This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. They appeared in plain clothes outside a San Diego hotel, wore camouflage as they raided a Los Angeles factory and arrived with military gear at a Ventura County farm. The presence of thousands of hard-to-identify federal agents is...
Court Compels Fresno Council to Approve 4-Story Herndon Apartment Complex
A Fresno County judge instructed the Fresno City Council on Monday to approve a 4-story apartment complex at Herndon and Prospect avenues that drew the ire of many neighbors. Further, the city may have to pick up the developer's attorney fees. In July 2024, the council rejected developer James Huelskamp's...
PBS and NPR Mount Last-Ditch Fight to Save Federal Funding
When Americans took off the Fourth of July holiday to celebrate the country’s independence from the British, Paula Kerger, the CEO of PBS, was busy fighting her own political battle. As a deadline was fast approaching for Congress to decide whether to strip more than $500 million a year from...
Fresno County Budget: Supes Talk How ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Will Cut SNAP, Medi-Cal
With two new Fresno County supervisors comes a more public budget process. Last year, the board approved a $5.2 billion spending plan. And, when the county's biggest departments present their individual budgets to the supervisors in September, top of mind will be how federal benefit cuts will affect food programs...
Heinous, Heartbreaking, Expensive: California Schools Face Avalanche of Sex Abuse Claims
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. When Samantha Muñoz was a second grader at Fancher Creek Elementary in Clovis, her teacher told her she “wasn’t that bright” and needed extra help with schoolwork. He’d make her stay in the classroom at recess, or tell...
Fresno Unified Rewards Incompetence? Ex-Comms Chief Could Get Huge Severance
Fresno Unified could pay former communications chief Nikki Henry $162,000 after it was revealed she created a dossier of fabricated attacks against Superintendent Misty Her from the Fresno Teachers Association, the district confirmed Monday. Director of Communications Diana Diaz called the package a "strategic decision based on fiscal responsibility which...
MAGA Is Tearing Itself Apart Over Jeffrey Epstein
Last week President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice delivered a blow to one of the foundational beliefs of the MAGA movement, one that helped carry him back to the White House. In an unsigned memorandum, the department declared that there was no evidence that Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced deceased convicted...
How Erratic Results, High Costs Doomed Fresno Unified’s Student Improvement Program
This story was originally published by EdSource. Sign up for their daily newsletter. The Fresno Unified School District and its teachers union have reached an agreement to terminate a decade-old, once-promising student improvement program that expanded from a pilot in a handful of low-performing schools to 40 of the district’s...
Valadao, Costa Spar on What Passage of Trump’s Bill Means for Medicaid Recipients
As the drama unfolded Wednesday night into Thursday, Rep. David Valadao was one of the initial holdouts on voting for the "One Big Beautiful Bill." Valadao, R-Hanford, did not immediately cast "aye" on a procedural vote for President Donald Trump's spending and tax cut plan. For hours, Speaker of the...
Trump Impounds Billions in Education Funding. For Fresno Unified, It’s $7.1 Million
President Donald Trump this week in a last-minute decision chose to withhold approximately $1 billion in federal funds to California schools already designated by Congress, according to the California Department of Education. Department of Education Superintendent Tony Thurmond is now considering legal action against the administration, his department said in...