Good morning! It’s Thursday, Jan.29. This is Rob & Omar.
🤷Some fog today. Then less fog later. Then more again. (Probably) 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.
🚫A new Sacramento bill seeks to block former ICE employees from ever working as police officers or teachers in California. KMPH
1. Is this working?
Fresnoland’s Julianna Morano sat down with KVPR’s Central Valley Daily to discuss her recent reporting examining why one of Fresno’s most beloved neighborhoods has some of the city’s most aggressively vacant buildings.
You can listen to Julianna’s conversation with podcast host Elizabeth Arakelian here.
Julianna’s story focused on the Tower District — which she also notes isn’t the only neighborhood with a vacant building problem — where some places have remained empty since Richard Nixon was president, the Jackson 5 topped the charts and gas was 35 cents a gallon.
Elected city leaders who spoke with Julianna said they expect pilot projects launched last year to begin showing results in the future, but stressed that it’s still too soon to expect big changes after decades of relative inaction.
And, advocates note, finding the right combination of carrots and sticks to incentivize change can really only happen in strong commercial markets.
2. Fresno mayor says ICE should ‘pull back, regroup, retrain’
Speaking in Washington D.C. on a panel at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Fresno’s Jerry Dyer called on President Donald Trump to “hold ICE accountable” in the wake of deadly clashes between federal agents and American citizens in Minnesota.
YourCentralValley reports that Dyer, the longtime Fresno police chief-turned two-term mayor, was careful not to criticize either the White House or ICE, but suggested immigration agents “pull back, regroup, retrain, and then maybe approach it from a different stance.”
ABC30 reports that Dyer even praised the Trump Administration’s efforts to secure the southern border, while also saying there should be a clear path to citizenship.
Mayor Dyer: “We support legitimate enforcement efforts by ICE to remove serious criminals, but we want them to be held to the same standard we hold our local police departments to in terms of being professional, well-trained, and de-escalating situations if possible.”
3. Ex-Fresno cop gets $1.7 million in sexual harassment settlement
A former Fresno police sergeant’s sexual harassment lawsuit against the City of Fresno reached a $1.7 million settlement, The Fresno Bee reports.
For months leading up to Stacie Szatmari’s termination in 2022, she was subjected to pictures of genitals, along with sexual, racist and homophobic jokes in a work group chat with other officers. Shortly after she was promoted to sergeant in the Fresno Police Department’s K-9 Unit, a lieutenant told Szatmari the team existed under “Vegas rules.”
According to the lawsuit, Szatmari’s attempts to end the crude behavior were unsuccessful. The Fresno City Council settled the lawsuit during a closed session meeting last November.
A Fresno police lieutenant to Szatmari: “The boys get to do what the boys get to do, no questions asked.”
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad.
