Testosterone Replacement Therapy in Firebaugh, CA

Firebaugh, Calif., sitting right on the San Joaquin River, is a great place to raise a family, says city manager Ben Gallegos. He's lived in this Central Valley community for most of his life.

But now he's preparing the city for a force of nature potentially more destructive than the fires and drought Californians are used to — a megastorm.

They form out at sea as plumes of water vapor thousands of miles long. As they reach land, they dump rain and snow for weeks at a time, causing devastating flooding.

The last megastorm to hit the West Coast was the Great Flood of 1862. It temporarily turned much of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys into a giant inland sea, 300 miles long.

Gallegos is in no doubt about what a megastorm would mean for Firebaugh.

"A lot of water. Flooding for many days. [A] potential hazard to really wiping out the city," he told NPR's Leila Fadel.

Climate scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles say that climate change will increase the frequency of these megastorms.

While they used to occur every 100-200 years on average, rising temperatures mean we'll now see them as often as every 50 years.

Xingying Huang and Daniel Swain, who co-authored the research, say a megastorm could mean millions of people displaced by flooding, major transportation links severed, and damage totaling nearly $1 trillion.

Gallegos is worried that bigger cities will be the focus of flood-prevention spending before a megastorm, rather than his city of around 8,500 people.

"You think about San Francisco, Los Angeles. Is the state really going to say — or the feds — let me give Firebaugh $50 to $60 million to upgrade the levee, or should we give it to somebody else?" he said. "They say, 'Oh if we lose that town, what impact is it going to have to the state?' Well, it's going to have a lot of impact to the state."

Firebaugh is an agricultural community, growing tomatoes that are processed into sauces for the restaurant industry. Farmers also grow cantaloupes. Gallegos says the loss of those businesses would have a knock-on impact on California's economy.

Residents of Firebaugh are worried by the prospect of a megastorm hitting, especially after a previous evacuation due to a flood in 1997 didn't go well.

"The city wasn't prepared at that time for an evacuation. They evacuated all the residents to our community center. But the community center was right next to the river, so there was a levee that was washing out," Gallegos said. "So they went and sent them out to our neighboring cities. But those cities were not ready for our residents, so then they had to get them back. And then they put them up in a warehouse just west of the city."

Gallegos knows that state and federal officials have a choice: Pay for flood prevention measures now, or pay much, much more later to help Firebaugh recover from a megastorm.

"We need help. I always tell our leaders, we can fix it now, which would cost less than when we have an emergency, and you have people trying to fix it, which would cost a lot more than being proactive," he said.

If nothing is done, the alternative doesn't bear thinking about for Gallegos, he said.

"I think Firebaugh would be wiped out."

The audio for this story was produced by Chad Campbell and edited by Simone Popperl and Adam Bearne.

FIREBAUGH, Calif. —

The earth is dead-level flat here, as unwavering as a Johnny Unitas haircut, an endless quilt of farmland that produces cotton, wheat, grapes, melons and pistachios. In normal times, on a given fall night, you can stand in one tiny town and see the glow of the football field in the next, from Kerman to Tranquillity to Mendota; Firebaugh to Dos Palos to Los Banos.

Ribbons of two-lane roads and generations of bitter rivalries separate the farming communities of the San Joaquin Valley, where local sports border on religion and high school heroics harden into lore. Yet these days, these elbowing towns feel as one, with everyone pulling in the same direction, the Hatfields proudly linking arms with the McCoys.

Because this is Josh Allen country.

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Allen, the third-year quarterback of the Buffalo Bills, has his team one victory from the Super Bowl, and two from hoisting the Lombardi trophy for the first time. Standing in the way are the Kansas City Chiefs, defending Super Bowl champions, who play host to the Bills on Sunday in the AFC championship game.

“People say Josh is a special kid,” said Bill Magnusson, his coach at Firebaugh High. “You could say that a million times and it wouldn’t be enough.”

Even onetime adversaries are puffing their chests.

