Local News

Chowchilla Passes Balanced $38 Million Budget

CHOWCHILLA - The Chowchilla City Council, at its Tuesday Council meeting, unanimously passed its City Budget for the next fiscal year. The balanced budget allocates $38,263,555 over a variety of departments and projects, with the largest portion of the budget supporting the City’s enterprise funds, which include its water, sewer, trash pickup, airport, and storm drainage system. The next largest beneficiary of the budget is the General Fund, of which the majority of the money, 44.2%, supports the Police Department.

The budget process was guided by community input and the City’s Strategic Plan. Starting months ago, the City Council conducted budget workshops and a townhall meeting to hear directly from its residents on how they want their money spent. It also collected input though its monthly newsletter, its website and Facebook. These comments were then matched against the goals set in the City’s strategic plan. The end product is a budget focused on public safety, economic development, additional recreational activities, strong code enforcement, improvement of city streets, pursue funding for downtown hardscape, finish improving the water system including new wells and two 750,000 water tanks, and more.

Cheating on State Testing by Sixth Grade Teacher at MUSD

MADERA – Cheating on a test in elementary school is something you might expect from a student. When it is done by a sixth-grade teacher on their entire classroom’s state-testing, well then there is a much bigger problem. This is the situation that district officials are now dealing with at Madera Unified. In mid-May of this last school year a sixth-grade teacher was removed from his classroom and placed on paid administrative leave pending a state and district investigation.

During the English components of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress testing, an investigation was conducted by the district’s Human Resource Director Kent Albertson and the school’s principal to determine if the teacher in question violated the state’s mandatory instructions regarding prompting or correcting students during the testing process.

Teenage Shooting Victim Passes Away in Hospital

FRESNO - On Thursday, shooting victim, Nicholas Kauls, 17 of Fresno, passed away at Community Regional Medical Center. Around 11:45 pm on Sunday, June 24th, dispatchers at the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 phone call stating gunshots had been fired and a person was hit.

Deputies responded to the 4700 block of N. Sunset Drive, near Van Ness and Rialto in Fresno’s Old Fig Garden neighborhood. They found a 17 year old boy (Nicholas Kauls) suffering from a gunshot wound. A deputy provided medical aid while waiting for EMS to respond. Medics arrived and transported the teen to Community Regional Medical Center where he is listed in critical condition.

Weekend DUI Saturation Patrol Nets [5] Arrests

FRESNO – The Fresno Police Department’s Traffic Unit conducted a DUI Saturation Patrol on June 30, 2018, in the Northwest policing district between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. High Visibility Enforcement efforts like this have a deterrent effect, lowering the incidents of impaired driving.

In recent years, California has seen a disturbing increase in drug-impaired driving crashes. Fresno PD supports the new effort from the Office of Traffic Safety that aims to educate all drivers that “DUI Doesn’t Just Mean Booze.” If you take prescription drugs, particularly those with a driving or operating machinery warning on the label, you might be impaired enough to get a DUI. Marijuana can also be impairing, especially in combination with alcohol or other drugs, and can result in a DUI.

Former DMV Employee Found Guilty of Conspiring to Issue Fraudulent California Driver’s Licenses

SACRAMENTO - On Tuesday, after a four-day trial, a federal jury found Robert S. Turchin, 68, of Salinas, guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and identity fraud and three counts of identity fraud, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced. “This prosecution of a California state employee for bribery resulting in grave danger to public safety is very troubling,” U.S. Attorney Scott stated. ”It is alarming to think that unqualified persons were licensed to operate big rigs and buses on our public roadways. We will continue to do everything we can to root out public corruption at any level, and hold those in positions of trust accountable for their greed.”

According to evidence presented at trial, Turchin was an employee at the Salinas field office for the Department of Motor Vehicles, including between 2012 and 2015. Turchin was responsible for conducting tests for applicants for commercial licenses to operate 18-wheel tractor-trailers and commercial buses.