Local/Regional:
Tom Berryhill: Here’s why this Republican voted for cap and trade
Fresno Bee
I was sent to Sacramento to give rural California a seat at the table and to effectively do the business of the state. I didn’t go there to sit on the sidelines. It was in that spirit I decided to support Assembly Bill 398, which reforms and extends the cap-and-trade program for a decade, while reducing taxes, fees and regulations by more than $16 billion dollars.
Will State Sen. Tom Berryhill run for county supervisor, state tax board? Or what?
Modesto Bee
State Sen. Tom Berryhill’s next career move is unclear, even though he raised large sums to campaign for the state Board of Equalization and recently said he would run for a county supervisor seat.
Southeast Bakersfield City Councilman Willie Rivera says he won’t run for re-election
Bakersfield Californian
Bakersfield’s youngest-ever city councilman plans to give up his seat next year, saying he’s left his mark and that it’s difficult to balance the work of a full-time job and a part-time elected post.
State:
California Politics Podcast: A formal resistance might be forming inside state Democratic ranks
Los Angeles Times
California Democrats found themselves in the springtime facing a bitter battle for the party leadership. Now it appears the loser in that contest may be forming a new faction inside party ranks.
“This millionaire might be California’s next governor. How Gavin Newsom got connected,”
Sacramento Bee
Up a narrow staircase above his wine shop, Gavin Newsom glides across the cramped office before making his way to its showpiece. Off to the side sits a mop sink that city inspectors made him install even though he argued the floors were carpeted.” Story.
Los Angeles Times
It took decades for John Chiang to hustle into the top ranks of California politics, and he relished all the schmoozing along the way.
Will cap-and-trade deal cost Chad Mayes his Assembly Republican leadership?
Sacramento Bee
The bipartisan deal to renew cap-and-trade was supposed to be a major accomplishment in Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes’ bid to remake the California Republican Partyand its relevance within the state Legislature. But a wave of conservative backlash since the vote two weeks ago has put the Yucca Valley assemblyman on the defensive and could ultimately cost him his post as head of the lower house’s 25-member GOP caucus.
Political Road Map: There’s something missing so far from California’s statewide ballot for 2018
Los Angeles Times
In the wake of last November’s supersized ballot, which sparked the most expensive ballot measure election in California history, the political arena where initiatives are crafted has been in the midst of a summer of stagnation.
Los Angeles Times
When Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) halted a measure to establish single-payer healthcare in California, the bill’s most dedicated backers immediately called for him to be removed from office.
‘Hurry up and die’: Threats, racism intensify against California officials
Sacramento Bee
The letter begins with “Dear Corrupt Mexican” and ends with “hurry up and die.” It’s signed “White Power.”
National:
California’s House Republicans voted for the Obamacare repeal; here’s what they’re saying now
Fresno Bee
Democrats are plotting to use the health care vote as a cudgel against vulnerable Republicans in the same way votes for Obamacare were used to sweep Democrats out of the majority in 2010. And winning at least some of California’s GOP seats is crucial to Democratic efforts to win back the House.
2018 could be the year of the rookie in California’s congressional races
Los Angeles Times
Mai Khanh Tran came to the U.S. as a child refugee, worked as a janitor to put herself through Harvard University and is a two-time breast cancer survivor. But she describes the months-long process of deciding to run for Congress as an “agonizing” time.
Emily’s List is putting Republicans ‘on notice’ and seven of them are in California
LA Times
It’s not just the national Democrats who have a wish list of Republican incumbents they’d like to unseat in 2018. Emily’s List, the group that aims to elect women who support abortion rights, has identified 50 congressional and Senate seats nationwide as part of their “On Notice” program to flip seats in the midterm election.
Why Dianne Feinstein shouldn’t run again
Los Angeles Times
At age 84, Dianne Feinstein is the oldest of the 100 United States senators. And the word, both in Washington and around California, is that she plans to run for reelection next year to a six-year term that will end when she’s 91.
Other:
Women gaining political power in California cities as they’ve lost it elsewhere
LA Times
While women have lost ground in California’s Legislature and its congressional delegation, the state has seen a small increase in women serving on city councils over the past two years,
The Terminator Heads to the Supreme Court
POLITICO Magazine
Arnold Schwarzenegger is used to blowing things up: aliens, the T-1000, state budgets. Now, the former action hero and ex-California governor is taking on something vastly less cinematic, but no less daunting: redistricting reform.
