Valley Solutions

Grape industry applauds bill

CA Ag Net. CA Table Grape industry welcomes Farm Bill momentum.
Synopsis: CA Table Grape Commission CEO Ian LeMay points out that US-grown products are competing on a global market, and elected leaders should do all they can to facilitate trade, not diminish it. That’s why he approves of the progress that has taken place on the Farm Bill. He says seeing the bill approved in committee means we’re restoring “regular order to the legislative process.” It also signals that someone is “emphasizing the importance of ensuring specialty crops remain a central part of the discussion.”
MAD Note: That someone is Adam Gray. The legislator from Merced offered two provisions to the House version of Farm Bill, and both were accepted unanimously. One provides additional support (via state purchases) of “specialty crops” grown in California. The other requires the USDA to explain to Congress any changes in trade agreements between the US, Mexico and Canada before they happen. Gray also got a promise for additional funding for specialty crops in other bills. The five counties Gray represents in Congress produce more than $20 billion in farm income every year.

More Amazon centers, jobs

Modesto Bee. With another center, Amazon is boosting employment numbers in Stanislaus County. 
Synopsis: Amazon is already prepping a warehouse at Kiernan and Tully for full operation set to begin soon. It will be the third, and smallest, Amazon location in the county but guarantees same-day delivery for many products. The other two Amazon centers are in Patterson and Turlock. A fourth will be the biggest of all. Project Zach will have 3.2 million square feet at Rogers and Zacharias roads in Patterson. It expects to employ up to 1,500. As for the same-day center in Modesto, Amazon won’t say how many people it will employ, but a similar facility in Sacramento has around 300 workers. The four facilities in Stanislaus pale in comparison to the 12 in San Joaquin. One of those, in Tracy, employs 4,600. Logistics remains a low-wage occupation, with Stockton employees averaging $18.43 an hour. A manager can earn upward of $90,000 a year. But it’s not for everyone. Studies show high workplace-injury rates and substantial workforce turnover.

Cute cakes, tacos coming

Merced Sun Star. Is Nothing Bundt Cake opening a location in Merced?
Synopsis: Several new businesses are coming to the community, but one of them is getting a lot of attention – Nothing Bundt Cake. The company has pulled a building permit, but the city has not confirmed any plans. The company has 550 bakeries across the nation, selling full-size cakes and “Bundtini” cupcakes.

Fresno Bee. Michelin-recognized taco shop from Tijuana coming to Fresno.
Synopsis: Tacos El Franc is opening a store in Fresno. These tacos are legendary in Tijuana and San Diego. The open-walled taqueria will take over the Heroes Comics shop next door to Rocket Dog Brats & Brews. Javier Valadez started selling tacos from a cart in Tijuana 30 years ago. But he had ambition and soon was selling them in San Diego. Now they’ve been featured in Netflix’s Taco Chronicles and last year earned “recognition” from the Michelin Guide. Tacos cost $4.75, but devotees insist they’re worth it.

Patterson losing Grocery Outlet

Modesto Bee. Grocery Outlet to close 36 stores, one in Stanislaus County. 
Synopsis: The Patterson Grocery Outlet store on Sperry Ave. will be closing, along with 35 other GO stores. Sarah Kumar called opening the store “our dream,” but it will end in late April. Mayor Michael Clauzel called the closure “deeply heartbreaking.” He urges residents to visit the store and prove it is viable; others are collecting signatures to convince corporate officials to keep the store open.

Llamas returns to LB council

Westside Express. Refugio Llamas wins appointment to District Two on city council.
Synopsis: Refugio Llamas was reappointed to his former council seat on Monday night, winning a weighted vote of city councilmembers following interviews. Though three candidates applied for the seat vacated by Evan Sanders in January, only two showed up to answer the council’s pre-determined questions. After the interviews, the four councilmembers ranked candidates either No. 1 (3 points) or No. 2 (2 points). Llamas compiled 11 points to Anthony Castillo’s 9. Llamas was also appointed to a vacant council seat in 2021, serving two years. Since then, he said many of his neighbors continue to reach out to him for information and solutions.

