Testosterone Replacement Therapy in Chowchilla, CA

Mammoth Orange, the iconic roadside attraction and Highway 99 burger stop, is back.

For decades, the giant orange-shaped burger stand and accompanying billboard sign sat just off the 99 north of Fresno and served as a glimpse into the history of the highway and the region. It officially closed in 2007, when a state reconstruction project cut off access from the highway.

It reopens at its new home at the Fossil Discovery Center in Chowchilla on Saturday with a ribbon-cutting and fundraiser.

The structure — a 10-foot-tall orange made of aluminum, stucco and wood — has been fully restored and will serve as a concession stand for the museum, which is the site of one of the largest middle-Pleistocene fossil excavations in North America.

It’s also where an eight-foot mammoth tusk was found in 1993, so the the pairing is apt.

The event runs 6-8 p.m. Tickets are $25 for museum members ($30 for non-members) and includes a “mammoth smash burger meal.”

Originally opened in 1947, Mammoth Orange was part of a chain of fruit-shaped restaurants that once lined freeway across California. It was the largest of 100 and the last one operating on Highway 99, according to the Historical Marker Database.

From the beginning, the business seemed at the whim of the roadway. It was moved from its original spot near Robertson Boulevard in 1954 to make way for the new Highway 99 and fell victim to the changing habits of travelers.

Doris Stiggins and her husband bought the burger stand in the 1980s and continued its menu of “Alaska-sized” burgers, “Texas-sized” fries and signature orange milkshakes. That food and Mammoth’s general ambiance was talked about with a kind nostalgic reverence, even as the restaurant lost some of its gleam in the late ’90s.

It was “hip in a down-home, low-rent sort of way,” as Fresno Bee writer George Hostetter phrased it in a 1997 story.

“To sit on one of Stiggin’s picnic benches — with an orange milk shake (the house specialty) in hand — and watch the traffic roar by only a few yards away is to see the San Joaquin Valley at its romantic best.

“High energy. Incessant noise. A sense of adventure amid an ever-changing sea of faces.

“It’s an intoxicating image.”

Over the years, there were several attempts to keep Mammoth Orange alive in some fashion. There was talk about possibly converting the stand into a grocery store, and someone offered $1,000 to take the stand and use it to sell orange juice and fruit next an existing vegetable stand on Avenue 9.

For a time, the building was owned by Madera’s redevelopment agency, which wanted to restore it as a local landmark.

In 2002, then-Rep. George Radanovich backed a proposal to carve out state money to move the burger stand to the yet-to-be built Fossil Center.

Those plans fell through, but the center was able to buy Mammoth Orange in 2012. It has had plans to reopen the building on site since 2018 at least.

“This iconic landmark is a beloved part of our community,” Fossil Discovery Center director Michele Pecina said in a news release. “We are excited to share it with a new generation of visitors. The Mammoth Orange is a great example of how history creates unique and memorable experiences.”

This story was originally published September 13, 2023, 5:30 AM.

The News

California has put a water-stressed farming region on notice for having “inadequate” plans to curb its overuse of groundwater, bringing officials closer to directly intervening, for the first time in state history, in the way growers manage their underground water supplies.

Regulators said Thursday that they would first hold a public hearing on the region, the Tulare Lake sub-basin of the San Joaquin Valley. The decision to even consider stepping in signals a willingness to take farmers to task for not doing enough to protect their aquifers.

Officials will need to tread carefully, said Andrew Ayres, an environmental economist at the University of Nevada, Reno. “If you really come down and you say, ‘We want groundwater sustainability and this is how we’re going to do it,’ that has trade-offs for local communities,” he said.

If, for example, farmers respond to water restrictions by fallowing their land, those plots could become sources of dust, worsening the region’s already poor air quality.

Why It Matters: Central Valley farmers are pumping up lots of water.

Farmers in California’s Central Valley, which includes the San Joaquin Valley, grow a big share of America’s fruits, vegetables and nuts. But they do so by pumping out increasingly large volumes of water from beneath their feet, more than almost anywhere else in the country.

Groundwater is effectively a nonrenewable resource: It can take decades, even centuries, for nature to replenish aquifers, the layers of dirt and rock into which water seeps and collects.