“California conservatives, tired of state’s liberal politics, find friendlier abodes in Texas”
Fox News
“The business, Conservative Move, aims to help Republicans living in blue states follow the Chabot family’s lead and move to a state more aligned with their conservative ethos. Chabot’s company helps set up homeowners in blue states with conservative realtors to sell their properties and also find a new home in Texas. But the company doesn’t just help conservatives leave blue states. Story
Tech leaders struggling to disrupt Democratic Party
San Francisco Chronicle
There’s a prevailing belief in Silicon Valley that technology can improve almost anything. So in that spirit, some prominent tech leaders are launching plans to disrupt the Democratic Party, which has plenty of problems.
EDITORIALS
Trump could sabotage health care. What California should do to protect its residents.
Fresno Bee
Now that the Obamacare repeal has crashed and burned in the U.S. Senate, this is what would happen if we had a president who knew how to govern and a Congress that could work together
Thumbs up, thumbs down
Fresno Bee
College student books free wisdom-tooth surgery in contest; Madera Unified is first district in Valley to name high school for Latina; nasty thieves steal from firefighters.
Westlands was ghost writer of Valadao’s big water bill | The
Fresno Bee
Rep. Devin Nunes’ tweet was supposed to be funny, we guess. The occasion was the passage of H.R. 23, carried by fellow San Joaquin Valley Republican, Rep. David Valadao of Hanford, although its authorship is clearly at issue. The bill is the House Republicans’ latest attempt to weaken the Endangered Species Act at the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta’s expense, and at the behest of the Westlands Water District, the sprawling irrigation district where some of the state’s wealthiest farmers tend their crops.
Editor’s Corner: Fresno a model for what we should do
The Madera Tribune
If you happen to spend any time driving around Fresno, you soon will be aware that the city is installing a high-capacity water system to take care of its future needs. This system will include a new treatment plant, to take advantage of surface water that’s available. Like Madera, Fresno is seeing a decline in its water table, and, and it knows the state may put limits on what it can pump from groundwater.
This is what should happen next on health care
Sacramento Bee
Now that the Obamacare repeal has crashed and burned in the U.S. Senate, this is what would happen if we had a president who knew how to govern and a Congress that could work together: There would be a bipartisan summit to come up with ways to fix and strengthen the Affordable Care Act to slow rising premiums and create more competition in California and across the country.
As Trump denies science, California needs to step in
Sacramento Bee
Given the Trump administration’s adversity to science, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency director Scott Pruitt’s decision to allow the continued use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos seemed almost preordained. In March, Pruitt concluded that the science addressing the neurodevelopmental effects of chlorpyrifos are unresolved, and put off a decision until 2022. It was a reversal.
Community Voices: Twin Tunnels jeopardize affordability of your water rates
The Bakersfield Californian
One of the most monumental and potentially devastating decisions in California’s water history is currently being considered, and the health and sustainability of the backbone of California’s water system and affordability of your water rates are at stake.
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AGRICULTURE/FOOD
Can a pay raise fix agriculture industry’s labor crisis in California? Yes and no
San Jose Mercury News
All over California, there’s a desperate labor shortage on farms, ranches, processing and packing houses. But at Christopher Ranch — the nation’s largest producer of fresh garlic and co-founder of this weekend’s Garlic Festival — every job is filled. Even now, at the peak of harvest season, all 600 of its packing and processing positions are claimed.
“In California’s poultry plants, refugees from war fill labor vacuum”
LA Times
“What the meatpacking industry knows is that these are really good workers. They show up on time. They say ‘yes’ when they are told what to do. They do what is necessary for their survival,” Limon said. “It works really well for employers.”
California’s Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention program extended
Porterville Recorder
California growers have affirmed the extension of a cooperative effort in response to the most serious threat to the state’s citrus crops.
California rice growers stand to prosper from China deal
San Francisco Chronicle
For all of the angst concerning trade deficits with China, the United States has something China increasingly needs: rice. That’s right: Our top economic rival needs America to help provide its national food staple.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/PUBLIC SAFETY
Crime:
Police increases traffic patrol to lower collision rate
Fresno Bee
Fresno police were on the lookout for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians who violated traffic laws Saturday in hopes of lowering deaths and injuries. As part of the Bike & Pedestrian Safety Enforcement Operations, officers increased traffic patrols to search for drivers who were speeding, making illegal turns, failing to stop for signs and signals, failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks or any other dangerous violations.
