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Good morning! It’s Tuesday, June 16. This is Rob.
Hot enough? A heat advisory is tentatively set to expire tonight after another day of 100-plus-degree heat. Fresno continues flirting with triple-digit weather throughout the week. NOAA
Denied: A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a former Yosemite National Park ranger who was fired after flying a giant transgender pride flag in the park. The AP via KVPR
Arrest: The heir to the Lion Raisins company was arrested in Los Angeles for allegedly making criminal threats against a rabbi neighbor. YourCentralValley
Thoughts? Yosemite National Park is planning to improve safety along legendary trails, and you can submit your own feedback. ABC30
Rebranding: Fresno Unified announces mascot changes at three schools, compliance with a state law that restricts Native American imagery. KMPH
Nice: Valley Children’s Healthcare plans a 73,000-square-foot Ambulatory Pavilion designed to centralize specialty care and simplify visits. The Business Journal
1. Experts say new rule change will hurt Fresno families
A proposed HUD rule change would bar mixed-status families from federally assisted housing, potentially affecting hundreds of families in Fresno County, Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina reports.
In Fresno County, the proposal would impact 353 mixed-status households, which is approximately 839 adults and 653 children, according to the Fresno Housing Authority.
HUD defines mixed-status families as households that include both citizens or people with eligible immigration status and people without eligible status. Current policy already bars undocumented immigrants from receiving HUD assistance, but eligible family members, such as children who have U.S. citizenship, can still receive prorated aid that reflects only the qualifying members of the household.
Joseph Haydock: “It appears that cruelty is the point. It certainly is going to harm families, it’s going to harm the ability of local organizations to provide help to these families, and it’s going to have a disproportionate impact on children and seniors.”
2. Money talks behind closed doors
Fresno city budget hearings resume today with the City Council taking on a number of key funding issues, including finding the money to operate established, successful programs like Advance Peace Fresno and new ideas that most agree are desperately needed, like lost-cost childcare programs.
In addition to the public hearings today, Fresno leaders also plan to conduct much of the budget reconciliation process behind closed doors this week, away from the public.
Leaders continue to argue that Fresno’s budget process is essentially transparent enough, despite remaining among the least transparent processes in California.
“I think we’re about as transparent as we should be without having the community come in and actually do the budget,” Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer told Fresnoland recently.
Fresno’s budget process has been under scrutiny for almost three years since a Fresnoland investigation in 2023 first exposed the city’s illegal budget process and Brown Act violations.
In 2023, the Fresno city attorney claimed the city’s process at the time was legal. About three years later a Fresno judge contradicted that false claim, saying Fresno had violated the Brown Act.
Publicly, City Attorney Andrew Janz has tried to call the city’s loss a legal victory instead, while quietly seeking a new trial over claims that the court abused its discretion and got the ruling wrong.
If you’re confused why the city would continue to run up legal expenses to fight for a do-over to challenge the verdict in a case they already claim to have won, you’re not alone.
Janz refuses to answer the question.
3. ‘We need our community support’
Fresno’s stray dog and cat problem is no secret.
For years, city and county leaders have worked to get control of the stray population but numbers remain depressingly high more than six years after the COVID-19 pandemic set spay and neuter programs back.
YourCentralValley recently took a look at statistics from the Fresno Animal Center, the front lines of abandoned, orphaned and runaway pets.
The numbers are sad.
Each year, the shelter is forced to euthanize hundreds, sometimes more than 2,000 stray animals — usually just under or around roughly 25% of the number of animals they take in.
Alma Torres, director for the Fresno Animal Center: “In order to be able to place these animals, we need our community support, and we need both our community support from the number of animals coming in to the number of animals going out.”
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad.
