Paper Trail Podcast

Paul and Ryan are joined by reporter Serena Bettis to talk about her story about Selma's new camping ordinance that stresses removing homeless individuals from public areas. Serena got the opportunity to speak with Governor Gavin Newsom about the matter during his stop in East Orosi to sign a bill on water infrastructure.

Paul, Ryan and Serena also talk about the bill Newsom signed that is set to address administrative struggles facing smaller community services districts in charge of water and sewer systems. 

CEO for Self Help Enterprises, Tom Collishaw, joins Paul on the podcast today.

Self Help Enterprises has built homes and other types of multifamily units for decades in the Valley. They have a heavy presence in Tulare County with all of it's housing needs. 

Paul and Tom talk about the different means by which residents locate housing with Self Help, sweat equity, and mortgage assistance. They eventually move on to homelessness, affordable housing options and NIMBY-ism in local communities.

Paul and Ryan talk about the recent law suit filed by the city of Porterville against the Tulare County Regional Transit Agency. Porterville states that TCRTA owes the city $3 million for having to provide their own transit services when TCRTA would not. 

Then they talk about Sheriff Mike Boudreaux's testimony on a House justice committee hearing. Boudreaux says that he has had a "front row seat" to the Biden-Harris administration's policy on border security, and that communities in Tulare County have been victimized as a result. 

Central Valley Journalism Collaborative reporter Brianna Vaccari joins Paul on the podcast. 

Brianna once worked for the predecessor papers to the Mid Valley Times, before moving onto larger network papers. Her last stop before the CVJC was the Fresno Bee where she covered the Fresno City Council for several years. 

Paul and Brianna swap war stories, share their thoughts on news marketing, compare nonprofit news with online and for profit news, and more. 

The CVJC news product, The Merced Focus can be found here. 

Due to a technical snafu Sam Ramirez graciously agreed to come back to the table to talk with Paul about The Hyde brunch spot. 

And at the risk of raking over some of the topics they went over during their last interview, Sam and Paul talk about the bravery it takes to open a small business in town, and what makes that successful. They also discuss the progress coming for Sam's new restaurant.

Reggie joins Paul and Ryan on the podcast today to talk about the new deal struck between Rawhide and the city of Visalia on MLB mandated stadium improvements. The deal allows Rawhide to stay in the stadium until their original lease end date of 2029. And splits some of the cost of improvements, but includes a rent increase on the part of the Rawhide. 

Ben Moore, CEO of the Valley's own The Ugly Company, joins the Paper Trail Podcast today. 

The Ugly Company takes the fruit growers and grocery markets won't/can't sell and puts it to good use. Instead of letting it rot on the ground, or sit in a landfill, or just become compost, The Ugly Company dehydrates slices of peaches, cherries, mangos and plenty more and turns them into delicious snack food. 

Instead of having Ben come on to give his well rehearsed spiel on the company he founded and grew from quite literally the ground up, Ben and Paul talk about a smattering of topics. Ben was a victim of the CrowdStrike update that halted air travel while he was in Mexico, his tough conversation with a Valley nay-sayer and why people in the Valley are so down on themselves. 

If you want to know more about The Ugly Company visit their website here.

Paul and Ryan are joined by the very familiar Reggie Ellis for their discussion over a recent deal to help local journalism in California. The deal was cut between Google, Gavin Newsom, Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks and others, but leaves local journalism as an industry wanting. 

CEO and founder of Spade Entertainment, Todd Speelman joins Paul on the podcast today.

Spade Entertainment will operate the newly renovated Zumwalt Park Ampitheater in Tulare. According to Todd, he was to go-to guy for city manager Marc Mondell when mulling over the long term entertainment plans for the city of Tulare. 

Todd has been running his entertainment company since before the pandemic, and named his company after his daughter's love for the shape of spades. 

You can find out more about Spade Entertainment here.

Paul and Ryan are joind once again by Serena Bettis. Serena wrote last week's piece on Sheriff Mike Boudreaux's complaint on appearing in a Harris for President advertisement. 

The ad, linked here, features Tulare County law enforcement officials (Visalia PD's Jason Salazar, DA Tim Ward and Sheriff Boudreaux) at a press conference where Harris was speaking on gangs, drugs and crime. Boudreaux appears in the ad for exactly 1 second, and issued a statement noting that he was upset about appearing in it at all, and claimed that it was unethical to use the photo. 

The question we sought to answer though, was whether her ad was indeed unethical.