2025 started out with the bird flu and ended with the partial release of the Epstein files, whose contents continue to shock the country. Let’s not forget the government shut down that only ended eight weeks ago, yet somehow seems like ancient history.
College football surprisingly didn’t lose its passion this year even with NIL and the transfer portal, social media survived an onslaught of “rage bait,” and Boomers endured the GenZ stare.
2026 ushers in big unknowns as the world wrangles with AI and the nation waits to see what effect Trump’s tariffs and immigration raids have on the economy. 2026 is also our country’s 250th anniversary since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Let’s hope our democracy survives for 250 more.
The top ten
Being a part of the top stories of the year usually is not a list you want to be on, but the number one article for 2025 was actually feel good story. The City of Visalia is building a huge park – proving the Field of Dreams movie’s motto “if you build it they will come.”
The remaining nine stories are a bit more gritty with common themes of justice denied, but also justice served as it relates to those in position of power being held accountable.
- City quietly constructing Visalia’s largest park
Valley Voice writer Dave Adalian wrote that a new park will exceed the size of Mooney Grove, the popular county-maintained, all-purpose recreation spot that currently covers 100 acres of mostly undisturbed valley oak forest. The new largest will be the East Side Regional Park which will cover 148 acres when it’s completed. Even though only a small section is completed the park is hugely popular with the parking lot often overflowing.
And it’s about as far on the other side of town from Mooney Grove as it can be. It will sit just to the north of Highway 198 on the Mineral King Avenue frontage road. Eventually, it will cover most of the property between Road 152 and about Road 148 – which currently does not extend north of Highway 198. And the park will someday extend all the way north to Houston Avenue. That’s more than a mile away. This park is going to be enormous.
- Porterville Police Department Chief, Assistant on stress leave
On October 17, it was announced, “Chief Castellow will be on medical leave for an undetermined period of time.” On November 4 it was announced that Assistant Chief Barteau, who was acting in the capacity of Chief of Police, “will be on medical leave for an undetermined amount of time.”
Not coincidently, in September, a Valley Voice article detailed sexual harassment, retaliation, and racial discrimination contained in a lawsuit against the Porterville Police Department. It was speculated that the lawsuit and article contributed to Barteau and Castellow’s decision to take stress leave.
One source familiar with the Porterville PD said that Barteau and Castellow are at-will employees and alleges there won’t be a job waiting for either of them when they are ready to come back. According to the source, both men will most likely have to medically retire.
- Family of man who died untreated in ER sues Kaweah Health
The family of Erick Burger Sr. filed suit that claims inaction on the part of emergency department (ED) personnel led to his death October 1, 2023. Burger had arrived via ambulance with severe symptoms of a heart attack after calling 911 to report a malfunctioning pacemaker. But according to a state investigation, the two nurses who should have taken immediate charge of the patient when he arrived at the Kaweah Health ED instead ignored the man as he gasped for breath in their presence. The health district has denied the families’ claims.
- Two former Porterville Police officers file discrimination, sexual harassment suits
Former Porterville Police Officers, Ana Isabel Moreno and Anthony Luckey, filed suit in federal court against their former employer, alleging sexual harassment, retaliation, racial discrimination, and violations of their constitutional rights. The cases name both the City of Porterville and Police Lieutenant Bruce Sokoloff as the primary defendants.
The suit states, “The Porterville Police Department (“PPD”) and the City of Porterville have a significant problem that they bitterly refuse to acknowledge and correct. The highest rungs of PPD leadership are composed of a ‘boys’ club’ of male officers, including current Chief Jake Castellow, who have for years violated the rights of the female police officers, violated the rights of male officers who spoke up for those female officers, and even violated the rights of female citizens. When these female officers or their male allies have spoken up, formally or informally, men like Chief Castellow and Assistant Chief Dominic Barteau and numerous others have rallied around the violators and orchestrated the firing of the complainants and the ruining of their careers.”
- Tulare Public Cemetery District manager fired today at special meeting
For years, family members of loved ones buried in Tulare Cemetery and former TPCD board members complained that Bernardo was grossly mismanaging the cemetery through excessive spending, poor maintenance of the grounds and reason for several lawsuits Yet, the majority of the cemetery’s board supported Bernardo. At one point, then-board member Charlie Ramos was heard on a recording calling some of Bernardo’s critics “a cult.”
