People with interest in local road planning have an array of meetings to choose from in coming days, covering issues ranging from crosswalks to Salida overpasses to the North County Corridor.

Riverbank plans to expand its city museum by buying the vacant building next door.

After 12 years in Sacramento, the Great Valley Center's annual conference is moving to Modesto.

NBC journalist Lester Holt was selected to speak at the next commencement for the University of California at Merced. Holt visited Merced in May to report on first lady Michelle Obama's speech to the first graduating class of UC Merced students.

From the first frantic 911 call that a shooter was rampaging through the Readiness Processing Center on this sprawling Army base, it took police officer Kimberly Munley just four minutes to get there. But it was already bloody chaos.

As if going off to war, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan cleaned out his apartment, gave leftover frozen broccoli to one neighbor and called another to thank him for his friendship, common courtesies and routines of the departing soldier. Instead, authorities say, he went on the killing spree that left 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, dead.

WASHINGTON — The killings of 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, by an Army psychiatrist who also was a Muslim, according to authorities, set off a rancorous debate Friday that once again spotlighted the fear among Muslims in the United States that they'll be collectively found guilty for the actions of one man.

FORT HOOD, Texas — Pfc. Marquest Smith, who was to head to Afghanistan in January, was completing routine paperwork about a bee-sting allergy when the sounds erupted.

WASHINGTON — Amid intense lobbying by the Obama administration, House Democratic leaders struggled Friday for the final votes needed to pass sweeping health care legislation, weighing fresh concessions to abortion foes and working to ease concerns among Latino holdouts.

WASHINGTON — San Joaquin Valley Democrats will feel the heat whichever way they vote on the massive health care package now set for House action as early as today.

The Bureau of Reclamation is waiving day-use fees at New Melones Reservoir for veterans and members of the military Wednesday to honor Veterans Day.

As concern spreads about H1N1 flu, a survey of California voters found that although most consider the vaccine safe, a majority had no plans to get vaccinated. The poll found that blacks and Latinos are far more likely than other groups to say they believe the vaccine could be unsafe.

100 YEARS AGO: A meeting of the library association was held at the C.N. Whitmore home and attended by 75 people. A large number of books were donated. A song by Mr. Campin, piano solo by Miss Alma Williams and remarks by Professor Wagener were highlights of the evening.

An Indian music video, “Thanedaar,” with Punjabi singer Naaz Kally and dancers Fateh Bhangra was filmed in Modesto on Tuesday. The independent music video will be shown on television and also will be used as a trailer for the upcoming dance competition at the Gallo Center for the Arts in downtown Modesto.

Riverdale Park residents and nearby businesses polluted their own ground-water, Bonzi Sanitation Landfill contends in a $20 million countersuit against state government. The landfill claims water regulators fraudulently hid tests shifting responsibility for tainted water to extort a $9 million settlement in 2005.

The $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers is being extended, and the deal is being sweetened: Now existing homeowners can get $6,500 from the government if they buy another house. Congress approved the $10.8 billion tax break Thursday, and the president is expected to sign it into law today.

The Modesto Bee and two other petitioners have prevailed in a lawsuit to force the Stanislaus Employees' Retirement Association to release information on pensions for public service retirees. In a decision released Thursday, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Hurl Johnson ruled that the pensions paid to retirees in the StanCERA system are public information.

The waiting is over in Riverbank. Former Councilwoman Virginia Madueño is the city's mayor. Her 55-vote lead over Richard O'Brien, a retired Navy commander who manages one of his family's three grocery stores, grew to 98 votes after the county election office Thursday night updated the count from Tuesday's election with the remaining mail-in votes. The update wasn't expected until at least today.

Broadcast journalist Lester Holt of NBC will speak at UC Merced's 2010 commencement ceremony.

MERCED — Voters on Tuesday transformed the Merced City Council, electing a mix of leaders with wide-ranging opinions and backgrounds.

The Hughson City Council on Thursday picked a temporary city manager even though it's still paying someone else to do the job.

RICHMOND, Va. — The doctor doesn't look like much of a crusader, bent over the frail frame of 90-year-old Alberta Scott.

An Army psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at a massive military post Thursday, authorities said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded in the worst mass shooting at a military base in the United States. The gunman, first said to have been killed, was wounded but alive in a hospital under military guard, said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood.

The Boys Scouts of America will be 100 years old in 2010.