“I’m embracing this run he’s on,” said Beto Mejia, coach of the archrival Mendota Aztecs, who handed Firebaugh its only two losses during Allen’s senior season. “I get to sit back and tell myself, ‘Man, I coached against that kid.’ … And if I take some excitement and pride from it, I can just imagine his coaches from Firebaugh, how excited they are.”

Three of the NFL’s four remaining quarterbacks are from California — Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, and Allen — with the outlier being Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, who grew up in Texas.

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In Firebaugh, the excitement is palpable among locals who watched Allen go from a wiry kid — generously listed at 6 feet 2 and 180 pounds — to a 6-5, 237-pound bruiser reminiscent of John Elway with ability to do damage with his arm and legs. At 24, Allen has made a compelling case for most valuable player, shattering Buffalo passing records along the way.

VIDEO | 00:59

Josh Allen is only player to have number retired by Firebaugh High School

Alternating red and blue “Allen 17” banners will festoon O Street through the middle of Firebaugh this weekend. Allen’s extended family owns about 1,200 acres of farmland in the region, not counting the land his late grandfather donated for construction of the high school.

“Our community, it’s a pretty special place,” said Allen’s father, Joel. “We kind of take care of each other.”

Joel and LaVonne Allen, who have two sons and two daughters, seldom miss one of Josh’s games. They fly all over the country every fall weekend to see him play. But Joel won’t be at Sunday’s game because he’s recovering from the coronavirus and a bout with pneumonia that landed him in the hospital this month.

VIDEO | 01:10

How Josh Allen merged wrestling techniques with football in high school

LaVonne is making the trip, along with a contingent of family and friends from Firebaugh that includes Josh’s uncle, Todd Allen, among his most devoted fans.

“No one works harder at his craft than Josh does,” Todd said, sitting in the office of the family farm, wearing a Bills T-shirt and displaying a bobblehead of his nephew on his desk. “I don’t care what it is — baseball, basketball, football, and he was a swimmer in the summers too. I just can’t say enough about him.”

Allen set Bills records for completions, passing yards, and touchdowns, leading the team to a 13-3 record and its first AFC East title since 1995, the year before he was born. Buffalo has won eight games in a row and has a chance Sunday to avenge a 26-17 home loss to Kansas City in Week 6.

“They showed a couple of different things on defense, stuff we probably weren’t expecting,” Allen said this week of the Chiefs. “I think we’ve gotten a lot better since that game.”

Under the guidance of Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, and transformational tutelage of offseason quarterback coach Jordan Palmer, Allen has made remarkable strides during his three seasons. His completion rate jumped from 52.8% as a rookie to 69.2% this season. That’s the greatest two-year improvement in NFL history.

That’s just a continuation of the astounding trajectory of a player who was snubbed by Fresno State, once his dream school, and took a more circuitous route to the pros via Reedley Community College and then the University of Wyoming.

When the Bills made Allen the No. 7 pick in the 2018 draft, a lot of people thought he was too raw and too inaccurate to get a foothold in the NFL and lead that franchise back to prominence.

VIDEO | 01:23

A look at the farm Bills quarterback Josh Allen grew up on

But Allen has the grit and determination forged on the farm, where he and his younger brother, Jason, would hack away weeds, dig ditches, move irrigation pipes, and even pick massive cotton fields behind the wheel of $350,000 tractors. Whereas his family was at one end of the economic spectrum, Allen had plenty of friends and teammates on the other.

“Every summer, you’ve got half the football team that’s working out in the fields, and they do that to buy their school clothes and stuff,” said Alex Gutierrez, who was Allen’s quarterback and baseball coach at Firebaugh. “A lot of them, their parents work hard, but they need help paying the bills. A lot of times there were passing-league tournaments and his teammates would be working, and Josh would be the one driving around and picking them up. He had the pickup, and his truck was always full. He always had three teammates with him.”

In the years since, Allen has taken the whole region on a different kind of ride, a surreal one.

