Trinity Grammar and Prep student Angelica Figueroa, 11, smiles as dancers swirl around her during a dress rehearsal for “Ceilidh,” an evening of Irish and Scottish entertainment to take place Saturday at Silverado Country Club. The evening of music and dancing, also featuring the Wild Rose Band, the Santa Rosa Scottish Dancers and others, benefits Trinity. Lianne Milton/Register

Despite a slow start, Napa's one-stop federal flood assistance center is now the busiest of all the centers set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency following California's New Year's Eve floods.

Lou Jefferson -- a writer, musician, former aide to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and longtime Yountville Town Council member -- died of lung cancer at Napa's Queen of the Valley Hospital on March 4. He was 78.

A lot of Angwin residents are hoping someone will burst their bubble.

The owners of a former Napa nursing home pleaded no contest to criminal charges of neglect Thursday, capping a year-long criminal prosecution a day after company officials agreed to settle a multi-million dollar civil suit filed by the state Attorney General.

As Napa BMX racers are finding out, flood control taketh and flood control giveth.

WASHINGTON -- Bowing to ferocious opposition in Congress, a Dubai-owned company signaled surrender Thursday in its quest to take over operations at U.S. ports.

WASHINGTON -- A day before parts of the US Patriot Act were to expire, President Bush signed into law a renewal that will allow the government to keep using terror-fighting tools passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

WASHINGTON -- Dealing with a civil war in Iraq would be the responsibility of Iraq's own security forces, at least initially, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress on Thursday.

LOS ANGELES -- A bad guy in a bad 1980s Mexican movie is surrounded by rival thugs who hold a gun to his head.

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders on Thursday scrambled to try to put together a massive public works bond deal in time to make the June ballot.

SABLE-SUR-SARTHE, France -- A former teacher armed with a handgun that fires rubber bullets surrendered peacefully Thursday after taking nearly two dozen people -- mostly students -- hostage in a classroom at his former school in western France, officials said.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S. military said Thursday it would begin moving thousands of prisoners out of Abu Ghraib prison to a new lockup near Baghdad's airport within three months and hand the notorious facility over to Iraqi authorities as soon as possible.