Pirates and deckhands filled the Napa High lecture hall Wednesday morning. Each deckhand hoped to learn from the experience and knowledge of the pirates.

As a young child Marguerite Rice, 101, spent her Sundays reading Bible stories and spending time with her family at a special place they called the "Sunday Tree," up the hill from their 26-acre prune ranch on Larkin Way.

Napa County Sheriff's deputies recovered the body of Victor Seminario, 49, of Concord, from Lake Berryessa Saturday evening. Seminario drowned at the lake on Aug. 11, in an area of the lake known as The Narrows.

Resurfacing of many Napa residential streets is taking place. City road crews are applying a chip seal made from a mixture of asphalt and about 6,400 used tires that will be recycled and used for this resurfacing treatment.

The city of Napa's effort to force a Browns Valley property owner to pay back taxes for allegedly renting out two homes to vacationers may bog down because of the property owner's troubled finances, county records indicate.

More than 120 Angwin residents turned out Wednesday evening at the Seventh-day Adventist church on the Pacific Union College campus for the latest in a series of meetings about the future of the mountain community, where PUC has proposed developing a portion of the more than 1,800 acres under its control.

A photo caption accompanying page one article on Aug. 23 regarding a Marine returning from Iraq misspelled the name of a friend of the family. She is Yvonne Harp.

Northbound traffic on Silverado Trail in Napa was diverted for most of the day Thursday as work crews repaired a water and gas line break near Lincoln Avenue.

Next up in downtown Napa, two $1 million holes in the ground.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Sunny Dawson ran two miles every other day when she started her freshman year at the University of Southern California. But the lure of the cafeteria near her dorm became too much to resist.

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. -- Tokens of Christianity, including crosses and religious mottos, are found in schools and government buildings all over Harrison County. The amenities in a women's bathroom at the Board of Education offices even include a leather-bound pocket copy of "New Testament: Psalms Proverbs."

ABOARD THAI AIRWAYS TO LOS ANGELES -- John Mark Karr, the suspect in the death of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, sipped champagne and ate fried king prawns in business class Sunday after being put aboard a flight to Los Angeles to face charges in the United States.

WASHINGTON -- It's the morning after, and the controversy over nonprescription sales of emergency contraceptive pills hasn't abated.

ESSEX, Vt. -- Hours after breaking up with his girlfriend, a man shot four people Thursday, including the girlfriend's mother and her co-worker at an elementary school, then shot himself in the head, police said.

WASHINGTON -- Gulf Coast nursing homes that evacuated patients as a result of hurricanes experienced a range of problems, including transportation agreements that fell through, long trips and a lack of food, water and medicine, a report released Friday says.

The end of the world can so often seem imminent that the topic hardly promises to provide an enjoyable evening of entertainment, let alone comedy.

The list of band members and the instruments they play was the first hint of the rich and amazing diversity in store for the audience who came Friday to the performance of Inti-Illimani at the Opera House.

On Aug. 15, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox alike celebrated the Feast of the Assumption (or Dormition) of Mary. Though the schism of 1054 split their churches, they have both celebrated the Virgin Mary's assumption into Heaven since the fifth century. In fact, the "falling asleep of the Virgin Mary" was declared a feast day on Aug. 15 in the Byzantine Empire during the fifth century; in the seventh century, the Roman church adopted the feast and it received the title Assumption in the eighth century under Pope Adrian I.

Unitarian Universalists wonder

DUBLIN -- Smokers, beware: This bedroom community near San Francisco may soon put you in the same category as rodents, junk cars, vicious dogs and weeds.

MARTINEZ -- An elderly Contra Costa County woman has become the second person to die of West Nile virus in California this year, health officials said Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO -- State regulators lifted most price controls for landline phone companies on Thursday, saying competition with wireless, Internet and cable phone providers will keep rates in check.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Afghan and NATO troops used rockets, planes and artillery in rolling battles with Taliban insurgents this weekend in Afghanistan's volatile south, leaving 71 militants and five Afghan soldiers dead in one of the bloodiest clashes since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. A British soldier was killed in a separate attack.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Snipers lurking on buildings and in a cemetery sprayed bullets into Shiite Muslim religious processions in the capital Sunday, killing at least 20 people in another spasm of sectarian bloodletting that many Iraqis fear is pushing them toward civil war.

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that countries that don't have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state should not participate in the international peacekeeping force that will police a truce along the Lebanese border, his office said.

LOS ANGELES -- Astronomers rejiggered the nine-planet solar system for the first time in 76 years on Thursday, kicking out Pluto and creating a new category of "dwarf planets." Here are some questions and answers about our new solar system:

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Pluto, beloved by some as a cosmic underdog but scorned by astronomers who considered it too dinky and distant, was unceremoniously stripped of its status as a planet Thursday.