Valley Solutions

Small farms in jeopardy

KQED. A lifeline for CA’s small farms just expired; what comes next?
Synopsis: The federal Local Food Purchase Assistance Program paid hundreds of small farmers to put their produce into boxes and send them to food banks. For people getting those boxes, it was even more important. Angelica Estrada-Bugarin was raised watching her family take produce from their small Merced County farm to street markets in SF and LA. After going to college, she founded Sweet Valley Produce to connect “growers and eaters” – especially in Modesto. Groups like Sweet Valley work with 870 farms across the state, providing food to 50 food banks, distributing 23 million pounds of food and sparking $60 million in local purchases. Now that program is gone and some farmers might follow. The One Big Beautiful Bill killed the LFPA, putting Sweet Valley – which works with farmers in Stanislaus, Merced, Fresno and Madera counties – in jeopardy. This young Merced farmer says she will no longer be able to remain in farming.

Gas tax will edge up

Merced Sun-Star. CA gas tax goes up again tomorrow.
Synopsis: The gas tax will rise 2.2 cents per gallon on Wednesday, an adjustment for inflation. State taxes on gas will rise to 63.4 cents per gallon compared to the 61.2 cents on Tuesday. That is the highest gas tax in the nation. Diesel taxes will rise to 48.2 cents, from 46.6 cents. AAA says the average price for gas in CA is $5.46 a gallon today, and $5.48 tomorrow.

Turlock: Defending his past

CBS13. Turlock’s next city manager defends record after residents question past lawsuits. 
Synopsis: John Murphy was approved as Turlock’s next city manager on a 5-0 last week, but issues from his time as Palmdale’s city manager are causing a stir. The Turlock Journal reported Murphy sued the city after his dismissal, settling for $2.2 million. Some of his former employees also sued over what they claimed was poor treatment by Murphy, settling for over $5 million. The employees say they were frightened of Murphy, whom they said carried a gun to work. While he has a concealed-carry permit, he said he always left his weapon at home. Murphy pointed out that he had a top-secret clearance in the military and is thoroughly trained.

Los Banos: A record budget

Westside Express. LBCC approves $165M budget, increases own compensation. 
Synopsis: The Los Banos city council approved a record $165 million city budget featuring 21 new hires and a raise for the councilmembers. The budget also included a 10% surplus. The budget includes $71 million for capital projects, the most significant being $10 million for Fire Station Four and its emergency operations center. There is also $8.9 million for water projects, $8.3 million for roads and $4.5 million for a full-scale chromium-6 filtration system.

Stockton: Grand jury response

Stocktonia. Councilmembers respond to grand jury report criticizing city hall turmoil. 
Synopsis: For three years in a row, the San Joaquin Civil Grand Jury has been critical of Stockton’s city council for its infighting, instability and failure to address the jury’s past recommendations. The most recent report, released this month, addressed a year of public clashes and repeated disputes between Mayor Christina Fugazi and Vice Mayor Jason Lee. Fugazi said she respects the Grand Jury and admitted there is dysfunction, which is a switch from last August when she said she did not “completely trust the grand jury.” She also took aim at Lee, accusing him of destabilizing meetings. Lee responded to the report saying the jury’s findings are a reflection of a “deeper failure in leadership, governance, transparency and accountability.” But he also noted that speaking bluntly in public is not an act “of misconduct” but one of “the obligations of public office.” Councilmember Michael Blower noted that “it’d be nice if there was a little more decorum.”

Sacramento Bee. Former Stockton mayor set to plead guilty in federal COVID-era loan case.
Synopsis: Former Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva will plead guilty to bank fraud and identity theft in federal court. It stems from a falsified application for the Paycheck Protection Program during the pandemic. Silva served as mayor from 2013-17, but in 2015 was charged with providing alcohol to a minor after he was found playing strip poker with a group of teenage advisers at a youth camp. He also pleaded guilty to misuse of funds connected to the Stockton Boys & Girls Club, which led to charges of misappropriation of public funds and money laundering.

Fresno: The ‘Big G’ is back

Fresno Bee. A couple of hiccups and a rebuild later, historic G sign returns to downtown Fresno. 
Synopsis: State Center Community College District returned the 18-foot tall “G” to the top of its headquarters building in downtown Fresno. The sign was removed two years ago as the building was renovated. It signified the former the HQ of Guarantee Savings but became a downtown icon. When first installed, in the 1960s, the sign changed colors to denote the weather – green, white and flashing red when a storm was approaching.

Fight within the wine industry

Cal Matters. How CA can ensure wine labeled ‘American’ uses exclusively American grapes. 
Synopsis: A Monterey winegrape grower says the legislature must choose between winegrape growers and big-barrel winemakers. Growers are being squeezed from all sides – farming regulations, increased costs, tariffs, and now cheap imports that devalue their products. “We never imagined that one of the greatest threats would come from imported wine being blended into products labeled as ‘American,’ while CA grapes were left rotting on the vine,” he said. CA growers left 400,000 tons of gapes unharvested last year as “some of the largest wine companies” imported a nearly identical amount of bulk wine and sold it in bottles labeled “American.” Every other wine-producing country requires nation-of-origin labels, but not the U.S. He called it an existential threat. “Vineyards are being removed, growers are walking away from land that has been farmed for generations, and rural communities are losing jobs.” AB 1585 would require labels denote where the grapes were grown.

