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Good morning! It’s Tuesday, June 23. This is Rob.
Hot: Sunny skies with highs around 98 today. NOAA
‘It’s full of stars’ The Kings River Land Trust invites the public to join them for an evening of star-gazing at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 16 at Kinney Ranch, 769 N. Piedra Road, Sanger. Kings River Land Trust
Guilty: Jafaar September Nyangoro, 53, of Franklin, Tennessee, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit wire fraud related to a scheme to defraud Fresno County, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.
Wild reading: The Fresno County Public Library is inviting residents of all ages to Go Wild for Reading this summer through its annual Summer at Your Library program, presented in partnership with the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Instagram
1. Final budget vote on the table
Fresno City Hall’s budget process could conclude later today if the City Council adopts Mayor Jerry Dyer’s budget, which has grown to more than $2.5 billion.
The plan includes funding for key, high-profile programs like Advance Peace Fresno and the Eviction Protection Program while also closing what Mayor Jerry Dyer has referred to as a roughly $35 million budget deficit without layoffs or tax hikes.
Budget hearings resume at 9 a.m. today at Fresno City Hall. You can watch the public portions of the process here.
2. ‘Bad for the brain’
The number of senior citizens who live alone in the San Joaquin Valley has grown by more than 30% since 2012, the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative reports via KVPR.
That amounts to almost one out of every four Valley residents over the age of 65 living with no spouse, family or significant other.
Among the Valley’s solo-aging population, women outnumber men by more than 35,000. In several counties, including Fresno, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, the margin of women to men who live alone is about two to one.
Nugent Divine: “Aging alone is dangerous. It’s bad for the brain,”
3. New Clovis Unified schools?
Clovis Unified plans to issue a bond in 2028 that would pay for the construction of new school facilities to accommodate the growing student population, including construction of a 37th elementary school at a location yet to be selected.
The school district already started designing its 36th elementary school earlier this year. Located near Perrin Road and North Minnewawa Avenue, the project has an estimated cost of $77 million and is expected to open in the fall of 2030.
Plans are already underway for Clovis Unified to add two new elementary schools to the district in the coming years, which would bring the total number of elementary schools to 37, The Fresno Bee reports.
“The school district already started designing its 36th elementary school earlier this year. Located near Perrin Road and North Minnewawa Avenue, the project has an estimated cost of $77 million and is expected to open in the fall of 2030,” according to The Bee.
Clovis Unified opened its 35th elementary school, Hirayama Elementary, on North Fowler Avenue in Fresno, in 2024.
The Clovis Unified expansion comes as Fresno Unified struggles with declining enrollment and the prospect of closing schools in the near future.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad.
