Tony Maldonado

Writer and web/print designer for the Valley Voice, an online publication (previously a twice-monthly newspaper) in Tulare County, California.

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Valley Voice •

Value of California Ag production tops $60bn for first time - Valley Voice

The USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has released production data summaries for 2024 in California, with a total value for the year of $61.2 billion, an increase of 3.6 percent from 2023. This is the first time that the state’s production value has exceeded $60 billion.California remains the leading agricultural state in the nation, leading the country in dairy production and many other commodities, and it provides roughly half of the nation’s fruits, nuts and vegetables.Here are the Top-1...
Valley Voice •

Porterville council will continue to pursue controversial ordinances, litigation funding - Valley Voice

The Porterville City Council will continue working on two ordinances that have sparked significant outcry: a new “Parental Rights in Education” ordinance, and a “Protect Women’s Safe Spaces” transgender bathroom ordinance previously discussed on March 4.Mayor Greg Meister directed city staff at the council’s March 18 meeting to craft both proposals into ordinances that would allow citizens to sue government agencies for violations with potential loans provided by the city for citizens’ legal cos...
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Porterville council keeps spotlight on transgender issues with parental rights proposal - Valley Voice

Teachers and schools in Porterville may soon be required to inform parents if their children request to be referred to by alternative pronouns – including “a gender different from their biological sex” – or if they request “access to gender-specific facilities,” according to a draft ordinance being considered by the Porterville City Council.The proposed ordinance, entitled “Safeguarding Parental Rights in Education and Child Upbringing,” would give parents standing to sue schools, school distric...
Valley Voice •

Porterville council may consider funding private lawsuits in bathroom ordinance twist - Valley Voice

After protests and nearly two hours of public comment on March 4, the Porterville City Council is still working on an ordinance that would make it unlawful for someone to use a bathroom, locker room, or other “private facility” that does not match with their sex at birth.The city may soon also consider using public funds to support lawsuits launched against the state by women who end up sharing private spaces with transgender individuals.“We really have to look and be creative with this ordinanc...
Valley Voice •

Porterville council to discuss first draft of Women's Safe Spaces ordinance, includes fines up to $5k - Valley Voice

The Porterville City Council will discuss the first draft of a “Protect Women’s Safe Spaces” ordinance at its March 4 meeting. The ordinance would make it illegal for someone in Porterville to use a bathroom, locker room, or other “private facility” that does not match with their sex at birth.A public hearing at a future council meeting and a second reading of the ordinance would be required before the ordinance could be enacted.If it passes as written, transgender individuals would need to use...
Valley Voice •

Tug-of-war continues over Tulare family planning clinic - Valley Voice

Legal wrangling over the status of a family planning clinic that provides abortion pills in Tulare has continued into the new year.FPA Women’s Health opened last year in the Tulare Medical Center, a complex of offices near Adventist Health Tulare but unrelated to the hospital or the Tulare Local Healthcare District.The center’s property owners’ association sued the clinic and its landlords, Leopoldo and Jennifer Valdivia, in September, pointing to association restrictions that prohibit providing...
Valley Voice •

Former HCCA CEO sentenced for crimes running Tulare and Inyo hospitals, avoids jail - Valley Voice

Former Tulare hospital executive Dr. Yorai “Benny” Benzeevi will avoid jail time and serve 463 days of probation in Los Angeles County after pleading no contest to six felonies and two misdemeanors.The charges stemmed from acts undertaken when he and his company, Healthcare Conglomerate Associates, managed Tulare Regional Medical Center and the Southern Inyo Hospital.A negotiated plea deal, which Judge Michael Sheltzer upheld, required Benzeevi to complete 420 hours of community service, 120 day...
Valley Voice •

Former key officials sue City of Lindsay, claiming corruption - Valley Voice

Former Lindsay Police Chief Richard Carrillo and former Lindsay Finance Director Salvador Guzman have separately sued the City of Lindsay. Both claim they were fired wrongly in retaliation for whistleblowing on alleged financial malfeasance by city staff.In his lawsuit, Carrillo says he reported what he found to the Tulare County District Attorney’s office, and that he and Guzman were interviewed by the DA’s Public Corruption Division. While the DA’s office would not confirm or deny the existenc...
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Minor solicitation case against former Tulare BPU chair, council candidate dismissed - Valley Voice

Minor solicitation charges against Chris Harrell, a one-time chairman of Tulare’s Board of Public Utilities and former candidate for Tulare City Council, have been dismissed after almost four years of court proceedings.He was charged with one count of meeting a minor for lewd purposes and one count of contact with a minor for a sexual offense in a “To Catch a Predator”-style sting operation conducted by the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office in October 2020.Harrell was alleged in court documents to...
Valley Voice •

Former Tulare hospital attorney indicted by grand jury

A grand jury has indicted attorney Bruce Greene on multiple felony and misdemeanor counts related to actions he allegedly took while representing the Tulare Local Healthcare District and Healthcare Conglomerate Associates, the district’s former hospital management partner. The grand jury handed down its indictment with eleven felony counts and five misdemeanor counts on April 30. Greene was arraigned yesterday in the Tulare County Superior Court via Zoom, and pled not guilty to all of the alleg
Valley Voice •

