Blog

By Kaitlin Washburn, The Sun-Gazette, October 30, 2019 Lali Moheno threatened to divorce her husband when he wanted to move to Visalia for a new job. She was happy with their life in Ventura, Calif. She loved her job and the community. Plus, she didn’t have fond memories of periods during her childhood spent in Tulare County. Moheno’s parents toiled in the fields of California’s Central Valley and ranches in southern Texas throughout their lives and endured the hardships that all farmworkers...

By Kyra Haas, Visalia Times Delta, October 29, 2019 Before Gwen Schrank cut the red ribbon during the grand opening event for Visalia Clubhouse on Friday, she told those in attendance it was a miracle that she stood before them. The clubhouse, located at 206 E. Oak Avenue, is a resource for people struggling with their mental health, and Schrank's reason for opening it comes in part from her own experience. Less than a year ago, Schrank said, she locked herself in her bathroom and swallowed...

By Anna Maria Barry-Jester, California Healthline, October 28, 2019 Farm laborers in yellow safety vests walked through neatly arranged rows of grapes Friday, harvesting the last of the deep purple bundles that hung from the vines, even as the sky behind them was dark with soot. Over the hill just behind them, firetrucks and first responders raced back and forth from a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection staging area, working to contain a wildfire raging through the rugged...

By Alexis Espinoza, The Porterville Recorder, October 18, 2019 It was a historical night for the LGBTQ+ community in Porterville as the City Council passed the first ever proclamation that directly ties to the gay community. National Coming Out Day was brought to light under the Council’s discretion, and ultimately commemorated on paper with the National Coming Out Day proclamation. Brock Neely pushed the proclamation hard on the Council, and was upset when it didn’t appear on the agenda for...

Tulare County CAPC is proud to provide this ONE DAY conference on "Building Violence Free Schools & Communities" featuring 3 nationally know speakers with first hand experience and expertise in the field of violence prevention. Dr. Melissa Reeves (Columbine, CO shooting) Scarlett Lewis (Parent of a child lost in Sandy Hook shooting) and Clayton Douglas (former student who planned a shooting) will provide us with critical knowledge and skills in violence prevention. **** FLYER AND...

By Reggie Ellis, The Sun-Gazette, October 23, 2019 After decades of declines in underage tobacco use, flavored vape juice is fueling a resurgence in teen smoking; forces cities to consider bans as school districts struggle to deal with vaping epidemic. When Sara Morton became an educator 20 years ago, underage cigarette use was at an all-time low. Kids who had grown up watching well-funded anti-smoking commercials on television seemed to have gotten the message. During her first few years as...

By Deke Farrow, The Modesto Bee, October 4, 2019 Alana Scott likes to share a story about Tanya King. King, 47 and a student at Modesto Junior College, was interviewing for a scholarship to take a five-week Living WELL program, said Scott, a founder of the nonprofit organization WELL, or Women’s Education and Leadership League. King saw another candidate, Veronica Nunez, arriving and greeted her. Scott asked King how she knew Nunez, and learned that they’re MJC classmates and that King had...

By Xenia Shih Bion, California Health Care Foundation, October 7, 2019 California should move swiftly to improve the quality of care in the managed care plans that serve 80% of Medi-Cal’s nearly 14 million enrollees, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Led by Professor of Medicine Andrew Bindman, MD, with support from CHCF, the researchers examined 41 quality measures and found that more than half of the quality measures stayed the same or declined...

By Reggie Ellis, The Sun-Gazette, October 2, 2019 As Tulare County’s largest city, Visalia deals with the brunt of many of the area’s most difficult problems. Visalia has most of the county’s violent crimes, homeless people and those dealing with drug addiction. As expected, the city is also home to most of the facilities, programs and organizations that deal with these issues. This summer, methadone clinics, and the number of them in Visalia, became a topic in the broader discussions about...

The two biggest myths about ACEs science are: MYTH #1 — That it’s just about the 10 ACEs in the ACE Study — the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study . It’s about sooooo much more than that. MYTH #2 — And that it’s just about ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. These two myths are intertwined. The ACE Study issued the first of its 70+ publications in 1998, and for many people it was the lightning bolt, the grand “aha” moment, the unexpected doorway into a blazing new...

By Ricardo Cano, CalMatters, September 17, 2019 Each year, millions of Californians send their children to public K-12 classrooms, assuming that, from around Labor Day to early summer, there will be one given: A school day on a district’s calendar will mean a day of instruction in school. But that fixed point is changing, according to a CalMatters analysis of public school closures. From massive wildfires to mass shooting threats to dilapidated classrooms, the 21st century is disrupting...

By Dom McAndrew, YourCentralValley.com, September 10, 2019 Since the Columbine tragedy in 1999, there have been more than 220 school shootings, killing 144 people and injuring more than 300, according to research by the Washington Post. After the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools held it’s second safety meeting in Downtown Fresno, educators and law enforcement discovered that school shootings can be prevented. “You pray that it doesn’t happen but you do in some cases take a not if but...