Alleged bad-check passers pick on the wrong small town, go to jail
Fresno Bee
Two men are under arrest on allegations of trying to pass bad checks and holding fake drivers licenses, Lemoore police said.
More California inmates are getting a second chance as parole board enters new era of discretion
LA Times
For years, members of the State Board of Parole Hearings could — and often would — deny prisoners early release based on their past, focusing solely on their criminal offense rather than whether or not they’d pose a safety risk in the future. To inmates, it seemed an unspoken rule: Let no one out.
California’s minor life-without-parole law blasted as unfair
Associate Press
The California Supreme Court and state lawmakers say current state law violates recent rulings by the nation’s high court limiting life sentences for teenagers convicted of murder. The U.S. Supreme Court bans mandatory life-without-parole sentences for those under 18 convicted of murder. The court made the ruling retroactive last year for more than 2,000 offenders nationwide.
California pushes rape-kit testing bills to end backlog
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco police collected 178 rape kits during the first six months of this year — an average of one a day — and sent all of them to be tested for DNA evidence. It’s a high standard that lawmakers want to replicate statewide.
California seeks to solutions to homeless sex offender rate
Associate Press
California has as many homeless sex offenders now as it did 2½ years ago, when a state Supreme Court ruling that overturned restrictions on where they could live was seen as a way to increase housing options and allow law enforcement to better track them.
State bill that would allow drug injection centers advances
San Francisco Chronicle
Many California communities could open centers inviting addicts to shoot up hard drugs under a bill that has cleared the state Assembly and now awaits a vote on the Senate floor.
Marijuana DUIs Are Still Too Subjective Say Cops. Why No BreathTest?
NPR
Despite the increasingly legal use of cannabis in many states, cops still don’t have the equivalent of a reliable alcohol breathalyzer or blood test — a chemically based way of estimating what the drug is doing in the brain. Though a blood test exists that can detect some of marijuana’s components, there is no widely accepted, standardized amount in the breath or blood that gives police or courts or anyone else a good sense of who is impaired.
Fire:
What are the biggest fires in central California?
Fresno Bee
The last five summers have seen some major fires in central California, including on the coast and in the Sierra Nevadas, in part as a result of the dry conditions during the drought.
Firefighters battle 1,500-acre grass fire near Porterville
Fresno Bee
Firefighters on Sunday battled a grass fire that had consumed 1,500 acres near Porterville off Road 268 and East Teapot Dome Avenue, Cal Fire reported.
ECONOMY / JOBS
Economy:
Road to PAGA Ballot Initiative Paved by CA Supreme Court Ruling
Fox&Hounds
As if businesses were not troubled enough by substantial penalties tied to minor labor law infractions when private attorneys take on lawsuits under the Private Attorney General Act (PAGA), a California Supreme Court ruling has opened the door for more business burdens when confronting PAGA lawsuits.
AEI
97 percent of millennials who follow this “success sequence” are not in poverty by the time they reach ages 28-34
Jobs:
More Warehouses Jobs, but an Uncertain Future Looms
New York Times
As e-commerce giants like Amazon expand, they’ve been drawn to California’s inland cities, where real estate is cheaper and the labor force is plentiful. This year alone, Amazon announced new fulfillment centers in Eastvale, Redlands, Fresno
Nearly Half of Companies Say They Don’t Have the Digital Skills They Need
Harvard Business Review
The companies that think their employees’ digital IQs are unimportant are probably few and far between. After all, in just one decade the concept of “digital” has changed from a niche skill set to something that’s mandatory for virtually all blue-chip companies. If you don’t feel that your employees’ digital IQs are competitive, you have a major problem on your hands.
Drug use impacts blue-collar workforce
CNN Video
The co-owner of Warren Fabricating and Machining in Ohio wants to hire more workers, but says 4 in 10 of job applicants fail the drug test.
See also:
· The Opioid Crisis Is Creating a Labor Crisis Weekly Standard
In birth of new state program, what’s in a name?
Calpensions.com
It’s time to bring in some “Mad Men,” like those vintage Madison Avenue advertising professionals in the critically acclaimed television show, and run the name of a new state retirement savings plan up the flagpole and see who salutes. The current name, Secure Choice, doesn’t say much about a big new program that in five years could be a mandatory option to supplement Social Security for an estimated 7.5 million Californians currently not offered a retirement plan by more than 200,000 employers.
See also:
· Trump administration ends myRA, low-income retirement savings plan USA Today
EDUCATION
K-12:
Walters: “California’s war over public schools moves to a new front,”
CALMatters
“The multi-front political and legal war over the direction of California’s immense public school system has a new front. The state Board of Education – and inferentially, Gov. Jerry Brown and the education establishment – want to take a minimalist approach to complying with the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act.”
