The Trump administration isn’t done with its fight with Fresno and others over federal funding. On Friday morning, the U.S. Department of Justice appealed a preliminary injunction blocking federal agencies from stripping federal funding for local governments, including the City of Fresno. The funding was threatened after federal agencies determined local jurisdictions weren’t following President Donald Trump’s executive orders attacking diversity programs…

Fresno’s city and county leaders joined a collection of unhoused service partners at a Friday news conference to tout what they described as significant progress toward a new local partnership aimed at solving the region’s homelessness crisis. The news is a major narrative shift on homelessness. Historically, the two parties have butted heads on who is responsible for what when it comes to providing resources for the unhoused — with county officials claiming the issue is a city problem.

Has the Measure C stalemate been broken? Fresno County’s transportation policy board narrowly approved a plan Thursday evening to get a new version of Measure C, the current sales tax for roads and transit, on the November 2026 ballot – drawing fiery opposition from a small faction led by Supervisor Buddy Mendes. The plan – called the “high-priorities” alternative, would dedicate about 65% of the sales tax revenues to fix and improve local roads, with 25% towards public transit, reflecting the…

A seemingly straightforward approval from city leaders on Thursday marks the end to years of arduous discussion and planning among Tower District stakeholders over the future of their community. The Fresno City Council approved the newly drafted Tower District Specific Plan, setting new rules for design and land use decisions in the city’s historic neighborhood. The current Tower District Specific Plan…

California’s fifth-largest city is coming apart at the seams over 9,000 acres of land. Fresno’s planning politics are about to go nuclear. The Fresno Planning Commission approved the 45,000-home Southeast Development area (SEDA) Specific Plan in a historic 4-3 vote late Wednesday night after a packed house of residents told them to vote no. The mega-development faces a $3 billion funding shortfall, which drew roughly 150 worried residents to City Hall.

Beefed up training evaluation standards for Fresno Unified Superintendent Misty Her and the district’s teachers and staff took center stage at this week’s school board meeting. Specifically, the superintendent shared details on the district’s effort to make staff evaluations consistent across the district, including a dashboard that will track required and completed training for employees conducting evaluations. “Since COVID, training has been inconsistent and we have not had a way track which leaders have gotten training and which leaders have not gotten training,” said Her.

The Fresno City Council is set to vote Thursday on a second extension of a controversial trash deal that has prompted other waste haulers to demand rate increases of their own. The proposed agreement with Orange Avenue Disposal, a company owned by the politically-influential Caglia family, would extend its contract by one year to dispose of city residential waste to a facility near Kerman through 2035.

Chronic absenteeism at Fresno Unified dropped slightly, but remains almost double pre-pandemic levels, according to new state data. In the 2024-25 school year, 29.4% of Fresno Unified students in kindergarten through eighth grade were chronically absent — meaning students missed at least 10% of all school days in a year. Out of the 50,568 students, 14,866 were identified as chronically absent, representing an improvement of 0.9% from the previous year.

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a move toward introducing regulations against kratom — a plant that has drawn scrutiny in recent years from state and federal health officials. The hearing preceded a joint news conference with Fresno City Councilmember Nelson Esparza and leading county health officials. Kratom is a tree native to southeast Asia with leaves used in some health supplements.

The Dyer administration has orchestrated a December showdown over the Southeast Development Area, pushing the 9,000-acre mega-project toward final approval despite a $3 billion infrastructure shortfall that has residents preparing for political war. Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer now has a potential majority at the Fresno City Council to approve the Clovis-sized mega-project, known colloquially as SEDA, according to interviews and statements by councilmembers at a Nov.

On this week's Fresnolandia podcast, Jordan and Danielle spoke with Mike McKeever, a regional planning expert based in Sacramento. He spent 12 years as CEO of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, the regional planning organization for the Sacramento metro. Prior to that, he spent his career in Portland as a planner and consultant. They discuss how Sacramento navigated competition for housing in the suburbs, whether approving too much housing can be a problem when trying to solve a housing crisis, and why cities and regions need to be more in touch with local demand. Spotify | Apple Podcasts

As immigration enforcement intensifies, California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed a law that expands who can legally act as a temporary caregiver. The change comes at a time when nearly half (about 45%) of California’s children have at least one immigrant parent.

