Personality plus! Prettiest girl alive! Human dynamo! That is how Mary Lou (Talbot) Finley – known to most of us as Lu Lu – is best remembered. A talkative and skinny-legged North Fork native, Lu Lu left her childhood home near Manzanita Lake when she earned silver wings from Western Airlines and began traveling the world as a charismatic flight ...

MADERA COUNTY – Following are details from the Madera County Sheriff’s Office of reports taken locally from Monday, Dec. 31, 2018 to Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. North Fork burglary On Monday, Dec. 31 at 10:24 a.m. a deputy was dispatched to the 54000 block of Pinchot Drive in regards to a delayed burglary investigation. A report was taken. Currently there ...

By Ed Bailey — In 2018, members of the of Fresno Realtors Association Multiple Listing Services in the Yosemite Gateway Branch sold 554 mountain area homes (single family residential properties), compared to 639 in 2017, at a median price of $304,950, up 13 percent from $280,000 in 2017. Boundaries for the mountain area include Oakhurst, Ahwahnee, Coarsegold, North Fork, Wishon, ...

NORTH FORK – Projects to develop recreational sites, trails and parks in the North Fork community will be presented at a public meeting on Thursday, Jan. 24, at 7 p.m. at the North Fork Rancheria Community Center. Everyone is invited to attend and share their ideas on how North Fork can improve the quality of life by developing recreational sites ...

By Brian David —  This new year welcomes us into its vibrancy. Air, water; sand, clay and silt pulse with wiggling earthworms, dancing bacteria and exercising fungi. From the soil’s fertile womb our earth births seeds into plants and covers her modest bare ground with carpets green and brown. Three fourths of all plant roots interact in mutually beneficial relationships ...

MOUNTAIN AREA — Don’t be fooled by any scant blue sky you see this morning — we have more weather on the way this afternoon. Driving may be difficult, trees limbs could take out power lines, and some roads may be closed as a result of the storm. The National Weather Service (NWS) says the Winter Weather Advisory in effect until ...

NORTH FORK – Auditions for the Phantom Opera Show fundraiser will be held at the Public Coffee House (PCH) in North Fork on Tuesday, Jan. 8, and Thursday, Jan. 10 from noon to 5 p.m. Organizer Isabella Clark is looking for singers, age 12 and up, to be part of a very special concert fundraiser to support the ongoing work of ...

MOUNTAIN AREA — A Winter Storm Watch is in effect this weekend for the Sierra Nevada from Yosemite to Kings Canyon above 4,500 feet, as a storm brings rain and snow to the area. A Winter Storm Watch means there is potential for significant snow, sleet or ice accumulations that may impact travel. The National Weather Service (NWS) says the Winter ...

Contributed by Len McKenzie, YAAS – MOUNTAIN AREA – The Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) continues this week, as intrepid observers in Oakhurst and Merced take to the field for one day to make a record of all the birds they see and hear. Organized by ornithologist Frank Chapman of the American Museum of Natural History in 1900 as an ...

MOUNTAIN AREA — While you’re snuggled on the couch New Year’s day, sporting new moose pajamas and fuzzy slippers, hot cuppa in hand and watching the Rose Parade on NBC or ABC at 8 a.m. — know that our local foothills are nicely represented by the efforts of a local service club, a group of students, and their chaperones. On ...