July 15, 2025

How Medicaid Cuts will Impact the Central Valley | White Sturgeon Population Among Lowest on Record | Spoken Word Poetry Meets Professional Wrestling

50 minutes

How federal Medicaid cuts could impact healthcare across the San Joaquin Valley. Also, the white sturgeon population is among the lowest recorded in California. Finally, the Spoken Word Federation hosts a performance poetry event.

How Medicaid Cuts will Impact the Central Valley

Health clinics that serve more than one million patients across the San Joaquin Valley are bracing for the impact of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” - which calls for over $1 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years to Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for low-income patients. Across the Central Valley’s eight counties, nearly seven out of 10 patients rely on MediCal - California’s version of Medicaid. Tim Sheehan is a Health Reporting Fellow with The Intersection and joins us with the conversations taking place among Valley clinics, as well as how key Congress members voted.

White Sturgeon Population Among Lowest on Record

White Sturgeon are an ancient and iconic species native to California. When left undisturbed, these fish - which can travel between salt and freshwater - can grow more than 20-feet long and live 100 years or longer. But this sturgeon population has been on a steep decline over the decades, and the most recent survey was among the lowest on record. John Kelly is the Statewide Sturgeon Coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. He joins us about the threats and how the state is taking action.

Spoken Word Poetry Meets Professional Wrestling

What happens when you cross spoken word poetry with professional wrestling? You can find out this weekend when the Spoken Word Federation presents Verbal Assault II at Toro Z Muay Thai on Stockton Blvd in Sacramento. David Loret de Mola is the President of the Spoken Word Federation and they have pitted some of Sacramento’s best spoken word performers against each other for this unique event happening Saturday, July 19. We’ll learn more about the federation and meet two of the competing poets, Natascha Lanes and Myntube Tiaterrice.

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