The Idyllwild Fire Protection District’s commission has set a goal of August 2019 for placing a new parcel-fee measure before voters. The amount of the proposed fee was not determined. Over the next year, the ad hoc committee for the measure, composed of commissioners Larry Donahoo and Henry Sawicki, will develop a specific proposal, and…

After more than a decade with the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council, Executive Director Edwina Scott is resigning this month. During her tenure, which began in 2004, was interrupted in 2005 and resumed in 2009, she brought millions of dollars in federal and state grants to the community, and oversaw the preparation and development of…

“The smoke woke me up,” said Andrew Luke of the early morning of Friday, Jan. 30. “I walked out onto the deck off the upstairs bedroom and I could see the glow of the fire and could hear it below, the backdraft.” It was 2 o’clock in the morning and Luke screamed for help. He…

In 2012, voters approved Proposition 30 that temporarily raised two types of California taxes – a quarter percent (from 7.25 to 7.5 percent) increase in state sales tax for four years, and graduated income tax hikes of one to three percent for seven years on high earners, with money raised direction to education funding. Proposition…