669 of them- almost 60% – are from nursing homes and food processors

-May 12,2020-

Almost 60% of all COVID-19 cases in Tulare County are associated with a just a few infection sources at clustered groups that include local 5 nursing homes and 2 food major processing plants.

The County announced the latest number Monday May 11 that total virus-related cases rose to 1159.The total has increased from 757 on May 3.

According to numbers supplied by the public heath department, 669 of the 1159  cases are associated with either local nursing homes or food processors and the number of new victims at these places has been steadily climbing.

The largest source for COVID cases has been Redwood Springs nursing home in Visalia that now has 208 victims – 119 residents 69 employees and 20 contacts.

The second largest hot spot is Ruiz Foods in Tulare and Dinuba where victims numbered 130 cases as of May 7 and now have grown to 174 as of a few days later.

The other food company- Hanford’s Central Valley Meat had 41 Tulare County residents listed by Tulare County’s public health department as of May 7 and now has 48 workers who reside here.

Both nursing homes and food processors have in common the fact that people remain in close proximity all day. Nursing homes victims are particularly vulnerable due their health and age.Food company workers may also live in group quarters along with group transportation and working side by side for many hours.

Just how many workers at Central Valley Meat are affected is not known because unlike Tulare County, Kings County will not release information by company.

But Kings County Supervisor Doug Verboon told the Fresno Bee a few days ago that the meat packing plant now has 138 cases and accounts for nearly two-thirds of the coronavirus cases in Kings County which had a total of 211 reported cases as of that time.

Now – four days later – Kings County is up to 319 residents adding 20 to 30 cases a day.

Central Valley Meat employs around 750. A TV news report says 200 workers are no longer coming to work – fearing the danger.

-May 10,2020-

VISALIA, CA – Kaweah Delta is developing plans that will allow it to resume some hospital services as early as next week and elective surgeries by mid-month.

A key component of bringing more services online will be a process to test all surgical patients to determine if it is safe for them to have surgery, said Gary Herbst, Kaweah Delta’s Chief Executive Officer. Kaweah Delta will also administer the COVID-19 antibody test to its employees.

“It’s important that we are able to test every single patient the day before surgery,” Herbst said. “We’re laying out a very methodical, slow return that will allow us to continue to try to preserve that open bed, just in case. We’ll slowly start to reintroduce other services knowing that we have the flexibility to stop at any time. If we see that surge coming, we can ramp right back. If we see the numbers continue to fall, we can accelerate.”

Next week, Kaweah Delta will bring some outpatient services back online including its Sleep Disorders Center and Pulmonary Function Testing before opening up inpatient and outpatient elective surgeries later in the month.

“We deliberately stopped doing non-essential elective surgery to create that surge capacity that really has never materialized,” Herbst said. “A lot of these surgeries we have put off are important. Patients are looking for that painful knee to be replaced, that shoulder, that torn rotator cuff to get repaired. They are still in pain, but they have been putting up with it. We want to get those surgeries done.”

Despite scaling back elective surgeries, life-saving, emergency cases have continued at Kaweah Delta. In April alone, 515 surgeries were performed at Kaweah Delta.

“We never stopped doing surgeries. All of those surgical patients who have been coming to us for months have been in the safest place they could be,” said Herbst, who noted that Kaweah Delta still runs 6-8 operating rooms all day long. “We continue to perform C-sections, do open heart surgery, neurosurgery, trauma, in a very safe way. The hospital is probably one of the safest places you can be right now given the amount of disinfection we are doing, the constant hand washing, the constant wearing of the personal protective equipment.”

While Kaweah Delta has taken care of patients with COVID-19, it was careful in its approach.

“We’re the hospital that is taking care of the COVID patients, but we are really good at it. We’ve created dedicated units, where we have dedicated staff and physicians that are highly experienced and trained in caring for these patients,” he said. “They know exactly what personal protective equipment to use. They are constantly disinfecting, they are greatly minimizing exposures to our employees and our patients. I want to assure our community that it is very safe to come to our hospital today.”