“There’s a picture from Josh’s rookie year when he was shaking Tom Brady’s hand, he was hugging him after the game when they played each other,” Gutierrez said, standing on the dirt track surrounding the Firebaugh football field, where Allen’s retired No. 15 is painted on the press box. “You see that and it’s like, wow, this is really happening right now.”

VIDEO | 01:56

Former Firebaugh mayor talks about Josh Allen’s impact on the town

Todd Allen has too many memories of his nephew to count. One in particular stands out. It happened at West Hills Community College in Coalinga, when a bulked-up Josh was at Reedley and just discovering his ability to run over defenders.

“His team was down like 28-7 at halftime, and Josh made such a ferocious comeback they almost won the game,” Todd recalled. “I just remember him starting to run in that game, and I go, ‘Where’s that coming from?’ He was running down the field, and I was running right along with him along the top of the stadium.”

When people asked what he was doing, Todd told them: “I’m running with Josh.”

Years later, the whole Central Valley can say the same.

Firebaugh was well-represented Thursday at the NFL season-opener.

About 350 fans (NFL Network’s estimate) made the trip from the Valley to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood to see former Firebaugh High star and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen play.

The Bills defeated the Los Angeles Rams 31-10.

It was Allen’s first pro game in his home state since he was drafted in 2018 and it’s the only time the Bills will make the trip to California this season.

“There have been a lot of great moments,” his father, Joel, told the Los Angeles Times. “But this is epic.”

Plenty of Bills fans, including Allen’s family, tailgated in the parking lot and saluted Firebaugh.

Fireball Shots for Firebaugh! We are hosting the Allen’s and Crew from Firebaugh in LA! Go Bills! #BillsMafia #LA #Firebaugh pic.twitter.com/ts72sxm0l9

— Gameday Hospitality Buffalo (@GamedayBuffalo) September 9, 2022

“Fireball Shots for Firebaugh! We are hosting the Allen’s and Crew from Firebaugh in LA! Go Bills!” Gameday Hospitality Buffalo tweeted.

Allen delighted Bills Mafia completing 26 of 31 for 297 yards with three touchdowns. He also had 10 carries for 56 yards and a touchdown, confirming his status as an NFL MVP favorite and the Bills’ ranking as a Super Bowl contender.

The performance was far from perfect in Allen’s eyes. After all, two of his passes were intercepted in the first half and the Bills also lost a fumble.

What could have been a blowout by Buffalo after two quarters instead was a 10-10 deadlock.

“I was actually happy at halftime,” Allen said. “Three turnovers and going in 10-10 — zero to zero — that gave us all the confidence in the world, our defense being able to back us up. We hurt ourselves a lot in that first half. There’s a lot to learn from. But that second half, that’s who we want to be, going out there and executing the way we expect to execute.”

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 8, 2022, 8:14 PM.

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Tesla just installed a total of 56 of its new V3 superchargers in Firebaugh, California, along Interstate 5, which is the main stretch for West Coast drivers traveling between San Francisco and LA. In a conversation with the Tesla Owners of East Bay account on Twitter, I learned that the Kettleman City supercharger station is around an hour south of the new station and has 40 chargers. Three years ago, it was the biggest Tesla Supercharger station in North America. Teresa Kamakea, one of the members of the Tesla Owners of East Bay, was the very first customer to ever use the brand new supercharger. She told me in an email that both she and her daughter agreed that it was kismet, for sure.

Seeing A Unicorn

Teresa was thrilled to even run across a V3 supercharger for the first time. “Charging at a V3 charger for the first time was like seeing a unicorn to me. I belong to Tesla Owners East Bay, and the club always keeps us up to date on all that is new and exciting in Tesla, so I had been reading a lot of posts about them on our club Facebook page and was hyped up about it. But the first time I’d seen a V3 charger was last night at the Kettleman City Supercharger — not the new Firebaugh Superchargers.”

