Local News

FRESNO – Madera High School 1984 graduate, Major General Clay L. Garrison has been ousted as head of the California Air National Guard. The General has been relieved of duty following complaints of reprisals against whistleblowers and allegations of a cover-up of misconduct that reached into the highest ranks of the organization.

Lt. Col. Thomas Keegan, spokesman for the California Military Department, said the department had lost "faith, trust and confidence" in Garrison's ability to lead. Garrison, also a graduate of the Air Force Academy, was the top commander of the county’s second largest state air guard leading more then 4,700 members of the California Air National Guard.

FRESNO. — A federal grand jury returned a four-count indictment today against Oscar Rene Marrot-Garcia (Marrot), 26, of Chowchilla, and Mexican nationals Jose Monge Ponce (Ponce), 26, and Francisco Alcantar-Miranda (Alcantar), 30, charging them with conspiring to manufacture, to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, manufacturing methamphetamine, possessing with intent to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, and maintaining drug premises, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

According to court documents, Marrot rented a rural residence in Madera in December 2018 and set up a methamphetamine lab there. Joined by Ponce and Alcantar, the three assisted in manufacturing methamphetamine and storing large quantities of other drugs at the unoccupied Madera residence. At the end of January law enforcement executed a search warrant at the residence and found all three men there. They also found 22.4 pounds of methamphetamine in solution, 14 pounds of finished methamphetamine, 1 pound of cocaine, 2 pounds of heroin, and 25 pounds of marijuana. A handgun with a fully loaded magazine was also found.

MADERA  - Last month the Madera County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a student at Howard Elementary School making threats. Deputies responded and conducted an investigation, concluding that the reported threats, which were apparently made several months before, did not rise to the level of criminal threats and no arrest was made. School officials will be handling the situation as a disciplinary matter.

On Wednesday, April 3, new concerns about this threat surfaced; it appears at this point that these concerns are likely a result of miscommunications about another completely unrelated incident that occurred at a different school last week.