Valley Solution

Spectacular year for tomatoes

Ag Alert. Tomato yields up as canneries try to reduce inventories. 
Synopsis: Good water supplies and a great growing season have produced a huge crop of tomatoes, even more than the canneries can accommodate. “It’s a very excellent problem to have,” said Mike Montna of the CA Tomato Growers Assn. Growers are reporting harvest coming in 15% higher than expected. A Colusa grower said he’s getting 80 tons per acre. While some canneries accept excess tonnage, they’re paying a “huge reduction” in price for the excess. Some growers say they’ll disk the parts of the crop they can’t sell. The base price this year is $109 per ton, down from $112.50 last year. Organics are getting $137. It’s not just tomatoes. Growers say everything has been doing well this year – cucumbers, watermelons, vines and sunflowers. “We’re all very pleasantly surprised at how good the yields have been,” said Mitchell Yerxa of Colusa.
MAD Note: Tomatoes are big business in the Valley. In 2023, the crop in Madera County was worth $41 million, it hit $107 million in Stanislaus; $147 million in San Joaquin and $156 million in Merced. The Tomato King is Fresno, where farmers brought in $601 million. Add it up, and tomatoes created $1 billion for farmers in 2023; this year, that will hit at least $1.1 billion -- and that’s before we put them in cans.  

Poverty still rampant in CA

Sacramento Bee. Despite improvement, CA again has highest poverty rate in the US. 
Synopsis: Some 6.9 million Californians can’t afford to live here. That’s the latest Supplemental Poverty Measure report. While that’s terrible, it’s better than last year when the SPM showed 18.9% of the state’s population (7.3 million people) couldn’t make ends meet. Mostly, high housing and utility costs accounted for the disparity. Five years ago, when the federal government poured money into programs to thwart COVID, the state’s SPM dropped to 11%. Now, “millions of people have been pushed back into poverty as policymakers allowed these effective policies to expire.” Seniors and children have it the worst. During COVID, the child-poverty rate was 7.5%; now it is 18.6%. Some 21.1% of California’s senior citizens live in poverty, and it’s going to get worse. The story says cuts to Medicaid, which all 9 House Republicans from CA supported, will lead to another 3.4 million Californians being cast into poverty next year, said one official. Nationally, the poverty rate fell to 10.6% in 2024, down from 11.1% in 2024. Not that it should make anyone feel better, but Louisiana is just as bad as CA, with 17.7% living in poverty due, largely, to rising housing costs.

Who is causing drought?

Farm Journal. CA’s water crisis being caused by man-made drought.
Synopsis: The US Drought Monitor shows that 40% of the state is “facing” drought. But CA farmers say the bigger issue is the state’s failure to prudently distribute stored water, causing a water crisis that will prove costly to consumers in the form of higher food prices.

Saving sequoias, crops from fire

SF Chronicle. ‘Really looking good’: Firefighters optimistic about giant sequoia grove singed by fire.
Synopsis: An “extraordinary effort” to shield the McKinley Grove of giant sequoias has paid off. 160 trees across 100 acres were singed, but none have been destroyed by the Garnet Fire. The fire is a mile away but blowing embers have created a “low intensity” fire that was allowed to burn away fuels in the grove. Smokejumpers trained in climbing were deployed to remove embers blown into the crowns of the trees and a sprinkler system installed last year helped dampen the trees. The fire is 15% contained as of Wednesday, having burned around 56,700 acres.

Ag Alert. Napa vineyards helped douse Pickett Fire. 
Synopsis: Napa Valley growers have had three wildfires in their area over the last decade, so they’ve learned some painful lessons. But this year’s Pickett Fire, which burned 6,800 acres near Calistoga, did a lot less damage than previous fires. It caused $65 million in ag damages, including 3% of Napa’s vineyards. After insurers pulled out of the region, growers began fire-proofing their properties by building access roads, containment barriers, scraping out deeper holding ponds, installing sprinkler systems and building better communications with CalFire. “It all came into play on this fire,” said CalFire. “We were ahead of the game.”

Modesto roads get better

Modesto Bee. Roundabout, bike paths and more may be coming to Modesto’s Ninth Street.
Synopsis: The city council’s Economic Development Committee has approved a $14.6 million contract to begin making improvements on Ninth between Carpenter and L. The plan calls for installation of three roundabouts in a two-mile stretch, keeping traffic moving safely. There will be an adjacent 2-mile bike trail with landscaping, connecting Ninth to the Virginia Corridor Trail and the proposed soccer stadium downtown. Mayor Sue Zwahlen was heartened by the plans for Ninth. But what about Briggsmore?
MAD Take: Good question. Keep asking it.

Hundreds laid off in tech

SF Chronicle. Oracle lays off hundreds more in Bay Area. 
Synopsis: Oracle laid off 254 Bay Area employees Monday, including 187 in Redwood City, 36 in Pleasanton and 31 in Santa Clara. It also laid off 101 workers in Seattle. This is on top of 188 workers laid off in the Bay Area last month. Reports are rising on social media that Oracle employees in Kansas, Massachusetts and Texas are also being laid off even though Oracle’s revenues were up 11% year-over-year and net profits were $3.4 billion. Other Bay Area tech firms also announced layoffs Monday – 121 at Juni Learning, 71 at Exelixis in Alameda and 262 at Salesforce. The Salesforce layoffs have been attributed to an increased reliance on AI to create products.

