Good morning! It’s Wednesday, March 18. This is Rob.
Hot: Heavy duty again today with highs in the low 90s and (very) sunny skies. NOAA
Cheesed off? Raw Farm in Fresno County is under investigation for its raw cheddar cheese linked to an ongoing E. coli outbreak, but the local company is disputing the finding. The Business Journal
Scientific fun: Fresno County students are gearing up for the annual science fair. ABC30
Hardy Har? Sour Milk’s next group art show — a tribute to filmmaker and artist John Waters — is set for 5 to 9 p.m. May 7 at Sour Milk, 1474 N. Van Ness Ave., in the Tower District. More info
Racial Equity Townhall: California’s Racial Equity Commission with the Governor’s Office will host a town hall in Fresno on Wednesday, April 1 about “addressing racial inequities affecting underserved and marginalized communities.” United Way
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
1. Big fight brewing at City Hall
Thursday’s Fresno City Council meeting could be another bruiser.
Out-of-town developers are ramping up their pressure campaign against City Hall to roll the historically polluted neighborhood back to industrial zoning less than a decade after area residents’ landmark victory that blocked further industrial expansion.
Fresnoland’s Gregory Weaver has been following the story closely for years, but the issue blew up in February when two city councilmembers slammed Councilmember Mike Karbassi and suggested he was colluding with attorneys for the out-of-town developers.
Councilmember Miguel Arias, who supported a controversial 2022 rezone in the neighborhood but has opposed the latest rezone effort, even called procedural moves Karbassi made on behalf of the developers “dirty.”
Now, those same developers are already pursuing a $100 million damage claim and demanding that Arias recuse himself.
Local residents are pushing back and also plan to attend Thursday’s City Council meeting to urge the council to reject the rezone application.
Pastor B.T. Lewis: “They’re not just trying to push us around. They’re trying to push City Hall around. And folks just don’t like to be pushed around.”
2. Fresno schools skip Cesar Chavez events after sexual abuse allegations emerge
Fresno Unified leaders joined the wave of public officials who backed out of Cesar Chavez tributes this week in the wake of public allegations of sexual abuse involving young women and girls.
Citing “recent allegations” against the late iconic labor movement leader, Fresno Unified canceled its planned participation in a celebration that was scheduled for later today, Fresnoland’s Diego Vargas reports.
The Cesar Chavez Foundation, an organization originally founded in 1966 by Chavez as the National Farm Workers Service Center, expressed its shock in a statement issued on Tuesday.
“The Cesar Chavez Foundation has become aware of disturbing allegations that Cesar Chavez engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with women and minors during his time as President of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).”
This morning, a New York Times investigation was the first to publicly report firsthand accounts of sexual assault at the hands of Cesar Chavez. Two of those accounts came from survivors who said Chavez groomed and assaulted them as minors.
A third account of sexual assault in the Times investigation came from labor and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, who also published an essay about what she went through this morning.
3. Fresno County supervisors dive into transportation-tax efforts
Fresno County supervisors got a better look Tuesday at one of two plans that aims to replace the county’s critical, decades-old transportation tax that expires next year, Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela reports.
Tuesday’s presentation examined the Fix Our Roads plan, a 20-year, $3.9 billion proposal that is the blueprint of Michael Leonardo, a former Caltrans and Fresno County Transportation Authority director, and a host of other former local and state-level transportation experts and public figures like Henry Perea, a former Fresno city councilmember and supervisor and current board member on the California High-Speed Rail Authority; and Alex Tavlian, a political consultant and lobbyist.
Both the Fix Our Roads plan and the Fresno County Transportation Improvement Act — the competing, rival measure also known as the “Better Roads, Safe Streets” plan — are vying to succeed Measure C ahead of its expiration in summer 2027.
First approved by voters in 1986, Measure C added a half-cent of all county sales tax to fund regional road and transportation projects. The 40-year measure was scheduled to be renewed every 20 years, with its next renewal cycle set for this year’s election.
“However,” Pablo writes, “like a car crash in slow motion, efforts to renew the half-cent tax measure devolved after county transportation leaders failed to agree on spending priorities for the newest iteration of the measure.”
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad.
