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• Acampo woman describes ordeal of being chained to bed, tortured

• After event turned ugly in 2007, rally returns to Tokay High

• E-mails fuel more controversy over Galt senior housing project

• Local crews help fight Santa Cruz County fire

• Airborne assassins: Master falconer shares details of 'blood sport'

• Regional Roundup

February 9th, 2010

• Middle College High School rated one of the best — and a bargain, to boot

• Lodi decathlon boasts top team in county

• Man who sparked counterfeit case pleads guilty

• Local businessman will visit Haiti to look for family

• Man who claimed to be Yosemite Sam pleads guilty to meth charge

• David Harmer seeks Republican congressional nod

• Lack of evidence in case against suspect in 'drug deal' stabbing

• Regional Roundup

February 8th, 2010

• Public Meetings

• Locals pick best, most memorable Super Bowl commercials

• Regional Roundup

February 6th, 2010

• The Home Depot hopes to join Costco at Reynolds Ranch

• Meet Larry, Curly and Moe

• Baboon business

• Regional Roundup

• Several Lodi venues let you watch the Super Bowl in style

• Lodi Library celebrates 100 years of serving the community

• Culinary craft

February 5th, 2010

• Kids, teachers help Haiti by collecting pennies for Learning Link

• Lodi, Galt students reach out to help Haiti earthquake survivors

• Tasered suspect claims he is Yosemite Sam

• Hours of sweat and work go into putting on crab feeds

• Things looking up for state's real estate

• Correction

• Regional Roundup

• Stray bullet strikes Lodi home; police suspect gang activity may be factor

February 4th, 2010

• Managers at Geweke Toyota answer questions about recall

• Lodi City Council votes to replace play structure at Century Park

• Lodi extends ban on pot shops for another year

• Mokelumne River triathlon set for June

• Family, friends to run half-marathon in memory of Galt family

February 3rd, 2010

• Correction

• Delta College trustees again collide over stipend committee

• Bad bugs, weeds are hot topics at Grape Day

• Lodi-area senators Dave Cox, Lois Wolk admit to gifts; Tom Berryhill case pending

• Lodi Unified School District president issues warning to speakers over cuts

• Galt City Council avoids budget cuts — for now

• New Lodi Memorial Hospital emergency room opens to the public without a hitch

• Regional Roundup

February 2nd, 2010

• Local business leaders say tourism, Costco, Home Depot may play roles in city's future

• Correction

• Former Lodian Erica Davis is first paraplegic woman to summit Kilimanjaro

• Regional Roundup

• No snow leopards, otters for Micke Grove

• McNerney leads in campaign cash

• Police: Train victim was a Lodi teen

• Big rig plows 7 cars

• Jumpers across California

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

• Will terrorists be given Miranda warnings? (75)
• Lodi Unified School District president issues warning to speakers over cuts (64)
• President Obama's first year (45)
• Many reject the politics of 'no' (45)
• Islamic symbol in mosaic — what is all the fuss? (44)
• Writer comments on Neely column (42)
• The Home Depot hopes to join Costco at Reynolds Ranch (41)
• Time to shed the convenient sham of 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy (34)
• We need to conduct respectful conversations (30)
• Tasered suspect claims he is Yosemite Sam (25)

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After event turned ugly in 2007, rally returns to Tokay High

Despite the celebratory nature and school spirit being displayed by the student body, redemption was the underlying theme of an afternoon rally Friday at Tokay High School.

Students wore specific colors to represent their classes and engaged in some friendly rivalry during the event. Among the events: a dance contest, a unity cheer, a game of tug-of-war, as well as a contest to see who could eat a lemon the fastest.

"We've been planning this for weeks and holding our breaths," said Joe Johnson, student government adviser, prior to the rally. He said it has been a tradition to have the rally in order to welcome students back to school for the semester. "This is redemption," he said.

In 2007, the rally at Tokay was canceled after more than 30 students defaced school property and attacked each other with paint and Silly String. Campus buildings that had been newly finished during the summer had paint smeared on them. "Some kids got carried away," athletic director Jeff Johnston said about what happened in 2007. There was no rally held in 2008.

Students were boisterous and loud during Friday's hour-long festivities. The freshmen won the tug-of-war challenge. Danielle Young, junior, won the contest to see who could eat a lemon the fastest, in which a representative from each class was selected. It took Young roughly 30 seconds to eat the sour fruit. She initially took a big bite and slightly hesitated before popping the rest in and chewing it.

Coordinators did everything in their power to inform students that this year was their last chance to act properly. "We handed out fliers and texted people telling them not to bring paint," said Olivia Macdonald, senior class president.

Considering what was at stake, Macdonald was pleased with how the rally turned out. "It would have been gone forever," she said. Macdonald also said the rally was rather inexpensive, since Tokay had almost everything it needed. "The lemons were donated. (The rally) probably cost about $50," she said.

Students were self-motivated and fully understood they needed to behave themselves in order to preserve the tradition of the rally, said rally coordinator Izzy Laviola. "We don't need paint to have fun," she said.

Despite a few isolated incidents in which some students got overly excited and faculty members had to use their bodies to shield students of separate classes from each other, Johnson was pleased with how the event panned out. He said there were no plans on disciplining students and "most of it went the way we planned."

Tokay High Senior Michael Hernandez talks to students of Tokay High School on Friday during the school's spirit rally. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

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He said there have been rallies in the past in which students were so excited from the event that they had some fights, but nothing like that happened this year.

"We got them as fired up as we could without anything happening," Johnson said.

"I can't emphasize how big of a gamble this was," he said. Johnson repeatedly said how proud he was of the students and how pleased he was with the rally.

Contact reporter Jordan Guinn at jordang@lodinews.com.

Tokay High School seniors tug on a rope against classmen from other grades on Friday afternoon, during the school’s spirit rally. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)