Good morning! It’s Thursday, Oct. 15. This is Rob.
Waiting game: Two Madera County tribes are awaiting a judge to rule whether the North Fork Mono Casino and Resort will open soon along Highway 99. The Fresno Bee
‘It made my heart happy’: As the Trump Administration’s ICE agents keep thousands of families locked indoors across the Central Valley, the owner of Jack’s Gas in Tulare County’s Cutler community has started delivering food to farmworker families in the area. KMPH
Cool it? It’s hardly a secret that Central Valley schools regularly confront extreme heat in classrooms and on playgrounds, but one-third of campuses have less than 5% of student areas protected by tree canopies. EdSource
Lights out: Around 4,000 Fresno County residents face possible power shutdowns as PG&E scrambles to prevent wildfires amid strong winds and dry weather. ABC30
FernFest: A celebration that aims to bring the Tower District’s vacant buildings back to life. The event features live music, local crafts and music. The event begins at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24. Vibrant Not Vacant
1. ‘We still have a long way to go as well’
Statewide school test scores released this morning showed more gains, with Fresno Unified improving its performance in English and Math, reaching a proficiency rate of 40% and 29%, respectively.
FUSD leaders have previously touted student gains but acknowledged remaining off pace.
Fresno Unified’s latest reading and writing performance marks the first time the district has exceeded its performance from pre-COVID school years.
“Fresno Unified is outperforming peers. The district ranks 8th in ELA and 4th in math against 27 demographically comparable California districts,” the district wrote in a news release on Thursday.
FUSD academic officer Carlos Castillo: “Historically, it does mark a milestone of the highest we’ve ever been in ELA since we began the standardized testing era, so we’re excited about that piece, but at the same time, the sentiment is: ‘We still have a long way to go as well.’”
👉 Read the full Fresnoland story here.
2. Salmon restoration is on the up-and-up
Opened in May 2025 along the San Joaquin River in Friant, the Salmon Conservation and Research Facility produces spring-run Chinook salmon.
It’s part of a long, slow effort to resurrect the once-mighty salmon run that went belly up when the completion of Friant Dam in 1942.
The San Joaquin River Restoration Program sprang a 2006 legal settlement over California’s second-longest river.
Before Friant Dam, roughly 200,000 to 500,000 adult Chinook salmon returned to the San Joaquin River annually.
SJRRP program manager Don Portz: “People used to pitchfork the salmon, fill up barges with fish and bring them down the river to San Francisco and sell them in the fish market.”
👉 Read the full story from the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative here.
3. Four things to do in Fresno this weekend
Costumes, cocktails and crawling: The Zombie Crawl returns to the Tower District at 8 p.m. Saturday. Gathering for the crawl begins around 7:30 at Goldstein’s. Tickets remain on sale for $20 and include “complimentary entry to all participating venues, plus exclusive drink specials.” Zombie Crawl 2026
Wild plants: Join Central California Botanists for a seminar exploring the plants that define Fresno County, and why they matter. The event is set for 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17 at the Clovis Botanical Garden, 945 N Clovis Ave., and features guest speakers Joanna Clines, USFS Botanist with the Sierra National Forest and Staci Markos with UC Berkeley’s Jepson Herbarium. Central California Botanists
‘This Is How We Do It’ Tickets for R & B in the Park (6725 W. Kearney Blvd.) are available for purchase online via Eventbrite. Gates open at 1 p.m., and the event is scheduled to run from 2 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17. Tickets here
Bring your tots: Napoleon Dynamite Live! is coming to Warnors Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17 with a live conversation featuring the actors behind Napoleon, Pedro, and Uncle Rico, plus a screening of the classic film. Instagram
Today’s newsletter was edited by Danielle Bergstrom.
