:

• Rob Davis detailed county Supervisor Pam Slater-Price’s unusual campaign support from the nonprofit world, and the supervisor’s giving of grants to many of the same supporters.
• This piece from Evan McLaughlin chronicled a campaign fund tied to Mayor Jerry Sanders that continued to raise money months after the November 2006 election for an unknown cause, and took money from many individuals or entities that had business before City Hall.
• And this story from McLaughlin looked at City Attorney Mike Aguirre’s controversial fundraising efforts to pay back the $565,000 loan he made to his 2004 campaign.

If you were out, I also recommend scrolling through the Education and Environment sections for a number of good August stories.

— ANDREW DONOHUE