Valley Headlines

Big celebration in Madera

Merced Focus. After two-year closure, Madera Community Hospital reopens on ‘historic’ day.
Synopsis: The state renewed the hospital’s license Monday, and Tuesday the doors opened with tours and fanfare. CEO Steve Stark called it “a monumental achievement” and a “testament to our promise back to the community.” The hospital has 103 beds and a fully equipped ER after a $10 million renovation. There is an ICU and surgical suite but no maternity ward. The hospital will operate clinics in Chowchilla, Mendota and Madera, but they’re not “quite ready yet.” The reopening was made possible through a $57 million state grant set up by Esmeralda Soria and Anna Caballero, who called the reopening “a great victory.” On the horizon, though, many worry about cuts to Medi-Cal and Medicaid, which nearly two-thirds of Madera residents rely on for healthcare. Such cuts will mean trouble for all rural medical facilities.

Cal Matters. CA’s Medi-Cal shortfall hits $6.2 billion with ‘unprecedented’ cost increases.
Synopsis: Ana Ibarra reports that it will take at least $6.2 billion to make the state’s most vital healthcare program solvent – not the $3.4 billion the governor has requested. Medi-Cal covers roughly 30% of all Californians and is budgeted for $8.5 billion. But rising pharma costs, an aging population, and higher costs associated with the pandemic are contributing “all at once” to the shortfall.

GV Wire. Fresno County confirms second measles case; exposure warning issued.
Synopsis: Health officials confirmed a second measles case in the county and noted the patient visited the WinCo Foods in Clovis. Officials says everyone should confirm their MMR vaccination status.

Ceres mayor wants new job

Turlock Journal. Republicans see the 13^th Congressional District as vulnerable.
Synopsis: Conservative columnist Jeff Benziger writes about the ambitions of Javier Lopez, the Ceres mayor. Lopez will announce his candidacy for Congress in early April. John Duarte, who held the seat in 2020, says he won’t run again and will stand behind Lopez. Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra, who ran against Lopez for mayor, says she is more focused on serving Ceres than feeding her own ambition.

Ugly flyer backfired

GV Wire. Vang appears en route to outright special Fresno council election win.
Synopsis: Edward Smith reports that as of Tuesday night, Sanger school board member Brandon Vang has 1,859 votes, or 50.5% of the total -- well ahead of three other candidates. The wife of Luis Chavez, who vacated the seat after becoming a supervisor, is in second place, 580 votes behind. Vang said he was “ecstatic” with the early results. Just a week before the election, Vang had been accused of statutory rape in a scurrilous flyer that was produced anonymously. With four candidates, most observers predicted a runoff later this year.

County execs calling it quits

Merced Focus. Merced County CEO Raul Lomeli Mendez resigning after 3 years on the job.
Synopsis: Merced supervisor Josh Pedrozo said he got Raul Lomeli Mendez’s letter two weeks ago; Mendez will leave on May 18. The county will “extend to him our warmest wishes in all of his future endeavors…” said Pedrozo. No word on an interim CEO or the coming search for a new chief executive. Mendez says he “will always treasure my time in Merced County.”

Modesto Bee. Two department heads retire from Stanislaus County service; new directors named.
Synopsis: Ruben Imperial will become the county’s Behavioral Health & Recovery Services director starting Friday following the departure of Tony Vartan. Mary Ann Lilly at the Health Services Agency is also retiring. She was in charge of setting up testing, contact tracing and vaccination sites during COVID. Says Jody Hayes: “We all know how difficult that was.” Heather Duvall will fill Lilly’s role with a raise to $203,600.

Fewer Tomatoes, more nuts

Ag Alert. Tomato planting starts as canneries reduce acreage.
Synopsis: For a second year in a row, canneries are ordering fewer tons of tomatoes, cutting contracts by 12% or 10.2 million tons. That translates into 200,000 acres. “Everyone, for the most part, got a reduction in acres,” said seed salesman Erik Wilson.

Ag Net West. USDA grants CWB funds through the 2025 Market Access Program.
Synopsis: The Walnut Board has gotten $3.6 million to help develop greater appetites for walnuts in international markets.

Ag Alert. Help us tell the sustainability story of the walnut industry.
Synopsis: The Farm Bureau and CA Walnut Board are asking growers to take a survey as they try to help tell the story of walnut farmers working to “preserve the environment while meeting the needs for future generations to continue to farm.” Follow this link to take the 26-minute survey.

