Valley Solutions

A ‘Promise’ of music

Promise To America. Bobby Pulido coming to Merced
Synopsis: Promise to America will bring Grammy Winner Bobby Pulido to the Art Kamangar Center at the Merced Theatre for a free concert Aug. 29 starting at 6 p.m. For free tickets, click here. The show is being hosted by Rep. Adam Gray, a charter member of Promise to America. “This is going to be fun,” said Gray. “Bobby’s going to bring a little bit of South Texas and a lot of music to Merced.” Pulido is a Texas-born singer, songwriter and star of Tejano music whose CD “Desvelado” went platinum in 1996. He was named Tejano Music Award’s Male Entertainer of the Year in 1996, Male Vocalist of the Year in 1998 and has released 15 collections of songs and has appeared in movies and television. He’s running for Congress in South Texas. Promise to America started when a group of college students sought out candidates who reflected their views. The group is focused on public safety, fiscal responsibility, common purpose and patriotism – which reflects what Gray stands for in his bid for re-election in CA-13.

Message delivered: ‘No data centers!’

Modesto Bee. Modesto residents pack city council meeting, call for ban on AI data centers.
Synopsis: The city council chambers were packed Tuesday night for a public hearing on data centers in Modesto. About 50 people spoke, but the first was Mayor Sue Zwahlen. She opened the meeting by telling residents that the city’s zoning codes already make it impossible to build a data center in the city limits. As for the two small data centers already operating in Modesto, they provide “critical digital infrastructure,” and each occupies less than 4,000 square feet – meaning they “are not true data centers.” Among those who spoke against having centers in the community was Carolyn Neumann of the Stanislaus County Taxpayers Assn, who said she was skeptical of any promises made by data center developers. Leah Hassett demanded that such “garbage” be kept out of the Valley. It was noted that the city of Patterson – which has been approving massive warehouse and logistics centers on the western edge of the city – invoked a 45-day moratorium on new data center permits. Modesto council members Chris Ricci and Eric Alvarez said they would support a similar measure in Modesto.

A clearer view of bullet train

Merced County Times. Merced leaders push for answers, support in High Speed rail negotiations.
Synopsis: Merced leaders are expected to meet this week with Rep. Adam Gray, Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria and state Sen. Anna Caballero about the future of high-speed rail in the community. Frustration is rising after the CHSR Authority proposed eliminating the long-promised downtown train station with a proposal to build a passenger platform south of the city. “I don’t think we have done enough to really take control of the issue and view the (high-speed rail) Authority not as friends or partners, but as an arm’s length negotiating party,” said city councilmember Shane Smith.

Fresno Bee. CA high-speed rail says permitting gap is causing delays; this bill targets it. 
Synopsis: Senate Bill 1425 will create an “encroachment permit program” allowing the High-Speed Rail Authority to approve and regulate work on its right-of-way, giving it the same authority enjoyed by Caltrans and the Dept of Water Resources. CHSRA officials said the lack of this authority is holding up the project in at least five specific locations. The proposal comes nearly three decades after the commission was created.

Here are top public schools

Modesto Bee. What are the top public schools in Stanislaus County?
Synopsis: Online publication Niche polled parents, students and teachers to grade CA schools from A+ to D-. The Niche report card ranks Gratton Charter in Denair as the No. 1 public elementary school in Stanislaus County followed by Sierra View in Oakdale, Agnes M. Baptist in Modesto, Walnut in Turlock and Fair Oaks in Oakdale. In all, Oakdale had three schools in the top 10, and Modesto had four. Gratton was also the top middle school, followed by Hickman, Ustach, Connecting Waters and Paradise. The top high schools? Enochs, Whitmore Charter, Pitman, Gregori and Oakdale.

Merced Sun Star. What are the top public schools in Merced County?
Synopsis: As in Modesto, the Merced list is drawn from Niche polling of parents, students et al. The top three elementary schools: Cressey, McSwain and Snelling-Merced Falls. Among the top 10, only the Atwater and Merced districts had two on the list. The middle schools: McSwain (again), Snelling-Merced Falls (again) and Peggy Heller. Merced had 3 schools on this list, Atwater 2 and Winton 2. The top high schools? El Capitan, Independence in Merced, Hilmar, Buhach Colony and Golden Valley.  

Valley roads are deadly

Fresno Bee. Fresno County ranked among deadliest spots for speeding in the U.S. 
Synopsis: A law firm based in Las Vegas offered a list of cities with the highest speed-related fatalities. Fresno ranked No. 8. The city had 223 speeding-related fatalities from 2020 to 2024, or 44.6 per year. That works out to 4.37 deaths per 100,000 population, a rate 9x higher than New York City -- the lowest city for speed-related fatalities among America’s 100 largest cities. The most dangerous was Jackson County, Missouri, at 7.33. CA was well represented: No. 2 San Bernardino, No. 3 Kern County, No. 7 San Joaquin County.

Modesto Bee. Modesto father of 2 identified as e-bike rider killed in collision.
Synopsis: The 32-year-old man killed Saturday night while riding an e-bike was Mark Allen Jenkins. He collided with an SUV at Tully and Roseburg when it is believed he went through the intersection against the red light. A GoFundMe identified his children, ages 8 and 6, saying he was devoted to them. His was the seventh traffic fatality in Modesto this year.

