Valley News

Local hospitals in three San Joaquin Valley communities are making big plans for the future, including an expansion, a reopening, and a bankruptcy filing. In Kern County, Adventist Health has announced plans to build a new hospital in Northwest Bakersfield. The facility will be built near the intersection of Coffee …

More details have emerged in a Bakersfield shooting spree on Wednesday that left six people dead, including the alleged killer. The Kern County Sheriff’s office has released the names of the suspect and victims in Wednesday’s shooting. Sheriff Donny Youngblood says there’s reason to believe the suspect, 54-year-old Javier Casarez, …

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at how those who work in health care are at increased risk of workplace violence. In the next installment of our series, Part of the Job, we see that although hospitals in the Valley have preventive measures in place, some are finding …

Recent arrests of undocumented immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials inside Central Valley courthouses from Fresno to Sacramento have sparked controversy. But as Valley Public Radio’s Monica Velez reports, such arrests aren’t new. She joined us on Valley Edition to look back at a series of arrests made by …

A much-anticipated plan to reduce particulate matter in the San Joaquin Valley is now up for public comment. After years of revisions, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is seeking public comment on its latest plan to reduce PM2.5 , a harmful pollutant that causes respiratory problems and …

California’s legislative session ended last week, and with it, the hopes for a statewide pool of money that would have supported drinking water projects. It was called the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund, and it would have been available for disadvantaged communities in need of water cleanup projects. The …

Acclaimed biographer Miriam Pawel’s newest work tells the story of the most influential family in California political history. In The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Helped Shape a Nation, she traces the rise of Governor Pat Brown and his son Governor Jerry Brown, and …

This week on Valley Edition, we talk with biographer Miriam Pawel, author of the new book, “The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Helped Shape a Nation.” We also talk with poet Brian Turner, about his new music project from his band, the Interplanetary Acoustic …

California is often at odds with the Trump administration, and the latest battleground could be in the issue of managing the state’s precious water supply. At the same time the state’s water board is considering major cuts to water sent to farms and cities, the Trump administration is taking its …

A new survey released last week by the Poynter Institute suggests that Americans trust their local media more than many national news outlets. But charges of “fake news” aren’t the exclusive domain of President Donald Trump. In fact, attacks on news coverage are becoming more common at the local level. …

It’s probably obvious that hospitals can be high stress environments, and it’s not just patients who can get agitated and upset. Sometimes it’s also co-workers. Last week, we heard about how some see tolerating violence in health care as part of the job. In the latest installment in our series …

California’s legislative session ends on Friday, which means it’s a marathon week in Sacramento as state lawmakers rush to pass bills and get them onto Governor Jerry Brown’s desk to be signed into law—or else wait until 2019 to reintroduce their legislation and begin the process all over again. Assembly …

Governor Brown has signed into law two bills related to the disease valley fever, both written by Kern County Assemblymember Rudy Salas. The laws both aim to streamline the disease’s reporting guidelines, which until now have been inconsistent over time and among health agencies throughout the state. One of the …