Valley Headlines

No.10: Good dogs come & go

KCRA: K9 Beny retires after nearly decade-long career, seized over $10.2 million in drugs.
Synopsis: Just two years after being celebrated with a state resolution by Assemblymember Adam Gray,  CHP K-9 deputy Beny retired. In his career, Beny helped confiscate over 1,000 pounds of drugs and “saved countless lives,” said Capt. John Staricka. He also helped apprehend 30 bad guys and contributed to 200 arrests. “This is probably the best partner I’ve ever had,” said Sgt. Kensey. A torn ACL cut short Beny’s career.

Ag Alert. Madera County farm dog wins Farm Bureau contest.
Synopsis: Aussie, the Australian shepherd, was voted the California Farm Bureau Federation’s Farm Dog of the Year. “There has been no other dog like her,” said 15-year-old Kaydence Erickson’. After coyotes wiped out Kaydence’s chickens, Aussie started sleeping near the coop. Now Kaydence has 70 chickens. Aussie has only 3 legs; her fourth was lost in an accident while chasing away coyotes.

Madera Tribune. MCSO K-9 is recovering. 
Synopsis: Obie was shot as he charged a man pointing a shotgun at pursuing deputies. But obie recovered fully, though he has yet to return to duty. “We remain indebted to him for his selfless act of bravery,” said the Madera County Sheriff’s Office.

No. 9: A lake dried up

SF Chronicle. The ‘phantom’ lake that engulfed CA’s Central Valley is gone, but the toll lingers.
Synopsis: Environmentalists and a lot of journalists lamented the drying up of Tulare Lake, which re-emerged in 2023’s inundation of California by 26 atmospheric rivers. At its largest, Tulare Lake covered 180 square miles and reached 12 feet deep. “There’s no lake anymore, just some wet ground but nothing major,” says Tulare supervisor Doug Verboon. That was due to “massive pumping” done by farmers to remove what was some of the most toxic water on the planet.

No. 8: Los Banos got fed up

Merced Focus. Longtime Los Banos leader ahead in controversial race to replace incumbent mayor.
Synopsis: Los Banos voters “spoke at the ballot box” and “their message clearly appears to be a desire for change.” Incumbent mayor Paul Llanez finished with only 21% of the vote. Councilmembers Brett Jones and Doug Begonia Jr. were each recalled by more than 75% of the voters in their districts. Deborah Jones, who stood against the 4-member majority for 2 years, was retained by voters who also turned to former mayor Mike Amabile to help right the city’s ship. Meanwhile, the city is facing the first labor strikes in its history, it has refused to respond to grand jury findings and voters remain angry over the old council’s decision to hand neophyte city manager Josh Pinheiro $1.8 million.  

No. 7: Making farming pay … sort of

Valley Solutions. Challenges of farming were daunting
Synopsis: While every farmer can list the difficulties they face, it wasn’t an entirely bad year for farming in the San Joaquin Valley. The prices for walnuts and almonds were up marginally, and the price of milk was up a lot. Table grapes did well, too, but wine grapes were left on the vine to rot. Among those who talked about issues were CA Walnut Board CEO Robert Verloop, who praised the “phenomenal” quality of nuts; Clarice Turner, who is happy about almond exports, Allied Grape Growers, who decried the importing of bulk juice by winemakers, and poultry growers who have struggled with low prices, bird flu, and more. But there were some fun stories, too:

CA Ag Net. Vierra Dairy Farms’ Baily named supreme champion at World Dairy Expo.
Synopsis: A cow named Stoney Point Joe Bailey won the Supreme Champion award at the World Dairy Expo – the planet’s most prestigious cattle show. Bailey traveled to Madison, Wisc., from Vierra Dairy Farms off Williams Avenue in Hilmar. Vierra Farms was created by Tony and Angie Vierra in 1967 and today milks 5,000 cows.

Western Farm Press. Transplant project earns FFA student Star honors.
Synopsis:  Gustine’s Emma Woods (daughter of Mark) won the state’s Star Farmer award for her “project” – the creation of Woods Transplant Services. Her company is based on her family farm in Santa Nella. She transplanted $3.5 million in tomato, broccoli and lettuce last year and this year is expanding to include organics. She is one of four young farmers honored statewide as Stars.

