By Faughn Economy • Hi-Tech 0 Comments

Valley awarded $118M for clean ag equipment

More clean machines are coming to valley farms. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution District has accepted an additional $118.8 million to replace agricultural equipment in the San Joaquin Valley, with the funding from the California Air Resources Board seen as a step in reducing agricultural emissions through regulatory and incentive-based strategies. The FARMER Program (Funding Agricultural Replacement Measures for Emission Reductions) is a collaborative effort between the agricultural community, the air district and CARB in addressing emissions from agricultural sources, particularly in the San Joaquin Valley.

To date, the district has been the recipient of $432,129,600 in FARMER Program funding during the first four funding cycles. “The district appreciates the state recognizing the public health benefit that results from the FARMER funding,” said Samir Sheikh, executive director for the Valley Air District. “The San Joaquin Valley agricultural sector feeds the world and programs like FARMER are critical to supporting the ongoing transition to more sustainable and air-friendly practices.”

Valley agriculture, in partnership with the district and CARB, has invested more than $1.7 billion in public and private funding towards replacing nearly 17,000 pieces of old, higher-polluting equipment and implementing other measures to reduce emissions associated with valley agricultural operations. In March, the valley district approved increases to incentive levels for its Agriculture Tractor Replacement program and added two new incentive tiers for smaller farming operations. Operations of 100 acres and less in size can now receive up to 80% off the cost of equipment, and operations between 101 and 500 acres in size can now receive up to 70% off.

Funding opportunities can be found on the program’s webpage at ww2.valleyair.org/grants/tractor-replacement-program. Smaller farmers also receive an increased incentive under the district’s Alternatives to Agricultural Burning program. The Valley Air District covers eight counties including San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and portions of Kern.

https://www.lodinews.com/news/article_db7dc8f4-50ef-11ed-a0c2-2369089cedaa.html

By Faughn New Location • Workforce 0 Comments

More jobs announced as Turlock’s new Amazon fulfillment center opens. How much do they pay?

The new Amazon fulfillment center in Turlock opened Thursday morning with big smiles and news of more jobs.

The massive 1.1 million-square-foot warehouse was built from the ground up at Fulkerth Road and Fransil Lane over the last year and a half. The grand opening celebration included the announcement of some 500 more jobs than previously predicted to staff the facility once fully operational. Initially, the online retail giant said it planned to hire some 1,000 workers in Turlock, but now expects to employ 1,500. “This is huge!” said Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak, who was among a handful of dignitaries and their representatives at the ribbon-cutting for the center. “It was just a dream that we get this area together and that we start to bring big businesses here, big opportunities for jobs. …. This will be a benefit for decades for our community.”

Turlock Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Gina Blom, left, and Yosemite Community College District Chancellor Henry Yong, Amazon Turlock Senior Operations Manager Steve Ramirez and Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak cut the ceremonial ribbon Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022, to open the new fulfillment center on Fulkerth Road in Turlock, Calif.

The new facility, the first for Turlock and only the second in Stanislaus County from the e-commerce company, received its first shipment Sept. 25 and has been slowly ramping up production as it works to get fully staffed. The fulfillment center, which began construction in April 2021, had to push back its original projected opening date of “mid-2022” to late September. Like its smaller counterpart in Patterson, which opened in 2013, the new Turlock facility is a so-called nonsortable fulfillment center, meaning it stocks, picks, packs and ships large, bulk or otherwise unusually sized items.

Inside, the floor is filled with 40-foot-high rows that are being filled with everything from patio furniture to outdoor grills, mini-fridges and area rugs. Senior Operations Manager Steve Ramirez, a Modesto native turned Turlock resident who previously worked in a Tracy Amazon site, said the new center is only about 7% stocked. Inventory is expected to be at 30% by the holidays, with the facility stocked at full capacity by February. A worker sorts items inside the new Amazon fulfillment center in Turlock, Calif. Oct. 20, 2022.

Already, Amazon has hired hundreds of workers to begin filling its shifts. The facility operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and has 12 shifts across its schedule. Hundreds of more openings are expected, with new workers joining daily, Ramirez said.

