Month: May 2013

Eastbound I-10 was closed at Wabash Ave near Redlands today after another fire broke out in the area. The blaze grew to 20 acres before firefighters stopped forward spread of the fire, according to the Cal Fire twitter feed: 20006634 20006340

Damage was estimated today at $2 million from a second-alarm fire that gutted the packing area of a date company in Thermal anddestroyed a nearby Nextel tower. Firefighters dispatched at 12:19 p.m. Thursday to the Jewel Date Co. inthe 84500 block of Avenue 60 arrived to find flames charring date packing boxesstacked 25 feet high,

The federal government will cover around three-quarters of the costs of fighting a roughly 3,000-acre wildfire near Banningthat destroyed a home and threatened hundreds more, it was announced today. The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a Cal Fire request forreimbursement of expenses tied to “managing, mitigating and controlling” theSummit Fire, which broke out Wednesday afternoon

Twenty library/classroom books were donated by the Soroptimist of Palm Desert club to Abraham Lincoln Elementary. This follows a long tradition of donating the books to the school in honor of the club’s speakers at their monthly luncheon meetings. The school recommends book titles for library and classroom usage according to their needs. Presentation of

A World War II-era mortar shell was uncovered today at anIndio car dealership when a work crew dug underneath the concrete, a policeofficial said. Indio police were dispatched at 8 a.m. to the Fiesta Ford dealership at78990 Varner Road, where the crew was working near a car display. As they dug, workers found the 30-inch

A motorist suspected of drunken driving was arrestedafter barreling through a gas station in Rancho Mirage and into a fire hydrant,a sheriff’s sergeant said today. Sheriff’s deputies received a call at 7:30 p.m. Thursday about the crashat a Chevron station parking lot near the intersection of Bob Hope and GeraldFord drives. The driver, Salvador Ibarra

Health officials in San Bernardino County are looking for a man who came in contact with a rabid bat in the Mojave Desert. County health officials say in a statement that the bat landed on the man’s neck outside a book store at Kelso Deport on April 30. The bat tested positive for rabies. They

The board overseeing California’s high-speed rail project has voted to give its largest private contractor another $96 million and two more years to perform architectural and engineering work, but warned that it will exercise rigorous oversight. Board members on Thursday told contractor Parsons Brinckerhoff that the California High-Speed Rail Authority has beefed up its senior

A Twentynine Palms Marine has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his 5-week-old son. KCDZ radio reports Thursday that 26-year-old Zachary Brendemuhl entered the plea in Joshua Tree Superior Court. San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials say Brendemuhl told deputies he had been feeding his son on April 8 when the boy started choking, and

Firefighters battling a nearly 3,000-acre blaze nearBanning again will be contending today with gusty winds, low humidity and bone-dry vegetation, but they have made progress encircling the blaze, which fireofficials say is now 65 percent contained. The Summit Fire has scorched 2,956 acres, according to Jody Hagemann ofthe Riverside County Fire Department. The acreage did

A Southern California wildfire cutting a path to the sea has grown to more than 15 square miles, and crews are preparing for another bad day of gusting winds and hot weather. The fire that begun in Ventura County has been running down coastal canyons all night along the Pacific Coast Highway toward Malibu. It

A man who posed as a police officer and subjected motorists to phony stops in Chula Vista is scheduled to be sentenced today at the courthouse in Chula Vista. Kevin Alan Kenniston was convicted last November of 20 counts, includingimpersonating a peace officer and violating a restraining order by breakinginto his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and assaulting

Kobe Bryant is in a court battle to try to keep his mother from auctioning off mementoes from his high school days in Pennsylvania and his early NBA career. A southern New Jersey auction house is suing for the right to sell the stuff after the NBA star’s lawyers wrote the firm to say it

“It’s a Triumph my brother had restored for my mother,” Joe Kiener says, pointing to a charred car in what used to be his garage. His home, formerly his mothers, is the only one to burn in the Summit Fire on Wednesday. “Over here we had table saw, brand new table saw right there. Next

California may speed up the release of inmates while allowing inmates with a violent history to become firefighters in order to cut crowding in state prisons. Governor Jerry Brown filed the plan under protest late Thursday, warning that the options he presented to federal judges would undermine public safety. The judges required the state to

Flames destroyed a Nextel tower today in Thermal andscorched about a quarter acre of a nearby date grove but no injuries werereported, a Riverside County Fire Department official said. Firefighters were dispatched at 12:17 p.m. to Avenue 60 and HarrisonStreet, where the fire damaged a nearby electrical building, county firespokeswoman Melody Hendrickson said. Large parking

Taking matters into their own hands, parents in the Coachella Valley Unified School District served four school board members with recall notices at Thursday’s meeting, including Anna Lisa Vargas, Joe Murillo, vice president Manuel Martinez and board president Lowell Kamper. “They’re not prepared. They don’t care,” said Marina Barragan, a senior at Desert Mirage High

The Summit Fire in Banning is 55% contained according to the last update from Riverside County Fire at 8 p.m. Thursday night. Despite stiff winds blowing through the San GorgonioPass, crews continued to make progress Thursday toward encircling a roughly 3,000-acre blaze near Banning that destroyed a house and left two firefighters withminor injuries. Morethan

The Summit fire in Banning burned for a second day, fueled by dry conditions and strong gusts up to sixty miles per hour. Firefighters continued to work around the clock to contain the fire after working tirelessly to keep it from damaging structures. “This was essentially a wall of flames, that basically came down on

Golf is a game that challenges individuals both physically and mentally. But what happens when a force away from the game takes you off-course? Heather Drew a local golf professional from Bermuda Dunes joined the LPGA Tour in 1983 and played for more than 13 years. In 1996, at the peak of her career, Drew