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Good morning! It’s Monday, June 15. This is Rob.
The usual: A dayslong heat advisory remains in effect over Fresno today as another day of near-triple-digit heat swarms the valley. NOAA
Cheers! Modernist unveils new storytelling-themed cocktails. Fresnoland
Listen up: Foster Farms faces lawsuit. KVPR
Heads up: As high school seniors across the Central Valley make college and career decisions ahead of graduation, CalKIDS is encouraging students and families to check whether scholarship funds have already been set aside in their names. CalKids
1. Fresno leaders don’t want more transparency
City Attorney Andrew Janz insists that Fresno City Hall “won” a recent lawsuit against the ACLU in which a Fresno judge concluded that the Fresno City Council violated California’s Brown Act.
His most recent public statement came during last week’s budget hearings in which he falsely claimed that he “beat Fresnoland” in a lawsuit. But that’s not true. Fresnoland wasn’t even involved in the case.
And the judge concluded that the “City of Fresno was in violation of the Brown Act.”
And despite insisting that he already won the Brown Act lawsuit, Janz is also seeking a new trial in the case and criticizing the Judge Robert Whalen’s ruling.
We asked Janz why City Hall wants taxpayers to keep paying lawyers to fight a case he claims to have already won.
But he refuses to talk about it.
That leaves more than a few questions unanswered, Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad reports this morning.
The backroom meetings will continue later this week after the Fresno City Council approves budget motions. Mayor Jerry Dyer told Fresnoland he plans to meet privately with multiple councilmembers to iron out the budget.
2. Wildfire forces evacuations near Tollhouse
CalFire firefighters are battling two blazes near Tollhouse that have forced mandatory evacuations, ABC30 reports.
The Stoney Fire sparked Sunday afternoon and has burned 74 acres so far, with about 10% containment.
Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for Tollhouse residents living off Fallen Oak Road and Post Oak Road.
The Stoney Fire has the potential to reach 100 acres, and at least one structure is threatened at this time.
The second wildfire, the River Fire, also ignited Sunday afternoon, just 15 miles away from the Stoney Fire.
3. The Central Valley and the AI boom
In a piece published Sunday by the Guardian, Fresno’s Mark Arax takes on the AI boom as the latest chapter in California’s history of extraction.
From the Gold Rush to the AI boom, Arax sheds light on the places and communities most abused by outside extraction.
“In Silicon Valley, lords of tech harness untold amounts of water and electricity to power more data-processing centers. The project of artificial intelligence feeds on human consciousness itself. Algorithms lay waste to our brains. Robots instruct our children how to expertly tie nooses to better hang themselves. Bombs guided by the pinpoint of AI erase Gaza and slaughter tens of thousands of innocents.
“Each thing sprouts from the same fertile ground: the soil that is California. From my perch in the middle of the state, I swear I can feel an agitation disrupting the land and its people. Like a drone, it carries the sound of a hum.
“California’s eternal grab for more has never seemed so desperate.”
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad.
