Renovating and improving the facilities at the County’s Ben Clark Training Center opened an extended discussion on the larger funding needs that the County will encounter in the near future. The specific action item was approval of $5 million for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department to undertake the next step in identifying the appropriate improvements…

Last of seven Beaumont officials to plead guilty Joseph Aklufi, 71, former Beaumont city attorney, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor (Gov. Code sec. 1222) in the case charging him with embezzlement of funds from the city of Beaumont. Aklufi, the former legal counsel for Idyllwild Water District, was arrested in May 2016, along with six…

Professional road cycling teams from the U.S., the Netherlands, France, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg and Colombia, competing in the 8th annual Amgen Tour of California, pass through Mountain Center and Garner Valley on Monday, May 13, in the second stage of the eight-day event. The Amgen event is the biggest stage race in the United…

“If [the Goldspotted oak borer problem] doesn’t get taken care of, it will devastate the oaks on the Hill,” said Chris Kramer, president of the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council, as he opened the community meeting Saturday at the Nature Center. The MCFSC invited experts from the University of California, Riverside, Cal Fire and the…