By Tim Sheehan / The Fresno Bee

As authorities investigate the death of a Clovis woman who had been missing for three days in the rugged Sierra, her mother and stepfather Saturday said they’re hoping for answers about her disappearance.

A fire in a shipping warehouse at Pelco industries Sunday night caused minimal damage and was extinguished by the automatic spinkler system, a Clovis Fire Department spokesman said Monday.

The fire was reported at 8:02 p.m. in the 200 block of West Pontiac Way. No one was inside the building at the time, said the spokesman, Chad Fitzgerald. He did not have a damage estimate.

School bells will ring in the 2009-10 year in Clovis Unified Monday, August 24 as more than 37,000 students head back to the classroom for the new year. In anticipation of the start of school, co-curricular camps, intermediate and high school registration and student orientations are taking place in early August.

One of the many things I have learned about Clovis Unified since I started July 1 is that this is a school district whose employees and community aren’t afraid of a challenge.

Clovis’ Don Cheek won two gold medals and a silver in track and field, and the Fresno Sharpshooters basketball team placed second in the 60-and-over division at the National Senior Games at Stanford.

Cheek, 79, won the 200- (32.25) and 400-meter (1:16.83) races, and placed second in the 100 (15.71).

The Institute of Technology at Clovis has moved into its expanded culinary school — and is poised for more students amid a struggling economy.