Home Care In Fresno, CA

A former correctional officer at the women’s prison in Chowchilla was sentenced to 224 years on Thursday for sexually assaulting nine inmates over an 11-year period.

Wearing shackles and a Madera County Jail inmate jumpsuit, 47-year-old Gregory Rodriguez stared blankly into the courtroom as Superior Court Judge Katherine Rigby read each of the 62 counts and the accompanying prison sentence.

Thursday’s hearing was a continuation of his sentencing hearing in July where several of Rodriguez’s victim’s spoke about the rampant sexual assaults he was convicted of in January. The victims described being preyed upon and manipulated by Rodriguez who was a correctional officer at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla for 15 years.

The victims accused Rodriguez of rape, sodomy and sexual battery.

One additional victim spoke Thursday. She was only identified as Breanne.

“I’m sorry that all of you don’t really know who this man is, but let me say this, work and home are two different things, hearing how good a family man he was is a joke and honestly sickening, because this is not what all this is about. This is strictly based on a jury found him guilty on these charges for sexual assault.” she said. “He’s a monster.”

Prosecutor Eric DuTemple, supervising deputy district attorney, said Rodriguez would call the women into a parole board hearing room where he would sexually assault them, out of the way of any cameras.

Breanne said Rodriguez would peek through the window blinds of the office to see if anyone was coming while he raped her.

Rodriguez’s family members told a different story about him. They described Rodriguez as a family man, who doted over his daughter, hosted family get-togethers and served as a role model to the family’s younger generation.

One of his nieces, Brianna Rodriguez, spoke Thursday, saying she had a hard time reconciling the man accused of these heinous crimes and the man she knows as “Uncle Greg.”

“Throughout this trial, Greg’s character has been diminished and his reputation irreparably damaged,” she said. “The descriptions of him felt so foreign, so misaligned with the Greg that I know and love. How could these words be associated with Greg? The events seem so far out of the realm of what is possible.”

About 30 of Rodriguez’s family members and supporters attended Thursday’s sentencing hearing.

Roger Wilson, Rodriguez’s defense attorney, said his client maintains he did nothing wrong.

“I think it was telling when a couple of the inmates actually testified that they approached him because they wanted to hook him. That was a word they used so that if anything happened between the two, they could use that as leverage to get things from the outside world,” Wilson said. “He still believes that that didn’t happen. He’s consistent with his statements to me that he didn’t do any of these things. He still maintains his innocence for all the counts.”

Wilson is filing an appeal of Rodriguez’s conviction.

Madera County District Attorney Sally Moreno was grateful to the victims who came forward.

“We are confident this verdict represents justice for some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” she said. “We appreciate the courage of these victims in testifying, and the time and effort devoted by the jury and Judge Rigby in reaching this result.”

The former correctional officer’s conviction happened amid increasing scrutiny of the Chowchilla women’s prison, which last year came under a sexual abuse investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. In just the last few years, women have launched hundreds of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse, including rape, at the prison. The lawsuits have alleged that a code of silence allowed employees to abuse incarcerated women, The Sacramento Bee previously reported. The state settled one separate civil lawsuit filed by six women against Rodriguez in 2023 for $3.7 million.

Are you looking for work in Fresno?

With the 2025 Big Fresno Fair upcoming in October, the fair will hold its annual job search to fill nearly 400 positions.

The Big Fresno Fair returns Oct. 1 through Oct. 12, bringing carnival food and family fun.

“The fair needs energetic, friendly and hard-working people to help put on the largest annual event in the Valley!” the fair said on its website.

Here’s what you need to know if you’re looking to join the team:

When and where is Big Fresno Fair hiring event?

The Big Fresno Fair will host the job fair on Thursday, Aug. 14, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Commerce Building.

The Commerce Building is located inside the fairgrounds, 1121 South Chance Ave in Fresno.

What positions are available at career fair?

Supervisors will be accepting applications for a range of positions, including parking attendants, ticket sellers, customer service representatives and janitorial staff.

Volunteer opportunities are also available.

What do I need to apply for a fair job?

To apply for a Big Fresno Fair job, you must be at least 18.

“Anyone interested in applying for one of the nearly 400 positions available MUST attend the Job Fair,” the fair website says.

