Good morning! It’s Thursday, March 5. This is Rob.
More good weather news: Sunny again. Highs in the 60s. NOAA
Some not great weather news: Warmer temperatures are sparking allergies. ABC30
‘Just Being Koy’: Comedian Jo Koy’s tour hits Fresno’s Save Mart Center on May 2. GVWire
Photo walk: The Central Valley Camera Club invites the public to join them from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday, March 8 for the Chinatown Fresno Photo Walk. The free event is open to all ages and experience levels. All cameras, including phones, are encouraged. Central Valley Camera Club
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. ‘Feels like home’
It began three years ago as a student response to feeling unheard and has evolved into a Fresno State tradition “built on food and faith and the belief that understanding begins at the table,” Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina reports.
Organizers say Iftar is more than a simple meal; it’s an opportunity for learning, for dialogue, and to build bridges between communities that might otherwise remain divided.
Miram Kiran is a 2021 Fresno State alumna who now has two children. She said the night felt like a homecoming. Breaking fast with former professors and introducing her children to the campus was very personal.
Kiran: “It’s about congregation of community. Breaking fast, getting together, praying together, remembering God together. Fresno State feels like home, it’s so culturally diverse, and I feel like I belong here. And students encouraging other Muslim students to come to this event is beautiful and means alot.”
2. No more Friant roulette?
Help is on the way at a notorious northeast Fresno intersection where car crashes are so frequent that the street corner has its own YouTube channel, YourCentralValley reports.
From deadly tragedies to minor fender-benders, the intersection at Friant Road and Shepherd Avenue has been the site of crashes for years.
The intersection became infamous enough that a local resident’s YouTube page called “Friant Roulette,” frequently goes viral.
The city has added new traffic lights for the middle lanes along with a hood over the right-turn only light so cars can see it more clearly.
3. Urgent Care expands on Blackstone
An expanded Accelerated Urgent Care is in the works along one of Fresno’s busiest neighborhoods and could be open as soon as the end of the month, the Business Journal reports.
Efforts at that location, formerly Popolo’s Pizza at 6789 N. Blackstone Ave., come as part of an effort to expand access to same-day care, especially in high-demand areas.
Additionally, packed hospital emergency rooms, especially during peak flu seasons, strain local hospital systems causing delays for patients in need of emergency care.
Accelerated Urgent Care operates seven days a week from 8 a.m. to midnight.
Hunter Erickson, head of business development: “Emergency rooms are incredibly expensive. Most health systems lose money on their ERs, and that’s because so many people go with conditions that just shouldn’t be seen in the ER.”
Today’s newsletter was edited by Danielle Bergstrom.
