Valley Headlines

Farmers feel tariff tremors

LA Times. California farmers brace for impacts of tariffs.
Synopsis: Story, with accompanying video, features Stanislaus County farmer Christine Gemperle talking about the impacts of tariffs. She recalls 2018 when “we lost the entire Chinese (almond) market to Australia.” Now, in 2025, it seems worse with Donald Trump making deals for some economic sectors but abandoning others. “This just makes everything we do so much harder. … Nobody wants to be in the center of chaos,” says Gemperle. Reporter Ian James talks to John Diener of Fresno, Bianca Kaprielian of Reedley, Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass, a deeply concerned Karen Ross and, finally, quotes tariff apologist Brooke Rollins. Grower Bianca Kaprielian sums it up: “You can only take so many blows. I really hope our politicians understand that this is affecting real people.”

Farms.com. Soybean farmers concerned as Trump raises China tariffs to 125%. 
Synopsis: While Trump was abandoning his tariffs on electronic imports that will cost manufacturers like Elon Musk billions, soybean farmers are growing ever-more worried that they will lose their hard-fought foothold on China’s soybean market, which last year was worth $4 billion. While Trump is vowing to “punch back further” if China imposes more tariffs on US ag goods, growers fear they will be the ones feeling the blows.

Gray focused on healthcare

Westside Connect. Costa, Gray propose bill to address critical physician shortage in rural areas.
Synopsis: The Medical Education Act would help pay for the education of doctors in rural areas across the nation. This has been a signature issue for Adam Gray since he served in the CA Assembly and championed the building of a medical school in Merced. UCSF-Fresno is in Costa’s district and is producing doctors matriculating from UC Merced and elsewhere. The bill is considered a “placeholder” until the Congressional Research Service can put financial estimates on it. A companion version was introduced in the Senate by Tim Kaine, D-WV, and Alex Padilla.
MAD Note: This week, Costa will join Gray in Fresno for a summit meeting of Valley medical professionals and hospital administrators at UCSF-Fresno to help figure out ways to increase the number of resident slots in Valley hospitals. Where doctors serve their residencies is a key indicator of where they will practice.

Zuck, Musk crossing guards

SF Chronicle. Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk mocked in hacked crosswalk recordings in Silicon Valley.
Synopsis: The recording devices that play crosswalk safety messages on street corners were hacked in several cities over the weekend. Instead of “Wait” or “Walk,” pedestrians heard fake “messages” purportedly from two of the world’s richest men. “Musk” sounded like he was trying to sell the worlds’ most-unloved vehicles. “The Zuck” taunted people over their inability to stop his AI from infecting “every facet of your conscious experience.”
MAD Take: Well, they are supposed to issue warnings – right?

Deadly drivers back on the road

Cal Matters. License to kill. 
Synopsis: If you’re in the mood to feel outrage, this is your story. It documents case after case of criminally dangerous drivers being issued drivers licenses – some while awaiting trial in deadly traffic collisions. One is the case of Ervin Wyatt, who had a history of trying to evade Stanislaus County deputies, running red lights, causing wrecks, driving without a license, speeding and worse. It wasn’t enough to prevent DMV from reissuing Wyatt a license in 2019. He quickly racked up three more speeding tickets then killed three women while speeding. CA has no centralized court-records system and conviction records are not posted online. Reporters had to go from courthouse to courthouse to gather their data. Much worse, it means DMV has no way of tracking the state’s most dangerous drivers. Reporters found one driver who killed a teenager in 2009 then killed a young woman in 2020; later, his license was renewed. DMV gave licenses to 150 killers within a year of their deadly accidents. In one case, it took only 6 weeks after the accident for the license to arrive. It’s not just DMV’s fault. On some occasions after DMV has revoked a license, courts have overruled the agency, putting killers behind the wheel again.
MAD Take: It’s popular to bash California’s liberal government, but this story is beyond outrageous. This isn’t “the system” picking on poor people who need protection, it’s an example of the state’s shirking its responsibility to protect its citizens.

Helping spread bird flu

Merced Focus. Trump immigration tactics obstruct efforts to avert bird flu.
Synopsis: KFF Health News reporter Amy Maxmen writes, “Aggressive deportation tactics have terrorized farmworkers at the center of the nation’s bird flu strategy.” Monitoring and, if necessary, treatment of dairy farm and henhouse workers is the key to averting a pandemic. But vaccinations, testing and visits to clinics and doctors have dropped precipitously since the Border Patrol raids in Kern County. Meanwhile, a Border Patrol official admitted the raids in Kern County – more than 140 miles beyond the BP’s jurisdictional boundaries –were a “proof of concept. … We know we can push beyond that limit now as far as distance goes.” Meanwhile, the CDC has reported a slowdown in new cases – which researchers at the Pandemic Center at Brown University says might be due to lack of testing, not lack of disease.

