A Madera native killed in the city’s second homicide of the year was identified by police Tuesday as Leonardo Noriega Salas, 27, allegedly shot and killed by Jose Alfredo Osorio, 21.

Police responded to shots fired near Olive Avenue and I Street around 8:30 p.m. Monday, Det. Sgt. Robert Salas of the Madera Police Department said, where they found two residents applying first aid to the victim.

Salas — with no relation to the detective — was taken to Madera Community Hospital but died from his wounds shortly after.

After an extensive investigation, Osorio, of Oaxaca, Mexico, was arrested Tuesday and booked on charges of murder and drug sales. He was found to be in possession of a loaded gun and a large amount of packaged methamphetamine, said Madera Police Det. Daniel Foss...

FRESNO (AP) — Officials said Tuesday that, for the first time in decades, they plan to tap water stored behind a dam east of Fresno, as they try to help California farmers through the ongoing drought.

Pablo Arroyave of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said in a conference call with reporters that low water levels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have forced officials to turn to Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River. The dam forms the Millerton Lake reservoir.

Millerton Lake water is needed to meet the bureau’s contractual water obligations to the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors Water Authority, which holds senior water rights. The exchange provides irrigation water to about 240,000 acres of farmland between Patterson and Mendota.

The bureau has relied solely on Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to meet the exchange’s needs. The additional water will begin to flow through the Friant Dam on Thursday, Arroyave said.

“We continue to be in a very serious drought with very serious impacts,” Arroyave said. In 1939, the federal government reached an agreement with the exchange to take its water from the Delta rather than the San Joaquin River, unless the Delta couldn’t meet the need. In the drought, the Delta cannot provide enough water, marking a first since the agreement was struck.

Steve Chedester of the exchange said that more water is always good news for the 2,300 farms he serves. But he noted that the government says it will provide an increased amount of water through October. He worries about November and December, adding that the bureau says it remains committed to finding supplies for the exchange then, as well.

“We are committed to helping the bureau try to find that water,” he said. “In our perspective, it needs to be the full amount for the full year.”

The bureau also announced that it is increasing from 40 percent to 65 percent of normal the amount of water to wildlife refuges south of the Delta.

Aside from these changes, the allotment of irrigation water to many Central Valley farmers who aren’t considered senior rights holders is expected to remain at zero for the rest of the year, officials said.

The cables to the summit of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park will be reset and open Friday — a week earlier than previously scheduled due to the low snowpack.

Hikers wishing to ascend the cables between May 16 and May 22 can apply online at www. recreation.gov for a first-come, first-served, permit. These early season permits are required, non-refundable and non-transferable.

The regularly scheduled Half Dome season will commence May 23. Permits for the regular season were available through a lottery during the month of March. Approximately 50 permits per day will be available on a daily basis through a two-day in advance lottery beginning Wednesday. Visitors wishing to obtain a permit can make reservations at www.recreation.gov or call 877-444-6777.

For information regarding the lottery and the Half Dome cables, visit www.nps.gov/yose /planyourvisit/halfdome.htm...

By Jennifer Forker

How can you get the most yield from a garden where space is limited, and water is too? Plant smart, and pay attention to the soil.

“Your garden is only as good as your soil,” says David Salman, chief horticulturist at High Country Gardens, a Santa Fe, N.M., catalog that specializes in native and low-water plants.

Find out what nutrients your soil has — and what it’s missing — with a soil test, available through local cooperative extension offices at a nominal fee (home soil-test kits are less reliable, according to the Colorado State University Extension).

Encourage plant health by fertilizing with natural, organic fertilizers, which include fish emulsion and liquid seaweed, says Salman. Limit the use of chemical fertilizers because they don’t help build the soil.

“You will have more nutritionally complete vegetables if you have healthy soil,” he promises.

One trick Salmon recommends, especially for gardeners living in new housing developments, is adding a soil inoculant called mycorrhiza, a beneficial fungi. It’s found naturally in healthy soil, but often needs to be added to a new garden.

“New gardens in new subdivisions, their soil is scraped off as part of construction,” says Salman. “You need to put beneficial fungi back in.”

Peas, beans and soybeans could benefit from legume inoculants, which are species-specific (a soybean inoculant cannot be used to improve peas’ growth). Read product labels carefully or ask your gardening center for assistance.

