Good morning! It’s Monday, May 18. This is Rob.
Fire danger: A red-flag fire danger warning remains in effect until tonight with clear skies and wind gusts up to 35 mph in parts of the valley and highs in the 80s today in Fresno. NOAA
Local ICE update: The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office will present its annual Truth Act forum at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday (May 19) at the Hall of Records. Fresno County
RIP: A co-founder of Arte Américas passed away over the weekend. He was 83. The Fresno Bee
Corny: Fresno State corn is back! ABC30
Farmworkers face legal setback in lawsuit against Trump admin
A federal judge rejected a request by attorneys to pause the Trump administration’s changes to guest farmworker wages — adjustments some researchers estimate could result in between $4.4 and $5.4 billion in wage cuts between both guest and U.S. agricultural workers.
The written ruling was handed down May 13 by U.S. District Court Judge Kirk E. Sheriff in the case first filed in the Eastern District Court of California in November 2025 by 28 individual farmworkers, alongside the United Farm Workers union and nonprofit UFW Foundation.
Sheriff wrote that the farmworkers “failed to show they are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of the injunction” they’d requested in December against the Department of Labor’s new wage rules established in October, stating the attorneys didn’t provide sufficient evidence that their clients have already received lower wages than before.
In a statement shared the following day, the UFW and UFW Foundation criticized the ruling, saying it was based on a “narrow, technical issue.”
“This lawsuit will continue,” the statement continued, “and we believe the wage cut will be declared unlawful.”
You can read more about the federal case and what it could mean for farmworkers nationwide in Fresnoland’s reporting from March.
— Julianna Morano, Fresnoland reporter
Bad news, but not that bad?
Fresno recently ranked No. 10 in the nation for small business bankruptcies, but, the Business Journal reports, that might not be cause for concern.
“According to Sam’s List, an online directory for finding vetted financial professionals, the study ranks Fresno 10th nationally with 3.05 filings per 1,000 businesses,” the Journal reports. “Of the Fresno metro area’s 17,060 small businesses, 52 filed for bankruptcy during the study period.”
The study used data from the U.S. Courts bankruptcy filings and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Statistics of U.S. Businesses.
AI and The Fresno Bee
The rollout of a new artificial intelligence tool within newsrooms at McClatchy Media has alarmed journalists, including at Fresno’s oldest newspaper.
On today’s episode of the Central Valley Podcast, KVPR speaks with media reporter Katie Robertson from The New York Times, who breaks down what the tool does, and KVPR also hears from the union at The Fresno Bee, regarding the recent changes at the company.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad.
