Pirates and deckhands filled the Napa High lecture hall Wednesday morning. Each deckhand hoped to learn from the experience and knowledge of the pirates.

The county has been preparing for the likelihood of a pandemic flu before perhaps $125,000 in state funding comes down the pike to aid it.

The city of Napa is going to start its own radio station, but don't expect to hear oldies hits or hip-hop artists.

As a young child Marguerite Rice, 101, spent her Sundays reading Bible stories and spending time with her family at a special place they called the "Sunday Tree," up the hill from their 26-acre prune ranch on Larkin Way.

Napa County Sheriff's deputies recovered the body of Victor Seminario, 49, of Concord, from Lake Berryessa Saturday evening. Seminario drowned at the lake on Aug. 11, in an area of the lake known as The Narrows.

Road paving on residential streets

A single vehicle crash Monday morning on Silverado Trail killed a Napa resident and seriously injured his passenger.

Napa County is moving quickly to purchase the newly built South Napa Homeless Shelter, exercising its option on the brand new $4.56 million facility nearly a year earlier than expected.

A Napa County jail inmate was found hanged in his cell Monday, according to the Napa County Sheriff's Department.

One of Napa County's historic vineyards will remain agricultural forever.

A teen who claims he is the victim of sexual abuse by a Napa High School teacher testified Wednesday, offering details of incidents and undergoing scrutiny of his motives in reporting the allegations.

Three people, including a couple from Hawaii, were injured Tuesday in a crash south of Napa on Highway 29, according to the California Highway Patrol.

A multi-million dollar piece of the puzzle for Napa's flood control project fell into place this week.

The military is in Gary de Wet's blood.

Harvest 2006 has begun in the Napa Valley. Mumm Napa workers harvested about 18 tons of pinot noir Wednesday from a vineyard off Trubody Lane, between Napa and Yountville, hauling the harvest to the winery on Silverado Trail in Rutherford.

WASHINGTON -- A U.S.-backed diplomatic pact to end more than a month of war between Israel and Islamic militants in Lebanon may stop the worst of the killing and retire the daily television images of burning buildings and suffocated children.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Sunny Dawson ran two miles every other day when she started her freshman year at the University of Southern California. But the lure of the cafeteria near her dorm became too much to resist.

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. -- Tokens of Christianity, including crosses and religious mottos, are found in schools and government buildings all over Harrison County. The amenities in a women's bathroom at the Board of Education offices even include a leather-bound pocket copy of "New Testament: Psalms Proverbs."

ABOARD THAI AIRWAYS TO LOS ANGELES -- John Mark Karr, the suspect in the death of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, sipped champagne and ate fried king prawns in business class Sunday after being put aboard a flight to Los Angeles to face charges in the United States.

LOS ANGELES -- National anti-illegal immigration groups and disgruntled businesses are taking the fight against undocumented workers to California courts.

WASHINGTON -- The Marine Corps will soon begin ordering thousands of its troops back to active duty because of a shortage of volunteers for Iraq and Afghanistan -- the first involuntary recall since the early days of the war.

WASHINGTON -- Traffic deaths last year reached the highest level since 1990, propelled by an increase in motorcycle and pedestrian fatalities. And the overall fatality rate was up for the first time in 20 years.

WASHINGTON -- The IRS warned taxpayers Wednesday not to be duped by scammers posing as private debt collectors the agency has hired to chase unpaid tax debts.

Group charges sidewalks unfit for disabled

SACRAMENTO -- Debate over a bill that would let registered domestic partners file joint state tax returns devolved into a shouting match Wednesday as Assembly members accused each other of intolerance and one Republican said his gay colleagues live a deviant lifestyle.

WASHINGTON -- Gulf Coast nursing homes that evacuated patients as a result of hurricanes experienced a range of problems, including transportation agreements that fell through, long trips and a lack of food, water and medicine, a report released Friday says.

The end of the world can so often seem imminent that the topic hardly promises to provide an enjoyable evening of entertainment, let alone comedy.

The list of band members and the instruments they play was the first hint of the rich and amazing diversity in store for the audience who came Friday to the performance of Inti-Illimani at the Opera House.

TODAY

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

DALLAS ‹ Dell Inc. has quietly pulled the plug on its DJ Ditty music players, less than a year after the world's largest computer maker launched the device to compete with Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod Shuffle.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Attorneys for a woman who claims the menopause drug Prempro caused her breast cancer said Wednesday the company ignored the medication's dangers like an ostrich sticking its head in sand.

TODAY

LOS ANGELES ‹ While the messy divorce between Tom Cruise and Paramount Pictures probably won't put a big dent in Cruise's career, industry insiders say, it still points to a sea change in a company town that tolerated celebrity misdeeds as long as they didn't hurt the bottom line.

DUBLIN -- Smokers, beware: This bedroom community near San Francisco may soon put you in the same category as rodents, junk cars, vicious dogs and weeds.

NEW YORK -- In an innovative move, a California biotech company has found a new way of making stem cells without destroying embryos, touting it as a way to defuse one of the country's fiercest political and ethical debates.

LOS ANGELES -- John Mark Karr's relatives offered up the book and film rights to the family's story Wednesday in hopes of raising money for a high-powered attorney to defend Karr against charges that he killed 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey.

SACRAMENTO -- Compromise over a bill that would make California the first state to cap industrial emissions of greenhouse gases remained elusive Wednesday as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative Democrats clashed over how businesses could meet the requirement.

LOS ANGELES -- In opening arguments of a federal racketeering trial, prosecutors described the Vineland Boys street gang Wednesday as a sophisticated drug syndicate with connections across the U.S. and Mexico that terrorized and killed those who got in the way of business.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Afghan and NATO troops used rockets, planes and artillery in rolling battles with Taliban insurgents this weekend in Afghanistan's volatile south, leaving 71 militants and five Afghan soldiers dead in one of the bloodiest clashes since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. A British soldier was killed in a separate attack.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Snipers lurking on buildings and in a cemetery sprayed bullets into Shiite Muslim religious processions in the capital Sunday, killing at least 20 people in another spasm of sectarian bloodletting that many Iraqis fear is pushing them toward civil war.

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that countries that don't have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state should not participate in the international peacekeeping force that will police a truce along the Lebanese border, his office said.

SCISLOWSKA, Associated Press Writer

SUKHA BALKA, Ukraine -- A Russian passenger jet crashed during a thunderstorm just minutes after sending a distress signal on Tuesday, killing all 170 people on board, including dozens of children.

BERLIN -- A Lebanese student suspected of planting a train bomb that failed to explode had contacts in Hamburg, authorities said Tuesday, the latest link to the northern port city where three of the Sept. 11 suicide pilots prepared for their attacks.