“I stopped there on my way home from helping my elderly father in Southern California. They have clearly labeled all of their 150kW and 250kW chargers and I was freaking excited because I didn’t know they had the V3 chargers there — they weren’t there the last time I went through. I got charged to 306 miles on my battery in about 30 minutes while I was walking my dog and then browsing the Tesla gear and using the bathroom myself in the lounge. That was more than enough charge to get me all the way home to Livermore without needing to stop again. That was the first time that I’d used the V3 charger.”

Teresa’s Experience At The New Firebaugh Superchargers

Teresa’s story of how she found these new Superchargers seems like something out of a fictitious adventure. You’re running an errand or something and you need to stop for a minute or are suddenly forced to take a detour, and then you find something. It’s equivalent to finding a hidden bookstore off to the side in an area you probably wouldn’t go in because it’s never crossed your mind — as she said earlier, kismet.

“So when I pulled into the brand new Firebaugh location just 60 miles down the road, it was not because I needed a charge. My doggie was acting like she had to go, so I was just pulling off at the first exit that looked safe, Panoche Rd exit. That is when I saw the new Tesla superchargers at Firebaugh, but I didn’t know that’s what it was. It wasn’t on my Supercharger map and I was kinda shocked because in all of my trips I’d never seen it before and you can’t miss it if you’re on 5. I was freakin excited to see from a distance that there were so many chargers and they all had skinny cables!!! That’s how I can tell the V3 from the V2 chargers — the size of the cable. Size matters. ”

Teresa’s 1st Experience Supercharging Compared with 1st Experience V3 Charging

I asked Teresa to give me a comparison so we could show how far along Tesla has come with its Supercharging network. Teresa’s very first Supercharger experience was at the Bakersfield Superchargers. “I remember that my screen said it would take 45 minutes to charge enough to get the rest of the way to my dad’s house in Temecula. That really was not enough time for me to walk my dog, go to the bathroom myself, eat, and visit with the other Tesla owners that I met that were also charging there. I didn’t note or calculate how long it took to charge per kW.”

She noted that the charging speed has never been a concern, with her pointing out that, obviously, she doesn’t want to have to wait hours to charge, but even the older V2 superchargers would still finish charging before she was finished with her break from a long 8–10 hour drive.

She shared her thoughts about progress with me as well. “For me, the progress I’ve noticed is in the feel of the supercharger stations. At Bakersfield where I used a Supercharger for the first time, the chargers are a minority on the huge lot in comparison to all of the space that the gas pumps take up. It feels like, well, you can have a little bit of unused space here in the corner of our lot for your chargers. But the Firebaugh Supercharger station like the Kettleman City Supercharger station makes me feel like we belong and we are here to stay.”

“I’ve always thought that if I want to know the exact numbers, it would be easy enough to look that up to calculate the difference and progress from V2 to V3 chargers. For me, the more important progress is in the growth and acceptance of Tesla.”

Looking at Teresa’s photos that she provided for the article, I noticed something. The new V3 supercharger has both a Chevron and a Shell gas station within sight. This is brilliant, and strategic marketing by Tesla. Having a large Supercharging station catty-corner two gas stations off of a major interstate exit should be the norm for Tesla.

Looking at these photos is like seeing the future in front of you while frozen in time. One day, these gas stations will be either closed or converted into something else. As we observe this frozen moment while still in the present, it gives me an incredible sense of awe to be able to note this. One day, we will look back at this article and Teresa will say, “I remember when those gas stations were there. Now there’s something else.”

And that something else will most likely be related to Tesla or electric vehicles.

All photos by Teresa Kamakea used with permission. Featured photo by Teresa and edited by Johnna for artistic effects. The last thing the fossil fuel industry will see before it dies is the red glow of a Tesla Supercharger.

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Tesla keeps on expanding its Supercharger network, the backbone of its electric vehicle mission. In the latest addition to this infrastructure is the largest US V3 Supercharger station with 56 stalls.

Members of the Tesla Owners East Bay California were the first-ever to use the Firebaugh Tesla Supercharger and they took a good amount of photos and videos of this new and interesting location.

