Firefighters spend Christmas Day giving presents to Napa children
By BIANCA P. GALLEGOS
Improved Web site connects needy with community service options
A service to help bickering ex-spouses may find a use helping the needy who've never been to divorce court.
Winery weddings still limited in Napa Valley
On Oct. 25, Napa County supervisors unanimously voted against the expansion of winery weddings. However, recent events have kept the debate on these weddings alive.
AmCan businesses say unlit traffic signal is hurting business
A new traffic signal just east of the intersection of American Canyon Road and Highway 29 has been sitting dormant while tempers flare at local businesses.
Federal employees rack up credit-card charges for Katrina relief
WASHINGTON -- Federal employees helping Katrina victims charged more than $39 million on government credit cards for disaster relief items. Congressional investigators want to make sure the taxpayers got a good deal.
Troubled Boys Choir of Harlem faces eviction by city
NEW YORK -- The world-renown Boys Choir of Harlem, struggling under millions of dollars of debts and allegations that its founder ignored reports of sexual abuse, is being evicted by the city.
Hundreds attend "illicit" Mass by excommunicated priest in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS -- At least 1,500 people attended Christmas Eve Mass presided by an excommunicated Roman Catholic priest, despite warnings from the archbishop that participating would be a mortal sin.
Federal research chief says drug makers don't have incentive for AIDS vaccine
WASHINGTON -- In an unusually candid admission, the federal chief of AIDS research says he believes drug companies don't have an incentive to create a vaccine for the HIV and are likely to wait to profit from it after the government develops one.
Rice's star rising even as public sours on Bush, Iraq war
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has become the most popular member of the Bush administration and a potential candidate to succeed her boss in the White House, even as Americans lose confidence in the president she serves and patience with the Iraq war she helped launch.
Christmas in New Orleans: 'My house is gone but I'm still home'
NEW ORLEANS -- The congregation of First Emmanuel Baptist Church drove from Baton Rouge, Houston and other points far and wide on Christmas, then walked past collapsed buildings and piles of storm wreckage to worship in their old church for the first time since Hurricane Katrina.
U.S. says no handover of prisons to Iraqis until higher standards of care seen
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S. military will not hand over jails or individual detainees to Iraqi authorities until they demonstrate higher standards of care, an American official said Sunday, two weeks after the discovery of 120 abused Iraqi prisoners.
Express train derails in northern Japan, kills at least two
TOKYO-- An express train traveling through strong winter winds derailed in northern Japan on Sunday, killing at least two people, injuring more than two dozen and leaving several trapped in the wreckage, officials said.