“Your beans will do OK (without it), but if you really want to crank out the beans, you can do that with the inoculant,” says Salman. “It’s kind of a ‘grandma’s secret’ to growing great beans.”

Plants that can offer high yields with low watering include leafy vegetables such as kale, lettuce and spinach; beans, snow peas and sugar snap peas; and some varieties of cucumbers and squash, he says. Plant vining beans and peas if you have space or can grow them up a fence or trellis; plant bush beans and peas in large pots if space is limited.

Sarah J. Browning, an extension educator for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, suggests planting radishes, carrots, peppers, zucchini and summer squash for summertime bounty. Peppers grow well in dry conditions, says Browning, and root crops such don’t need frequent watering.

“If you watered them well and then mulched them, I think you could get a crop with fairly small amounts of water input,” she says.

Plant radishes early in the season or in part shade, and mulch them and other plants to retain moisture and combat weeds.

Browning recommends the cherry tomato cultivar Sun Gold and the slicers Big Beef and Celebrity as great-tasting high producers. Also look for disease-resistant tomato varieties, which are easier to grow. Browning refers tomato lovers to Pennsylvania State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences Extension’s “Tomato Report 2011,” which lists the best varieties in its tomato trials.

Melissa Ozawa, a features editor for gardening at Martha Stewart Living magazine, recommends growing okra and Swiss chard; both are heat- and drought-tolerant. Melons also can handle less water once established because of their deep root systems, she says.

Not all vegetables grow well in all regions, so read seed packets, matching days to maturation to your region’s growing season, Salman advises.

“One of the big problems with horticulture in this country is everyone tries to be one-size-fits-all, and this is just too big of a continent to do that,” he says. “You don’t want to grow a 120-day watermelon in Denver. They can grow those in Texas, but the maturation period in Denver is much shorter.”

Prolific, water-wise herbs include basil, oregano, parsley, thyme and rosemary, says Browning.

Salman offers space-saving planting tips for herbs: Plant lavender and oregano along the dryer edges of your garden, since they’re the most heat-tolerant, and plant Greek oregano and dill, plus annual herbs such as basil and cilantro, among the root vegetables.

Try growing perennials such as rosemary, English thyme, tarragon and lavender in your ornamental beds. They don’t require your vegetable garden’s mineral-rich soil, says Salman.

Drought-tolerant flower varieties include coneflowers, hummingbird mint, salvia and blanket flowers, according to Ozawa. Other cutting-garden winners are cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers and larkspur, says Salman. His favorite late-season bloomer is the Mexican sunflower.

“If there’s a bee or butterfly in a 10-mile radius, they’ll find that Mexican sunflower,” he says.

Since coming to the United States in 2003 from India, Bal Singh has always worked in the food industry with an eye on opening his own restaurant.

He spent the last 10 years working at a Subway restaurant and managing a pizza place, knowing that he would eventually open a pizzeria of his own.

Singh’s dream came true in November when he opened Premier Brick Over Pizza in the former home of other long-gone pizza places at 1628 Howard Road.

“I saw this place and the community around here,” Singh said. “It’s pretty nice. When I came inside, everything was ready to go. I didn’t have to start from scratch. My dream has come true. I always wanted to open a pizza restaurant.” ...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking millions of dollars more to fix problems at an $839 million prison medical complex that was built to help end years of federal court oversight.

The California Health Care Facility in Stockton opened in July. Six months later, the federal overseer who runs the prison medical system abruptly halted admissions, citing a series of problems that have yet to be corrected.

The revised budget Brown proposed Tuesday requests $12.4 million to correct what it calls “unanticipated operational issues.” The proposal is “critical to fixing the deficiencies at the prison,” said Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the federal receiver’s office.

Prison medical receiver J. Clark Kelso cited a lack of health care and support staff, problems with managing the food service, inadequate accommodations for disabled inmates, and logistical problems such as providing basic medical and personal hygiene products.

For example, he said an outbreak of scabies likely resulted from an inability to provide adequate hygiene supplies. Nurses also were not even given the proper keys that would get them into cells and other locations in the facility, he said.

Part of the additional money will go to hiring 106 additional employees, including 77 prison guards, said Deborah Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“The administration is committed to the continued improvement of CDCR’s delivery of health care services to inmates,” Hoffman said.

She said about $2.6 billion, or nearly 20 percent of the department’s budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, will go to providing medical, mental health and dental care to inmates.