AI finds hidden guns
Modesto Bee. Modesto PD experimenting with AI gun detection.
Zero Eyes, a Philadelphia startup, now has access to cameras across the city. Zero Eyes’ software will be able to detect weapons – down to the make and model – out in the open or hidden beneath clothing. It can notify officers within 5 seconds. But the notification isn’t automatic; it must first pass through a human’s confirmation. The software developer is a former Navy SEAL, and his center is staffed by veterans. ZeroEyes is being provided to the city for free.

Jobs: Fed layoffs, UC freeze

E&E News. Leaked EPA layoff plan would slash science office.
Synopsis: The Trump EPA is planning to remove up top 75% of all its scientists – about 1,540 positions – in the EPA’s Office of Research & Development, eliminating the entire department.

Grist. You rely on this agency for weather, climate forecasts; DOGE is decimating its workforce.
Synopsis: Story focuses on a research biologist at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, one of more than 1,000 employees laid off by managers in the Dept of Commerce. NOAA is a lead agency in The National Weather Service

CBS13. University of CA announces systemwide hiring freeze as funding cuts loom.
Synopsis: All 10 campuses of the university are halting hiring in anticipation of funding cuts from the Trump administration. UC President Michael Drake called it a “time of great uncertainty in our UC community.”

Bad, good bird flu news

LA Times. New strain of bird flu wipes out Mississippi poultry farm; human flu may offer immunity.
Synopsis: A new strain of bird flu – H7N9 – caused the deaths of 46,000 birds in Noxubee County. The new strain has been seen in wild birds for years but was not considered deadly until moving into a commercial henhouse. The only way to stop it from entering commercial facilities is “surveillance,” according to experts. Usually, that is done by workers at the USDA, Fish & Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey and NOAA. Without information collected by these agencies, “we’re flying blind” in the words of one scientist. In better news, Dr. Richard Webby at St. Jude’s says ferrets exposed to seasonal human flu – H1N1 -- did not suffer the same deadly impacts of H5N1 when later exposed, suggesting human flu forms some kind of immunity to H5N1. The virus was found in the respiratory systems of previously exposed ferrets, but not in their hearts, livers and spleens.

Solar-battery project on West Side

GV Wire. Newsom accelerates Fresno County solar project powering 300K homes.
Synopsis: The governor “certified” a Cornucopia Hybrid Energy battery project on the west side, saying CA is in “the how business – we’re moving fast to achieve our world-leading clean-energy goals.” It’s about 20 miles north of Avenal on the Southern Yokuts or Kettleman plains. Construction by German company BayWa.r.e is set to begin in 2027 with completion by 2030.
MAD Note: This isn’t the only solar-battery project coming to the West Side. PG&E is building one about 9 miles south of Los Banos. Not quite as big.

Nutria have invaded Fresno

Fresno Bee. Hello nutria? CA’s least-welcome invasive swamp rodents have arrived in Fresno.
Synopsis: Columnist Marek Warszawski writes about the deep-burrowing, 40-pound rodent from Brazil that is spreading from Sacramento to Fresno. It took only 8 years for nutria to spread out from Merced County, where it was first seen in CA. Nutria threaten wetlands and farmland protected by levees. Each female can have 200 or more baby nutria a year, meaning they’re hard to eradicate once established. They’ve been in the Louisiana bayous for 90 years and even bounties and gators haven’t reduced their damage.

More water for farming

Porterville Record. Reclamation increases Friant water allocation to 80%.
Synopsis: The Bureau of Reclamation and CVP has told Class 1 contractors that they will get 80% of contracted allocations, well up from the original 45% allocation. It means 800,000 acre-feet of what’s in Millerton Reservoir will be available to cities and irrigators.

Maven / Sites Project JPA. Sites Reservoir allocated an additional $134 million in federal funding.
Synopsis: The WIIN Act has provided additional funding for Sites. Says Fritz Durst: “We all agree we desperately need more water storage in CA to prepare for the future.” The federal total so far has hit $780 million. 

Sun sets on Sun-Star building

Merced Focus. City set to demolish former Merced Sun-Star building.
Synopsis: What squatters and fire couldn’t do over the past seven years, the city will do next month – demolish the Sun-Star building. The city will spend $250K to tear it down. It opened in 1971 and housed what was then a thriving newsroom. Many at the Focus – including executives Victor Patton and Joe Kieta – worked years at the Sun-Star.