The Fresno Bee (Sunday)
Fresno airport unveils $150 million expansion project
Fresno Yosemite International Airport just celebrated a “major milestone” with the opening of its new terminal expansion — the biggest one in its nearly 80-year history. The completion of Concourse B marks the final phase in the FATForward terminal...
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Suit: Expanded Highway 99 would be choked with truck traffic
A controversial plan by Caltrans to expand Highway 99 in south Fresno could get quashed if opponents prevail in a lawsuit set to be heard in court on Friday. Caltrans announced the expansion in February 2023, which has been met with strong opposition,...
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Demolished pillar at Palm and Simpson no longer a mystery
When an alleged drunken driver took out an iconic landmark in the Fresno High neighborhood, many wondered why the 10-foot-tall stone and brick pillar was built in the first place. The pillar at Palm and Simpson avenues has stood in the historic...
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Radio Park to stay closed during work on $10.6M upgrade
Park, located next to the Fresno Art Museum, will be closed to the public until its $10.6 million renovation project is complete. An illustrative site plan for the park, known for its large radio tower visible from First Street, shows it will be...
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Controversy brews over Verizon’s plan for 80-foot cell tower
The Tower District is a community is known for rallying against projects it feels might undermine the vibe of the neighborhood. In the late 1990s, it got no less than Starbucks to rethink how and where it would open in Fresno. At one point, a...
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Fresno mall unveils major changes
Fresno’s busiest mall is making some big changes. Fashion Fair on Shaw Avenue has already started a renovation that will change its look with new seating, flooring and more. But when it comes to the mall, Fresnans always have some of the same...
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Remembering four young lives taken in Stockton party shooting
Three were children. Amari Peterson, the oldest, was 14. Maya Lupian was 8, two weeks shy of her 9th birthday. Journey Rose Reotutar Guerrero too was 8, “a curious and gentle soul,” her mother remembered. The fourth victim, Susano Archuleta, was 21, a...
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Cambria Christmas Market is back for the holidays
The six-acre top of a forested hillside near downtown Cambria is all dressed up for the season again, because as of Friday, the festive annual Christmas Market will be back in town. It’s the 14th year for the Cambria Pines Lodge’s interpretation of...
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High-Speed Rail delays cost some as agency pushes to Gilroy
The family that owns the El Bajio Market in downtown Merced says it invested more than $1 million in a new location with plans to help pay for the move using buyout money from the California High-Speed Rail Authority. But now the agency has pitched...
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Demand spikes at Fresno-area food banks as SNAP stalls
she was in grade school, 19-year-old Citali Arredondo and her family have made weekly visits to their local food bank in the small west Fresno County town of San Joaquin. The family, which does not receive CalFresh assistance, has long turned the food...
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Did water well dispute lead to fish deaths in Madera County?
In a gated community in east Chowchilla, a legal battle over water has turned ugly between a homeowners’ association and the Water Resource Council that oversees the neighborhood’s lakes. So ugly, that each side is blaming the other for causing the...
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Madera County now ‘Second Amendment Sanctuary’
Madera County supervisors voted to declare the county a “Second Amendment Sanctustrong ary,” approving a resolution as an expression of opposition to new state gun laws. The resolution, approved on a 4-0 vote Tuesday by the Republican-majority board,...
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ICE arrests in Fresno area surge amid Trump crackdown
ICE arrests in California’s Central Valley have risen by 58% in the first seven months of the Trump administration compared to the same time period last year. The Fresno Bee analyzed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data obtained via a Freedom...
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Yosemite-area resort with 104 cabins to open in early 2026
A long-anticipated mountain resort under construction just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park’s South Gate is slated to open in early 2026. The resort, called Outbound Yosemite, will offer 104 cabins and 14 lodge-style rooms on 17 acres off Highway...
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Merced courthouse museum celebrates 150 years of stories
A pillar of justice in Merced County for more than 70 years, the Merced County Courthouse Museum’s 150th anniversary ceremony will celebrate the building’s history, the community and the completion of restoration to the historic buildings...
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Madera hospital delivers first baby in years since closure
Thirty minutes. That’s how long it might have taken Rebeca Cervantes to travel from her Madera home to St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, where she expected to give birth to her first daughter. But Cervantes was 8 centimeters dilated early the...
