Howard Yune

4 days ago | napavalleyregister.com | Howard Yune

RUTHERFORD — Before there was a group called the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, there was a group of grape growers who were trying to ensure their livelihoods in the Napa Valley. Friday evening, before the wine industry nonprofit gathered for a banquet to celebrate its 50th anniversary, two of its founding members reflected on a very different Napa Valley that gave rise to the Grapegrowers – a community in which farmers struggled to have their voices heard.

1 week ago | napavalleyregister.com | Howard Yune

Updated at 9:52 p.m. Wednesday — A Napa County winery owner pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a tax evasion case federal prosecutors said lasted for more than a decade. Brian Fleury, 64, pleaded guilty in San Francisco federal court to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said in a news release. The charge was related to a false tax return in 2016.

1 week ago | napavalleyregister.com | Howard Yune

A Fairfield man who was arrested last year on suspicion of trying to drown a woman in Lake Berryessa is slated to go to trial on attempted murder and assault charges. Oscar Jesus Chavez, 35, faces eight criminal counts including attempted murder, assault and sexual abuse after a June 2024 incident in which prosecutors say he groped a woman, then held her under water in the lake. Chavez’ trial in Napa County Superior Court had been scheduled to begin on Monday, May 5.

1 week ago | napavalleyregister.com | Howard Yune

Carl Khier Doumani, who founded and owned a succession of wineries during more than half a century in the Napa Valley, has died at age 92. Doumani, who in the 1970s turned 100 acres of decades-old vineyards into the Stags’ Leap Winery, died at his home April 22. He had been living with Alzheimer’s disease for about seven years, according to a statement released by Julie Ann Kodmur, a family spokesperson. The eldest son of a commodities trader, Doumani was born Nov.

1 week ago | napavalleyregister.com | Howard Yune

The Napa County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an operation it says trained roosters in the Carneros area to take part in illegal cockfights, and its alleged owner faces potential charges of animal cruelty and illegal gun possession. Deputies served a search warrant April 18 on a property in the 1200 block of Thompson Avenue, where they found two dozen roosters that apparently were being trained and physically altered to attack other roosters, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Walsh.