SACRAMENTO – With spring now taking hold in California, Cal Fire is already staffing up for fire season, while focusing the efforts of its crews on preventing large and damaging wildfires. Recent rains have been a welcome sight to drought parched California, but Cal Fire says their firefighters are not letting their guard down; instead they are training for another ...

MADERA COUNTY – Following are details from the Madera County Sheriff’s Office of reports taken locally from Sunday, Mar. 13 to Sunday, Mar. 20, 2016: North Fork assault On Sunday, Mar. 13 at approximately 12:49 a.m. deputies were dispatched to the 57000 block of Road 225 for a report of an assault. A case was generated and charges were filed ...

NORTH FORK — Madera County Enviromental Health Department is reporting that all water samples taken yesterday from North Fork’s Maintenance District (MD8) have come back negative for bacteria. Residents who are part of MD8 have been on a Boil Water Order for several days, and businesses downtown that prepared fresh food have been closed since the presence of E. coli ...

NORTH FORK — North Fork is about to welcome a long-anticipated business to downtown – a local, natural, seasonally changing market – the “Gnarly Carrot.” Everyone involved with the Kern Family Farm has been working for the past several years to make this dream a reality, and on Apr. 1, their grand opening will celebrate all that hard work. The ...

Written by Lexey Jenkins — COARSEGOLD — LCORT leadership conference was last month at Wonder Valley Ranch in Sanger, for kids age 12-14. LCORT had several sessions on different topics. Some of the topics this year were how to dress and act on an interview, how to think positively, how to introduce a speaker, and how to work well in ...

NORTH FORK — Businesses downtown were shuttered today, and residents who are part of the local Maintenance District (MD8) were told to boil their water or use bottled water after a routine test on Mar. 16 revealed the presence of two types of bacteria in the system. Today, MD8 received results from the five repeat samples that were taken on ...

MOUNTAIN AREA — It was a busy night for Madera County Sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday, starting with a chase on Highway 41, and ending with a stabbing in North Fork. Yesterday afternoon, employees at two different businesses in Oakhurst called in reports of a man making threats to people inside their establishments. The first report came in at about 2:30 ...

NORTH FORK — An email from local favorite restaurant La Cabana stating that they were closing until further notice due to issues with the water, prompted a call to District 5 Supervisor Tom Wheeler. Responding to our message within minutes, Tom said that the water was tested earlier this week, as it is on a regular basis, and the tests ...

MOUNTAIN AREA — Cal Fire is recruiting for their Volunteers In Prevention (VIP) program, made up of citizens who offer their time and unique skills to serve the public through education, communication, patrols and defensible space inspections. Each year more than 5,600 wildfires burn over 172,000 acres of California’s watershed, timber, and grasslands. As a result, millions of dollars in ...

MOUNTAIN AREA — Yosemite Area Regional Transportation (YARTS) is celebrating Earth Day by offering free rides on YARTS buses into Yosemite National Park. In 2015, the Park experienced an all-time record number of visitors, welcoming 4,150,217 people. “At YARTS, we want to do our part to help visitors be good stewards of the park and enhance their Yosemite experience by ...