Good morning! It’s Monday, June 29. This is Rob.
Mild: Daytime highs remain in the upper 80s and low 90s throughout the week with clear skies and calm winds heading into the holiday weekend. NOAA
Fire season: Firefighters stopped the forward progress of a wildfire that burned more than 550 acres in western Fresno County on Sunday. ABC30
You can help: Fresno’s Venezuelan community is raising money and supplies to help those affected by a devastating double earthquake in Venezuela. YourCentralValley
Family matters: In an effort to celebrate families and protest Fresno County’s anti-queer “Nuclear Family Month,” Maarte is joining forces with a local photographer from 5 to 8 p.m June 30 at Maarte taking free photos in a project dubbed “This is what family looks like.” Instagram
1. More legal troubles for prominent Fresno developer
Darius Assemi, CEO of Granville Homes and its related online publication, GV Wire, insists his company is financially healthy amid a flurry of bankruptcy proceedings and a new wrongful termination lawsuit brought forward by the company’s former chief financial officer.
In an exclusive Fresnoland story, Assemi acknowledged the family’s business struggles with its bankrupt farming operation and appeared to point the finger at his older brother, Farid.
Assemi also pushed back on claims in the recently filed lawsuit that his company is struggling financially and along with allegations that Assemi used a straw buyer to secretly repurchase the family’s Mission Ranch property, which was sold by off in 2024 by a court-appointed receiver to help the family payoff its millions of dollars of debt.
Assemi: “This is a lawsuit filed by a disgruntled former employee of Granville Homes whose work performance did not justify his continued employment.”
2. Fresno residents say no to truck yard — again
For the second time in five years, West Fresno residents are pushing back on plans for a large commercial truck yard in the neighborhood, The Fresno Bee reports.
Sangha Carrier Inc. wants to convert its empty lot on Barstow Avenue into 150 truck parking stalls, a 20,440-square-foot truck wash and service building, and a 453-unit self-storage facility.
City planners say the project will not significantly harm the environment because Sangha Carrier has agreed to certain revisions.
Despite the changes to the project over the years, residents who live there say a trucking facility should not be allowed next to a neighborhood.
Resident Randeep Singh: “We don’t want it. It’s going to make our home values go down.”
Any interested person can comment on the project’s environmental findings by July 2.
3. More oil drilling in the works in the Central Valley
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management last week opened up hundreds of thousands of acres of public land in California, including in Fresno County, clearing the way for increased oil drilling and hydraulic fracking, YourCentralValley reports.
The federal agency says the proposal “aligns” with President Donald Trump’s call for “Unleashing American Energy.”
Fracking has also been linked to an increase in earthquakes, and poor air quality and contaminated drinking water.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad.
