FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — The almond harvest is easy to spot in many Valley communities.

Machines shake up dust when picking up nuts off the orchard floor.

“The big push in the industry in the past few years has been to get away from the dust,” says Craig Arnold of Arnold Farms in Atwater.

Engineering students at UC Merced have been working on projects to improve efficiency.

Harvester modifications immediately move the almonds into a cart so they can be transported.

“The whole process from complete off-ground harvesting with the real off-ground machines, are moving the almonds,” says Stefano Foresti. “Not even letting them touch the ground.”

“One of our biggest goals is to make this sustainable and efficient because when the almonds are harvested, like they are right now, they create a lot of debris,” says Hassan Imran.

Moist almond hulls can make them stick to the sides and bottom of trailers, so workers must use poles to free the clumps of almonds.

Students came up with a stockpile aeration solution.

“We use vibration pads, we connect them to the hopper trailer using compressed air and it basically shakes the whole trailer,” Imran said.

These innovations are giving students experience in solving real problems.

“It’s really rewarding to be pushing that new frontier of technology,” says Manuel Ortega.

Arnold wanted students to find a way to dry almonds sitting in a big pile.

“They’ve come up with a way to use ambient air to dry those piles,” he said. “No longer do we need any sort of propane or electric heat to heat air through and dry the almonds.”

Arnold says the ideas show great potential. The next step is to test the process on a large scale.

“By the next harvest, we will be ready for trials with farmers that want to,” Foresti said.

For news updates, follow Dale Yurong on Facebook and Twitter.

A new poll just days before the Nov. 5 election shows Kamala Harris easily winning her home state of California, but with less support than expected — a worrying sign for the Vice President’s chances in more critical battleground states that could decide the race that is tied nationally.

In its last poll before the election, the nonpartisan Berkeley Institute of Government Studies found 57% support for Harris and 35% support for Republican former President Donald Trump among California voters.

Yet that strong margin is lower than President Joe Biden’s performance in California in 2020. Four years ago, Biden handily clinched the Golden State with 63.5% of votes cast to Trump’s 34.3%.

This year, there’s less enthusiasm for Harris among Latino and Asian American voters, according to the poll. That’s not enough to threaten the Vice President’s chances of winning California’s 54 electoral college votes. However, that could spell trouble for Harris nationally on Election Day in what is broadly considered a razor-thin race.

“Vice President Harris is in a strong position in California, with roughly equal levels of support among its White, Latino and Asian American voters, and very high support among the state’s Black voters,” Eric Schickler, co-director of the polling institute, said in a news release. “At the same time, her lower vote margins among Latino and Asian Americans compared to what Biden received in 2020 speak to why the broader race across the country is likely to be so close.”

In late October, the poll surveyed about 4,300 California voters online in English and Spanish that represent the state electorate. The margin of error was roughly two percentage points. It was paid for in part by the Los Angeles Times.

In 2020, about 75% of Latino and Asian American voters in California supported Biden, according to exit polls cited by the pollsters. Now, that’s dropped to 57% for Latino voters and 56% among Asian American voters, the poll says. Overall, that decline is somewhat offset by strong support by Black voters and college-educated white voters, the pollsters said.

The poll captures Harris’ “vulnerabilities” within swing states such as Pennsylvania and Georgia, said David McCuan,  professor of political science at Sonoma State University. In the suburbs of Atlanta, for instance, a fast-growing population of Asian Americans could help determine which way Georgia swings on Election Day.

“That’s because this election is still won on the margins–just not in California,” he said.

Elsewhere, the poll found strong support for state Proposition 36, which would toughen criminal penalties for repeated drug possession and shoplifting, with 60% of respondents supporting the measure and 25% opposed, suggesting that the divisive measure — whose chief supporters include San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan — will cruise to victory on Election Day.

Consequential measures on rent control and minimum wage hikes appear to be closer, the poll says.

Proposition 32 would raise the state’s minimum wage to $17 or $18, depending on a business’ size. About 47% support the measure, but opposition has grown modestly this fall, the poll says. Now, about 39% oppose it, up from 36% in September.

Opposition is mounting against Proposition 33, which would expand local governments’ ability to enact rent control, with 45% of those surveyed against the plan, an increase of nine percentage points from late September. About 35% support it.

Originally Published: November 1, 2024 at 11:30 AM PDT

Claims that former President Donald Trump does not appear on the first page of the presidential candidates list on voting machines in California, with supporters having to click “more” to find his name, have gone viral on social media.

The allegation originated with an anonymous X account, but has since been shared by House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a close Trump ally, who branded the situation “ridiculous.”

Election integrity has been a major issue following the 2020 presidential election, which Trump continues to insist he won despite this claim being repeatedly rejected in court and by independent election experts. A recent study from the Brookings Institute think tank concluded the share of fraudulent votes cast in elections over the past 25 years was “minuscule.”

On October 30, an anonymous X account with the user name ‘Darth Caul’ shared what they claimed was the screen from an electronic voting machine in California, which didn’t list Trump in the top four options for the presidential election. Instead, the names seen were that of the Democratic nominees, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, independent candidate and Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who partially suspended his campaign, Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver, and the Green Party’s Jill Stein.

The X user wrote: “If you wanted to vote [red] you had to click an extra button to even select the candidate on the Republican ticket.” The post went viral on X receiving over 9,600 reposts and 6.6 million views.

The post was shared by Georgia Representative Greene, who added: “In California, Trump/Vance is not on the first page of the ballot, but RFK still is even though he dropped out months ago!!”

“CA voters have to click to move on to multiple pages to vote for Trump. This is ridiculous!!”

Kennedy Jr. remains on the ballot in California and 32 other states even as he suspended his campaign in August and endorsed Trump. He said he would withdraw his candidacy in swing and safe Republican-leaning states.

X user ‘American AF,’ who describes themselves as part of Trump’s MAGA movement, also shared the photograph, commenting: “Donald Trump’s name doesn’t appear on the first screen as an option, on voting machines in California. You have to click ‘more’ options to be able to vote for him.” This post accumulated 23,000 reposts and 12.1 million views on the platform.

However, it also received a community note from fellow X users, noting: “In California, the order of the candidates is randomized, and rotated throughout districts.”

Links to other California voting slips shared on X, which had Trump listed among the top candidates, were included in the community note.

According to the website of California Secretary of State Shirly Weber, who is responsible for overseeing elections in the Golden State, the ballot order is determined by letters being selected at random.

The website states: “On the 82nd day before an election, the Secretary of State conducts a randomized drawing of letters of the alphabet pursuant to California Elections Code section 13112.

“The resulting order of letters constitutes the ‘randomized alphabet’ to be used for determining the order of candidates’ names on the ballot.”

Newsweek contacted the office of Secretary of State Shirly Weber, along with the X accounts ‘Darth Carl’ and ‘American AF,’ for comment on Friday outside of regular office hours. Contact was made via online inquiry sheet, email and X direct message respectively.

An analysis of recent polling by the election website FiveThirtyEight, published on Thursday, gave Harris a 1.2-point lead (rounded) over Trump nationwide with 47.9 percent of the vote against 46.8 percent.

However, due to the Electoral College system, a candidate can get the most votes but not win overall, as happened to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Overall, FiveThirtyEight gave Trump a 53 percent chance of victory against 47 percent for Harris.

In better news for the Democratic candidate, a recent analysis based on artificial intelligence, conducted by Bonus Code Bets, concluded that Harris is on track for a slim victory with 276 Electoral College votes against 262 for her Republican opponent.