By Ingrid Carmean As a Peace Corps volunteer, I’ve been working in the Santa Cruz area of the town of Cerro Candela, Peru, helping the residents to obtain ready access to water. We have achieved step [...] Continue Reading
Environment
Clearing the Air: Strictest Air Pollution Rules Not in San Joaquin Valley – April 2014
By Tom Frantz The Central Valley Air Quality Coalition (CVAQ) and other air quality advocates have long stated the need for tighter rules on the Valley’s biggest stationary sources of pollution. [...] Continue Reading
Letters to the Editor – March 2014
Letter Read at Rhodes Farewell Dinner I am sorry that I could not be at this event (see above) to honor Mike Rhodes, but I did want to send a few words about him and what he has meant for journalism. [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air: Worst Air Ever Not Our Fault?
By Tom Frantz The past December and January saw the Central Valley with the worst levels of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) since monitors for this type of pollution were put in place in 2001. We [...] Continue Reading
Distortions and Lies—Air District Annual Report: Clearing the Air, Feb. 2014
By Tom Frantz The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (the Air Board) has just approved its annual report to the community for 2013. The report details the marvelous job the Air Board [...] Continue Reading
California Can’t Tunnel Its Way Out of Drought Conditions
By Restore the Delta SACRAMENTO—Restore the Delta (RTD) and opponents of Gov. Jerry Brown’s rush to build peripheral tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom salmon and other Pacific fisheries [...] Continue Reading
Shafter Fracking Tour
By Alan Cheah On Jan. 11, Fresnans Against Fracking, led by local activist Gary Lasky, participated in a caravan to Shafter for a tour of its fracking fields. Many of us know about the ills of [...] Continue Reading
Shifting Gears: Viable Cycling for the Underserved of Fresno
According to the last U.S. Census, 85% of Fresno’s population consists of minorities, women, youth, the elderly and low-income people.1 But the 1% of the population that cycles regularly comes from [...] Continue Reading
Statewide Coalition Vows to Stop Bay Delta Plan
By Vic Bedoian The release of the long-anticipated Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) was greeted with rallies in Los Angeles, Santa Clara County and Sacramento by a coalition of groups opposing its [...] Continue Reading
Implementation of the Fresno County General Plan: Death by Design
By Radley Reep A real eye-opener is a rarely viewed film entitled Death by Design. This film describes the mechanism by which our bodies replace cells at a rate of about 5,000,000 cells per [...] Continue Reading
Letters to the Editor – Jan. 2014
Addressing Calwa’s Needs As a member of the Fresno community, it has come to my attention that the neighborhood of Calwa located in the south-southeast of Fresno has been experiencing numerous issues [...] Continue Reading
A Path to Clean Air: Clearing the Air – Jan. 2014
By Tom Frantz The New Year is a time for hope. In terms of air quality, it is a good time to reflect on the path to clean air that the Central Valley could follow if the political will existed among [...] Continue Reading