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Fancher Creek closer to opening as stores start hiring
Stores at the long-awaited Fancher Creek shopping center in southeast Fresno are one step closer to opening as they start hiring employees. None of the major retailers or restaurants have released specific opening dates, but both Target and Sprouts...
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Central Valley Sikh truckers report spike in harassment
Central San Joaquin Valley’s Punjabi Sikh trucking community is reporting increased threats and other safety concerns since a deadly Florida crash became a central talking point in a charged national debate around immigration. Some of that attention...
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Fig fanatic brings exotic fruit flavors to customers
Brian Melton of Fresno is an admitted fig fanatic. He eats them everyday and can easily name more than 100 different varieties that he’s devoured. Melton’s fascination with figs began as a hobby about 15 years ago while working at a wholesale nursery....
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Distinctive new structure in Clovis is getting noticed
From an aerial view, the large and unique structure being built across from the Target shopping center in Clovis seems to resemble a mini stadium. At street level, it might look more like a car dealership. The site does, after all, neighbor a Honda...
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Clovis opens $600M school campus
Next week, 1,100 Clovis students in seventh through ninth grade will begin their school year at the brand-new Terry P. Bradley Educational Center, the most expensive school campus built in the Cenmiles tral Valley with a price tag of more than $600...
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Shakira delivers for Fresno’s first stadium concert
Shakira had one job in the final performance on the North American leg of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour Thursday night. Live up to the hype. The global superstar announced Fresno as late-addition to what was already a record-breaking tour;...
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Fresno was intended to be a stop, but it became a home
Journalism is more than a job, or even a career. Over time it becomes your identity. A big part of how people see you, and how you see yourself. I remember in 2019 walking into the Clovis Big-Dry Creek Museum looking for historical information about a...
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Why are Tower District buildings still empty?
The Tower District is home to some transcendent vacancies — buildings that have been empty so long they’re no longer just eyesores, they’re part of the very landscape. It’s as though they’ve always been, and will forever be, vacant. It’s these types...
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Moving and living in Fresno: Stories from transplants
Fresno is a place of archetypes. There are the natives; those born and bred with Valley roots. These are families, known and not, with ties that go back generations. See: the Pardinis and their restaurant empire. There are the boomerangs; those who...
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Thriving literary communities help Fresno shine
Former Poet Laureate Philip Levine taught at Fresno State University for over 30 years, and one of his poems, “What Work Is,” inspired an event at a local literary festival last year. Four nonfiction writers shared reflections on that poem at ViSTA...
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Shakira’s concert at Valley Children’s Stadium is a first
It all happened relatively quickly. It took about two weeks, give or take, for Fresno State to secure and announce an Aug. 7 concert date with Shakira. The global pop-star is slated to perform at Valley Children’s Stadium. The concert was a late...
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Why does Riverstone’s Madera development sit empty?
Apartments above shops, a hotel and a main plaza with space for entertainment. All of that and more are in the conceptual plans for Riverwalk, the 1 million-squarefoot mixed-use space being developed as part of the master-planned Riverstone community...
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‘A living wall’: DACA mural highlights immigrant resilience
Delma Gorostieta is a lawyer, not a muralist. But she’s up on a ladder, helping smooth out a large swatch of canvas as it is glued to a wall on the side of building facing Highway 180 in downtown Fresno. Painted on the canvas, in black, gray and...
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Lawmakers call handcuffing of Padilla ‘shameful’
California politicians reacted to the forcible removal of Sen. Alex Padilla at the Department of Homeland Security’s press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday. Secretary Kristi Noem held the conference to address the ongoing immigration response in...
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Losing $4B could delay high-speed rail construction
The California high-speed rail project expected to boost the Central Valley’s economy faced a major blow this week after President Donald Trump’s administration announced plans to pull back $4 billion of its federal money. What would that mean for the...
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‘Absolute jewel’ could become a destination, experts say
To those who know about it, the San Joaquin River is Fresno’s greatest natural feature. In the springtime, burrowing owls nestle into its bluffs, songbirds float around its floodplains, and hawks soar overhead. East of Highway 41, hiking trails...
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Fresno Yosemite Airport plans major expansion projects
There are big plans for the future of Fresno Yosemite International Airport. Some projects already are in the works and others still in the planning stages. It’s all part of the FATForward program — a multi-year expansion plan to update the airport...