No. 6: Salmon on the rebound

Maven’s Notebook. Impacts of non-native fish on salmon populations in the San Joaquin River.
Synopsis: FishBio scientist Dana Lee presented his latest study at the Association of CA Water Agencies Fall Conference. His data confirmed that relying on increased river flows to save salmon is futile. Over the past 30 years of relying on ever-increasing flows, “this approach hasn’t resulted in much success,” said Lee. “In fact, most of the salmon species are in decline.” Even closing the commercial salmon season two years doesn’t appear to be providing much relief. That’s because even enormous spawning years are gobbled up by non-native bass. FishBio found that salmon often survive in their natal rivers, but often 95% to 97% are consumed in the San Joaquin River and Delta by waiting bass. Similar results have been documented on the Mokelumne and the Stanislaus rivers. Data shows that this predation “will probably preclude any recovery of salmonids no matter what other management actions we take within this region.”

San Jose Mercury News. Go fish: Chinook salmon rebounding on the Mokelumne River.
Synopsis: For the second year in a row, spawning salmon have broken every record on the books – including last year’s record return. More than 34,000 salmon have come back up the river that runs 65 miles through San Joaquin into Calaveras County -- and the spawning season is not over. The reporter notes that low salmon numbers on the Sacramento River have “forced” state officials to ban both recreational and commercial salmon fishing.

FishBio. A painful reality: The 2023 salmon season.
Synopsis: The closure of the salmon season has angered commercial and sports anglers, but it undoubtedly works say FishBio’s scientists. In 2023, salmon returned to spawn at a rate 116% of the previous year’s total and 10% higher than the long-term management goal. Prior to that, data shows the Sacramento River was “overfished” every year from 2018 through 2022. Because of the 2023 closure, the number of natural spawners exceeded hatchery returns by 5-fold – despite drought conditions through 2019-21 (when the returning fish were hatched). Returning salmon on the San Joaquin River system increased 262% over the prior year in 2023, for a total of 29,425 salmon – or 19% of the Central Valley total. Most of these were on the Mokelumne, but the Merced (10%), Stanislaus (6%) and Tuolumne (6%) also did well. Finally, while salmon fishers decry the loss of income the actual losses in 2023 were $17 million for all commercial fishers.

No. 5: So many sick cows

Farms.com. H5N1 outbreaks in CA dairy cattle top 500 as virus strikes more poultry in 3 states.
Synopsis: Dairy and poultry farmers across the Valley have had to learn all sorts of new skills – taking biosecurity measures, treating sick cows, disposing of sick birds, keeping workers safe, testing for a new disease that no one had heard of until three years ago. More than 600 California dairy herds have been infected and millions of chickens, turkeys and ducks have been destroyed. That has driven up the price of turkey, chicken and eggs. Meanwhile, bird flu has sickened cows in 17 states and more than 60 people – including 37 in California. Of those, only three were not working on farms. Ground Zero for bird and cow losses are Tulare, Stanislaus, Fresno, Merced and Madera counties. Everyone not living on a farm would prefer to ignore this story, but it’s too late for that. Figuring out how to keep animals and humans safe from infection is now the top priority. Or it should be.

No. 4: More water for storage

Mercury News. Gov. Newsom urges completion of CA’s largest new reservoir project in 50 years.
Synopsis: Gov. Newsom has been pushing hard to get the 16 small dams needed to create Sites Reservoir off the ground and his efforts appear to be paying off. Also, the federal government is proceeding with plans to expand San Luis Reservoir in Merced County. That’s not all. Near Patterson, Del Puerto Canyon Dam is inching along as is the Anderson Dam expansion roughly 20 miles away. All of these projects are essential for California’s future. But even more important are projects that will increase the state’s groundwater-storage capacity.

Ag Alert. State water board seeks comments on Bay Delta plan.
Synopsis: The State Water Board’s new water-quality control vastly expands the amount of water the state wants to claim from the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers. The state now wants to see unimpaired flows of up to 65% – a figure never before seen in any discussions on flows. Such flows would violate the voluntary agreements the state signed with water districts. It’s not clear the water board will overrule its unelected bureaucrats. Every water contractor in the state is worried.

No. 3: Med school is rising

Merced Focus. UC Merced breaks ground on new $300M medical education building: ‘It was very much a dream.’
Synopsis: Golden shovels were used to start turning an old parking lot into the medical arts building. Chancellor Juan Sanchez Munoz said the community will realize “a dream far too long deferred.” A dream indeed. Three years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom quipped that the med school should be named after Adam Gray, who pushed harder than anyone to start educating doctors in the Central Valley. Gray made medical education a priority for 10 years in the Assembly, helping create the PRIME program, securing $220 million for the building and working to create over 100 new residency slots in hospitals across the Valley. 

