Valley Solutions

Judge rips Patterson fees

Valley Sun. Court rules against Patterson’s development fees.
Synopsis: Stanislaus County Judge Sonny Sandhu ruled that the city of Patterson has been improperly imposing development fees on one specific developer. Keystone Ranch sued the city after it imposed fees the developer said effectively killed a major project. Sandhu called out the “haphazard way in which the nexus studies were prepared, amended, amended again and amended a third time” by the city in throwing out the fees. City rules designed to ensure transparency did “just the opposite.” The city has spent roughly $2 million with the law firm White Brenner to carry the case, roughly 20x the city’s annual budget for litigation.

Caballero: Make ICE prisons pay

Fresno Bee. New CA bill would put more rules, fines on private ICE detention centers. 
Synopsis: Sen. Anna Caballero of Merced has written a bill that would require those operating federal detention centers for ICE to obtain state public-health licenses. She and co-author Steve Padilla say licenses are necessary to make sure contractors meet health rules. “California will not wait for Washington to act while people suffer behind closed doors,” said Caballero. Violations would result in closure of existing facilities and $25,000-per-day fines. Contractors with ICE are operating seven facilities in CA, filling 8,500 beds. The largest is a former prison in California City and the smallest in Mesa Verde. Last year, 32 people died while in ICE custody – the deadliest year on record for the agency. So far this year, 8 people have died in ICE custody.

Opposite views on ICE

Stocktonia. Harder ‘not satisfied’ during visit to Stockton ICE facility. 
Synopsis: Rep. Josh Harder visited the ICE detention facility in central Stockton, reporting that he was shown cells the size of a closet used to hold prisoners 72 hours. “Frankly, I’m not satisfied with what I just heard,” he said at a news conference. “I was met with a lot of nonanswers.” Former Rep. Jerry McNerney and Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom, who once worked as a staffer for Harder, joined him on the visit. ICE has used chemical irritants against protesters outside its building and detained US citizens. Harder was required to wait 7 days to make his visit, a violation of a 2024 bill that allows immediate access to members of Congress. Harder called for the removal of Kristi Noem.

GV Wire. ICE agents are protecting American citizens; now they need our support.
Synopsis: Fresno County Supervisor Garry Bredefeld writes a hot-blooded op-ed in which he condemns “the growing attacks on ICE and Border Patrol agents” and the “reckless political rhetoric coming from radicals.” He insists “ICE is not a danger or threat to our communities.”

Diablo Grande water threatened

SJV Water. Kern water agency wants $14 million or it will cut off water to 600 homes in Stanislaus. 
Synopsis: Lois Henry reports on the dispute between residents of Diablo Grande in Stanislaus County and the Kern County Water Agency – which now says it will cut off water to the homes if not paid $14 million by March. The threat echoes one last June resulting in residents voting to raise their water rates to more than $600 a month to make payments. The sides do not even agree on the nature of their negotiations. Henry points out that Diablo Grande “never grew to its full build-out” or used all the water it contracted to buy from KCWA. It received only “a fraction of the 8,000-acre feet” it bought each year. The remaining water, more than 61,000-acre feet, was sold by KCWA. Henry has made “repeated public records requests” to get a full accounting of how much money KCWA made from those sales, but the agency has refused to provide the information, saying it is understaffed.
MAD Take: Will a judge accept the excuse that you’re too short-staffed to provide evidence?

Also in Patterson, pollution

Modesto Bee. Environmental justice group hosts meeting for drinking water safety in Patterson.
Synopsis: Valley Improvement Projects hosted residents and representatives of three agencies – Stanislaus Public Health, State Water Resources Control Board, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Boards -- Wednesday to talk about the amount of chromium hexavalent in the water of Patterson and nearby communities. The city, which is responsible for fixing the problem, did not attend and will have its own meeting in February. The level of contamination does not violate state rules – yet. The rules will change in October 2027. From photos, it appears a dozen people attended the meeting.
MAD Note. Chromium 6 is a problem throughout the Valley’s westside – where it occurs naturally. It is especially expensive to fix. A single well-head treatment facility runs around $50 million with annual operating costs of $2 million. Los Banos Mayor Michael Amabile worked with Sen. Anna Caballero to author legislation, signed into law last year, to allows cities to put their resources into solving the problem – not paying lawyers to go away.

