By Tom Frantz The San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District is a public health agency run by a Governing Board of local politicians including names such as Judy Case of Fresno County, [...] Continue Reading
Columns
Rating the Rater: The Office of Independent Review Issues First Quarterly Report
By Richard Stone Rick Rasmussen, our Man in the O.I.R. (Office of Independent Review), has been on the job for about four months and has filed his first report. I met with him to discuss the impact [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air – March 2013: Scapegoating Our Air Quality Problem
By Tom Frantz More than obesity and poverty, polluted air is shortening the lives of Central Valley residents. The marginal cost of our early deaths and degraded quality of life is around $6 billion [...] Continue Reading
Progressive Voice! – March 2013
By Yezdyar S. Kaoosji Getting In the Way I am writing this column on Valentine’s Day 2013. The Fresno County Clerk has just confirmed that more than the requisite number of signatures has been [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air: The Valley Mind-set / Air, Water and Land
By Kevin Hall The Valley Mind-set “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”—Albert Einstein Each January, the Valley Air Board—that tea-guzzling bunch of local [...] Continue Reading
Progressive Voice!
By Yezdyar S. Kaoosji “Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making [...] Continue Reading
Fresno Police Department Documents Posted Online
By Mike Rhodes In early September 2011, the Community Alliance newspaper, through a California Public Records Act request, asked the Fresno Police Department (FPD) for its Policies and Procedures [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air – January 2013
By Kevin Hall Clean Air Acting How many Valley Air Board members does it take to violate the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law for government agencies? Eight, if the full 15-member board is [...] Continue Reading
New Marshal in Dodge City: Fresno’s Second Police Auditor Sets Up Shop
By Richard Stone So Fresno has a new person in the Office of Independent Review, with the task of reviewing all cases of an officer-involved shooting (OIS) and auditing the handling of public [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air – Dec. 2012: Off the Grid / Discount Shopping
By Kevin Hall Off the Grid If you live in Fresno’s Tower District, Southeast Fresno, West Fresno or downtown, the pollution monitor that measures wintertime particulate levels for your neighborhood is [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air – November 2012
By Tom Frantz Fact checking of candidate statements is a useful exercise during an election season. It is a rational response to politicians striving for public approval. Our air board is made up of [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air – Oct. 2012: Particulate Matters a Lot
By Kevin Hall In a presentation before a class of 15 Fresno State seniors last month, I conducted a poll of these intelligent, highly educated, computer-literate, smartphone-owning future entrants [...] Continue Reading