By Ronald J. Martin About 40 Fresnans gathered, many wearing black, to memorialize the 47 people who died in a fiery explosion of a runaway train of tank cars that an oil company sent down the track [...] Continue Reading
Environment
Oil Trains and Fresno Don’t Mix
By Gary Lasky Oil trains are rumbling through Fresno. They are dangerous, rolling time bombs. The U.S. Department of Transportation predicts 10 oil train derailments per year over the next decade. In [...] Continue Reading
Freedom School A Positive Outlet
By Reverend Dr. Floyd D. Harris, Jr. It’s the dawning of a Saturday morning. Despite the forecast of triple-digit summer heat, young men and women have gathered anxiously awaiting their chance to [...] Continue Reading
Nunes Calls for San Joaquin River Salmon to Go Extinct
By Gary Lasky In a lengthy, conspiracy-tinged June 12 letter to Investor’s Business Daily, Rep. Devin Nunes (R–Tulare) gives free rein to his interesting fantasies about the incredible clout of [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air: Jerry Brown and a Conspiracy to Pollute Groundwater
By Tom Frantz On June 3, 2015, an interesting lawsuit was filed by farmers in Kern County against Governor Jerry Brown, a few regulators and a couple of big oil companies. The lawsuit claims there [...] Continue Reading
Environmental Justice Bus Tour
By Ernesto Saavedra On May 12, the Fresno Environmental Reporting Network (FERN) hosted an Environmental Justice Bus Tour. This was for various nonprofit and government agencies to gain and share [...] Continue Reading
San Joaquin River Parkway Affected by Drought
By Hannah Brandt On a sunny spring day in March, the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust played host to this journalist and a few dozen sixth graders from Madera Unified. The schools are [...] Continue Reading
Take Action on Climate Change
By Connie Young When is the last time that you allowed yourself to use the terms climate change and hope in the same sentence in your thoughts, let alone say them aloud? Most people are more likely [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air: Air District Gets Caught
By Tom Frantz Since its 1991 formation as the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (Air District), this sham of a health agency has continuously shown allegiance to big polluters and [...] Continue Reading
State Agencies Slapped with Civil Rights Complaint over Toxic Waste Dump Expansion
By Vic Bedoian Two environmental groups filed a civil rights complaint in April against the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Toxic Substances Control. Last May, the [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air Around High-Speed Rail
By Tom Frantz The California High-Speed Rail Authority has made many wonderful sounding promises. The 2-hour and 40-minute trip for $50 between downtown Los Angeles and downtown San Francisco by 2029 [...] Continue Reading
Water Conservation Goes Hand in Hand with Water Protection
By Cesar Campos Coming over the Pacheco Pass Highway, at the San Luis Reservoir, I catch a desolate glimpse of the yellow, dried-out grass on the hillsides. I have to remind myself that it is early [...] Continue Reading