When a majestic black walnut tree graced the median island on Black Walnut Court in east Napa, neighbors were happy.

Before what townspeople said was the largest gathering for an event of any kind in Angwin's history, pastor Steven Hamilton posed a daunting question last Sunday in the sanctuary of the Pacific Union College church.

In early 2004, Wendy Enright's grandchildren were in crisis.

Note to readers

A complaint against Napa-based Hess Collection Winery brought on by Agricultural Labor Relations Board attorneys in 2006 on behalf of 20 farmworkers reached a conclusion Saturday morning at Fairfield Inn & Suites in American Canyon. The farmworkers each received a share of a $225,000 settlement agreement that their union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1096, reached with the winery.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Private security companies, funded by billions of dollars in U.S. military and State Department contracts, are fighting insurgents on a widening scale in Iraq, enduring daily attacks, returning fire and taking hundreds of casualties that have been underreported and sometimes concealed, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and company representatives.

A San Marcos couple visiting Napa had hotel accommodations Friday evening, but instead spent the night in jail.

Associated Press

SCAGGSVILLE, Md. -- Stephanie Cerneck doesn't go through the checkout line at her supermarket anymore. Or even the self-checkout line.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. -- Starting Sunday, New Jersey joins eight other states in making it illegal for employers and landlords to discriminate against transgendered people.

SACRAMENTO -- Last summer's stifling heat wave killed many of its 140 victims without warning, often just hours after worried relatives or friends had checked on their well-being, according to a state report released Friday.

SACRAMENTO -- In 1980, as California was recovering from its longest drought since the Depression, state lawmakers thought they had found a solution to weather future water shortages.

SACRAMENTO -- Downtown residential hotel operators rushed to install mandatory air conditioners as unseasonably high temperatures climbed into the triple digits.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- NATO has an image problem in Afghanistan -- and a U.S. soldier who fired a Humvee's machine gun into a crowd of civilians after a deadly suicide bombing Saturday shows why.

BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military, which just days ago completed its latest troop buildup in Iraq, has launched a large offensive operation in several al-Qaida strongholds around Baghdad, the top U.S. commander said Saturday.