Starting salary for the new floor positions start at $18.75, or $39,000 a year for full-time workers. The Turlock starting wages are just shy of the new $19 average hourly wage the company announced in September that it was rolling out for most of its front-line warehouse and transportation workers across the country. But Amazon spokeswoman Natalie Banke said wages vary “city by city,” and the $19 was a national average, not the national minimum starting salary. The Turlock salary is the same as Patterson’s, which employs about 600 workers. A worker moves items Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022, inside the new Amazon fulfillment center in Turlock, Calif.

The company also plans to hire an additional 200 to 300 seasonal workers in Turlock, starting now, who will help with the holiday rush. Ramirez said he expects it to take six months to a year for the new Turlock center to be fully staffed. Banke said about 92% of employees so far live in Stanislaus County. On the warehouse floor, a small armada of red hydrogen-powered forklifts zip along rows and rows of 40-foot racks. Associates are lifted 30-plus feet into the air to stock and pick items, with others sorting and shipping on the floor of its two levels. Items then go from the warehouse directly to Amazon delivery vehicles or third-party package carriers for delivery.

A worker drives a power lift inside the new Amazon fulfillment center that recently opened in Turlock, Calif Oct. 20, 2022. “People are very excited about the opening,” said senior site safety manager Myranda St. John, a Modesto rsident who previously worked in one of the company’s Stockton facilities and has seen her commute time cut in half. “Amazon has provided a lot of opportunities for myself and for the larger community. I’ve been able to go from an hourly employee to a salaried employee in less than five years.”

In March of this year, Amazon announced its partnership with Turlock’s California State University, Stanislaus, and Modesto Junior College for the company’s Career Choice program. Hourly employees at the new Turlock facility are eligible for free tuition at both institutions. Full- and part-time employees are eligible, but only full-time employees will have all their tuition paid (part-time workers receive half). The entrance to the warehouse floor inside the new Amazon fulfillment center in Turlock, Calif. is seen Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022.

The new facility, like all Amazon distribution centers, is named after a nearby airport. The Turlock site is named MCE1 for the Merced Regional Airport, which is about 30 miles to the south. “We are very blessed being here in Turlock and we have had amazing response to our hiring and have had no constraints there at all,” Ramirez said. “We will continuously be on-boarding a few hundred associates throughout the remainder of the year.” Amazon Senior Operations Manager Steve Ramirez inside the new large and bulky item fulfillment center that has opened in Turlock, Calif., on Oct. 20, 2022.

Job seekers interested in applying for full-time, part-time or seasonal work at the Turlock Amazon facility can find open positions and applications online at amazon.com/flexiblejobs. Job seekers can also sign up for text alerts for upcoming Amazon jobs in the region. To sign up, text “AMAZONJOBS” to ” 77088 ,” and then you will receive a series of texts asking you to opt-in for jobs in your ZIP code.

https://app.meltwater.com/newsletters/analytics/view/5e8624bb4a32930012f3b64d/newsletter/61c4b6b1c1abab0013267cc9/distribution/6356c9ff80a4c00013592fa0/document/MBEE000020221021eial0002u

By Faughn Hi-Tech 0 Comments

High-speed rail stations ‘one step closer to reality’ in the Central Valley

FRESNO, Calif. – The design contract for the Central Valley’s high-speed rail stations has been approved by the California High-Speed Rail Board – another step towards making the project a reality.

On Thursday, the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s (Authority) Board of Directors unanimously approved awarding the design and support services contract for the Merced, Fresno, Kings/Tulare, and Bakersfield stations that will serve high-speed rail passengers on the initial 171-mile segment. The Authority awarded an approximately $35 million station design contract to Foster + Partners and Arup for the first two separately funded phases. The first to advance the design work at the four station sites. This includes identifying right-of-way and utility relocation requirements necessary for construction. This phase is estimated to take 30 months. The second is to progress to the final design and construction-ready documents, construction support, and commissioning.

“The first four Central Valley high-speed rail stations are one step closer to reality. High-speed rail stations will transform cities, spur economic development and create community hubs within the heart of our state.”

TOM RICHARDS, CALIFORNIA HIGH-SPEED RAIL AUTHORITY CHAIRMAN.

