Fourteen-year-old Anthony Ferrario is taking an airplane to Germany next summer.

Local businesses are saying Napans don't mind "happy holidays."

Napa County is losing a hero.

Editor's note: When the holidays come around, many of us go out of our way to help others in need. But some dedicated Napa County residents go to extraordinary lengths to help others year-round. This series of articles tells some of their stories.

New Medicare counseling at Queen of the Valley

Six people, four of them juveniles, are in custody in connection with a rash of home burglaries in Napa, American Canyon and Vallejo.

WASHINGTON -- More people than ever are turning their cars into personal phone booths, with a million and a half drivers gabbing on cell phones at any given time. Women and young people are the most common yakkers.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A blast of freezing rain across Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday closed schools, snarled traffic and caused power outages to more than 450,000 customers. At least one death was blamed on the storm when an ice-laden tree crashed through a man's house.

LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON -- About one in 20 adults in the United States is not literate in English, meaning 11 million people lack the skills to handle many everyday tasks, a federal study shows.

SAN FRANCISCO -- It might just take a Christmas miracle to deck out these spindly branches with ornaments or arrange a pile of gifts around their slender, bare trunks, but they've all been snatched up, and it's hard to argue with success.

WASHINGTON -- One week after the 64th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Pentagon announced on Thursday that the remains of a Navy sailor missing in action from the historic attack have been identified by forensic experts and will be returned to his family for burial.

WINDSOR -- The man killed when his small plane crashed near Rio Vista was a veteran commercial airline pilot from Windsor, the Solano County coroner's office said Thursday.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Millions of Iraqis, from tribal sheiks to entire families with children in tow, turned out Thursday to choose a parliament in a mostly peaceful election -- among the freest ever in the Arab world.