Proposition 56 (The California Healthcare, Research and Prevention Tobacco Tax Act of 2016) proposes to amend the state constitution to increase current state excise tax on cigarette sales by $2 a pack with equivalent increases on other tobacco products. And, for the first time, electronic cigarette products containing nicotine would be classified as “other tobacco…
No bond measure will be on the November ballot for the Hemet Unified School District. At its Aug. 2 meeting, the trustee board voted 6-1 against putting a $165.3 million proposal in front of taxpayers. The funds would have been for constructing a new elementary school in the Winchester area, and repairs and improvements at…
Kimberly Saruwatari, director of the the Riverside County Emergency Management Department, was the featured speaker at the Mountain Emergency Service Committee meeting last Thursday at the library. She discussed the agency’s creation, its need and its goals over the next few years. In early 2014, County Executive Officer Jay Orr created a task force to…
A woman from the Coachella Valley has tested positive for the Zika virus and health officials say the woman contracted the illness during her travels. The woman is the second travel-associated confirmed Zika case in Riverside County, according to Riverside University Health System-Public Health. The first case involved a 50-year-old man who had recently traveled…
Hearings and settlement conferences for Robert Pape, 28, and Cristin Smith, 27, continue to be re-scheduled. Pape’s latest court appearance was Aug. 5 when a new felony settlement conference was set for Aug. 26 and a possible preliminary hearing on Sept. 7. Pape has had several attorneys replaced and issues of conflict declared. The public…
Arrested twice, charges dropped once, nearly 10 years after the crime, 27-year-old Christin Smith’s defense in a triple-homicide case is much more aggressive than that of his co-defendant and friend Robert Pape, 28. Both men were re-arrested in June and charged with committing a 2006 triple homicide in Pinyon. The victims were Jon Hayward, Vicki…
Editor: I am tired of all the controversy surrounding the IWD. People need to do their jobs and others need to accept what is and move on. For example, if the board has not taken action to enforce the contractual requirement for General Manager Thomas Lynch to have a certain certification, unless the lack of…
Editor: Fifty-three years ago last Thursday was my 15th birthday. I remember a childhood friend and I sneaking under the fence at Foster Lake to slip into the cool waters for a refreshing summertime swim. The hot August sun on our bare backs and the cold, velvet-like water were a dazzling contrast. I remember an…
Late Saturday afternoon, officials from the Idyllwild Fire Department were alerted to a body on the Butterfield Commons on Strawberry Creek, the future home of the Idyllwild Community Center, and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department confirmed the location where the body was found. Late Sunday, the Riverside County Coroner’s office released the following information: The…
In April, the Riverside County Grand Jury delivered a report critical of the county’s Registrar of Voters Office’s preparation and conduct of the November 2015 election. The grand jury visited seven different polling places in the county. In its response, which the Board of Supervisors approved in late July, the registrar agreed to change some…