It took the Tulare County Board of Supervisors (BOS) taking over the district, an event that has rarely happened in California, to address Bernardo’s mismanagement. Even after taking over TPCD, the BOS defended Bernardo, preferring to blame former members of the board and public for the district’s problems.
But allegedly when one more lawsuit came to light threatening the district’s insurance coverage, the BOS faced the music and fired Bernardo on October 30.
Josh McMullen, the former employee who was about to file the suit, said he could confirm Bernardo committed fraud in at least one instance and was mismanaging the district.
“The only thing I saw her do when I went into the office was eat and watch TV,” he claimed. “Then Clara would get up every once in a while to look out the window to see if a Director was coming.”
- Whistleblowing VPD officer claims department uses illegal ticketing quotas
Five high-ranking officers of the Visalia Police Department (VPD), including Police Chief Jason Salazar, were accused of maintaining an illegal traffic citation quota system and retaliating against officers who objected to the unlawful action. The allegations come from VPD officer Donald Huard, who claims he and another officer were punished repeatedly for refusing to participate in the scheme. Huard claims he was punished for reporting other incidents of wrongdoing by fellow officers, as well.
The lawsuit said the quota system that required traffic officers to make at least five stops during which they were to issue at least 10 citations – a practice known as “double-tapping” – has been in place at the VPD since at least January 2024. Such quota systems are prohibited by the California Vehicle Code.
- Former TCSO sergeant accused of filming female Porterville Police officer in jail bathroom
A former Tulare County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) sergeant assigned to the South County Detention Center in Porterville allegedly tried and failed to record a female officer of the Porterville Police Department as she used the facility’s bathroom in the spring of this year, according to court records.
A statement of probable cause filed April 4, 2025 with the District Attorney’s Office alleges former Tulare County deputy Michael Martins admitted attempting to film a female officer of the Porterville Police in a state of partial undress when she visited a staff bathroom at the Porterville South Valley Detention Facility where Martins worked
According to officials with the sheriff’s office, Martins resigned from his position within hours of being accused and is no longer employed by the county.
- Visalia Police captain arrested for alleged embezzlement has history of collections cases
Visalia Police Captain Luma Fahoum was arrested and charged with embezzlement from the department – but court records show she faced financial trouble for more than two decades.
Court records show collections agencies and financial institutions filing collections suits against Fahoum since 2000, but she was placed in a position to allegedly steal almost $50,000 from the Visalia Police Department’s Explorers program between 2017 and 2023, according to charges by the Tulare County District Attorney’s office.
Even with court records showing Fahoum had six lawsuits filed against her demanding payment, she continued to rise in the ranks of the Visalia Police Department all the while, achieving the rank of Captain in 2021. A legal expert in debt collections said,“cases like these are like DUIs. When a person is finally pulled over for drunk driving they have been driving drunk for a long time. And If someone has six collections claims that actually make it to court, there are twenty more that didn’t.”
- Neighbors, city, say Tulare group home is out of control
A Tulare group home for girls and young women aged 11-21 has allegedly been a nexus for reports of fights, underage intoxication, vandalism, and sexual trafficking of minors by minors, according to the City of Tulare. City officials are now trying to shut it down, at least temporarily, after the home was the subject of 100 police calls for service in a four month period.
The home is located in the Del Lago neighborhood of Tulare, nestled between family homes. Tulare City Attorney Mario Zamora filed a Complaint for Nuisance Abatement against the home’s operators and the property’s owner on October 21, which could potentially shut down the facility until its inhabitants can be controlled.
According to records provided by the City of Tulare, the home has been the subject of 100 police calls for service between June 29 and October 17, 2025. The vast majority of police calls to the home are for missing persons – and most occur between 7PM and 12AM. State regulations allow the home to have only one staff member present between 10PM to 7AM.
Calls for “Disturbing the Peace” were another major category, with sixteen logged.
- Kaweah Health whistleblower says he was fired for revealing details of patient’s death to surviving family
A lack of transparency pushed former Kaweah Health employee Kevin Barnes to knowingly violate his confidentiality agreement, he said. Barnes, a former unit secretary at the Kaweah Health Medical Center Emergency Department said he was fired from his job after revealing to surviving family members how a 60-year-old patient died as result of willful inaction by the medical staff.
The family of Erick Burger Sr. filed suit that claims inaction on the part of emergency department personnel led to Burger’s death the October 1, 2023. The family filed suit after being contacted by Barnes.
He said he felt morally and ethically obligated to inform the community when no one else would.
“I knew I needed to say something,” Barnes said. “Someone died.”