Before the Jackson Planning Commission tonight will be several projects proposed for the city including one project to expand senior care facility options in the county. Ron Regan, owner of the Oak Manor home, and several other adult facilities, is proposing to build an independent-living senior facility adjacent to the current Oak Manor facility. The meeting is tonight at 6pm at the Jackson Civic Center.

The Wild and Scenic designation for portions of the Mokelumne River in Amador County proposed by the Bureau of Land Management, or B-L-M, has generated quite a bit of discussion amongst both local opponents and proponents of the designation. According to Chris Wright of the Foothill Conservancy there are many direct benefits to the designation.

A new chapter in the fight against West Nile Virus may raise the stakes for Cities and Counties. A woman is suing the city in which she lives, Chico, for her husband's death from the West Nile virus last year. Ilse Brown has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit seeking $50 million dollars in damages from the City. Brown says that her husband contracted the virus and died last year.

The California State Fair has now officially opened with the theme the "Fun Never Grows Old." The fair runs through September 3. This year there are 14 new rides spread out between the midway and the kid's park and many other new features as well, including an Elvis sandwich.

With a second, serious destructive fire now ripping through the Lake Tahoe area the subject of Forest Management Practices, or the lack thereof, is once again headline news.  Visiting Lake Tahoe for the fourth time since the Angora fire began, Senator Dave Cox joined former President Bill Clinton and other dignitaries at the 10th Annual Lake Tahoe Forum. 

Weather related problems continue around different parts of the Caribbean and the U-S and its territories.  Hurricane Dean has swept across the southern coast of Jamaica with high winds and surf even as the storm’s eye remained offshore. At 8 p.m. ET Sunday, Dean was moving west about 35 mph with sustained winds of up to 145 mph, according to reports from the National Hurricane Center.

California legislators have finished their summer vacations and today are returning to the Capitol to deal with hundreds of leftover issues, including the lack of a state budget.

According to the Associated Press Utah officials are now conceding that the six coal miners caught in a cave-in are probably dead and may forever be entombed in the still-quivering mountain, all but abandoning the unflinching optimism they've maintained publicly for nearly two weeks.

What makes young people happy and secure? It turns out that according to an AP and MTV survey spending time with family was the top answer to that open-ended question. The extensive survey asked more than 100 questions of 1,280 people ages 13-24 on the nature of happiness among America's young people. Next was spending time with friends, followed by time with a significant other.

A fire between Moke Hill and San Andreas yesterday afternoon sent smoke billowing into the skies above Calaveras and Amador Counties. The fire, reported around 4:45 pm, caused the closure of Hwy 49 near the Golden Hills subdivision in Calaveras County through the Hwy 49/12 split. Crews form the Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit of Calfire, local Calaveras County Fire Departments, and units from the Amador ElDorado Unit all joined the firefighting effort.  Air support, in the form of four fixed wing tankers and 2 helicopters fought the fire from the ground while 14 state engines, seven local engines, 10 hand crews, three dozers, operated on the ground. Around 6:30 the fire jumped the highway from west to east and began traveling up the ridge jumping from tree to tree. CAL Fire reports that no structures were at risk although they do believe this fire began as a structure related fire. No evacuation orders were issued. The fire was brought under control by around 9 p.m. Fire crews continued to work overnight