 (Aric Crabb/Staff file) Berkeley Bears football team improving in the classroom UC Berkeley set out to improve players' graduation rate before news broke that it was worst among all NCAA teams. Stricter standards for admission waivers, more tutors and a "different culture" have an effect, leaders say |
 (Livermore Police Department) Livermore: Popular youth golf pro charged with 65 counts of child molestation Andrew Nisbet, 31, worked at Las Positas Golf Course in Livermore and was charged with 65 counts of child molestation after police say he abused at least two students. |
 (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) San Ramon Valley schools get more federal scrutiny after discrimination complaints The district will be monitored by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights for up to two years as part of a resolution to a special education discrimination complaint. |
 (RAY CHAVEZ) Review: Nola Po'boy brings New Orleans to Concord Gumbo. Jambalaya. Etouffee. Try these and other New Orleans-style dishes at Nola Po'boy and Gumbo Kitchen, a gussied up diner in Concord -- but whatever you do, don't miss the spicy fried chicken, crispy cinnamon waffle and homemade sweet potato pie. |
BUSINESS  (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo) Quinn: With the NSA looking for terrorists on video games, it's now time to be afraid Reports this week that U.S. national surveillance agencies have been playing games like 'World of Warcraft' and 'Second Life' has our spies looking silly. But their random digital exploits are frightening, too. |
LOCAL NEWS  ( ) East Oakland: Crews cap gas line leak that sparked fire  Crews have capped a 4-inch gas line that ruptured Tuesday morning in East Oakland and sparked an underground fire that burned for nearly four hours and prompted the evacuation of nearby homes. |
 (Thinkstock) Was this child's hand gesture worth a suspension? A Pennsylvania schoolboy was suspended for pretending to shoot an imaginary bow-and-arrow at a classmate after the hand gesture was found to violate the school's zero tolerance policy on weapons. Full Story |
 (
Mark DuFrene
) Holiday cookie boot camp Amp up your holiday baking with these cookie tips from Alice Medrich and other baking pros. |
 (
Chris Pizzello
) How Miley Cyrus landed MTV's Best Artist of 2013 honors Cyrus twerked her way to the top of the music scene this year with the most watched videos of 2013. |
 (
) Bay Area residents live longer; here's why Bay Area residents are among the nation's longest-lived people, surviving on average more than a decade longer than residents of rural Kentucky, West Virginia or Mississippi. |
 (HERALD FILE) Mi Pueblo files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Mi Pueblo, the festive Bay Area supermarket chain and icon of family-grown Hispanic businesses, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, citing a dispute with its primary lender, Wells Fargo. |
