After scoring early points, defense gets turn GERAGOS EXPECTED TO TAKE 2-3 WEEKS CALLING WITNESSES
With no shortage of bravado, Scott Peterson's vaunted defense lawyer has already deflated damaging evidence, raised serious credibility issues about a key police detective and offered alternate theories as to how Laci Peterson and her unborn child washed ashore dead at San Francisco Bay. By Jessie Seyfer / Mercury News
Concerns in probe of S.J. City Hall agreement
As one of the broadest probes of wrongdoing in the history of San Jose government begins, ethical and legal scholars are questioning if the independent investigator assigned by the city to conduct the inquiry is fit to do so -- especially if it means looking into the actions of City Attorney Rick Doyle. By Aaron C. Davis / Mercury News
BALCO INVESTIGATION
Mercury News Stories
Account of search depicts intimidation RAID: DEFENSE CLAIMS BULLYING, VIOLATION OF RIGHTS:
On the morning authorities prepared to raid Balco Laboratories last fall, an office secretary saw two men standing outside the Burlingame building with black jackets that had the initials ``IRS'' on the back. By Elliott Almond / Mercury News
GOOGLE IPO
Google files to go public
Google, whose Internet search tools have made it a global icon, has registered to sell its shares directly to an eager public.
40th president rode boundless optimism
Ronald Reagan rose from Depression-era poverty to Hollywood fame. He governed California during its most tumultuous era since World War II. He transformed modern politics and hastened the fall of communism. And he survived an attempted assassin's bullets to become one of the most popular presidents in history.
Alarm over kids' weight
America's children are getting fat -- so fat that they may grow up to be the unhealthiest generation in decades.
REBOOTING THE VALLEY
Valley keeps faith in future of tech
Optimism and consumer confidence in Silicon Valley is at its highest level in almost two years, according to a recent poll by San Jose State University, co-sponsored by the Mercury News. By K. Oanh Ha / Mercury News
SILICON VALLEY 150
Annual review of the area's largest companies
Growth in sales fuels optimism JOB-GAIN PACE UNCERTAIN
Silicon Valley is back in the black. In 2003, for the first time since the dot-com days of 2000, the top 150 public companies headquartered in the technology capital of the world collectively showed a profit. Sam Diaz / Mercury News
Taiwan strives for own identity
Taiwan's 21.5 million people see themselves as a nation apart from China. This series probes the identity of Taiwan's citizens and their everyday concerns -- from marriage and divorce, to their thirsts for better art and literature, to their thoughts about their political future.
MEGAN'S LAW
Where sex offenders live -- and why you don't know
Under the federal Megan's Law, most states have decided to make it easy for residents to get accurate, detailed information on high-risk sex offenders. Does one live in your neighborhood? California lags far behind in its efforts to keep citizens informed. Read our series to learn more.
Jobless in Silicon Valley
2003 has been a difficult year for the unemployed in Silicon Valley. In January, Santa Clara County had already lost 192,300 jobs, or 18 percent of the total, from the job market's peak in December 2000. From January to October, 12,100 more jobs vanished. By Margaret Steen / Mercury News
Making their mark
Many Silicon Valley business leaders operate outside the spotlight but have substantial influence as innovative technologists, creative thinkers or well-connected dealmakers. Here the Mercury News profiles some of these people.
Valley could have key wireless role
The conventional wisdom is that Silicon Valley missed the boat on wireless. But while the valley hasn't yet had a blockbuster wireless success, it could make some important contributions to the wireless future. So much venture capital has poured into wireless companies here that observers believe that the region is poised to be a player in a wide range of wireless technologies.
TOUGH CHOICES
Patients find new dilemmas and solutions
Medical future's tough choices Patients find new dilemmas, solutions
She has round tattoos where her nipples used to be. Faint scars across her abdomen are all that is left of her ovaries and uterus. By Julie Sevrens Lyons / Mercury News
Pressure building for changes in compensation
The paychecks of Silicon Valley's top bosses got fatter in 2003 -- the first time in three years. And that has made the debate over executive compensation even hotter. By Chris O'Brien and Jack Davis / Mercury News
Growing up wired When technology is just a part of everyday life
The first wave in a generation of teens unlike any other is now graduating from Silicon Valley high schools: The vast majority of them will remember an adolescence lived to an astonishing degree on the Internet. These teens, some of whom have been online nearly a decade, are among the Internet's first natives, at home in the wired world to a degree their parents may never wholly understand.
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SCOTT PETERSON TRIAL: 
