Month: February 2010

KESQ.com News Services INDIO -Closing arguments are scheduled today in the trial of a reputed gang member and a teenager accused in the death of a fellow gang member during a vehicle pursuit and shootout with California Highway Patrol officers in Desert Hot Springs. Anthony Paez, 20, and Edgar Flores, 17, face charges of murder,

HEMET -A Hemet man is out of jail on bail, but facing criminal charges for allegedly posing as a federal officer to deport a woman. Thirty-seven-year-old Gregory Raymond Denny allegedly dressed up as a border patrol officer, entered a home, and handcuffed a woman. Police then say he took her to a border patrol station

LONDON -British medical journal The Lancet says it has retracted a flawed study linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism and bowel disease. The Lancet published the controversial paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues in 1998. British parents abandoned the vaccine in droves, leading to a resurgence of measles. Subsequent studies found no

PALM DESERT -Deputies saycat burglars struck the Southeast corner of Del Webb’s Sun City. Between January 4th and January 30th, they targeted a half dozen homes, stealing electronics even a car. Deputies found the suspects on Saturday after their most recent break-in. “The surveillance team is already in place. They set up a perimeter with

INDIO – The mother of 18 year-old Max Mathew Grahiola is asking the person that killed her son to turn him or herself in. With tears in her eyes, Kimberly Delgado says, “Nothings going to bring my baby back but please surrender yourself, surrender yourself, you have a mother too, I’m hurting, our family is

PALM SPRINGS – The Riverside County Coroner’s office has released the cause of the death for the five victims in last month’s fatal fire in the Windy Point area. The coroner’s office says all 5 victims who died on New Year’s Day died of smoke inhalation and charring thermal burns. Positive identification on four of

PALM SPRINGS – An 80-year-old woman who pulled a groin muscle while hiking around Mt. San Jacinto had to be airlifted off of the mountain earlier today. Authorities say her injury wasn’t that bad, but the pain prevented her from coming down the mountain herself. Ground crews fitted her up with the rescue apparatus, while

BEVERLY HILLS – Nominated today for best picture for the 82nd Academy Awards were “Avatar,” “The Blind Side,” “District 9,” “An Education,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Inglorious Basterds,” “Precious: Based on the Novel `Push’ by Sapphire,” “A Serious Man,” “Up,” and “Up in the Air.” This year’s best picture category has been expanded from five to

COACHELLA -An 18-year-old man who was gunned down in Coachella was arrested twice in the weeks before he was killed and was known to local law enforcement as a tagger, police reported today. Max Matthew Grajiola of Indio was shot at 2:15 a.m. Sunday near the 5000 block of Calle Mendoza and died at a

LOS ANGELES -A law enforcement official says prosecutors plan to charge Michael Jackson’s doctor in court with manslaughter rather than take the case to a grand jury. The official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that prosecutors will file a criminal complaint against Dr. Conrad Murray in court rather than go through a secret grand

PALM DESERT – The National Weather Service sent out an advisory, today, warning of a strong storm system expected to hit Southern California Friday into Saturday. The NWS says the storm will bring heavy rains with it – pegging the coast with more than an inch of rain, several inches on the coastal slopes, and

RIVERSIDE -A firefighter accused of shooting an acquaintance in the back on New Year’s Eve 2007 was buying the victim drinks and treating him like a friend until moments before the quarrel that led to the man’s death, a witness testified today. Melissa Florez said that she and the victim, Mark Allen Owsley, socialized with

SACRAMENTO -The first black woman to head the National Guard in any state has taken charge in California, commanding the nation’s largest Guard unit. Brigadier General Mary Kight (kite) was sworn in Tuesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at a former Air Force base outside Sacramento. She is the first woman to lead the 21,000 members

COACHELLA – Palm View Elementary Principal Lei’ala Montoya makes an announcement over the loudspeaker. “Grades 4, 5, and 6, please send a monitor or a runner to the cafeteria.” At her school, it ok to eat in class. The first15 minutes of school is dedicated to having breakfast. A pancake-covered sausage was on Tuesday’s menu.

FONTANA -A pack of dogs broke free from a yard in Fontana and mauled three young children on Monday. One child is still in critical condition. Police said five pit bulls got out of their owner’s yard and attacked the siblings, ages 5, 6 and 7, on Tokay Avenue, just south of Arrow Boulevard. The

WASHINGTON -The Pentagon has taken the first steps toward repealing the military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gay and lesbian service members, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday. Laying the groundwork for a repeal of the policy will take more than a year, Gates said. In the interim, however, the Defense Department will

SAN FRANCISCO -A federal appeals court says a 22-year prison sentence is too lenient for an al-Qaida-trained terrorist convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport at the turn of the millennium. A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out the sentence Tuesday. It also removed the Seattle

PALM SPRINGS -A noninjury fire damaged a chaise lounge and curtains today at the Riviera Resort & Spa in Palm Springs. The blaze was reported around 8 a.m. in the spa area of the resort at 1600 N. Indian Canyon Drive, said Battalion Chief Jon Merriam. A sprinkler system kept the fire from spreading, according

SAN DIEGO -The U.S. Geological Survey has downsized its estimate of a morning earthquake in Baja California and is now calling it a magnitude-4.4 shaker. Earlier estimates had put it as high as 5.0. The quake struck just before 6:20 a.m. Monday and was centered about 13 miles offshore of Rosarito in Mexico and 18

WASHINGTON -President Barack Obama has killed NASA’s $100 billion plans to return astronauts to the moon. The move came on the seventh anniversary of the space shuttle tragedy that triggered the return to the moon plan. The White House said the program was too much like the 1960s Apollo mission and would require large budget