In some parts of California, so much groundwater has been pumped out that the land has sunk irreversibly by a foot or more in a year. The most severe land subsidence has taken place in the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley, where the Tulare Lake sub-basin sits.

Background: The state has ambitious, but far-off, goals for halting overuse.

California didn’t regulate groundwater at all until 2014, when a package of laws committed the state to ending overuse in the most depleted areas by 2040. The laws, known collectively as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, task local authorities with drawing up plans for their particular groundwater basin.

Sustainability plans for the first 20 basins were submitted in 2020. The state’s Department of Water Resources reviewed them and said in early 2022 that 12 basins had incomplete plans. It then asked for revisions.

After evaluating the resubmitted plans, the department in March said they were still inadequate for six basins, all of them in the San Joaquin Valley: Chowchilla, Delta-Mendota, Kaweah, Kern County, Tulare Lake and Tule.

On Thursday, the state’s water regulator, the State Water Resources Control Board, said it would first consider further action in the Tulare Lake sub-basin, a 540,000-acre area where farmers grow grain, tomatoes and other crops.

The plan for the basin isn’t specific enough about how it would address the damage caused by groundwater overuse, said Natalie Stork, a manager at the state board. Last year, for instance, 27 of the area’s wells went dry, and the state estimates that 700 wells could be tapped out in a future drought. The land has sunk by as much as six feet in the past decade or so, forcing residents to raise local levees to protect the city of Corcoran from flooding.

This year’s winter storms in California temporarily refilled Tulare Lake, which was once the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi River. But that didn’t fix the area’s groundwater issues, Ms. Stork said. Much of the water in the lake was of poor quality, and clay in the lake bed stopped it from percolating into the aquifers.

The other five basins that were deemed to have inadequate plans are also facing threats, Ms. Stork said. But the board isn’t ready to announce potential intervention in those places because it needs more time to assess the situation, she said. “We are working through this as urgently as we can, but with thought and consideration.”

Paul Stiglich, general manager of South Fork Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency, one of the local authorities that developed the Tulare Lake plan, declined to comment.

What’s Next: Officials will decide whether to step in.

If the state board decides, at its April 16 hearing in Sacramento, to place Tulare Lake on probation, farmers there will have to start reporting how much water they pump from the ground and paying fees based on their pumping volumes. But the state still won’t be able to limit pumping directly.

Only if local agencies haven’t come up with an acceptable plan for ending overuse after at least another year could the board then enact its own plan to stop the aquifers from being wrung dry.

Christopher Flavelle contributed reporting.

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A retired California women’s prison guard was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of raping more than a dozen inmates at the facility where he worked, authorities said.

Gregory Rodriguez, 55, of Fresno, was booked into Madera County Jail on 96 counts, the vast majority based on allegations of rape and other violent sex offenses, according to jail records.

A 27-year veteran correctional officer, Rodriguez worked from 2010 to 2022 at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, the largest women’s prison in the state.

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The charges stem from an investigation that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Office of Internal Affairs began last July. Rodriguez retired shortly after he was approached by investigators, authorities said.

Feb. 6, 2022

After revealing the investigation’s initial findings in December, department officials worked with the Madera County district attorney’s office to file charges.

“In the recent history here in Madera, this is the largest case of its kind,” said Dist. Atty. Sally Moreno.

Moreno said that the charges cover allegations that go as far back as 2014, but that most are from Rodriguez’s last two years at the prison.

Rodriguez remains in Madera County Jail in lieu of $7.8-million bail, records show. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Madera County Superior Court. If convicted as charged, he could face more than 300 years in prison.

“These allegations do not reflect on the majority of corrections officers,” Moreno said. “The removal and arrest of this defendant encourages them to do their job of honorably upholding the law.”

Moreno believes there could be more victims who have yet to be identified. Anyone with information can contact investigators at (559) 975-9124.

Rodriguez is the latest California correctional officer to be accused of sexually abusing female inmates. At Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin in the Bay Area, at least six employees have been arrested on charges of sexual abuse.

“The department resolutely condemns any staff member, especially a peace officer, who violates their oath and shatters the trust of the public,” Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Jeff Macomber said in a statement.

