Two earthquakes rattled and trembled Idyllwild last week. The bigger one occurred Wednesday morning near Banning and the second was Saturday morning near Mountain Center. The Banning quake was 4.5 magnitude and centered about 1 mile north of Banning; and it was felt on the Hill. Houses shook and rumbled as the wave passed through…

The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway reopened as scheduled on Saturday, Sept. 26, after its annual two-week maintenance shut-down. The first tram went up at 8 a.m., the last tram returned at 9:45 p.m. Trams leave at least every 30 minutes on the hour and half-hour. Completed projects this year include rebuilding the main gearbox, changing…

“Our water demand dropped considerably from summer,” Fern Valley Water District General Manager Steve Erler told the directors at the Nov. 21 meeting. “This is relatively consistently normal for this time of year.” While the September and October usage of 6.7 million gallons was 700,000 gallons less than the July and August consumption, it was…