Kaweah Delta shares COVID-19 information and regular updates with the community on its website at www.kaweahdelta.org/COVID19 and on its social media accounts.

These two clusters account for almost 60% of Covid cases here 

May 5,2020

Tulare County has reported another nursing home in the county has been infected with Covid-19. Sierra Valley Rehab in Porterville has 20 cases says the county.Meanwhile cases in four other county nursing homes continue to grow. The largest is the  205 cases at Visalia’s Redwood Springs. Also higher are 99 cases reported at Lindsay Gardens and 12 cases at Linwood Gardens and 22 cases at Dinuba Healthcare.That is about 358 cases of the total in the county of 858 positive cases at press time or more than 40% of all the cases. Other parts of the US are citing a lower but still shocking number of 24% of all cases happening in nursing homes.

The other big portion of the cases here appear to be in food processing plants like Ruiz Foods in Dinuba and Tulare where the count is now 107 virus cases. In addition the county says some 30 workers at Central Valley Meat Co in Hanford who have been infected – reside in Tulare County.

Between the two clusters- nursing homes and food processors- they account for nearly 60% of the total victims in the county. Infected people in both situations spend their days in close proximity to one another.Here again are latest numbers in Tulare County.

Nursing Home Facilities:

•Redwood Springs: 205 total cases

•Lindsay Gardens: 99 total cases

•Linwood Meadows: 12 total cases

•Dinuba Health care: 22 total cases

•Sierra Valley Rehab: 20 total cases

Food processing Facilities:

•Ruiz Foods: 107 total cases

•Central Valley Meats: 30 total cases

Tulare County has recorded 40 deaths from the virus so far.

Nursing home issues

Kaiser Health recently released a study that  shows that that nursing homes in California infected with virus often have lower ratings than those where no outbreak has happened.

“Compared with homes reporting no patient infections, California facilities with one or more patients with a COVID-19 case had on average a 25% fewer registered nurses per resident in the final three months of 2019, the last period for which the federal government has published data.

In addition, 91% of nursing homes reporting at least one case of the virus had a previous health violation for not following infection control rules, while 81% of homes without reported cases had such violations. Typical violations included nurses or aides not washing their hands or wearing protective clothing around potentially contagious patients.

“With low RN staffing, it is not surprising that these facilities have had previous violations for infection control and poorer overall quality as measured by having more deficiencies,” said Charlene Harrington, a professor emerita of the School of Nursing at the University of California-San Francisco. “It is a classic situation that reaffirms what researchers have found previously, only the situation with the COVID-19 virus is far more serious than anything the nursing homes have experienced before.”

Food processors face challenge

Meat processors where workers are in close quarters, appear to be particularly impacted by the spread of the virus. This week more than 700 employees at a Tyson Foods meat factory in Perry, Iowa, tested positive for coronavirus.

Also this week more than 370 workers at the Triumph Foods pork plant in St. Joseph, Mo., tested positive for the coronavirus, state health officials announced on Monday. Slaughterhouses across the nation continue reporting high numbers of cases even as some locations are preparing to reopen based on President Donald Trump’s executive order. Meat shortages around the country are being reported.Politico reports that more than a thousand Wendy’s restaurants in the U.S. (nearly 1 in 5) are out of beef products because of meatpacking plant closures, according to research from financial services firm Stephens Inc.

-May 2,2020-

With Tulare County infections on the rise, Ruiz Foods is among those being impacted at its Dinuba and Tulare, Ca manufacturing facilities. Several production lines at the Mexican frozen food plants have been shut down confirms the company with a reported 18 employees testing positive.

Tulare County continues to have the highest number of Covid-19 positive cases out of the six county Central San Joaquin Valley area.  A company spokesperson says “mirroring Tulare County  itself, we noticed an increase in the positives being reported to us by the TCHHS shortly after the three-day Easter weekend.”

