Two big battles are unfolding right now in the ongoing Central Valley Water Wars. Last Thursday, a Kings County judge again ruled in favor of the Kings County Farm Bureau in its lawsuit against the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). The judge extended an injunction issued in July that halted costly and difficult-to-implement probationary […]
The Visalia Navigation Center – the city’s first low-barrier homeless shelter and resource center – is just weeks away from opening its doors. The center will finally open its doors at 10 a.m. on Friday, October 4. It’s a grand opening years in the making. A Community-Wide Effort for Adequate Housing It took the […]
A split vote of the Visalia City Council on Monday, August 12, altered the city’s municipal code to again make camping in city parks, recreation areas and other public spaces illegal. State-Forced Change to City Code Doesn’t Help Homeless The changes to sections 12.32 and 12.35 of Visalia’s municipal code allow police to resume […]
Editor’s note: On Monday, July 29, Valley Voice reporter Dave Adalian – on behalf of EarthSky.org – talked with meteorologist and climatologist Daniel Swain. Swain – called the “Carl Segan of weather” by Stanford Magazine – holds both a doctorate in Earth system science from Stanford University, as well as a degree in atmospheric science […]
Governance of the Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) switched hands abruptly on Monday evening, as it and the Kings County Water District (KCWD) officially parted ways. The changing of the guard happened during a Mid-Kings GSA special board meeting held in conjunction with the Kings County Board of Supervisors and the Hanford City Council. […]
A system used by Fresno-based Educational Employees Credit Union (EECU) to negotiate checks malfunctioned overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, July 16-17, causing multiple instances of checks being debited twice against customers’ accounts. Employees Alerted to Possibility of Errors The small banking institution – which operates branches in Tulare, Kings and Fresno counties – apparently became aware […]
Kings County Superior Court Judge Kathy Ciuffini issued a restraining order to temporarily halt state-mandated probationary groundwater monitoring and reporting requirements for all water users in the Tulare Lake Groundwater Subbasin. The order was issued Monday, July 15. Lawsuit Seeks Stop to State Intervention The order is the first handed down in a lawsuit […]
A judge’s tentative ruling issued Tuesday, July 2, makes it clear landowners in the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) are not legally obligated to pay the Friant Water Authority (FWA) a minimum of $200 million in fines for damage to the Friant-Kern Canal. Friant Says Eastern Tule Lax on Overpumping Penalties FWA contends […]
The first really big wildfires of 2024 broke out in California last month. At the start of June, two firefighters were injured, a home went up in flames and parts of Tracy were evacuated as more than 14,000 acres burned in the Corral Fire in San Joaquin County. That was June 1. Two weeks later, […]
Visalia City Hall wants its share of the cannabis tax revenue. But the city council isn’t ready, at least yet, to consider allowing storefront cannabis sales or, growing sites in the city limits. Cannabis Tax Could Go to the Voters in November On Monday, June 3, every member of the Visalia City Council voted […]