Growing numbers of school districts in the Valley and around California are spending less on classroom teachers than state law requires. Education Code 41372 requires unified school districts — pre-K through 12 — to devote at least 55% of their budgets to classroom teachers. For high school districts, the requirement...
Fresno Council to Hear Land Plan to Revitalize Central SE Area
On Thursday, Fresno City Councilmembers will weigh new land use plans for the developed part of southeast Fresno, which includes the fairgrounds, Fresno Pacific University, and the Mosqueda Center. The city's Central Southeast Area Specific Plan encompasses 2,000 acres in a triangular area from Belmont Avenue to Church Avenue and...
Fresno Unified Elementary Students Must Return Laptops as District Shifts to In-Class Use
No longer will every student in the Fresno Unified School District have a laptop for use at home. For almost six years, the school district provided every student with a device, part of a nationwide push to give students equal access to technology during the coronavirus pandemic, which closed schools and...
Chicano Poet Michael Jasso Touches Hearts by Letting the Universe Do the Writing
Chicano poet Michael Jasso doesn’t plan his typewriter poems. He doesn’t outline, revise, or workshop them in advance. Instead, he listens. Sitting behind two vintage typewriters—one a Smith Corona fitted with looping cursive letters and the other with regular font, Jasso asks strangers a simple question: What do you want...
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetle… Opens Friday the 13th in Fresno
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the North American tour of "Beetlejuice" launches in Fresno on Friday the 13th. Audiences are safe, as long as they do not repeat the not-so-friendly ghost's name three times. The Broadway musical based on the 1988 movie has been staged worldwide. The first of...
$1.5M of Measure P Funds Embezzled from Fresno Arts Council. PD and FBI Are Probing
The Fresno Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating the reported embezzlement of $1.5 million in Measure P funds from the Fresno Arts Council by a former employee. Lt. Larry Bowlan, Fresno Police spokesman, said Monday that the department learned Friday about the embezzlement and launched the probe....
Peace Fresno Continues Weekly River Park Protests With Anti-ICE Focus
Dozens of protesters lined the sidewalks near River Park Saturday afternoon as part of Peace Fresno’s weekly demonstration, calling for an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the Central Valley and urging local officials to refuse cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The protest is part of a recurring...
Moltbook Is What Happens When AI Stops Performing and Starts Talking
Moltbook, which bills itself as the Reddit of AI, has given artificial intelligence something dangerously close to a sense of itself. AI agents using the very much real website already created a religion. They’ve tried to sue a human. They talk to each other the way we talk to each...
FBI, Las Vegas PD Raid Uncovers Bio Materials Connected to Reedley Biolab Owner
The FBI and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department raided two homes connected to the operator of a Reedley biolab arrested in 2023 for improperly selling medical testing equipment. Inside the garages of the two homes connected to Jia Bei Zhu, officers found a "significant volume" of material "consistent in appearance...
Two US Citizens Dead. Legal Immigrants Jailed. This Is Chaos, Not Immigration Enforcement
The killing of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis has finally shaken the foundations of our country, bringing to light how far to the extreme the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement has gone. Two U.S. citizens — a 37-year-old poet and mother of three, and a...