Latest news with #TheFresnoBee
New York Post
5 days ago
- Climate
- New York Post
‘Extreme' California wildfire rages in hot weather — with only 21% of the inferno contained, threatening thousands
A southern California wildfire that has threatened thousands of homes is still only 21% contained, officials said Saturday, warning of the blaze's 'extreme' behavior amid low humidity and summer heat. The Gifford Fire, which started Aug. 1, has prompting widespread evacuation orders and scorched more than 104,000 acres across San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, where evacuation orders and warnings are in place. Nearly 3,600 firefighters are battling the flames amid hot, dry conditions. Advertisement 3 The Gifford Fire continues to burn through thousands of acres, becoming the state's largest blaze of the year and threatening thousands of homes and other areas near Los Padres National Forest in the central regions. AP 'We have hot weather, and we have low relative humidity,' said Santa Barbara County Fire Department Capt. Scott Safechuck. 'So, we expect extreme fire behavior.' Advertisement Gifford's destruction has already surpassed last month's Madre Fire in San Luis Obispo County, which burned 80,000 acres before containment. Nearly 100 hand crews, 267 engines, 98 water tenders, 21 helicopters, and 142 bulldozers have been deployed, according to The Fresno Bee. 3 Approximately 3,600 firefighters are battling the blaze. AP 3 The fire, which started on Aug. 1, has resulted in massive evacuation orders across the state. REUTERS Advertisement Flames continue to burn inside Los Padres National Forest, where officials reported 'two large smoke columns' Saturday, with the largest rising from an area crews have fought to control for two days. Meanwhile, the Canyon Fire, which started Thursday afternoon, has burned more than 5,000 acres in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. This was still just 28% contained on Saturday morning, but officials have called off the evacuation order in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Advertisement Officials lifted some evacuation orders Friday as 400 firefighters worked under cooler conditions and with air support to slow the spread. The causes of the California wildfires are still under investigation. With Post wires
Miami Herald
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
California High-Speed Rail Reaches New Construction Milestone
A four-lane overpass has opened near Roeding Park in Fresno that will allow the currently under-construction California High-Speed Rail line to pass under West Belmont Avenue according to local newspaper The Fresno Bee. Newsweek contacted the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is overseeing the project, for comment on Friday via email outside of regular office hours. Construction is underway on the California High-Speed Rail line, which is intended to link Los Angeles and San Francisco. A number of proposed high-speed rail projects are in the works across the United States, and former Obama-era transportation secretary Ray LaHood told Newsweek these could be unlocked if California High-Speed Rail turns out to be a success. However the scheme has attracted the ire of President Donald Trump, who branded it a "green disaster." Earlier in June the Federal Railroad Administration released a 315-page report criticizing the project for missed deadlines and arguing it still has a budget shortfall. The Fresno Bee reported that this week a four lane overpass was completed for West Belmont Avenue taking the road over the Union Pacific rail line at Weber Avenue, as well as the under construction California High-Speed Rail line. Work on the overpass, which is 62 feet wide and over 610 feet long, began in 2022. Another overpass over the high speed rail line was recently opened between Maple and Cedar avenues in southern Fresno, called the Central Avenue grade separation. Earlier in June the California High-Speed Rail Authority said work had been completed on 55 infrastructure projects, such as road overpasses, being built to facilitate the new rail line with the laying of track expected to begin later this year. Finished projects include the 4,741-foot San Joaquin River Viaduct in Fresno along with the Hanford Viaduct situated in Kings County. According to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the line currently under construction will allow passengers to travel between San Franciso and the Los Angeles basin in less than three hours, with speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour on some sections. The eventual plan is to extend the line to Sacramento and San Diego. In a recent statement the California High-Speed Rail Authority said: "Construction progresses every day on the California high-speed rail project. In addition to continued progress across the Central Valley, the Authority also announced the completion of four grade separations