Fresno is California's fifth-largest city. Its budget this year is $1.15 billion. But despite all of our hard work and steady population growth, we remain a city with serious challenges — and a huge reservoir of untapped potential. To move Fresno ahead and make it the city we all want...
Rail Fail? Richards Answers Patterson’s HSR Questions
Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) had his chance on Thursday (Nov. 29) to confront high-speed rail leadership over a state audit, which blames high costs and delays on mismanagement of the project. HSR board vice chair Tom Richards, also from Fresno, defended the decision to begin building tracks in the Central...
Walters: School Budgets Squeezed Despite ‘Extraordinary’ State Surplus
Mac Taylor, the Legislature’s soon-to-retire budget analyst, generally takes a very conservative, glass-half-empty approach to the state’s finances. However, the report his office issued this month was downright exuberant, citing California’s strong economy, growing revenues and a historically large “rainy day fund” created by outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown. “It is...
Carrillo Wants to Add Team Approach, Budget Skills to Central Board
Fresno attorney Yesenia Carrillo, who was raised in a family of small business owners, says that her skills and temperament would be a good fit for a Central Unified school board that has weathered considerable controversy in the past year. She sees a genial, cohesive board as a crucial ingredient...
Wildfires Scorching Homes, Land and California's Budget
Just a month into the budget year, California has already spent more than one-quarter of its annual fire budget, at least $125 million, state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Mike Mohler said Wednesday. Following years of drought and a summer of record-breaking heat, immense tracts of forests, chaparral...
Trump Threatens Government Shutdown Over Border Security
WASHINGTON — Republicans anxious about keeping control of Congress think it's a bad idea, but President Donald Trump still says he's willing to close the government over border security issues, including money he wants to build a promised U.S.-Mexico border wall. I would be willing to “shut down” government if...
High Times: Fresno Medical Marijuana Could Be on November Ballot
Fresno's newly-released budget proposal could have the city seeing green, and that's not just the color of money. Fresno voters could decide on allowing medical marijuana shops in a potential November ballot item. And, the city would create two new staff positions involving the dispensaries. That, perhaps, is the most...
Editorial: Want To Rebuild Middle Class? Then Boost CSU Funding.
There is unfinished bipartisan business in the state Legislature that belongs at the top of every lawmaker's to-do list. Members of the Assembly and the Senate must make it clear to their respective leaders that Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed $92 million budget increase for the California State University system is...
Fresno State's 'Be Bold' President Talks Sports, New Projects & Much More
Joe Castro, the studious, affable president of Fresno State, put a scare into his secretary the other day. That's because she heard him yelling in his office around the corner from her desk. She and others rushed to see what in the world was going on. No worries, Castro said,...
Here's a First Look at Fresno City Council Campaign Donations
The Fresno city clerk’s office has released the first Form 497s, the documents that reveal who is donating to campaigns. Campaigns need to report every contribution of $1,000 or more from a single source. Full financial reports are not due until late April. Here is what the first report looks...