Valley Headlines

Blue Dogs: Face the deficit

The Hill. Speaker Johnson, the Blue Dogs are here to throw you a bone. 
Synopsis: Adam Gray and seven other members of the House Blue Dog Coalition have written a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson saying there “is no way to hide the ugly reality” of the Big Beautiful (budget) Bill. It’s tax cuts for millionaires will add $4 trillion to the national deficit while cutting $700 billion from Medicaid. It will raise the debt-to-GDP ratio to 125 percent, meaning federal interest payments will exceed $2 trillion a year making it impossible to pay off any debt ever. This is why Moody’s has lowered our credit rating and other nations are abandoning the dollar. If this passes, prepare for more inflation and higher interest rates. There’s another way: paying down debt while extending tax cuts only to those who actually need them – working-class Americans.

‘Don’t leave our Valley behind’

Kerman News. Local projects seen in federal funding submission.
Synopsis: Rep. Adam Gray has submitted appropriations requests for the five counties that make up his district. “For too long, Washington has left the Central Valley behind,” said Gray. “Now we have an opportunity to finally bring home funding that our community desperately needs.” Among 15 projects is $5 million for drinking water in Chowchilla; $5 million for police communications in Modesto; $4 million for wastewater treatment in Dos Palos; $5.8 million for sewer repairs in Madera, and $2 million for water storage in Coalinga.

Senator: It’s all about water

McClatchy California. Schiff has been busy with ag issues, but Delta water project needs attention.
Synopsis: As the first CA senator in 30 years to sit on the ag committee, Adam Schiff is taking the assignment seriously. He has been touring the state’s great Central Valley and told the Fresno Bee: “I want the farmers and farmworkers to view me as their ally and their champion, and I look forward to knowing them better.” The Bees write that this “towering industry” faces an uncertain future as it tries to adapt to climate change and the growing unreliability of water deliveries exacerbated by bad politics. In 2018, Trump’s trade war cost CA farmers $875.1 million in export income. Yes, he rebated $451.4 million, but it didn’t cover the costs. If Schiff wants to really help farmers, he needs to “get up to speed quickly” on the need for a Delta Tunnel. Our other senator, Alex Padilla, also has not yet taken a position on the tunnel. We need it, according to the Bees.
MAD Take: It’s interesting that this editorial reflects the consensus of all of McClatchy’s CA editorial boards. It proves there is no editorial board in Modesto. The Bee’s solution for Fresno farmers – the peripheral Delta tunnel -- will hurt farmers in Turlock and Modesto. With vast amounts of the Sacramento River redirected beneath the Delta instead of through it, the state will need more fresh flows from the San Joaquin River’s tributaries to make up the difference or turn the Delta into stagnant salt pond. The state is already trying to take that water. There is a solution that doesn’t hurt anyone: Develop more water supplies through desalination and vastly improved storage. Otherwise, you’re just moving drought from one area to another.

Yes, water situation is dire

Maven’s Notebook. SoCal Dialog: Spilling reservoirs and empty basins -- CA’s storage dilemma. 
Synopsis: Jeffrey Mount, Aaron Fukuda and Tim Godwin talked about California’s multi-layered water dilemmas. The state is getting warmer, with more rain than snow and that snow is melting more quickly. When droughts hit, they’re hotter and longer, drying both the ground and the very air. Storing water is an absolute necessity. Jeffrey Mount says CA wouldn’t exist without dams and reservoirs. But they won’t be enough going forward, and we can’t build them fast enough to meet the need. Worse, we generate hydro, provide drinking water, nurture eco-systems and grow food with stored water – and each of these uses is growing more critical and incompatible. We must start treating groundwater as drought reserve, not annual supply. The age of big dams is done. A few more make sense, but most don’t. Groundwater storage is great, but storing water underground comes with a cost to streams. The key is getting water from where it falls to the San Joaquin Basin where aquifer-storage awaits.

What grows on dry land?

GV Wire. CA bill would streamline solar conversion for dry farmland.
Synopsis: Buffy Wicks is proposing a change in Williamson Act rules that would allow farmers to take land out of crop production when there is insufficient water for crops and convert it to solar energy production without losing tax breaks. With the prospect of fallowing hundreds of thousands of acres, it’s an important solution. Paul Betancourt of Kerman says: “We need new tools and smart policy that recognizes the pressures we’re under. AB 1156 is one of those tools. It’s good for the environment by creating more clean, renewable energy. It’s good for our communities by keeping the land productive. It’s good for our farmers by allowing us to continue doing what we do best – growing food.” But changing the Williamson Act walks a fine line, says Ryan Jacobsen. “We want the integrity of the Williamson Act to remain, but we also understand the struggles and hardship farmers are going through.” The American Farmland Trust and CA Farm Bureau Federation, among others, oppose the legislation.

