It’s Tuesday, Sept. 16. Danielle, here.
☀️ Summer is being stubborn: high of 98 today.
🗳Happy National Voter Registration Day! Check your status (or register to vote online) here.
🎵Local musician preserves Latino jazz legacy: Madera musician and teacher launched a publishing company to preserve legacy of Latin jazz musicians. KVPR
🎧 Listen up: On this week’s Fresnolandia podcast, Omar S. Rashad and I unpacked the Fresno reaction to the assassination of Charlie Kirk last week. Spotify
1. Fresno County unanimously approves $5.3 billion budget
Going into a year of expected federal funding uncertainty, county supervisors unanimously approved a $5.3 billion budget for the next fiscal year on Monday, reports Pablo Orihuela for Fresnoland.
(Supervisor Brian Pacheco was absent due to a family commitment.)
This year’s budget process included additional presentations from eight department directors, added to provide more transparency to the proceedings, after supervisors received pushback last year following approval of the budget in 92 minutes.
Despite the changes, no members of the public attended to provide comment on the budget.
Supervisor Garry Bredefeld: “I think more people are used to coming to the City of Fresno’s council meetings than they are to the county budget, and that’s understandable because I think for people within the city, a lot of the needs are met and approved with the city budget, as opposed to the county budget. I look forward to having more people coming to the county in the future.”
2. Judge allows Fresno’s enforcement of smoke shop ordinance to continue
A federal judge ruled in favor of the City of Fresno last week, rejecting a preliminary injunction to halt enforcement of the city’s ordinance that cracks down on smoke shops throughout the city, reports The Business Journal.
The new policy, passed in April, creates a new lottery system to reduce the number of smoke shops across the city to just seven per council district, or 49 total. Earlier this year, there were as many as 144 shops, according to the city attorney’s office.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court by the California Smoke Shops Association. Judge Kirk Sheriff, who issued the ruling against the injunction, also denied a motion for a temporary restraining order against the ordinance earlier this summer.
City Attorney Andrew Janz: “This outcome is win for public safety and the City of Fresno…As indicated by the Court, the vast majority of smoke shops inspected had violations including illegal tobacco, firearms, and cannabis.”
3. Garnet Fire containment grows, but smoke lingers around valley floor
The Garnet Fire in the Sierra National Forest has reached 71% containment and has burned nearly 60,000 acres, according to a briefing yesterday, reports Your Central Valley.
The Fresno County Sheriffs’ Office has begun to lift some evacuation orders.
Some smoke from the Garnet Fire is expected to linger in the Fresno-Clovis area this morning and through the afternoon, before winds push the wildfire smoke to the east.
I’d recommend checking the air quality forecast before spending time outside today — Purple Air says the air quality isn’t great now, especially in Clovis.
This newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Rob Parsons.
