Valley Headlines

Stanislaus, not a pretty picture

Modesto Bee. Stanislaus housing cost, chronic disease, doctor shortages add up to poor health. 
Synopsis: Ken Carlson reports on the Community Health Assessment, put together by the Stanislaus Health Service Agency. It’s not a flattering picture: Half of renters spend more than 30% on housing; single adults and seniors struggle to even find housing. To afford a 2-bedroom apartment you have to make $29.38 an hour. The life expectancy in Stanislaus is 76 years, well below the state average of 79.9. A third of all adults and half of children are obese; 17% have asthma. You’re more likely to get cancer and less likely to have a doctor because Stanislaus County has too few primary care, obstetric and pediatric physicians.
MAD Take: No wonder the county’s suicide rate is 10% higher than the state average.

It’s official: Dr. Bains is running

Cal Matters. New challenger for vulnerable CA Republican.
Synopsis: Dr. Jasmeet Bains, currently serving both her Delano patients and in the CA Assembly, says she will run against David Valadao in CA-22. Like other Valley Democrats, Bains has defied party leadership on issues important in her district and paid the price politically. Valadao, meanwhile, voted to gut Medi-Cal (starting in 2027), a program that serves some 64% of his voters. He repeatedly pledged not to support cuts to the program but did anyway when pushed by Trump.

Politico. California Playbook. Valadao challenger makes it official.
Synopsis: The daily political update adds details to coverage of Jasmeet Bains’s decision to challenge David Valadao. “It’s time that communities like mine get access to higher services in health care, not lower, and the way we’re going to do it is electing their doctor to Congress,” said Bains.

Sacramento Bee. Central Valley Democrat Dr. Jasmeet Bains challenges David Valadao.
Synopsis: More coverage of the Delano doctor’s decision to take on the Hanford Republican who twice broke promises to protect medical care. Bains said Valadao’s vote to gut Medicaid was “not leadership – that’s betrayal.” She is the first Sikh American and first woman of South Asian descent to be elected to the Assembly. The NRCC immediately labeled her a “radical Democrat,” though she has been sanctioned by her own party for not being liberal enough.
MAD Note: The NRCC is the same group trying to blame Adam Gray for the price of gas.

Help farmers, solve immigration

Western Farm Press. It’s time for Congress to step in on immigration.
Synopsis: Senior Editor Tim Hearden writes that Trump and his ag secretary appear stuck in a tug-of-war between the needs of farmers and anti-immigrant hardliners. That means it is up to Congress to actually help farmers. Hearden says the Farm Workforce Modernization Act – backed by Democrats Adam Gray, Jim Costa and Zoe Lofgren and Republicans Dan Newhouse and Mike Simpson – is a great place to start. Originally negotiated in 2019, it was torpedoed by Trump, who wanted immigration as a campaign issue.

Garbage strike gets ugly

Stocktonia. Feasting rats, legal threats: Stockton’s not alone in Republic Services trash strike.
Synopsis: The Teamsters work stoppage that started in Manteca has spread to Southern CA and the East Coast. “We will flood the streets and shut down garbage collection in state after state,” said Teamsters’ president Sean O’Brien. While Manteca is not impacted, Lathrop and Stockton residents haven’t had a garbage pickup for two weeks.

Abandoned fields invite pests

Ag Alert. Abandoned crops bring pest plague to adjacent farms. 
Synopsis: When farmers stop tending their trees and vines, pests take up residence. Soon enough, those pests migrate to nearby farms. “Everywhere you turn there’s an abandoned vineyard,” said Randy Baranek, who works for Stanislaus-based Fowler Brothers. “It’s a mess.” Across the Valley, there are “tens of thousands of acres of almond orchards” left untended, according to Land IQ. Farmers who can’t afford to farm also can’t afford to remove trees or vines, which become infested with navel orangeworm. Their neighbors then are forced to spend more to kill the pests. It’s not just bugs. Last year, rats infested 112,000 acres of orchards causing an estimated $300 million damage. County ag commissioners are being asked to get tougher on property owners who don’t act.

A mile of rocks removed

River Partners. River Partners removed nearly one mile of concrete from the river. 
Synopsis: The state’s leading habitat restoration group removed “nearly one mile” of illegally dumped concrete from the San Joaquin River at Dos Rios State Park near Grayson. “This isn’t the photogenic, tree-planting side of river restoration,” said ecologist Neil Wilson. “This is the hard-to-fund, harder-to-permit work of clearing garbage from riverbanks.” It took 3 years just to get the permits. Unfortunately, the “armoring” of riverbanks with rock and concrete rubble destroys the nests of bank swallows and makes it easier for predators to kill migrating salmon. “The reality is, letting rivers move – in the right places – can reduce flood risk, improve water supplies and give wildlife like salmon and bank swallows a fighting chance,” said River Partners CEO Julie Rentner.

Just maybe it’s the bass

Maven’s Notebook. A closer look at how predation and flow impact salmon survival. 
Synopsis: Alastair Bland, writing for the Estuary News Group, reports that salmon populations have crashed and “the future of the species dangles in the balance.” Then the reporter tries to balance competing narratives about why salmon are crashing. All agree that with enough habitat restoration and water, fish will return. But now “there is another element in the mix: nonnative predators.” He quotes FishBio biologist Dana Lee, who points out that “we’ve been trying the same things, regulating flows and habitat restoration … for 20 or 30 years, and here we are in the third season of a salmon fishery closure.” Bland then counters that sensible statement by quoting a host of voices from the traditional environmental community, citing the same mantras they have offered for a generation: flows, and only flows, will solve the problem. Even talking about predation, says Andrew Rypel of UC Davis, means we might be “taking our eye off the ball.” Eventually, Bland quotes Edward Ring of the CA Policy Center, writing: “We’ve tried everything else. Remove all limits on bass fishing. Or just admit the bass won.”
MAD Take: Like every other reporter who comes to a story with a point of view, Bland focuses on the Sacramento River, where salmon numbers are disastrous. He fails to acknowledge excellent spawning returns on a dozen other rivers, from the Stanislaus to the Mokelumne to the Feather. And while it is absolutely true salmon need adequate flows, he never mentions that we don’t know what constitutes “adequate.” We’ve seen salmon spawn on Pixley Slough – which doesn’t have enough water to keep a rosebush alive – while failing to spawn on the Sacramento, which drains three-quarters of California.