One life saved by CHP

ABC30. CHP officers save man trapped in car after crash in Merced County.
Synopsis: Officers Bernavet Mendez Padilla and Christian Ramirez responded to a head-on wreck in the dead of night on May 11, and found only one car. While looking it over, Padilla heard cries for help. He soon saw a man pinned inside a car that had flipped into the canal on Hwy 165 north of Santa Fe Grade. “The only thing on my mind was we have to save this guy,” said Padilla, who jumped into the canal, cut the seatbelt and pulled the man out of a sinking car. To be clear, the seat belt saved the man’s life in the crash but trapped him in the canal. He told Padilla, “You saved my life. I’ll never forget this day.”

Two lives cut short

Merced Sun Star. Merced County sisters killed in suspected DUI crash identified.
Synopsis: The Merced coroner identified the two victims of a suspected drunk driver last weekend as Arianna Valencia, 20, and her sister Camilla, 3. Their accused killer is Moises Castillo, 19, of Catheys Valley, who was speeding in his pickup truck on Southern Pacific Avenue when he ran a stop sign at Commerce.
MAD Take: It is impossible to look at the photo of two smiling young sister and not feel immense sorrow. Then immense rage.

Woman hurt in homeless cleanup

Westside Express. Woman accidentally injured at Los Banos homeless encampment.
Synopsis: The accident occurred on May 15 as city staff was cleaning up a homeless encampment at G Street. She was injured as a backhoe picked up what officials thought was debris. She was flown to Modesto for treatment and was alert when transported.

Adoption agencies closing

KVPR / Merced Focus. Valley foster care agencies facing insurance crisis, possible closure.
Synopsis: The nonprofits that help orphaned or abandoned kids find homes and services have been themselves orphaned by the Nonprofits Insurance Alliance of CA. It covered 220 agencies like Sierra Vista Child & Family Services in Modesto which last November shut down its placement services. Changes in state law gave abuse survivors a way around the statute of limitations, which opened the agencies to lawsuits and damages, forcing NIAC to stop writing insurance. “We were not seeing an increase in claims. What we are seeing is an increase in claim value.” Premiums for Turlock’s Creative Alternatives have doubled to $360,000.

Oakdale fed up with PG&E

Modesto Bee. Oakdale takes another step on switch from PG&E to MID; other options in play. 
Synopsis: The city of Oakdale voted 5-0 to pay a consultant $75,000 to explore switching from PG&E to MID. PG&E objected, insisting its Oakdale facilities -- serving 7,000 homes – are not for sale. But MID has 1,000 Oakdale customers, and they pay an average of $257 per month less for power. Oakdale is not alone. Manteca, Ripon, Fresno, San Jose and Yuba City are all trying to break away from the nation’s most expensive investor-owned utility. PG&E is promising a 5-cent per kWh price drop next year, from 63 cents to 58 cents. MID, meanwhile, charges 21 cents per kWh.
MAD Take: This isn’t the first time people have been asked to stand up to PG&E. When MID started supplying electricity to new homes in Oakdale 15 years ago, PG&E billed those homeowners $100 a month in “stranded asset” fees. As a columnist for The Bee, I urged residents to follow the advice of consumer-rights attorney Larry Drivon and refuse to pay them. I also spoke to the legislator who wrote the “stranded-asset” law, who said PG&E was twisting it into something he never intended. Eventually, PG&E abandoned its efforts to collect the fees.

Doing good deeds

Turlock Journal. Graduate unveils renovated training room at Turlock High for Eagle project. 
Synopsis: Eagle Scout Sarah Galvan graduated from Turlock High on Friday, but she left something behind – a renovated athletic training room. “This room isn’t just new floors and cabinets,” said Galvan. “It’s a space that will serve over 700 student athletes, where injuries will be treated, careers will be supported and futures protected.” There are exam tables, ice-bath tubs, spin cycles and more. Custodial supervisor Martin Gutierrez was there for every moment of the renovation said Galvan.

Westside Connect. Crowds come out for inaugural pickleball tourney for Valley Children’s.
Synopsis: Several dozen pickleball players came to the Henry Miller courts Saturday to raise money for Valley Children’s Hospital. Daniel Gomes was one of five college students who organized the tourney, doing publicity, prep, setting up brackets, getting vendors and working with the city. Sergio and Issac Aguilar won the Advanced division.

Newman’s mystery millionaire?

Westside Connect. Newman’s mystery millionaire: Who’s holding the golden ticket?
Synopsis: A Powerball ticket worth $1,326,260 was sold at the Arco on N Street. No one knows just yet who the winner was, making it the talk of the town. A traveler stopping for gas? A regular? Someone who bought it and forgot it? The Arco station gets $6,600 for having sold the ticket. California law requires all lottery winners to become public record. But that takes a while, leaving lots of time for speculation.

Decorating Merced’s dumpsters

Merced Sun Star. Artist draws inspiration from Valley, UC Merced for new downtown mural.
Synopsis: Reporter Andy Kuhn profiles Andrea Torres, who has been painting an area West 18^th Street that will be used as a dumpster enclosure. She’s nearly finished. She began painting murals while a teacher in Fresno and her work can be seen throughout the Valley – including on the UC Merced campus, highway exits and at Madera City College.