Community supporting Breaking the Chains CEO after daughter’s murder

WEATHER ALERT Winter Storm Watch WATCH LIVE Welcome, Manage MyDisney Account Log Out Friday, March 29, 2024 5:21AM FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Family and friends continue to support a Fresno non-profit CEO and mother after her daughter was murdered last week in Los Angeles. 20-year-old Kendra is the daughter of Debra Rush, the founder of Breaking the Chains. The local group works to help free people from human trafficking. A GoFundMe page has raised more than $15,000 so far to help with funeral expenses. Los Angeles police found Kendra’s body last Thursday. A close family friend said she was shot and killed on a street popular for human trafficking. Her mother, Debra, has spoken to Action News many times, helping to raise awareness about the dangers of human slavery. She’s also been a part of several fundraisers to help survivors break the cycle and get back on their feet. Copyright © 2024 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved. Top Stories

New allegations added to complaint against Madera kidnapping suspect

WEATHER ALERT Winter Storm Watch WATCH LIVE Welcome, Manage MyDisney Account Log Out Friday, March 29, 2024 5:12AM MADERA COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) — New allegations were added to a complaint against a man charged with carjacking, kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Madera woman last week. In court Tuesday, 54-year-old Otis McKinzy Jr. pleaded not guilty to the charges. But Thursday, the Madera County District Attorney’s office added allegations of “great bodily injury” to two of the counts he’s facing. Madera police say McKinzy tried to rob a woman in her 50s then carjacked, kidnapped and sexually assaulted her before she got away. McKinzy is a registered sex offender and served 24 years in prison for another carjacking and kidnapping in 1997. He was out on parole. McKinzy remains jailed with no bail. A preliminary hearing is set for April 5th. Copyright © 2024 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved. Top Stories

Memorial held for 7 farmworkers killed in Madera County crash

Friday, March 29, 2024 5:05AM MADERA, Calif. (KFSN) — Dozens of people gathered on Thursday in Madera to honor the seven farmworkers killed in a tragic crash last month. Candles glowed in front of photos of the men being remembered tonight at Madera Court House Park. The American Friends Service Committee organized the gathering. Organizers say many valley residents with family ties to the farm-working community felt the heartbreak of the seven lives cut short. “Each of them had dreams – hopes. they are human beings with families with hopes. who came here in search of a better life… of better opportunities,” said Minerva Mendoza, program coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee. Family members of the victims addressed everyone to thank them for the ongoing support. Copyright © 2024 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved. Top Stories

Father of teacher murdered at Dinuba home dies of heart attack

DINUBA, Calif. (KFSN) — A tragic murder has now claimed the lives of two people. The family of Sergio Martin says his father, Manuel Martin, passed away from a heart attack on Sunday. Sergio, who was a middle school teacher in Orosi, was shot and killed in his Dinuba home back in November of last year “Had they not murdered my cousin, my uncle would still be alive. He’d be alive, happy, healthy. Both of them are celebrating Easter. This is a tragedy. This is the murder of 2 people, not just my cousin but also of my uncle. They are responsible for both,” said Wendy Gonzales, Sergio’s cousin. Wendy Gonzales says her uncle was always happy, giving, and a jokester. But ever since Sergio’s murder in November, her uncle wasn’t the same. “Since we buried my cousin, my uncle stopped eating. He stopped speaking every time I would see him, and we would say our goodbyes. He would just pat his heart, and that’s it. He wouldn’t speak. He just stopped living the day my cousin died,” said Wendy. Dinuba Police believe Sergio was

Fresno Unified School Board president speaking out about superintendent search

WEATHER ALERT Winter Storm Watch WATCH LIVE Welcome, Manage MyDisney Account Log Out Friday, March 29, 2024 4:51AM FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — The president of the Fresno Unified School Board is speaking out about the district’s search for the next superintendent. Susan Wittrup says that the board did not unanimously agree to move forward with internal candidates only. She believes outside candidates should also be considered. It follows a different announcement at last week’s board meeting, where they said the next phase of the search would be interviews with those internal applicants. Wittrup shared a statement with Action News, writing, in part: “Fresno’s economic prosperity is directly linked to the school district’s performance and that is why I fully support a comprehensive search for the best and most qualified superintendent to lead Fresno Unified.” Wittrup is encouraging community members to sign a petition titled “Break the Cycle of Failure at Fresno Unified”. You can find the petition by clicking here. Copyright © 2024 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved. Top Stories

Guardians 8, Athletics 0: Sparse crowd ushers in Oakland’s 57th (perhaps final) season

