Local News

Toddler Death Ruled a Homicide; Suspect Arrested

FRESNO - On Thursday, members of the Coroner’s Office performed an autopsy on 23 month old Julius Lopez of Calwa. The manner of death was determined to be homicide and the cause of death was blunt force trauma. Wednesday night, homicide detectives with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office arrested 24 year old Gage Hurtado. He has been booked into the Fresno County Jail on a felony charge of assault by means to likely to cause death to a child. His bail is set at $500,000.

Around 9:30 am on Wednesday, Fresno Police received a 911 call from a man (Gage Hurtado) saying a child was injured inside an apartment located on the 2400 block of S. Ninth Street in Calwa. A Fresno Police officer arrived and found the boy, Julius Lopez, to be non-responsive. The officer gave the boy CPR and allowed EMS to take over medical aid once they arrived. Around 10:15 am, the boy was pronounced deceased.

Madera County Releases Annual Crop Report

MADERA – Madera County Department of Agriculture released its annual crop report last week during the regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors. While the report showed a decrease overall, Madera County is ranked 10^th among the state’s 58 counties. The county’s agricultural commissioner, Stephanie McNeill, explained that the decrease is due to lower prices for some commodities as markets stabilize. The overall value of crops for 2016 was about $1.8 billion.

“We expect to see that go up,” McNeill said. “We’ve had a lot of new trees go in that are immature, that are nonproductive yet.” McNeill said last year she expected six to seven thousand more almonds, and it ended up being closer to 10 thousand. She added that people were pulling out grapes, such as the Thompson variety, and planting almonds.

Riot Breaks Out in Men’s Prison Near SLO: One Dead

San Luis Obispo – More than 160 inmates were involved in a large-scale riot in the East Facility medium-custody yard at California Men’s Colony (CMC) Sunday morning, that left one inmate dead and several others injured.

CMC staff responded immediately, utilizing force consisting of 40 mm less-than-lethal direct impact rounds and chemical agents to gain control of the incident. No deadly force was used, and no staff members were injured.

San Francisco and Oakland Sue Top Five Oil & Gas Companies Over Climate Change

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Oakland City Attorney Barbara J. Parker announced today that they had filed separate lawsuits on behalf of their respective cities against the five largest investor-owned producers of fossil fuels in the world. The lawsuits ask the courts to hold these companies responsible for the costs of sea walls and other infrastructure necessary to protect San Francisco and Oakland from ongoing and future consequences of climate change and sea level rise caused by the companies' production of massive amounts of fossil fuels.

The defendant companies — Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell — have known for decades that fossil fuel-driven global warming and accelerated sea level rise posed a catastrophic risk to human beings and to public and private property, especially in coastal cities like San Francisco and Oakland, who have the largest shoreline investments on San Francisco Bay.

Detectives Searching for Shooter(s) in Orange Cove Homicide

ORANGE COVE - The victim of a recent homicide in Orange Cove has been identified. He is 23 year old Anthony Valdivia of Orange Cove. Just before 5:00 pm on Sunday, officers with the Orange Cove Police Department were handling a call for service near Anchor Ave. and G Street when they heard gunshots being fired.

The officers responded around the corner to Orange Cove Quick Stop, located on Park Blvd. between Anchor Ave. and 12th Street. There in the parking lot they found a man (Valdivia) suffering from a gunshot wound. An ambulance transported Valdivia to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno where he later passed away.