Even government officials and nonprofit organizations dedicated to eradicating homelessness in Napa have their doubts the problem will ever completely go away.

They are the socks heard ‘round the world.

It’s a warm Monday afternoon in March and about a dozen young boxers are training inside Napa County Sheriff’s Activities League gym at Napa State Hospital. Some of the boxers spar inside the ring, others pound on punching bags while a few do sit-ups.

A new Napa County government organization debuted this week, bringing together elected leaders of Napa County and its five cities to discuss issues of the day.

When a Napa car dealer scans the license plate frames in local parking lots, the sight is a depressing one. The vast majority of the frames promote dealers in other towns.

Napa will take a fresh look at the city’s prohibition against A-frame signs outside of downtown after hearing from merchants upset over a recent sweep of illegal signs.

A page one story March 20 about two fatal accidents misstated the location where traffic backed up after an accident.

By a slim margin today, Congress passed a $124 billion Iraq War spending bill that sets deadlines for progress in Iraq for the Bush Administration and Iraqi government. It also outlines timetables for redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq based on firm benchmarks of progress.

Police are investigating the death of a man found in an abandoned fifth wheel trailer on Gasser Drive, behind Home Depot in South Napa Marketplace.

WASHINGTON — Democrat John Edwards said Thursday that his presidential campaign “goes on strongly” in the face of a repeat cancer diagnosis for his wife, Elizabeth, a somber development that thrust his White House bid into uncharted territory.

As communities like Napa push to turn themselves into massive wireless hotspots, unsuspecting Internet users are stumbling directly onto hacker turf, giving computer thieves nearly effortless access to their laptops and private information, authorities and high-tech security experts say.

LOS ANGELES — Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is cooking up kinder, gentler menus.

HONOLULU — Dorie-Ann Kahale and her five daughters moved from a homeless shelter to a mansion Thursday, courtesy of a Japanese real estate mogul who is handing over eight of his multimillion-dollar homes to low-income Native Hawaiian families.

A federal judge on Thursday refused to allow a class action against State Farm Insurance Cos. over the insurer’s denial of claims on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

FRESNO — Yosemite National Park can proceed with $60 million in construction projects while an appeals court hears a lawsuit claiming commercial development threatens the park’s fragile ecosystem, a federal judge said Thursday.

WALNUT CREEK — The light brown apple moth has landed in the Bay Area, which could mean trouble for regional crops, including grapes in Livermore’s wine country.

SACRAMENTO — Racy photographs of teenage girls posted on a popular Internet advertising service prompted an FBI raid at a Sacramento home and photo studio, according to court documents unsealed this week.

CLEVELAND — A second elections board member in Ohio’s most populous county quit Thursday, and a state official filed a complaint to remove the two remaining members because of persistent voting problems.

The By Associated Press

Beijing

BAGHDAD — A rocket exploded 50 yards from the U.N. secretary-general during a news conference Thursday in Baghdad’s Green Zone, causing him to cringe and duck just minutes after Iraq’s prime minister said the visit showed the city was “on the road to stability.”

WASHINGTON — On the eve of a critical vote, House Democrats labored Thursday to lock down a majority behind a Sept. 1, 2008, deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, the sternest test yet for a determined new majority eager to challenge President Bush.

LONDON — The global rate of tuberculosis infections has leveled off, public health officials said Thursday, offering a glimmer of hope for the first time since the disease’s spread was declared a global emergency more than a decade ago.

ROME — Italy’s negotiation for the release of Taliban militants in exchange for the freedom of an Italian hostage in Afghanistan has placed Premier Romano Prodi in the firing line days before a crucial parliamentary vote on keeping the country’s troops in Afghanistan.

When a California woman recently gave birth to a healthy baby just two days after learning she was pregnant, the sudden change to her life was challenging enough. What April Branum definitely didn’t need was a deluge of nasty Internet comments.

11 a.m. ALBANY, N.Y. -- Tests turned up rat poison in the pet food suspected of causing kidney failure in dogs and cats across the country and killing at least 16, state officials and scientists announced Friday.