☀️Good morning! It’s Tuesday, July 7. This is Rob.
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⚠️Alert: A case of meningococcal disease has been reported in Fresno County. Common symptoms are fever, chills, headache, vomiting, drowsiness, sensitivity to light, fast breathing and a dark purple rash. ABC30
👎Residents say ‘no’: Responding to outcry from residents, the Orange Cove City Council has said “no” to hydrogen blending. Mid-Valley Times
💵ICE prisons: Private prison operator CoreCivic will continue to manage the ICE detention facilities through their existing contracts in California. The Fresno Bee
🏫Civic minded? Join the OCA Civic Academy – Fall 2026 and learn how Fresno’s City government works and how you can be part of the process. Meetings begin Sept. 15. Community Affairs Office
🎾Cool! Tennis champion Sloane Stephens is bringing her foundation’s summer tennis program to Fresno. The Business Journal
💸Today: Having trouble applying for Fresno’s Mobile Home Replacement Program? You’re invited to a free public workshop at 5:30 p.m. today (Tuesday, July 7) at Fresno City Hall, 2600 Fresno St. More Information
🍻Tonight: Tioga Beer Garden invites the public to Cafe Scientifique for discussion and lecture over the history and context of controversies surrounding libraries. The event begins at 7 p.m. (Tuesday, July 7) at 745 Fulton St. Instagram
1. Fresno County families speak out
Last month, Supervisor Garry Bredefeld made national headlines by convincing a majority of his fellow board members to use their elected political powers to formally exclude LGBTQ+ families from recognition in their own Fresno County communities.
The resolution was a direct rebuke, according to Bredefeld, of the United States’ now decades-old Pride Month in June. The language in the resolution goes out of its way to define numerous types of families apparently acceptable to the Fresno County government.
Supervisor Luis Chavez specifically tried to include LGBTQ families in the resolution and was rejected by most other supervisors. The resolution passed 3-2 with Chavez and Supervisor Brian Pacheco opposed.
For his part, Bredefeld insists his resolution is not discriminatory.
His argument is that Pride Month discriminates against families raising children with what he defines as “traditional values.”
Resident Alicia Rodriguez: “They’re crossing the boundary that government never should have had a role in the first place and are deciding things when it comes to our agency.”
Read the full story from Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina here.
2. Council candidate quits Trump’s DOJ
Fresno City Council candidate Rob Fuentes says the Trump Administration pushed him out of his job as a federal prosecutor after criticizing ICE in a March 25 Fresnoland investigation.
Fuentes, 40, has been between a rock and a hard place facing criticism for working on habeas petition cases, facing increasing criticism from community members over his work with the federal government, Fuentes also was placed on leave from his job, he says, for his public criticism of ICE.
Fresnoland first broke the story on June 25, after confirming at least 124 ICE-related cases in which Fuentes was involved in his capacity as a now-former federal prosecutor.
In his exclusive interview with Fresnoland last month, Fuentes disputed the idea that he had been keeping such case work secret from voters, saying those cases made up only a small part of his workload, which focused primarily on civil rights and white collar fraud cases.
In the Fresnoland interview, Fuentes, then a federal prosecutor working for the Trump Justice Department, said he fully supported “abolishing” ICE, describing the federal immigration agency as “unhinged” and “unlawful.”
Read the full story from Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina here.
3. The latest Granville Homes legal issues, explained
Fresnoland’s Gregory Weaver sits down with KVPR to discuss a wrongful termination lawsuit recently filed against one of Fresno’s most politically influential developers.
Granville CEO Darius Assemi says his company is financially healthy amid bankruptcy proceedings and a new wrongful termination lawsuit brought forward by the company’s former chief financial officer.
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 off in 2024 by a court-appointed receiver to help the family pay off its millions of dollars of debt.
Check out the interview with the Central Valley Daily podcast here.
Read the full story from Fresnoland’s Gregory Weaver here.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Omar S. Rashad.
