The Record's Lodi Blog

A Lodi teen who found 15 minutes-plus via Ellen DeGeneres found herself going through to Hollywood on “American Idol.”

Ali Shields, 19, wowed judges Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, and Randy Jackson by rapping, singing and a little bit of “ghetto dancing.”

She also did a one-on-one interview with Ryan Seacrest.  Here’s a link to her audition.

Seems they like her over there at “Idol.”

Elk Grove City Council member Sophia Scherman was in attendance at Wednesday’s Lodi City Council meeting. When Councilman Alan Nakanishi asked why she was in attendance, she said she was “just visiting.”

Turned out, she did a little more than just visit. She helped a Spanish-speaking woman translate a complaint on her utility bill while she was there too.

Conjecture on my part, but Scherman may have also been looking for a little face time with Lodi leaders as she makes her 2012 run for State Assembly District 9, which includes Lodi.

I’ve been covering education for close to 10 years now. Last night was the first time I’ve ever seen a school staff go in front of a Board of Trustees to air their displeasure with the administration of the school.

The Lodi Middle School staff stood up in support of teacher Jon Lapachet. A number of parents were in attendance in support of Principal Patricia Lingerfelt and vice principal Lurdes Rosales. I did not recognize either administrator in attendance, although I’ve been made aware that they may have been there. I’m working to find out if I made a mistake in my story.

In any event, the story is one that I’ve never seen. I’ve covered schools that have had unrest among the ranks. I’ve covered teacher disputes, principal disputes, and all kinds of other personnel issues. I’ve never seen 23 members of 33 teacher staff stand up and tell trustees they don’t trust their administrators.

The Sacramento Bee had a heart-wrenching story about how one Granite Bay family believes teen bullying led their son, Jeffery Fehr, to recently commit suicide.

It’s hard to decipher how big of a role his alleged tormentors played in Fehr’s decision to end his life, but just the fact that the family believes it played a part is disturbing enough.

 McAuliffe Middle School teacher Martha Snider’s class worked diligently before the winter break to ship off blankets to troops stationed on a remote mountain in Afghanistan. Read my December story about that here.

The blankets have reached the A-2-28 Infantry, 3rd Platoon, who couldn’t be happier.  Here is a post that SSG Neil Nunez made on Snider’s Facebook page:

“We recieved 6 boxes of blankets and 6 care packages today. The timing could not be better, we had our first snow of the winter this morning. We thank all who helped to make this possible. Here is a picture of the A-2-28 Infantry, 3rd Platoon ‘Hellraisers’ getting their hands on the blankets. Thank you so much for your support of the Troops!”

Snider said the post “brought a tears to my eyes.” The class was able to ship the blankets with a donation from Lodi Support Our Troops and other help from Rep. Jerry McNerney’s office and the American Legion Karl Ross Post 16.

I don’t typically editorialize here, but this is pretty cool is it not?

The Lodi Police Department now has a Facebook page.

Facebook users that want to see the department’s posts must go to the page and “like” it. (**Note:  I “like” the page in order to view its contents. It’s not an endorsement by The Record nor by me.)

Christine Leach, the 43-year-old Lodi woman accused of trying to kill her 5-year-old daughter by crashing her car into a train, appeared in San Joaquin County Superior Court this morning.

She has been deemed competent to stand trial by two doctors. She will be back in court on Jan. 19 for a pre-trial hearing setting.

A couple of happenings around Lodi.

• Lodi Unified selected Ron Heberle as Trustee President on Tuesday night. Heberle, a retired fire battalion chief is in his second year as trustee. His nomination coincided with another nomination for Trustee Bonnie Cassel. Heberle was selected with a 4-2 vote.
• The Estate Crush winery will unveil its new downtown tasting room on Saturday. The Estate Crush is a business that lets small wineries make small batches of wine – as little as one ton of grapes or about 60 cases. The tasting room will feature many of the labels made there. The Grand Opening starts at 2 p.m. Saturday. The tasting room is located  at Two West Lockeford St.
• The City Council  has cancelled its Jan. 4 meeting.

The City of Lodi posted a video on YouTube as public works officials inspected the inside of the city’s new $36 million surface water treatment plant.

Parts of the video are inside the tank.

The video is at www.youtube.com/cityoflodi.

Lodi Unified has entered into a contract with a advertising firm to begin selling ads at schools to generate new revenue. The program promises a $100,000 profit for the district in year one.

This week, the Public Citizens Commercial Alert wrote this letter to the Board of Trustees asking them to back out of the deal.

Here is what we in the news biz call the “nut graph” of the letter:

“We know your primary concern is to avoid shortchanging students as a result of budget cuts. However, subjecting children to even greater amounts of advertising is the wrong response. It will raise little revenue while undermining Lodi Unified’s educational and child development mission. Educational institutions should promote civic virtue and the public good, not commercial values. “