O’NEALS — A four-car crash on Highway 41 in the early morning hours has claimed the life of a young woman from Oakhurst. Just before 1 a.m. on Saturday, June 18, Ruby Alvarez, 24, was southbound in a Honda Civic, just south of Road 200, when she crossed over the double yellow lines into oncoming traffic, crashing head-on into a ...

MADERA COUNTY — The Clovis woman accused of causing the death of Frederico Nunez Silva while driving intoxicated was arraigned today in Madera Superior Court. She pleaded not guilty to all three felony counts and one misdemeanor charge. Candice Ooley, 23, was arrested on Friday, May 20, after she crashed into the back of a Hummer in which Silva, 47, ...

O’NEALS – A trip to Yosemite turned tragic this morning as a family was caught up in a accident on Highway 41 just south of Road 200. Three vehicles were involved in a crash at about 10 a.m. that resulted in several people being airlifted with major injuries after a big rig overturned near Road 406. Traffic was stopped for ...

OAKHURST — Teams made up of members from the Madera County Sheriff’s Office, Madera County SWAT, California Highway Patrol, Fresno Police Department and Yosemite High School alumni will participate in a “pitched battle” this weekend, all for a good cause. The action takes place on the YHS diamonds during the third annual Guns & Hoses Slow Pitch Softball Tournament on Saturday, Apr. 16. Last year’s ...

Written by Marcia Penner Freedman – We’ve chosen to live in a forest, tens of thousands of us in eastern Fresno, Madera, and Mariposa Counties. Not just any forest, but a Sierra forest. And that means we’ve chosen to live with the certainty of fire. To complicate things, our communities sit at the edge of the million-acre Sierra National Forest, ...

BASS LAKE – Cal Fire Battalion Chief Troy Cheek wasn’t sugar-coating the situation when he told the crowd in Bass Lake last week that the Madera County Fire Department is at a serious crossroads. At a Town Hall meeting on Thursday, Aug. 27, Cheek addressed the nation-wide problem of lack of volunteers to staff local fire departments, and laid out ...

NORTH FORK – An early morning crash near North Fork on Friday sent a Wishon woman to the hospital after her car caught fire. Just before 5 a.m., Carolyn Pinion, 60, was westbound on Road 223 in the curves approaching Road 420 when, for unknown reasons, she traveled off the right side of the roadway and hit the embankment. Her ...

NORTH FORK – When the fire came racing toward their house, destroying everything in its path, the family grabbed what they could, loaded their pets and raced down the driveway ahead of the flames. They watched from a distance as it flashed through their property, trees torching out ahead of the wall of fire. Days later when they returned to ...

NORTH FORK – A family who had no doubt that they had lost everything to the flames during the first night of the Corrine Fire were shocked and thrilled to discover that their homes were still standing. “We watched the fire coming over the hill and surrounding our house, and I just knew it was all up in smoke,” says ...

NORTH FORK – Most residents in the North Fork area have now been allowed to return to their homes after being evacuated due to the Corrine Fire. The fire, which started on Thursday, June 18, just after 9 p.m., is now estimated at 860 acres with 25 percent containment. The percentage of containment does not mean there is only line ...