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• Local historian offers expertise after bones found in Stockton

• Still adjusting to life without bars

• Parents seek assistance from public, Texas group to find missing teen

• Lodi police nab three in connection to string of local church burglaries

• Military Moms meet to support their troops, each other

• Regional Roundup

November 2nd, 2009

• Deputies name suspect in fatal Acampo shooting

November 7th, 2009

• Lodi High graduate was at Fort Hood

• Lining up for flu shots in Lodi

• Tour packs buses as birdwatchers admire Sandhill cranes

• City of Lodi staff looking into possibility of limiting number of taco trucks

• Daytime thieves targeting Lodi homes

• Lodi High School rally featured on 'Good Day Sacramento'

• Out of control

• Homicide suspect Anthony Hubbard arraigned

• Regional Roundup

• New Lodi Memorial rule to combat spread of H1N1: Visitors must be older than 16

November 6th, 2009

• Short sales make up nearly half of Lodi market

• Regional Roundup

• Lodi man accused of smuggling drugs, weapons for inmates at state prison

• 'I-5 Strangler' sentenced to 6 terms of life

• Jury convicts Acampo man of torture, assault of his girlfriend

• Young girl is 200,000th person to assemble AIDS, HIV care kit

• Woman in wheelchair struck by car

November 5th, 2009

• A lower Lodi Lake

• Streetside scarecrows

• San Joaquin County considers moratorium on new Williamson Act contracts

• Speakers address Lodi Unified School District budget shortfalls, plea to keep programs

• Armed robbers still targeting Lodi shops

• Regional Roundup

• California voters have final say over $11 billion water bond

• Weekend bus service to continue until Lodi City Council makes decision

• Paul Tebbel shines spotlight on sandhill cranes

• Your complete guide to Sandhill Crane Festival

• David Diskin is first to give an invocation under new city of Lodi policy

• Man wanted in Acampo homicide gives up to San Joaquin County Sheriff's detectives

November 4th, 2009

• Candle fire

• Rep. Jerry McNerney sets telephone town hall for Thursday

• Regional Roundup

• Lodi City Council weighs raising fares to restore some bus service

• Galt City Council argues over ordinance hiring residents

• San Joaquin County sues state over prison hospital planned for Stockton

• Big win for Allen Baroni in reclamation election

• California sends Democratic loyalist John Garamendi to Congress

• Bicycling father raising awareness of teen suicide

• Jason Behrmann is unanimously named Galt's city manager

November 3rd, 2009

• 500 attend service for Kyle Coumas

• Correction

• Galt considers ordinance that would require city contractors to hire locally

• Regional Roundup

• Have you seen a missing guide dog puppy in Lodi?

• Galt man dies after weekend Highway 12 crash

• Jason Behrmann is top candidate for Galt city manager

• Deputies name suspect in fatal Acampo shooting

• Clarification

November 2nd, 2009

• Downtown Lodi trick or treat

• Public Meetings

• Correction

• Kyle Coumas funeral today

• Regional Roundup

• Sandhill Cranes Festival comes to Lodi next weekend

• Lamborghini lovers gather for show, fine wine, luncheon in Woodbridge

• Lodi's 'Biggest Loser' Christy Richesin runs 5K Halloween race

• 27-year-old man shot to death Saturday night in front of Acampo home

• Group investigates reports of haunting

October 31st, 2009

• Area schools have no plans of closing due to H1N1 virus

• Tokay High evacuation

• Gated communities in Lodi

• Finishing touches on Hill House replica

• Regional Roundup

• In remembrance of Kyle Coumas

• Lodi-area Halloween events

• City of Lodi settles case of mistaken identity

• Lodi a reflection of Halloween's retail emergence

• Izzy Laviola and Seth Siddle-Mitchell crowned Tokay homecoming queen and king

The following stories have received the most reader comments during the last 7 days.

• Bible is entwined with American civic life (135)
• I predict: A conservative tide will rise in 2010 (71)
• David Diskin is first to give an invocation under new city of Lodi policy (70)
• The Treaty of Tripoli hoax (59)
• Universal health care solves big problems (59)
• Here's what my father knew about the assassination of JFK (35)
• Stuck in neutral? Hardly! (32)
• Words from our forefathers (27)
• City of Lodi staff looking into possibility of limiting number of taco trucks (20)
• Majority cannot deprive the minority (20)

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More churches in the Lodi-Galt era are entering the computer age

More and more churches are getting into the high-tech age. More than 25 churches in the Lodi-Galt area have Web sites, although they vary in quality.

Some are loaded with information and updated regularly. Others promote events that have already taken place.

Some Web sites are handled by the pastor, others by the staff and yet others by volunteers within the congregation.

In Galt, Pastor Rob Patterson of First Baptist Church once said he is lucky to have a very talented computer wizard in his congregation.

At Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, also in Galt, Pastor Mary Sanders does it herself.

At least of couple of churches are somewhat outdated. They include one Lodi church that has its former pastor listed, along with an activity calendar for May. Another church in Lodi still promotes its back-to-school luau that was held on Aug. 26.

Patterson prides his church's Web site as being rather progressive, since it has received hits from at least 81 countries. Not only does it have basic information about Galt First Baptist and its activities, it contains several weblogs from Patterson and others.

Patterson said he has received criticism from some because the weblogs deviate from religion. If Patterson is in a grumpy mood, he may very well say that in his weblog.

The Web site was developed by computer-savvy Tom Lane, a deacon who writes a weblog called "Deacon Speakin'." In another weblog called "What Eva," Eva Moore said in her last entry that she was writing it while watching "Star Wars: Episode 3."

First Baptist has been online since 1999, Patterson said. Readers range from about 25 or 30 from the church who check the weblogs daily to former residents who left Galt to people from all over the world.

Many churches, however, have Web sites that Patterson described as "outdated bulletins."

In Lodi, one pastor has established her own Christian Web site that has nothing to do her church. Ellen Tanouye, lay ministry director at St. Paul Lutheran Church, has a non-denominational Web site and writes daily devotionals that people can receive by e-mail, thanks to webmaster Frank Sasaki. About 8,000 people worldwide receive Tanouye's devotionals in their e-mail, Sasaki said.

The daily devotionals, available through the Web site, http://www.godled.org, cover all kinds of topics. Tanouye has written about caring for infants, working the graveyard shift and the differences between belly buttons that are "innies" or "outies" — "God made us that way." The devotional about belly buttons evolved into a discussion of the dangers of becoming self-absorbed.

The purpose of the devotionals, Tanouye said, is for people on the go. If you go to work, you may not have time to read the Bible, but the daily devotional is as close by as an e-mail.

Tanouye's other Web site has two names, http://www.begodled.org and http://www.itsgodschurch.org. It started out as a Christian-based Web site, but it recently evolved into a new non-denominational church, called God's Church.

The fledgling church, which Tanouye leads, had its first service on Oct. 30. Services are at 4 p.m. on Sundays at the Japanese-American Citizen League hall at Elm and Stockton streets. Thirty people showed up for the first service, Sasaki said.

For more information on the devotionals or God's Church Web site, call (800) 603-6527.

Contact reporter Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.