Currently, the California high-speed rail project is under construction along 119 miles in California’s Central Valley at more than 30 active job sites. In the past several months, the Authority also started advanced design work on the alignment to extend work north into Merced and south into Bakersfield.

https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/high-speed-rail-stations-one-step-closer-to-reality-in-the-central-valley/

By Faughn Economy 0 Comments

California About to Become the World’s 4th-Largest Economy

With many California companies outperforming their U.S. and international peers, the Golden State is poised to become the world’s fourth-largest economy. That was the projection delivered Monday by analyst Matthew A. Winkler in a Bloomberg opinion column. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces challenger state Sen. Brian Dahle in the Nov. 8 election, quickly touted the analysis on social media.

California Attracts Talented People

Predictions about California’s demise are hardly a new phenomenon. But they’ve heated up in recent years because of the state’s wildfires, housing shortage, rise in the cost of living, and the appeal of low-tax states such as Texas to both families and businesses. But, Winkler writes, “California’s economy has proven relatively resilient, first through the pandemic and now through the current period of elevated inflation. So much so, that the Golden State’s gross domestic product is poised to overtake Germany’s as the fourth largest in the world after the US, China, and Japan.”

According to Winkler, the California economy is being turbo-charged by investments in renewable energy and the ability to attract talented entrepreneurs and employees. “We value innovation but we also value diversity and equity,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. “It’s nice to see those values are economically rewarded because California was very much lambasted” during the Trump administration.

Golden State GDP at $3.35 Trillion and Growing

Economists calculated the state’s gross domestic product at $3.357 trillion last year. Although California’s new GDP won’t be known until 2023, estimates suggest the state may have already caught Germany. Winkler wrote that at least one forecast has California already ahead of Germany by $72 billion.

https://gvwire.com/2022/10/24/california-about-to-become-the-worlds-4th-largest-economy/

By Faughn Education 0 Comments

Fresno Unified gets ‘game-changing’ $20 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott

Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson was poised to announce great news at a gala event this week: The district’s new foundation had successfully raised $200,000 in college scholarships, mainly from employees. Then he received an unsolicited and unexpected call that MacKenzie Scott, the former spouse of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is giving the foundation 100 times that amount – $20 million – no strings attached. The bank transfer arrived last Friday. Nelson, normally garrulous, didn’t know what to say. “I’m rarely at a loss for words, but this might be one of those times,” he said. Scott, whom Forbes listed as the 18th richest American in 2022 with a net worth of $38 billion, is a novelist turned philanthropist who appears in a hurry to meet her pledge to give most of her fortune away – and then some. Since 2019, she has donated $12 billion to more than 1,200 non-profit organizations. Fresno Unified apparently is the first school district in the United States to receive a grant.

Representatives of Scott are tight-lipped about her donations. They refer all inquiries to essays on the website Medium in which Scott lists all recipients and discusses her philosophy of giving.  No other school district was listed. The last entry was in March. Scott has given hundreds of millions of dollars each to big-name charities: YMCAs-YWCAs; Big Brothers, Big Sisters; Planned Parenthood; United Ways; Second Harvest. Her education giving in California includes CSU Northridge and other California State University campuses, Long Beach City College and other community colleges, advocacy and research nonprofits, including Learning Policy Institute, NewSchools Venture Fund, Kingmakers of Oakland, which focuses on developing Black boys to reach their potential, College Track, and the parent empowerment organization The Oakland REACH.

Nelson doesn’t know why Fresno Unified, the state’s third largest school district with 76,000 students, was chosen. The word from Scott’s representative, Nelson said, was “We’ve heard through multiple venues that the work happening in Fresno is meaningful, worthwhile, and something that we want to support.” “It’s left to us to connect the dots,” Nelson said. One initiative that could have drawn attention, he said, is the district’s dual-enrollment partnership with Benedict College, a historically Black college in South Carolina, and discussions to locate an HBCU in the Central Valley. About 8% of Fresno Unified’s students are Black. Education equity in higher education has been a focus of Scott’s giving.

