BY ALEX CANTATORE

A classroom full of tweens frantically sketched out monstrous torsos, hands, heads, and assorted tentacle-like appendages on Thursday morning with a simple goal in mind: To create the coolest-looking alien in the class.

As arms were bound to bodies with brass brads, extraterrestrial figures took form and joined the solar systems, starscapes, and out of this world pottery that cluttered an alcove of the War Memorial.

BY ALEX CANTATORE

While the precipitous decline in housing values certainly isn’t creating too many happy homeowners in the Central Valley, there is one bright spot amid the doom and gloom - property taxes will be lower this year for almost half of Stanislaus County residents, based on the newly released 2009-2010 Regular Assessment Roll.

Unfortunately for local governments, that bright spot only exacerbates income problems; Stanislaus County taxpayers alone will contribute about $30 million less than last year as a result of reduced assessments.

BY ALEX CANTATORE

The 2009-2010 Turlock Redevelopment Agency budget adopted late Tuesday evening looks to send $27.8 million of funding around the city to projects such as the Carnegie Arts Center, a Columbia Park water feature, and a proposed overhaul of Turlock High School’s Joe Debely Stadium.

The $2.8 million of funding earmarked for the Joe Debely project could be the most controversial of the council’s decisions Tuesday evening. Formal discussions between the Turlock Unified School District and the City of Turlock about the renovation have yet to occur.