Good dogs, bad dogs, a voting dog

ABC30. New animal shelter opens in Los Banos.
Synopsis: Mayor Mike Amabile helped cut the ribbon on the new animal shelter, which was erected several months ago but lacked utility connections and was delayed in opening. That has been resolved, meaning the space available to house dogs and cats has doubled. The new shelter also has a surgical center for neutering procedures.

Fox26. Merced animal services warns residents about pack of dogs attacking pets.
Synopsis: City officials are warning residents to keep their dogs and cats indoors in the area around Winton Way and Walnut where a pack of dogs has been roaming at night. They have attacked other pets. Traps have been set to capture the animals, and a reward is being offered.

LAist. An Orange County dog voted in multiple elections; why that matters in redistricting fight.
Synopsis: Conservatives are calling for an “urgent purging” of voter rolls to make certain only “qualified” voters have an opportunity to cast a ballot in the upcoming redistricting election. The reason? A woman in Costa Mesa registered her pet dog and then cast absentee ballots in its name. She bragged about it on social media. The dog was registered as an independent, but the woman is a Republican.
MAD Take: Many believe the things that anger you in others (like voter fraud) are the very things you fear most in yourself.

Keeping an eye on wolves

Ag Alert. Predator work group formed. 
Synopsis: Placer rancher Joe Fischer has rounded up 10 Farm Bureau members from mountain counties to help figure out how to proceed on reducing losses from wolves, mountain lions and other predators. But mainly wolves. Since March, there have been 60 cattle kills in Plumas and Sierra counties, prompting the CDF&W to create a “strike team” tasked with deterring wolves. The Farm Bureau pushed to get $5.6 million in compensation, which works out to about $9,300 per head but ignores the weight loss from anxious steers. There are 10 confirmed wolf packs in the state, roaming Shasta, Lassen, Plumas, Tehama, Siskiyou and eastern Tulare counties.

New boss for the Bees

Merced Sun Star. Fusco to lead McClatchy newsrooms in Sacramento, Fresno, Modesto, Merced.
Synopsis: Chris Fusco will take over the helm of McClatchy’s newsrooms. Fusco is moving over from Santa Rosa; before that he was at the Houston Chronicle. Fusco starts Sept. 22. No mention of what became of longtime Valley Executive Editor Don Blount.
MAD Note: As one commenter noted, “I hope Chris knows the difference between Fresno and Merced, because we are currently paying for the Merced Sun Star but getting mostly Fresno news.”

Modesto Bee. Two reporters join Modesto Bee newsroom.
Synopsis: Dean Condoleo is the new “breaking news” (i.e., cops) reporter for Modesto. The former intern replaces Trevor Morgan, who has been elevated to “accountability reporter.” Atmika Iyer will be the Bee’s new education reporter, having recently gotten her master’s from Northwestern. She intends to “bring student voices to the table.”

Green flash lights the night

Fox26. Bright green/blue flash seen in Valley sky.
Synopsis: At 3:48 a.m., a flash of bright blue (or maybe green, depending on your location) lit up the sky in the Fresno area. It was captured on security cameras across the city, including at Fox26. There were reports that it was seen as far away as Lemoore and Las Vegas, where it was associated with a “fireball.”

COVID comeback under way

SF Chronicle. COVID hospitalizations in CA double as vaccine access tightens.  
Synopsis: Using wastewater data, officials know COVID is increasing to “very high” levels across the state. In the past month, hospitalizations have doubled to 3.9 per 100,000 from 1.9 and COVID accounts for 2% of all ER cases. COVID is listed as the cause for 1.4% of all deaths statewide, compared to 0.6% in July. Meanwhile, pharmacists are confused about who should get this year’s vaccine. If you’re 65, no problem. If not, you’re going to need a doctor’s visit or a co-morbidity. “I’m deeply concerned about the health and safety of our nation under RFK’s leadership,” said Jerome Adams, Trump’s first-term surgeon general. “He is … putting us at risk.” Some 17 former CDC advisors say all Americans should be “very worried” that so many are left unprotected from COVID. Meanwhile, neighborhood pharmacists are “quietly” giving shots to virtually anyone who asks.

8 eyes, 8 legs, 2 fangs

Merced Sun Star. Giant, hairy spiders are crawling across CA. Are they dangerous?
Synopsis: It’s tarantula season across California. Normally, the 5-inch males (11 inches counting outstretched legs) come out of their underground dens only at night to feed on bugs, mice and small birds. But during mating season, they vacate their burrows at all hours. BTW, they have as many eyes as they have legs -- eight each. To find (or avoid) them, look for sandy soil under low brush, especially in the Mount Diablo area where they are downright prolific. It’s best not to handle them. While their venom is deadly to bugs, it is only irritating to humans. But those big fangs work and can hurt. If you see one, try not to hurt it.