Modesto Bee. How plainclothes CHP officers will aid pedestrian safety in Stanislaus community.
Synopsis: Officers of the Highway Patrol will be wearing street clothes as they walk around Salida next month, crossing streets and making sure drivers react appropriately. Those who fail to yield right-of-way to pedestrians can expect a more in-depth conversation with uniformed officers.

Feds: CA mistreats its inmates

KSEE / CBS47. ‘Unacceptable’: Chowchilla prison failed to protect women inmates, fed officials say.
Synopsis: Two prisons in California – the Central CA Women’s Prison in Chowchilla and the CA Institution for Women in Chino – have failed to protect inmates from predatory behavior by guards, says the Dept of Justice. The investigation concluded that the DOJ has reason to believe the prisons are violating the constitutional rights of prisoners due to a “longstanding pattern of staff sexual misconduct, inadequate safeguards, failures in confidential reporting, improper investigative practices and insufficient accountability.” Officials knew of the transgressions but failed to protect inmates. “These facts are unacceptable,” said US Attorney Bill Essayli.

Drinking water in the Valley

Sustainable Conservation. Recharging for communities and ecosystems. 
Synopsis: Roshini Katrak-Adefowora, a senior data specialist with Sustainable Conservation, writes that our region needs additional criteria in identifying the best places for storing groundwater. It’s not just about soil types and substrata. She writes that disadvantaged communities should be considered when looking for places to elevate aquifer levels. “Many communities have residents who have already lost or are at risk of losing their access to drinking water,” she wrote. Using Flood-MAR data, such conditions can be rectified.

Modesto is suddenly popular

Modesto Bee. Modesto downtown commercial vacancy rate lowest since pandemic.
Synopsis: Storefronts are filling up in downtown Modesto, with only 3.1% of space remaining vacant. That’s down from 3.7% a year ago, says CoStar analytics. That’s also the lowest since the vacancy rate reached 5% during the pandemic in 2020. The city is hopeful it can free up more space at the site of the soon-to-be-vacated Stanislaus Superior Court. But the old courthouse is owned by the state, not the city, so it will require a process.

Former cop takes over ‘pound’

Modesto Bee. Stanislaus Animal Services Agency hires interim director after months of discord. 
Synopsis: The SASA board reappointed Craig Gundlach to lead the shelter on an interim basis; he starts next week. The former Modesto police captain most recently worked as a manager at Stanislaus Behavioral Health & Recovery Services and was the interim director of SASA for eight months in 2024-25. The agency is a partnership between Stanislaus County and the cities of Modesto, Ceres, Hughson, Patterson and Waterford and has been plagued by crowding and disease over the past few years.

Shutting down the vineyards

CA Ag Net. Can vineyard ‘mothballing’ help growers weather wine market collapse? 
Synopsis: The current dip in wine demand is “considerably worse or more intense compared to historical (dips) within the memory of professionals active in viticulture right now,” said Chris Chen of the UC Cooperative Extension. But many of the vineyards where premium grapes are grown have been in the ground for 50 or even 100 years. While farmers can’t afford to harvest them, ripping them out would be foolhardy. So, some are being “mothballed.” The vines get minimal input, and the fruit is left to fall. There is little data on the effectiveness or dangers in the practice, which includes only “minimal” care -- irrigation, spraying for mildew and rolling down cover crops into mats. That’s a lot cheaper than removal or replanting in other crops. Mothballed vineyards see an increase in pests, but the arrival of birds helped mitigate that increase. Lack of pruning reduced berry size, but a thicker canopy reduced impacts of reduced irrigation.

ABC10. Longtime Lodi area winery to close as industry faces downturn.
Synopsis: Heritage Oak Winery will close its doors at the end of the year, says owner Tom Hoffman. The fifth-generation grower said he will not bother harvesting this year’s grapes. After growing grapes for other wineries, Heritage Oak opened in 2007. Now, “people’s habits are changing. While farmers here are leaving their crops on the vines, these big wineries are bringing in stuff from overseas. The whole industry is a state of contraction.”
Youtube: https://youtu.be/cLhFEV2_VNE

‘We lost a great guy’: Roger Wood

Merced County Times. Outpouring of love, unity follows loss of Roger Wood. 
Synopsis: The Atwater civic leader, businessman and radio host died at his home on Aug. 5; he was 85. The son of Elmer Wood, the founder of Wood Fruit Co., Roger was an early supporter of UC Merced, an active member of Rotary, on the board of the Farm Bureau and served the Atwater School District. It was Wood who gathered up every postcard containing the word Merced and had school children send them to the UC Board of Regents to make the case for UC’s location. “We lost a great guy, one of my best friends,” said radio host Casey Steed. “Everywhere you went, it seemed he would be there,” recalled Greg Olzack. Two years ago, Wood told Olzack that he had taken his grandkids skiing – and skied with them. “I’m thinking, ‘My God, he’s indestructible.’”

Valley Solutions takes a break

Valley Solutions. Everyone needs a break eventually.
Synopsis: After Friday’s edition of Valley Solutions, editor Mike Dunbar will take a two-week break. During that time, Valley Solutions will publish occasional items such as collections of political cartoons – which do not reflect the views of Valley Solutions, Dunbar or Adam Gray. They were chosen because they either made Dunbar laugh or frown. Publication of daily media roundups resume August 25.