Good morning! It’s Wednesday, Aug. 6. This is Rob, wishing you a happy National Root Beer Float Day!
😓Ugh: A high today around 100, and it’s going to get hotter.
🐈To the rescue? The Fresno Animal Center partnered with the annual “Clear the Shelters” campaign to help pets find homes and to raise money to support the center’s efforts. Donations can be made at www.fresnoanimalcenter.com/donate.
🎶Listen Up: This song is old, and it’s been in my head for days and won’t leave. Thought you should know that.
1. Apolitical or MAGA Trojan horse?
Supervisor Garry Bredefeld wants to curb which holidays and celebrations county departments spend taxpayer money on, Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela reports.
Bredefeld says it’s part of an effort to ensure county government offices take a more apolitical stance, but some question whether the move eliminates politics from the equation or simply replaces a perceived liberal agenda with a MAGA conservative one.
On Tuesday, a divided board split 3-2 on an instruction for county staff to return to a future meeting with new draft language for the county’s holiday policy.
Several Fresno residents spoke out against the policy-change effort, including a Fresno State professor, who attended Tuesday’s hearing with his husband and adopted son.
Assistant Music Professor Russ Zokaites: “It would directly affect our family, especially with the intended purposes that I don’t think are written into the actual policy. I think it’s really important that we maintain the mission of the county, of being open and diverse and accepting of everyone.”
2. ‘Cannot just fail’
New plans could soon be released detailing how high-speed rail backers intend to get the long-beleaguered project across the finish line, KVPR reports.
First approved in 2008, the project has been plagued with cost overruns, lengthy delays and increasing political pressure led by conservatives who have criticized the project as a financial black hole for taxpayers.
In his interview with Central Valley Daily, high-speed rail authority chief Ian Choudri, who joined the project just last year, acknowledged mistakes during the initial phase of the project, including hiring workers before acquiring land.
Said Choudri: “The U.S. cannot just fail on high-speed rail.”
3. How Prop 36 is working in Fresno
Reports of shoplifting and retail theft are down significantly this year at the River Park Shopping Center, and a recently approved law is getting the credit for the drop in crime, ABC30 reports.
Passed by California voters last November, Proposition 36 beefed up penalties for certain retail theft and drug crimes, and Fresno’s police chief and district attorney say it’s a big part of River Park’s reported 50% reduction in crime this year.
Fresno police Chief Mindy Casto: “We actually have a tactical team that operates every day, during the day, for retail theft in progress. The results are starting to speak for themselves, with the huge reductions we’ve seen in theft.”
