An endangered San Joaquin kit fox is living at a Bakersfield zoo after authorities said it survived being shot and poisoned.The animal was rescued earlier this year by an animal control officer who found the animal having convulsions.Staffers at the Bakersfield Veterinary Hospital said the kit fox had been poisoned and shot in the leg, which was amputated. Half that number retired the previous year.Initially, the county expected it would have to pay an additional $129 million in the next fiscal year to shore up the fund. The way the bullpen has been going I can understand the reluctance to turn it over to those guys, but unfortunately that's what happened.*I SPENT a good deal of time watching Kellen Winslow and John Elway practice and play, maybe two of the best to ever play their positions, but I've made the argument for some time now that Jerry Rice was the best player in NFL history.Rice began each play without the ball and had to go somewhere to get it, and although not the swiftest, strongest or biggest, he couldn't be stopped. He wrote that she "appears to speak and understand English better than she professes" and dismissed her tears on the witness stand as "courtroom hysterics."The judge noted that the Hes' petitions to regain custody occurred "in close proximity" to INS calls about their immigration status "Mrs. Winemaking in the region dates to Roman times and was revived in the Middle Ages by monks who established monasteries that still stand.A Slovenian legend tells of a man saving himself from raging floodwaters by clinging to a grapevine, much to the delight of the deity kurent, which caused the waters to recede in return for the man's promise that he and his descendants would always cultivate grapes for wine and buckwheat for beer.Ptuj, Slovenia I first saw them through the window of our train as it pulled into the station at Pragersko, on the way from Ljubljana to Ptuj. Hayne House Topanga, a sophisticated bohemian retreat, is on the market, but to Oingo Boingo fans, it will forever belong to Danny Elfman.Elfman, the composer of scores for TV shows ("The Simpsons," "Desperate Housewives") and movies ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Spider-Man"), was lead singer-guitarist-composer of the rock band for 11 of the 16 years he owned the home.He bought it in 1984 and, a year later, scored "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," his first commercially successful film. But the rift over his appointment of a civil libertarian to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority board shows that council members have not been cowed into rubber-stamping the popular mayor's every move.Five council members opposed the appointment of Ramona Ripston, the executive director of the regional ACLU branch.

Jerry Pate shot a four-under-par 68 that gave him a two-day total of six-under 138 and a one-shot lead in the Senior PGA Championship at Ligonier, Pa., on Friday.Pate broke away from the pack on a day when a dozen players shared or owned the lead at some point."It's been 20 years," the 51-year-old Pate said, referring to the last time he was in contention in a PGA tournament "That's a long time."Pate, the 1976 U.S Open winner, followed up a two-under 70 to lead R.W. But IHOP executives, hungry for a bigger share of the more-lucrative lunch and dinner market, are rolling out the first major menu overhaul in almost a decade with hopes that new items such as shrimp Caesar salad, brie sandwich and grilled cod will shift their customers' perceptions from the IHOP of yore.Chief Executive Julia Stewart's management team spent six months surveying the dining desires of 20,000 IHOP customers. That has forced it to make wide-ranging cuts, which have been felt by Health Connect, employees said.Kaiser recently demanded and received a rate cut from its technology vendors, and some IT employees took as long as a week off without pay.Some current and former employees worry that such cuts may add to Health Connect's problems. The semidetached houses with bright purple trim are priced at $18,500 to $31,000.Marbella Rendon, 31, her husband and young son were among the first to move into the development in August. Austin sees it as his duty to put balladry front and center in his music in order to bring a moribund musical genre back to glory."R&B is lagging behind hip-hop," he says "I'm a fan.

