On Gavin Newsom’s first full day in office, Jan. 8, 2019, the newly elected governor stood before the cameras, clad in jeans and sneakers and surrounded by emergency responders, and declared war on wildfires. “Everybody has had enough,” the governor said, announcing he’d signed a sweeping executive order overhauling the …
Read More »California Reporting Project Investigates Bakersfield P.D. Use Of Force
Over a four year period, police officers in Bakersfield broke 45 bones in 31 people, and in no case did the officers involved in those encounters violate departmental policy. That’s the finding of an investigation from the California Reporting Project, a public-radio led collaboration looking into police misconduct. Molly Peterson, …
Read More »UC Merced Professor On How Juneteenth Is A National Reminder Of Freedom And Equality
Yesterday, President Biden signed a bill to make June 19th, known as Juneteenth, a federal holiday. Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when Union soldiers brought word to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas that they were free, roughly 2 ½ years after the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation. UC …
Read More »How Will School Districts Make Up For Pandemic-Related Learning Lags?
To learn how school districts plan to make up for the lost learning that occurred for many students in the past academic year, Valley Edition Host talked with Alyson Crafton, director of student services for Madera Unified, Natalie Wheatfall-Lum, director of P-16 education policy at The Education Trust-West, and Heather …
Read More »As California Drought Worsens, Peak Wildfire Season Could Come Months Earlier Than Usual
Most of California is experiencing extreme drought right now. That means the possibility of bigger, more destructive wildfires earlier in the summer. CapRadio’s Scott Rodd has this report from Butte County. Lunchtime brings a crew of laborers to this taco stand in Oroville. They’re taking a break from clearing trees …
Read More »Journalist Lois Henry Writes About Why Corcoran Is Sinking In The NY Times
The Kings County city of Corcoran is slowly but steadily sinking, as much as 11½ feet in some places over the last 14 years. Lois Henry, a journalist with SJV Water, recently wrote about it for the New York Times. Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with her about how …
Read More »LGBTQ+ Leaders In The Valley Discuss Pride Month And The Impact Of The Pandemic
As communities in the San Joaquin Valley grapple over the recognition of Pride Month, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock got reactions from local leaders in the LGBTQ+ community. She spoke with Estevan Parra, coordinator of LGBTQ+ and gender programs and services at Fresno State, Kathleen Arambula-Reyna, festival director and board …
Read More »Podcast “The Trials Of Frank Carson” Explores Crime, Power And Politics In Stanislaus County
Christopher Goffard is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist with the Los Angeles Times and the host of the popular podcast, “Dirty John.” His current project is another crime related podcast, this time set in Stanislaus County. It’s called “The Trials of Frank Carson.” Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with …
Read More »Next Week, California To Lift COVID-19 Restrictions…Mostly – Virus Update For June 11
Next Tuesday, California is slated to reopen its doors following more than a year of pandemic-related restrictions. The state’s reopening system, known as the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, will dissolve, and businesses and houses of worship will be permitted to open without capacity limits or distancing restrictions. Life will …
Read More »Fresno State’s Newest President Discusses The Return To Campus Life In The Fall
More than two decades after coming to Fresno State to teach Spanish and Portuguese, Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval was recently named the ninth president to lead the university. Since last fall, he had been serving as the interim president. Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with him about his vision for Fresno …
Read More »Processing The Pandemic: A Teacher Worries About Her Students And Finds Ways To Connect
For our series looking at how people are processing their experiences around the pandemic, we hear from Rodia Montgomery-Gentry. She’s a social science teacher and department chair at Madera South High School. As schools start to reopen, Montgomery-Gentry reflects on the challenges of connecting to students through online learning. FM89’s …
Read More »Cal/OSHA Recommends New Mask Guidelines For Workers
The California agency in charge of workplace health and safety recommended Thursday to lift masking guidelines in certain cases. Cap Radio’s Steven Rascón has more. The Cal/OSHA proposal targets employees who interact with the public and those whose workplaces aren’t 100-percent vaccinated. The changes come just two weeks before the …
Read More »Equity And The Pandemic Response – COVID-19 Update For June 4, 2021
Last August, the state of California introduced a “health equity metric” in its method of evaluating progress in fighting COVID-19. Ostensibly, that meant the state would be grading counties not just on their countywide case rates, positivity rates, testing and (later) vaccine numbers, but also on all of those measures …
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