OAKLAND – One of the smallest Opening Day crowds in the Oakland A’s 57-year history showed Thursday night for possibly their final season debut at the Coliseum — an 8-0 shutout loss to the Cleveland Guardians. While some fans bunkered in the parking lot to protest the A’s planned relocation to Las Vegas, there wasn’t much for the home fans to cheer amid the announced crowd of 13,522. “I would have liked to seen all those guys inside the stadium tonight. But they’re fighting for something they believe in,” A’s starting pitcher Alex Wood said. “As long as they’re supporting us, whether it’s inside the stadium or watching the game outside, Oakland has such a rich history of baseball and you see how much it means to people.” That was officially the seventh-smallest attendance in the A’s Opening Day history, although that includes debuts limited by the COVID pandemic in 2020 (no fans) and 2021 (10,436). Ironically, the A’s record for lowest attendance of a season opener came in 1996 when 7,294 showed in Las Vegas, where that series against Toronto got moved because of

Sharks keep it competitive, but see losing skid reach nine games

The San Jose Sharks once again had a chance to earn a rare post-all-star break victory on Thursday night as they faced the Minnesota Wild. Once again, the third period proved to be the Sharks’ undoing, although this wasn’t a case where they were badly outplayed. The Sharks allowed an even-strength goal to Matt Boldy just 18 seconds into the third period and were unable to find the equalizer in a 3-1 loss to the Wild at Xcel Energy Center. An aggressive Wild forecheck after the period’s opening faceoff at center ice created a turnover in the Sharks’ zone. After the puck came toward the front of the Sharks’ net, Kirill Kaprizov had his shot attempt blocked by Kyle Burroughs, but the puck came straight to Boldy, who was open to score his 25th of the season past Sharks goalie Mackenzie Blackwood. Ryan Hartman scored an empty-net goal with 54 seconds left in the third period to seal the win for Minnesota, which has now lost just once in regulation time in its last 11 games (7-1-3) to keep its faint playoff hopes alive. Mikael

‘They gave in:’ Oakland A’s backtrack, let fans in early ahead of final Opening Day at the Coliseum

OAKLAND — What had the makings of a traffic nightmare and public safety issue ended an hour early on Thursday afternoon, when the Oakland A’s finally relented and opened the gates to their parking lots much earlier than expected. “They gave in,” said Anson Casanares, vice president of the Oakland 68s fan group. Seemingly ignoring that the thousands of fans were planning to flood the parking lots to boycott the game and the team’s pending move to Las Vegas, the A’s originally decided to block entry to their parking lot until two hours before their 7:07 p.m. Opening Day game against the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday, a stark difference from last year, when they opened four hours early. Thursday, cars lined up in front of the B Lot entrance as early as noon. By 3 p.m., there was a line at least a half-mile long. Instead of waiting until 5:07 p.m. to open the parking lot gates, the A’s folded their cards and opened the gates soon after 4 p.m. Cars began flooding into the parking lot. Within 15 minutes, Last Dive Bar founder Bryan

March 28 death notices

SMEAD JR: Lloyd Edward Smead Jr, 89, of Red Bluff, died March 26 in Red Bluff. Sweet-Olsen Family Simple Cremations & Burial Service is handling the arrangements. ORSI: Neal Albert Orsi, 88, of Red Bluff, died March 27 in Red Bluff. Sweet-Olsen Family Simple Cremations & Burial Service is handling the arrangements.

Oakland A’s pregame: Fan boycott doesn’t ruin Opening Night sentiments, especially for Stephen Vogt

OAKLAND — Whether or not this will be the A’s final Opening Night lineup from the Coliseum, and whether or not this is their final season here, manager Mark Kotsay is not ignoring fans’ feelings of abandonment. “My heart is with the fans,” Kotsay said while many were protesting in the parking lot rather than enter to watch the A’s host the Cleveland Guardians. “I understand the emotion and the impact, not just from this organization’s history of being here 55 years or more,” Kotsay added, ahead of season No. 57. “Their emotion and passion to want to keep this team here, and the way they express it, is with passion. I wouldn’t express anything less from Oakland A’s fans. When they come out, they come out with support and love, and they do it full force.” Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt greets Oakland Athletics manager Mark Kotsay before their MLB opening day game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, March 28, 2024. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) Echoing those words in the opposing dugout was Kotsay’s counterpart, Stephen Vogt, who’s making

