Good morning! It’s Wednesday, Oct. 29. This is Rob.
🌞Sunny skies again today in Fresno with daytime highs in the 70s. NOAA
🏗️Five years after the Creek Fire devastated mountain communities, the rebuilding of Cressman’s General Store near Shaver Lake is taking shape. ABC30
🍇As the federal government refuses to fund SNAP food assistance for millions of Americans and thousands of Fresno-area residents, Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria, D-Merced, partnered with the Alliance of California Farmers and Ranchers Community Fund, the Valley Children’s Hospital Foundation, and Fresno United to donate $15,000 to the Central California Food Bank. CBS47
🥫And be sure to check out and SHARE Fresnoland’s free food and resource guide for local families in need. Fresnoland
🏠Home flipping is booming in Kings and Madera as investors shift to rural markets, while Fresno sees sluggish growth. ABC30
1. Fresno church leaders call for an end to ICE raids
Dozens of community members and church leaders gathered in Fresno early Tuesday to pray and protest the rising ICE arrests locally and across the nation, Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina reported.
Outside the ICE Processing Center in Fresno, leaders from Faith in the Valley, along with clergy from Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Indigenous and other traditions, held a parallel interfaith vigil outside the Stockton ICE Processing Center to uplift the sacredness of family and stand in solidarity with impacted immigrant communities.
Local church leaders emphasized the challenges faced by immigrants and Indigenous communities in Fresno and the broader Central Valley, describing these struggles as “permanently intertwined and interlinked.”
Hajj Reza Nekumanesh, executive director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno: “We have to stand up against ICE and its unjust and inhumane treatment of our immigrant sisters and brothers.”
2. Is this Clovis high school the future?
As California launches a $10 million pilot program in an effort to rethink the more-than-a-century-old factory model of schools, one alternative school in Clovis could be a model for the future, CalMatters reports this week.
Alternative schools, like CART High in Clovis, aim to help students graduate, pair them with internships, and teach them practical life skills. The small classroom sizes and flexible schedules help students and teachers make more personal connections.
The idea, CalMatters reports, is to move past the traditional high school and replace it with a new type of school that offers work experience, tailored academics and deeper personal connections, among other goals.
Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the State Board of Education: “It should be a joy to go to school every day. That’s what we’re looking for.”
3. Cricket (finally) comes to Fresno
The Fresno Cricket Club is a professional group that has been around since 2007 but has never had a dedicated space to practice or even play while its dozens of members travel around the state for tournaments, KVPR reports.
But all that’s changing now.
Earlier this year, the city installed cricket pitches at Jaswant Singh Khalra Neighborhood Park in West Fresno and the Fresno Regional Sports Complex downtown.
President of the Fresno Cricket Club Baldev Birk: “I think the explosion of cricket that’s about to happen here in the Central Valley is going to be amazing, and it’s going to be something amazing to watch.”