Later start times in California schools could save sleep, complicate family life
Fresno Bee
Knikki Royster starts her workday as a juvenile court teacher in San Diego at 7:30 a.m., and she’s not sure what to do if her two kids can’t start high school until an hour later.
See also:
· California schools starting later could complicate schedules Sacramento Bee
· Plan for later California school starts gets mixed grades Sacramento Bee
Los Angeles Times
Jerry, then 17, was threatened and injured by gang members. When she tried to get help from the police and the school’s dean, she said they blamed the violence on Jerry — and said he was in a gang.
Higher Ed:
EdSource
Finishing touches were still being put to Cal State Channel Island’s new 600-bed dormitory named Santa Rosa Village when Jazzminn Morecraft moved in last fall. Early morning construction noise was worth enduring, she said, because of the social and academic benefits of living on the Ventura County campus, situated in a former state mental hospital surrounded by farmland and hillsides.
UC Irvine is under fire for rescinding 500 admission offers two months before fall term begins
Los Angeles Times
For four years, Ashley Gonzalez skimped on sleep, family outings and hanging out with friends to excel at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles. Her work paid off when she achieved her lifelong dream of admission to the University of California
See also:
· U.C. Irvine Rescinds Acceptances for Hundreds of Applicants New York Times
· UC Irvine faces criticism after rescinding 499 admissions offers two months before start of school Washington Post
Is It the Right or the Academy That’s Lost Faith in Free Inquiry?
AEI
Without fostering a free exchange of ideas, is the university really fulfilling its purpose?
ENVIRONMENT/ ENERGY
Environment:
Trump rolled back this environmental rule. California may replace it with a stronger one
Sacramento Bee
President Donald Trump’s administration gave California land developers and farmers a reason to cheer when the White House last month rolled back controversial regulations for wetlands imposed during the Obama presidency.
Just How Far Can California Possibly Go on Climate?
NYTimes
CA can go quite far on climate by showing rest of country/world that we can reduce carbon emissions & save planet.
Now California Needs to Cap Costs While it Caps Carbon
Bloomberg BNA
Now that California has extended its carbon dioxide trading program through 2030 businesses are waiting to see how state regulators plan to keep compliance costs down.
AB 398 is Most Cost Effective Way to Reduce Emissions for Business & the Economy
Fox&Hounds
When SB 32 passed in 2016, California businesses and consumers were confronted with huge costs due to the Air Resources Board command-and-control regulations created to achieve mandated and unprecedented emission reductions, even though California represents only one percent of total global emissions.
Are new-tech trucks ready to replace diesel, keep California’s pollution-fighting promise?
San Jose Mercury News
The race to replace Southern California’s biggest polluter is on. It’s going to take science, time, money – and maybe an assist from Elon Musk. At the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, an ambitious $14 billion clean-air plan calls for the elimination of dirty-burning diesel equipment by 2035 – $9 billion just to purchase and deploy trucks.
Questions remain as Gov. Brown signs legislation to address neighborhood-level air pollution
LA Times
Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed legislation aimed at improving air quality in disadvantaged communities, a key step in shifting the debate over how the state fights climate change and an issue that has tested the influence of environmental justice advocates
‘Trying to breathe’—as CA toasts environmental win, pollution still plagues
CALmatters
The awakening came in her first semester at UCLA, where she was pursuing a master’s degree. A guest lecturer for her environmental law class began a presentation by describing “the most polluted place in America” where taking in a lungful of air was considered a debatable health choice. He called it ‘ground zero’ for industrial pollution.
Energy:
EIA Data Reveals California’s Real and Growing Duck Curve
Greentech Media
We’ve covered the growth of the duck over the half-decade since the term was coined by California state grid operator CAISO, named after the shape of a grid with midday solar bellies and steep evening necks in its supply-demand curve. This year has brought increasing proof that the duck curve has grown up, and much faster than expected.
HEALTH/HUMAN SERVICES
Los Angeles Times
When Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) halted a measure to establish single-payer healthcare in California, the bill’s most dedicated backers immediately called for him to be removed from office.
Los Angeles Times
House Republicans face potentially tough battles in next year’s midterm election, and while some of them wavered until the last minute, all of them voted for the House healthcare plan in May.