There’s a telephone pole at the intersection of Clinton and Warren Avenues in Fresno that Inez Zuniga can’t stop thinking about. It’s easy to speed past it, and a lot of people do, Zuniga says. But that intersection haunts Zuniga, who can’t drive down Clinton or Warren without thinking of the little boy who was hit and killed by drivers years ago at the location just minutes from Zuniga’s house.

Deep into Friday and Saturday nights in the Tower District, most people are beginning to end their day full of drinking and dancing by slowly sauntering off into the streets of the city’s hub for nightlife. For people like Laurie Montero, however, their night is about to begin. Montero, 47, is one of many street food vendors that adorn Olive Avenue with a mix of music, colorful lights and, above all else, some hot and ready food.

One Central Valley assemblymember said she’s preparing “for the worst,” with the future of Affordable Care Act subsidies — a key sticking point for most Democrats in negotiations to end the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history — still up in the air as lawmakers make last-minute deals to reopen the government. “I don’t know if people in Washington really understand, especially those in control, the level of increase in premiums and what that’s going to do to our families,” Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, a Democrat and former Fresno City Councilmember currently representing Merced, told reporters on Monday.

Fresno Unified is hosting a community forum and asking for parent feedback on the restructuring of one of its equity departments. The district’s Office of African American Academic Acceleration, or A4 office, is morphing into the Office of Advancing Academic Acceleration & Achievement. Created in 2017, the A4 department was created to improve disparities in student performance and graduation rates for African American and Black students.

More than 10,000 people showed up to the 14th Taco Truck Throwdown, and it was a Saturday night to remember at Chukchansi Park. The small kitchens inside more than 20 taco trucks were extra busy all night, keeping up with the long lines of people eager to have some of the best tacos in Fresno. This year's Taco Truck Throwdown winners weren't new to the competition: the judges crowned…

Fresno is joining the national Yes in God’s Backyard movement, which encourages churches to build affordable homes amid the nation’s housing crisis.

The California Public Utilities Commission’s hearings over proposed electricity rate hikes came to Fresno Friday afternoon, drawing a split crowd of Central Valley residents and industry groups that clashed over whether the increased rates are appropriate. The public hearing comes after the Pacific Gas & Electric Company submitted a request earlier this year to California’s regulatory commission for private utilities companies, asking commissioners to approve annual rate hikes over a four-year period from 2027 to 2030.

After nearly four years of debate, a key committee voted Thursday to move forward with a new plan for Fresno County’s transportation sales tax — bringing together factions frequently at odds in a rare show of consensus. An overwhelming majority — 93% — of the Measure C Steering Committee passed what they called a “high priority” expenditure plan that sets aside nearly 70% of tax revenue to fix and improve local roads, and 25% to maintain and expand public transit.

The Fresno City Council cleared what they hope is the second-to-last hurdle needed to pass legislation making it easier for developers to build homes on land zoned for offices. Council President Mike Karbassi and Councilmember Annalisa Perea — who have been on different sides in past debates over the new rules — both voted to approve the new version in a split 4-3 vote.

Changes are coming to how the Fresno Unified Board of Education will rate the performance of the superintendent in its yearly evaluations. A draft template of the new evaluation tool was presented at Wednesday’s board meeting. The new template evaluates the superintendent’s performance by tracking the progress of the district’s goals and guardrails. Fresno Unified’s goals and guardrails are a set of district objectives aiming to improve student performance and raise employee standards through 2030.

A coalition spanning Fresno's political spectrum delivered an ultimatum to Mayor Jerry Dyer on Thursday: Kill the massive Southeast Development Area (SEDA) or face a voter referendum that could permanently halt suburban sprawl in California's fifth-largest city. At a press conference scheduled Thursday just before the Fresno City Council's workshop on the controversial 45,000-home SEDA specific plan, the coalition demanded that Dyer launch a comprehensive process to write a new general plan, charting a new economic future for Fresno.

The Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission plans to furlough over 600 employees two months from now — indefinitely — citing a lapse in federal funding to its programs during the now record-length federal government shutdown. The Fresno EOC furloughs, which would affect 639 staff at over 40 centers across Fresno County, kick in Jan. 1, according to a copy of a letter to affected employees obtained by Fresnoland.

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to begin the process of eliminating vehicle entry fees for veterans and active military members at their county-run parks. Introduced by Supervisors Garry Bredefeld and Nathan Magsig, the proposal for free entry comes a week ahead of the Veterans Day holiday. Currently, vehicle entry fees for the park are $40 annually, or $5 daily.