Discouraging new doctors

Cal Matters. Republicans cap student loan debt; why that’s bad for CA medical students.
Synopsis: Valley students, no matter how brilliant, often have fewer resources and less money than counterparts in larger cities. To afford medical school, they must borrow. Under the GOP’s Big Beautiful Bill, educational borrowing will be capped at $50,000 per year. Medical school costs $195,000 a year at UC and up to $260,000 at private schools such as USC – not counting room and board. In unprecedented numbers, says one former official, this will push many students to borrow from private lenders at much higher interest rates. Others will simply refuse to pursue medical degrees. Worse, loan forgiveness will be capped at $200,000, meaning poor students will begin their careers with massive debt. The money that once incentivized young doctors now will go into tax cuts.

Trump’s attack on children

Fresno Bee. Trump’s cruelty has a new target: Babies and preschoolers in Head Start. 
Synopsis: Columnist Tad Weber writes about RFK Jr.’s announcement that undocumented children can no longer take part in Head Start. Trump’s “war on the undocumented” has stripped away due process, sent people to foreign torture prisons and inspired our own gulag. Now, he’s going after kids. Tad writes about Ezequiel Torres, a 4-year-old who blossomed at Franklin School in west Fresno. So did his mother, who attended parenting classes. There are 2,000+ kids attending Head Start classes in Fresno, Clovis, Mendota, Reedley and Huron; 800,000 nationwide. None are turned away; no documents required. America needs Ezequiel to grow up and accomplish great things. What Kennedy is doing is worse than wrong, it’s un-American.

Critical holes in fire readiness

LA Times. Trump cuts to CA National Weather Service leave ‘critical’ holes: ‘It’s unheard of.’ 
Synopsis: Two National Weather Service offices in CA were among the hardest hit by the DOGE firing rampage. The gutting of the NWS is widely seen as one reason people in Texas lacked any warning that floods would soon kill 100 people. Now, CA officials are warning of similar problems when wind-driven wildfires strike CA forests. The Hanford and Sacramento NWS offices have the highest staff-vacancy rates in the nation. Between them they cover the entire Central Valley and Sierra. Each office is supposed to have at least 16 meteorologists and operate 24/7 to track storm systems. But there are only 5 meteorologists working in Hanford and 8 in Sacramento. At each office there is supposed to be a “warning coordination meteorologist” to coordinate emergency response. That job is vacant in Hanford, just as it is in Austin.

Notable changes

Westside Connect. Ken Rose elected CA State Deputy for Knights of Columbus.
Synopsis: Ken Rose has been installed in the state’s highest position for the world’s largest Catholic men’s organization. Joining him in Knights of Columbus leadership is Dan Avila, the new state chaplain. Father Dan is from Gustine.

Ceres Courier. Ceres’ new police chief has big goals.
Synopsis: Chief Trenton Johnson talked to Jeff Benziger, promising to be “one of Ceres’ hardest working police chiefs.” He’s a hands-on chief, personally flying the city’s new drone over the Fourth of July weekend and helping issue 15 citations for illegal fireworks. Johnson notes that Ceres is supposed to have 47 officers but has only 38. “I don’t know how many more cuts we can take.” One of the open positions is that of captain – which was Johnson’s job before he was promoted.

Ceres Courier. Kevin Wise stepping down as fire chief.
Synopsis: Modesto Fire Chief Kevin Wise – who has been in charge of administering fire and emergency services for every city in the county – is stepping down Aug. 20. He’s been fighting multiple myeloma for the past three years. “Yeah, it’s on my mind because I’ve had relapses in the past. So that’s definitely a consideration.” Wise started his career in Stanislaus County and rose to Ceres Fire Chief before the department merged with Modesto.

Turlock Journal. Merced County Fair Board appoints John Allgaier CEO.
Synopsis: John Allgaier succeeds 27-year CEO Teresa Burrola. He has been in the business 30 years, booking entertainment, planning and marketing.

Playing her hometown

Turlock Journal. Ash Ruder relishes return to Turlock with fair concert.
Synopsis: The budding country-music singer played the free stage at the Stanislaus County Fair on Saturday, her first time headlining a show. One of her staff called the 90-minute set “magic.” She drew the largest crowd of the fair, so far. “It’s just so surreal. It’s amazing to see so many people come out. Like everybody is here, my family, friends – ex-boyfriends’ moms. It’s crazy.” Her mom and dad had reserved seats, front and center.

All his butterflies are free

Westside Connect. ‘Butterfly Man’ inspires kindness across Westside as community rallies. 
Synopsis: Larry Milton – aka, the Butterfly Man – has adorned homes, schools and storefronts with his wooden butterflies for the past seven years. Those who want to pay for them are encouraged to make a donation to the animal shelter. Milton’s been laid up with a broken hip, and the community has been showing its appreciation with butterfly cards, stickers and videos. Teacher Angela Cortez has one of Milton’s butterflies on her classroom door. “It reminds my students and me to be gentle, to be bright and to keep growing. Larry’s butterflies aren’t just wood – they’re hope, painted.”