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James Beard nominee Matt Horn brings barbecue to Fresno
One of California’s most well-known barbecue pitmasters — and a Fresno native — is officially bringing his restaurant to his hometown this summer. Matt Horn is the founder of Horn Barbecue in Oakland, Lafayette and Elk Grove, along with the Kowbird...
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Former Fresno resident launches 1st Mexican hair brand at ULTA
Pilar García Bonilla had a dream and desire to help women like her who might be self-conscious of their curly hair and don't feel comfortable being themselves because of their curls. García Bonilla said she grew up thinking that straight hair was...
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After 75 years, what’s next for Central Fish in Chinatown?
The anchor of Fresno’s Chinatown, Central Fish Co. has thrived for 75 years by building a loyal customer base and selling products sold nowhere else in the region. Owner Morgan Doizaki has run the family-owned store — which is also a fish wholesaler...
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Fresno airport unveils construction milestone
Fresno Yosemite International Airport celebrated a major construction “milestone” on Wednesday, unslated veiling an expanded security checkpoint and new artwork. According to the airport, the additions represent the “first new expansion phase”...
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Was Fresno unprepared for its no-camping prosecution?
The Fresno City Attorney’s Office last week lost its first case against a homeless man set for prosecution under a tightened no-camping ordinance that has netted hundreds of arrests since last year. In a case that spanned six months from arrest to the...
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Fresno’s first anti-camping case dismissed by judge
A trial judge threw out a case against a homeless man who was set to be the first prosecuted under the city of Fresno’s strict anti-camping law. Fresno County Judge Brian Alvarez ruled Thursday that the Fresno City Attorney’s Office violated Wickey...
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Fresno demolishes historic Chinatown building for housing
By the time excavators started ripping apart one of Fresno’s most culturally significant landmarks, the Bow On Tong Association joss house had already succumbed to the combined ravages of neglect, vandalism and fire. Any chance to preserve and restore...
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Clovis sales tax set to increase 1% on April 1
1% tax increase is on its way to shoppers in Clovis next week, helping to preserve the “Clovis way of life.” Effective April 1, the sales tax rate will rise to 8.975% and apply to all purchases made in the city, meaning a consumer should expect to pay...
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Vang leads Jonasson Rosas in Fresno City Council race
The pending District 5 Fresno City Council race in was not much clearer after an update Thursday as the gap between the top two vote-getters shrank. The latest tally since Election Night found Brandon Vang with 2,277 votes (50.14%) outpacing Elizabeth...
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Fresno’s no-camping law on trial as man, 77, fights arrest
A man who has been living on the streets of Fresno for about three years will likely be the first person prosecuted under the city’s 6-month-old anti-camping law — and that’s exactly what he wants. Wickey Two Hands, 77, was arrested just before 8:30...
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Medicaid cuts would affect Central Valley health care access
Health care access in the San Joaquin Valley could change dramatically for people with the highest need if Congress approves its current blueprint for cutting $2 trillion in federal spending that the GOP-led House approved last week. Depending on how...
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Sequoia Legacy Tree gets farewell ceremony in Visalia
The past few years had been particularly rough for Visalia’s Sequoia Legacy Tree. A pattern of heavy winters and dry summers left the nearly 90-year-old tree susceptible to a particular type of fungus. Caretakers gave treatments to halt the infection,...
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Fresno police using AI to write reports
For almost a year, the Fresno Police Department has been deploying artificial intelligence to write many of their tens of thousands of police reports. Fresno is believed to be one of the first and largest U.S. cities to deploy what’s known as...
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Fresno selects Casto as first female police chief
The city of Fresno named its new top law enforcement leader on Thursday in interim Chief Mindy Casto, making her the 24th police chief and the city’s first woman to hold the top cop job. Casto, 49, has served the interim role in Fresno since June,...
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Millerton Lake eagle tours: A glimpse into the winter habitat
Mike Smith stands at the bow of a metal tour boat as it cuts across Millerton Lake. It’s a clear Sunday morning. The blue skies show white wisps of clouds as a cold chill moves off the water and the sun shimmers off rippling waves. Smith studies the...
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Patch of land east of Fresno is gateway to the galaxy
Keith Quattrocchi’s first foray into astronomy was as a child looking at the stars over Sonoma County through a telescope that was a gift from his dad. It was just a small thing, this telescope, but he put it to good use. “I was out every night with...