Now he says there are 45 vegetables and herbs in the ground with more on the way.Kinch picked up armloads of vegetables for dinner -- white beets, turnips, rutabagas, baby carrots, baby leeks, mache and tiny breakfast radishes with their tendril roots that grow in the new hoop house among the kohlrabi, peas and "freckles" lettuce.At dinner in Manresa's pretty dining room, in the heart of Los Gatos' tiny downtown, the tiny radishes, some no bigger than the tip of your finger, showed up as an amuse bouche with a little bowl of creme fraiche mixed with tarragon and a touch of fleur de sel.Then came a small tangle of baby spinach and a quenelle of carrot-orange mousseline.The first course arrived, a consomme of osetra caviar, and Passard himself soon followed. That absence is so apparent that the show's episode slated for Monday night, the "behind the scenes episode" where the reality-show shenanigans would normally take place, recently and untraditionally moved from CBS to VH1, where it will air on Sundays.And yet on a recent episode, Unga overcame her young nerves; she nearly burst into tears during her stellar version of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World." (As a performance, it was better than even Kurt Cobain's cover of the song.) And that's why I tune in, three bloody nights a week, even if the show generally is about as honestly rock 'n' roll as an Oxnard-based wedding cover band. Montecito, Calif THE spine stiffens and the spirit goes cold. Only 45% of Chevron's gulf region oil production is back on line, he said.Even with business lost to the storms, Chevron, the nation's second-largest oil company, still managed to push net income up 12% to $3.6 billion, or $1.64 a share, from $3.2 billion, or $1.51, a year earlier. Compton, already reeling from a spike in homicides this year, saw three more killings overnight Tuesday -- pushing the total to 54 and dampening Sheriff Lee Baca's announcement Wednesday about a recent crackdown on violent criminals.With nearly three months left in the year, the city of about 96,000 has recorded 11 more homicides than all of last year. Rep.] Barney Frank complained in Congress," said Punk Ziegel & Co analyst Richard Bove. Seattle optioned outfielder Chris Snelling to triple-A Tacoma and activated infielder Dave Hansen off the 15-day disabled list....

You could put it on your night table and defend it to anyone, even your mother.""A Sport and a Pastime," like such future Salter works as "Light Years," demonstrated the heights and the limits of sex and love. Little asked himself whether Gagne -- whose 2005 season ended when he had elbow surgery in June -- would be ready to close the first three games of the season if necessary."Will this man be able to do that?" he said "That was in my thoughts this morning. She explained the region's microclimates and soil content as she poured, telling us, "Wine Spectator magazine calls the Santa Cruz Mountain appellation the most underrated wine appellation in the world."Not by me it isn't.*(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)Wine, dine, sleepExpenses for two on this trip:Lodging (with tax)Brookdale Lodge $109Historic Sand Rock Farm $204MealsBreakfast, picnics, plus dinners at Soif Wine and Ciao Bella $142EntertainmentTwo winetasting Passports $50Thomas Fogarty tasting fee $12Total $517Distance from L.A.: 370 milesWHERE TO TASTE:Thomas Fogarty Winery, 19501 Skyline Blvd., Woodside; (650) 851-6777, www.fogartywinery.com.Byington Vineyard & Winery, 21850 Bear Creek Road, Los Gatos; (408) 354-1111, byington.com.Burrell School Vineyards & Winery, 24060 Summit Road, Los Gatos; (408) 353-6290, www.burrellschool.com.Silver Mountain Vineyards, Silver Mountain Drive, between Miller Cut Off and Skyland Road; (408) 353-2278, silvermtn.com.David Bruce Winery, 21439 Bear Creek Road, Los Gatos; (800) 397-9972, davidbrucewinery.com.Windy Oaks Estate, 380 Sweetwood Way, Corralitos; (831) 786-9163, windyoaksestate.com.WHERE TO EAT:The Redwood Keg, 12980 Highway 9, Boulder Creek; (831) 338-2727. Five others have moved on, but two more Riddles may be coming.And then there's Deborah Daniels, who invited her extended family to take refuge in her spacious five-bedroom home, then moved out, along with her mother, to make more room for them.Daniels, who has an easy laugh and an unflappable spirit, remains a constant, soothing presence here."I just worry about them," she says. "Based on Christian compassion, I believe that I made the right decision."As a new teacher, McCreery was required to be fingerprinted, Sabatino said.

The real-life British monarch's reputation may have been somewhat rehabilitated by scholars since Shakespeare's time, but Lane Davies' interpretation is thankfully free of redeeming qualities that would only diminish one of the most perfectly realized and forward-looking villains Shakespeare created.In contrast with the most familiar film portrayals (Laurence Olivier's reptilian misanthrope or Ian McKellen's power-hungry fascist), Davies presents the black sheep of the House of York as a creature who delights in villainy for its own sake. They have been through hundreds of these," said a state health official who asked not to be named because she was not authorized to speak to the news media. He has been a Fulbright professor in German, director of the American Studies Research Center in India and resident scholar with the U.S. "Now we've got to work on our game."We've been playing so many games the last two months that we haven't really had a lot of practice time.