Or perhaps, he said, it was the district’s efforts to promote student mental health. In August, Gov. Gavin Newsom chose McLane High to promote a $4.7 billion effort to ensure mental health and substance abuse help for Californians to age 25. McLane High has established a mental health hub with a dedicated staff of psychologists and social workers and “is a model for what we hope to achieve,” Newsom said.

Or, he speculated, it was the district’s participation in the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network, a national initiative that involves Fresno. The city’s big nonprofits, hospitals, Fresno City College, Fresno State, Fresno Pacific University are working together to improve health and education outcomes for kids, particularly the proportion of kids pursuing a BA degree, Nelson said. One of the funders of StriveTogether is Blue Meridian Partners, a philanthropic organization whose chief investment and impact officer is Jim Shelton, a former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. Scott is also a funder of Blue Meridian. “I suspect many of the grants are relationship-driven,” said Don Shalvey, former deputy director of K-12 education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who is now CEO of San Joaquin A+, a nonprofit working to improve education outcomes in Stockton “I am thrilled for Fresno; this is terrific for the Central Valley,” said Shalvey. “They are unique where they are located and how they are thinking about doing things differently to meet the needs of all students.”

A message about the Valley

Unlike most foundations, Scott’s giving is based on trust. She sets no specific demands for using the money and doesn’t require filing quarterly expense reports. The only requirement is to report back on how the money will benefit Fresno children, Nelson said. The $20 million will enable the new Foundation for Fresno Unified Schools to create an endowment, producing $800,000 to $1 million annually, said Nelson, who is on the foundation board. Initially at least, the grant will enable the foundation to more than quadruple college scholarships. “I’m sure other interests will surface, but fundamentally the idea is that this provides college opportunities for our youth,” Nelson said. But as important as the money, which Nelson calls “a game changer,” is the message the grant sends.

With 90% of students qualifying for subsidized school meals, Fresno is the poorest large urban area in the state. It is not a place high on people’s list of places to move to. “I mean, as a Californian, Fresno’s the last pick for kickball on most occasions, right?” “From a very personal point of view, it’s just incredibly gratifying because I’ve been on this journey of constantly saying, ‘Really good things are happening here. Really wonderful people live here. The diversity of the valley, the agricultural roots of the valley, there’s so much good that’s here,’ “Nelson said. “Now there’s a philanthropist who is well known nationally saying, ‘Fresno, we really believe in the work you’re doing.’ That’s probably worth $20 million easily. The amount of perceptual change that can be generated by a gift such as this to the Valley – it’s almost immeasurable,” he said.

https://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/story/news/2022/10/05/fresno-unified-gets-game-changing-20-million-gift-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott/8188170001/

By Faughn New Location • Workforce 0 Comments

Irvine farm technology company may set up operations center in Bakersfield

An ag-tech startup in Irvine is considering establishing operations in Bakersfield in coordination with city government. M8 Systems, founded by the executive credited with inventing cashier-less retail stores for Amazon, proposes to locally engineer, assemble, test and sell automated irrigation systems that would use sensors and control systems to help farmers use water more efficiently.

No agreement has been finalized to bring the company to Bakersfield, but founder and CEO Max Safai said he hopes to employ six people in the city by the end of this year. By the end of 2024, he said, nearly 20 M8 workers could be working locally — three-quarters or more of its workforce. He said the company’s headquarters would to Bakersfield. “We want to have a close relationship with the city of Bakersfield, and we also want to be where the action is in the Central Valley,” Safai said.

Director Paul M. Saldaña of Bakersfield’s Economic and Community Development Department said companies like M8 are “exactly the type of innovative companies that we’d like to see come to Bakersfield.” He pointed to a $150,000 deal the city recently struck to attract another tech startup, North Carolina battery company SineWatts Inc. “There are a number of innovative companies that we continue to have conversations with, and we hope … to see similar opportunities in the very near future,” Saldaña said. He said the city might offer a financial incentive to M8.

Safai said M8 started in March 2019 after avocado farmers he knows in San Diego County expressed concern about rising irrigation costs. After some tinkering, he performed two “proofs of concept” in his garage that demonstrated the viability of a system to measure water use precisely, detect leaks and then turn off valves as appropriate before issuing a digital alert that a problem has been found. The idea now is to combine irrigation-control equipment — new or already installed in ag fields — with satellite and drone imagery, weather information and cloud-data technology in what Safai called a new application of “smart ag.”

