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

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.

Boosted by big crowds for Smash Mouth, the Charlie Daniels Band and the Destruction Derby, paid attendance at the Napa Town and Country Fair was up 3.4 percent, fair officials reported.

Napa will continue to freeze most housing developments near Big Ranch Road until a comprehensive plan for financing road improvements in the area is approved.

Napa's decision last summer to let a limited number of apartments apply for condo conversion is becoming far more complicated than city officials could have imagined.

Caltrans and the Union Pacific railroad are unhappy with the city of American Canyon's tentative approval of a new retail center along Highway 29.

Road work and

Road resurfacing

School district checking on misuse of funds

A traffic collision at the intersection of Highway 29 and Trower Avenue took the life of a 17-year-old Napa boy Friday night.

When Josephine Rodriguez woke up for a drink of water early Friday morning, she thought that the bright orange light outside her window came from a nearby delivery truck. A whiff of smoke told her that the lights were actually coming from flames that were destroying the storage building next to her Clay Street home.

You might want to get camera ready before you run your errands around town; you might get captured on the silver screen.

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.

SAN DIEGO -- With immigration reform legislation stalled indefinitely, the congressional hearings on the issue that attracted overflow crowds around the Fourth of July have now fizzled with disinterest leading into Labor Day.

HAYWARD -- A 22-year-old man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the killing of transgender teen Gwen Araujo was sentenced to 11 years in prison Friday, bringing an end to the closely watched case.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Even after his shins were bruised from kicking, his scalp bloodied from getting slammed against a door and his neck splotched with fingerprint-shaped bruises, Patrick Letellier heard from friends that the injuries inflicted by his lover were nothing more than rough "sex play."

SEATTLE -- A young minke whale beached itself and died after several days wandering around south Puget Sound -- an unusual detour for the deep-water species. Scientists were trying Friday to figure out what the whale was doing in Puget Sound and why it died.

HOUSTON -- A stick of dynamite was found in a college student's checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight from Argentina, one of seven security incidents Friday that caused U.S. flights to be diverted, evacuated or searched.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA officials decided Saturday to delay the launch of space shuttle Atlantis by 24 hours to give engineers more time to determine whether one of the most powerful lightning strikes ever at a Kennedy Space Center launch pad caused any problems.

DETROIT ‹ Bob Seger turned the page, and Metallica finally found justice for online fans. Now, only a few remaining big-name musical acts refuse to make their songs available on Apple Computer's popular iTunes Music Store.

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.

NEW YORK ‹ Sporting a sunburn and blisters on his fingers, Boy George wrapped up his court-ordered community service -- sweeping the streets for the sanitation department.

LOS ANGELES ‹ Actor Hugh O'Brian, a newlywed at age 81, finds himself philosophical about marriage, so much so that he and his bride spent their honeymoon studying philosophy at England's Oxford University.

WASHINGTON -- Sandra Senda wanted a free private tutor for her kids, just like the No Child Left Behind law promised. She had no idea the deal came with a big headache.

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.

Wine's most compatible companion is cheese.

NEW YORK -- Nothing against Allison Janney. I love Allison Janney. As C.J. Cregg on "The West Wing," she was the cat's meow. What's more, I bow to no one in my admiration for "The West Wing," concluding its seven-season term as one of TV's best-ever series.

MADDEN, Miss. -- Once again, Jerry Rice sees his route. And the NFL receiving great hopes this one will play a part in his life after football.

* Bob Dylan, "Modern Times" (Columbia) -- The title "Modern Times" is as much of a joke of any on this album, but the most elaborate one. Bob Dylan has made it his mission to keep alive musical styles that are anything but modern and, at age 65, writes as much for his peers as anyone in his generation of pop music.

NEW YORK -- While many of his television brethren have been more wary of YouTube and the Web, Stephen Colbert is urging his fans to make him a viral-video star.

Capsule reviews of films that opened this week:

WASHINGTON -- Two soft drink makers have stopped using ingredients that can form cancer-causing benzene, according to a proposed lawsuit settlement.

As you enter the world famous Napa Valley wine country from the south, you'll be greeted by an old-time diner. At the almost half-century old HWY 29 Cafe there is no wine list and no boutique olive oil for dipping artisan bread in before noshing upscale cuisine. And serving up the hearty food are waitresses -- not food servers and runners.

NEW YORK -- The doomed, dame-loving, fast-talking gumshoe has never seen such sunny days.

LOS ANGELES -- The force of Hurricane Katrina will be felt once again on television, with a rush of newscasts and specials about the Gulf Coast disaster that claimed more than 1,300 lives a year ago.

WASHINGTON -- The government's anti-drug ad campaign has not been proven to deter children from using drugs, and lawmakers should consider reducing funding for the $1.2 billion program, congressional auditors said Friday.

WASHINGTON -- Coca-Cola Co. was sued as part of an effort to force soft drink makers to eliminate ingredients that can form cancer-causing benzene.

TODAY

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

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.

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.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Watch your back in South Africa. They kill folks here. Murder them at a bewildering rate.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- One hot summer day in 2002, as the Biscuit fire was roaring through the Siskiyou National Forest, Steve Karkanen and the Lolo Hotshots were trying to keep it from jumping the line at Bear Camp Ridge.

WASHINGTON -- A sergeant who examined the scene hours after Marines killed two dozen Iraqis in Haditha last year said the shootings appeared to be an appropriate response to a coordinated insurgent attack, according to a sworn statement obtained by The Washington Post.

STRASSHOF, Austria -- It was just another order by the man who had enslaved her for eight years, this time to vacuum his car. But Natascha Kampusch glimpsed a tiny window of opportunity -- then bolted to freedom while her abductor was busy with a cell phone call.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Accusing Congress of abdicating its responsibility to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, the governors of Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona urged federal lawmakers Friday to pass comprehensive immigration reform before the end of the year.

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Some 150 French army engineers landed Friday at Naqoura in southern Lebanon, and expectations rose that thousands more would follow quickly after European nations answered the U.N. appeal for a major contribution to an expanded international force.

AMARAH, Iraq -- Iraqis looted a military base vacated by British troops and stripped it of virtually everything removable on Friday, an indication of possible future trouble for U.S.-led coalition forces hoping to hand over security gradually to the Iraqi government.

KAMPALA, Uganda -- The Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels agreed Saturday to a truce aimed at bringing an end to a brutal 19-year conflict that has left thousands dead, officials said.

N'DJAMENA, Chad -- Chad's president on Saturday ordered oil companies Chevron Corp. and Petronas to leave the country, saying neither has paid taxes and his country will take responsibility for the oil fields they have overseen.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli aircraft fired two missiles early Sunday at an armored car belonging to the Reuters news agency, wounding five people, including two cameramen, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said.

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Tropical Storm Ernesto gathered strength as it steamed through the central Caribbean toward Jamaica on Saturday and threatened to enter the Gulf of Mexico as the first hurricane of the 2006 Atlantic season.