It’s Thursday, November 13. Danielle, here.
🌧 Atmospheric river incoming: the next four days are expected to bring heavier rain, with a decent amount of snow expected in the Sierras. If you’re traveling to Yosemite or other mountain destinations, bring your chains. High of 70 degrees on the valley floor, still. National Weather Service
🏡 An opportunity for first-time homebuyers in Southwest: city and housing authority leaders cut the ribbon Wednesday on Heritage Estates, 33 new single-family homes for sale at Florence and Walnut Avenues. 30 of the homes will be for sale to people making less than the county’s median income.
⚡️Did you see the northern lights?! A geomagnetic storm this week made the vibrant auroras visible to those of us in the lower latitudes. Some local photographers caught a glimpse — and the results are stunning. FOX26
Paging Gilmore Girls fans: It’s Bingo Night in Stars Hollow – or at least at Crow and Wolf in Clovis, this evening. Food trucks arrive at 4pm and the first bingo game starts at 7pm. Fresno Street Eats
1. Leaders may pull back on proposed Tower District street vendor ban
Street vendors trying to make a living off the buzzed late-night crowds on Friday and Saturday nights in the Tower Districts might survive a threat to their livelihood, reports Pablo Orihuela for Fresnoland.
Councilmembers Miguel Arias and Annalisa Perea — who represent the Tower — are considering pulling back on a proposed ban on weekend street vending, after significant community pushback.
The policy, introduced on Oct. 16, was initially meant to help curb an increase in calls to the police from fights and rowdy intoxicated crowds.
But vendors and advocates have pushed back, saying vendors following the rules are being punished for a problem they didn’t create.
They acknowledge that there’s bad actors, encouraging raucous behavior, but that the focus should be on enforcing existing rules instead of an outright ban.
Fresno vendor Jaime Ramirez: “Everybody has a right to do what they can to make ends meet, yeah? It’s not right that the vendors that are cutting corners, not paying taxes and permits, selling alcohol on the side and leaving behind trash … that they can come in and ruin it for the honest people trying to make ends meet. That’s just not fair.”
2. Fresno’s state lobbyist snagged in FBI corruption probe
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, along with two other Sacramento power players, were indicted Wednesday afternoon on public corruption charges by the FBI.
One of the co-conspirators named in the indictment is Greg Campbell, the City of Fresno’s lobbyist in Sacramento for several years. The charges are unrelated to the City of Fresno’s business at the state capitol.
Williamson, Campbell, and Sean McCluskie, former chief of staff to former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, were indicted on 23 counts of bank and wire fraud from 2022 to 2024. They were accused of funneling $225,000 from a dormant campaign account for Becerra through various business entities to a «no show job» for McCluskie’s wife, according to a press release.
Campbell takes «full responsibility» for his actions, says his attorney, reported CalMatters.
Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias told Fresnoland on Wednesday that he plans to revoke Campbell’s $180,000-per-year contract with the city, which is set to expire in June.
U.S. Attorney Eric Grant: «This is a crucial step in an ongoing political corruption investigation that began more than three years ago,» he said in a press release.
3. Clovis makes a major upgrade to bus system
Clovis residents can expect a sweeping overhaul of their bus system starting this coming Monday, Nov. 17.
City leaders announced Wednesday in a press release that the new system scraps the old two loop routes in favor of eight, color-coded routes serving the fast-growing city’s main north/south and east/west corridors, with buses arriving every 30 minutes, not at a fixed arrival time.
Passengers will have access to a «textback» system at each stop with a number to text to learn when the next bus is arriving.
For service in north Clovis, where the bus routes do not reach, residents will have access to on-demand ‘micro-transit’ at the Dry Creek Trailhead and Pasa Tiempo Park.
Bethany Berube, Clovis Deputy General Services Director: «The decision to expand and invest in new buses and routes is a direct response to our city’s growth and our ongoing efforts to make transit more accessible. With these new routes, we’ll be able to provide faster, more efficient service, reaching parts of the city that were previously harder to access.»
