In the last half a dozen years, Arcohe Union Elementary School District has lost more than a quarter of its students due to declining enrollment.

28th Annual Asparagus Festival

It’s asparagus time again. The time we celebrate the delicious green spear grown locally in the San Joaquin Delta. This year the three-day festival will be held April 26, 27 and 28 at Stockton’s own downtown waterfront.

It's official, and it's not good news for thirsty Californians: January and February have been the driest on record.

ADULT DAY CARE AND HEALTH CENTERS

Saying that she never aspired to be a career politician, Alyson Huber finished up her duties as the Lodi area's Assemblywoman on Nov. 30.

For every month that Galt Mayor Barbara Payne attends a Sacramento Area Council of Governments meeting, she receives $100. She gets the same taxpayer-funded stipend for attending the monthly meetings of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District.

There's a lot to be learned about the life of a river, and a town, with one simple tool. A secchi (pronounced seck-y) disk can tell the right observer just how clean the water is.

Lodi Lake docent coordinator Kathy Grant and her student team of Storm Drain Detectives went out to three testing sites on Lodi Lake and the Mokelumne River to test water clarity on July 15. The results showed some improvement on one testing site, but two others worsened.

"I see something," Mitch said, pointing to a glint in the forest maybe 50 yards ahead.

Below is a sampling of letters received by San Joaquin County staff both in support of and opposing a proposed winery ordinance amendment that would place a moratorium on new winery events.

If there's one thing that Ricky Gill isn't lacking, it is confidence. He just turned 25 — the youngest a member of Congress can be — and he thinks he has what it takes to unseat three-term incumbent Jerry McNerney.

Elected officials from the Lodi area are among those trying to convince authors of a plan that may send Delta waters to the southern San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles Basin to change their minds.

The Lodi-Galt area has newly announced candidates for Congress, State Senate and Assembly.

An Assembly bill that has been pushing to ban Styrofoam production in California has been placed in the Assembly's "inactive" file until at least January 2012.

Local politicians say they are generally happy that San Joaquin County will be well represented in the state and congressional districts adopted Monday, but Republicans don't like the advantage that Democrats were given in the realigned districts on a statewide basis.

Local politicians are anxiously awaiting news on what the new state and federal election boundaries turn out to be so that they can decide whether they want to seek public office in the 2012 elections.

In his first two months as pastor of Lodi Community Church, David Rails has worked to renew public interest at the once-thriving church and become active with other churches in the Lodi area.

Downtown Lodi usually isn’t a crowded place on Sundays. Aside from the movie theater and restaurants, business owners often take the day off after what they hope was a busy Saturday.

But Downtown looked a lot different this weekend. It was filled with Lodi residents and out-of-towners alike participating in the third annual Lodi Cycle Fest, a figure-eight course that exposes people to the trees and historical buildings that Downtown offers.

Assemblywoman Allison Huber, D-El Dorado Hills, will bring some fellow legislators to tour the Dart Container plant in Lodi on Tuesday in an effort to try to stop her colleagues from passing a bill that would greatly restrict Styrofoam usage in California.

Under a draft released Friday, San Joaquin County's new congressional district keeps the county mostly intact, as most local officials wanted.

Tracy Kelley, a media sales executive with wide experience, has been named advertising director of the News-Sentinel.

Rebecca Frame's daughters gather around a free computer for the day's lessons. A teacher whom they've only met in person a few times walks the girls through age-level math concepts, and their mother is nearby to coach them on the lesson.

San Joaquin County supervisors will send a clear message to the citizens' committee that will draw new legislative lines this year — they want a unified county voice in Sacramento and Washington and not to have their representatives' attention diverted by other counties in their districts.

A longtime expert on reapportionment in California predicts that San Joaquin County will no longer partner up with the East Bay and Morgan Hill for a single congressional seat when district boundaries are changed for the 2012 election.

News-Sentinel reporters queried several local officials for their reaction to Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget. The responses are below.

Lodi, Galt city officials: Budget both a help and hindrance

"Numbers are on a gross, statewide level, so it will be a little more work to find out what the impact will be, dollar by dollar, on the city," City Manager Rad Bartlam said.

Republican Ted Gaines defeated Democrat Ken Cooley in Tuesday's special election in the 1st Senate District, which includes Galt.