Ag Net West. Wine consultant says industry must rethink marketing for the next generation. 
Synopsis: The wine industry will not recover by waiting for consumers to regain their taste for fermented grape juice, says consultant Nick Karavidas. The most challenging market of his career is facing several headwinds, from anti-alcohol fervor to changing tastes to tariffs. Instead of complaining, he urges winemakers to shift their products to fit younger drinkers. Social experiences are the key, not traditional advertising. In other words, court the influencers. He recommends adopting the European model of planning on a generational scale, not for quarterly profits.

Shelter remains on the brink

Modesto Bee. Stanislaus County homeless shelter to stay open, but funding challenges continue. 
Synopsis: The lease for the 182-bed Salvation Army shelter in downtown Modesto will be extended through Sept. 30. That will give the county, which supports the shelter, and Salvation Army time to work out a long-term arrangement that “aligns with the county’s available resources.” The story examines various funding streams available through the county, city of Modesto, state and the non-profit. The last line in the story notes that the operating budget for the shelter is $2.88 million a year.

DWR lawyer is now top boss

Maven’s Notebook. Governor appoints Thomas Gibson as director of Dept of Water Resources. 
Synopsis: Gov. Newsom has appointed Thomas Gibson to lead the Dept of Water Resources, replacing longtime director Karla Nemeth. Gibson has been chief deputy director since 2024 and was chief counsel before that. He has been in state government since 2008 and before that at a succession of law firms, including Best, Best & Krieger. The position is considered one of the most contentious in the state government due to decisions that must be made about water use, allocation and protection.

Fresno State board ousted

Fresno Bee. Fresno State president ousts longtime board members of embattled $315M foundation.
Synopsis: Fresno State president Saul Jimenez-Sandoval announced that five members of the Fresno State Foundation board will lose their seats when their terms expire this month. That includes board chair Vinci Ricchiuti, who has been a board member 31 years including the last nine as chairman. The president acted after a scathing report pointed to poor management practices at the foundation, which controls $315 million in funding used to support the school’s programs. Ricchiuti used his last meeting as chair to denounce the president’s decision.

Testing the waters

Modesto Bee. High lead levels at Gregori High cause shutdown of water system. 
Synopsis: Required state testing at Gregori High School confirmed lead in water coming from bathroom faucets in early June. The water is tested at every school each year and this year lead in the bathroom water exceeded 15 parts per billion. Water from drinking fountains was within state guidelines.
MAD Take: Back in 2017, the Bee’s Jeff Jardine, under the guidance of Dr. Vance Kennedy, collected water samples from drinking fountains at several public schools – including Gregori, then MCS’s newest school, and Enslen, one of the oldest. Only Enslen had problems with lead, which Kennedy attributed to leaching from soldering done to connect galvanized pipes when the school was built in 1929. As for this year’s lead-laden water, it would be wise not to drink from the faucets.

Modesto Bee. Merced County well-water quality raises concerns for unincorporated residents. 
Synopsis: More than half of the 330 private domestic wells actively used in Merced County were over the limit for at least one contaminant. The testing was done by the Valley Water Collaborative, which found elevated nitrate levels in half the wells. The area around McSwain, near Atwater, is considered a “hot spot” for various types of contamination – nitrates; 1,2,3 TCP, and others among the eight that the Collaborative tested for. Filters have been put on all of the McSwain School’s fountains. The story notes the presence of naturally occurring chromium-6 along the west side.
MAD Take: Not mentioned are filtration efforts in Los Banos, which has a $4.5 million filtration program for chromium-6 in this year’s budget and the city’s efforts to develop a “massive” treatment program.

Food fight includes a give-away

Fresno Bee. Fresno County farmer giving away his fruit amid legal dispute with produce company.
Synopsis: Cesar Mora has 7.5 acres of white-flesh nectarines, but you won’t find any of his fruit in grocery stores. Mora is in a dispute with wholesalers Giumarra Brothers Fruit Co. and rather than leave his fruit rotting in the orchard he’s giving it away. Mora created a webpage – www.nonecatrineswasted.com – in which he tells folks that he has 125,000 pounds of fruit “about to go to waste. Come take them home.” The page concludes, “No community should go without food that’s already grown.” The company sued Mora for breach of contract after the company said he sold some of his fruit to another wholesaler. Mora says he was promised various incentives for growing a specific type of nectarine called a Monalise but never got the incentives as the company “culled half his fruit.”
MAD Note: Using the culling process to reject vegetables and fruit has a long history in California. In the 1960s, grower Dino Cortapassi fought the system after his green beans were rejected; eventually, he won and changed the rules governing contracts.

Fox26. Reedley farmer giving away free nectarines closed by CHP due to massive crowds.
Synopsis: The CHP was forced to close down access to a farm in Reedley on Tuesday morning where a grower was giving away his white-flesh nectarines. Cesar Mora decided to give away his fruit rather than see it rot during a dispute with a wholesaler. Cesar says he’ll reopen as soon as the CHP gives the all-clear.