Westlands Water District Prohibits Landscape Watering in Response to Bureau of Reclamation’s Allocation Reduction for Agricultural, Municipal and Industrial Water Contractors

Press Release from Westland Water District Fresno, California (May 26, 2021) – In response to today’s announcement by the Bureau of Reclamation regarding the reduction of allocation to municipal and industrial water contractors from 55% to 25% of historic use, and the reduction of allocation to agricultural repayment and water service contractors from 5% to […]

Congressman David G. Valadao Statement on Bureau of Reclamation’s Updated Central Valley Project 2021 Water Allocation

Yesterday, Congressman David G. Valadao released the following statement in response to the Bureau of Reclamation’s (Reclamation) updated 2021 water supply allocation for Central Valley Project (CVP) contractors. Reclamation initially allocated a mere 5% for South-of-Delta agricultural repayment and water service contractors, later suspending this allocation altogether in March. Today, Reclamation confirmed South-of-Delta contractors will […]

Chris Mathys, GOP primary candidate, begins effort to declare delta smelt extinct

The delta smelt could be declared endangered if Chris Mathys, a Republican primary challenger to David Valadao, gets his way. “Federal and state mandated rules related to the delta smelt in California are severely restricting the releases of surface water relied upon by California’s farmers and ranchers. Agriculture products are vital to California’s economy and […]

Superintendent of Visalia Unified School District Dr. Tamara Ravalin Announces Plans to Retire August 2021

A press release from the Visalia Unified School District Superintendent of Visalia Unified School District Dr. Tamara Ravalín announced today to the VUSD Board of Education and VUSD staff her plans to retire on August 31, 2021. Dr. Ravalín has served in education for 40 years. Dr. Ravalin states, “The last two years have brought […]

Visalia’s environmental, disability advocacy committees get the ax

Visalia City Council voted May 3 to eliminate the city’s Disability Advocacy and Environmental committees. Now soon-to-be former volunteers–as well as at least one city councilman–are concerned about declining citizen participation. Citizen Voices Silenced The move marks a continuation of the Visalia council’s ongoing efforts to reduce the number of committees and the number of […]

Valley Voice honored with eight CNPA awards

The Valley Voice earned eight awards in the California News Publishers Association’s (CNPA) 2020 California Journalism Awards competition, which judged the Voice against similarly-sized online publications. Because the Voice’s last print edition was in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all entries were in the digital category for publications with a monthly unique visitor […]