So many choices for supervisor

Fresno Bee. Who’s running for Fresno County supervisor seats in 2026?
Synopsis: Two seats on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors are open this year. District 1 has five candidates: Fresno councilmember Mike Karbassi, Kerman Mayor Maria Pacheco, Mendota USD trustee Lupe Flores, the Central Valley Urban Institute’s Eric Payne and former Firebaugh Mayor Felipe Perez. In District 4, there are four candidates: Former Sheriff Margaret Mims, Parlier Mayor Alma Beltran, IRS auditor Charlie Soto and Selma Unified trustee Narinder Singh Sahota.

Fresno council ‘closes’ loopholes

Fresnoland. City council closes spending ‘loophole’ exposed by Fresnoland, but more work to do.
Synopsis: The Fresno City Council voted unanimously to close a loophole allowing members to sign multiple contracts with the same vendor to skirt the city’s spending limits and transparency policies. It also turned over tracking of expenditures to the city clerk instead of the city manager. The council did not, however, require all no-bid contracts to be published on the city’s website.

State water allocation rises

Maven / DWR. December storms, improved flexibility, allow DWR to increase SWP allocation to 30%.
Synopsis: The state says it will provide 30% of promised water allocation to 29 State Water Project water contractors. The initial allocation, issued Dec. 1, was 10%. Subsequent storms made the increase possible. The water irrigates 750,000 acres, mostly in the San Joaquin Valley, and provides water to much of the LA Basin. DWR points out that January has been uncharacteristically dry, leaving the snowpack well below normal.

Bad news: Wine prices rise

SF Chronicle. US wine prices jumped 11% last year, but it’s a bad sign for the CA wine industry. 
Synopsis: Reporter Jess Lander writes about the “average” bottle of wine purchased from a winery through “Direct-to-Consumer” services (often in tasting rooms) cost $56.78 last year. That was up from $50.53 in 2024 and well above 2020’s $36.83. While the average bottle price has risen, the volume has dropped from 8.6 million cases to around 5.3 million in 5 years sold direct to consumers. What makes this bad news is the crash in sales of non-premium wine in grocery and liquor stores. Sales of those $15 bottles dropped 35% this year and 67% in five years.
MAD Note: While folks in Silly-Con Valley will pay $200 a bottle for wine, the wine we make in our Valley is mostly the $15 variety. A two-thirds drop in consumption is very bad news indeed.

Lawsuit names FPOA head

Fresno Bee. Fresno police union leader accused of retaliation after sex advances rebuffed.
Synopsis: Anna Pine, the former business manager of the Fresno Police Officers Assn, says union president Jeff LaBlue -- a sergeant in the FPD -- vowed to fire her after she rejected his sexual advances. While the city is not named in the lawsuit, the city attorney’s office said it is taking the allegations “very seriously and will monitor the situation closely.” The entire FPOA office is wired for surveillance, so quite a few comments and conversations have been recorded.

Kaiser opens new facility

Modesto Bee. Kaiser opens health center in Modesto: Adult, pediatric care, plus pharmacy.
Synopsis: A new, three-story building on the Kaiser campus in Modesto will house 75 doctors in an outpatient setting. It includes 28 bays for cancer treatment and physical therapy. Kaiser has 453,000 member-patients in the Central Valley, including those under Covered California policies.

CapRadio GM arrested

Sacramento Bee. Former CapRadio GM Jun Reina arrested, accused of embezzling over $1.3 million.
Synopsis: Jun Reina was arrested and accused of stealing $1.3 million from the Valley’s largest public radio station. The Sacramento DA says it was a multi-year scheme involving 144 transfers. The money was used to pay for “luxury international travel, high-end home renovations, tuition for his children” and more. Reina had already been linked to spending $460,000 in donor money on similar purchases.

New spot for thick-crust pizza

Modesto Bee. Thick-crust pizza that doesn’t flop? New east Modesto shop does dough right.
Synopsis: The Bee is pushing its “best-pizza poll” by featuring Surefire Pizza Co., which opened 14 days ago in the old Pizza Factory at Sylvan and Clause. Brothers John and Jacob Rodriguez – second-gen restaurateurs – operate the pizzeria Thursday-to-Sunday. If you like thick crust, this place has it. The sauce is made from Stanislaus Tomatoes. A large pie runs $30.99.

Scoopy’s hive to be flattened

Fresno Bee. City plans to raze old Fresno Bee downtown office; could new soccer stadium fit site?
Synopsis: Saying it’s too big to maintain the building, the city says it will tear down the old Fresno Bee on E Street, leaving the 14-acre site vacant. The announcement comes a week after the city said it is looking for downtown space to build a 5,000-seat soccer stadium.  The building has been vacant since last year when its cooling system failed and a city department moved out. Police officers often park in the lot to complete reports and scare away vagrants.
MAD Note: Are those vagrants, or old reporters just dropping by?