California has been engaged in a lengthy and costly attempt to address federal court rulings that say its prisons provide substandard medical and mental health care. The judges have said reducing the overall inmate population is the most important way to improve care but also have ordered billions of dollars’ worth of Improvements to facilities and salary increases for professional medical and mental health workers.

The receiver’s office hired an independent consultant to recommend how many additional doctors and nurses are needed at the Stockton hospital, with a report due in June. Hayhoe said the office could seek additional money to hire more medical workers, depending on the consultant’s report. There is no target date for resuming admissions of sick inmates, she said.

The additional money proposed for the hospital is part of the corrections department’s $9.8 billion annual budget. Corrections accounts for nearly 9 percent of the governor’s $107.8 billion general fund spending plan.

Lawmakers must pass a balanced budget by June 15.

By Roger Munoz

David Aguilar’s inquisitive nature drove him to numerous accomplishments. Jaime Ceja wanted to better his life and his future. And Bianca Garcia had a burning desire to help others.

Aguilar, Ceja and Garcia — all born and raised in Madera — are among the 5,638 students who will graduate from Fresno State University on Saturday.

The university’s 103rd commencement ceremony will take place at the Save Mart Center from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Aguilar, 22, who is graduating with bachelor’s degrees in criminology and psychology, said the transition from high school to college was daunting; it took him awhile to adjust, but as time went on his confidence began to grow...

At 6 p.m. Friday, the 21st annual Rotary/Netherton Relays will be held at Lee DaSilva Field in Madera High School’s Memorial Stadium. The highly popular track event will draw students and their families and friends from most of Madera Unified’s schools. However, many of those attending won’t remember the man who initiated those races.

The Rotary/Netherton Relays actually began in the late 1960s, but they had a different name. Back then they were called the Madison Relays and they were the brainchild of an Oklahoma transplant named Jack Netherton, who decided to put his love for track and field to the test in Madera. At the time he was the principal of Madison School.

The Madison Relays continued under that name until 1993, when the Madera Rotary Club agreed to sponsor the relays, and it was the Rotarians who named it the Rotary/Netherton Relays.

Although Jack Netherton died in 1996, memories of this much-revered Madera educator come to the surface each year during the relays...

A brief ceremony midday Wednesday at Courthouse Park paid tribute to the eight members of law enforcement who lost their lives in service to Madera County from 1919 to 1973.

Sheriff John Anderson, who is retiring at the end of the year, said he was pleased at the large turn out of residents and law enforcement to remember the fallen, in spite of near record heat. “I am glad we do this (to remember them), but it’s too bad we have to. I have been in this business a long time, several decades and I have worked with (fallen) officers who are on the memorial in Sacramento,” Anderson said.

Madera District California Highway Patrol Lt. Commander Craig Kunzler acknowledged and read aloud the 10 names of on-duty law enforcement officers killed last year in California.

Family members Margot Sciacqua, daughter of Matron Lucille Helm (1914-1959), and Mike Shannon, son of Madera police officer Denny D. Shannon (1920-1954), helped lay a wreath of flowers at the memorial. Helm was the first woman in California to die in the line of duty...

The local chapter of the Association of Mexican American Educators awarded scholarships to nine Madera students.

Winners attend Madera High School, Madera South High School, Madera Adult School and Madera Community College.

A dinner and ceremony, organized by AMAE on Wednesday, included the recipients and their families, chapter members and Madera Unified School District Superintendent Edward Gonzalez.

“I think it was great,” said Alex Garcia, AMAE president. “A lot of people came. Some of them didn’t know what it would be like. The students said they liked the people they were sitting with, they really got to talk about AMAE.” ...

More than 20 guns and an ounce of methamphetamine were seized from a Madera County home this week, police announced Thursday, after investigation into a separate crime led them to a home that housed two drug labs and a weapons workshop with possible gang ties.

Steven Smith, 36, was arrested Wednesday at the home near Avenue 18 and Road 19 on several charges including manufacturing of illegal weapons and drug-related crimes, said Sgt. Gino Chiaramonte of the Madera Police Special Investigations Unit (SIU).

“You don’t see an arrest like this very often,” Chiaramonte said. “I mean houses like this are out there, but you don’t see law enforcement find them all the time … typically having two labs and all these firearms, that’s a big deal in a criminal sense.”

