Tulare’s new police chief was sworn in and began serving in his permanent position on November 14, after having worked as interim chief for nearly six months. Naming Wes Hensley to the permanent position was an easy decision, said City Manager Don Dorman. “His longevity with the department and as a captain; he was head […]
The City of Tulare and the Cal Water Company say a group of chemical manufacturers spent decades contaminating local groundwater with a dangerous, cancer-causing pollutant, and now they’re looking to make the alleged polluters clean up their mess. Lawyers for the City of Tulare could be in court as soon as February 8 to take […]
Five days after news broke about a suspected DUI, Tulare Police Chief Jerry Breckinridge resigned. His resignation will be in effect on November 13. On Tuesday, October 6, two hours before the regularly scheduled Tulare City Council meeting, the City of Tulare along with Breckinridge released a joint statement announcing his resignation. Both Mayor David […]
A hearing was held on September 24 for Jonathan Smith who was facing possible charges of resisting arrest. This, one month following Smith’s altercation with members of the Tulare Police Department, where, he has said, he was severely beaten, and arrested resisting arrest. The hearing lasted only a few minutes. The lawyer representing the District […]
The whereabouts of Tulare Police Chief Jerry Breckinridge have not been known to the public since May 29. Tulare City Manager Don Dorman announced on June 23 that Breckinridge had been placed on paid administrative leave. Dorman did not explain why the police chief had been put on administrative leave or how long he would […]
Life hasn’t settled down for Jonathan Smith, or his father Michael Koonce, since Smith’s arrest and alleged beating by the Tulare Police Department on August 25. On that morning, Smith had an altercation with the Tulare Police Department in the parking lot of Feltech Auto Repair. According to Smith and a witness, he was pulled […]
A 300,000-square-foot cheese factory finally has the go-ahead for construction in Tulare after clearing a final hurdle in a years-long approval process. At its August 18 meeting, the Tulare City Council OK’d the sale of a 59-acre plot at the corner of Paige Avenue and Enterprise Street, adjacent to the city waste-water treatment plant. Purchasing […]
Jonathan Smith, a longtime resident of Tulare, left his home Tuesday morning, August 25, to cash a check and stop at the hardware store. But a funny thing happened on the way to the bank. His twenty minute errand turned into a seventeen-hour ordeal and he didn’t make it home again until 2:30am the next […]
Daniel Lawrence spent a year living on the streets of Tulare, and what he experienced is helping drive a movement to protect the rights of indigent people in the South Valley. The Union of Hope, a newly-formed group championing the plight of the homeless, hopes to become both a guardian of their rights and see […]
From a small plot of land on the edge of Tulare, Danny Ochoa Leon is trying to change the world, or at least the way people work together. Fed up with the growing inequity in our modern lives and the widening distance between neighbors, Leon is working on a new way of doing things, a […]