Hundreds of earthquakes — from very small (magnitude less than 1) to minor (magnitude 4.0 to 5.0) occurred near the Salton Sea last week. Again demonstrating his prescience for disaster, Mike Feyder, head of the local Mountain Disaster Preparedness group, had already scheduled a community meeting to hear a speaker from the California Institute of…

This past June 2020, Idyllwild Water District (IWD) Chief Financial Officer Hosny Shouman presented IWD’s annual budget. IWD directors unanimously approved that budget in the board’s Resolution No. 775. The 2020-21 budget is posted on IWD’s website. (Go to idyllwildwater.com, then navigate by clicking on “Information” … “Financial Reports” … “2020-2021 Budget.” The pages of…

There were two vehicle crashes on Hill roads over the last week, California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Darren Meyer reports. At 12:10 a.m. on Thursday, April 11, Aaron Thames, 44 from Idyllwild, was driving a gray 2018 Toyota Prius westbound on Highway 74, a half-mile west of May Valley Road when, for unknown reasons,…

There could be many reasons the federal court lawsuit stemming from the 2013 Mountain Fire was dismissed. Some of those reasons would be legitimate — “new evidence” justifying its dismissal in the interests of justice would be one. That’s the U.S. Attorney’s/Department of Justice (DOJ) full comment. We have no reason to doubt that it’s…

With no major fires in Southern California, Hill fire agencies were able to hold the quarterly Mountain Area Safety Taskforce meeting last week. Work on fuel breaks, including burns, were the major topics and some personnel changes will occur in the U.S. Forest Service’s San Jacinto Ranger District early in 2019 as well as Rivereside…