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About three weeks ago, we started a search that Junior had been waiting his entire life to begin. Yes, we began the long and painful search for Junior's first car. Junior has been saving for this since he was 10 years old. Allowance, birthday money, holiday money, several years of Garlic Festivals spent on a street corner selling bottled water to tourists trying to find their way back to 101 and a brief moment of employment for his uncle has culminated in enough money to buy...

Last week I discussed the size of CalPERS retirement pensions. The key point was that the there are large variations between employee groups. The bottom three groups retiring in FY 2010-11 – all miscellaneous employees – averaged $21,000 to $38,000 at 21 years service and age 61. The top two groups – local police/firefighters and the state Highway Patrol – averaged $84,000 to $92,000 a year at 28 years service and age 54. Between those extremes were other local agency and state public employees. Errata: The chart last week should have read “E-7 Sgt. First Class” – not “E-7 First Sergeant.”

OAKLAND, Calif. - Monday's game against the Memphis Grizzlies showed just why first-year coach Mark Jackson still believes the Golden State Warriors are a playoff team. They dominated a legit contender in the Grizzlies, leading by as much as 20 points.

OAKLAND, Calif. - Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie said upon arrival in Mobile, Ala., for the Senior Bowl that he could have a head coach in place by the end of the week.

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco 49ers came tantalizingly close to their sixth Super Bowl trip. Instead, that bid literally slipped from their grasp, ending one of their most surprisingly successful seasons in franchise history.

In this debate (scroll below) Connor Ramey and Kollin Kosmicki predict winners of the NFC and AFC title games.

Members of the Mainstreet Media Group (Hollister Free Lance, Gilroy Dispatch, Morgan Hill Times) decided to predict the winners of Sunday's NFL conference championship games. Here are the picks:

For the next 12 months, I'll be inviting you to my table. Sharing stories, anecdotes, lessons from the kitchen and, of course, recipes from my new cookbook, "Molto Batali" (ecco, 2011). And it's all about family meals.