Fire crews battling a 35-acre brush fire west of Calistoga had the blaze 20 percent contained within a few hours.

Every day, millions of California drivers illegally hit the road without car insurance coverage. To help alleviate this problem locally, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is proposing to bring a state-run reduced cost car insurance program to Napa County.

For the past eight years Father Oscar Diaz, associate pastor at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, has been a familiar face to the church's parishioners. With his gentle, compassionate and soft-spoken manner, he helped form a strong sense of community among church members, no matter what cultural background they came from or language they spoke, parishioners said.

Solage Resort developers in Calistoga were given the green light to open without its affordable workforce housing completed -- but with a series of milestones, and fines of up to $2,500 each day a milestone is missed.

St. Helena Unified School District's replacement of the high school's football field and track has drawn its share of attention, but that project is just the first part of an ambitious master plan to tie together a variety of new facilities at the high school. A second gym, a performing arts center, a new auditorium, an agricultural complex and a revamped public pool are also planned.

The Napa Salvation Army has a dilemma. For some time now, fresh meat donations to the army have been decreasing, but the number of people they serve a hot lunch to has not. Each day, Monday through Friday, workers at the Salvation Army serve about 50-70 meals to Napa's hungry and homeless.

WASHINGTON -- Up on the surface, the signs of the trouble at the Jefferson Memorial are small:

WASHINGTON -- The number of blacks joining the military has plunged by more than one-third since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars began. Other job prospects are soaring and relatives of potential recruits increasingly are discouraging them from joining the armed services.

DALLAS -- Nearly a million American youngsters, some as young as 6, rely on personal trainers to shape up, lose weight or improve in sports, according to figures from the nation's leading sports club association.

WASHINGTON -- Senators pushing a new immigration policy appealed Sunday to wavering supporters ahead of renewed debate on securing the borders and dealing with 12 million undocumented immigrants.

ATLANTA -- A dangerous, drug-resistant staph germ may be infecting as many as 5 percent of hospital and nursing home patients, according to a comprehensive study.

CANTON, Ohio -- A former classmate of a man suspected of murdering a pregnant woman was arrested Sunday on a related obstruction of justice charge, the FBI said.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- For the first time ever in the South, blacks are as well represented on college campuses as they are in the region's population as a whole -- something not yet true of the country overall.

4.0 GPA, Eighth Grade

4.0 GPA, Sixth grade

I've always enjoyed role-playing games, even ones that follow the same standard rules and stories as every other basic role-playing game. Every once in a while, though, one comes along that plays around with the norm.

Something wonderful has begun happening with this new column of ours. Folks are starting to e-mail me news of events that sound very exciting for us seniors. For instance, how would you like to join a group of seniors, 60 years and older, taking a new class through the Napa Valley College Community Education Program on riding adult tricycles?

Matthew Ringard, a professional actor attending Napa High School in the fall, says there is nothing like being on stage.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- With dozens of homes and cabins already destroyed by wildfire, crews worked Sunday to protect hundreds of others tucked in the hills of the scenic Kenai Peninsula.

TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO -- If the Summer of Love established San Francisco as the hub of hippiedom, the summer of 2007 may one day be remembered as a time when the city and the rest of the country commemorated 1960s counterculture by taking the "counter" out of it.

UNION CITY -- A 17-year-old boy was shot and killed and four other people were injured when a fight broke out at an end-of-the-school-year party at a home owned by a high school principal, police said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, kicked off San Francisco's annual gay pride parade Sunday by splitting with her husband over support for legalized gay marriage.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Saddam Hussein's cousin, known as "Chemical Ali," and two other regime officials were sentenced Sunday to hang for slaughtering up to 180,000 Kurdish men, women and children with chemical weapons, artillery barrages and mass executions two decades ago.