Steven R. Lewis starts work this month as the new chief executive officer of the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission. Lewis, who formerly headed the Community Partnership for Child Development in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will oversee an organization with a $130 million annual budget that started bleeding red ink as far...
Top Dem on Oversight Committee Demands Trump Administration Account for Wildland Firefighter Vacancies
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. The top Democrat on a House committee is demanding that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins account for discrepancies between her public statements about wildland firefighter staffing and a...
Yosemite Biologist Who Hung Trans Pride Flag From El Capitan Is Fired
The National Park Service has fired a wildlife biologist at Yosemite National Park who helped drape a large transgender pride flag from El Capitan in May, saying that the demonstration had taken place in a prohibited area and lacked the required permits. The former employee, Shannon Joslin, 35, who studies...
America’s Wildfire Fighters, Unmasked in Toxic Smoke, Are Getting Sick and Dying
The smoke from the wildfires that burned through Los Angeles in January smelled like plastic and was so thick that it hid the ocean. Firefighters who responded developed instant migraines, coughed up black goo and dropped to their knees, vomiting and dizzy. Seven months later, some are still jolted awake...
Pismo’s Manager Stuck in ICE Detention for Long Ago Teen Crime
The day after his son's birthday, Psalm Behpoor got a call from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The caller didn't tell Behpoor much other than agents wanted to interview him. The 41-year-old father went to the downtown Fresno office. Once there, agents separated him from his lawyer, questioned him, and took...
California’s Newest Invaders Are Beautiful Swans. Should Hunters Kill Them?
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. On an early August morning, it didn’t take long to spot the first pair of huge white swans with orange and black bills and graceful, curving necks as they swam in the marsh along the side of a...
Hidden in Trump’s Spending Package Is a Boost to CA’s Affordable Housing
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California lawmakers are preparing for a historic surge in federal funding for affordable housing construction, a tsunami of subsidy that advocates say could as much as double the number of low-rent units produced by the state over the...
Will Downtown Fresno Lot Finally Become Housing?
A long-vacant plot of land in downtown Fresno may soon get new life as upscale apartments, though it may take financial help from the city. Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said, however, if developers don't move quickly, the city may take back the land given to them. The city last month...
CA Taxpayers Gave PG&E a Huge Loan. Losses Are Already Mounting
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Two weeks before the 2022 legislative session ended, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration came to lawmakers with a big ask: authorize a $1.4 billion state loan to keep open California’s last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon. The money was...
Fresno Teachers Demand Board Members Hear Nikki Henry Settlement
The Fresno Teachers Association on Thursday called on Fresno Unified to publicly address the $162,000 settlement with former communications chief Nikki Henry at the board's Wednesday, Aug. 13 meeting. In a letter to the district, the teachers' union said the public has a right to know how taxpayer dollars are...
