On Saturday, Aug. 27, a horse and rider tumbled into a deep and steep ravine in the Apple Canyon area. The rider, who incurred minor injuries, is a member of the U.S. Forest Service Volunteers, according to Lt. Dean Spivacke of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Hemet Station. The incident occurred about 3.5 miles up Spitler…

Hill businesses and institutions that will be closed Friday, Dec. 25, to observe Christmas are: • Area post offices (closes noon Thursday) • BBVA Compass Bank • Fairway Market • Fern Creek Medical Center (closes noon Thursday) • Fern Valley Water District (also Thursday) • Hemet Unified School District (also Thursday) • Idyllwild Health Center…

Although the National Weather Service announced last week that it forecasted a 70-percent chance that an El Niño pattern will continue in summer 2015, the U.S. Forest Service Predictive Services unit added that an unfavorable warmer-than-normal water temperatures developed off shore during the winter, which is indicative of a “a Modoki (Japanese for similar, but…