Skip Long loved hot rods said his mother, Theresa.

Onesimo Garcia most likely will never be a free man again.

Calistoga is the Napa Valley’s mineral water capital, but Napa could someday share the honor.

The lowly plastic shopping bag. Brought home after a visit to the grocery or chain store, many get a new life as trash can liner, pet poop pick up, or wet swimsuit baggie.

It's a Saturday morning in Calistoga and you're here on vacation. Or not. Either way. Here you are.

Skip Long loved hot rods said his mother, Theresa.

PHILADELPHIA -- When Henry Powderly II ordered Verizon Communications Inc.'s FiOS fiber-optic service, he knew he was about to be connected to the future of telecommunications.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- As a kid in Oregon, Larry Kanfer's horizons were dominated by the steep, green slopes and conic peaks of the Cascades.

WASHINGTON -- The spirit of volunteerism is thriving in the heartland, but not so much on the coasts.

PROSECUTOR FIRINGS

LOS ANGELES -- When a much anticipated high school finally opens in 2008, nine years behind schedule, math students will likely need special calculators to type in all the zeros of the enormous price tag.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two years ago, federal prosecutors boldly proclaimed a civil racketeering lawsuit against the mighty International Longshoremen's Union that would "once and for all" shatter alleged mob control on the nation's docks.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Pennsylvanians will be unable to take a driver's license test, visit a state-run museum or place a casino bet starting today unless an 11th-hour breakthrough ends a budget stalemate that threatens a partial government shutdown.

Napa County schools have been awarded nearly half a million dollars for improving safety as children arrive and depart campus, through a Caltrans program called Safe Routes to Schools.

SACRAMENTO -- Voters could express their first, second, third, fourth and maybe even more choices in local government elections under legislation scheduled to be considered this week by a state Senate committee.

CRAWFORD, Texas -- Cindy Sheehan, the soldier's mother who galvanized the anti-war movement, said Sunday that she plans to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unless she introduces articles of impeachment against President Bush in the next two weeks.

SANTA ANA -- Thousands of Orange County residents who rely on public transit are being forced to make alternative transportation plans, with bus drivers preparing to take their strike into the work week.

BAGHDAD -- Prominent Shiite and Sunni politicians called on Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend of violence that claimed more than 220 lives, including 60 who died Sunday in a surge of bombings and shootings around Baghdad.