Welcome to Lodi. Please relax and sip some wine. You’ll find wines here are generally excellent, affordable — and often poured for you by the vintner who made them.

We've had a promotion and a new hire here, and a related reassignment of beats. Like the staff at many papers, our reporters are now stretching to handle multiple coverage areas. I guess it relfects that cliche: Doing more with less. But our staff here is passionate about journalism and very hard-working.  I'm excited about these changes and how our staff has responded.

Years ago, when I was covering the police beat in Lodi, I met a young officer named Robin Burcell. She struck me as especially bright and motivated, and I wasn’t surprised when I learned later on that she aspired to be a novelist. She was obviously gifted.

We're recruiting for a reporter position, so I have been sifting through resumes and cover letters.

The all-weather track at Tokay High School has reopened most weeknights and may soon open for limited hours on weekends, too.

The owners of Wine & Roses hotel and spa plan an ambitious expansion to a historic estate on Woodbridge Road.

Mariah M. Garr works in paradise, and she knows it. As wetlands manager for the Cosumnes River Preserve, the biologist-cum-farmer’s daughter sees brilliant sunrises, hears the ancient, piercing cries of the Blue Heron, sees coyote pups darting into the cover of an oak forest.

It's impossible to drive around Lodi without seeing endless rows of grapevines sprouting green buds, and growing leaves and grapes all summer long.

A top water lawyer warned of a pending disaster in the Delta.

Don’t look for many Obama political ads in November.

At the sprawling, futuristic construction site where a state-of-the-art energy plant is being birthed west of Lodi, there are dozens of highly skilled workers.

Democrat Richard Pan and Republican Tony Amador of Lodi won the state’s 9th Assembly District race.

What’s the attraction? Learn about the life, work and family of pioneering environmentalist and writer John Muir at this bucolic property just off Highway 4 in Martinez.

Maybe you can read to a student. Maybe your church can adopt a campus and provide tutoring or enrichment programs. Perhaps your service group can arrange for speakers for a campus.

Last week, I wrote an editor's note regarding the ongoing civil sex abuse case involving Father Michael Kelly of Lockeford. (That note is below.)

Some readers have raised questions about our coverage of the civil sex abuse trial of Father Michael Kelly of Lockeford.

Jason Schierling is the new manager at Lodi’s General Mills plant. In a recent interview with News-Sentinel Editor Rich Hanner, Schierling discussed his background and transition to the local plant from a broad management career with General Mills.

Hello, this is Kim and Ed with the inaugural installment of "The Patriot Corner." Patriot Corner? What is that? Well, we are members of the Lodi Citizens In Action group, which is affiliated with the Tea Party Patriots, and we will be writing about issues and subjects important to Lodians and the American way of life. First, some background:

For 23 years, John Ziemer was the News-Sentinel's mailroom foreman.

Emma Greene is dancing again. Greene, 18, is also breathing deeper and better. She can go shopping without toting along an oxygen tank. And in September, she will start classes at the University of California, Davis.

They’re gathered at Hutchins Street Square, in a huge room with a varnished blonde wood floor. Outside, sycamore leaves drift to the well-manicured lawns.

In a compound of buildings on Lodi's Eastside, K.R. Hovatter is masterminding a world of plastic to help change the world.

Russ Davis, formerly a top newspaper executive in Utah and New Mexico, has joined the Lodi News-Sentinel as circulation director.

Selling advertising, pushing online education and using Rosetta Stone to teach English are among the ventures underway in Lodi Unified School District, board president George Neely said Thursday.