Indeed a Dinuba nursing  home has also been impacted Tulare County’s Covid-19 positive count is 578 and tragically – 35 deaths as of today. The latest hospital count in Tulare County has 32 patients hospitalized and 6 of them in ICU.The County has announced it would set up two virus testing sites to open May 4 in Dinuba and in Porterville, at the memorial buildings. Each site will try to do 132 tests per day.

The new sites should help health officials improve contact tracing and COVID-19 tracking  in the county.

The company says “Ruiz Foods has been taking extraordinary and proactive measures since before Covid-19 was identified as a pandemic.” 

In a statement the company offered their account.

“The situation has been a challenge for employers, especially as guidance has changed.  We immediately imposed travel restrictions, hygiene requirements, and educated our team members to prevent infection.  We have implemented temperature screening and mandatory mask wearing.  We have enhanced our already stringent sanitation processes, and worked to improve physical distancing within the facility to the maximum extent feasible.

 

Following CDC, OSHA, and local health authority guidance, we inform any team member who we learn has been exposed to a Covid-19 diagnosed person – whether that exposure is from another team member or a member of the community.  We are placing any exposed team members off work for a minimum of 14 days.  We also work with the team member to get tested.

Original guidance was to refer the team member to their physician, and we have been doing that.  We also have been working with Tulare County HHS and other partners to increase testing options.  This has been a challenge, but as more testing options become available we will be able to get more team members tested.  In fact, later this week, we are working to have mobile testing units in place in Dinuba to assist us with this process.

 

This is a pandemic and data changes constantly.  Just as governmental and health authorities are throttling restrictions up and down to minimize Covid-19 cases, Ruiz Foods is making data based decisions about our operations.  As the level of spread in our communities impacts our Team Members, we will consider the impact and run those lines and shifts that we feel can safely run. 

 

At the same time, while we recognize that we are an essential business, what is and will always be more important to Ruiz Foods is the health and safety of the Team Members who work in our facilities.

-April 28,2020-

 Virus hits local meat plant

Central Valley Meat has had a few employees hit by the virus. The big Hanford meat processing plant has sent some employees home but is continuing to operate as of press time.

In a statement the company says “ Central Valley Meat Company has received notification of several employees who have tested positive for the SARS CoV 2 virus. Several of these individuals were identified through the Company’s Daily Pre-Screening process and were tested after being out of the work environment 

Other Individuals that may have had close unprotected contact with these employees are being identified and tested. Any employee that tests positive will be quarantined and followed by the respective County Health Department and will remain out of the workforce until cleared by medical professionals. 

We would like to commend and thank our Essential Workers who continue to support the Critical Infrastructure of maintaining the country’s food supply by providing meat products to American families. The Company has been following CDC guidelines and has initiated multiple other processes and procedures to provide the greatest safety measures possible for our employees. “

Hanford movie theater will close 

With an announcement coming on their Facebook page the Metro 4 Cinemas in Downtown Hanford says they will close leaving only one movie complex in town open. The posting April 24 says “We are sad to announce that, as of today, Movie Heroes will no longer be operating the Metro 4 Cinemas in Hanford and the doors will be closing.

With the draw of the Casino and the Covid-19 lockdown, we are no longer able to keep the theater open.

We love our Metro 4 family, and though this is the end of our story at the Metro 4, we hope that it will reopen in the future with new ownership to provide movies to the amazing community for years to come.

We can be contacted at support@movieheroes.com

Best wishes and stay safe,

The Movie Heroes Team

Ideal Furniture gallery will relocate its furniture store to the Hanford Mall from the current location on 6th St in Hanford. The furniture outlet will lease some 14,337sf with work to remodel the space underway. The store is currently closed due to the virus. 

Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers will have two locations in the area.

Based in Louisiana, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers has some 500 fast food restaurants nationwide. The privately held company wants to build a new eatery at 3501 S Mooney – in front of the Sequoia Mall. They will also open new location in Hanford next to the new Aldi store that will built from scratch.

