Kristen McNamara, who grew up in the Napa County town of Angwin, advanced Wednesday night as one of the 36 semifinalists in the hit Fox television show American Idol.

Keith Caldwell spent $50,400 — less than a third as much as his opponent Gary Simpson — in his successful bid to become the member of the Napa County Board of Supervisors representing District 5, final campaign finance records show.

Napa County is suing the Benicia contractor who built Napa County’s criminal courts building, alleging a range of faulty workmanship, from a leaky roof and windows to “deterioration of foundations.”

Police arrested Sally Ann O’Sullivan on Tuesday night for allegedly driving drunk after her car crashed into another vehicle causing minor injuries to the driver, police said.

No one was home when a fire broke out at a single-family residence on Wednesday afternoon in Napa.

Here is a video from Fox television with Napa County's Kristen McNamara, one of the 36 semifinalists in Season 8 of American Idol.

Kohl’s department store has begun interior demolition work in the former Mervyns building on Main Street, with plans to open by October 2009.

Napa County plans to join more than two dozen of California counties in a lawsuit against the cash-strapped state.

Girding for a potentially drastic $8.8 million cut in local education funding, the Napa Valley Unified School District is considering closing one or more small elementary schools.