Good morning! It’s Thursday, March 19. This is Rob.
Do you remember yesterday? The weather will be like that again today. NOAA
Fresnoland is hiring: That’s right, we’re hiring for our first-ever Senior Revenue Officer to help lead and execute our fundraising strategy with local donors and sponsors. Share with your fundraising friends! Fresnoland
Uncertainty: Wait, so can the Fresno City Attorney prosecute wage theft? The Fresno Bee
Encroachment?: More than 100 new houses could be on their way to being built on the edge of Yosemite. YourCentralValley
Women of the Year: Fresno honored nine local women at its annual ceremony. KMPH
1. Fresno moves to strip Cesar Chavez tributes
Fresno statues, streets, school names and holidays all carry the name of Cesar Chavez, whose legacy as civil rights and labor leader faces a total historical reevaluation in the wake of heinous revelations that Chavez sexually abused multiple women, including underage girls, and one of the key co-leaders of his movement, Dolores Huerta.
Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina spoke with local labor advocates, immigrant groups and other local leaders who reacted to the Chavez news with a mix of anger, sadness and determination to change how the legacy of the United Farm Workers union is discussed and debated in the future.
That painful reevaluation is already underway in Fresno. Today, the Fresno City Council expects to vote to rename Cesar Chavez Boulevard; Fresno State says its statue of Chavez is coming down and will remain covered until it’s gone; and the county Board of Supervisors has called for a special meeting next week to change the name of the Cesar Chavez holiday celebrated locally.
Fresno State professor Alina R. Mendez told Fresnoland’s that Chavez’s legacy has always been more complicated.
Many are now weighing the crushing allegations against Chavez’s efforts fighting for farmworker rights against the damage done by his “Illegals Campaign,” an anti-immigrant crackdown led by Chavez and the UFW, who said undocumented immigrants were undermining the farmworkers with legal status.
Mendez: “When we focus on just one man or a few leaders, we lose focus on the larger collective that made these movements possible.”
2. Amid Chavez fallout, Fresno-area farmworkers are still fighting for protections
As rape and sexual abuse allegations emerge about labor rights icon Cesar Chavez, the organization he helped found continued fighting on Wednesday for farm workers facing potentially massive pay cuts in the future.
Fresnoland’s Julianna Morano was on hand at the federal courthouse Wednesday in downtown Fresno as dozens rallied outside on Tulare Street, seven stories below the critical court hearing that could have national implications.
In October 2025, the Department of Labor unveiled a temporary rule announcing a new methodology for calculating the minimum wage for guest agricultural workers hired through the H-2A visa program that could cost farmworkers up to $5.4 billion in wages across the nation.
A federal court judge is expected to issue a ruling in the case in the coming months.
Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Julianna spoke with UFW organizers, asking how they’re balancing the crushing revelations and their group’s cofounder and the real, hard and immediate work of fighting for workers rights in 2026.
UFW spokesperson Antonio De Loera-Brust: “We need to be able to learn from our past and support victims, while also recognizing that the work needs to continue and that farmworkers today are worth fighting for, now more than ever.”
3. Fresno judge to rule on City Hall’s controversial budget committee
A Fresno Superior Court expects to issue a written ruling in the coming months in connection with two-year-old lawsuit accusing the city of violating state transparency laws, Omar S. Rashad reports for Fresnoland.
The alleged violations, first revealed in a 2023 Fresnoland investigation, occurred over a five-year span that saw much of the work conducted on city budgets happened behind closed doors and in private meetings.
Judge Robert Whalen grilled both sides during arguments on Wednesday, questioning whether the court had an actual role to play, while also challenging the city’s claims that no law had been broken.
Whalen: “It sounds as though the City of Fresno is saying, ‘Well, we probably ought to get this litigation handled first, and then once the litigation is completed, then we’ll have a better understanding as to whether we can do what it was we were doing before.’”
Today’s newsletter was edited by Danielle Bergstrom.
