Good morning! It’s Tuesday, March 3. This is Rob.
Fake spring continues: The National Weather Service says Fresno will ‘become’ sunny today. Highs in the 70s again! NOAA
Fresnoland is hiring: That’s right, we’re hiring for our first-ever Senior Revenue Officer to help lead and execute our fundraising strategy with local donors and sponsors. Share with your fundraising friends! Fresnoland
Spotting trains? Fresno COG is considering a passenger rail line to connect portions of Fresno County. Take the free, anonymous online survey to give your feedback. Regional Rail Feasibility survey
Taco Tuesday: Tacos El Cabezon — currently set up in Old Fig on Shaw and Maroa — is set to open its first brick-and-mortar restaurant on Fulton Street in downtown Fresno, and it could open soon. The Business Journal
Hydrated? Is California ‘drought free’? The Fresno Bee
1. ‘Crucial’
A new exhibit at Arte Américas featuring Dr. Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana highlights four collaborative mural projects that she created alongside undocumented people, Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina reports.
Her new exhibition, “Humanizar Historias,” opened last week at Arte Américas.
Through photographs, process documentation, firsthand testimonies, and interactive elements, the exhibition traces how the murals became a response to the instability of immigrant life in the U.S.
De La Cruz Santana: “This moment is so crucial, saying through these stories and mural that we’re also supporting the rebirth of a place in Fresno which has most likely been forgotten and abandoned.”
2. Fresno Unified schools looking at big cuts
In a new interview out this morning with KVPR, Fresnoland’s Diego Vargas breaks down the latest round of proposed layoffs and job cuts at Fresno Unified schools.
More than 200 jobs are potentially on the line next year as the district scrambles to address a nearly $60 million projected deficit.
District officials said the cuts could save FUSD more than $58 million. The potential layoffs and job losses come after the district, late last year, offered retirement incentive packages expected to save the district another $50 million eventually.
It also comes just weeks after the FUSD elected trustees doubled their take-home pay.
Last week’s contentious lay-off vote also comes amid great financial uncertainty. District officials have estimated that anywhere between three and 11 Fresno Unified schools could close in the coming years as enrollment declines pick up momentum.
3. Yosemite ranger sues to get their job back
A former Yosemite National Park ranger who was fired after unfurling a transgender pride flag on El Capitan is suing the federal government to get their job back, The Fresno Bee reports.
Shannon “SJ” Joslin is a nonbinary biologist and park ranger who studies bats, alleges that the U.S. Department of the Interior violated their First Amendment rights.
According to The Bee, Joslin helped a climbing group hang a 66-foot-wide pride flag on the climbing wall face of El Capitan on May 20 before removing it voluntarily.
Although the giant flag was on display for “less than three hours,” Joslin says they were “summarily fired and then, in a significant escalation, criminally investigated.”
The suit was filed last month in federal court.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Danielle Bergstrom.