You can apply in person at the hiring event, but candidates are encouraged to download and complete applications in advance.

“Please bring several copies of your resume to hand out for each available position you are interested in applying for,” the fair website says. “Also, don’t forget to dress in business professional attire.”

If you are hired, you will need to provide documents that prove your identity and eligibility to work in the United States.

Acceptable documents include:

“You will NOT be permitted to start work until this documentation is provided,” the fair website says.

Can I volunteer at the Fresno fair?

If you are interested in volunteering for the 2025 Big Fresno Fair, you can email [email protected].

It’s hummingbird season and, for many Fresno and Clovis residents, that means setting up feeders to draw these little birds with fast wings and slender beaks and watch them elegantly flutter around backyards and porches.

But this year, some longtime bird enthusiasts in the area report a significant decline in the number of hummingbirds enjoying the free sugar water.

Joan Lassley, who lives in the foothills near Prather, has been a year-round hummingbird feeder for a decade. She noticed the number of her hummingbird guests has decreased by half this summer.

“I have three feeders here at my house and three at my mom’s house next door. I still change them often. But instead of 10 or 12, I have six or seven typically. Like, I’m looking out the window right now, and there’s only five out there,” Lassley told The Bee.

Last year, about 20 hummingbirds stopped by her feeder outside the nook of her kitchen during peak hours, Lassley said.

Other bird feeder users in the Fresno area say they’ve seen even sharper drops.

“We have had 17 visit my feeders, but this year it is two,” Mary Ann Ramirez posted on a Facebook group of Clovis residents.

”Started noticing it last year. I’ve always had two feeders out with as many as 15 birds, down to only three hummers now,” said Kelli Rogers, commenting on Ramirez’s post.

Data from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology shows that, from 2012 to 2022, the population of Anna’s Hummingbird, the most common hummingbird species in Fresno, has declined slightly by 5-10% in urban and eastern foothill areas, while it increased significantly by 40-50% in the sprawling agricultural land between Highway 99 and Highway 5.

Another less common species in the Fresno area, the black-chinned hummingbird, reportedly decreased by 29% in Clovis. Its numbers dropped by 21% across the state.

Although there’s a lack of sufficient statistical data, experts say that birdwatchers’ observations are plausible.

“We probably need a few more years to get the statistical values to say if there is an overall decrease, but overall, they are not doing as well in California as they used to, so I believe it,” said Joel Slade, an assistant professor of biology at Fresno State.

The statewide decline in hummingbirds is primarily due to climate change, Slade said. Over the past decade, intense heat waves have caused many migratory birds to flee to cooler northern regions. Hummingbirds are experiencing a major decrease down into Los Angeles, Nevada, or across the mountains into Arizona, but the Fresno region is in between, he said.

The data map from 2012 to 2022 shows that hummingbirds have maintained their numbers in Fresno, but Clovis has seen a slight drop, Slade said.

He said the reduction in food and habitat is a significant factor behind the reported decline.

Hummingbirds must eat every 10 to 15 minutes to support their fast wings, small bodies, and long distances to travel, according to the National Audubon Society. In a natural environment, hummingbirds visit 1,000 to 2,000 flowers per day.

Therefore, male birds are very protective of their feeding sites. Slade said he has seen one male bird jump from one feeder to another feeder to chase another bird away, even when the bird is fine feeding off one feeder. The nature of hummingbirds means that unless bird enthusiasts have a large land with lots of shrubs to block hummingbirds’ lines of sight, the feeders would end up serving one or two birds.

Besides the free sugar water from the feeders, hummingbirds also value nectar-producing plants such as sages.

“I notice that a lot of people don’t cater to the native plants, they cater to the highly ornamental. They look pretty to us, but it might not be beneficial to the birds, and they might not be getting nectar from them and might not be producing a lot of offspring,” Slade said.

Ideal plants are those that flower a lot in February and March, when hummingbirds start to build their nest and require a huge supply of food. Hummingbirds cannot survive solely off sugar, though that is where most of their energy comes from, Slade said. But birds cannot grow without protein, and plants attract small insects.

“One other factor is pesticide usage,” Slade said. “Pesticides are going to kill the insects that they need for protein, especially during nesting. So if there’s a high pesticide usage around the areas these people are putting their feeders up, it might impact the insects that birds need to feed their nestlings, and they’re going to have a lower survival rate.”

