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 FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - When Fresno's mayor decided to travel to Louisiana and invite 400 hurricane evacuees to relocate in California's rural Central Valley, other local officials begged him to reconsider.
Mayor Alan Autry's grand gesture seemed impractical at best — with a quarter of the population in poverty, the unemployment rate set to rise as the fall harvest ends, and 2,000 Hmong refugees still to settle.
County supervisors warned that the city — not the county — would have to pay for their support. But Autry pressed ahead, paying for the trip himself and vowing to get money for hurricane refugees from church groups.
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