Feb. 7 to Feb. 13: Prosecution Rests in Scherer Trial, Fire, Pleasanton Goes Back to Bargaining Table

Finally, Pleasanton sees some sun after a  week. But it seems the cold weather is here to stay. If you're keeping warm by staying in doors, take some time to catch up on your Pleasanton news.

If you missed your daily reading of Pleasanton Patch, here are some highlights.

At Amador Valley High School's at Amador Valley High School hundreds of young musicians from Northern California to show of their skills. Check out some of the winners from the event here.

At an , officials are bracing for more budget cuts in the coming fiscal year. About $152 million has already been cut in the past year through a hiring freez and program reductions. But most of the savings were from one-time actions.

The murder trial against Ernest Scherer III, accused of murdering his parents in their Castlewood home, continued. The prosecution rested their case after Scherer III's ex-wife Robyn Scherer took the stand. She told the court about her decade-long marriage and , afraid that the couple's then 2-year-old son would be taken from her. She also she wrote Scherer III confronting him of his affairs.

In our latest Moms Talk column, our panel of mom experts put in their two cents on make-up for little girls. Walmart recently released a new line of cosmetics for 8-year-old girls. What do you think of this product? Join in on the conversation .

The Pleasanton Unified School Board are looking to fill a $7.7 million budget gap. Boardmembers held a budget workshop to discuss the for the coming fiscal year.

For the first time, a Pleasanton school is under program improvement, a state monitoring system meant to turn around under-performing schools. Pleasanton Middle School received a notice recently from the state saying the it must . Meanwhile, the school is ranked number 28 out of 1,050 middle schools in the state.

The city of Pleasanton and its employees union are returning to the to cover the next two years. During public discussions about a tentative agreement, approved by the union last fall, some residents argued the contract was not aggressive enough in addressing the city's rising cost of unfunded pension liabilities and other personnel costs associated with post-employment benefits. On the other side, employees say the initial agreement represented a number of concessions and sacrifices made by city workers.

Borders filed for bankruptcy protection and announced it will. The closure of the Borders stores leaves a vacancy at the Metro 580 Shopping Center. Borders currently occupy a 30,000-square-foot space and employs 36 people.

Firefighters put out a structure fire that appeared to have began from a water heater closet. There were no injuries reported, but the fire caused about $100,000 in damages.