Unlike some other birds, hummingbird doesn’t have the ability to produce large brood sizes. They only lay two eggs, Slade said. There’s no way for them to make up for any of the other ones that are lost.

To lure more hummingbirds to the region, Slade suggests putting lots of native shrubs and trees to provide cover for the nesting habitat and provide sources of water so birds can stay hydrated.

But, more importantly, hummingbird enthusiasts should clean feeders regularly and replace the sugar water to prevent fungi and bacteria from harming the health of hummingbirds.

Slade suggests replacing sugar water every four days during cool seasons and every one to two days during summer.

“They could tell if the bacteria or fungi growth is high enough, but if they’re hungry, they’re going to try, especially if they’ve been eating from that location for a while, they’re habituated to it,” Slade said. “So it’s dangerous to do that without cleaning on a regular basis.”

Slade said he doesn’t use feeders. Rather, he uses plants because plants are always repopulating their nectar, and plants have their own way of preventing fungal and bacterial growth in their own nectar.

Lassley, the longtime hummingbird enthusiast, said she used to keep a hummingbird bush, which she replaced with salvia and other plants that hummingbirds might like, though she noticed that they seem to like the free sugar the best.

Lassley said her mother-in-law used to really enjoy watching hummingbirds and spread the joy of the hobby to her. Now, it has become Lassley and her mom’s favorite part of their morning routines.

“Just sit and have coffee and watch the birds, I can do it for hours. That’s just always a fun thing that we do,” she said. “I think they’re an incredible animal, just like the bees are, and I think it’s important that we can feed them if they need it.”

Flip the Script is a Bee series that challenges negative stereotypes (with the help of readers) by highlighting Fresno's remarkable assets and culture. Have a tip? Email [email protected].

Fresno is a place of archetypes.

There are the natives; those born and bred with Valley roots. These are families, known and not, with ties that go back generations. See: the Pardinis and their restaurant empire.

There are the boomerangs; those who left Fresno (for greener pastures, imagined or real) only to return. Kopi Sotiropulos is famously a boomerang. He left to Los Angeles in 1977 and spent the bulk of the 1980s as a working actor before returning to Fresno and becoming the well-known TV personality he is today.

Note: There is a subcategory of Boomerangs who have left and returned more than once. It is something that happens often enough to have its own name (on Reddit, at least). It’s called the Fresno curse.

There are tourists; both figurative and literal. These are the ones who are just passing through and who, for better or worse, see the area with an outsider’s eyes.

And then, there are the transplants; those who came to the area and found it agreeable enough to stay and put down roots.

Earlier this year, The Fresno Bee asked readers to share their stories as part of a reporting project aimed at changing the narrative around what it means to live in Fresno. Here are three transplants on why they moved to the area — and why they’ve stayed.

Steve Skibbie moved to Fresno with no intention of staying long.

Nearly 40 years later, he’s still here, and happily.

“I’ve seen this hundreds of times,” says Skibbie, a professional photographer and production specialist for the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools. People say they’ll only be in Fresno for a year or two, “and then they get sucked into the community.”

“They may not even like Fresno,” he says, “but they love the community.”

Skibbie came to Fresno from Oregon in 1987. He had just gotten out of military service and wanted to be a photojournalist. The program at Fresno State came highly recommended. So much so, that Skibbie drove down and camped out in the parking lot of the Joyal Administration building to get a jump on introducing himself around the journalism department.

He knew, almost immediately, that he had chosen the right place.

“I came to Fresno and I liked it. It just hit me right.”

The frat guys during his freshman orientation that first week of school, they didn’t have much to good to say about the city, Skibbie says. It was, “avoid south of Shaw, avoid downtown.”

Skibbie didn’t take that advice. He started venturing around those parts of town, where he found some great architecture. But he really discovered the city with his then-girlfriend (eventual wife). They were running a book club for kids who lived in the motels along Broadway Avenue. Skibbie found there a group of people who seemed to get a bad wrap “because they were poor and lived in a neighborhood that nobody liked.”

“We really just kind of decided that we were going to live downtown,” he says.

For a time, Skibbie and his wife lived as part of a Christian ministry at the Pink House, a fourplex apartment building on L street near the First Presbyterian Church.

