Good morning! It’s Thursday, June 9. This is Rob.
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💸Fresno poised to make $400,000 in improvements at Granite Park after yearslong legal fight. ABC30
🛤️The California High Speed Rail Authority says it is about to start laying its first tracks through the Central Valley. YourCentralValley
🔎Golden Charter Academy will celebrate the grand opening of its new campus with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 15. The Business Journal
🏗️Fresno City College students take home top honors in Chinatown design competition. ABC30
1. ‘Spanish interpretation is not enough’
Under the second Trump Administration, immigration cases have become even more complicated, with scarce and unreliable information coming from the federal government.
Those monumental challenges are compounded for many Indigenous migrants who are now required to obtain their own interpreters to communicate in native languages like Mixteco.
Fresno immigration attorney Armida Mendoza says language barriers can mean the difference between defending your right to stay and accidentally signing your own deportation order.
Mendoza: “Spanish interpretation is not enough. We need to at least try to find an appropriate interpretation and provide this person with the ability to fully understand their case.”
Read the full story from Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina here.
2. Better Roads tax eligible for the ballot, but …
Fresno’s long and winding road to securing a transportation tax squeaked through the Clerk’s Office this week, collecting enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot — but that doesn’t guarantee that voters will see it this year.
Fresno County Clerk James Kus confirmed in an email that the Better Roads, Safe Streets campaign crossed that significant hurdle as of Wednesday afternoon.
Now, it’s onto the July 14 Fresno County Board of Supervisors meeting, where skeptical supervisors, some of whom long criticized the plan, could order a study that would effectively run out the clock for the upcoming November election.
It’s a move that Board Chair Garry Bredefeld says he supports, calling it “due diligence.”
Bredefeld: “There are many issues and questions regarding how this extremely dishonest and radical tax measure will adversely affect our constituents throughout Fresno County for the next 30 years.”
Read the full story from Fresnoland’s Julianna Morano here.
3. How AI might help valley farmers
“California’s Central Valley produces more than a quarter of the nation’s food. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 250 different crops are grown in the Valley with an estimated worth of $17 billion a year.
Researchers at the United Nations estimate the world’s population will reach about 10 billion people by 2050. To feed the population, USDA estimates that agricultural production needs to increase by at least 47%.
To help in that effort, the ag-tech nonprofit F3 Innovate, or F3I, is launching a supercomputer at Fresno State – the first-of-its-kind in the region – to help farmers use AI to solve daily problems, and bring resources and technological support to Valley researchers and students.” — Esther Quintanilla, CVJC
Read the full story from CVJC here.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Omar S. Rashad.
