Valley Solutions

Gray hears from farmers

Turlock Journal. Gray brings growers to the table, hears big concerns. 
Synopsis: Roughly 50 growers from throughout the San Joaquin Valley gathered in Los Banos last week to talk with Rep. Adam Gray about immigration, existential pests and water storage among other issues. Gray heard their concerns, reported on his work in DC and promised to reconvene the group as the year progresses. The Ugly Co. founder Ben Moore opened questioning by asking about the Dignity Act. Gray told him it is “a starting point for legislation” that he hopes can bring workers to the Valley without the threat of deportation. He agreed with TID’s Becky Arellano that it shouldn’t take 16 years to relicense electricity generation at Don Pedro Dam. Roger Isom of the Tree Nut Association is alarmed that 25% of funding for Plant Protection & Quarantine programs has been cut just as insects like the naval orangeworm and New World Screwworm are threatening farmers, a concern echoed by cattleman Bill Lyons. Gray said the threats are real, but every Valley representative – including Republicans David Valadao and Vince Fong – must be willing to speak truth to the Trump administration.

Ag Alert. Report assesses how farms adapt to labor shortages.
Synopsis: A UC study looked at what California farmers are having to sacrifice due to the lack of workers. For instance, 14% reduced their harvest, 15% delayed harvest and 43% cut back on weeding and pruning. The report says labor shortages this year will lead to higher wages next year while around 5% of farmers will seek labor-saving technology. Farmers are pushing elected officials to create visa programs that allow labor to come into the state.

Farmers: Numbers are nuts

Ag Alert. Big crop forecast shakes almond markets.
Synopsis: Reporter Caleb Hampton says the size of this year’s almond crop remains “the billion-dollar question” even with the harvest getting underway. Anger over the USDA’s projection that this year’s crop would reach 3.0 billion pounds is understandable. After farming at a loss for nearly five years, almond growers were happy to see prices climb back into profitability this summer.  But when the USDA released its huge estimate, the bottom fell out of the price – dropping It from $2.50 a pound to $2.00. That erased $1 billion from the value of the crop overnight. Mel Machado, chief ag officer at Blue Diamond, says it’s impossible to accurately estimate the crop even now. Grower Jake Barcellos says the number is way off but says the price will eventually reflect actual supply. Shipper Jessica Davis says demand has been flat and “total supply” is steady – not a good situation. Growers are pulling trees, including Joe Del Bosque. Exports could be falling. India accounts for 20% of all export sales, and tariffs are roiling that market.

Stan State campus in Tracy?

Stocktonia. Stanislaus State eyes satellite campus in Tracy.
Synopsis: A plan to create a 1,500-acre master-planned community where I-580 crosses Hwy 132 would have a college campus at its center. Stan State President Britt Rios-Ellis is all for it. “The possibility of expanding to Tracy, with our existing presence in Turlock and Stockton, would provide a three-location solution” for those seeking an education. Ridgeline Development and the Sandhu family are the driving forces behind the plan. Supervisor Robert Rickman calls it a “pivotal moment for San Joaquin County.”  

Best high schools in CA

Modesto Bee. These are the 10 best public high schools in Stanislaus County, ranking says.
Synopsis: US News & World Report has looked at the nation’s 24,000 public high schools and ranked based on state test scores, graduation rates, and advanced curriculum. The highest-ranking school in CA is Whitney High in Cerritos at No. 16 overall. The magazine got down to the county level. Stanislaus shows Enochs at No. 521 overall, followed by Waterford (567) then Gregori, Whitmore Charter, Central Valley, Ceres, Beyer, Pitman, Orestimba and Turlock.

Wet welcome to UC Merced

ABC30. Rain couldn’t damp this UC Merced tradition.
Synopsis: UC Merced first-year students continued a longstanding tradition by walking through the campus, across Scholars Bridge and through balloon arches. Rather untraditionally, they were all soaked by an unexpected August rainstorm. Chancellor Juan Sanchez Munoz led the way as the school band played, and hundreds of students looked on.

Plug pulled on Pacheco dam

San Jose Mercury News. Santa Clara Valley Water halts work on $3.2 billion Pacheco Reservoir.
Synopsis: Santa Clara County’s largest water agency voted unanimously to halt design and site work on its major new reservoir just north of Pacheco Pass and west of Gustine. The reservoir, designed to store 140,000-acre feet of water for communities to the west, was to be constructed on the site of an impound that holds only 5,000-acre feet. Cost overruns and a refusal by the Central Valley Project to commit water to fill the reservoir doomed the project. It was the second water project supported by the California Water Commission to be abandoned in the past year. Authorities in Contra Costa County decided not to expand Los Vaqueros Reservoir, about 75 miles north of Pacheco. Both reservoirs would have relied on water siphoned from the Delta.