Chiaramonte said after SIU officers arrested Billy Childers — one of the county’s most-wanted fugitives — on suspicion of robbery and assault with a firearm last week, investigations led them to Smith’s home where Childers allegedly fired a high-powered weapon at a car on the property...

According to a Grand Jury report of 2010-2011, complaints against incumbent District Attorney Michael Keitz’s management style, characterized as “stiff” and “black and white,” began to surface within months of his 2009 appointment. An investigation was conducted four months after he took office, at a cost of $3,000. The Grand Jury requested access to the investigation’s results, but was denied by then-County Counsel David Prentice on grounds of attorney-client privilege. That report has never been made public.

In January of 2010, because of further numerous complaints about Keitz to the county’s human resources department, then-director Lonn Boyer hired Fresno attorney Dan Rowley to again investigate the office. The so-called “Rowley Report” was complete in May of that year at a cost of $26,698. After a request by The Madera Tribune in 2012, County Counsel Doug Nelson refused to provide a copy, citing attorney-client privilege.

After another request by The Madera Tribune, the Board of Supervisors ordered Nelson to turn over a copy, but Keitz sued before the report was released, once more citing attorney-client privilege even though Rowley was hired by the human resources department. In court, during a hearing over whether a permanent injunction should be issued against releasing the report, Keitz’s attorney claimed the report’s release would cause “irreparable harm to my client’s reputation.”

After a costly five-month legal battle, Madera Superior Court Judge James Oakley agreed with Keitz’s lawyers and issued a permanent injunction of the report unless Keitz agrees to release it. To date, it has never been seen by the public...

They say he was responsible for dissension in the district attorney’s office

Past employees of the Madera County District Attorney’s office say they are outraged at being blamed by their former boss for morale problems in his office.

They say the problems were incumbent DA Michael Keitz’s fault, and they say they resent implications made by Keitz that they were lazy and “bad apples.”

The accusations against his former staffers were leveled by Keitz during a candidate forum April 17 in Oakhurst. He was responding to charges by his two opponents for the district attorney’s job, to which he is seeking re-election.

After opponents David Linn and Miranda Neal harshly criticized him for what they said was an atmosphere of intimidation, high turnover rates, and lack of an open-door policy in his office, Keitz responded with his version of conditions in the DA’s workplace...

FRESNO (AP) — Four people are facing charges in the slaying of a San Joaquin Valley raisin farmer who authorities say was shot when he discovered the defendants stripping a stolen truck on his property.

Twenty-two-year-old Jose Canas, who investigators believe was the gunman, and the three other defendants pleaded not guilty on Thursday to murder and vehicle burglary charges in a Fresno County courtroom.

Authorities say the farmer, 38-year-old George Salwasser Jr., discovered the four on his property on May 8. Two of the defendants, Adrian Aceves and Maria Mansanalez, both in their early 20s, were arrested after an SUV they allegedly fled in crashed.

Mansanalez’s brother, Fabian, and Canas were arrested the next day.

Attorney Linden Lindahl, who represents Maria Mansanalez, told KFSN-TV his client was heartbroken after learning Salwasser had four children.

The Madera Irrigation District Board of Directors announced this week it has appointed Jim Erickson as its newest board member.

Erickson, a resident and landowner in Division 4, was appointed to the division left vacant after the resignation of Gary Bursey on April 21.

“I’m looking forward to working with staff and the board to keep water going to the farmers,” Erickson said.

Chowchilla is hoping to bring in dozens of applicants for its brand-new “Great Chowchilla Yard Sale” next month, which it promises will hold “booth after booth” of goods to sell.

For $25, an 18-by-15-foot space can be reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis to sell whatever goods an individual, family, church, school, or other community groups wish to deal for some extra cash.

The event will take place on June 21 from 8 a.m. to noon on Trinity Avenue and Third Street. Surrounding streets will be closed off for the booths, which will be set up along roadways. Vendors are encouraged to bring their own shade shelter along with tables and chairs to display their merchandise.

Applications are available at Chowchilla City Hall, the Chowchilla Senior Center, and the Chowchilla Chamber of Commerce office at 137 S. Third Street. Applications are also available at www.ci.chowchilla.ca.us or by emailing a request to info at ci.chowchilla.ca.us...

An Oakhurst woman who viciously beat a small puppy was sentenced last week to two years behind bars after she violated her probation, Madera County District Attorney Michael Keitz announced late Thursday.

