Valley Headlines

300+ turn out for Gray event

Merced Focus. Watch Congressman Adam Gray take oath of office in Merced.
Synopsis: Merced native Adam Gray came home from Washington this week and appeared at a ceremonial swearing-in on Thursday evening. More than 300 friends, supporters, neighbors and family members watched as Judge John Kirihara presided over the event at the Courthouse Museum. The reception following the event spread across both floors of the historic building.

SF workers are living here

SF Chronicle. SF’s workforce keeps moving farther away from their jobs. 
Synopsis: The Bay Area “leads” the nation in commuter distance with 18.7% of all workers living more than 50 miles from their jobs. Among the zip codes with a 100% increase in commuters over the past 10 years are Lathrop, Modesto, Atwater, Merced and Los Banos. This trend of outward migration by workers is nationwide and attributable to the work-from-home movement. The reverse is true, too. In the last 10 years, the percentage of San Franciscans who live within 10 miles of their workplace fell 8% and is the lowest in the nation. BTW, there were 608,000 workers in SF in 2012 and 748,000 when this survey was completed.

Airports losing controllers

SF Chronicle. Key airport along approach to SFO may lose all air traffic controllers this week.
Synopsis: The San Carlos Airport -- used mostly by private pilots, business jets and flight schools – will lose all of its air-traffic controllers starting Saturday. Airport manager Gretchen Kelly said the airport’s controllers all resigned after the Trump administration changed their contracts, lowering pay and setting a nationwide rate with no regional cost-of-living considerations. “Understandably, all current controllers have declined the offers,” said Kelly. Aircraft owners who use the airport say having controllers is “hugely important” because the air space around SFO is “so incredibly busy.” Worse, other small airports in the state are also seeing controller resignations. One is the Chico Airport, which serves as a hub for CalFire; only 1 of the 3 controllers agreed to the new contract. Local leaders throughout the state are insisting the FAA prioritize safety over cost-cutting.
MAD Take: The implications of Trump’s “efficiency” order are obvious and is said to be a factor in the crash at Reagan National this week. Normally, individual controllers would have been assigned to each of the aircraft that crashed, but with the resignations following Trump’s order there weren’t enough, so a single controller handled both flights.

What will refugees do?

Modesto Bee. After Trump order, many Stanislaus refugee families are left with nowhere to go.
Synopsis: Reporter Kathleen Quinn writes about the Jan. 24 Trump order, carried out by the State Department, that ended funding for housing refugee families. Another program, established 45 years ago, provided 90 days of assistance to newcomers; it was also ended. Refugees from Afghanistan – mainly people who helped the US military – are being cut off from aid. “It’s not just housing. It’s a complete upheaval of everyone’s lives,” said a Modesto official.  

Fed water-dump halted

SJV Water. Decision to dump water from Tulare lakes altered after locals go into mad scramble.
Synopsis: The Army Corps of Engineers stepped away from their decision announced Tuesday to send 5,500 cubic feet per second of water down the Kaweah River and 3,500 down the Tule. The only time such flows had been seen came during the 2023 floods. The Corps is worried that an ARC storm is arriving and there is more water in Kaweah Reservoir and Lake Success than their manuals say is prudent. But local water managers are more worried about premature releases than any kind of flood. Some people interviewed said the Corps’ plan was a political “water flex” on the part of the Trump administration to prove it was moving more water out of the mountains into the rivers.

Delta tunnel ripped

Manteca Bulletin. Newsom’s tunnel vision protects SoCal & corporate farms from climate change. 
Synopsis: Dennis Wyatt provides a history lesson of CA water issues – the loss of Tule Lake, creation of the State Water Project, the pillaging of the Owens Valley – to bring his key point about the Delta into focus. He explains how Pat Brown promised more water than he could deliver, how Pat’s son Jerry tried to fix that with a canal, and how the canal became a tunnel. Finally, he says the tunnel will ruin farming in the Delta.

MAD Take: Dennis knows his water pretty well. He also hates the tunnel, calling it a means of making South Valley farmers and SoCal developers richer. He skips over the parts about earthquake safety, soil compaction and oxidation, mercury poisoning, invasive species, etc., but that would be too much to expect in a single column. Maybe there will be a Part II.  

CDC goes silent on bird flu

Farms.com. Bird flu cases rise while CDC remains silent.
Synopsis: Researchers and public health officials are struggling to get information following the Trump-ordered communications blackout for the Centers for Disease Control. It means they are not getting any updates on specific cases or additional spread of H5N1 in humans, the emergence of H5N9 or anything else.

Prices at a store near you

Ag Net West. Grocery prices in 2025.
Synopsis: USDA economist Megan Schweitzer says grocery prices will go up by 1.3% in 2025, which is slightly ahead of the increase seen in 2024 but well below the average increase of 2.6% per year across the last 20 years.

Successful Farming. Trump confirms Mexico, Canada 25% tariffs coming Saturday.
Synopsis: The latest tariff salvo from Trump came Thursday as he insisted he’s not playing chicken with Canada or Mexico. He even doubled down, saying the additional tariffs could “rise with time.” As of Friday morning, industry groups were scrambling for any scrap of information they could get on how those tariffs would be implemented or which products would be impacted by retaliatory tariffs imposed by Canada and Mexico. Fertilizer companies said their prices could go up $25 a ton next week, and avocado wholesalers warned that they could go up 25% just in time for the Super Bowl.

Stan State turns corner?

Modesto Bee. Enrollment rates declined at Stanislaus State for 5 years; what contributed to it?
Synopsis: The number of undergraduates at the Turlock campus has fallen by 12% since 2020, with only 1,500 new freshmen arriving each year of the past three years. COVID, low transfer rates from community colleges, falling high school graduation rates and the price of college are all contributing, say officials. Good news: Over the past 2 semesters enrollment is up for transfers and first-year students.

Too few Monarchs

LA Times. CA’s monarch butterfly population plummets; fire wipes out Topanga habitat.
Synopsis: Decades’ long efforts to create additional monarch butterfly habitat went up in the smoke of Palisades Fire, which destroyed a preserve in Topanga Canyon. Last year, the Xerces Society counted 100 monarchs in the reserve. On the entire west coast, only 9,119 butterflies were counted this winter, the second-lowest number on record since 1997. Last year, there were 200,000 counted. The insects do not fare well when the fall months are hot and dry, which happened this year. A site in Santa Babara County had 33,200 butterflies last year but only 200 this year. The CA Dept of Fish & Wildlife says wide fluctuations are common, but this is extreme.

10 trucks at grub hub

Modesto Bee. Modesto family’s goal is to improve downtown with food truck court.
Synopsis: The Bustos family set up a parking lot for food trucks called Paradise Plaza on I Street last May. It’s an effort to serve commuters and those using the bus station and planned ACE train as well as downtown residents. Safety is their highest priority, after good food. Among the 10 food trucks expected: Antojitos Sinaloa (fruit cups), Double B’s Burgers, Sacred Slice (both NY and Detroit style) and the Wing Truck.