Month: February 2010

RIVERSIDE – Law enforcement agencies throughout Riverside County will be teaming up today to crack down on motorists who may have had too much to drink at Super Bowl parties. The “Avoid the 30” campaign — named for the 30 local and state law enforcement agencies that operate in the county — is planning saturation

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson’s personal physician is expected to be charged Monday in connection with the pop singer’s death from an overdose of a powerful prescription sedative. Dr. Conrad Murray is expected to be charged with involuntary manslaughter, although the District Attorney’s Office has not confirmed any details of the anticipated criminal case. Prosecutors

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The mayor of Middletown, Conn., says five people are known dead in a gas explosion at a power plant there. Mayor Sebastian Giuliano says at least 12 people are known injured from Sunday’s blast at the Kleen Energy Systems plant as workers purged natural gas lines. The plant is under construction. Deputy

PALM DESERT – Winter is once again making an appearance here in the valley. The rainy weather caused some road problems around the desert, from flooding to closures and even a few minor accidents. Some people around the valley were annoyed with the rain and the road closures, but others were outside playing golf and

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE – Visiting storm-ravaged areas of Los Angeles County today, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would cut red tape to help with recovery efforts and appoint a blue ribbon panel to investigate claims of federal mismanagement of last summer’s Station fire. “It’s important for us to come out, right now, and say `what

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – A mother is grieving after a house fire in Warwick, R.I., claimed the lives of five people, including her daughter, granddaughter and future son-in-law. Lynn Gaulin said Sunday that her daughter, 21-year-old Amanda Villeneuve, was a devoted mother to her 7-month-old granddaughter, Anabelle Janik. They were among five people killed Saturday when

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA is fueling space shuttle Endeavour again. The launch team began loading fuel into the shuttle Sunday for the second night in a row. The three-hour-long operation began just as the Super Bowl was kicking off in Miami. Endeavour is scheduled to blast off at 4:14 a.m. Monday on the last

WASHINGTON – Federal agencies will be closed Monday in Washington as the region continues to dig out from a weekend storm that dumped more than two feet of snow in the nation’s capital. Spokeswoman Sedelta Verble says the Office of Personnel Management made the decision to close around 5 p.m. Sunday. Federal workers were told

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he has invited Republican and Democratic leaders to discuss health care legislation later this month. In an interview Sunday with CBS’ Katie Couric, Obama said he wants Republicans “to put their ideas on the table.” Obama and Congress’ Democratic leaders are seeking a way to overhaul the nation’s health

TOKYO – Toyota says it will soon announce a plan for dealing with braking problems in its Prius hybrid amid reports that the world’s largest automaker plans to issue a recall in Japan. Toyota has already had to recall more than 7 million other cars in the U.S., Europe and China over a sticky accelerator

RANCHO MIRAGE – It’s happening all around the nation, girl-against-girl violence or bullying. The cattiness, competition and hate shatters self-esteem and damages lives. “It’s a serious issue that results in attempted suicide, eating disorders and depression,” says Lauren Parsekian, Co-Founder of “Be Kind”. Bullying effects every female of every age. “This is not something that

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco’s mayor wants to require owners to retrofit buildings most vulnerable to collapse during an earthquake while easing the cost of the upgrades. Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed mandatory retrofits Friday for 2,800 of the city’s so-called soft-story buildings – older wooden structures built with homes perched above a garage or store.

LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles airport spokeswoman says a commercial airplane carrying an American missionary who was detained in North Korea for 43 days has landed in Los Angeles. Los Angeles International Airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles says Robert Park arrived on a flight from Beijing Saturday evening. Earlier in the day, he flew to

NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu has been elected mayor of New Orleans, replacing term-limited Ray Nagin and becoming the majority-black city’s first white mayor since 1979. Landrieu is a 49-year-old moderate Democrat who won Saturday in a landslide over a field of 10 opponents in a campaign that focused on the city’s

RIVERSIDE – Downtown Riverside will be transformed into a Victorian-era London marketplace today and tomorrow for the 17th annual Dickens Festival, a tribute to the life and times of the famed author. The pedestrian mall on Main Street will be a hub of activity, teeming with characters straight out of Charles Dickens’ classics. This year’s

BIG BEAR LAKE -Though Friday’s storm didn’t dump new snow in Big Bear, resorts anticipate many to flock to the mountains this weekend. Usually, when night falls and temperatures drop, any precipitation in the air will fall as freezing rain or snow, but that did not happen Friday evening. This break in the weather gave

PALM DESERT -A new storm system is generating a second day of rain, today.prompting forecasters to issue a flash flood watch for parts of the region, including Hemet and Beaumont, and warn of potentially perilous conditions in the mountains. A Winter Storm Warning is in effect for the Riverside and San Bernardino Mountains until 9pm

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Sarah Palin is predicting a good year for conservative candidates for public office, saying the policies of President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress will be short-lived. The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee told the national “tea party” convention in Saturday that a string of recent Republican victories at the polls,

INDIO -The Indio Police Department says the victim of Friday night’s shooting is dead. The shootinghappened around10 p.m.on the 43500 block of Smurr Street, near Kenner Avenue. Police arrived and found an Hispanicman in his early 20’s on the ground with a gunshot wound, according to Ben Guitron with the Indio Police Department. He was

INDIO -A pro-immigration group is protestingthe largest bus company in America. Border Angels claims Greyhound is cooperating with immigration customs enforcement and theU.S. Border Patrolto interrogate passengers getting off the bus. “We thought it was important to come to Indio because what’s happening here is happening in other cities across the country,” said Enrique Morones