By Pam Whalen After a hard-fought battle in the State Assembly, SB 649, authored by Sen. Mark Leno (D–San Francisco) is now headed for the Governor’s desk. SB 649 will, if signed by Gov. Jerry [...] Continue Reading
Science & Health
Clearing the Air: The Great False Air Alert of 2013
By Tom Frantz Central Valley ozone sometimes reaches extreme health-endangering levels in late summer when school starts. These spikes in one-hour ozone levels have been part of the reason that [...] Continue Reading
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
By Dan Yaseen What Is Obamacare? The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, [...] Continue Reading
City of Fresno Destroys Downtown Homeless Encampments
By Mike Rhodes The City of Fresno followed through on their threats to destroy homeless encampments in the downtown area last month by bringing in bulldozers, garbage trucks and sanitation workers [...] Continue Reading
It’s Complicated: Unintended Consequences
By George B. Kauffman “You have to think about the unintended consequences of either the decisions you make or the ones you do not.”—Madeleine K. Albright In the social sciences, unintended [...] Continue Reading
The City of Fresno Declares War on the Poor
By Jessie Speer Imagine a young woman. Close your eyes and see her in front of you—her hopeful gaze, her restless hands. Now imagine one morning she can’t get out of bed. The doctor says it’s brain [...] Continue Reading
From the Editor – September 2013
The culture of death and destruction at City Hall is threatening this community’s most vulnerable residents with a policy that they hope will be the “final solution” to homelessness in Fresno. I was [...] Continue Reading
The Crockford Files — September 2013
By John Crockford More on Government Information Accessibility Last month (https://fresnoalliance.com/?p=8110), this column began to explore accessibility to public information through government [...] Continue Reading
Get Fresnans Enrolled
By Ellen Wu For decades, low-income childless adults and individuals who had to buy their own health insurance have been left to fend for themselves. But all that is about to change. On Jan. 1, [...] Continue Reading
Farm Workers, Troy and the Tamale Lady
By Leonard Adame All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.– George Orwell So what is hard work? Typing all day? Naah. Most offices are air conditioned. Selling in a mall? [...] Continue Reading
A Sugar Story: How Addiction to Sweets Made Me a Healer
By Duane Law My path to a healing career began more than 35 years ago in the back of a Datsun station wagon. I’d driven deep into a northern California forest armed with a vacuum cleaner hose, duct [...] Continue Reading
Clearing the Air – August 2013: Goods Movement in the San Joaquin Valley
By Tom Frantz Members of the San Joaquin Valley Air Board are often heard blaming our pollution problems on the diesel trucks traveling Valley highways nonstop between Los Angeles and the Bay Area. [...] Continue Reading