at Fargo Avenue and Whitley Avenue in Kings County, and at Belmont Avenue and Central Avenue in Fresno County… "Since the start of high-speed rail construction, the project has created more than 15,300 good paying construction jobs, a majority going to residents of the Central Valley. As many as 1,700 workers are dispatched to a high-speed rail construction site daily." In January California Governor Gavin Newsom said: "No state in America is closer to launching high-speed rail than California." Planners hope the California High-Speed Rail line will open for customers at some point between 2030 and 2033. Related Articles US Close to High-Speed Rail BreakthroughPortland Plan To Eliminate Homelessness 'Right On Schedule'Texas High Speed Rail Plan Issued Blow From Trump AdministrationTexas Bill Seeks To Thwart High-Speed Rail 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Newsweek
27-06-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
California High-Speed Rail Reaches New Construction Milestone
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A four-lane overpass has opened near Roeding Park in Fresno that will allow the currently under-construction California High-Speed Rail line to pass under West Belmont Avenue according to local newspaper The Fresno Bee. Newsweek contacted the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is overseeing the project, for comment on Friday via email outside of regular office hours. Why It Matters Construction is underway on the California High-Speed Rail line, which is intended to link Los Angeles and San Francisco. A number of proposed high-speed rail projects are in the works across the United States, and former Obama-era transportation secretary Ray LaHood told Newsweek these could be unlocked if California High-Speed Rail turns out to be a success. However the scheme has attracted the ire of President Donald Trump, who branded it a "green disaster." Earlier in June the Federal Railroad Administration released a 315-page report criticizing the project for missed deadlines and arguing it still has a budget shortfall. The completed Avenue 56 grade separation is seen in Tulare County, California, on June 16, 2025, a similar project to the Roeding Park overpass that has just been completed. The completed Avenue 56 grade separation is seen in Tulare County, California, on June 16, 2025, a similar project to the Roeding Park overpass that has just been completed. California High-Speed Rail What To Know The Fresno Bee reported that this week a four lane overpass was completed for West Belmont Avenue taking the road over the Union Pacific rail line at Weber Avenue, as well as the under construction California High-Speed Rail line. Work on the overpass, which is 62 feet wide and over 610 feet long, began in 2022. Another overpass over the high speed rail line was recently opened between Maple and Cedar avenues in southern Fresno, called the Central Avenue grade separation. Earlier in June the California High-Speed Rail Authority said work had been completed on 55 infrastructure projects, such as road overpasses, being built to facilitate the new rail line with the laying of track expected to begin later this year. Finished projects include the 4,741-foot San Joaquin River Viaduct in Fresno along with the Hanford Viaduct situated in Kings County. According to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the line currently under construction will allow passengers to travel between San Franciso and the Los Angeles basin in less than three hours, with speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour on some sections. The eventual plan is to extend the line to Sacramento and San Diego. What People Are Saying In a recent statement the California High-Speed Rail Authority said: "Construction progresses every day on the California high-speed rail project. In addition to continued progress across the Central Valley, the Authority also announced the completion of four grade separations at Fargo Avenue and Whitley Avenue in Kings County, and at Belmont Avenue and Central Avenue in Fresno County… "Since the start of high-speed rail construction, the project has created more than 15,300 good paying construction jobs, a majority going to residents of the Central Valley. As many as 1,700 workers are dispatched to a high-speed rail construction site daily." In January California Governor Gavin Newsom said: "No state in America is closer to launching high-speed rail than California." What Happens Next Planners hope the California High-Speed Rail line will open for customers at some point between 2030 and 2033.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
PrideStaff Fresno, Modesto, and Visalia Offices Named Best of Central California Staffing Agency Winners for 10th Year
