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

Napa County Sheriff's explorer program

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.

A bill sitting on Gov. Schwarzenegger's desk could help Napa County grapple with state requirements to provide more affordable housing, but local officials say it doesn't go far enough.

Napa County Sheriff's deputies have released the name of the Napa teenager who died following an vehicle crash Friday evening.

Jeremy Dewet had just barely acquired a bike when the BMX racetrack behind Napa Valley College shut down three years ago to make way for Napa's Flood Control Project. The 11-year-old never got the chance to race his new bike, but things are about to change for Dewet and hundreds of his fellow BMXers.

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.

The human papillomavirus, or HPV, is a common infection -- with dozens of different types that cause everything from harmless warts on the skin to genital warts and cervical cancer. With federal estimates that more than 6 million Americans get a new infection of HPV each year, many medical professionals consider the new vaccine a significant breakthrough.

GRIFFITH, Ind. -- What they thought would be a routine physical for her volleyball team found 14-year-old Amanda Zaborowski and her mom facing a big question: Did they want Amanda to get a new vaccine that would protect her against the common and serious sexually transmitted disease HPV, or human papillomavirus?

CAMP PENDLETON Pretrial hearings for two Marines accused of kidnapping and murder have been delayed, a military official said Saturday.

ENCINITAS -- On a sandy bluff overlooking the Pacific, surfer Mark Massara sees a developing threat to a California amenity: guaranteed beach access for average families.

NEW YORK -- In a city of 8 million people, someone's always saying something strange. And, odds are, someone is around to hear it.

AMES, Iowa -- Now that ethanol has become common in gas tanks, two Iowa State University professors are working to get it into martini glasses.

NEW ORLEANS -- Bari Landry sees signs of life all around her in Lakeview, a neighborhood that was flooded by Hurricane Katrina a year ago. However, Lakeview also still is crowded with signs of the disaster: deserted houses, windows and doors standing wide open, and roof-high weeds.

KEY WEST, Fla. -- A hurricane watch was issued Sunday for the Florida Keys and Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a state of emergency in anticipation of Tropical Storm Ernesto.

BEIRUT, Lebanon-- Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview aired Sunday that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Comair Flight 5191 was on a runway too short for its size and weight in the seconds before it crashed early Sunday and burst into flames, killing 49 people and leaving the lone survivor -- a co-pilot -- in critical condition, federal investigators said.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The chances that the space shuttle Atlantis would be launched into orbit this week diminished by the hour Sunday as NASA prepared for Tropical Storm Ernesto and the possibility of moving the spacecraft into shelter.

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.

Books about the environment are rarely popular as beach reads or commuter reads, or as fodder for Hollywood blockbusters.

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.

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.

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.

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran tested a new anti-ship missile fired by a submarine during war games Sunday, raising worries it could disrupt vital oil tanker traffic in the Gulf amid its standoff with the West over its suspect nuclear activities.