 Holiday Lodge will become homeless shelter

The State of California is seeking rooms for the homeless during the COVID crisis.  the Governor’s executive order  was released on March 19, 2020. The Human Services Agency (HSA) is requesting approval to contract with Jagdish Patel, owner of Holiday Lodge, to provide motel rooms as non-congregate shelter options for the sick and medically vulnerable due to the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). 

The Board of Supervisors will approve an Emergency Housing Agreement with Patel, owner of Holiday Lodge to

provide shelter options from April 29, 2020 to June 30, 2020;

Room rate will be $95 .The state will fund the program.

Kings pipeline project OK

The California Energy Commission has approved  funding with Lakeside Pipeline, LLC for a $798,052 grant to construct a new facility for the clean up and upgrade of dairy biogas from nine participating dairies in Kings County. The resulting project will produce over 2.9 million diesel gallon equivalents per year of renewable natural gas transportation fuel with a carbon intensity score of approximately -290 g CO2e/MJ.

The goal of the Agreement is to construct a new facility to cleanup and upgrade diary biogas to biomethane in Kings County; the new facility will process dairy biogas from nine participating diary lagoon digesters. The produced biomethane will be injected into the SoCalGas utility pipeline for transport to new and existing CNG stations in the California Central Valley

Face masks for Kings employees

To the extent practical, all employees should wear cloth face coverings while at their place of employment say a new order agreed to be the Kings County Board of Supervisors.

Board takes 5% cut on salary

A hiring freeze was authorized by the Board of Supervisors on April 14, 2020, with exceptions to be authorized by the County Administrative Office. The Board elected will take a five percent salary reduction on April 21, 2020.

-April 25,2020-

Low census, furloughs and layoffs at local healthcare facilities

In this medical crisis it is counter-intuitive to hear that many of  our local healthcare facilities are operating with far fewer patients than average including busy health clinics like Family HeathCare Network who are seeing fewer walk-ins, labs who are not receiving requests for tests, dentists and specialists whose appointments have been canceled and hospitals like Kaweah Delta whose bed census is down to around 50%.

Mass layoffs and furlough of staff are the result. Local health care concerns filing state layoff notices as of this week include FamilyHealthCare announcing they’ve temporality laid off 39 in Visaia, 32 in Fresno and 33 in Hanford. Fresno Surgical Hospital has laid off 52 and Western Dental with multiple offices around the Valley has laid off 126. Visalia-based ProPT Physical Therapy has laid off 54.

A number of healthcare entities are seeking help from the government stimulus programs and getting it. Kaweah Delta reports that as of mid-April they have received over $14 million to help stem the loss of revenue  during the COVID crisis.The hospital has some 5000 employees.

In March alone ER visits were down 24% and outpatient Urgent Care visits at one of their facilities was down 34%.Also there are fewer rehab patients.One category that is up -robotic surgery.The hospital has also received advanced payment from Medicare to help tide them over as they experience a sea of red ink.

Kaweah Delta has been “docking” employees (cancelling their shifts), says CEO Gary Herbst, reducing hours and furloughing (temporary layoff). “It’s awful, but we have no other option as, like so many businesses and industries out there, our revenue has plummeted. We are helping these employees as much as possible to secure federal and state unemployment insurance benefits and evaluating other options to potentially use sick banks or other sources to cover lost wages,” Herbst said.

Advocates point out hospitals faced skyrocketing costs of preparing for a surge of COVID-19 patients and drops in revenue from shutting down regular operations in terms of scheduled procedures. In addition they have been treating an increasing number of uninsured patients as a result of the economic situation. It all adds up to a “triple whammy” for America’s hospitals and health systems and our health care heroes says statement for the American Hospital Assn.

A Kaweah Delta news release says as of April 23, Kaweah Delta Medical Center is caring for 27 patients who have tested positive for COVID-19. While Kaweah Delta staff are exercising an abundance of caution, 21 of Kaweah Delta’s 5,000 employees have tested positive for COVID-19. Kaweah Delta sent all home to quarantine. Three of those 21 have now fully recovered and are back at work after testing negative for COVID-19. None of these employees have required hospitalization.

