When the eighth-grade class of St. John’s Lutheran School of Napa first saw the children’s victim/witness waiting room in the Napa County Superior Courthouse on Third Street, students described it as a “dreary” place.

In the deli section of the Stanly Lane Marketplace, pre-made sandwiches can clutter the display case one day or practically sell out the next.

A 39-year-old man was airlifted to John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek early Friday morning after the Ford Explorer he was driving rammed head-on into a pickup pulling a horse trailer on Silverado Trail.

Tangled power lines knocked out electricity to 1,600 PG&E customers in north Napa Thursday afternoon.

A May 14 story on page A2 about an assault that occurred outside Mervyns in Napa misstated the gender of the person who assisted a 12-year-old girl. A woman assisted the girl. 

Napa County Sheriff’s detectives are investigating the death of 10-month-old baby girl left inside a vehicle in Angwin on Friday afternoon.

Paving of Redwood Road is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, with traffic reduced to one lane between Browns Valley Road and Dry Creek Road.

Before again asking voters to approve a transportation sales tax, Napa County leaders will brainstorm with residents on transportation problems and solutions.

SACRAMENTO — The revised budget Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger submitted this week left out $117 million for a new death row at San Quentin State Prison, potentially stalling construction for at least a year.

WASHINGTON — The White House and Congress failed to strike a deal Friday after exchanging competing offers on an Iraq war spending bill that Democrats said should set a date for U.S. troops to leave.

SEATTLE — A man who tried to position himself as a leader of the anti-war movement by claiming to have participated in war crimes while serving in Iraq is facing federal charges of falsifying his record.

MONTERREY, Mexico — Many in Mexico expressed disappointment Friday with the U.S. Congress’ immigration reform proposal, arguing it doesn’t let enough Mexicans enter the United States legally to work, while focusing on an arduous path to residency for those who have already taken the illegal path.

ATLANTA — Tooth decay in young children’s baby teeth is on the rise, a worrying trend that signals the preschool crowd is eating too much sugar, according to the largest government study of the nation’s dental health in more than 25 years.

WASHINGTON — Republicans will seek a House vote next week admonishing a senior Democrat who they say threatened a GOP member’s spending projects in a noisy exchange in the House chamber, Minority Leader John Boehner said Friday.

MAHMOUDIYA, Iraq — U.S. soldiers fought exhaustion and braced themselves for the worst Friday as the military pressed forward with a six-day-old search for three missing comrades believed captured by al-Qaida in Iraq in an ambush south of Baghdad.

TRENTON, N.J. — Women looking for a simple way to avoid their menstrual period could soon have access the first birth control pill designed to let women suppress monthly bleeding indefinitely.

VILLA CARDAL, Uruguay  — Big smiles spread across the faces of the 160 pupils at a public elementary school in this rural South American hamlet: Each sat gawking at a brightly blinking laptop computer given them days earlier.

CARSON CITY, Nev. — The tearful father of a slain northern Nevada soldier said Friday the 9/11 terrorist attacks inspired his son, Sgt. Anthony Schober, to join the Army at age 17.

WEST SACRAMENTO — The tale of two whales stranded in the California delta has captured hearts and headlines in Northern California as efforts continued Friday to lure the injured mammals back to their salty home 90 miles west.

BERKELEY — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday released a University of California study showing the state can cut gasoline prices and stimulate the economy by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in transportation fuels.

TAMPA, Fla. — Deep-sea explorers said Friday they have hauled up what could be the richest sunken treasure ever discovered: hundreds of thousands of colonial-era silver and gold coins worth an estimated $500 million from a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean.

VOLZHSKY UTYOS, Russia — President Vladimir Putin, emboldened by Russia’s vast oil and gas wealth, bluntly rejected European criticism of his crackdown on political foes at a summit attended by Putin and European Union leaders.

LIVERMORE — A freshman congressman is trying to keep a veterans hospital open by arguing that its placid grounds can provide the perfect setting for treating soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Nurses at the Veterans Home of California at Yountville call 88-year-old resident Marie Lumos "a pistol," and it's easy to see why.

When it comes to games based on movies, the rule generally is that the game isn't going to be very good. In fact, the game is usually going to be bad -- a poorly created rush job with nothing but money in mind.

Special to the Register