There's a catchphrase among educators that students must first learn to read, then read to learn. In their first few years of schooling, students are supposed to be acquiring the literacy skills they will need to comprehend their lessons and be successful academically throughout their school careers. California's literacy efforts...
RIP, Mary Pitman, 72. She Helped Grow Her Family’s Sanger Poultry Business with Focus on Nutrition.
Mary Kathryn Pitman was the matriarch of a Sanger-based organic poultry business that produces Mary's Chickens and Mary's Turkeys, namesakes that were bestowed on her 25th wedding anniversary. Mrs. Pitman died April 5. She was 72. She was part of the second generation of the Pitman family business that began...
Sheriff’s Detectives Seeks Tips in Slaying of Sunnyside High Student
Fresno County sheriff's detectives say a feud could be the motive in the gunshot slaying of a 16-year-old Sunnyside High School student near Fresno Cambodian Buddhist Temple on Saturday afternoon. The sheriff's office identified the victim as Nolyn Chann of Clovis. Deputies administered CPR to Nolyn after finding him wounded...
Unlike America’s Other Big Cities, Fresno Now Fields Its Largest Police Ever
The Fresno Police Department swore in 28 new officers, promoted 12 civilian staff members, and recognized four new sergeants and a new lieutenant in an emotionally moving ceremony Friday morning at Valdez Hall. Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama noted that the department is the largest in the city's history with...
Biden Nominates Fresno Judge for Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Ana de Alba is on the judicial fast track to San Francisco. On Friday, President Joe Biden nominated de Alba, 42, to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco. It was only in June 2022 that de Alba was confirmed as a federal judge in the Fresno-based...
New Lawsuit Accuses Arias of ‘Extortion’ for Delaying Fansler Project
A Fresno restaurant owner says a Fresno city councilman illegally interfered with a business project. Now, he wants Miguel Arias and City Hall to pay. David Fansler, in a lawsuit filed last week, says Arias tried to extort him to drop ongoing litigation by holding up a hotel project. Fansler...
County Rejects Cesar Chavez Blvd Name as Tensions With City Escalate
Tensions between the city and county governments of Fresno boiled to the surface again Tuesday, when the Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 not to rename south Fresno streets in honor of Cesar Chavez. The debate was whether to follow the city's lead and name portions of California Avenue and Kings...
School Truancy Crisis Creating ‘Dire Consequences’ for California
Gadflies – people obsessed with righting some perceived wrong and pester politicians and journalists to take up their causes – are a constant feature of politics. One of the state’s more persistent gadflies these days is Thomas Carter, an accountant in Sherman Oaks who sends out almost daily barrages of emails about...
Bodycam Video Shows Deadly Fresno Police Shooting Near Walmart
The Fresno Police Department released a "critical incident video" Friday of officers killing Robert Corchado on March 4 near a Walmart on Herndon Avenue. The nearly 14-minute video includes bodycam footage from the perspective of the officers that Corchado shot at — striking one in his bullet-proof vest — before...
Easter’s Complicated History: Theology, Goddesses, Rabbits, and ‘Superstar’
What’s Easter about? In some ways, the answer is pretty simple: Jesus Christ and Christians’ belief that he rose from the dead. In other ways, though, the springtime holiday is far from straightforward. How did rabbits get involved? Where did the name “Easter” come from – and why is the...