OAKLAND — A former BART officer who grew up in Napa and is accused of murdering an unarmed man at an Oakland train station will stand trial Oct. 13, and his lawyer is asking to move the emotionally charged case to another city.

The Napa Valley Unified School District approved the appointment of two new high school principals Thursday night.

SACRAMENTO — California’s unemployment rate climbed to 11.5 percent in May, the highest in modern record-keeping, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday, while Napa County's rate dipped to its lowest in four months.

Napa County is seeking state legislation that would allow local cities to swap affordable housing requirements with the county in exchange for pay.

Rebuffing critics who wanted additional environmental impact studies and tougher strategies for encouraging affordable housing, the Napa City Council adopted a new housing plan Tuesday to guide the city through 2014.

Traffic snarls are likely this weekend for drivers leaving Napa for Marin County and San Francisco because of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.

The peacocks that have been haunting the east side of St. Helena have been caught and are headed for a good home.

Longtime American Canyon residents remember the grassy mound near the wetlands that border town as the spot where trucks hauled garbage from Napa, American Canyon and Vallejo until the mid-1990s.