Coats for Kids kicks off

For politics watchers, the most compelling question regarding Tuesday's Napa City Council election boils down to this: Will Harry Martin survive this year's challenge?

They won't be popping popcorn anytime soon at a proposed 14-screen movie theater in south Napa.

The Napa County Elections Department is inviting the public to watch processing and counting of absentee ballots for the Nov. 7 election at the Napa County Elections Department, 900 Coombs St. Room 256 in Napa. The ballots -- those received before Sunday at 4:30 p.m. -- will begin to be counted at 9 a.m. on Monday. On Tuesday, more counting will begin at 9 a.m.

A wall has literally come between the two sides in a dispute over the potential noise at a community pool proposed for Logvy Park in Calistoga.

GILROY -- South of San Jose, Santa Clara County stretches into its past, the state's third largest metropolis giving way to suburbs surrounded by vineyards, crops and pastureland.

A business-oriented group has entered the Napa City Council election at the last minute to promote the candidacies of Juliana Inman and Peter Mott.

Register Staff Writer

Is it legal to tax voters for parks and open space without the consent of a two-thirds majority of voters?

When Steve Keisling was a fifth-grader at West Park Elementary School in west Napa, he served as a sergeant of the school's traffic patrol. Since growing up, Keisling has traded his days of watching over his fellow students for watching over a platoon of Marines stationed in Iraq, as 1st lieutenant of India Company, 3rd Platoon.

At Napa Valley College, the elections have become homework.

EL CERRITO -- A naked man was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon after telling police he had a screwdriver in his buttocks.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The Rev. Ted Haggard said Friday he bought methamphetamine and received a massage from a male prostitute. But the influential Christian evangelist insisted he threw the drugs away and never had sex with the man.

WASHINGTON -- Katharine Jefferts Schori took office Saturday as the first female leader of The Episcopal Church and the first woman priest to head an Anglican province, two landmarks that could quickly be overshadowed by divisions over the Bible and sexuality throughout world Anglicanism.

November is our last chance to clean up the garden and plant bulbs before the winter rains. Some weeds may have germinated already and are easy to pull now; get them out before they put down sturdy roots.

TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO -- A decade ago, California voters were the nation's first to approve medical marijuana, and 10 other states have since followed suit. But the future of the landmark California statute is no clearer now than when voters headed to the polls on Nov. 5, 1996.

SACRAMENTO -- Democratic candidates held leads heading into the last week of the races for attorney general, state treasurer, controller and secretary of state, according to a Field Poll released Friday.

SAN FRANCISCO -- John Mark Karr, a one-time suspect in the death of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, allegedly talked with an informant about his fantasies of having sex with young girls, according to Sonoma County Sheriff's Department documents.

AMMAN, Jordan -- The trial of Saddam Hussein was intended to heal a fractured Iraq: exposing the crimes of his regime in a court of law, so Iraqis could come to terms with their past and move forward -- united as a people.

GENEVA -- Heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2005 and are still increasing, the U.N. weather agency said Friday.

GENEVA -- Nearly 100,000 Iraqis are fleeing each month to Syria and Jordan, forcing the United Nations to set aside its goal of helping refugees return home after the U.S.-led invasion, officials said Friday.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. and Iraqi forces drastically tightened security across Baghdad on Friday in advance of Sunday's expected guilty verdict against Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqi prime minister said he hoped the ousted dictator will "get what he deserves."

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli troops pressing ahead with a Gaza border town offensive killed seven Hamas militants and a girl Saturday as negotiators reported progress on forming a Palestinian government they hoped would thaw a freeze on international aid.

WERNIGERODE, Germany -- Folker Heinicke always had the feeling that something about his upbringing just wasn't right.