STOCKTON – For the 16th straight year a Central Valley medical center has garnered a top national award.

FRENCH CAMP – A not-for-profit health-care plan for more than 93,000 Central Valley residents is offering $50,000 in scholarships to graduating high school seniors in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties for the 2012 school year.

STOCKTON – Tickets are selling quickly for the Stockton Symphony’s next installment in its pops series – “Valentine Pops: Steve Lippia in ‘Simply Sinatra’.”

OAKDALE – A longtime Oak Valley Community Bank employee and Modesto resident is returning to take over as a branch manager.

A Central Valley native with 30 years of commercial real estate experience up and down California recently joined a Roseville firm offering commercial real estate and investment sales from Modesto to Redding.

STOCKTON – The region’s levees are critical to economic sustainability and seismic upgrades may carry a lower price tag for assuring a reliable water supply than strategies that include a peripheral canal.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced $5 million in funding for a state-of-the-art locomotive to run from the Port of Stockton to Lodi to help clean Central Valley air.

SACRAMENTO – The state Employment Development Department reported today that California’s unemployment rate dropped to 11.1 percent in December, down from 11.3 in November.

STOCKTON – Construction jobs will grow at a “furious” rate in the region, continuing to fuel hopes that economic recovery, while slow, will continue.

A Rancho Cordova artist came up big in Delicato Family Vineyards' 24th annual Fine Art Show, taking best of show honors, two first-place finishes, and a second-place finish.