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• Some Lodi-area students seek a new course for college because of rising costs

• Increased admission fees likely for some local colleges

• After 10 years, Vino Piazza files bankruptcy

• 45 years later, Lodian treasures card from Jacqueline Kennedy

• Lodi teens ditch school, crash car into tractor trailer on Guild Avenue

• Regional Roundup

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 (166)
• Obama is not a moderate (130)
• Sarah Palin's book hits the shelves: Locals react (71)
• Lodi City Council plans to cap number of taco trucks at 22 (49)
• Public health care is a Christian option (31)
• The haves should help the have-nots (30)
• Tokay in, traveling to unbeaten No. 3 Grant for football playoffs (25)
• Government-run health care is a bad idea (18)
• Young woman fatally shot at Acampo home (17)
• Sierra Adventure store to close after four years in Downtown Lodi (16)

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Recalling that day in 1963 when I heard our president had been shot

Everyone over the age of 55 seems to remember his or her whereabouts on Nov. 22, 1963. It was on that fateful day in Dallas, Texas, that Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

I was just coming out of my college history class, when I noticed the campus seemed subdued. Some students were walking like zombies in a state of shock. I climbed into my Volkswagen and turned on the radio. Reports were still incomplete. Some claimed Vice President Johnson had been shot as well.

As I entered my driveway in Bethesda, Md., the drama continued to unfold. My mother was at home and had not heard the news. She was preparing an evening dinner party, ironically for some that would be involved in the investigation that night. My mother could not believe what I was saying until she turned on the black and white television set. Suddenly, reality hit, as another report stated that an unknown assailant had also killed a Dallas police officer.

We lived across the street from the National Naval Medical Center, where my father was an oral pathologist. I remember the helicopter delivering Kennedy's body that night. While Dad was not on the autopsy team, he did know the three doctors who took part in the examination: J. Thornton Boswell, James Humes and Pierre Finck. He was also a close friend of the president's dentist, Dr. John Pepper.

After the Warren Commission released their assassination report, my father asked Dr. Humes if the conclusions were in line with what he saw. Humes told him "absolutely," but failed to mention that the commanding officer had sworn him to secrecy under threat of court-martial. The same physician also admitted that his original autopsy notes were destroyed in his home fireplace.

Rumors circulated that there had been not one gunman, but two. Dr. Robert McClelland, who examined the president at Parkland Hospital, reported a large wound in the occipito-parietal part of the skull. This suggested that the final shot might have come from the front. The bullet, found on Gov. Connelly's stretcher, was mildly damaged. No one has been able to duplicate that shot and leave a bullet in relatively good condition. Navy medical technicians Jerrol Custer, Paul O'Connor and photographer Floyd Riebe, contradicted much of the official findings. The president's brain, which allegedly was at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (where my father had been chief of the oral pathology division), mysteriously disappeared. Other inconsistencies haunt historians as well.

The 1978 House Assassinations Committee suggested that two gunmen had been responsible for the killing. They based this conclusion on acoustical evidence at the time, which sounded like four shots, not three. Recently, these findings have been disputed by digital equipment that was not available at the time. Modern investigators have also been able to duplicate the three shots of Oswald and discount additional theories, such as the grassy knoll photograph of "Badge Man."

It was reported in now declassified documents, that President Johnson believed the Cubans might have been involved. He wanted the Warren Commission to do a "case-closed" investigation, with "no doubt" to the circumstances of the crime. Reputed mob figures bragged that they had done the deed as payback for John and Robert Kennedy's investigation of the underworld organization in 1961.

They believed their efforts had helped Kennedy get elected via voter fraud in Chicago. This supposedly happened during the 1960 election, when JFK won by a slim margin. They were also upset about mafia boss Carlos Marcello, who was deported by RFK to Guatemala.

That day of tragedy remains etched in my mind as if it were yesterday. After 45 years and despite hundreds of books and articles being written on the subject, the story still draws unanswerable questions. It remains, and most likely will continue to remain, an unsolved mystery for many years to come.

Steve Hansen is a Lodi writer.