Good morning! It’s Wednesday, Jan. 28. This is Rob.
😶🌫️More early-morning dense fog advisories today and tomorrow with highs in the 60s. NOAA
💪The Fresno City College Social Justice Institute and the Central Labor Council’s Empowerment Institute are hosting a Working Class History workshop on Thursday, Jan 29 from 5:30-7:30p.m. at the college’s Old Administration Building, Room 114. Dinner is provided.
🤵The Foundation for Fresno Unified Students has expanded its suit drive initiative to ensure year-round supply of professional attire for students preparing for interviews, internships and post-secondary opportunities. Foundation for Fresno Unified
1. Measure C fight heats up
The chairman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors geared up to challenge the latest effort to renew the county’s decades-old transportation tax, Fresnoland’s Julianna Morano reports.
The latest chapter in the yearslong fight increases the likelihood of Fresno voters facing multiple transportation tax options on November’s ballot.
At the county’s Hall of Records on Tuesday Chairman Garry Bredefeld instructed county lawyers to complete a legal and fiscal analysis of placing a countywide general sales tax on the November ballot.
But the move came just hours after a local coalition took the next step toward its own plan to replace Fresno County’s current half-cent transportation sales tax.
The coalition of elected leaders and advocates from Fresno, Clovis and the county’s west side filed a notice of intention with the clerk’s office on Monday to begin gathering signatures to qualify their sales tax proposal for the November ballot.
2. Fresno’s homeless count underway
The Fresno-Madera region began its Point In Time Count on Tuesday night, a process that takes stock of the region’s local homeless population, Pablo Orihuela reports for Fresnoland.
This year’s count is the first managed by Fresno’s County Administrative Office and the first to transition away from a visual, hand-count method of previous years in favor of a survey-based approach.
“While the improved data collection may result in changes in PIT count numbers, it will not necessarily indicate sudden increases or decreases in homelessness,” the Tuesday morning press release said.
Last year’s count showed continued overall homelessness growth in the Fresno-Madera region — a trend that has continued for more than a decade.
3. Fresno supervisors make sure to stand with ICE
As the Trump Administration scrambles to respond to the latest killing of an American citizen at the hands of federal immigration agents, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday made sure voters know where they stand on the issue.
The split 3-2 vote added language to the county’s federal advocacy efforts to make clear that they “support federal laws removing criminal illegal aliens.”
Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela noted the divided board’s 3-2 vote included pushback from Supervisors Luis Chavez, who questioned whether the vote violated a state law, and Brian Pacheco, who said the board should avoid stepping into “national debate.”
Pacheco: “I don’t think it’s our lane. I want to stay away from that.”
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad.
