(Semi-)local here, definitely a real story, the local press has been going wild with it.

Started with a local paper and snowballed until it became national news (lots of good stuff in these articles, some in the Bee story and some not in it):

https://midvalleytimes.com/article/news/2023/07/25/investiga...

https://gvwire.com/2023/07/31/federal-investigation-opens-in...

https://midvalleytimes.com/article/news/2023/08/03/questions...

https://sjvsun.com/news/fresno/what-was-inside-secret-covid-...

No. The FresnoBee is a legitimate news organization and the story has been reported on by other news orgs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/officials-believe-fresn...