

Blood Moon rises
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Early Saturday morning, a rare “blood moon” lunar eclipse occurred and was visible for only 5 minutes — one of the shortest of the century.

Joy Silver, of Palm Springs, is the Democratic candidate for the 28th state Senate District seat. She is challenging incumbent Jeff Stone. Born in Pennsylvania, Silver spent much of her early career on the East Coast. She moved to New Mexico, was involved in healthcare and in 2007, and settled in the Palm Springs area,…
Late last week, the U.S. Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2014 (H.R. 3304), which included language that Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) submitted transferring 22 military aircraft to the Forest Service to battle major wildfires. Under the defense bill passed Thursday night, seven surplus HC-130H Hercules aircraft…
Gov. Jerry Brown has imposed strict vaccination rules on school children beginning next year. Senate Bill 277, which revokes the vaccination exemption based on personal belief, was approved by the State Assembly with amendments Friday, June 26. On Monday, June 29, the State Senate approved the bill (25-11) with those amendments. While vociferous and contentious…
Stan Sniff, has served as Riverside County’s sheriff since October 2007 and was first elected in 2010. He is running for re-election against a challenger from within his ranks, correctional Lt. Chad Bianco. Sniff also serves as coroner-public administrator since the Sheriff’s and Coroner’s departments were merged in 1999. As sheriff/coroner, Sniff oversees countywide patrol…
Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown released the revision of his January budget proposal for fiscal 2012-13, which begins on July 1. Unfortunately, the state’s financial conditions have not improved during the past four months. Although Brown stressed that this budget situation is much better than a year ago, he also admitted that the projected budget…
California’s 28th State Senate District has been vacant since its creation after the 2010 Census. In 2011, in advance of the 2012 elections, the California Citizens Redistricting Committee revised the boundaries of the state’s congressional, Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization seats. In 2012, the odd-number senate districts were on the ballot. Consequently, Senate District…