WASHINGTON — San Joaquin Valley farmers could swap water more easily under a bill floated Thursday before a Senate panel.

Modesto is participating in America Recycles Day by showing off items made from recycled products at The Home Depot at 1617 N. Carpenter Road on Nov. 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

SALIDA — A woman who left an assisted living facility after an argument was arrested Thursday on suspicion of kicking and punching two staffers at nearby Salida Middle School. No one was injured, school Principal Shannon Kettering said.

Final unofficial results from Tuesday's contested elections in Stanislaus County.

Ripon police's powered parachute aircraft on Monday helped officers find and arrest a wanted Manteca man who ran from police near the Jimco Truck Stop, a department spokesman said Thursday.

Investigators have determined someone intentionally lit a fire Monday night that destroyed a city-owned home in Modesto's Dry Creek Park where police last week found $1 million worth of marijuana plants, fire officials said Thursday.

Civil rights organizations today are holding a summit on prison inmate recidivism and re-entry on the Modesto Junior College West Campus.

The Modesto police Street Gang Unit arrested three men, confiscated various drugs packaged for sale, and recovered a handgun and some cash in a raid Thursday morning.

Residents, businesses and property owners will get a chance Tuesday to weigh in as Oakdale updates its general plan.

75 YEARS AGO: Stanislaus County voters were marching to the polls in great numbers pointing to the largest vote ever recorded in the county. A check of scattered precincts in Modesto showed that 35 percent to 40 percent of the vote had been cast by 2 p.m.

After years of fretting, a toxic nightmare in the Riverdale Park neighborhood could be coming true. A test last week showed low levels of an oily contaminant consistent with landfill leakage. The concentration is far less than the state's danger level, but water officials are alarmed because it's the first time the cancer-causing agent has showed up in the well, which delivers water to about 300 people in 200 homes southwest of Modesto.

Farms and cities in the Northern San Joaquin Valley could benefit from the water package approved by state lawmakers Wednesday, but details remain unsettled.

The Modesto Bee and two other petitioners have prevailed in a lawsuit to force the Stanislaus Employees’ Retirement Association to release information on pensions paid to public service retirees.

With the help of a police dog, officers arrested a burglary suspect in northeast Modesto today. Police identified the man as Brian Horton, 33, of Waterford.

The Stanislaus County Health Services Agency has decided that its limited supply of H1N1 vaccine will be given to pregnant women. The county agency said Wednesday that it received 600 doses of the injectable vaccine, which has been coveted since swine flu outbreaks began here during the summer. Health care providers in the county started receiving small amounts of the injectable vaccine last week.

A convicted murderer has been sentenced to six consecutive life terms for killing six women throughout Central California during the 1970s and '80s.

A woman who reportedly became physically aggressive with staff at Salida Middle School was arrested just before 9 a.m. today.

It took long months of delicate negotiations — and the last-minute deletion of a project dear to the heart of the state's most powerful legislator — for lawmakers to craft what could turn out to be one of the most pivotal water deals in state history.

Voters spoke, and they want a new direction for the Modesto City Schools board of trustees. That's the conclusion candidates reached from Tuesday's results, which ushered in first-time candidates Ruben Villalobos and Sue Zwahlen along with conservative incumbents Nancy Cline and Cindy Marks.

Money, energy, and a positive message carried Joe Muratore to an unexpectedly large victory in his race for a Modesto City Council seat representing the La Loma and airport neighborhoods, political observers say. His margin of victory Tuesday — 54 percent — allows him to bypass a December runoff despite dogged campaigns run by opponents Jeff Perine and Robert Stanford.

An 18-year-old man was injured Wednesday morning after a dispute with another teenage male over a common girlfriend ended with gunfire near Elliot Alternative Education Center in central Modesto, a police spokesman said.

The Taste of Home Cooking School is an evening packed with entertainment, product sampling and great food ideas presented by The Modesto Bee and Gallo Family Vineyards on Tuesday at Modesto Centre Plaza, 1000 L St. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the event begins at 7.

A traveling exhibit honoring the Boy Scouts' 100th birthday is stopping at Heritage Ford in Modesto today.

Modesto

Officers on Wednesday were looking into a possibility that two armed robberies Tuesday night in Modesto were committed by the same suspects within 15 minutes of each other, a police spokesman said.

The public can weigh in on management of New Melones Reservoir and surrounding land at a pair of open houses Dec. 2.