Magistrate Judge Dale A. Drozd was finally confirmed by the Senate 69-21 (10 abstentions) yesterday after 1,069 days of a vacant EDCA district judge slot. He'll start soon alongside Judge O'Neill as the only active district judges in Fresno.
Of course, this is only a bandaid covering a severely overburdened court. Even with help from visiting judges, habeas cases can wait more than two years for a decision and civil litigants have complained to me that relief sometimes becomes mooted by long delays.