As of Thursday, April 23, there were 453 confirmed positive cases in Tulare County with 25 COVID-19-related deaths and 69 recovered. California has 37, 369 positive cases with 1,469 deaths. At the hospital there have been 17 total deaths since the beginning of March, 10 of which were residents of Redwood Springs nursing home.

Tulare County home building slows to crawl

Builders in Tulare County have taken out permits for just 15 new homes so far in April. That compares to 103 for the same period in 2019.

Snowpack about gone on upper Kaweah

Here is a pic from the Mineral King webcam at 9000ft in the upper Kaweah region showing snowpack about gone.

Stale beer a brewing problem

Wall St Journal reports millions of gallons of beer stuck in stadiums, concert halls, restaurants and bars are fast going stale, leaving the beer industry with a tricky problem: What to do with all that booze nobody will ever drink?

The coronavirus pandemic forced U.S. bars to close ahead of two of the country’s biggest drinking occasions: St Patrick’s Day and the “March Madness” basketball tournament. Beer intended for those events is now spoiling in locked establishments, and brewers are trying to get it back so kegs can be refilled before lockdowns…

Coke sales drop 25%

Last week, Coca-Cola reported a 25% drop in sales volumes this month. the real hit has been in the B2B market: Coke does almost half its sales from movie chains, events like concerts, and vending machines. Locations that are now, we hate to break this, closed.

Almond acreage climbs 10% in 2019

California’s 2019 almond acreage is estimated at 1,530,000 acres, up 10 percent from the 2018 acreage of 1,390,000. Of the total acreage for 2019, 1,180,000 acres were bearing and 350,000 acres were non-bearing. Preliminary bearing acreage for 2020 was estimated at 1,260,000 acres.

Nonpareil continued to be the leading variety, followed by Monterey, Butte, Carmel, and Padre.

 Number one Kern, number 2 Fresno, Stanislaus, Merced and Madera were the leading counties. These five counties had 72 percent of the total bearing acreage.

 

Ready to open up economy? Not so fast

CBS News Poll found that only 13% of Americans would definitely return to public places if stay-at- home orders were lifted at this time.Farmers hoping to return to normal sales may have to wait until  consumers feel confident enough to dine out in large numbers speculates a note from Milk Producers Council.

-April 22,2020-

Visalia Industrial Park still busy

Jostens announces closure

Most companies in the Visalia Industrial Park are still operating this week says Bruce Nicotero, general manager at JoAnn Fabrics. Nicotero heads of the industrial park roundtable.”I see activity all around including across the street at VF Corp and at California Dairies – a block south- where they are very busy processing milk.” Just to the north of the JoAnn facility construction on new industrial buildings is underway at the SE corner of Plaza and Riggin and nearby with several other buildings underway.UPS is nearing completion of their new 450,000sf  shipping hub as well. “Most of these businesses- food, logistics, trucking and distribution along with construction – are all essential” he observes.

JoAnn Fabrics distribution center’s volume is down due to the closure of most of their retail stores but their online shipping of product has boomed –  a process that is more labor-intensive says Nicotero.”We are working 4 days week but are very busy and “we have not laid anyone off.” Some 250 work at the plant on Plaza. No one has been hit by the COVID virus.

Nicotero say JoAnn Fabrics has suppled fabric for about 75 million masks since the start of the COVID crisis- much it donated. That includes  the fabric COS is using to make masks for Kaweah Delta here. Photo above is from San Luis Obispo where fabric stores will be allowed to open to encourage more mask making.

At the south end of the industrial park Mike Pickett says his construction projects are still underway “although new projects coming in the door have slowed down.”

Under construction now is a new 20,000sf building Picket is constructing for ag company Compac Sorters who have outgrown their existing facility in Visalia.

