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Good morning! It’s Wednesday, June 10. This is Rob.
Hot: Warmer today with highs in the upper 90s, but the real heat check lands in town Thursday, with consecutive days of triple-digit highs triggering a heat advisory from the National Weather Service. NOAA
Changing times? You’re invited to a panel conversation at 7 p.m. June 11 during Arte América’s “Arte, Pero Later,” moderated by Fresnoland founder and editor-in-chief Danielle Bergstrom and featuring affordable housing developer Betsy McGovern-Garcia, Fresno County Public Health Director Joe Prado, and “Shaan Punjab Di” radio host and Fresno Planning Commissioner Gurdeep Shergill. Fresnoland
Heads up, commuters: Major Highway 41 work underway. The Fresno Bee
1. Bridging the political divide?
Politics in 2026 is synonymous with entrenchment, division and polarization.
But, as Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina found out, there’s a group of churches, nonprofits and political influencers — on both sides of the aisle — working to build an old fashioned coalition of local movers and shakers that say they plan to be more focused on policy than politics.
At a June 1 delegate assembly at St. Paul Catholic Newman Center, USJ members approved the organization’s $468,000 budget and selected the issues that will guide their work over the next year.
The coalition’s three priorities that most USJ leaders will be focusing on are immigration, housing and land use, and education.
Martha Rodriguez-Torres: “In light of the fact that our communities have become so divided, we have to work together. We cannot afford to just stay in our very segregated communities and say, ‘I don’t want to deal with them.’ We have to all work together to improve our community.”
2. Vang extends lead in city council race
Another round of counted ballots released Tuesday saw incumbent Fresno City Councilmember Brandon Vang extend his lead in the race, with the next report from the clerk’s office expected Thursday.
In the county superintendent of schools race, Eimear O’Brien extended her second-place lead over Johnny Alvarado. O’Brien told Fresnoland that she remains confident that she will advance to the November runoff and face incumbent Superintendent Michele Cantwell-Copher.
Tuesday’s update further solidified the remaining city council races, with runoff elections all but set in at least three races.
In the council District 1 race, Naindeep Singh took his first lead over Rob Fuentes.
Joaquin Arambula and Keshia Thomas remain leading the council District 3 race.
Nav Gurm and Arianna Martinez Lott are virtually tied in the District 7 council race, with Gurm’s lead over Martinez Lott shrinking to just 18 votes as of Tuesday.
3. What does it mean?
Fresno’s most recent homeless numbers shouldn’t be considered a win or a loss and the numbers shouldn’t be compared to previous years.
That’s the basic assessment from Fresno city and county leaders on the most recent point-in-time survey results of the Fresno-Madera region’s unhoused population.
Why?
Authorities this year changed the method used to estimate the total number of unhoused residents in the region. Instead of the old physical head-count estimates, authorities used a survey process they say is more accurate.
Here’s a breakdown of the latest numbers.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad.
