š”Bredefeld @s Gov. Newsom on Schools + Seeds?
Bredefeld and Valley Children's butt heads over data, The Fresno Fair is cancelled and Jerry Dyer says he has Black friends. Here's what happened in Fresno the week of July 27.
āļøĀ Good morning, Fresno! It is Sunday, August 2, 2020.
It is August. It is August. It is August. IT. IS. AUGUST!
Thatās all I got.
-RamĀ š§”
Fresno By Five
ID: A fake tweet illustration of Garry Bredefeld tweeting: @GavinNewsom Open the schools, stop having them be closed. Writerās Note: NOT A REAL TWEET FAKE TWEET CALM DOWN GARRY SORRY FAKE NEWS GOTTA MAKE FAKE STUFF RN LMAO
šæ Bredefeld @ Gavin Newsom: Open The Schools, Stop Having Them be Closed
Our favorite Fresno City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld held a news conference on Thursday at City Hall to urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to allow local districts to open up at their own discretion. He says that the harm of kids staying home outweighs the harm of opening schools during a pandemic. He cites the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics on why itās important to reopen schools. Fellow Councilmember Mike Karbassi and former Fresno Mayor Alan Autry joined Bredefeld, both calling for schools to reopen.
šØāāļø Valley Childrenās Hospital Responds to Bredefeld
Valley Childrenās disputed Bredefeldās comments, arguing that children are at very real risk of contracting COVID-19 and transmitting it. In their statement, they responded to the guidelines put out by the CDC and AAP, noting that the guidelines are only sound under the conditions of low community transmission. We are not a county with low community transmission. The entirety of their statement can be read below, alongside statements from Zara Arboleda, Valley Childrenās Comms/PR director.
We DID release our data, Garry, when we held our own science-driven news conference last week. Here it is again.I honestly donāt know who to believe. The psychologist councilmember or the hospital with their data and who work with children actually sick. Itās really a hard choice.
š« Fresno Unifiedās Plan for Online School
Fresno Unified released a 19-page document outlining their strategy for reopening schools yesterday. The document touches on safety measures like daily health screenings but remains vague in some areas. Fresno Unified didnāt clearly outline how much time children will be spending on their computers distance learning. More details will be released before school starts on Aug. 17.
š¤¹ Big Times are Not Back: The Fresno Fair going drive-thru
The Fresno Fair hasāpredictablyābeen canceled. Well, in-person Fresno Fair, anyways. The Fair is āreimaginingā the entire concept this year. You can still get all your favorite fair foods, such as the block of french fries and deep-fried Oreos, with their drive-thru fair food experience. It says they will have āGround Entertainersā perform as you wait, so Iām very excited to watch the fights happen this year from the comfort of my car.
šØāš¦² Fresnoland talks with Mayor-Elect Dyer
Fresnolandās editor, Dympna Ugwu-Oju, sat down with Mayor-elect Jerry Dyer to ask him some questions about what heās going to do as mayor to address Fresnoās problems. The interview is fascinating. It is very obvious Dyer has fully transformed into a politician, deftly and strategically answering many questions, without seeming evasive. Moreover, Dyer seems downright reasonable in some areas, even going so far as to say that he believes in the Black Lives Matter movement. His campaign manager working hard right now. Itās also worth noting that ābelieving in Black Lives Matterā is the literal bare minimum.
Iāll just leave my favorite quote from the interview:
I grew up in the town of Fowler. If anyone says they are colorblind, I donāt believe theyāre honest. Because we see color. The difference is ā I grew up in a town where we didnāt talk about race. My best man at my wedding was a Black guy. My wife is Hispanic. I played basketball; my closest friends were African American.
-Fresno Mayor-elect Jerry Dyer
Yāallā¦ we can trust him in dealing with Fresnoās racial problems, his friends are Black!
š®š¼ Defund the Police: Fresno Calls into the Police Reform Commission
Over 20 people called into the public meeting of the Fresno police reform committee on July 27 and all but one called for the defunding of the police department. Some went even harder and called for police abolition. The meeting had progress reports of the four subcommittees formed ā budget, training, community development and community input.
The Fresno State NAACP President, DāAungilique Jackson, is the chair of the community input subcommittee and she wants to survey at least 60,000 Fresnan on their opinions of the police. But for a survey that large, she needs more than the 90-day-period the Fresno City Council gave the committee before submitting their proposal for action. As a whole, the committee is still asking for more time before they give their proposals to the Fresno City Council. Without the extension, they would need to submit it by Aug. 24.
š± Some Seedy Business
If you got seeds in the mail from China, the Fresno County Ag Commissioner says NOT to plant it. The USDA is working with the Department of Homeland Security to analyze the seeds that have been coming from China, Vietnam and Malaysia. They have not identified what the plants are yet but theyāre afraid it might be harmful to the local environment so donāt plant them!
š· The Coronavirus Section: Californiaās First Covid Teen Death
As of July 31, the most recent data available at the time of writing, there have been a total ofĀ 14,439 (+1,875 from last week) total confirmed cases and 138 (+26) deathsĀ in Fresno County. Since Fiveby has started tracking these numbers, this week sets a new record for most new deaths. Currently, there are 313 hospitalized. A total ofĀ 4,852 (+1,538) people have recovered.
Bredefeldās advocacy for reopening schools seems especially callous given that Fresno County is, unfortunately, home of the first teen to die in the state, Dr. Rais Vohra, withholding tears, confirmed Friday. The teenager had underlying health conditions, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Overall the positivity rate of Fresno County is at 10.8%, which means for every 100 people, 11 would be infected. But an analysis of Covid data of Fresno zipcodes reveals some areas exhibit a higher positivity rate. For example, the 93721 zipcode for Downtown Fresno has a positivity rate of 44%! South and southeast areas of Fresno on average have a higher positivity rate becauseāyou guessed itā racism.
The Latinx community in the agriculture industry continues to be hit the hardest by the virus. Laborers are forced to continue working the fields and warehouses without proper PPE or sick leave if they do get infected. To address this,Gov. Gavin Newsom is using a $52 million grant from the federal government to address these issues. The grant will support extensive testing and advocacy for workerās rights.
Listen to our Podcast!
If you havenāt already, listen to the first episode of our podcast! We sat down and talked with Yasmin Mendoza, our favorite community organizer and writer of the Good Tweetsā¢. Listen to it here or on Spotify
Here is a snippet of our conversation
This newsletter was written by Ram Reyes (@vibesradiator on Twitter) and edited by Tommy Tribble (@tomiiwrites)