“I am optimistic we are going to come out of this OK “ expects Mike.Their Fresno company-Don Pickett & Associates builds 5000 to 25,000sf spec industrial projects in both Fresno and Visalia along with solar projects.

Long time Visalia employer will close

 

Not all the news is good. A fixture in the industrial park, Jostens yearbook announced it would close later this year permanently laying off 110.The printing plant that started with just 20,000sf and 20 employees in 1964 grew to 100,000 and some 270 workers when it was doing well.

The plant was welcome back in the 60s when it was hard in an ag region to find full time jobs or any job in winter months when the company needed additional workers. Thanks to  historian Terry Ommen for digging up this photo when the company-American Yearbook- announced it would locate here.

Gas selling for $1.47

Gasoline is for sale in Farmersville for $1.47 a gallon, lowest in California this weekend.

High pressure builds

High pressure is building all over  the Golden State as the end of the rainy season is behind us.Not so in the US southeast where they continue to get pounded with rain (red in map). Here we sit high and dry with temps set to reach 95 degrees by April 29 in Visalia.

Cotton planting forecast

California Cotton Growers are predicting less cotton planted in  the Valley this year. “Depressed prices and a short water supply have weighed heavily” they say with an expected “ 22% decrease in overall cotton acreage for 2020. They predict” approximately 145,300 acres of pima, 17,300 acres of Hazera and 40,900 acres of upland statewide for the 2020  plus or minus 10%.” If it plays out, it will represent a 20% decrease in pima acreage and a 27% decrease in upland acreage in California as compared to 2019.”

Here is the futures price chart showing 55 cent cotton.

-April 21,2020-

Farmers can expect 40 to 60% Sierra runoff

Valley saw close to double the average river runoff last year but in 2020 it could be as low as quarter of that – perhaps 50% of average.

Runoff on the San Joaquin is estimated at 720 thousand acre feet. -59% of average. But to date the Bureau of Reclamation has announced just a 40% Class 1 supply to contractors.

On average, the Friant delivers 1.2 million acre-feet of irrigation water annually through the Friant Kern Canal and the Madera Canal to more than 15,000 farms on over million acres including those in Tulare County.

Despite an announcement by the Bureau of Reclamation that due to dry water year in northern California  – Lake Shasta will not be able to supply 100% of contracted water to the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors – Friant Water users are not expected to be impacted.

An April 13 update from the Bureau stems from a recent determination of a “Shasta Critical Year,” a term defined in specific water contracts. In general, a Shasta Critical Year occurs when the forecasted inflow to Shasta Lake for a particular water year is equal to or below 3.2 million acre-feet.

“While we were all hoping for a ‘miracle March’ after February landed as record dry, we were not so fortunate,” said Regional Director, Ernest Conant. “Although March did bring some wetter weather across California, it ended up being relatively dry for Shasta inflow.

Among the contractors affected are the Los Banos area San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors and San Joaquin River Settlement Contractors who are now down graded to approximately 75% of their contract supply.

The 150 mile Friant Kern Canal gets all its supply from the upper San Joaquin River and Vink estimates this year water users could get just 40 to 50% of average supply. ”Whatever we get from the San Joaquin we will be able to keep”  and not give up some to the Los Banos farms.

Friant ‘s Class 1 allocation was just upgraded to 55% from 40% this week by the Bureau due to a wet March says Friant spokesman John Amaral.That would add up about 440,000 acre ft delivered down the canal. That may be it for the rest of the water year .This coming

week “looks like we’re heating up” to irrigation season quickly figures Amaral.

Vink says last year was an abundant supply year and expects this year farmers can tap groundwater to make up a decline in surface supply.

Last year Friant contractors got 100% of Class 1 supply.

South Valley watersheds

This week farmers counting on irrigation supply from their watersheds took stock of what runoff might look like this summer. Despite forecasts, estimates may be revised based on snowpack.

