When Dr. Victoria Mukerji applied for the highly competitive Fulbright Scholarship nine months ago, she hardly told a soul because she was so sure she wasn't going to win. Mukerji said she has dreamed of getting a Fulbright scholarship since she was a little girl, and the news that she had been chosen took her by surprise.

Jokes about doctors' illegible handwriting are gathering dust as a growing number of doctors' offices go paperless. Even hand-scribbled prescription forms are becoming relics.

Last week county officials approved a request to allow the Suscol Creek Winery in an industrial zone near the Napa County Airport, and that re-ignited a long-held concern of Napa County Planning Commissioner Terry Scott.

Napa promised faster service when it boosted building fees and created the Community Development Department three years ago.

"The Moving Wall" replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C., remains at the Veterans Home of California in Yountville through mid-Saturday.

Cathy Harrington is flying to Napa on Mother's Day from her home in Michigan.

The Aluminum Overcast, a restored World War II B-17 bomber, is scheduled to land at the Napa Valley Airport for a three day stay starting today.

It has been 10 years since 19-year-old Kristin Smart disappeared. Smart, the daughter of then Vintage High School principal Stan Smart and now Napa Valley Unified School director of student services, was a freshman at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo when she vanished.

Until the untimely death of a friend two years ago, St. Helena High School student Chris Dufault seemed caught in a spiral of insurmountable problems -- including forays into drugs and more than his share of trouble in school and out.

Crackle, crackle. Kur-thud.

WASHINGTON -- CIA director-nominee Michael Hayden has told at least one Democratic senator that he may be open to changing the law that governs eavesdropping on U.S. soil to allow the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance.

LOS ANGELES -- Juana Elba Benitez is studying for the U.S. citizenship test she failed eight years ago -- a test the 75-year-old native of El Salvador swore she'd never take again.

FRESNO -- California has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation after the cost of living is taken into account, according to a survey released Thursday by the Public Policy Institute of California.

WASHINGTON -- In an expanding call for answers, Republicans have joined Democrats in asking the Education Department why the test scores of many minority students are not being counted as promised under the No Child Left Behind law.

Cody's to close Telegraph Avenue store

WASHINGTON -- The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.

Catholic Men's Conference

SAN FRANCISCO -- The top Democrats in the governor's race, state Treasurer Phil Angelides and state Controller Steve Westly, went on the attack Wednesday night in their last debate before the June 6 primary.