Valley Solutions

Bipartisan effort to help MOMS

Office of Rep. Adam Gray. Reps. Gray, Hinson introduce bipartisan bill to secure maternal resources. 
Synopsis: Rep. Adam Gray introduced the bipartisan MOMS Act to fund midwife services in rural areas. Gray was joined by Iowa Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in sponsoring the bill. “Across rural America women are forced to travel long distances just to receive the essential care they need for a safe pregnancy,” said Gray. This bill, he said, will “ensure that mothers have reliable access to health care and bring resources home for mothers across Valley.” Senators Ben Lujan, D-NM, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced a companion bill in the Senate. Unmentioned in his statement, Gray is aware that maternity wards across the state are being shuttered. When the Madera Community Medical Center reopened after two years, it did not include maternity services. That means Madera mothers must drive to either Merced or Fresno to give birth.

Accused CEO caught at airport

SF Chronicle. CEO accused of $7M healthcare fraud arrested at SFO while trying to fly to Nigeria.
Synopsis: Cashmire Chinedu Luke -- who operated Four Corners Health LLC out of Fresno with operations in Merced, Madera, Mariposa, Contra Costa, Tulare and San Francisco – was arrested at SFO while waiting to board a plane to Lagos. He is accused of filing over 10,000 false claims with the VA for care that was never delivered or was billed for patients who had already died. He is said to have moved the money through a network of accounts in Asia and Africa. Luke previously served 27 months for ID fraud and theft in Maryland.

Fresno tax is anti-family

GV Wire. Fresno’s new money grab? 
Synopsis: Publisher/developer Darius Assemi writes that Fresno’s VMT fees could add $12,000 to the cost of a new home. He called home-price inflation the greatest barrier to wealth creation, making this tax especially unfair to the young and poor. VMT is a fee based on the estimated “vehicle miles traveled” by prospective homeowners to jobs, shopping, schools, etc. Assemi writes: “I oppose the city’s approach because it artificially increases home prices with a tax that has little to no benefit to the homebuyer.” He singled Nelson Esparza, Annalisa Perea, Brandon Vang and Tyler Maxwell for voting the fee into existence.

LA Times details Lara’s failings

LA Times. International travel. Fancy meals. Missing receipts. Who paid tab for this top official?
Synopsis: Story focuses on Ricardo Lara’s extravagant lifestyle -- 32 international trips, 163 “working” days out of the state, stays in luxury hotels, expensive dining and much more. Lara has solicited “charity donations” from insurance companies that have business before his agency. He survived an investigation 6 years ago but now is the subject of two fresh probes. His trips were to places such as Dubai, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, Chile, Bermuda, Egypt, Mexico and Italy; for 20 of them he offered no receipts. One trip took 42 days and covered half a dozen European nations. His expenses were covered by an industry association which refuses to disclose their value. That puts the commissioner at odds with state law that requires every state employee to divulge gifts. When asked if such extravagance could influence his decisions, Lara insisted he would never be “susceptible to something like that, it really diminishes me as an individual.”

LA Times. The LA wildfires exposed a broken insurance market; why wasn’t it fixed?
Synopsis: Another hard-hitting story involving CA Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who promised in 2023 that he would solve California’s insurance crisis. Instead, he delivered major concessions to the industry then watched as the number of homeowners forced to buy insurance through the state’s insurer-of-last-resort program exploded from 123,000 to 645,000. Meanwhile, to keep insurers from fleeing the state, he approved significant rate hikes, curbed the power of consumer advocates and allowed insurers to “skirt their obligations.” Meanwhile, thousands of those who lost their homes in the LA fires have gotten payouts that didn’t cover the cost of rebuilding. Smoke damage claims were denied by many insurers. The industry, said a former deputy insurance commissioner, “is getting everything they want and then some.”

Shooting victim’s sad, ugly past

Modesto Bee. Woman who livestreamed fatal DUI crash in Merced in 2017 killed in Stockton.
Synopsis: Obdulia Sanchez, notorious for having livestreamed a DUI crash that killed her sister, has been killed in a drive-by shooting in Stockton on Tuesday. She was 26. In 2017, Sanchez had been driving the car in which her sister was killed, losing control of the vehicle just north of Los Banos. With her sister pinned in the car, Sanchez posted video until help arrived. She was sent to prison but was paroled in 2019. In 2020 she was arrested again on weapons charges.