Before Firebaugh, Kettleman City Supercharger was the largest with its 40+ stalls. The Firebaugh Tesla charging station uses the latest V3 Supercharging technology that can charge a Tesla at the speed of up to 1,000 miles (1,600 km) per hour.

Another interesting bit is that all of the roofs of the charging stalls are equipped with solar cells. These solar cells help conserve energy in the day time to the station’s battery storage system, making the station rely less on the grid.

Tesla has strategically placed the Firebaugh Supercharger on highway interstate 5 which will facilitate Tesla drivers traveling from San Francisco to LA and vice versa.

One of the first users of the Firebaugh Tesla charging stationTeresa Kamakea shared her story with our friends at CleanTechnica, Tesla has clearly labeled the 150 kW and 250 kW (V3) charging stalls, she informed.

She further told about her journey to her father’s place which is located in Southern California. She was able to charge her car up to 306 miles within 30 minutes while she used the lounge, bathroom, and walking her dog.

Eli from A Tesla Adventure also reported about the Supercharger in the following short video clip yesterday. Tesla has just put them V3 Superchargers before the holiday season when everyone is moving between North and Southern California, he said.

Another interesting bit about this Supercharger station is that some areas are designed to accommodate the Tesla Semi and the Cybertruck to load electrons in their large bellies.

We have seen the Tesla Semi prototypes delivering Tesla cars to customers in California as the workload increases at the end-of-quarter deliveries push.

Tesla owners posted some awesome photos of the Firebaugh, CA Supercharger station, sure this place is huge and has some serious amounts of power.

Stay tuned for more updates and articles, follow us on:Google News | Flipboard | RSS (Feedly).

By now we know that Tesla (TSLA) is all set to be listed as an S&P 500 by the 21st of December, announced in a press release by S&P Dow Jones Indices earlier this week.

As of this writing, Tesla has reached a massive market cap of $431.42 billion, making it the largest ever company to be added to the S&P 500 index. For this very reason, the S&P Dow Jones Indices is waiting on feedback from its investors if TSLA should be added to the index at once or in two phases.

Tesla Inc. (NASD:TSLA) will be added to the S&P 500 effective prior to the open of trading on Monday, December 21 to coincide with the December quarterly rebalance. Due to the large size of the addition, S&P Dow Jones Indices is seeking feedback through a consultation to the investment community to determine if Tesla should be added all at once on the rebalance effective date or in two separate tranches ending on the rebalance effective date. Tesla will replace an S&P 500 company to be named in a separate press release closer to the rebalance effective date.

S&P Dow Jones Indices / Press Release

When we last reported on the possible inclusion of TSLA to the S&P 500 index in June, we discussed all the opportunities and benefits that come with this achievement.

Now the New York-based Morgan Stanley investment firm has increased its price target for TSLA from $360 to $540 and at the time of this writing, TSLA’s share price has already reached $455.92.

Morgan Stanley thinks you cannot estimate Tesla’s worth by only looking at it as a car company, the other business models and revenue streams like FSD Software and Energy Storage should also be considered.

Dow Jones Indices estimates that TSLA stock’s Approximate Pro-Forma Weight in S&P 500 index will be 1.01% with an estimated funding trade* of ~$51 billion. With the world’s 500 top companies in the pool, a 1% share in the entire S&P 500 cluster is a significant chunk of the trade.

*The estimated funding trade is calculated using an estimate of % of assets indexed to the S&P 500 derived from S&P DJI’s Annual Survey of Assets as of Dec 31, 2019, multiplied by the approximate Pro-forma Weight of TSLA in the SS&P 500 as of 11/13/2020.

Source: S&P DJI

Tesla bull Rob Maurer deeply analysis TSLA S&P 500 in the following video and explains the Tesla float market cap chart we can see above.

Stay tuned for more updates and articles, follow us on:Google News | Flipboard | RSS (Feedly).

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