M8’s system would sense changing conditions, including potentially adverse events such as wind that could waste irrigation water, and make automated suggestions around the clock to save farmers money. Any water leaks would automatically result in pressure shutoffs to specific pipes, along with the transmission of text messages to nearby farmworkers. The system would take into account soil status, relative humidity and temperature readings.

The company’s biggest test yet is expected to take place during the next two weeks as M8 brings 23 San Diego County farmers online to test out the system. Safai said the company is also negotiating its first large investment of outside money. While orchards would benefit, Safai said the best application of the technology might be row crops such as the carrots grown in and around Kern. He noted the Central Valley produces revenues of about $17 billion per year, or about a quarter of the U.S. food supply. “This is a very big market for us,” he said.

It will be important to show M8’s customers the company is responsive to their concerns and near enough to do something about them quickly, Safai said. For that reason, he hopes to find a local home for not only product assembly and testing but also procurement, logistics and repairs ready within 24 hours. There will need to be local electrical engineering and mechanical engineering labs, as well as an area for working with fluid flow technology. A small presence would remain in Irvine to perform tasks such as software engineering, human resources management, some sales and finance, partly to serve customers in San Diego County. Eventually the company may lease its products to farmers, as a way of helping them fix their costs, but Safai said the initial plan is to sell the systems directly to farmers and charge them for the company’s data plan. Safai noted he has come to Bakersfield to meet with people about the proposal to set up a local operation. Once here, he found the people he met were “amazingly wonderful, motivated people.”

https://www.bakersfield.com/news/irvine-farm-technology-company-may-set-up-operations-center-in-bakersfield/article_914bf29e-3a9a-11ed-ad1a-b7925f7bd7b3.html

By Faughn Education 0 Comments

Fresno State awarded a $2.9M grant to support future health professionals

The California Department of Health Care Access and Information announced $40.8 million in grant awards to 20 organizations that support and encourage students from underrepresented regions and backgrounds to pursue healthcare careers, including Fresno State.

Fresno State will receive a $2.9 million award over five years, to be issued through the Health Professions Pathways Program. Other California State Universities awarded include California State University, Dominguez Hills ($3.3 million), San Diego State University ($2.5 million), and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt’s Sponsored Programs Foundation ($498,000).

“The Health Professions Pathways Program will strengthen preexisting relationships and support building new partnerships,” said Lilia DeLaCerda, the principal investigator on the project and director of the Health Careers Opportunity Program at Fresno State.

https://campusnews.fresnostate.edu/september-26-2022/fresno-state-awarded-a-2-9m-grant-to-support-future-health-professionals

By Faughn Hi-Tech • New Developments 0 Comments

High-Speed Rail completes second structure in Kings County

The High-Speed Rail Authority has completed the second Kings County structure for the state project — the Kent Avenue Grade Separation located at Kent Avenue west of Highway 43 and south of Hanford. The Authority announced the completion of the 215-foot-long overcrossing, which will take vehicles over the future high-speed rail tracks, on Wednesday. Work crews placed 12 pre-cast concrete girders spanning 56 to 91 feet long to form the structure’s deck.

The new structure is the project’s latest progression in the Central Valley, following the summer completion of the Jackson Avenue separation, which was also in Kings County, and the Avenue 15½ grade separation in Madera County.

In addition, the Authority recently awarded contracts to advance design along the Merced to Madera and Fresno to Bakersfield project sections, expanding the 119-mile segment to 171 miles of electrified high-speed rail under development and construction.

https://hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/high-speed-rail-completes-second-structure-in-kings-county/article_60167afc-192b-5411-9410-736cc7e1f4c4.html

By Faughn Education • New Developments 0 Comments

UC Davis unveils plans for new agricultural research ‘hub’ funded by $50 million gift

The University of California, Davis, will build a $40 million agricultural innovation center later this decade, a “transformative” expansion to the school’s food science and sustainability programs, after the university on Thursday announced its largest gift ever bestowed by individual donors.