Tunnel will ruin the Delta

Ceres Courier. Newsom’s tunnel vision: Sacrificing Central Valley to keep LA water cheap.
Synopsis: Columnist Dennis Wyatt writes that Gavin Newsom is heading full speed into the Stone Age. His plan to build the Delta Tunnel is applying ancient answers to modern-day problems. Wyatt considers the tunnel an expensive boondoggle that will hurt the Delta. Why build it? Because desalination still costs more than simply moving water south. Worse, the part of the state most in danger from sea-level rise is not the coast, but the Delta. He writes that Newsom will create an environmental calamity in the Delta on the scale of the Owens Valley.

Fresno tops Trump in court

Fresnoland. Fresno granted temporary win in lawsuit over Trump’s stripping of federal funds.
Synopsis: An SF judge has restrained the administration from blocking grant funds destined for Fresno because the city uses words like “equity” and “environmental justice” in its block-grant application procedures. The administration wants to kill $100 million in transportation grants, $11.7 million in housing-related grants and $2.2 million in safety grants because it dislikes “woke” language. The ruling also impacts South Lake Tahoe, Eureka and Sacramento in CA, Saint Paul, Minn., and two jurisdictions in New York.

‘Let the voters decide’

Stocktonia. SJ County supervisors reject proposal that would have opposed redistricting.
Synopsis: Supervisor Steve Ding made a motion to put San Joaquin County on record against Prop 50. Three of the supervisors – Paul Canepa, Sonny Dhaliwal and Mario Gardea – said they preferred to let voters decide the fate of congressional districts and voted down Ding’s motion.

Turlock Journal. Legislative Roundup: Legislators call special election partisan gamesmanship.
Synopsis: Republicans Juan Alanis and Marie Alvarado-Gil toed the party line in denouncing a redistricting proposal that allows California voters to reorder the state’s congressional boundaries. Alanis called redrawing Congressional lines “a travesty to our institution.” He also condemned Texas Republicans for redrawing lines without even bothering to ask voters. … In other news, Rep. Adam Gray reported that the district will get $7.4 million in airport improvement grants for Chowchilla, Madera, Atwater and Gustine.

Politico. CA Republican leader calls for a ‘two-state solution’ amid redistricting battle.
Synopsis: James Gallagher goes full State-of-Jefferson in response to Democrats’ attempts to blunt Texas gerrymandering with their own redistricting. He says he would prefer that no state engage in gerrymandering, but said California should consider splitting in two.

Did he start the fire?

Fresno Bee. Restaurateur Bobby Salazar accused of hiring gang member to torch his business.
Synopsis: Reporter Robert Rodriguez reports that the former owner of Bobby Salazar’s Mexican Restaurant on Blackstone has been accused in a federal indictment of hiring a member of the Screamin’ Deamons Motorcycle gang to set fire to his eatery in April 2024. Salazar collected $980,739 from insurance even though investigators -- from the FBI to the Fire Department’s K9 – say they knew it was no accident.

The futility of gag orders

Modesto Bee. Modesto’s control of public information raises questions on transparency, access.
Synopsis: The City of Modesto prohibits employees from speaking to the media unless they have explicit permission and a supervisor present. City Manager Joe Lopez says the policy is to ensure accurate information is being presented and that “the city” isn’t surprised by anything that appears in the media. The city’s chief explainer, Sonya Severo, worries that employees might be taken out of context. Interestingly, the policy only applies to contact with the media – not the Chamber of Commerce, Rotarians or anyone else. In that way, say actual constitutional experts, the policy discriminates against the media. Others believe it violates the First Amendment.
MAD Take: What is the city afraid of? That employees – who work for the public, after all -- will spill the beans? Who is it that city leaders don’t trust, their staff or reporters?

That lucky dog

Fox26. Fresno FD posts pics of saved dog, commenters only care about hunky firefighters.
Synopsis: Somehow, Oreo the Shih Tzu got trapped under a recliner in Fresno. Oreo’s distraught owner called the Fresno Fire Department, and three firefighters responded. They soon saved Oreo and posted some photos to celebrate. The photos drew some admiring comments from various people online. Some wanted to borrow Oreo. Some have their own rescue needs. Wrote Rachel: “Oh, there was a dog?”