Turlock High students proved themselves masters of math when they came in third place recently at the 39th Annual Dick Schaff Math Superbowl. For the first time, high schools throughout the Central Valley merged with the junior high schools which combined for a total of 10 high schools, two charter schools, five junior high and middle schools competing in the event hosted by the Stanislaus County Math Council.  The math competition consisted ... Read More

It’s never too early for children to learn the basic tenants of running a business. And what better way to learn than by operating an old-fashioned lemonade stand? This Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., hundreds of young entrepreneurs will open their own lemonade stands across Turlock, as the city celebrates its first-ever Lemonade Day. “Lemonade Day, by itself, is a way to teach children how to own, run and operate ... Read More

Over 70 teachers and classified employees marched on the Turlock Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday to show their solidarity in opposition to proposed salary cuts.  California School Employees Association labor representative Kyle Harvey said the march served as a way to raise public awareness about the ongoing labor negotiations between employees and the district. The climax of the meeting occurred when the union members chanted “no more cuts” as ... Read More

As Turlockers celebrate national Bike to Work Week – May 14-18 – some local citizens bike to work every day. Frank Cardoza, a software engineer at Turlock’s Advantage Route Systems, has biked to work daily for the past two years. “It’s very rare when I take the car,” Cardoza said. Cardoza said he doesn’t think of himself as much of a cyclist. He started biking the approximately one-mile from his home ... Read More

The once cancelled, then reinstated California State University, Stanislaus Warrior Day will return this Saturday – with a few changes in tow. Unlike in past years, neither non-student guests nor university alumni will be allowed to the annual CSU Stanislaus festival. No alcohol will be available for purchase. And no big-name music headliner will perform. Instead, the scaled-back event will focus on the festival-type atmosphere that made Warrior Day unique. A zip ... Read More

Sacred Heart Catholic Church will host a festival on Saturday and Sunday in an effort to bring the parish’s English, Spanish and Portuguese speaking members together for one event. The festival will begin with an outdoor tri-lingual Mass at 5 p.m. on Saturday at the church, located at 1225 Cooper Ave., Turlock. From 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday a free concert will be held featuring Kerigma and Christian rock band La ... Read More

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Fire officials are warning that the dry grasslands and timber left from a winter that saw very little rain and snow could spark a busy and dangerous fire season in California. “Despite a rainy March, this year’s overall precipitation is below average,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire director. “As a result of the dry winter, the number of wildfires that Cal Fire firefighters have responded to is nearly three times that of ... Read More

An expected 80,000 acre-feet of water will no longer flow into the Turlock Irrigation District’s Don Pedro Reservoir, directors learned Tuesday. The water was expected to come as the City and County of San Francisco drained its upstream Cherry Lake Reservoir to perform needed maintenance on the dam. Last week, the CCSF notified TID it had abandoned plans to drain the reservoir this year, according to TID Strategic Issues and Planning Department Manager ... Read More

An employee at a 99 cent store got taken on a hair-raising ride in his attempt to stop a suspected shoplifter. The ride also landed the suspect, identified as Jason Patterson, 39, in jail on allegations of kidnapping, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. The incident began around 5 p.m. Sunday at the 99 cent store at 701 Golden State Blvd. A loss prevention agent at the store suspected Patterson of ... Read More

An observant neighbor helped Turlock police catch a suspected burglar Monday. The neighbor spotted two men jump the fence of a nearby home in the 4500 block of Reflection Avenue around 1 p.m. and called the police department. The responding officers found the home had been burglarized and began a search of the area. Michael Burke, 19, was found nearby with evidence that linked him to the burglary, according to the ... Read More

A Turlock man wasn’t feeling very brotherly when he gave police officers his brother’s name in an attempt to avoid being arrested. Matthew Sheldon, 42, was stopped Friday morning by a police officer and when asked for his name, he gave that of his brother’s, according to the police department. While the officer was trying to confirm the identification, Sheldon must have been having second thought, but instead of giving his real ... Read More

A 30-year-old Turlock woman is facing criminal charges after she punched her sister and niece during a family squabble Saturday afternoon. Tiana Stallworth was charged with misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor child endangerment for her role in the altercation, according to the Turlock Police Department. The incident began shortly before 3 p.m. when Stallworth came to her sister’s home in the 2100 block of N. Berkeley to retrieve some items stored there. After ... Read More

