It was a night of firsts.

The following people are responsible for the planning and destruction of Lake Berryessa recreation.

In the weeks leading up to election day -- especially in the final four days -- I saw a tremendous amount of Yes on Prop. 8 support building throughout northern California. I was in a number of different cities in the election's final days, and in each city I came across a large curbside gathering of placard-waving Yes on 8 supporters.

Attacks in the story comments attached to each NapaValleyRegister.com article take many forms — all of them disturbing since this should be a forum for community debate — and I find it sad to realize how many people cannot debate a topic without attacking the messenger.

Tomorrow night, in neighborhoods around Napa, residents who step out of their homes and onto their quiet streets will be able to hear distant roars and the echoing voice of Ed Barwick.

Dear editor, In several ways the proposed St. Regis project is a more egregious project than Napa Pipe. At least Napa Pipe was on contaminated land suitable only for improvement. What’s wrong with leaving pristine vineyard land just the way it is? After all, this isn’t a weed-covered, dust-producing junk pile vacant lot!

Dear editor, I enjoyed reading the article about puppy-raising for Guide Dogs for the Blind (“Heroes for the blind: Teen trains guide dog as senior project,” Oct. 21).

Dear editor, Thank you for publicizing the parole board hearing for Robert Shippmann, the man who murdered my daughter, Juli Mathis Shippmann (“Napa killer denied parole,” Oct. 23.)

I had been planning on writing a post election follow up with my campaign against Keith Caldwell, and I was planning on saying congratulations, you won, let's move on. Except I got a call over the weekend that Caldwell's campaign manager, Thom Whitters, filed an FPPC complaint against me. FPPC is the Fair Political Practices Commission, a state agency that oversees election reporting, of donations and expenditures on campaigns.

The Bush Administration had a bad habit of not thinking through the consequences of many of its actions, or not caring, and one of them was what is the eventual outcome going to be of torturing prisoners of war? It was inflicted on many of them, many of whom have turned out to be innocent, at least of terrorism.

Would you ever eat Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant? Or is this a holiday that must be celebrated at home?

The race is over, Barack Obama will be the next president, so now is the time for the next question.

Barack Obama is the your next President of the United States.