Valley Solutions

Del Bosque’s wisdom featured

Ag Net West. Joe Del Bosque on farming the West Side. 
Synopsis: Interviewer Nick Papagni encounters one of the West Side’s most often quoted growers, Joe Del Bosque of Firebaugh. His multi-layered farming operation grows a wide variety of melons, nuts and row crops. He told the interviewer that farming has been tougher this year with a meager 25% water allocation despite reservoirs filled to the brim. As important as water to his operation are workers. Del Bosque, whose father came north from Mexico to work the harvests in California, has long argued that the nation’s immigration system needs to be modernized and updated to provide a quick and safe means of getting willing workers into California.

Gearing up for elections

LA Times. Becerra holds strong lead over Hilton in race for governor, new poll shows. 
Synopsis: Xavier Becerra is preferred by 55% of likely voters according to the Berkeley / LA Times poll. Becerra leads in most regions of the state, with the San Joaquin Valley being a notable exception. In the Valley, the numbers are reversed with 57% preferring Republican Steve Hilton – which is even stronger than Hilton’s support in the Sierra (53%). Interestingly, only 4% of those who support Hilton say that Donald Trump’s endorsement was a factor in their choice. Similarly, only 4% of Latino respondents cited Becerra’s ethnicity for their choice.

Modesto Focus. Modesto, Stanislaus voters confront busy November ballot.
Synopsis: Prepare to do your homework before filling out your ballots. And it might take a while. Voters in many cities like Modesto will elect city council, school board, irrigation district, state and federal legislators and more in November. They’ll be asked to vote on 14 statewide measures and many will also vote on local tax and/or bond measures. It’s a lot. Reporter Garth Stapley breaks it down by district.

Supes’ lawyer costs $600 an hour

Fresno Bee. Fresno County hires $600/hour lawyer to fight CA emergency law that defied supervisors.
Synopsis: Despite having the state and virtually every city in the county lined up against them, three Fresno County supervisors authorized a lawsuit aimed at keeping voters from considering an extension of the county’s 40-year-old transportation sales tax. On a 3-2 vote, the supervisors also hired a $600-an-hour lawyer to file a request for a restraining order against the county clerk’s office. The county will have to hire another lawyer to defend itself against its own lawsuit. All of this has to be settled by Sept. 8 when the ballots go to the printer. 

Weather like we’ve never seen

SF Gate. ‘Genuinely remarkable’: CA experts explain new El Niño outlook.
Synopsis: Climate scientists are using every superlative they can conjure – “historic,” “truly incredible," “genuinely remarkable” – to describe the El Niño conditions rapidly developing in the southern Pacific. They are saying the pattern could deliver massive amounts of rain to Northern California by late this winter. “The numbers I’m seeing – the numbers that other climate and weather folks are seeing – are frankly pretty extraordinary. If they come to pass, they will blow all historical events out of the water,” said UCLA weather scientist Daniel Swain. Water temperatures are already in record territory, but they are continuing to get warmer.

Washington Post. We’ll soon get a glimpse of future temperatures, thanks to this record El Niño.
Synopsis: The weather associated with this El Niño will provide a preview of what we can expect every year by the late 2030s, said a scientist. “This El Niño will act like a climate time machine, temporarily pushing global temperatures to levels that might not otherwise be reached for another decade,” said scientist Zeke Hausfather. He says there is a 95% chance that 2027 will be the hottest year on record, soaring past 2024 when temps spiked 1.76 degrees Celsius (3.17 Fahrenheit). 

The land of 1,000 eyes

Fresno Bee. Police arsenal of flock cameras in Fresno may soon expand to include private ones. 
Synopsis: Police chief Mindy Casto is inviting homeowners to give Fresno police access to their doorbell and home-security cameras. Police say it will help them monitor and catch miscreants if need be. The program is already in operation in Modesto, where 400 “community cameras” are visible to police and others. Merced and San Joaquin counties have also instituted the program. The program is separate from the controversial Flock license-plate readers and red-light cameras and is managed by a private vendor called Axon. While misuse of the cameras is rare, it has happened. The story notes that in North Carolina, a police officer illegally accessed private cameras “for non-law enforcement purposes,” one of at least 50 such incidents. Usually, the officers are spying on former partners or people they’re interested in meeting, reported the Washington Post.

Turlock finally has housing plan

Modesto Bee. Turlock adopts housing element, now in compliance after state lawsuit.
Synopsis: The Turlock city council voted 5-0 to approve a new Housing Element as required by state law. The plan was approved by the state prior to approval, bringing the city back into compliance with state law. The element identifies properties that can be developed for housing based on various income levels. Turlock was one of five cities the state threatened to sue over failure to implement a new element. The plan identifies space for 5,800 homes and creates new mixed-use zones for 52 properties that are “underutilized on commercial corridors.”

Mandated low rent doesn’t work

Cal Matters. CA tool to encourage low-income rentals may suppress new apartment construction. 
Synopsis: Dan Walters writes about yet another study, this one by UC Irvine, that shows even well-meaning governmental incursion into housing markets often backfires. The net result of requiring inclusion of low-cost rental units as part of new construction projects is fewer projects get built. And not by a little; in fact, the reduction is around 31% fewer projects. That means there are fewer net housing opportunities for poor people than if the low-income units hadn’t been built. Having the nation’s highest rents -- $2,895 median – should be incentive enough to build additional rental units. But the average cost of building a single rental unit in CA works out to $430,000 compared to $150,000 nationwide. Hence, it takes longer to recoup the costs.
MAD Take. Dan uses this as an exemplar of how infrequently government follows up to make sure its policies are working as intended. There are likely several reasons for that, but here’s one: Term limits. A decade after legislation passed, all who voted for it have been termed out of office. Those who replaced them have little interest in revisiting old programs if they even know they exist.

El Nido center will get facelift

Merced Sun Star. Merced County receives $50,000 grant to renovate community hall.
Synopsis: The El Nido Community Hall will be updated with help from a grant from Lowe’s Community Impact Program. The historic building belongs to Merced County and is administered by the Parks & Recreation Dept. The community is also getting a new fire station, thanks to a federal grant of $781,000 announced last month.

‘Supercalifragilistic …’

Modesto Bee. Famed musical set for Modesto’s Gallo Center. 
Synopsis: Renowned director Paul Tischer will attempt to stage a musical that’s never been done in the 60 years of Modesto Performing Arts existence: “Mary Poppins.” “It’s a very, very difficult show to do. It takes a lot of time and concentration to make this show work,” said the region’s most experienced director. There are 24 set changes, about 20 more than most shows. And the actors have to be able to both sing and dance at the same time. It’s nice if they can make the audience forget about Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in one of the most beloved musical movies of all time. It opens Saturday at 7:30 with additional performances Aug. 16, 21, 22 and 23.
MAD Take: With 24 set changes, the real stars of this play are the stage crew. Super-stage-a-licious indeed.