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• Will Lodi Unified School District hire Manteca superintendent?

• Galt market woes

• Lodi area likely to endure smoke for a while

• Regional Roundup

• Correction

November 21st, 2009

• Logbook

• Holiday drive spreads cheer to U.S. troops

• Galt High students want board to approve open-campus policy

• Poisoning victims remain hospitalized

• Expert: Half a mushroom cap can be deadly

• Tokay grad files claim over Lodi's Grape Bowl

• Lodi Middle School holds annual Turkey Trot

• Regional Roundup

• No motive or suspect in shooting

• Sacramento cop arrested for alleged kidnapping

November 20th, 2009

• Acampo woman killed

• Salvation Army Kettle Kickoff

• Advocacy groups sue East Bay Municipal Utility District over Pardee expansion

• Regional Roundup

• Galt plans to help residents with energy-efficient projects

• Stable southeast of Lodi approved

• One year after a heart attack, Lodi's Judy Mims thanks rescuers

• National Guard troops return home in time for the holidays

• Real estate market gets on more solid ground

November 19th, 2009

• Operation: Christmas

• Logbook

• Suspect arrested after hiding in fridge

• Chase ends in crash

• Galt Joint Union High School Distric hires new superintendent

• Sales tax hike yields dividends: 5 new officers join Galt Police

• Lodi Unified School District board votes to cancel summer school for 2010

• Water surges in Mokelumne River yield more salmon

• Lodi City Council will consider redevelopment next June

• Lodi City Council plans to cap number of taco trucks at 22

• Corrections

November 18th, 2009

• Regional Roundup

• Paranormal group conducts second investigation of building

• Congress allocates money for local water projects

• Sarah Palin's book hits the shelves: Locals react

• Lodi man finds wife's ashes during police display of stolen property

• Galt City Council rejects study on rent stabilization

November 17th, 2009

• Paying tribute to a Lodian

• Lodi Budget and Finance Committee to look into ways to save money on employee benefits

• Regional Roundup

• Decision on summer school expected at tonight's Lodi Unified School District meeting

• Clements gets free water rescue boat

• Redevelopment to be discussed by Lodi City Council again

• Court reinstates death penalty for killer of Lodi grad

• Clarification

November 16th, 2009

• Correction

• Public Meetings

• City Council 'triple-dog dared' to ditch cars, use Lodi buses

• Sierra Adventure store to close after four years in Downtown Lodi

• Lodi's First Sip event showcases area wineries' latest vintages

• Three members of Lodi-area family fall ill after eating poisonous mushrooms they reportedly found at Lodi Lake

• Regional Roundup

November 14th, 2009

• Galt school district narrows superintendent search to one

• Regional Roundup

• Despite budget cuts, some Lodi Unified School District salaries continue to rise

• Watchful neighbor in Lodi helped bust suspected burglars

• New Galt city manager juggles job, family

• Despite an increase in homeless students, school districts look to bolster enrollment, raise revenue

• A first look at 2009 vintages at Lodi's First Sip wine-tasting event

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

• The country's mess is our fault (165)
• Obama is not a moderate (130)
• Sarah Palin's book hits the shelves: Locals react (70)
• Lodi City Council plans to cap number of taco trucks at 22 (48)
• The haves should help the have-nots (30)
• Public health care is a Christian option (29)
• Tokay in, traveling to unbeaten No. 3 Grant for football playoffs (25)
• Government-run health care is a bad idea (17)
• Young woman fatally shot at Acampo home (17)
• Sierra Adventure store to close after four years in Downtown Lodi (16)

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Lodi area likely to endure smoke for a while

Another day passed Tuesday as smoke remained in Lodi and throughout the San Joaquin Valley.

That brown haze, caused by a number of fires burning in Northern California, isn't expected to go anywhere in the immediate future, if wind forecasts hold up.

The heavy smoke and particulate pollution prompted the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to issue a warning on Tuesday morning declaring the air in the central region "unhealthy for everybody."

Officials are urging residents with asthma and other respiratory ailments to stay indoors and limit outdoor activity. Exposure to particulate pollution can cause asthma attacks and acute bronchitis.

Despite the warnings, several local baseball teams kept to their schedules Tuesday playing in the haze.

Firefighters did make progress overnight on the blazes, including one in Napa and Solano counties that is likely causing to most of Lodi's haze.

But winds are expected to remain as they have — about 8 to 10 mph from the west — until Thursday night, according to private forecasting firm AccuWeather.com. As of late Tuesday afternoon, the forecasting service was predicting the wind to shift to the south around 9 or 10 p.m. Thursday.

The National Weather Service was predicting smoke to remain until 11 p.m. Thursday.

A wind shift would move the smoke out of the valley, bringing in southern air from the less smoky half of the state.

Fire control is also a factor in the amount of smoke drifting through the air, and by Tuesday morning the "Wild Fire" near Fairfield had been 80 percent contained. By 7:30 p.m. the fire had burned 4,089 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL Fire) and is being fought by 540 firefighters.

Wildfires raging across California are being blamed for unhealthy air quality throughout the San Joaquin Valley.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.