This year was a tough one for salmon anglers. First we had no season.  Then finally we had a season, but we had to be aware of a few short closures. All of the closures are for different areas in the ocean. Some dates have already passed. If you fish the area from Point Arena to Horse Mountain, the next season closure will be July 10 through 14, and July 17 through 21.  The last of the dates are July 24 and 25.  After that, the season will remain open until November 12.  The waters north of Horse Mountain will close July 5 through Sept. 1 and then remain open until Sept. 5. For most of our local salmon fishermen fishing Pigeon Point and south, they will not have to worry about any closures until seasons end on September 24.

Napa County and its cities are doing less than half of what they could to prepare for a predicted 1 million new Bay Area residents by 2020.

It looked like a wounded dinosaur lying in a pool of murky water. In reality, it was an excavator that became a victim of a sinkhole east of the Napa River Thursday.

Napa: Tuesday, at Veteran's Memorial Park. Live music, food and beverages, arts and crafts vendors and a fire truck showcase. Fireworks at 9:30 p.m.

An electrical wire used to provide power to pump water to homes in the foothills off Monticello Road, opposite Jarvis Vineyards, caught fire on Friday afternoon, blackening about an acre of grass on the face of Mount George.

Lorraine La Voie, one of American Canyon's best known civic leaders, died suddenly at her American Canyon home Thursday, her daughter, Patti Broyles, has confirmed.

By the time the first visitors arrive at the 2006 Napa County Fair in Calistoga today, Robert Barr will have spent several days helping set up rides like the Flying Dragon, the Kamikaze and the Zipper.

WASHINGTON -- The first drug shown to significantly improve the vision of patients threatened by a major cause of blindness in the elderly won federal approval Friday.

SACRAMENTO -- On the deadline to have 2,500 troops along the Mexican border, the National Guard said Friday that only 483 were in position and working with the U.S. Border Patrol as the Bush administration had directed.

So the 2006 Chevrolet Monte Carlo at dealerships is front-wheel drive, not rear-wheel drive like the Monte Carlo that NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon races in Nextel Cup every weekend.

LONG BEACH -- Bird rescuers believe dozens of dead and sickly baby terns washed up suddenly on the beaches here after something scared them out of their nests on an abandoned barge.

BEIJI, Iraq -- The U.S. Army will investigate charges that five American soldiers in an insurgent-riddled town noticed a young Iraqi woman when on patrol and later returned to rape her, according to U.S. officials Friday. In an apparent cover-up attempt, she and three members of her family then were killed and her body was set on fire. It's the sixth current inquiry into the alleged slayings of Iraqi civilians by American troops.