A Turlock man accused of stealing more than $400,000 from his employer, pleaded guilty Monday to multiple counts of mail fraud. Mark George Jankowski, 51, pleaded guilty in federal court to six counts of mail fraud for embezzling from his former employer, Ruiz Foods. According to court documents, from December 2004 to July 2010, Jankowski, as marketing director of Ruiz Foods, embezzled approximately $448,366 from Ruiz Foods. He did this by creating ... Read More

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A police tip led to the discovery of a couple making counterfeit documents at a Turlock motel Tuesday night. Inside a room at the Comfort Suites motel at 191 N. Tully Rd., Turlock police officers found a bevy of narcotics and equipment used to manufacture counterfeit checks. Dawn Withersmith, 43, and Tony Cooley, 57, were arrested after officers found methamphetamine, heroin, syringes, morphine pills, computers, printers, numerous checks, bank cards, IDs, and ... Read More

A 16-year-old boy robbed a video store at knifepoint Wednesday afternoon and then waited around for the police to arrest him, according to the Turlock Police Department. The 16-year-old told the arresting officers that he needed help and this was the only way he could think of to get it. The robbery was reported at 2:20 p.m. at the Blockbuster store at 1401 Geer Rd. The teen allegedly demanded money from ... Read More

Graduate students from CSU Stanislaus earned top honors at the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society’s Northern California Regional Conference, securing first and third for research papers. CSU Stanislaus student Samantha M. Williams took the top prize at the conference with a paper entitled “Race, Politics, and Military Filibusters: Southern Attempts at Expansion in Antebellum America.” Those military filibusters were used by Southern U.S. citizens to annex territory from the Caribbean and Central ... Read More

Modesto Junior College will receive a $2,696,400 federal grant to maintain two TRIO Upward Bound programs, which increase the number of local youth who graduate high school and enroll in postsecondary education. The grant, spread over five years, will serve students of low-income households whose parents have not earned baccalaureate degrees. The program will be available at Modesto, Johansen, Ceres, Patterson and Riverbank high schools. Participants in the program will receive intensive ... Read More

Hundreds of people turned out Wednesday at the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds to fill their bellies with beans and linguica for the 19th annual celebration of “Fava Day.” The only thing is that there is no Fava Day … at least not officially. What began as a practical joke by dairyman Joe Fagundes has grown into a yearly fundraiser that has raised more than $200,000 for children diagnosed with cancer. The story begins ... Read More

 Turlock may not be Flanders Field, the former World War I battlefield made famous by John McCrea’s poem, but the poppies most certainly will blow. In fact, thousands of crêpe paper poppies, each hand-made by a hospitalized or disabled veteran, have made their way to Turlock and the American Legion Auxiliary this year in preparation for poppy week, during which members of the ALA, Sons of the American Legion and local Boy Scout troops ... Read More

Delhi High School students earned an impressive 55 percent of the new Multi-lingual Diploma Seal in all of Merced County during a presentation at Delhi Education Park last Thursday. The multi-lingual seal on a student's diploma designates that the student has successfully passed rigorous proficiency tests in more than one language. DHS has 26 of the 47 students countywide who ... Read More

Chatom Elementary celebrated Agriculture Appreciation Day at the rural campus west of Turlock. Dozens of organizations gave information and held hands-on demonstrations for Chatom students. Turlock and Pitman high school’s FFA students and Chatom 4-H members were on hand to give students the opportunity to explore piglets, cows and even large farm equipment. Mountain View Middle School students also provided a helping hand for assistance. Former Chatom Elementary teacher Linda Hack said ... Read More

The 10th District U.S. Congress race is just one item on a full ballot facing voters in the June 5 Presidential Primary Election. Voters will help determine which presidential candidates will make the November ballot. And voters will complete the primaries for one of California’s U.S. Senate seats, currently held by Diane Feinstein (D). Locally, three Stanislaus County Supervisor seats are up for grabs – incumbent Bill O’Brien, running unopposed for District ... Read More