KVPR News Podcast

Dr. Sukhjit Dhillon, an emergency medicine physician at UCSF Fresno, says she is concerned that the recent increase in COVID-19 cases will once again overwhelm hospital emergency rooms. New hospital admissions due to COVID-19 have increased in Fresno County by 71 percent in the past week, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More and more people are coming in with respiratory symptoms likely due to the Delta variant of the coronavirus, she says. Most are unvaccinated

Early Thursday morning, gymnast Sunisa Lee became the first Hmong American to win a gold medal for team USA. And just as her hometown community in Minnesota cheered her on, the San Joaquin Valley’s Hmong community was watching as well. Geri Yang-Johnson of Fresno has never met Sunisa Lee, but as a fellow Hmong-American, she says Lee feels like a little sister. That’s why she got up at 3:45am on Thursday to watch Lee compete. “Sunisa Lee represents all of us,” she said. “All of Hmong America was

Mohamed Ahmed has worked behind the register of the Food King in Fresno’s Tower District for more than a decade. He’s the owner, and he says many of his customers are regulars coming in every week for basic staples or beer. He expects to see them, but the pandemic changed routines and put added stress on his business. As part of our occasional series on how people are processing the magnitude of the pandemic, FM89’s Alice Daniel spoke with him and produced this audio postcard.

As the Delta variant has made its way to the most prevalent COVID-19 variant in the state, other indicators of the pandemic have been rising as well. Statewide, case rates and positivity rates are four to five times higher than they were a month ago, and hospitals are slowly seeing a rise in COVID-positive patients as well. That’s partly why, earlier this month, Los Angeles County became the first to reinstate a mask mandate for all people, regardless of vaccination status. Health officials in

Now that most pandemic restrictions on houses of worship have been lifted, the Sikh Institute of Fresno looks much like it did pre-COVID. On a recent Sunday at this 3-story, salmon-colored temple known as a gurdwara, people stream in and out of the main worship hall, some wearing traditional saris and kurtas, others in t-shirts and jeans. While they circle the altar, a trio of men playing harmoniums and tabla drums sing hymns known as kirtan in the Northern Indian language of Punjabi. Outside,

Last week, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, is unconstitutional. For now that means new DACA applications will not be approved, but DACA renewals will still be processed. It was the latest blow to the program, which allows more than 600,000 immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children to receive work permits and protection against deportation. To find out how local DACA recipients are responding to the ruling, Valley Edition

The city of Hanford in Kings County is celebrating its 130th birthday, and residents have filled the weekend with activities and events commemorating the milestone. To hear more about the celebration and how the city was founded, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with Brad Albert, Hanford’s parks and community services director.

Last week, an unidentified Yosemite park ranger shared on Facebook the heartbreaking account of a mother bear mourning the loss of her cub after it was hit by a speeding vehicle. The post went viral, and drew national headlines, calling attention to the danger posed to wildlife by speeding motorists. To get a better sense of the magnitude of the issue, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with Yosemite National Park ranger Jamie Richards.

A project is underway throughout July to remember when the now dry Kern River flowed through the city of Bakersfield. The organization Bring Back the Kern is collecting photos, videos and stories of the once moving river for an upcoming exhibit. Valley Edition host Kathleen Schock spoke with the project’s organizer Miguel Rodriguez about what the river once meant to the community and why he wants to bring it back.

A new book from journalist and author Amy Wu explores how a growing number of women are blending agriculture with technology to find new solutions to feed the world. Valley Edition host Kathleen Schock spoke to Wu about her book, “From Farms to Incubators: Women Innovators Revolutionizing How Our Food is Grown,” and how women are bringing a diversity of perspective to the agricultural industry.