

Volunteers ready site for playground gazebo
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On Sunday, ground was prepared for the construction of the covered pavilon (gazebo) at the Idyllwild community Center site. Here Paul Newkirk (left), Dawn Sonnier (center) and Brent Sechrest (right) begin the heavy lifting. Earlier in the day, Steven Busher and Jason Sonnier were helping, too. Community Lumber is providing the materials for this project at cost, Sonnier said. Photo by J.P. Crumrine

Two incidents, one involving two cars and the other a motorcycle, marred last week on Hill roads, according to California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Darren Meyer. At 6:45 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, Eric Frost, 43, of Idyllwild, was driving his 2004 black Mazda truck westbound on Highway 74 in the vicinity of Strawberry Creek…
There’s a stretch of road in Idyllwild that has long served as connective tissue between the town’s two centers of commerce. Not quite downtown, not quite uptown—the portion of North Circle in between. For decades, it’s been a pass-through. A place you move along, not necessarily a place you stop. But lately, something has started…
Desmond Palmer, 34, of Hemet, died in the 45000 block of Sage Road in Aguanga at 4:45 p.m. Sunday, March 27, 25 minutes after being injured in a traffic collision on Sage Road, 365 feet north of Tyler Street. A family member on Facebook said he was riding a motorcycle. San Bernardino National Forest (SBNF)…
A man arrested in front of Cafe Aroma earlier this year with a first charge of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse has been convicted of a lesser charge of “offensive touching only,” a misdemeanor under Penal Code section 242, according to Riverside County Superior Court records. Felipe DeJesus Rubio Gomez, also known as Felipe…
Robert Pape, 30, and Cristin Smith, 29, are appealing their convictions for murdering three Pinyon residents in 2006. In June, a Riverside County Superior Court jury found both men guilty of the deaths of Jon Hayward, Vicki Friedli and Becky Friedli, Vicki’s daughter. Pape alone was found guilty of the second-degree murder of Becky and…