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☀️ Good morning! Today is Wednesday, July 9. Danielle, here. High of 97 expected, with triple digits returning tomorrow, according to the National Weather Service.
I’m sitting here at my son’s soccer practice writing this newsletter and well, does it really matter if it’s 99 or 102 when you’re outside? Hot is hot. Thankful for trees, although we don’t have enough of them. I hope you can find your way to a body of water soon.
Fresno Sikh leaders praise new anti-intimidation bill: The proposed legislation, led by California Sen. Anna Caballero and co-sponsored by Assemblymembers Esmeralda Soria and Jasmeet Bains, would require law enforcement agencies to be trained on acts of ‘transnational oppression’ — when a foreign entity uses force or other means to suppress action or speech.
A meeting amongst public officials and residents in Fresno in 2023 — and some strange incidents afterwards — prompted local leaders to sound the alarm. Read more from Gisselle Medina. Fresnoland
🏛️ County supervisors add red tape to outreach: Departments wanting to sponsor community events have more bureaucratic hoops to jump through now — including getting a board majority to support their requests, a move LGBTQ+ advocates say is a direct attack on their community.
The policy — which is expected to be followed by another resolution next month identifying which holidays the county will celebrate — was led by Supervisor Garry Bredefeld, who expressed frustration that the county public health department participated in last month’s Pride Parade celebrations by handing out condoms and educational materials. Fresnoland
Mobile home repair funds go unused: Despite the city approving another $1 million for residents to fix unsafe conditions, just six applications have been approved, and only nine requests have been submitted. Fresno Bee
Death prompts alarm over working conditions: A June suicide at a Hanford meatpacking plant has workers and advocates raising concerns over safety. Fresno Bee
No amnesty for farmworkers: Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins emphasized that amnesty is not on the table for immigrant farmworkers, although mass deportations will be ‘strategic’ to avoid disruptions to the food supply. She also suggested that worker demand in food systems, due to a lack of immigrant workers, could be addressed by automation and millions of Americans subject to new Medicaid work requirements, under President Trumps’ ‘big, beautiful bill’. PBS News Hour
Crackdown on foreign ownership of farms, too: Secretary Rollins also announced a plan Tuesday to make it more difficult for foreign countries to purchase farmland. (Remember how the Canadian Royal Mounties Pension Fund owns a lot of Fresno County farmland?) It’s an effort that state Sen. Melissa Hurtado has tried, but not succeeded at in California. New York Times
Fresno and Central Valley Sikh leaders cheer proposed California anti-intimidation bill
Gurdeep Shergill doesn’t know who followed him for about 10 days in a black SUV in the fall of 2023. His fear grew when he learned that his name was one of two discussed in a meeting with top city leaders in October of that year — a meeting he […]
Fresno County supervisors vote to increase oversight on discretionary spending. LGBTQ+ advocates say it’s an attack.
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors narrowly approved a controversial resolution to increase oversight on how departments spend money on community events — a move local LGTBQ+ members argue is a thinly-veiled attack against them. Tuesday’s hearing is the first of a pair of resolutions born out of discussions at […]