Tule River runoff 

Tule River runoff is estimated to be 46% of average this year says  the Department of Water Resources in their April 14 update. Vink, whose districts are in southern Tulare County says Success Lake has about 25,000af in storage. It holds 80,000acre ft. In an average years it yields 63,000af downstream. Vink expects this year it might yield just 20%.

Kaweah River outlook

Runoff on the Kaweah River is expected to be 54% of average for April to July says KDWCD Operations Supervisor Victor Hernandez.That is about 155,000af. That compares with last year’s 182% of average in what was a very wet year. The good news is that most that water not used for crops was recharged in basins around the district or it is in the reservoir says Hernandez. The river runoff on average is about 440,000af.

Kings River forecast

The April 14 DWR bulletin pegs Kings River runoff (50% exceedance) at 56% of average. But Kings Watermaster Steve Haugen says Kings River Water Association uses an estimate that takes into consideration data from multiple surveys of the watershed, snowpack and coming storms.He comes up with 60% of average, perhaps even a bit higher for this water year.

Last year Kings River runoff was 176% of average.The good news is that of the 3 million acre feet the was delivered – only 120,000 acre feet was not retained – flowing to the sea. Pine Flat has nearly 600,000af now. The big reservoir holds one million acre feet.

-April 17,2020-

Tulare cannabis retailers could open this summer

Tulare Mayor Jose Sigala says he expects up to three cannabis retailers could open for recreational use sales after July pending each of their state approvals. There are 2 medical-use pot stores in town who have indicated interest in offering recreational use.The city will allow up to five as a cap, he says, but three for now.

Reedley cold storage expanding

F&H Cold Storage is a refrigerated warehouse facility for storing produce. Just under 1 million cubic feet, F&H offers both refrigerated storage space as well as designated areas for pre-cooling.

Now the company has filed a application with the city of Reedley to do a major expansion of their facility adding a three new cold storage buildings, a juicing  building  and others adding up to 64,000sf – about double their current size.

They will add about 70 employees within a year of its launch says a company filing.

Jobless claims soar in California

Weekly jobless claims in California jumped near 20 fold from the beginning of last month to April 4 according to the EDD.

California sees $1.50 gasoline

Kern County crude oil sits at $17 a barrel today, a price not seen since 2001. Meanwhile retail gasoline is selling for $1.57 a gallon today in Farmersville – the cheapest place in the state.

Tulare County home builder permits down by 50%

Tulare County’s home builders have taken out permits for 106 new homes from March 1 to April 15. That is the time frame where COVID 19 impacts were starting to be felt. By contrast during the same period in 2019 builders took out permits for 212  single family homes, exactly double the number.

Home sales fall in March 

California home sales fell from both the previous month and year in March as the coronavirus pandemic began taking a toll on the housing market, especially in the last two weeks of the month as the state’s stay-at-home order was put in place, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) said today. .

 Across California ,March’s sales total was down 11.5 percent from the 421,670 level in February and was down 6.1 percent from a year ago. Tulare County sales dropped 14% year over year.On the Coast ,San Luis Obispo was up 8%.

“The relatively moderate sales decrease that occurred in March is only a prelude to what we’ll see in April and May because sales were still modestly strong during the first two weeks of March before stay-in-place orders were implemented throughout the state,” said 2020 C.A.R. President Jeanne Radsick, a second-generation REALTOR® from Bakersfield, Calif. “However, pending sales, which is a better reflection of the current market conditions and consumer concerns about the coronavirus, dropped nearly 25 percent and suggest the decline could extend beyond the next couple of months, depending on the duration of the pandemic and the lockdown.”

JC Penny eyes bankruptcy

Visalia Mall anchor JC Penny may be exploring bankruptcy say multiple reports. On Tuesday, April 14, Reuters reported that J.C. Penney (JCP) was exploring its bankruptcy options “The Plano, Texas,-based company has access to enough cash to survive in the months ahead, even as revenue dries up because of the store closures, the source said. Still, the company is contemplating a bankruptcy filing as one way to rework its unsustainable finances and save money on looming debt payments, which include significant annual interest expenses…”

The retailer’s stock has fallen from $1.5 a share at the beginning of the year to 25 cents today. Visalia Mall reports the Visalia Penny’s is one their strongest.

