Good morning! It’s Friday, Aug. 14. This is Rob.
Eclectic flavors: Heirloom announced plans to open a new location in Clovis. YourCentralValley
Workshop: Prospective homeowners are invited to attend a free informational community meeting from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15 Westside Church of God, 154 W. Church Ave. as part of an educational meeting in connection with the development of 136 new single-family homes in southwest Fresno. More information
Floating lanterns: Join Shinzen Friendship Garden for one of Fresno’s most meaningful and beautiful annual traditions—the 41st Annual Toro Nagashi Ceremony. Toro Nagashi, or “floating lanterns,” is a centuries-old Japanese tradition that honors the memories of loved ones who have passed. The event is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15. Ticket information here
1. Where are the tiny homes?
A botched effort to bring two dozen tiny homes in Fresno is at the center of a clash between the Poverello House and Fresno City Hall, as the council voted Thursday to initiate litigation against the homeless services provider.
The same tiny homes project is also the source of a state investigation into a contractor’s license and, two Poverello House employees say they have also been interviewed the FBI.
In 2023, the City of Fresno entered into a contract with the Poverello House, with the understanding that the nonprofit would partner with a developer to build about two dozen tiny homes in the city.
The nonprofit has not delivered on this promise, leading the city to vote to sue to claw back the funding.
Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office filed a complaint in February of this year to strip the contractor of his contractor’s license.
Read the full Fresnoland story here.
2. Are Flock cameras coming to private Fresno homes?
The use of controversial Flock camera surveillance could expand in the city of Fresno with a new voluntary community program, The Fresno Bee reports.
The new community program offers homeowners and groups like Neighborhood Watch the chance to put up their own cameras and volunteer to allow access to what it sees to police.
Fresno police say it’s unclear when the community program will be ready to roll out but is already in the works.
Chief Mindy Casto: “It’s a community connect program. So people, perhaps the neighborhood, wants to put their own camera up, or a resident does, they can choose to share that with us. It’s completely voluntary, if they would like to, and that would be a way for us to help.”
3. Fresno test scores climbing slowly
With classes back in session in a few days, Fresno Unified opened the first board meeting of the 2026-27 school year outlining their plans for the next five years and the district’s progress since 2022 in state test scores.
Two years ago the district adopted new objectives for student performance and guidelines that FUSD will follow through 2030.
Superintendent Misty Her gave a presentation on Wednesday detailing how the district will invest toward those goals and showed the district’s steady growth in state testing for ELA and math since 2022, including preliminary data showing improvements to both categories in last year’s assessments, also known as SBAC.
Her: “We are now at 40% [ELA] and we are 29% in Math, we know we’ve got a lot of work to do in math, but we believe that if we can get kids to read, the math is going to start to go up.”
Read the full Fresnoland story here.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Danielle Bergstrom.
