🎃Good morning! It’s Friday, Oct. 31. Happy … National Breadstick Day!
🌞Cool! Still clear skies and highs in the 70s and it’s gonna be like this all weekend. NOAA
🥫Find/Give help: As CalFresh benefits dry up, be sure to check out and SHARE Fresnoland’s free food and resource guide for local families in need. Fresnoland
🕯️ Día de los Muertos: The Big Red Church and Dulce UpFront invite the public to a special inter-faith service and candlelit procession to celebrate Día de los Muertos at 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1 at the Big Red Church, 2131 N. Van Ness Blvd., Fresno. Instagram
1. Everyone is watching — is anyone voting?
Just about a week ago, the federal government’s announcement about sending election monitors to Fresno County caught a lot of people by surprise. The confusion and worry it caused led to a new announcement yesterday: the Fresno City Attorney’s Office will also be monitoring polling sites next Tuesday during the Prop. 50 special election, Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad reports.
Councilmember Nelson Esparza said during a news conference late Thursday that city officials are taking measures in response to concern among the community.
“I want to be clear that this is not a partisan effort,” Esparza said. “This is an effort to ensure transparency and an attempt to quell, again, the concern and anxieties by Fresno residents in this great time of uncertainty.”
Fresno County Clerk/Registrar James Kus told Fresnoland that means there will be city, state and federal monitors on election day next week. None of them will have more access to the electoral process than the average member of the public who also wants to observe.
Fresno County Clerk/Registrar James Kus: “All observers, wherever they’re coming from, have the exact same access as an election observer in Fresno County. If you get into some of those federal rules, there is a situation where a federal observer could have more access, but we’re nowhere near that — that takes court orders.”
2. North side only
As expected, the Fresno City Council approved a deal with Caltrans on Thursday to clear out more encampments of unhoused people along state-owned highways on the north side of town, Pablo Orihuela reports for Fresnoland this morning.
Before approving the deal, Councilmembers Miguel Arias and Nelson Esparza questioned why the agreement only covered the north side of town. Esparza asked whether they considered the optics of the deal, which he said would fuel criticisms that the city spends most of its resources toward its most well-off residents.
“I look at that and, frankly, I think it feeds into the narrative…north Fresno is nice and clean and central and south…not so much, when really that issue does occur across the entire city portion,” Esparza said.
Scott Mozier, the city’s public works director, said that other parts of town can take advantage of the state’s services, pending further funding and council motions.
3. Sequoia Brewing Company returns to Tower — today!
A beloved Tower District brewery that abruptly shuttered earlier this year is reopening for Halloween, CBS47 reports this morning.
The Sequoia Brewing Company announced Thursday that it will be reopening Friday at 11 a.m.
Co-owner Scott Miller: “Reopening in the Tower District has truly been a community effort. We’re grateful to the City of Fresno — its leaders and staff — and to our neighbors, partners, and supporters who have been rallying behind Sequoia’s return.”
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad
