News

MADERA - Well it looks like the motivations for last months attempt at firing Madera Unified School District Superintendent Ed Gonzales has finally been revealed. It seems that since December, board president Maria Velarde-Garcia and the superintendent have been engaged in a war of words not over text books and test scores but whether or not Velarde-Garcia, as the board president, was entitled to a district paid credit card.

After the January 27, 2015 MUSD board meeting, Big Valley News received a phone call from a district insider stating that a California Public Records Act request for emails and text messages between the board president and the districts executive cabinet might net some interesting conversations. Twenty-one days after that request was made, the district turned over two PDF documents filled with communications between Gonzales and Velarde-Garcia. The two documents are available at the bottom of this story.

FRESNO - Northwest patrol officers from the Fresno Police Department responded to the neighborhood of Bullard/Cornelia Avenues regarding a daughter that shot another daughter with a handgun.

Upon arrival, officers found an 8-year old female with one gunshot wound to her lower torso. The juvenile was rushed to Community Regional Medical Center for treatment. The juvenile is in stable condition and at this juncture it does not appear her injury will be life threatening.

FRESNO - On January 18th, at 8:40 PM Stacie Gonzales experienced the worst day of her life.  Seeing her baby girl shot and killed right in front of her own eyes.  Something that no parent should ever have to go experience.  Since the tragic and senseless murder of Janessa Ramirez the Fresno Police Department's Street Violence Section under the leadership of Lt. Mark Salazar  has worked tirelessly on this case, literally working around the clock.

The Fresno PD has had as many as 40 detectives working this case as well as having the assistance of the US Marshalls, DOJ, and Gilroy Police Department.  Although there is still work to be done on this case, Chief Jerry Dwyer is pleased to announce the arrest of two individuals for the murder of 9 year old Janessa Ramirez.

MADERA – After nearly 20 years as the Madera District Fair’s chief executive officer (CEO), Scott Sample has announced he will be retiring in April of this year. As CEO, Sample has managed the complete operation of the fairgrounds, including its annual four-day fair, 200-plus events each year, a very successful flea market, a race track and a lease agreement for the 27-acre shopping center located on the fairgrounds property.

The shopping center lease agreement is perhaps the most notable accomplishment of Sample’s 20-year leadership role at the Madera District Fair. It was an extremely complex project that took over six years to finalize and remains to be the only partnership of its kind between a state fairgrounds and the private sector.

MADERA - John Oliveira, the tribal police chief for the Tex McDonald Faction of the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, turned himself in to authorities Wednesday morning at the Madera County Superior Court. Oliveira was the alleged mastermind of the October 9th armed raid of Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino

Oliveira, who was wanted on an $800,000 warrant, was quoted in a Fresno Bee article last week that he would turn himself at court this morning. He claimed to need time to find evidence for this case that would protect his family while he was in jail. His bail has been increased to $1.25 million. Along with Tex McDonald and Vernon King, the three were in court for a hearing on the case.