FRESNO, Calif., June 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- PrideStaff, a nationally franchised staffing organization, is pleased to announce its Fresno, Modesto, and Visalia offices have been named Best Staffing Agencies in The Fresno Bee's 2025 Best of Central California Awards for a 10th year. This award celebrates businesses, organizations, and professionals across Central California. Each year, The Fresno Bee readers vote online in more than 290 categories, ranging from employment agencies and real estate brokers to day spas and fine dining establishments. The contest engages the community, inviting residents to support and recognize outstanding local businesses through nominations and daily voting. The contest fosters local economic growth by encouraging consumers to engage with and support companies within the area. "What an honor it is to win first place in the 2025 Best of Central Valley Business list," said Sean Akin, Vice-President of Branch Operations for PrideStaff Fresno and Modesto. "This award is special because nominees are selected and voted on by the people we are privileged to serve. Each vote reflects the dedication our team members show every day. They have risen to the challenges of today's recruiting market, making rewarding connections as they adapt to the changing needs of employers and job seekers. We extend our gratitude to each person who voted for us; every vote reflects the trust and satisfaction people find in working with us." "In any challenging economy, positive client and candidate feedback is one of the best ways to know you're getting it right," stated Blanca Covarrubias, Owner/Strategic-Partner of PrideStaff Visalia. "In continuing Our Mission to 'Consistently provide client experiences focused on what they value most,' we bring the highest levels of service to our community. We are matching the right employers with the right job seekers. We are helping businesses grow as we help careers progress. That's important work in any economy." "The work the PrideStaff Fresno, Modesto, and Visalia offices have been doing throughout their Central California communities continues to make us proud. To be named among the Best Staffing Agencies in The Fresno Bee's Best of Central California Awards for a 10th year is a powerful testament to their unwavering commitment to excellence and the lasting value they bring to the clients and candidates they serve," said PrideStaff Co-CEO Tammi Heaton. "Their dedication makes them truly stand out. Congratulations to PrideStaff Fresno, Modesto, and Visalia for receiving such well-deserved recognition." About PrideStaffPrideStaff was founded in the 1970s as 100% company-owned units and began franchising in 1995. It operates offices in North America to serve thousands of clients and is headquartered in Central California. With 45-plus years in the staffing business, PrideStaff offers the resources and expertise of a national firm, with the spirit, dedication, and personal service of smaller, entrepreneurial firms. PrideStaff is the only nationwide commercial staffing firm in the U.S. and Canada with over $100 million in annual revenue to earn ClearlyRated's prestigious Best of Staffing® 15-Year Diamond Awards two years in a row, highlighting exceptional client and talent service quality. For more information on our services, or staffing franchise information, visit our website. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Pridestaff, Inc Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
A roller derby renaissance in Fresno? Meet the team bringing the sport back
Uniquely is a Fresno Bee series that covers the moments, landmarks and personalities that define what makes living in the Fresno area so special. It's Tuesday night and Jodie Mettler is playing referee, calling out faux penalties to a dozen or so women as they skate close circles around the roller hockey rink at Fresno's Cary Park. It's the last practice for Ash City Roller Derby before a weekend scrimmage in Los Angeles and the skaters are working on team skills like position, blocking and formations. A tripod of players throw hip blocks in one direction, then shifts the other direction and clips a skater as she tries to take a wide roll around the group. Mettler forgot her whistle, so she yells out a quick 'tweet,' forcing a skater off to the side of the rink to do 10 squats. This is a practice, after all. After a few minutes of this work, the team huddles up to discuss the drill, then sets off to run it again. 