Hilary to snarl shipments of veggies, lithium as storm targets Southern California

Hilary is expected to cause disruptions in at least two major ports in Southern California. From food to goods, the supply chain interruptions are already being anticipated to impact more than just the California coast. Most of the country's winter vegetables move through the Southern California ports. Meteorologist Jon Davis with Everstream Analytics joins FOX Weather with the latest.

LOS ANGELES – Hilary is powering up as it aims at Southern California.

A hurricane is not coming to Los Angeles, but the forceful storm with growing impacts now has L.A., San Diego in California and Reno in Nevada – with nearly 31 million people – in the cone of uncertainty. A likely landfall is expected on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR HURRICANE SEASON

Hillary is positioned in the eastern Pacific, southwest of Mexico. It is expected to move northward toward the risk zone while parallel to the coast for a few days.

On its track to the U.S., Hilary is predicted to impact the supply chain in Southern California over the weekend and early next week, said Jon Davis, chief meteorologist at Everstream Analytics.

"This is noteworthy because it is extremely rare for Southern California to be impacted, in any way, by a tropical system," he told FOX Weather on Thursday. "Impacts include disruptions at the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles as well as the metro areas of San Diego and Los Angeles."

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE TROPICS IN AUGUST

(David McNew / Getty Images)

Davis also mentioned that heavy rains and flash flooding will primarily affect the Imperial Valley, which supplies agriculture, livestock and lithium mining.

Hillary could cause disruptions to transportation and business as well, warned Davis.

"In a very unusual situation, Hilary is expected to bring heavy rain and gusty winds to areas within the risk zone such as San Diego, Los Angeles, Imperial Valley, Tijuana, and surrounding areas," Davis said.

Tropical rains within the risk zone rarely cause significant flooding and disruptions, according to Davis. However, if the forecast remains consistent, such impacts are likely to occur.

"Also, the risk for disruptions at the key Port of Long Beach is increasing given the current forecast," he said. "Thus, interests with facilities and supply chain networks need to closely watch the situation."

Hillary is predicted to become a major hurricane this weekend. It will weaken as it approaches the Baja Peninsula but maintain its moisture as it moves northward towards Southern California. If the current forecast track holds, the risk zone would likely feature 1-4 inches of rain with locally higher totals.

"This portion of the world rarely receives rainfall totals of this magnitude and is likely to result in significant and widespread flooding," Davis said. "Infrastructure damage may also occur in areas that receive the heaviest rains and more severe flooding and mudslides."

CALIFORNIA GETTING HIT BY TROPICAL SYSTEMS IS EXTREMELY RARE

FILE: Up-close look at what NOAA uses to track and forecast hurricanes

NOAA takes FOX Weather's Brandy Campbell on a tour to see not only the P3 Hurricane Hunting Plane, but the tools that go where it’s unsafe for people to get all the important details needed for tracking and forecasting storms.

Additionally, Hilary could bring some gusty winds to the risk zone, but there will be other disrupters during this event, Davis adds.

"The most significant winds will be farther south across the Baja," he said. "All in all, Hilary will be a storm to monitor closely in the coming days."

While it will be an impactful storm for the West, the FOX Forecast Center said, interests across the Southwest and through the Rockies should also keep track of this storm.

In summary

One of the options would override California’s water rights and split the cuts evenly between California, Nevada and Arizona — which would be a big blow to Imperial Valley farmers.

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The Biden administration today proposed alternatives for cutting Colorado River water allocations for Southwest states, including one that would substantially reduce the amount of water delivered to Southern California.

One of the three options would retain California’s historic, century-old senior water rights, while another would override them and split the cuts in water deliveries evenly between California, Nevada and Arizona. The even-split option would be a big blow to Imperial Valley farmers while benefiting the other states.

The river, which supplies water for 40 million people in seven states, has shrunk during the West’s megadrought, with its major reservoirs, Mead and Powell, approaching record lows and expected to eventually run out of water unless user states cut back.

The Interior Department’s draft environmental impact statement comes after years of debate over how best to allocate water cuts. It would be the first time that the federal government intervenes to allocate Colorado River water, which has historically been apportioned based on the historic water rights. A final decision by the Interior Department is expected in August, after a public comment period, and will affect the 2024 operation of Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams.

