By JP Crumrine Correspondent The National Weather Service’s forecast of an El Niño winter has strongly affected the prognosis of wildfires in the next few months. Fire services, state and federal, are expecting a cooler and wetter winter from December through March. The December report from the Predictive Services Unit for Cal Fire’s Southern Region…

The Hemet Unified School District Board of governors held its annual meeting in Idyllwild last week. On the recommendation of board member Vic Scavarda, the board honored Idyllwild School teacher Barbara Longbrook as the October recipient of the Governing Board Recognition. The award and a $500 certificate to be used toward the district program of…

On April 19, Ira Robert Ellis, 37, of Poppet Flats, had two hearings before Judge Becky Dugan in Department 41, Riverside, of the Riverside County Superior Court. The first was a Marsden/Sanchez hearing in which Ellis, who was represented by a deputy public defender, asserted that he had been denied his right to effective counsel….

New director, transparency policies and capital improvement plan The directors of Idyllwild Water District had a long, busy and productive meeting on March 21. They filled a vacancy (see accompanying story and separate interview), adopted open government resolutions, and discussed capital improvement priorities and the state water-tax proposal. Transparency resolutions The board unanimously adopted resolutions…