See also:
· Essential Politics: California’s House Republicans voted for the healthcare bill but are coming home with nothing to show for it Los Angeles Times
Obamacare ‘Skinny Repeal’ Fails. What’s Next For California? capradio.org
California has made big gains in the Affordable Care Act, enrolling more people that any other state. Many of them were carefully watching as the U.S. Senate failed to pass what’s called the “skinny repeal.”
Insurance company won’t pay entire medical bill? New state rules will help
San Diego Union-Tribune
California this month instituted some of the nation’s toughest rules against “balance billing,” which has affected tens of millions of patients over the years.
Medicaid Block Grants Would Put States on a Budget
National Review
he Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act is effectively dead following the 57–43 no vote on July 25. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also did not have the votes to pass the Obamacare-repeal bill that Congress passed in 2015 but President Obama vetoed; it was rejected the next day, 55–45. That’s mainly because all 48 Senate Democrats and a handful of moderate Republicans oppose McConnell’s plan to reform Medicaid, the joint federal-state health-insurance system for the poor that will celebrate its 52nd birthday at the end of July.
Extending Marketplace Tax Credits Would Make Coverage More Affordable for Middle-Income Adults
The Commonwealth Fund
The Affordable Care Act’s tax credits make marketplace insurance more affordable for eligible lower-income individuals. However, individuals lose tax credits when their income exceeds 400 percent of the federal poverty level, creating a steep cliff.
IMMIGRATION
Advocates to push Merced County to help undocumented receive healthcare
Modesto Bee
Thousands of undocumented immigrants in Merced County don’t have health coverage, but advocates supporting the #Health4All campaign say there are ways Merced County could help that could possibly benefit everyone.
Living under Trump’s immigration crackdown proves expensive for undocumented families
Sacramento Bee
Antonio is a frugal spender these days. No new computer. No more trips. A music lover, he used to buy lots of CDs, but he has stopped. The Sacramento resident’s kitchen, stocked up before with cookies and Doritos, now holds only what he, his wife and his daughters need for the week.
Border mayors talk trade, border crossings and the wall
San Diego Union-Tribune
The U.S.-Mexico Border Mayors Association brought together leaders of about 20 border communities for two days of meetings that touched on subjects such as trade, the environment, health, and border infrastructure. Four of the mayors came from Mexico, the remainder from the United States.
LAND USE/HOUSING
Newhall Ranch isn’t just 21,000-plus houses. It’s a shot at sustainability.
Sacramento Bee
The state has never seen a community quite like Newhall Ranch, proposed by California developer FivePoint. It will be a carbon-neutral development in the Santa Clarita Valley that tackles such critical challenges as climate change, water conservation, and the dire housing shortage that is severely threatening our economic competitiveness.
A seemingly simple bill would open the way for 21,000 houses we don’t want
Sacramento Bee
Our fight against the Newhall Ranch development may qualify as historic. It is certainly epic. We’ve been called NIMBYs and sometimes worse.
California’s housing crunch vs. Utah’s
Sacramento Bee
California’s epidemic shortage of housing hasn’t just sickened our own state – driving up prices, inspiring homelessness, and putting a $140 billion annual drag on our economy. The disease is spreading to our neighbors, too. Today, most major Western cities are experiencing minor league versions of our housing crisis. This regional crisis has many causes: lack of water to support development, shortage of skilled construction workers, and the rising price of scarce land near job centers. But our Western neighbors face an additional challenge: the influx of Californians unable to find housing in their own state.
Marin County gets another smug reprieve from housing quotas
Sacramento Bee
Four decades ago, writer Cyra McFadden perfectly captured the aura of self-absorbed entitlement that envelops Marin County, on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge.
“Tax Land Wealth” Theory Ignores Ability to Pay
Fox&Hounds
A recent Los Angeles Times op-ed by three professors at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs suggests the way to raise revenue to deal with homelessness is to tax land because “housing scarcity delivers unearned wealth to people who own housing.” This tired argument of taxing land wealth ignores two important principles: ability to pay and the question of whose asset is it—the homeowner or the state?
PUBLIC FINANCES
California’s tax board members aren’t happy about how new disclosure rules are being applied
LA Times
Members of California’s Board of Equalization objected to a broad interpretation of a new state law requiring that they disclose their private meetings with taxpayers who are engaged in appeals
Steve Westly: California pensions are its $206 billion elephant in the room
The Mercury News
Jerry Brown has been a strong governor and a moderating force on budget issues. But when it comes to pensions, the new state budget projects that California has nearly $206 billion in “unfunded liabilities” for the state’s two public pension funds.
