If it wasn’t for arts, Kristina McDonald said, she wouldn’t make it through high school.

Napa mayor Jill Techel reads to a class of second- and third-graders at Pueblo Vista Elementary during the school’s second annual Read-A-Thon.

County officials are set to unveil a plan to anticipate growth in the jail population on Tuesday, but the governor’s proposal to send some of the county’s prison inmates back to Napa could make planning for the jail’s future a harder prospect.

LOS ANGELES — Churches in a handful of U.S. cities are preparing to launch a “sanctuary” movement to help illegal immigrants stave off deportation, hoping to unite faith-based groups in a push for immigration reform.

Last week’s protest, and Thursday’s forum, at Vintage High School in Napa signaled an increased level of debate about the future of schools.

A St. Helena man complained of pain after the Saturn he was driving was rear-ended by a big rig on Wednesday morning.

Putting the baseball needs of kids above the noise concerns of neighbors, Napa’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission endorsed a half-finished Little League batting cage at Garfield Park.

John Robert Reno didn’t go to jail thirsty.

The Napa Chamber of Commerce is warning business owners to be on the lookout for a scam circulating in the city.

A March 15 page one story about a local TV show, “Aqui Entre Nos,” included the incorrect channel. The show appears on Channel 27.

When police dispatchers received a call late Wednesday from two people who said they were being chased by man with a gun, several deputies and the SWAT team responded.

After several months of surveillance and investigation, Napa County drug agents scored this week, arresting four suspects and netting a cache of marijuana and weapons.

ALAMEDA — An Oakland man was ordered to stay away from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his family for 10 years after pleading no contest to one count of misdemeanor stalking.

LAS VEGAS — A Roman Catholic priest pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he beat and sexually assaulted a female soloist at a parish office, and his attorneys said they intend to show that the woman and their client had a close relationship.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.  — The miners union on Thursday blamed last year’s deadly Sago Mine explosion on friction between rocks and a metal roof-support system, rather than lightning.

JERUSALEM —The Islamic militant Hamas and its Fatah rivals forged a unity government Thursday to end more than a year of political wrangling, isolation and bloodshed. Israel quickly rejected the new leadership, saying it failed to recognize the Jewish state.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday moved California’s presidential primary to Feb. 5, an attempt to give the nation’s most populous state a greater say over the nominating process.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A man who sexually assaulted a University of Virginia student in 1984 and apologized to her two decades later as part of the Alcoholics Anonymous program was sentenced to 18 months in prison Thursday.

If you’ve worked for long, you’ve probably had a boss or co-worker who was a complete, flaming jerk.

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Police used water cannon and tear gas to repel about 1,000 skinheads and extremists Thursday as anti-government protests marred celebrations of Hungary’s 1848 revolution, witnesses said.

CLAREMONT — Claremont Graduate University is offering an unusual doctoral program focusing on what makes people happy.

SACRAMENTO — California needs to boost education spending at least 40 percent, or about $25 billion a year, to dramatically raise student achievement levels, according to the second part of an education research project released Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s claims that he was responsible for dozens of successful, foiled and imagined attacks in the past 15 years relies on a loose definition of the word “responsible.” Officials say the 9/11 mastermind was key to some plots but a bit player in others.

NEW YORK — A gunman who killed two unarmed volunteer police officers and a bartender had been repeatedly kicked out of the pizzeria where the shootings began and may have been angry that a friend who worked there was fired, police said Thursday.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Budget Committee approved a plan Thursday that promises a federal surplus in five years — but only by assuming President Bush’s tax cuts expire at the end of this decade.

WASHINGTON — A Senate panel authorized subpoenas for Justice Department officials Thursday in a probe of the prosecutor firings that have jeopardized Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ job and raised questions about White House involvement. A second Republican senator urged Gonzales’ departure.