The California State Board of Equalization voted to lower the excise tax rate on gasoline by 2.2 cents per gallon for fiscal year 2016-17. The new gasoline excise tax will be 27.8 cents per gallon and is effective July 1, 2016, through June 30, 2017. “Today’s vote was simply a matter of fairness. Californians overpaid…
Keep the faith, is the National Weather Service’s advice regarding the appearance of “El Niño” this spring. During the fall, forecasters were awash in warnings about the arrival of an El Niño event comparable to the 1982-83 and 1997-98 seasons. Public agencies, at all levels — local, state and federal — were advising Southern California…
The 2016 tax season is in full swing and Riverside County Community Action Partnership’s Volunteer Income Tax Preparation program is available to help qualifying residents file their taxes. The free tax-preparation services are provided by IRS-certified tax preparers and are available to anyone with a total household income below $60,000. Based on an individual’s earnings…
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Forest Service and Society for Conservation of Bighorn Sheep on Saturday evening, March 5, and all day Sunday, March 6, are conducting a count of bighorn sheep. They are seeking volunteers to assist biologists. No survey experience is necessary but volunteers must attend an orientation at 6…
Anyone interested in running for office in the June 7 primary election may take out candidate filing papers beginning Tuesday, Feb. 16, Riverside County Registrar of Voters Rebecca Spenser announced last week. Papers must be filed by 5 p.m. Friday, March 11. If an incumbent fails to file, the deadline for that office is extended…
Hemet Unified School District has scheduled two meetings on the Hill to allow educators and the public to discuss its Local Control and Accountability Plan. The LCAP is a plan describing the district’s overall goals for the upcoming school year. These plans are a crucial part of each school district’s Local Control Funding Formula. This…
The Hemet Unified School District governing board will consider new bargaining agreements with the Hemet Teachers Association and the California School Employees’ Association at its Feb. 23 meeting. Both agreements include a retroactive pay raise from July 1, 2015, and then another increase through June 30, 2018. Beginning July 1, 2018, the 1-percent salary increase…
Topics for the remaining 2016 meetings were discussed at last week’s Mountain Emergency Services Committee session. Kathleen Henderson, the Riverside County emergency services coordinator for the mountain, recommended several subjects familiar to local emergency officials. The March agenda will discuss “vector control” or mosquito habitat. The past two years have seen headlines about infectious diseases…
During the Feb. 9 Riverside County Board of Supervisor’s meeting, Supv. John Tavaglione (2nd District) chastised County Sheriff Stan Sniff. According to the supervisor, he believes the Sheriff’s Department has not been diligently cooperating with the consultants, who have been hired to evaluate the efficiencies of the county’s public safety programs. During his opening comments,…
University of California, Riverside, Assistant Professor of Geophysics Garreth Funning believes the seismic waves from one earthquake could trigger a second earthquake much farther away than previously thought. Funning and his team studied two earthquakes in Pakistan in 1996 using radar imagery and determined that the first quake, a 7.0 magnitude, likely triggered a second…