Builders delay 3 huge projects

Patterson Irrigator. Developer letter forces delay of major planning commission meeting.
Synopsis: John Beckman, president of the Building Industry Assn of the Greater Valley, sent a letter to the Patterson planning commission saying it had not adequately noticed the agenda of its planned meeting this week. The commission decided to postpone the meeting until Dec. 18. There are three huge issues on the agenda – a plan for 3,940 homes on 618 acres near Zacharias Road; a plan for 7.7 million square feet of commercial space also on Zacharias; and an agreement for 300 homes in Baldwin Ranch South. The BIA is asking the state’s Dept of Justice to investigate the city’s planning procedures. The delay puts “one of the largest growth proposals in Patterson history on hold.”

There’s not much snow … yet

Maven / DWR. Statewide snow-water content.
Synopsis: The state is well behind in snowfall in the Sierra. The Northern Sierra is at 17% of normal for this time of year while the Central Sierra – which includes the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced river watersheds – is at 36%. The Southern Sierra is in better shape at 78%. Statewide, the state has only 39% of the water it should have stored in mountain snow at this time. A series of atmospheric rivers are projected to hit the state next week.

Chicken ‘rescuer’ going to jail

SF Chronicle. UC Berkeley animal rights activist to serve jail time after ‘chicken rescue’ conviction.
Synopsis: Zoe Roseberg “rescued” four chickens from a Petaluma poultry processor then spent the next two years fighting her arrest. A member of Direct Action Everywhere, aka DxE, she was sentenced to 90 days in jail including up to 60 days in an “alternative” setting. She will also be on probation for 2 years and has been ordered to stay away from Petaluma Poultry. She also must pay the processor $102,548 in restitution, which the company says will be given to local food banks. The “rescued” chickens had a value of $24. 

Grad rates better, but barely

EdSource. CSU campuses show vastly different results on graduation after 10 years, $3 billion. 
Synopsis: After a study in 2015 showed that only 10% of students at the state’s CSUs campuses graduated in 6 years, college presidents were tasked with improving that number. The state put $3 billion behind their efforts. After 10 years, what we find is the time it takes to earn a degree still varies widely by campus, but your best chances of graduating within 6 years are still at Cal Poly SLO and San Diego State, which were both above 85%. The other 20 CSU campuses fall far behind. Fresno is at 58%, Stanislaus State 52%.; the worst is Dominguez Hills at 41%. Interestingly, LA State (54%) and Monterey Bay (62%) were the only two schools to reach their goals from 10 years ago. Worst news: Stanislaus, Sonoma, SF, Channel Islands and Humboldt all went in the wrong direction, graduating a lower percentage of students in 6 years now than they did in 2015. Interestingly, Stan State made one of the largest improvements in its 4-year grad rates, going from 11.5% in 2015 to 29.9% in 2025.

Roger Isom on ag outlook

Ag Net West. Regulations, water challenges and 2026 outlook: Roger Isom on AgNet News Hour.
Synopsis: Roger Isom, president of the CA Cotton Ginners and Western Ag Processors Associations, talks about a host of issues, from pesticides to water to higher energy costs. He says farmers are stronger together than they would be just going it alone. Isom has some especially good advice for the wine industry: Your marketing must be about “story,” not just bargains.

Miwuk group given 900 acres

SF Chronicle. Native American tribe reclaims land at the edge of Yosemite National Park.
Synopsis: The Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation has taken ownership of 900 acres along the western edge of Yosemite National Park overlooking the Merced River Canyon. Henness Ridge had been purchased by the Pacific Forest Trust 20 years ago to thwart development of vacation homes. The nonprofit group turned it over to the Miwuk Nation with the help of a $2.4 million grant from the CA Natural Resources Agency. The Miwuk tribe, which has no federal recognition, plans to manage the land through prescribed burns, reforestation and native-plant restoration.

Big earthquake! Never mind

Modesto Bee. There was no earthquake: ShakeAlert canceled after false alarm on Nevada temblor.
Synopsis: Those who were startled by an earthquake warning saying there had been a 5.9 earthquake in Lyons County, Nevada, can rest easy. It was a false alarm, going out at 8:06 a.m. “There was no M5.9 earthquake … We are currently looking into why the alerts were issued,” said the USGS.