Serves in work release Brian Standish, 50, of Idyllwild, who pleaded guilty to the felony charge of grand theft greater than $950 on March 6, was sentenced to the Riverside County Sheriff jail system for 180 days. He was given credit for serving 48 days already. The remaining 132 days may be served in a…
Voter information guides have been mailed to about 964,000 Riverside County voters before the consolidated primary election on June 5. Important deadlines for the June 5 election: • May 7: First day of early voting in the Registrar of Voters office and first day the registrar is allowed to mail vote-by-mail ballots to voters. •…
Idyllwild also has some homeless Last week, Riverside County’s Department of Public Social Services released the results of its 2018 winter homeless survey. In January 2018, the survey identified 2,310 homeless county residents, 96 fewer individuals, or about 4 percent less, than identified in January 2017. The count identifies both individuals seen on the street…
Air quality in Riverside County is abysmal, and nearly the same for the rest of Southern California, according to the latest “State of The Air” from the American Lung Association in California. Riverside County, along with most of its neighbors, earned an “F” for both ozone days and particle days. Orange County was the exception…
Joy Sliver, the major Democratic candidate for the 28th State Senate seat, came to Idyllwild last week. Attending the Idyllwild Indivisibles’ April 19 meeting at Town Hall, Silver described her path to candidacy challenging incumbent Sen. Jeff Stone, and several of her positions and goals if elected. “I’ve evolved from an advocate to an activist…
Substantially less than original plan While the National Park Service will be increasing park entrance fees and vehicle passes beginning June 1, the increase is substantially less than originally proposed in October 2017. The massive public response, more than 100,000 comments, to the proposed increases at 17 highly visited parks appears to have been heard…
Cal Fire is reporting that on Thursday, March 8, 2018, Stephen Patrick Medlock, 53, was arrested in San Bernardino County on a warrant obtained by Cal Fire investigators in connection with an investigation into the cause of the 2013 Silver Fire. Medlock, a transient, was arrested on the outstanding warrant by the San Bernardino County…
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors took another step forward in its path to create a Community Choice Aggregation program, in which the county could provide electricity. In 2002, the Legislature passed legislation authorizing local governments to procure or develop electrical power for themselves, or their residents and businesses. In November, the supervisors passed Ordinance…
The U.S. Congress was much more sympathetic to the U.S. Forest Service’s funding needs and requests than the Trump administration’s revised fiscal year 2017-18 budget submission. Excluding wildfire funding, Congress appropriated $3.1 billion for the agency. This was nearly $625 million more than the prior-year funding and about $830 million more than President Donald Trump…
Borrowing of program funding ends The federal Omnibus 2018 funding bill also included changes to the way the funding for wildfire suppression will be made in the future. Currently, when suppression costs exceed Congress’ appropriated funding, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management must “borrow” funds from other programs, such as recreation…
