Imagine sipping wine on the eastern shores of the Napa River, buffeted by the river breeze as you watch birds fly across the sunset over a marshland expanse to the west.

The two candidates for the only seat going to the voters for the Napa Valley Unified School District board of trustees come from two very different backgrounds, but share the goal of closing the district’s achievement gap and working to improve the district as a whole.

On Nov. 7, California voters will decide on a raft of bond measures. State officials are seeking nearly 40 billion in bonds to pay for improved roads, schools, levees and more.

Defense attorneys took the lead in the murder trial of Napa dentist Michael Posey Tuesday, presenting a forensic scientist who countered the prosecution’s theory that Elizabeth Posey, 27, was shot by her husband on April 19, 1996, in the kitchen of Michael Posey’s Maplewood Avenue residence.

While local voters size up contested races for every office from U.S. Senate to Napa City Council, there are also three contested races for a local entity affecting the lives of thousands of North Bay residents: the Napa Valley College board of trustees.

SACRAMENTO — John Revelli had staked his retirement on his auto shop in downtown Oakland.

Napa County Supervisor Mark Luce is a noted county Republican, but he found himself in harsh territory Monday night when he agreed to debate Supervisor Bill Dodd over the merits of Measure I, the parks and open space initiative, at a meeting of the Napa County Republican Central Committee.

Ken Boyd sets the last piece of stained glass at the Historic County Courthouse on Sept. 9.

CHICO — In a state where water disputes often have played out like old Sunday morning Westerns, Kevin Taylor is one of those who tries to keep the peace.

HENDERSON, Ky. — A social worker who had taken a 10-month-old boy to his mother’s house for a visit was found beaten and stabbed to death, and the baby was apparently abducted, authorities said.

LOS ANGELES — They’ve been naturalized U.S. citizens for nearly 20 years, but Benny Diaz says he and his wife felt intimidated when they each received a letter over the weekend warning that some immigrants could be jailed or deported for voting next month.

HOUSTON — A federal judge Tuesday vacated the conviction of Enron’s late founder Kenneth Lay, wiping out a jury’s verdict that he committed fraud and conspiracy in one of the biggest corporate scandals in U.S. history.

LAS VEGAS  — Casino mogul Steve Wynn will keep and restore a Pablo Picasso painting that he accidentally damaged shortly after he had agreed to sell it for a record $139 million, an aide said Tuesday.

Page 76 of the sixth-grade U.S. textbook “An Introduction to Geography” tells us that the United Nations and the United States have teamed up to take control of the Amazon forest.

WASHINGTON — Video games, hated by parents and teachers as the enemy of learning, may be good for kids after all.