Weekly Poll
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Gabriel Dillard |
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05.02.2010
 07:55:43
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The Raisin Administrative Committee and California Raisin Marketing Board have taken the big step of deciding to relocate to downtown Fresno. The news is obviously music to the ears of downtown revitalization supporters.
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23.12.2009
03:45:32
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I don't want to be the next blogger waxing rhapsodic about how lame or awesome Fresno really is because there's a lot of that that going on right now. But thanks to a recent survey ranking my hometown as one of the worst for business, and a recent piece in USA Today (written by former Business Journal editor Valerie Gibbons), Fresnans are once again gathering pitchforks and torches to either slam Fresno or the rest of the country.
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05.12.2009
06:53:23
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It hasn't been a good month for academia. First there was "Climategate," in which leaked emails between scientists studying global warming reveal possible efforts to hide evidence that global warming was not as strong as generally believed. The story has been largely ignored by the mainstream media.
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05.09.2009
03:12:00
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It's fair time, and along with the rides and corn dogs come the agricultural displays for counties to put their best products forward. Well, the Lodi News Sentinel is reporting that San Joaquin County chose a more political route for their display at the State Fair in Sacramento.
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08.08.2009
01:55:11
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In this economy, I just might scream if someone else says “in this economy.” The phrase is ubiquitous, the go-to preface for any statement, piece of advice or counterpoint having to do with the economic doldrums. Variations include “in this economic climate” and “in these hard times.” As a business writer, I’m guilty of using these terms. The phrase implies there is some other economy out there in a parallel universe where everyone is hiring, nobody gets laid off and consumers have more cash than their wallets can handle. That’s definitely not our economy.
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18.07.2009
02:31:00
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The best thing about being a business reporter is learning something new every day. With thousands of businesses in our coverage area, there is no way to know all of them. But there are some businesses and entrepreneurs, which I’ll call “hidden gems,” that perform on the world stage, or serve some funky niche, that tend to stay under the radar.
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11.07.2009
01:10:25
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Ethanol from corn made a large splash in the state about four years ago with investors clamoring for a piece. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates even purchased a quarter stake in Pacific Ethanol. Gates doesn't have the stock guru status of "Oracle of Omaha" Warren Buffett. But when rich people buy, others watch.
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28.06.2009
15:23:00
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Fresno's old timers still remember Harpain's Dairy in central Fresno for its yummy ice cream. And that might be the best way to remember the land where the beleagured Granite Park development now sits because there is every indication the place is cursed.
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06.06.2009
06:13:40
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Emotions are boiling in the Central Valley’s farm community. Growers are breaking the confines of their white pickup trucks and tractors to protest a regulatory and market environment they insist is bleeding their industry to death. Yesterday, about 15 dairy operators protested outside the downtown Modesto office of Congressman Dennis Cardoza. The men wielded signs while their wives spoke with the Democrat’s aide.
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04.06.2009
05:47:59
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Fresno business owner Jim Ganduglia toured as a percussionist for Johnny Mathis for 20 years, but he’s beating a different drum these days to protest state regulations. Ganduglia, owner of Ganduglia Trucking, will tell anyone who will listen the California Air Resources Board rule requiring diesel truck operators to curtail emissions is a pain in the tailpipe.
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07.05.2009
06:14:42
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Dan Bacher, an environmentalist and editor of Fish Sniffer, a West Coast fishing magazine, has written an evocative commentary claiming that corporate agribusiness and state government are perpetuating a lie that the water crisis is causing massive job losses.
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28.04.2009
01:26:01
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Involuntary manslaughter charges have been filed against three top officials of defunct labor contractor company Merced Farm Labor in the case of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, who died of a heat stroke in May 2008. Jimenez, who was two-months pregnant at the time, was working in a Stockton-area vineyard when she died. She was ill for two hours in the field before she was taken to a medical clinic. Last year, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health fined Merced Farm Labor $262,700 for violating eight workplace safety rules, the largest fine ever issued to a California farming operation. The agency said some of the violations were intentional, and the company later surrendered its license. Given that the state has already levied a fine on the business, should the company's principals also face criminal charges
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25.04.2009
05:44:34
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New California fuel regulations just might be the final nail in the ethanol industry's coffin. A "shell game" is what Tom Koehler, a policy adviser at Pacific Ethanol, called the state's new low carbon fuel standard, adopted yesterday by the California Air Resources Board.
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