Good morning! It’s Thursday, Dec. 4. This is Rob.
😓Still Fresno-cold: Another morning of dense and patchy fog with highs in the 50s today. NOAA
🍩Big donut: The iconic chain Randy’s Donuts is coming to Clovis. Fresno Bee
🎅Light ‘em up! Fresno’s 103rd annual Christmas Tree Lane is back. ABC30
🎄Xmas parade: Sanger is gearing up for its 77th Annual Toyland Parade, already described as the largest parade in the city’s history. KSEE
1. Up in smoke?
Fresno city leaders are celebrating a recent court ruling they say clears the way for authorities to shut down dozens of smoke shops across the city, Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela reports.
Speaking with reporters at Fresno City Hall on Wednesday, councilmembers and the city attorney confirmed plans to cap the total number of smoke shops across California’s fifth-largest city at 49 — meaning dozens of shops will be forced to close.
Most smoke shop owners are expected to learn their fate in a lottery drawing in 2027 to determine which shops stay and which will go.
Shane Smith, attorney for the California Smoke Shop Association, the group that filed the suit, said they plan to support “individual members in future cases for compensation should their businesses be lost to the City’s Ordinance.”
2. The kratom crackdown explained
Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela sits down with the crew at KVPR’s Central Valley Daily podcast to discuss recent local efforts to ban synthetic kratom — a substance that many claim has health benefits but that medical professionals say leads to over-the-counter drug abuse.
Last month, Pablo reported about city and county-level efforts to curb local access to synthetic versions of the plant-based substance that at least one city official described as “gas station heroin.”
The Mayo Clinic lists kratom as “unsafe and ineffective.”
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has confirmed plans to restrict kratom use, joining a growing chorus of government health officials critical of the plan that includes cities like Pasadena, San Diego, Newport Beach and Oceanside.
Fresno County’s crackdown proposal is expected to return to the Hall of Records for a second ordinance reading on Dec. 9.
3. Fresno health CEO arrested in multi-million VA fraud scheme
The CEO of a Fresno health care company faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on federal charges of defrauding the Veteran Affairs Department of more than $7 million in bogus services, the Business Journal reports.
Cashmir Chinedu Luke, CEO of Four Corners Health LLC, was recently arrested in San Francisco, reportedly while trying to board a flight to Nigeria, the Journal says.
Between December 2019 and July last year, Luke submitted some 10,000 false claims of care provided on behalf of the company. Prosecutors say the company billed for services to veterans who had already died, and submitted claims for services when caretakers were not present, among other allegations.