Merced Sun Star. ‘We deserve this’: UC Merced celebrates groundbreaking for new medical education building.
Synopsis: The new $300 million building will house psychology, public health, Health Science Research Institute and “general learning” environments. The students already enrolled in the MD Prime-Plus program will have a building to call their own.

Fresno Bee. Sunnyside High grad on the path to becoming a medical doctor; UC Merced is next step.
Synopsis: Mariela Lozano graduated as valedictorian from the Sunnyside High Doctors Academy and knows exactly where she wants to go next – into the UC Merced Prime+ Program that sets up the Baccalaureate-to-MD pathway to UCSF-Fresno. After that, she wants to “make the biggest impact in my community” by caring for people in the Valley. She is one of 15 students enrolled in the second cohort of the program at UC Merced.

No. 2: CA’s newest state park

Turlock Journal. Dos Rios Ranch Reserve now open to the public.
Synopsis: During the ceremony to celebrate the opening of California’s first new state park in a decade, River Partners President Julie Rentner thanked former Assemblymember Adam Gray for his work on the project. “For 10 years he represented this region in the Assembly and was foundational” in establishing funding for more such projects, said Rentner. “They’ve looked at flood plains here in the Central Valley really championed investment here. Without leadership like that of former Assemblyman Adam Gray, I don’t know that we would have the political will to invest at this scale and bring parks to these places.”

Merced County Times. Op-Ed. New Dos Rios state park, a model to restore habitat.
Synopsis: Adam Gray writes about the importance of funding parks that do more than one job. In this case, the state’s newest state park will provide recreation, habitat restoration and increased groundwater water storage as well as flood protection. The story was part of a larger package detailing the contributions of the CA Conservation Corps to helping develop the park.

SF Gate. Newest CA state park saved this tiny town from disaster.
Synopsis: Travel editor Silas Valentino talks to Grayson’s Lilia Lomeli-Gil, who leads manages the community center and serves as the closest thing there is to a mayor of the community. She hopes to lead tours of the park for Grayson residents later this year. Grayson is literally a stone’s throw from the San Joaquin River and has flooded 6 times in the past 80 years. Yet, while the floods of 2022-23 were worse than all but one of those previous floods, the community remained dry. The difference? The water flowed into Dos Rios through a breached levee – keeping Grayson dry.

Turlock Journal. Newsom visits Stanislaus County for new state park dedication.
Synopsis: With very little public notice, Gov. Gavin Newsom and first partner Jennifer Siebold Newsom visited California’s first new state park. Wrote Joe Cortez: “The governor personally thanked former Assemblymember Adam Gray for his role in the effort.” Gray was also quoted: “Too often, the narrative around CA water is the fish-versus-farmer argument … I see the value of all of the above. I think the environment is important to protect. I think agriculture is important to protect.”

No. 1: Adam Gray going to Congress

Turlock Journal. Gray unseats incumbent Duarte in CA-13 race.
Synopsis: The closest, and last, congressional race decided in America was won by Adam Gray, who beat John Duarte by 187 votes. Said Gray: “I felt good about the campaign we ran. We had hundreds of volunteers helping our campaign in so many ways. We knew it was going to be a close race, and it was a close race. I’m just thrilled that the voters put their trust in me to send me to Washington.” In all, 210,000 votes were cast.

Merced Focus. Merced among 10 CA counties Trump flipped.
Synopsis: While Kamala Harris crushed Donald Trump statewide, Merced County shifted red by 6.3% giving Trump the win. That was the second-largest shift in the state, behind only Imperial County (11.5%), but ahead of San Joaquin (5.9%), San Bernardino (5.1%), Fresno (4.9%) and Stanislaus (4.6%). Election data expert Rob Pyers analyzes the data for the Journalism Collaborative. The fact that Adam Gray prevailed signals that a lot of Valley voters want both change and results. 

MSNBC. Lawrence O’Donnell: Interviewing the newest Congressman.
Synopsis: Being the last person elected to Congress, and by the closest margin, has at least one advantage: Everybody is watching. Thursday night, Adam Gray was interviewed by MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell in New York; Adam was in his living room in Merced. O’Donnell was delighted when Adam explained that he hasn’t been sent to Washington to pick fights, but to go to work.
https://youtu.be/Fu7nXQvqEI0?si=ICHLFg_bdirPSdZR&t=1774

AdamGray4Congress. What people are saying about Adam Gray.
If you want to see what voters in this district have to say about Adam, quite a few took a few moments to talk to interviewers from Team Gray over the past few months. There are about 20 films, ranging from 30 seconds to a few minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf8-4QFK591SnHCETkzmUh-ThQk6VSaaO