In other races of local interest, incumbent Democrat Rep. Dr. Raul Ruiz retained his Congressional District 36 seat despite the Republican wave throughout the country. He defeated Republican challenger Assemblyman Brian Nestande by about 9,500 votes out of the 126,000 cast in this race. From the initial vote-by-mail posted results Tuesday evening through Saturday’s totals,…

Editor’s note: We will do an end-of-winter price survey and ask cooperating companies for best estimate overviews of the season to come. Mid-winter propane “spot” prices rose slightly from last month but are considerably higher, 123 percent higher, than the same time last year. Spot prices are those at point-of-production. A common national reference standard…

The Pine Cove underground storage tank project, which the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health has been monitoring since 1994, is nearly closed. In the absence of any public comments on its notice of proposed closing, the department authorized Frey Environmental to pull its monitoring wells at the Pine Cove Market. This work was completed…