Billionaire philanthropists Lynda and Stewart Resnick are giving $50 million to UC Davis: $40 million toward the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation, a 40,000-square-foot, LEED-certified “hub” that will include classrooms and research space; plus $10 million for competitive research grants in the field of agriculture. “This gift will extend our efforts to lead field-level research, analyze big data, rapidly breed plant varieties that can adapt to our changing climate and fine-tune existing crop varieties,” UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May said at an event Thursday morning, unveiling the donation at the Mondavi Center.  “We’ll do this by educating and training these future generations to help us meet the demands for feeding communities in a swiftly changing environment.”

University leaders said the innovation center will focus on five main research areas: solutions for agricultural byproducts; water and energy efficiency; technology development; crop resiliency and sustainability in the face of climate change; and expanding access to nutritious food. “It will serve as an anchor for new ideas, bringing together experts from across disciplines at UC Davis to focus research on California’s iconic specialty crops, such as pistachios, almonds and pomegranates,” the chancellor said.

To that end, the Beverly Hills-based Resnicks are founders of the Wonderful Co. food empire, which produces pomegranates, pistachios and more. Stewart and Lynda Resnick are among the most successful and powerful agribusiness tycoons in California. “We share a passion for progress at the intersection of agriculture, science and sustainability,” Andy Anzaldo, the Wonderful Co. chief operating officer of philanthropy, said Thursday.

Anzaldo spoke on behalf of the Resnicks, who had been slated to appear at Thursday’s announcement but were unable to make it after President Joe Biden’s arrival in Los Angeles disrupted air traffic, delaying flights out of Southern California. “Working together through research and its practical application in our fields, we are racing to make crops more productive, using fewer resources and feeding the world,” Anzaldo said. “That’s one of the reasons why I’m proud this new center will be the hub for the best researchers in the world to help agriculture be part of the solution.”

Design for what May called a “cutting-edge” research center will begin later this year with construction estimated to be complete by 2026. It will be built near the school’s current plant sciences building. The Resnicks’ donation comes amid the university’s “Expect Greater” initiative – a fundraising campaign launched in 2020 aiming to raise at least $2 billion toward “student support, health, climate change and more” by 2024. UC Davis is on track to exceed that goal, already past $1.7 billion after raising $323 million during the 2021-22 fiscal year. Founders of the Wonderful Co. food empire, Forbes magazine estimates the Resnicks’ net worth at $8 billion.

Through their farming operations, the couple is also one of the largest consumers of water in California, if not the largest. Forbes has estimated that the Wonderful farms, which sprawl across thousands of acres in the southern San Joaquin Valley, use as much water in a year as the city of San Francisco consumes in a decade. The UC Davis donation is not the Resnicks’ first major gift to a California higher-ed campus. Caltech recently broke ground on an environmental sustainability research center bankrolled by a $750 million pledge from the couple. Stewart Resnick is also a member of the UC Davis Chancellor’s Board of Advisors, a group of nearly two dozen influential figures including Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Kings owner Vivek Ranadive.

https://app.meltwater.com/newsletters/analytics/view/5e8624bb4a32930012f3b64d/newsletter/61c4b6b1c1abab0013267cc9/distribution/634995d16545ca0014b6386f/document/SBEE000020221013eiad002gx

By Faughn Education 0 Comments

Central Valley Ag launches 2023 Scholarship Program

YORK — Central Valley Ag (CVA) launches its annual scholarship program for students pursuing higher education in an agriculturally related field. CVA will award 20 $1,000 scholarships.

“CVA is committed to improving, encouraging and enabling the healthy development of youth throughout the region,” said Chad Carlson, SVP of Talent at CVA. “And by helping our youth pursue their agricultural career, we ensure that the agricultural industry continues to grow.”

This scholarship program enables youth to continue their education on a collegiate level. Based on academic achievement, service to local communities, and knowledge of the cooperative system, the CVA Scholarship Committee will select the winners of each scholarship.

https://yorknewstimes.com/central-valley-ag-launches-2023-scholarship-program/article_bd0d6ed4-4bcb-11ed-8993-83a7c72aedeb.html