3 Up, 3 Down: A tough first impression for the ’24 SF Giants [Kurtenbach]

First impressions matter, and for the 2024 San Francisco Giants, it was not a good first impression. The Giants lost their season opener 6-4 to the Padres on Thursday despite Logan Webb’s strong start and a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning. Still, it wasn’t all bad. Let’s go over three positives and dwell on three negatives from the Giants’ Opening Day loss. UP: Logan Webb was fantastic » It wasn’t perfect, but it was the kind of performance we’ve come to expect from the Giants ace. All those worries about his wickedly poor spring training were put to bed early as Webb was moving his sinker around the zone and throwing sharp sliders to go with his sandbag of a changeup. Sure, he gave up two runs, but the sequence that brought those two runs home was a leadoff walk, an inside-out single, a seeing-eye single, a two-strike bloop single, and a dribbler to first base. If Webb didn’t have some bad luck, he’d have no luck at all. Webb threw 97 pitches on Thursday and deserved better. DOWN: The seventh-inning crew » It

National Park Service, Forest Service and Fish & Wildlife staff training in Oakhurst this week

OAKHURST, Calif. (KFSN) — Folks from the National Parks Service, National Forest Service and Fish & Wildlife are gathered in the foothills of the Sierra this week. Nearly two dozen people from across the country have gathered in a classroom at Yosemite Adult School in Oakhurst. Nancy Phillipe with Yosemite National Park is one of the instructors teaching the group. “We have students from Olympic National Park here, a student from Theodore Roosevelt which is in North Dakota,” Phillipe said. They’re each here to learn the best ways to get information out to the public in emergency situations such as wild land fires. They will be the individuals who will post on social media and talk to the local news outlets about the fire fight, evacuations and any other necessary information they need to get out to the impacted communities. “These are the folks that you see in the field that are in the know of what’s happening with the incident,” Phillipe said. Hannah Bradburn is taking part in the class. She’s the visual information specialist at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan. “I’ve never

Baltimore bridge collapse: Biden administration approves $60M for bridge costs

BALTIMORE — The Biden administration approved $60 million in emergency relief funds for rebuilding Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge hours after the receiving the request from the state of Maryland, the White House said Thursday evening. “The federal emergency funds we’re releasing today will help Maryland begin urgent work, to be followed by further resources as recovery and rebuilding efforts progress,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “President Biden has been clear: the federal government will do everything it takes to help rebuild the bridge and get the Port of Baltimore back open.” Crews in Baltimore are starting to remove the wreckage at the site of Tuesday’s collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Investigators also plan to continue interviewing Dali crew members aboard the ship. This, while we learn more about the six construction workers caught in the collapse. Two of the victims’ bodies recovered Wednesday, and four are still missing and are others presumed dead. Those construction workers were members of the community and had families who relied on them, according to Maryland officials. As he was moving off

Fresno City Councilmembers request state AG investigate Valley Children’s Hospital

Thursday, March 28, 2024 11:21PM Valley Children’s Healthcare is responding to claims from Fresno City Council regarding the pay of their executives. FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Fresno City Councilmembers Miguel Arias and Gary Bredefeld have signed a letter asking California’s attorney general Rob Bonta to investigate Valley Children’s Hospital’s operations. The video above is from an earlier story and will be updated. The request comes a day after Valley Children’s Healthcare responded to the councilmember’s claims that it uses hospital proceeds to fund executive salaries. RELATED: Valley Children’s Healthcare responds to Fresno City Council regarding pay of CEO In a statement released on Thursday, Board Chair Michael Hanson responded to the council member’s calls for a state investigation into the hospital, writing in part: “It is clear that these two local elected officials – including one in the midst of a political campaign – are simply calling for this investigation today to garner further publicity for themselves. It is disturbing to see elected officials attempt to use children’s healthcare to garner media coverage. Valley Children’s Healthcare has already made public the facts that refute the

Paws on 30: Adopt Moose from Animal Compassion Team

WEATHER ALERT Winter Storm Warning WATCH LIVE Welcome, Manage MyDisney Account Log Out Thursday, March 28, 2024 11:06PM Moose, a 6-month-old mix that might include some Pitbull or American Bulldog, is available for adoption from the Animal Compassion Team. FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Thursdays on Live at Three, Action News will be recognizing the amazing rescues in Central California and helping animals find their forever homes with a segment called Paws on 30. Moose, a 6-month-old mix that might include some Pitbull or American Bulldog, is available for adoption from the Animal Compassion Team. He is ready to shower his future family with all of the affection they could ever wish for. Moose is up to date on all of his age-appropriate vaccines, neutered, and is microchipped. For more information about Moose, click here. Copyright © 2024 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved. Adoption Top Stories

Breaking the Chains holding 10th annual Promise Banquet

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — A local non-profit working to break the chains for victims of human trafficking needs your help. ‘Breaking the Chains’ advocates for victims of sex trafficking here in Central California. The Promise Banquet benefiting breaking the chains is Thursday April 18th at the Clovis Veterans Memorial District. You can find ticket information by clicking here. There’s also an option to make a monetary donation. Copyright © 2024 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.