Joe Moore

Shafter's Fran Florez announced on Twitter today that she is dropping out of the race to replace former State Senator Michael Rubio in the 16th district.

The Kern County Democrat said in a statement that she made her decision to protect party unity and to ensure a Democratic victory in the upcoming special election.

Kern County Supervisor and former Rubio staffer Letecia Perez announced yesterday that she and her family would move to a new home to maintain her eligibility in the race. 

Residents in the Kern County community of Lamont are meeting this evening to discuss the future of a controversial recycling and compost facility. 

Community Recycling wants the county to modify its existing Conditional Use Permit to authorize processing food and green waste, byproducts from composting, and drywall.

The facility has a history of code and land use violations, and environmental groups have called it a major source of pollution.

The state of California is putting a temporary halt to sending out new bills to some rural homeowners in the enforcement of a controversial fire prevention fee.

The delay comes as CAL Fire is sorting through a backlog of thousands of appeals from mostly foothill and mountain residents. The state was planning to send out another round of bills in April.

This week on Valley Writers Read, we hear a story by Shaver Lake writer Howard Hendrix titled  “Last Memory of Oblivion.” In this science fiction story, a couple of super computer geniuses, Paul and Nene, have been hired by a giant company to stop all “God spam.”  Religious leaders protest vigorously, but that doesn't stop them.  

A new study finds women in California aren’t faring as well as men during the economic recovery.  The analysis was done by The California Budget Project and the Women’s Foundation of California.  

It finds employment among the state’s women declined by a little less than one percent over the past two years – while it was increased nearly two percent among men.

Chris Hoene with the Budget Project says cuts to programs such as CalWorks, the state’s welfare to work program, and cuts to state subsidized child care have largely affected women:

A new study from UCLA and the state Air Resources Board finds that minorities and other low-income populations face greater incidents of asthma than the rest of the population.

The study from the Chronic Disease Program at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research connects increased exposure to pollution with a rise in everything from asthma attacks to work absences and emergency room visits.

The study also found that those living within 750 feet of busy roads and highways had increases in asthma-related trips to the emergency room.

California Governor Jerry Brown has appointed Manuel Nevarez to the Madera County Board of Supervisors. Nevarez will fill the vacant District 1 seat, previously occupied by Frank Bigelow. Bigelow resigned from office after winning a seat in the state Assembly in November.

Nevarez is registered as decline-to-state. He will represent communities in eastern Madera County including the Madera Rancho, O'Neals and Yosemite Lakes Park. 

Governor Brown issued the following statement on Friday:

When former state Senator Michael Rubio begins work in Sacramento Monday as government relations manager for Chevron, he'll arrive to a full slate of issues involving the oil industry.

While state law prohibits ex-elected officials from registering as lobbyists for one year after leaving office, Rubio is expected to sidestep that provision by assuming a management role with the oil giant. 

Developers in Fresno County will soon be able to hire firms of their own choosing to study the environmental impacts of proposed projects. 

The Board of Supervisors approved the new policy Tuesday on a 5-0 vote, saying that it will speed up the development process, and help to create jobs.

Until now, developers would pay the county for the preparation of an environmental impact report (EIR). The county would then issue a "request for proposal" to environmental consulting companies, a selection process that can take nearly half a year to complete.