112th Congress

In our endorsement of Rep. Mike Thompson for an eighth term in the U.S. Congress, we wrote at length about the significant influence his leadership has had on Napa County.

That leadership found greater national purpose last week.

A Lucerne market is going to once again be able to participate in the federal food stamp program, but it's appealing a requirement that it to pay a nearly $60,000 fine.

North Bay Congressman Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said he voted in favor of the bipartisan agreement to avert the fiscal cliff because to do otherwise would have triggered another recession.

The legislation was passed in the 11th hour, according to the Huffington Post.

I have recently been named to lead a congressional task force on reducing and preventing gun violence.

I am no stranger to guns. In the home where I grew up, you walked by a gun rack holding two deer rifles, a shotgun and a .22 on the way to my bedroom and our bathroom. Before I was old enough to drive, I would ride my bike though town to the river to go duck hunting.

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Jon Hammar, the 27-year-old former Marine from Palmetto Bay, is making his way back to his family's Palmetto Bay home, after spending almost five months imprisoned in Mexico.

Hammar was released Friday night from the Matamoros jail and driven over the U.S.-Mexico border into Brownsville, Texas, where his father, Jon Sr., waited.

Putting armed guards in schools to deter violence is not something local educators, parents and even law enforcement see as viable.

The National Rifle Association's suggestion Friday that armed guards should be placed at every school to protect children from mass shootings was quickly dismissed as counter-productive, costly and probably unnecessary.

In our endorsement of Rep. Mike Thompson for an eighth term in the U.S. Congress, we wrote at length about the significant influence his leadership has had on Napa County.

That leadership found greater national purpose last week.