Court review of pension cuts to focus on labor’s chief complaint
San Diego Union-Tribune
The chief complaint labor unions had about San Diego’s five-year old pension cuts is one of two issues the state Supreme Court plans to consider when reviewing an April appeals court decision that vindicated the city.
Going to BAT for American workers: Why the border adjustment tax was a genuinely good idea
Brookings Institution
It was always a longshot that ordinary American workers would gain from business tax reform. Facing global competition to attract business investment and profits, the consensus in Washington was to surrender to business interests by lowering corporate tax rates, eliminating most taxes on profits earned or reported abroad, and granting amnesty for the trillions of profits stashed abroad free of tax.
TRANSPORTATION
Motorcyclists to be focus of California Highway Patrol safety effort …
Sierra Sun
It may be great to feel the wind in your face as you tool down the region’s wonderful roadways on a motorcycle — the best way, many say, to fully enjoy the journey.
But that peaceful pleasure can quickly disappear with the shriek of metal on metal, followed by the jarring crash as the speeding motorcycle slides out of control into a car that had just pulled onto the rural roadway.
California high speed rail likely to face more environmental challenges after high court ruling
Los Angeles Times
California’s high-speed train project is likely to continue to be buffeted by environmental challenges as a result of a decision by the state’s top court.
See also:
· California high speed rail likely to face more environmental challenges after high court ruling Politico
Joe Mathews: All aboard Southern California’s ‘Brain Train’
The Desert Sun
My train line is smarter than your train line. I’m a regular rider of “The Brain Train,” officially known as the Gold Line on the L.A. Metro system’s. The Gold Line is light rail running from the eastern San Gabriel Valley into downtown L.A. and then back out again to East L.A. Along the way, it connects enough smart institutions – from innovative community colleges, to a leading cancer center, to the world’s greatest scientific university – to explode stereotypes about public transportation and Southern California itself.
Paul Granillo: Freight rail provides an infrastructure model for California
The Sun
Lawmakers in Sacramento took an important step toward fixing California’s crumbling roads, highways and bridges in April when they passed Senate Bill 1, a $52 billion infrastructure plan paid for by an increase in the state gas tax and a new fee for vehicle owners.
WATER
California orders closer look at 93 dams after Oroville crisis; including in Merced
Merced Sun Star
California officials have ordered owners of 93 damns, including two operated by Merced Irrigation District, to reinspect their flood-control spillways following the Oroville Dam crisis, saying the spillways need a closer look following a preliminary review.
Cal water releases “boil water advisory”
Bakersfield Now
California Water Service has issued a precautionary boil-water advisory for residents in a portion of central Bakersfield.
The advisory has been posted for around 220 customers in an area from Drake Street in the north, 21st Street in the south, Spruce Street in the east and Oak Street in the west.
“Xtra”
Fresno County community leaders come together to help boost volunteerism at Catholic Charities
abc30.com
Among those volunteers were public servants taking their oath to protect and serve to a new level– all to encourage others to volunteer.
LOIS HENRY: Bakersfield couple’s escape from postwar Hungary is the stuff of movies
The Bakersfield Californian
Judy and John Florian’s arrival in Bakersfield was heralded in the old “city hostess” column by Dottie Hiatt along with a slew of other new arrivals. Hiatt noted the couple had come from Los Angeles for John’s job with Mobil and that “Hungary is listed as their natal home.” The story beneath that brief listing is the stuff movies are made of.
Fitz’s Stockton: A man who thinks dam big
Stockton Record
Mortensen, 94, is an architect. He designed Burns Tower at University of the Pacific, among other prominent buldings. Mortensen is retired, but not idle.
Fitzgerald: A raspberry for the old courthouse
Stockton Record
Now that Stockton boasts a fine new courthouse, I’d like to write a eulogy for the old courthouse — I’d like to, but I can’t, since the old building refuses to die. Too bad. The 1962 San Joaquin County courthouse is almost universally knocked as a what-were-they-thinking architectural mistake coupled with a grievous historical error.
Check out Art Hop at Old Town Clovis Farmers Market every Friday night
Fresno Bee
Several years ago we started ArtHop at the Farmers Market on specific nights. This year, we have made it part of the Market every Friday night and we have more than 50 artists who rotate each evening. This is a great opportunity to support our local artists. There is a wide variety of crafters, photographers, artists, authors and more. You’ll find the artists lining 4th Street at Woodworth Avenue.