A Valley legislator has reworked a bill to stop foreign powers from owning ag land and having rights to water and food production. But concessions made to the bill could have little impact on what lawmakers hope to solve. Senate Bill 224 from state Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Bakersfield) will ban...
Two More Join Crowded Race for Bredefeld’s City Council Seat
Two residents known for their service to the community want to become the next city councilmember representing northeast Fresno. Longtime banker and former city planning commissioner Raj Sodhi-Layne tells Politics 101 she intends to run. So does Fresno Police Sgt. Danny Kim. They join a field of three other candidates...
Cost to Maintain ‘Clovis Way of Life’ Has Council Searching for Options
How much should Clovis residents pay to maintain the "Clovis Way of Life?" That is a question Clovis City Councilman Vong Mouanoutoua posed at Monday's respectful, but slogging debate over how to increase development impact fees. "How much are you willing to keep it?" Mouanoutoua asked. The council delayed any...
Fresno State Unveils ‘Elevate’ Campaign to Raise $250M for Sports Facilities
Fresno State announced Tuesday a new plan to raise more than $250 million to modernize the university's athletic facilities, including Valley Children's Stadium. These upgrades, university officials say, are needed for the Bulldogs to compete and win at the national level. "The time is now," Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval...
State Prisons in Corcoran Dry for Now, but Flood Water Is Creeping Up
As Tulare Lake flood water creeps ever closer to the small city of Corcoran, officials at the two state prisons there have stopped accepting inmate transfers while they develop larger evacuation plans. Together, the prisons house 8,000 people, many with severe mental health and substance abuse issues as well as...
More Skilled Migration Can Solve a Global Problem
If politicians were truly serious about ending global inequality, many economists would say there is one obvious policy: allow greater global migration. A nurse is paid $1,900 annually in poor countries and $32,000 in rich countries. A McDonald’s worker in India earns 16 times less than their counterpart doing the...
California Politicians on Verge of Next ‘Bullet Train’ Boondoggle
Decisions by governors, legislators and bureaucrats have consequences, some intended and some not. Were politics a rational exercise, decision-makers would fully explore potential effects before acting, thereby minimizing chances that what they have wrought would backfire. However, politics and politicians tend to act in the here and now, rather than...
H Spees, Fresno Pastor, Former Mayoral Candidate, Dies From Injuries
H Spees, a Fresno pastor, former City Hall official and one-time mayoral candidate, died on Friday — succumbing to injuries after a fall, his family said. Spees, 70 of Clovis, was in Florida when a cardiac event apparently caused a fall and a head injury, several media outlets reported. He...
Tulare Lake, Flooding, Sinking Land, and Raising the Corcoran Levee
The Corcoran levee is being raised — again. The fear is it won’t be high enough as runoff from record-breaking snowpack above several rivers that feed into the old Tulare Lake gets underway. Before work got underway the levee stood at 188 feet. That’s four feet shorter than when it was...
Manchester Center Housing Project Bears Dyer’s ‘One Fresno’ Branding
An application to transform part of Manchester Center into housing offers a view into the project Mayor Jerry Dyer talked about last November while also revealing that it bears his political mantra. The One Fresno at Manchester Center project filed with the city shows the transformation planned for what was...