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California sues Tulare over cold storage facility impact
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing a Central Valley city for failing to evaluate the health impacts of coldstorage facilities on nearby disadvantaged communities. According to the lawsuit, the city of Tulare approved its Zoning Ordinance...
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California backs out of clean truck and train rules
California withdrew plans for pioneering clean-air regulations targeting diesel trucks and trains Tuesday, citing challenges posed by the incoming Trump administration. The state rules faced an uncertain future with federal approval in jeopardy. The...
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Fresno Unified’s community schools: A sustainable solution?
Mariela’s eyes brightened when she saw the pair of pink sneakers. The 5-year-old transitional kindergarten student at Fresno Unified’s Jackson Elementary School had been coming to class wearing an outgrown pair of yellow slippers. Emma Chavez, Jackson...
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Reopening of Madera Community Hospital pushed back again
When its management plans for Madera Community Hospital were approved by a federal judge in February, American Advanced Management Inc. said it could reopen the shuttered facility a few months later in the summer. The hospital has secured a $57...
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Parlier’s political instability draws scrutiny, lawsuits
Twenty miles south of Fresno, a small agricultural city has earned a reputation across the Central Valley for instability and dysfunction. City Council meetings often devolve into tense arguments among warring factions of council members, the mayor...
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Judge orders Bitwise founders to repay $115M to investors
Inside a standing-room-only courtroom, former Bitwise investor Flavia TakahashiFlores felt a sense of justice when a judge sentenced the company’s co-founders Jake Soberal and Irma Olguin Jr. to prison for bilking millions from investors like her. A...
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Data gives portrait of homeless in Fresno, the Valley
To hear Fresno’s elected officials tell it, one could be led to believe the city’s homeless population is replete with criminals, drug addicts, the mentally ill, vagrants and panhandlers, or simply dropouts from mainstream society. But in a city with...
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Groups educating immigrant families of constitutional rights
Immigrant rights organizations in the Valley are in a mad dash to alert immigrant families of their constitutional rights as President-elect Donald Trump promises to carry out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history. Trump pledged during...
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Tulare teenager is youngest to pass state bar exam
Sophia Park doesn’t think much about her age, even as reminders stack up all around her. Earlier this month, the Office of the District Attorney in Tulare County announced that the teenage law clerk had become the youngest person to pass California’s...
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Newsom defends stricter fuel standards in Fresno visit
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday defended a recent controversial decision by the California Air Resources Board to tighten a carbon-reduction rule, telling reporters in Fresno that blame for gasoline price increases rests with oil companies. The Low...
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‘People just voted their pocketbook’ in Fresno County
Fresno County swung Republican in a presidential election for the first time in two decades, backing President-elect Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House, and experts say much of it came down to working class voters. The county saw one of...
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Election update: Fresno City District 6, Measures A and Q
Thursday afternoon’s update of vote results in Fresno County from the Nov. 5 general election offered more clarity on local races that had razor-thin margins following an Election Night that saw tens of thousands of ballots yet to be counted. As of 5...
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Central Valley growers fear mass deportations if Trump wins
Farm laborers and growers in the Central Valley and California fear former President Donald J. Trump’s aggressive plans for mass deportations and immigration crackdown would upend lives and destabilize the region’s ag economy. The uncertainty rippling...
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Fresno needs more green space, yet parks take decades
How long does it take to build and open a decent-sized park in California’s fifth-largest city? Going by Fresno’s recent history, oddsmakers would set the over-under at 20 years. Enough time for toddlers to grow old enough to purchase alcohol, and...
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Valley Children’s ‘split-dollar’ investments explained
When Valley Children’s Hospital publicly posted its latest federal nonprofit tax filing in mid-August, the document contained details about more than $52 million it spent on sophisticated life insurance arrangements with key executives. The tax...
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Mystery surrounds golf shot that brought down plane in 1974
For 50 years, the most famous golf shot ever struck in Fresno has been accompanied by an enduring mystery. Was Mike Bakula aiming for the low-flying plane when he drove from the 13th tee at Fort Washington Country Club on the afternoon of Oct. 11,...
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First floor of Hotel Fresno in downtown area reopens to public
Time has changed Hotel Fresno. Time, three demolitions and more than $43 million. The long-abandoned, eightstory mid-rise officially reopens Thursday morning with an event that welcomes downtown’s latest mixed-use project: 81 units of market-rate and...
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