Erin Kinda learned her first lessons about community service at home.

The head of the Napa Valley Housing Authority publicly apologized Wednesday for dipping into a city fund to pay for over-budget expenses on the NVHA-led renovation of two Upvalley farmworker camps.

If the Napa River and its creeks threaten to overflow this winter, Tanesha Williams, a Vallejo mother with two young daughters, is ready to do her part.

More parking? Done.

Rabbi Eli Tenenbaum of the Chabad Jewish Center of Napa Valley leads Napa’s first ever public menorah-lighting ceremony celebrating Hanukkah.

CAMP PENDLETON — Marine Corps officials on Thursday charged eight Camp Pendleton Marines, including Capt. Lucas McConnell of Napa (far left in photo), in connection with the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in November 2005 and a subsequent cover-up.

NOGALES, Mexico — New President Felipe Calderon on Wednesday shook hands with migrants coming home for the holidays and promised to defend their rights in the United States.

WASHINGTON — Acknowledging deepening frustration over Iraq, President Bush said Wednesday he is considering an increase in American forces and warned that next year will bring more painful U.S. losses. New Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Baghdad that a troop surge was an obvious option.

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Wednesday signed into law the first major changes in postal operations in decades, offering hope for reducing or delaying future rate increases. For now, people will not notice anything different at the post office.

SUNRISE, Fla. — A teenager who had been unwilling to leave her home in Haiti after a football-sized tumor enveloped her face went on a public shopping spree Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO — Renowned photographer Ruth Bernhard, whose black-and-white images of compelling shapes from female nudes to seashells was regarded as still-life art, has died. She was 101.

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s plan to enlarge the Army and Marine Corps responds to pleas from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill, but finding more recruits will be expensive and challenging and have little immediate impact on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

HOOD RIVER, Ore. — With yet another snowstorm barreling in, search teams gave up any hope of finding two missing climbers alive on wind-whipped Mount Hood and abandoned the rescue effort Wednesday after nine frustrating days.

BEIJING — North Korea has refused to scrap its demand that the U.S. lift financial restrictions against the communist country, but talks resumed Thursday to resolve the broader issue of persuading the North to renounce its nuclear efforts.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Defense Secretary Robert Gates found American commanders wary of a proposal to rush more U.S. troops to Iraq as he visited the war-ravaged country Wednesday.

NEW YORK — ’Tis the season to be ... angry?

RICHMOND, Va — There were no jolly Christmas carols at the Cannon Memorial Chapel. No brilliant poinsettias or festive branches of holly. No smiling faces or hearty wishes of happiness.

WASHINGTON — President Bush endorsed one of the Democrats’ top priorities for the new Congress, a $2.10-an-hour minimum wage increase — and on a faster timetable than they have proposed.

CHESTER, England — As Christmas approaches, a virgin mother is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her offspring. She’s Flora, the Komodo dragon.