On Aug. 29, 2012, a witness saw 41-year-old Janice Mossman Aguilar repeatedly punching the puppy until its eye dislocated from its socket. She then stuffed the dog into her bag and ran to a nearby park where she was arrested.

The dog later died from its injuries.

Last year, Aguilar was sentenced to three years of felony probation and 76 days in Madera County Jail. However, after her sentencing, Aguilar committed petty theft and obstruction of a peace officer, which led to her probation being revoked and a two-year prison sentence...

State argues right to sell high-speed train bonds

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Two lower court rulings that have complicated efforts to begin construction on California’s $68 billion high-speed rail system are premature and should be overturned, attorneys for the state argued before an appellate court panel Friday.

The arguments come after Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny ruled that the bullet train project no longer complies with the promises made to voters when they approved selling nearly $10 billion in bonds in 2008. Kenny’s rulings last November invalidated the sale of $8.6 billion in state bonds and required the state to write a new funding plan.

The lawsuits filed by Kings County and landowners there are premature because the state is not yet seeking to spend any of the bond money and only the state Legislature can determine whether there was enough detail in the funding plan, Deputy Attorney General Ross Moody told a three-judge panel of the California 3rd District Court of Appeal.

“We can’t get this project off the ground. We’re stopped because of this misreading of Proposition 1A,” Moody said. “... We’re at the precipice of actually getting this project into the next phase and we are stopped, we’re being told to go back. We don’t think it’s a proper reading of the law.”

Lawmakers approved the first phase of the planned 800-mile rail line in 2012. That allowed the state to begin selling bonds for construction of the first 130-mile stretch and tap $3.3 billion in federal matching funds.

Attorney Stuart Flashman, who represents the Kings County landowners, argued that the requirement for a valid funding plan would not have been included in the ballot measure if it was not paramount to protecting the public interest.

“That’s what the ballot measure’s intent was: to make sure you’re not going to get stuck with a partially completed segment that you’re jammed up with not being able to complete,” Flashman said.

The panel seemed skeptical about overturning the Legislature’s decision, noting that an updated funding plan would be required before the money is spent.

“You could be correct that at whatever point in time the project that’s planned doesn’t begin to resemble the project that the people authorized,” Presiding Justice Vance Raye told Tim Bittle, an attorney who argued on behalf of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. “The question is are we there yet, at this point when there’s been no construction and the only expenditure of funds has been of federal funds, not bond funds.”

The California High-Speed Rail Authority has said that while the state money is tied up, it is spending the federal funds for pre-construction work that includes engineering, surveying and acquiring land along the first 28-mile segment from Merced to Fresno.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration initially appealed the Sacramento County judge’s rulings to the state supreme court, which asked the appellate court to hear them on an expedited basis. The judges have 90 days to issue a ruling.

Moody argued that the law required the state to act quickly, which it can’t do while the project is tied up in litigation.

“We have this big pot of federal money that’s sitting out there that we need to spend by 2017,” he said. “... If we take a time out every time we file a preliminary funding plan for a couple of years of litigation over it, this process is going to drag on forever.”

Non-compliant districts face increased enforcement

Most of Madera County’s special districts have followed an order to reduce water use by at least 10 percent, but several are still out of compliance and residents could face increased enforcement and potential fines as a result.

Overall, county engineer Kheng Vang said the county’s 28 special districts reduced consumption by 21 percent in overall volume — saving more than 23.5 million gallons — from the same time period last year.

“I think overall the communities and residents have done a great job to reduce their water use,” Vang said. “It shows how they’re willing to cut back in severe times like these.”

Those cutbacks follow an emergency ordinance by the county’s board of supervisors earlier this year to slash water use in light of a severe drought predicted to cost the Valley some $3 billion in dead crops and lost labor...

In honor of sacrifices made by local veterans, a number of traditional, patriotic events are scheduled in Madera on Memorial Day to celebrate and remember.

The day’s main program is slated to begin at 11 a.m., appropriately in front of the Veterans Memorial at the City of Madera’s Courthouse Park.

State Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, will act as master of ceremonies for the event, which will begin with a posting of the colors by members from Madera’s Veteran of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 1981 and American Legion Post 11.

After the Pledge of Allegiance and a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the VFW musical duo of Mokey Cowger and Karen Faso East — a regular sight at local veterans services — will sing “America the Beautiful” and perform multiple patriotic songs such as “You’re a Grand Old Flag” throughout the day...