Tax on sugary drinks cuts consumption

Seattle Times

Lower-income children in Seattle are drinking less pop than before a soda tax was established, but so are their peers outside the city, according to a new report based on surveys with kids.

Seattle’s tax of 1.75 cents-per-fluid ounce on sugar-sweetened beverages took effect in January 2018. The tax is charged to beverage distributors. But the distributors can pass the tax on to stores and the stores can pass the tax on to consumers.

Proponents said they hoped the tax would reduce consumption of unhealthful drinks, particularly among lower-income children, and raise money for healthful food and education programs.

In the year after the tax took effect, lower-income Seattle kids surveyed by the University of Washington and the Seattle Children’s Research Institute reduced their consumption of taxed beverages by 3.3 ounces a day, according to the report released Wednesday.

Meanwhile, lower-income children surveyed in “comparison-area” cities without soda taxes, including Renton, Federal Way, Kent, Auburn and other South King County cities, reduced their consumption by 3.9 ounces a day.

-April 14,2020-

New home subdivisions in Lemoore total 900 homes

Plans for two large new home subdivisions in Lemoore were told to the city council recently.

An application was received from Lennar for a subdivision on the West side, east of West Hills College. In 3 phases, Lennar plans to build 362 homes.In addition they plan another 200 multi-family dwelling units and approximately 20,000 square-feet of retail shopping space, located on the southeast corner of College Avenue and Bush Street.

Also an application was received for Lacey Ranch on the north side of Lemoore.The home building projects here is approximately 155 acres and 534 lots. It will be phased over several years.

Westside lettuce plowed over 

Cal Matters reports that“Lettuce growers have been among those hardest hit in Fresno County as the economy grinds to a near halt.

Longtime farmer John Harris, of Harris Farms, was growing 204 acres of lettuce for Salinas-based Taylor Farms, one of the giants in the industry. But that all changed when the restaurants they supply turned off their stoves. Last week, Harris’ workers plowed under nearly 13 acres of fresh lettuce that had nowhere else to go.

“It is a very unfortunate situation, but the demand all of a sudden was just falling apart,” Harris said.

For many farmers, it’s more cost-effective to let crops rot in the fields. They can’t afford to harvest it if there is no market for it, and food banks can’t cover the full cost of labor.”

Oregon-based Central California Baking Company now runs Svenhard’s

Company officials with US Bakery Inc, better known as Franz Family Bakeries, say they bought Svenhard’s Swedish Bakery  operations based in Exeter and are running the Exeter plant now. 

US Bakery (USB) is a bread and pastry manufacturer headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Franz Bakery was founded in 1906. U.S. Bakery also owns the Northwest regional bread brands Williams’, Gai’s, and Snyder’s.The company has a plant in LA as well as in Oregon.

Svenhard’s filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in December after relocating from Oakland to Exeter in 2016 making those signature sweet rolls sold all over the West.

In bankruptcy court papers US Bakery says it has been operating Svenhard’s under the name Central California Baking Co since November, even before the bankruptcy filing.

One of the filings says US Bakery satisfied Svenhard’s largest creditor,Bank of America who had been owed $5.2 million, Svenhard’s largest creditor.

Firebaugh’s TomaTek tomato plant getting $8 mil grant

Neil Jones Food Co who operates TomaTek tomato processing plant will receive an $8,000,000 grant to design, install, and operate a microgrid system at the recipient’s tomato processing facility in Firebaugh.The grant is from the California Energy Commission.

The microgrid system will produce and store renewable electricity, providing reliability while reducing grid electricity consumption and GHG emissions associated with the facility.

The microgrid system consists of a solar photovoltaic (PV) system with integrated battery energy storage system  and microgrid controller. The approximately 6.5 megawatt solar PV system will be roof mounted on three existing buildings.