Mercury News Photo

Property owners survey the devastation left by the giant fire near Henry Coe State Park. (more…)

Stu Branoff, a fifth-grade teacher at Bay View Elementary in Santa Cruz, is a yo-yo contest organizer and enthusiast. (more…)

Mehdi Shahbazi, 64, is engaged in a zealous legal battle with Shell Oil over control of the Marina station he operates. (more…)

Cal Stamenov, executive chef of Marinus in the Bernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley, talks about the food and style of his restaurant. (more…)

Winemaker Daryl Sattui has built a $30 million, 121,000-square-foot castle called Castello di Amorosa, at his winery south of Calistoga. (more…)

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk celebrates its 100th anniversary. (more…)

Women over the age of sixty were judged on personal interview, philosophy of life, formal attire and talent at the Valley Village Retirement Center in Santa Clara. (more…)

Rehearsal for “Noah’s Ark” at the South Hills Community Church in San Jose Wednesday, July, 25, 2007. Jay Thompson was diagnosed in 2006 with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease while working on composing and writing the musical comedy and worked to finish it before he lost the ability of using his hands. (more…)

Hewlett-Packard has decided to sell their 534-acre Little Basin property in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The land will be purchased by two land trusts and added to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. (more…)

A group of Silicon Valley professionals who show their intergalactic love by dressing up as Darth Vader’s storm troopers from the film series.

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In preparation for the upcoming graduation ceremony, Santa Clara University’s lector Rose Marie Beebe practices pronouncing 600 different names. (more…)

Gliroy’s Brownell Middle School’s symphonic band is going to Disneyland after all. (more…)