'It's all game play tonight,' says Mettler, a founding member of Ash City Roller Derby who skates under the moniker Bae-Phomet. She's number 666, obviously. Since July, Ash City Roller Derby has been working to revive the full-contact sport in Fresno. The league's name is a double play on words: Ash, as in the tree, which in Spanish is Fresno; and also ash, as in the metaphorical remains from which the phoenix was reborn. There was time when Fresno was a roller-derby town. At one point, there were three teams in two separate leagues. Crowds were consistent, if not huge. Up to 1,000 people came out to watch matches at The Fresno Convention Center, and later the fairgrounds in the late 2000s and early 2010s. In 2008, The Fresno Bee ran a week's worth of profiles of Smog City Roller Grrls in advance of a home match at the Fresno Convention Center. Columnist Mike Osegueda called the team's resident speedster, Betty Rocker, a 'certified roller derby star ... who might actually be the top sports star in Fresno right now.' That team ended in 2008, but spawned a pair of others: NoTown Roller Derby and Valley Fever, the later of which morphed into the Central California Area Derby. Mettler joined the NoTown team the week after she moved to Fresno in 2010. She skated under the name Cherry Pie (number 3.142). Finding the team was one of the first things she did in town. 'That was a priority.' Roller Derby goes back nearly 100 years to days of banked-track endurance racing, but early versions of the sport as it's known now became popular in the 1950s and '60s first on radio and later on TV, where it evolved into a kind of professional wrestling on wheels. A story in The Bee in 1956 announced a run of National Roller Derby League matches at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. There would be bouts three nights a week for 13 weeks. League founder Leo Seltzer said he expected crowds of 9,000 a night. When the league came to Fresno's Kearney Bowl in 1960 (the Bay Bombers faced off against the Los Angles Braves), an announcement ran in The Bee alongside a story on the Indy 500. Eventually, the sport fell out of favor and by the 1980s was forgotten or only remembered with fond nostalgia. That was until the 2000s, when it saw an underground revival, thanks to slew of documentaries and at least one major studio film, the Elliot Page feature 'Whip-It.' That was Jessica Meredith's entry into the sport. She'd skated before, the way kids do, but she wasn't an athlete. As a 20-year-old queer person of color, she was mostly looking for a community. She found that in a derby team in Merced, where she was living at the time. It was immediate, says Meredith, who skates under the name Afrodisiac. 'I, to this day, have not found an experience anything like that.' That community and camaraderie is what led her to reach out on social media last summer. The sport had all but disappeared in Fresno during the pandemic and she wondered if anyone else wanted it back. 'We had no idea that other people felt the same way.' Now, roller derby is by no means a mainstream sport. The only way to really watch it live is in person (at scrimmages and more official matches set up by leagues across the country) or on Twitch. 'The joke is that ESPN will pick up fake horse riding before they'll pick up roller derby,' Mettler says. For the uninitiated: This isn't the dystopian battle sport depicted in sci-fi films. There's no ball. Points are scored as one skater laps around a pack of defenders in a series of two-minute 'jams.' Bouts are run in two, 30-minute periods. It isn't played on a banked-wood track (at least per the set of rules that Ash City plays under) and there isn't any fighting (staged or otherwise). It is still full-contact. Hip and body checks are allowed. And things are less DIY then they were in the 2000s, when the majority of the sport was centered out of Texas (where it was insanely popular), Mettler says. Nowadays, there's an international world cup and the skaters look to be seen as the athletes they are. So, it's not the speed competition that people might remember. 'It's a slower game,' Mettler says. 'It's strategic, right from the whistle.' Ash City is still a new team with a mix of veterans and newbies. Its matches are sanctioned by the The Women's Flat Track Derby Association, though Ash City is not yet an official member. That requires the organization to go through an apprenticeship program. The team runs on $10 monthly dues, with no coaching staff and no official home rink (someplace with a roof and air conditioning where Ash City could schedule matches without concern for heat or rain). The club would love to get back inside the Fresno Fairgrounds, at least for match days, but there's an expense that makes that difficult, Mettler says. So, the team (15 skaters, per its Instagram page) meets at Cary Park twice a week for practice. Some of the woman skate more. Meredith travels to Visalia twice a week to skate with the V Town Roller Derby team. They also host boot camps to recruit and train new members. The last one ran six weeks and had 30 skaters. On May 31, the team is hosting its first mixed-level hometown scrimmage. It start at 10 a.m. with a $5 suggested donation for spectators ($10 for those looking to compete). Mostly, the skaters are out here just making it work, Meredith says, because none of them want to see the sport die again. 'We're here to stick around,' she says. 'When people think of roller derby in Fresno, I don't want it to ever be a question.'