California receives the most Colorado River of all the states, with an annual entitlement of 4.4 million acre-feet. About 2.5 million acre-feet of that goes to the Imperial Irrigation District, one of the nation’s largest agricultural areas and a major producer of alfalfa and lettuce. Much of the rest goes to the Metropolitan Water District, which supplies imported water to cities in Southern California.

The cuts in water deliveries to the three states will amount to about 2 million acre feet next year. (An acre foot is 326,000 gallons.)

In one option presented in the federal report, the reduced Colorado River water deliveries are “based predominantly on the priority of water rights,” according to the Bureau of Reclamation. This option would go easy on the Imperial Irrigation District, which has the most senior water rights, while cities in Arizona and Nevada would be hit hard by the cuts. This first-come, first-served water rights system has become a hot point of contention between water users.

Another option would override the historically bulletproof rights held by the Imperial Valley. In that option, the cuts in allocations “would be distributed in the same percentage” across the three states. It includes “progressively larger additional shortages as Lake Mead’s elevation declines” and “larger Lower Basin shortages in 2025 and 2026 as compared with 2024.” Under that option, California would be hurt the most and have to give up the most water.

The Imperial Irrigation District, which serves farms in the southeast corner of the state, applauded the option that respects its senior water rights and objected to the equal-cut alternative.

“Alternatives that skirt around long-standing water rights, as well as the agreements and laws put in place to address this situation, have the potential to jeopardize existing long-standing California water agency partnerships, and billions of dollars of long-term planning investments that have provided water supply resilience within the state for more than two decades,” the statement declared.

The Metropolitan Water District, which provides imported water to 19 million Southern Californians, voiced opposition to both options.

"Based on our initial assessment...neither of the action alternatives presented today is ideal. Both include significant supply cuts that would hurt Metropolitan and our partners across the Basin. There is a better way to manage the river," said Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District.

He added that the federal government's plan "is a powerful indication of what could come if we don’t reach a consensus. We must keep working to develop a consensus short-term plan, while also collaborating to build long-term solutions that will ensure the river’s lasting sustainability," such as increasing farm and urban water efficiency.

The third option presented by the federal government is a “no action” plan, staying with the status quo for water use and exports, which is considered an unlikely choice given the emergency conditions.

Last summer, federal officials warned the three states that if they failed to reach an agreement to reduce water use by 2 to 4 million acre-feet each year, the government would impose its own measures. Early this year, six of the states pulled together a plan, with California offering up a separate proposal. The multi-state plan would have meant a cut of more than a million acre-feet per year for California, while its own plan offered to cut back by 400,000 acre-feet per year, with Imperial Irrigation District taking on 250,000 of that.

Federal officials said the draft report follows “months of intensive discussions and collaborative work with the Basin states and water commissioners, the 30 Basin Tribes, water managers, farmers and irrigators, municipalities, and other stakeholders.”

“Failure is not an option,” Deputy Interior Secretary Tommy Beaudreau said in a statement.

“The Colorado River Basin provides water for more than 40 million Americans. It fuels hydropower resources in eight states, supports agriculture and agricultural communities across the West, and is a crucial resource for 30 Tribal Nations,” he said.

Virtually no one disputes that the Colorado River has been greatly overallocated, with users diverting much more water than the river produces. Water supply experts say if significant cuts are not enforced soon, its reservoirs could all but run out of water within just several years.

State-by-state entitlements were codified in the historic Colorado River Compact of 1922. When Mexico was later added to the water allocation scheme, total rights added up to 16.5 million acre-feet a year. While most years consumption is less than that — about 13 million acre-feet — it’s still significantly more than the river’s average output of about 11 million acre-feet, which has declined because of climate change and drought.

JB Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California, said the wet winter has improved the near-term outlook for states dependent on the river. He said the river could yield more than 14 million acre-feet of water this year.

"So, the worst-case scenario going into this process are a lot less severe in nature than what we were looking down the barrel of just a few months ago," Hamby said.

More on water

Two other states – but not California – face cuts to Colorado River water in 2023 as the federal government escalates its drought response. But a deal remains out of reach.

by Rachel Becker August 16, 2022

The Colorado River’s water transformed the Imperial Valley desert into one of California’s most productive farm regions. But now growers will have to sacrifice 10% of their supply because of shortages in the river’s supply.

January 17, 2023

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