Two rangers are writing fascinating blogs about the rugged high-country winter in Yosemite National Park — below-zero nights, blizzards, animal tracks in the snow. The rangers are a married couple, Laura and Rob Pilewski. They are at Tuolumne Meadows for the winter, a job some would consider a plum. The commute traffic clearly is no [...]

BOYS BASKETBALL Bullard, top ranked in the Central Section by The Bee, tuned up for Saturday’s clash with Central by getting 14 points apiece from Calvin Young and Adam Armstead in a 68-33 win over Clovis East. The defending Division I champion Knights and second-ranked Grizzlies tip off at 7 p.m. at Fresno City College. [...]

A year ago, the Sierra snowpack was an anemic 20% of normal. Now it’s a whopping 146%. At this time last year, the San Joaquin Valley was gasping through a 44-day siege of federal air violations — dangerous soot and debris clogged the air. This year, the Valley only had five violations in December. California’s [...]

Dozens of people showed up over the weekend after the Central California Blood Center issued an urgent plea for blood donors. But even more is needed as two major holidays loom and the center’s shelves remain painfully bare. The blood center, which supplies 31 hospitals in the central San Joaquin Valley, has a critical need [...]

A new national report card on patient safety hammers two local hospitals with D grades, but most in the central San Joaquin Valley got a C or better. Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno got a C, Clovis Community got a B, and Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Fresno got the Valley’s only A. Madera Community [...]

Clovis Community Medical Center isn’t the little hospital surrounded by orange trees anymore. A new 90-foot, five-story bed tower looms as people exit Highway 168 on Temperance Avenue, and a bigger emergency department and new operating rooms are ready for patients. Next Wednesday, if all goes as planned, hospital staff will transfer about 85 patients [...]