Despite neighborhood concerns about the pace of growth, residential construction in Napa last year fell far short of any records, city officials reported this week.

Having received the City Council’s stamp of approval, City Manager Mike Parness can complete his shakeup of top city staff to solve problems in the finance and community development departments.

Local officials said they are making progress toward solving the $1.4 million deficit of the City of Napa Housing Authority but didn’t offer specifics during the authority’s Tuesday meeting.

Larry Wallace has helped a lot of boys gain their footing in the wild.

ST. LOUIS — Monsanto Co. announced a partnership Wednesday with one of its rivals to develop new soybean products that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids.

WASHINGTON — The House Wednesday approved by a 422-0 vote legislation named for the late Georgia Rep. Charlie Norwood, that organ donor groups say could lead to many more kidney transplants each year.

WASHINGTON — New technologies to straighten crooked spines while letting them grow may one day help children bypass those hated back braces.

PHILADELPHIA — An unknown number of new George Washington dollar coins were mistakenly struck without their edge inscriptions, including “In God We Trust,” and are fetching around $50 apiece online.

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday he was not aware he had invested in two companies backed by some of his top donors and said he had done nothing to aid their business with the government.

WASHINGTON — Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton called Tuesday for the majority of voters — women — to help her break the nation’s highest glass ceiling by electing her the first female president.

ATLANTA  — When Ed Nabors discovered that he had won half of the largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, he sat stunned in his rig until a dispatcher radioed wondering what was going on.

MIAMI — A sex offender was found guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and raping a 9-year-old girl and burying her alive in a case that led to a crackdown around the country on people convicted of sex crimes.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Dozens of young children were stranded at schools and with baby sitters after their parents were rounded up by federal authorities who raided a leather goods maker suspected of hiring illegal immigrants, authorities said Wednesday.

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Landless farmers invaded a mine, a bank and other corporate property in Brazil on Wednesday to protest the impact of big companies on the poor and President Bush’s visit to Latin America’s largest nation.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A top Taliban commander said Wednesday the group has 4,000 fighters bracing to rebuff NATO’s largest-ever offensive in southern Afghanistan, now in its second day.

KINSHASA, Congo — The head of Congo’s atomic energy commission has been arrested on suspicion of illegally selling uranium found in the Central African mineral giant, officials said Wednesday.

Springing forward in the computer age just got more complicated.