In 1998, they became homeowners.

They were one of several families that moved into the Lowell neighborhood, a mostly forgotten collection of homes tucked between Tower District and downtown proper. The neighborhood was one of Fresno’s first subdivisions and as such includes mansions, but also mid-sized homes, bungalow courts and apartments. The Skibbies bought and renovated a 100-year old home, where they lived and raised their children.

There was a moment, early on when Skibbie thought about leaving Fresno. His parents tried to lure him back to Oregon with a job opportunity, and his wife was ready to go. He applied for the job and interviewed, “and failed,” he says.

His daughter and son-in-law recently moved into the family home, which allowed Skibbie and his wife to “retire” into a loft apartment inside the Pacific Southwest Building.

His daughter is a now boomerang, who returned from a stay in Florida, because Fresno is still a place to get your feet on the ground after school, Skibbie says. The city did rank in the top 10 on a list of the most affordable places to live the state, according to one survey.

Like Skibbie, Paula Castadio, moved to Fresno in the late ’80s to attend Fresno State.

She was a California native and from the Valley; raised just up Highway 99 in the city of Atwater. The counselors at her high school must have had some kind of deal with the university, she says, because “they didn’t really share any other options.”

Plus, her brother was already a student there and that helped in the decision making process.

After graduation, she met her husband, Richard, and began a career that included a long stint with Valley Public Television (where she served as the president and CEO for a decade) and a shorter one at Fresno State. She now works as a consultant.

But there was something else going on.

“I developed a heart for the community,” Castadio says.

“Once you start connecting with the people here, it does tether you,” she says.

“I continue to be touched by that.”

She can point to any number of organizations that are working hard for the good of the community; Cradle to Career, the Fresno Business Council, Central Valley Community Foundation and it’s Drive initiative, which has advocated for $4.2 billion in new development over the next decade. There’s also new investments in art through Measure P, which Castadio calls hugely transformative for Fresno and our mindset.

“That will make this an even more attractive place to live,” she says.

Of course, for Castadio, Fresno has never been short of appeal.

There’s a mix of people and cultures here, and a good cost of living compared to the available quality-of-life activities. The city’s centralized location also puts one in proximity to most places in the state, which is important for the Castadios. They travel up in Napa to see her parents and to the Central Coast. That’s where they spend much of their off time.

Not that they haven’t given thought to other places, or pictured where they might end up if they weren’t here.

“We do the Google search. And we always come back to Fresno,” Castadio says.

“It is a great place to live based on all the factors I can think of.”

For Timothy McCollum and his wife Carol there were two factors that led them to Fresno.

“There was what we wanted to avoid and what we wanted to achieve,” says McCollum a retired lawyer who sold his home in Southern California to move to the foothills northeast of Fresno in October of 1990.

He grew up in Los Angeles.

“I just didn’t want to live long enough to die in Los Angeles.”

The couple looked at cities up and down the state, “from San Diego to Sacramento,” before settling on 40 acres of raw cattle land near Tollhouse.

There, they found a place with clean water and cleaner air, no noise or light pollution. “And,” McCollum jokes, “there were no chemical plants up gradient from us.”

McCollum worked in environmental law.

The property allowed them to have horses, which the couple kept until they got to old to ride, and raise longhorn cattle. They had 22 at the height of things, including a somewhat famous sire bull.

Now they’re down to five.

McCollum commuted into Fresno for work, where there was access to a federal courthouse. That access was an important piece of why McCollum chose the area.

But among out of town lawyers, there was a certain stigma in being from Fresno. “Nothing original was ever created in Fresno, legally,” he says.

One could use that to their advantage.

Now, in his 80s, McCollum is officially retired. But the couple still makes it down into Fresno a few times a week and is happy with their decision to move.

“It’s been wonderful,” he says.

“We’re delighted to be here.”

McCollum actually first shared his thoughts on Fresno with The Bee back in 1998 as part of a series of stories on the Valley’s image. He was one of hundreds who filled out a 46-question survey.

At the time, he called the city “a wonderful place to live,” with one major exception.

“The one great lack in Fresno is leadership,” he said.

“With the current leadership, Fresno is doomed to be a branch office location for distant corporations. If it’s lucky.”