Fresno has a lot of drunks …

Sacramento Bee. 2 CA cities rank among worst in US for drunk driving. 
Synopsis: Here’s to you, Fresno! According to statistical analysis by LendingTree, Fresno is No. 2 in the nation for percentage of drivers rolling around drunk. Over a third of all fatal crashes in Fresno involved alcohol. There are 3.3 DUI arrests per 1,000 drivers in 2024. Sacramento isn’t that bad, but bad enough at No. 6. It actually has more DUIs per 1,000 drivers at 3.55. Others on the list: No. 1 Colorado Springs; No. 3 Arlington, Va.; No. 4 Las Vegas; No. 5 Oakland. No. 7 Dallas; No. 10 Houston.
MAD Take: There are actually six California cities among the top 10 for drunk drivers – Fresno, Oakland, San Jose, Long Beach, Bakersfield and Sacramento. San Jose has the highest DUI rate (3.68) in the state. Interesting fact: BMW drivers have the highest DUI rate at 3.09 per 1,000. Among pickup drivers, those in Ram trucks are most likely to be over the limit.

… But a lot fewer killings

GV Wire. Fresno police chief marks first year with historic drop in homicides. 
Synopsis: Fresno police chief Mindy Casto has been in her job for a year, and it’s been a good one. The city of 550,000 recorded 22 murders in 2025, a 70% drop from 2020 and eight fewer than in 2024. While the falling numbers reflect a national trend, it was impressive that the police department cleared 100% of its murder cases. Casto attributes improvements to a society recovering from the COVID lockdown, improved technology and an emphasis on stopping gang violence. While murder rates are down in Fresno, police are incredibly busy, responding to 375,000 calls last year. But only 300 of those required use of force.

Data centers are very thirsty

UC Riverside. Data center water spikes could cost billions.
Synopsis: The rapid growth of artificial intelligence and cloud computing is outpacing the ability of community water systems to deliver the large bursts of water needed to cool the centers on hot days. A study by UC Riverside and Caltech concluded that such water systems will need billions of dollars in improvements to meet the needs of peak computer demand. If no efficiencies are found, systems could require 1.45 billion gallons of water per day for cooling by 2030. That’s about as much water as New York City uses in a day.
MAD Take: Why is this important? A lot of the water used in the Bay Area, where the data centers got their start and continue to flourish, comes from the Tuolumne River. That’s the same river that provides water for Modesto, Turlock, Ceres and all the farms around them. While additional demand of 4,500-acre feet isn’t catastrophic once in a while, it becomes problematic if more frequent. If they weren’t planning more of these data centers, they wouldn’t be planting all those solar farms on the West Side.

Slowing Manteca’s expansion

Manteca Bulletin. Cross levee will hold back Manteca growth. 
Synopsis: A levee designed to protect 20 square miles of cropland from flooding will not be enough if Manteca continues growing. The levee will cost $473 million to give 200-year flood protection to 22,600 acres east of the river and just west of Manteca. It’s all cropland now, but Manteca is absolutely looking in that direction for more houses. The city is running out of room on all sides, bumping into the spheres of influence of other cities – Lathrop to the west, Stockton in the north and Ripon in the east and south. But it will be costly. Starting in 2030, housing will no longer be allowed even on 200-year floodplains without additional levee protection. That means the city will need a second “cross levee” made of concrete on either side of I-5.

Girls with hammers

ABC30. 5 Madera High construction students will join all-girl teams for competition.
Synopsis: The North Coast State Carpenters Union conducts a competition for high school homebuilders each year, and this year a team of young women from Madera will be competing. Each team participates in four days of training ahead of the competition and is assigned partner/coaches from the union. The Madera girls will be coached by Jennifer Alvarez, who was in the same competition just two years ago. Madera teacher Raymond Garza says working in the industry is good for his students, including the girls. “They want to do things. … They’re leading my class and they (become) my foremen. It’s very nice to see.”

Best buddies to bees

Modesto Bee. The health of Central Valley orchards owes a lot to Hughson bee business. 
Synopsis: Marie Figueroa writes about “bee people” Matt and Sarah Beekman and their hard-working bees. He’s a third-gen beekeeper in Hughson; she’s a transplant from Northern Ireland, who met her future husband at UC Berkeley. He took over the family business 25 years ago and they have since expanded, becoming the “go-to” company for all matters of bees and bee health.

Beavers have buddies, too

Maven’s Notebook. New program helps CA land owners and managers coexist with beavers. 
Synopsis: Pierre Paquelier runs an 80-acre horse ranch along the Tuolumne River near Waterford. He was happy to have beavers in the river until they started attacking his Valley Oaks. “It gets really hot in the summer, and we need shade for the horses,” he said. So, he couldn’t afford to lose his oak trees. A program from CDF&W and the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center in Sonoma came to the beavers’ rescue. They built cages around the bases of the oak trees then installed solar-powered electric fencing around a stand of 30 young oaks that were too small to cage.