Traditionally, the Reel Pride Film Festival draws thousands to Fresno’s Tower District for one of the nation’s biggest celebrations of LGBTQ cinema. But in response to COVID-19 restrictions, organizers have turned this year’s festival, which takes place this weekend, into an online event. To learn more about what audiences can …

As the November 3rd election deadline draws near, Valley Public Radio continues its look at the propositions before voters. Joining Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock for a conversation about the potential changes to rent control, property taxes, data security, and how the state charges theft-related crimes are Ben Christopher, election …

As local COVID-19 case numbers continue to improve, five counties in the San Joaquin Valley have now advanced beyond the purple “widespread” designation of the state’s reopening plan known as the Blueprint for a Safer Economy . Fresno, Kern, Kings and Merced are now designated red for “substantial” virus spread, …

This week on Valley Edition: More and more young candidates are running for office. We talk with three Valley youth vying for seats on local school boards. Plus, teaching online is challenging enough. But getting kids to sing in a chorus over the internet? That’s really tricky. Choir teachers are …

With public schools still operating remotely, one subject particularly challenging to teach online is music. Despite the limitations, choir teachers in Fresno County are brainstorming new ways to instruct, even through a screen. On one Thursday morning, halfway through the high school choir class that Jacob Bailey is teaching on …

On a bright afternoon in June, a group of protesters wearing masks gathered in a dusty parking lot outside a prison in rural Kings County. One of them held a megaphone up to a cell phone. “My name is Jacob Benitez, I’m an inmate calling from Facility F right here …

Last week, Fresno County businesses celebrated that the county had advanced into the red, less restrictive tier of the state’s COVID-19 reopening plan. Then, this past Tuesday, they learned that they may be forced to close back up again, as early as next week, if the county’s case rate doesn’t …

Jordan Pulido lost his grandmother to the coronavirus, and says the pandemic has derailed most of his plans for his last year at Fresno State. The 22-year-old is studying music education, and this year, he was supposed to perform in the university’s rendition of “Carmina Burana,” travel to Italy, and …

And now it’s time for another segment of StoryCorps San Joaquin . As part of Valley Public Radio’s collaboration with the personal history project , we’re airing segments based on recorded conversations from February’s 2020 mobile tour in Fresno and Bakersfield. Today, as part of the Yonsei Memory Project, you’ll …

Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 1,300 people have died of COVID-19 in the seven counties of the southern San Joaquin Valley and foothills, according to official counts by county health departments and the state. The tallies aggregated in those health department dashboards, which represent between one and …

There’s a prevailing narrative that young people in America are not politically engaged and are unlikely to vote. But Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock recently spoke with three individuals who are actively challenging that assumption: Riddhi S. Patel, a 24-year-old coordinator for Sunrise Kern in Bakersfield, Alexandria Benn, a 25-year-old …

California State University, Bakersfield marked its 50th Anniversary with a virtual celebration Oct.1 that included a speech from Sir Richard Branson and a performance from Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Gregory Porter. To learn more about the milestone celebration, and how the university is adjusting to distance education, Valley Edition Host …

When we seek to quantify the toll that COVID-19 is taking on our communities, we typically turn to official statistics like confirmed cases, hospitalization rates and, of course, death counts. But what if that final tally is an undercount, and the death toll is really much higher? An FM89 analysis …