Lonnie Handy heard rumors just before Thursday’s CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Meet men’s pole vault competition that the two most heavily favored competitors would not attend the state meet even if they qualified for it.

As I made the drive from my non-palacial home in Napa to Oakland for the Calistoga High baseball team’s CIF North Coast Section Div. V playoff game last week, one thought crossed my mind.

With the resounding defeat of five of the six propositions in this month’s special election — and a looming, massive $23 billion budget shortfall — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has once again proposed to subsidize the General Fund by transferring monies from the Fish and Game Preservation Fund.

NOTES AND QUOTES for a Saturday in the Napa Valley:

The Wine Country Classic Historic Car Races return to Sonoma, May 30-31, as the best in vintage racing and the Sonoma Valley Wine Country converge on Infineon Raceway.

The Napa Valley Register’s coverage of the 2008 Louie Vermeil Classic for sprint cars at Calistoga Speedway has won an award from a national organization of motorsports writers and broadcasters.

Former Napan Ben Matthews, right, poses with “Big George” Matthews of Napa and a 60-inch, 65-pound sturgeon they hauled in while fishing on a party boat, The Right Hook, in the Suisun Slough.

Here’s a look at the latest local angling action: