Nancy Simpson/The Madera Tribune Catherine Deleon, Vice Principal for Thomas Jefferson Middle School poses with award recipient Sebastian Padilla, and Joe Vived of Sunrise Rotary. Three middle school students were honored at a recent Sunrise Rotary meeting. These students have been recognized for following the Rotarian motto of “Service Above Self.”  Each month teachers select a Student of the Month at all Madera Unified middle schools. The counselors and administrators then

Tyler Takeda/The Madera Tribune Matilda Torres’ Angelo Adame gets his Clovis East opponents’ shoulders to the mat for a second period pin Saturday at the Robert Arballo Invitational at Madera South. Adame was the top finisher among the three Madera schools with a third place finish. The Robert Arballo Invitational Hammer wrestling tournament has turned into one of the biggest tournaments in not only the Central Valley, but the entire state.  More than 50 teams converged to Ma

Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune Matilda Torres’ David Casas drives the lane in Thursday’s win over Firebaugh. He scored 22 points, including going 8-for-8 from the free throw line, all in the fourth quarter.  The Matilda Torres Toros boys basketball team jumped to a 22-13 halftime lead only to see it go away in the fourth quarter. However, the Toros closed the game with a 7-0 run to record a 55-50 victory over the Firebaugh Eagles in the Torres gym.  The Toros fell to a ba

The Matilda Torres Toros received a first-day bye in its Cen-Cal Invitational tournament, and opened with an easy victory over the Washington Union Panthers to advance to the semifinals on Friday.  The Toros forced 43 Panther turnovers Saturday night to cruise to a 58-14 victory that activated the running clock.  Eight different Toros scored, led by Kaylin Perez with 22 points, including Torres’ three 3-pointers, and had six steals. J’Lynn Mitchell added 12 points and seven r

The Madera South Stallions girls basketball team was already behind the eight-ball with starting guard Chloe Robinson falling ill, and missing Saturday’s game, but the offense couldn’t get going in a 31-20 loss to the Mariposa Grizzlies at the Cen-Cal Invitational at Matilda Torres.  The Stallions only took 30 shots in the game, including just five in the second quarter.  Madera South only had three players score in the game, led by Georiyah Gatewood with 11 points. Gatewood

After a nice victory over Buhach Colony in the first game of the Cen-Cal Invitational at Matilda Torres, the Madera Coyotes girls basketball team ran into the Kerman Lions, one of the favorites of the tournament.  The Coyotes scored only one point in the first quarter and were blitzed by the Lions in Saturday’s 46-19 loss.  The Coyotes shot just 16 percent from the field (8-of-51), including going 1-for-10 from 3-point land.

I suppose that, for at least some men, marrying the daughter of a billionaire would be a dream come true. But what if that billionaire is a Russian oligarch who has agents and influence that reach everywhere? And what if, for some reason, that “lucky” man had done something that displeased his father-in-law? Well, for Paul Brightman, a very successful hedge-fund manager, that dream became a nightmare. Joseph Finder (“The Oligarch’s Daughter,” 2025, 438 pages in hardback forma

For The Madera Tribune This old-time Madera saloon was the scene of a bloody stabbing between two card partners in 1901. The donnybrook broke out on Saturday night, Dec. 1, 1901, when four men sat down to play a game of Pedro. Robert Tuggle and Sam Monahan were playing against Jim Robertson, the bartender, and his partner, Frank Littlefield. The contest was going along in a friendly manner until Monahan misplayed his hand and lost the game, which upset Tuggle who could not re