AgTEC center to break ground

Merced Sun Star. Merced College to build $22 million agriculture innovation center. 
Synopsis: Merced College’s $22 million AgTEC Innovation Center – a center to teach students the latest techniques and applications in processing nuts, fruit, meat, vegetables, etc. – will be under construction soon. The groundbreaking is this week with completion set for Fall, 2027. “There is no other community college or even university that has a facility like what we’re going to have,” said Cody Jacobsen, director of Ag Innovation at MC. It will focus on the full farm-to-fork experience and be adjacent to the Raj Kahlon Agriculture & Industrial Tech Complex. Jacobsen worked with 200 local industries from Blue Diamond to Morning Star to Harris Ranch to develop the curriculum and tech. Food safety will be a big aspect. At the groundbreaking, Rep. Adam Gray is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the groundbreaking on April 17 at 10 am.  

Abolish the CPUC?

Cal Matters. Could utility gear set your neighborhood on fire? CA risk maps are 8 years old. 
Synopsis: The CA Public Utilities Commission has rejected a request to require CA’s largest utilities – PG&E, Southern CA Edison, etc. – to update their fire-danger maps. Those maps would impose requirements for more utility hardening in high-threat areas. Originally filed 8 years ago, those maps have not been updated since. The CPUC is fine with the current “piecemeal updates” to mark areas as more or less risky. Cal Advocates has asked the CPUC to correct this, and even had support from the Big Three, but the request was rejected. Meanwhile, equipment failures continue to play a role in starting some of the state’s most horrendous fires – including the recent Eaton Fire.
MAD Take: The CPUC has no problem approving every request for a rate hike that comes before it, but when something comes up that might help the public, they throw up roadblocks. Perhaps this is why people tried to abolish the CPUC back in 2022.

8,000 weed-vapes confiscated

KSEE / CBS 47. Over $320K worth of weed vapes seized after Chowchilla shots-fired call.
Synopsis: Deputies responded to reports of shots-fired at Avenue 24 and Road 26 and found several people in a car. They also found a gun that didn’t appear to belong to any of them. That led to a warrant to search a home in Chowchilla, where 8,000 weed cartridges along with three more guns were found and confiscated.

Political merry-go-round

Politico. California Playbook: Bernie returns to a bruised progressive movement.
Synopsis: Before the writers of this daily roundup get to Bernie, they note that Randy Villegas of Visalia will challenge David Valadao for his seat in Congress. Villegas, a member of the Visalia school board, once worked as an intern for Rudy Salas, who twice lost to Valadao.
MAD Take: This is unlikely to be the only challenger for David “No Show” Valadao.

Turlock Journal. Democrat Jaron Brandon launches bid for Senate District 4 seat.
Synopsis: One of the largest senate districts in the state geographically has at least three candidates: embattled incumbent Marie Alvarado-Gil of Jackson, Republican challenger Jeramy Young of Hughson and now Democrat Jaron Brandon, a 2015 UC Merced graduate and current Tuolumne County supervisor. In 2022 so many Republicans ran for the open seat that Democrats snuck in and won; then Alvarado-Gil turned Republican.

Already bored with the A’s?

Sacramento Bee. If Sacramento wants an MLB team, we need to show a little more enthusiasm.
Synopsis: Columnist Robin Epley can’t decide who to blame for already flagging attendance at West Sacramento A’s games -- blasé fans or a blasé team? It’s been a “lackluster” start to the season at 6-10 overall and 2-7 at home. “The region’s turn at a major league baseball team has barely begun and the energy levels already seem to be lagging,” writes Epley. Tickets are already being discounted to $25, but the A’s can’t sell out the 13,416-seat stadium. Eventually, Robin settles on someone to blame: Sacramento’s mayor, Kevin McCarty.

Cute (but not cuddly) critters

Modesto Bee. There will be a baby shower for cute critters.
Synopsis: Reporter Maria Figueroa writes about the Stanislaus Wildlife Care Center’s annual fund-raiser, showing off cute baby animals. It will be Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm at Fox Grove Park near Hughson. You’ll see owls, hawks, raccoons, foxes, etc. The Center is still looking for volunteers, 17 and over with up-to-date tetanus vaccinations.