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• Hitchcock blasts council's vote

• Monterey County family reunited with their dog in Lodi, which they thought had been euthanized

• China's consul general visits Lodi, discusses trade opportunities

• Man admits to shooting friend in face

• North San Joaquin water board incumbents challenged in election

• 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 (58)
• Universal health care solves big problems (58)
• 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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Playing 'Frogger' in the streets of China

U.S. discus thrower Stephanie Brown-Trafton of Galt is keeping a journal about her Olympic experience. Following is Tuesday's entry.

Yesterday I had a full training session at the Chinese National Training Center in Dalian. This is one of those centers that you might have heard about where kids are sent to train and compete in a particular sport based on their talents in recruiting programs.

This center is for the track and field athletes. There are hundreds of athletes here ... I guess it is like a boarding school for athletics. Once again there is a police motorcade and traffic is stopped 15-20 cars deep at most intersections as we drive by. I can't imagine what the traffic is really like when there is no police car as an escort. It might be a bit dangerous but I guess I'll never know.

The training center has a special area dedicated to the throwing events with several rings and cages available for practice. My throwing practice goes well and the coaches are impressed. I feel like I am very explosive and am moving well through the ring.

Today we had another shopping excursion planned for downtown Dalian. Once again we had several dozen plain-clothes officers following us around and I made another break for it on my own. I had an officer following me closely for a while and I decided to ignore him and venture out of the shopping mall area. I have seen thousands of shopping malls in my life and I don't want to be stuck in one here. A block away from the mall is a side street with an open air market ... basically a place where vendors have set up tables and chairs, umbrellas and tarps. This reminds me of the farmers market. It also reminds me of the streets of Athens near the Acropolis.

By this time I don't see any officers following me but they are probably watching me from a distance. I don't care anymore, just as long as they don't try to get me to go back to the mall. I venture around the side streets for awhile and dodge traffic. Around here the cars do not stop for pedestrians ... I am not joking about this. Cars have complete right of way and if you are

Please see Brown-Trafton Jornal,

Page 11 unlucky enough to get hit by a car they will not even stop. On one of the main roads I see people cross over one lane and wait in the middle of the road for cars going 35-40 mph to cross about 1 foot in front of them and cars are crossing behind them going the other direction at high speeds. This is the original "Frogger" game. I wasn't that brave or stupid so I had to wait until there was no traffic to cross.

I went back to the mall only because I was on a mission to find a mattress pad that I could take back to the hotel. The mall is huge ... about 7-8 levels with a grocery market on the ground level. On the way back I walked through an open-air market and saw all kinds of interesting items in the meat department ... chicken feet, pig nose, all types of animal organs ... nothing goes to waste!

I walked by a young Chinese guy and suddenly felt something hit the back of my heel ... felt like a big bird dropping. Then I realize that I had been the recipient of a large wad of spit. Whether it was intentional or not is an issue I will wonder about forever. It was very nasty to say the least. I was wearing flip flops and this nasty spit wad stuck to my heel. Fortunately I had wet towelettes in my purse and I wiped off the nasty wad. I sat down for a while and watched people walk by. I noticed that there were others spitting right on the sidewalk too ... I guess the anti-spitting campaign had not reached this far out of Beijing.

... I had 45 minutes left before the scheduled departure time so I decided to celebrate by going to McDonald's. Going to McDonald's used to be a big ritual of mine after all major competitions in high school. Win or lose, Dad would drive me to McD's to get some hot crispy French fries. I thought I would try them out in China to see if they were as good as back home. I stood in line and when it was my turn I pointed to a picture of a happy meal and voila ... two minutes later I received my toy and some crispy fries, coke and a chicken wrap. The toy was called a 'milk pineapple card holder' but to me it was a perfect call phone carrier. It was fuzzy, had a pocket big enough for my cell phone and a loop to attach to my lanyard. Today was a success and now I could sit down in peace with my French fries.