Former Tulare hospital CEO pleads no contest to felonies, misdemeanors, will pay $2.4m and likely avoid jail

On Friday, the 61-year-old pleaded no contest to six felony and two misdemeanor charges stemming from crimes committed while acting as CEO of the Tulare Local Healthcare District from 2014 to 2017. Tulare County Superior Court Judge Michael Sheltzer accepted the plea agreement during a hearing on February 9. Benzeevi will be sentenced in Tulare County Superior Court on July 19. According to the conditions of the plea agreement, Benzeevi will not face jail time. He’ll be under house confinement
Valley Voice •

Hanford man leaves employees, vendors hungry for pay

Vendors, former employees, and tax authorities say they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars from George Sousa after he started and shuttered multiple restaurants in Tulare and Kings counties. The Hanford restaranteur’s four locations – Junior’s Sports Bar and Parrilla and Adobowl in Visalia; Junior’s Express Grill and K&J FroYo and Kafe in the Hanford Mall – all opened and closed in 2022 and 2023. Employees from the first three restaurants have told the Valley Voice that they haven’t bee
Valley Voice •

Lindsay High basketball volunteer charged with sex offenses against student, parents sue district

A volunteer working with the Lindsay High School basketball program was arrested in May and charged with six felony counts of sexual penetration of a minor and a misdemeanor count of child molestation. Krizlynn Balboa allegedly engaged in a relationship with the minor – a student at Lindsay High – over a four month period, according to a probable cause document filed with the court by the Lindsay Police Department. She has pled not guilty to all charges. Separately, the student’s parents filed
Valley Voice •

Plea deal negotiations scheduled in Tulare hospital case, Benzeevi to appeal recusal decision

A plea deal could be on the table for three former Healthcare Conglomerate Associates (HCCA) executives, nearly three years after they were charged with alleged crimes during the time HCCA managed Tulare Regional Medical Center and the Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine. In a Friday hearing, Trevor Holly with the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office went so far as to tell Judge Michael Sheltzer “we were going to make an offer today,” speaking of a “package” that would focus on “seized fund
Valley Voice •

Judge rules Tulare County DA Tim Ward may stay on HCCA case

The Tulare County District Attorney’s office may continue to prosecute three former Healthcare Conglomerate Associates (HCCA) executives, a judge ruled earlier this month. Yorai ‘Benny’ Benzeevi, HCCA’s CEO; Alan Germany, HCCA’s former CFO; and Bruce Greene, an attorney with Baker Hostetler who served Benzeevi, HCCA and the Tulare Local Healthcare District, were charged in 2020 with a laundry list of crimes allegedly committed during the time that HCCA managed Tulare Regional Medical Center. T
Valley Voice •

DA, AG respond to former Tulare hospital leaders' bias allegations

The Tulare County District Attorney’s office has responded to allegations made by Healthcare Conglomerate Associates (HCCA) CEO Yorai “Benny” Benzeevi that his prosecution is due to political pressure against – and bias by – Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward. The California Attorney General’s office backed up Ward’s office with a separate filing and the overarching response from both entities is: Ward wasn’t friends with Benzeevi, he didn’t file charges against Benzeevi in a bid to secur
Valley Voice •

Tulare hospital board settles suit against former attorney and law firm

The Tulare Local Healthcare District now has $3 million more in its bank account after settling a lawsuit against Bruce Greene – its former attorney – and the firm he works for, Baker Hostetler. Other parts of the lawsuit, which named former district board members Parmod Kumar, Linda Wilbourn, and Richard Torrez as defendants, have not been settled and remain active in the Kern County Superior Court. The settlement doesn’t impact charges that the Tulare County District Attorney’s office has br
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Visalia Medical Clinic to break up with Kaweah Health, eyeing partnership with Adventist Health

Visalia Medical Clinic and Kaweah Health are breaking up – and Visalia Medical Clinic is set to head into the arms of Adventist Health by June 30, 2023, if not before. Kaweah Health and Visalia Medical Clinic (VMC) have been partners since 2015 through a medical foundation now known as Kaweah Health Medical Group. “In early September, we were informed by leaders of Visalia Medical Clinic, our exclusive medical group partner to the Kaweah Health Medical Group, a California 1206(l) medical founda
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DA gets more time to respond to hospital leaders' bias claims

After an hour-long hearing in the Tulare County Superior Court’s Juvenile Division, the Tulare County District Attorney’s office earned slightly more time to respond to claims by three former Tulare hospital leaders who say they are being unfairly prosecuted. The trio are specifically seeking the recusal of District Attorney Tim Ward and the entire Tulare County District Attorney’s Office, based on allegations that Ward was friends with the lead defendant before allegedly following shifting pol
Valley Voice •

Attorneys for former Tulare hospital leaders accuse DA Ward of biased prosecution

The Tulare County District Attorney’s office may be forced to recuse itself from the long and winding cases against three former Tulare hospital leaders if the attorneys’ claims of bias against District Attorney Tim Ward hold up in court. Attorneys representing Dr. Yorai ‘Benny’ Benzeevi, Bruce Greene and Alan Germany filed a motion on Tuesday that, if approved by Tulare County Superior Court Judge Michael Sheltzer, would force the recusal of the District Attorney’s office. The motion alleges
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