Page 1 - Mid Valley Times 4-14-22 E-Edition

Thursday, April 14, 2022
Vol. 3, No. 41
50th Valley ROP open house
50 cents
Arrest
made in
Sanger
homicide
By Jon Earnest
Mid Valley Times
Sanger police investigators and federal law enforcement officials late last week arrest- ed a 40-year-old Sanger man on suspicion of
fatally shoot-
ing 18-year-
old Sanger
man Steven
Roman Mon-
toya-Lopez
on Feb. 22.
Celebration held on April 8 at Sanger winery
By Jon Earnest
Mid Valley Times
The renowned Valley Re- gional Occupation Program (Valley ROP) celebrated its 50th anniversary of training high-quality high school stu- dents and adults into skilled professionals at an April 8 open house event at Kings River Winery south of Sanger.
Trainees, both high school and adult, came to the event to show off the program's 5-year tradition of preparing students for post-secondary or immediate employment jobs.
The program partners with many school districts in the region: Kings Canyon, Dinuba, Cutler-Orosi, Sanger, Parlier Kingsburg and Selma.
More than 100 students were at the event to show- case Valley ROP's courses and skills developed from 12 dif- ferent industry sectors.
ABOVE: Members of the Sanger High School and Orosi High School Certified Nursing Pro- gram gathered around their table display at the 50th anniversary Valley Regional Occu- pation Program (ROP) event at Kings River Winery south of Sanger on April 8.
RIGHT: Members of the culinary program with local schools posed for a photo next to a cooking station during the April 8 open house.
Photos by Jon Earnest / Mid Valley Times
Gilbert
Emilio Gon-
zalez, an ac-
tive Varrio
Sanger Trece gang member with an extensive criminal his- tory, was taken into custody at a Reedley residence on April 8. Sanger police investigators,
See ARREST on page A16
By Jon Earnest
Mid Valley Times
Incidence levels and active corona- virus cases — at least at the start of the week — for the most part continued at a low level in Fresno and Tulare coun- ties, mirroring much of the state and bucking the trend of cases of the BA.2 variant of the virus on the rise in the northeastern U.S.
Updates were slow coming in both counties, especially in Fresno County where as of midday April 12 the last updated numbers on the county's web- site had been reported on April 8. That
Coronavirus Update
showed 231,090 total cases (an active seven-day trend of 187) reporting a 1.5 percent positivity rate from more than 2.6 million total tests. For the week, hospitalizations declined from 74 to 60 (six in intensive care) and six additional deaths were reported on the week.
The only concerning number came in Tulare County, where the April 11 update showed an additional 171 active cases from a low of 177 reported on April 7. Last week began with 214 ac- tive cases.
But hospitalizations continued to dip as low as eight patients; increasing to 11 by the April 11 update. That still was down by two for the week, and the recovery rate remained strong at 98.3 percent.
In individual Tulare County cities within the Mid Valley Times region, Di- nuba gained an additional nine cases for a total of 8,082 dating back to the start of the pandemic. Orosi and Cutler each increased by just one case for the week, while there was no increase in rural ar- eas near Reedley and Orange Cove.
See VIRUS on page A16
MVT offices will close at noon on April 15 in honor of Good Friday
The Mid Valley Times' business offices in Reed- ley and Sanger will be closed at noon Friday, April 15, in observance of Good Friday.
Regular deadlines ap- ply for classified and legal advertisements as well as display ads.
The Times' two offices will reopen for business at 8 a.m. on Monday, April 18.
Gilbert Emilio Gonzalez
Incidence levels drop, cases rise in Tulare Co.
More photos from new Dinuba High groundbreaking
Photos by Jon Earnest / Mid Valley Times
Some more highlights from the April 5 groundbreaking ceremony of the new Dinuba High School:
ABOVE LEFT: Mayor Linda Launer presented a proclamation of recognition for the new high school to Dr. Joe Hernandez, Dinuba Unified superintendent.
ABOVE RIGHT: Jets from Lemoore Naval Air Station flew over the ceremony. RIGHT: The Dinuba High Band played the school fight song.
Classifieds - A10 Directory - A6 Legals - A11-15 Sports - A9, A16 Lifestyle - A7-8 Lights & Sirens - A3, A5 Obituaries - A2 Opinion - A4