Month: July 2014

A judge on Friday ordered a Palm Desert man accused of fatally shooting his neighbor’s 24-year-old son and 2-year-old granddaughter to undergo two psychological examinations. Juan Carlos Alcala, 46, is charged with the April 8, 2011, murders of Felipe Lozano Jr. and his daughter, Doria Zoe Reynoso Lozano, at the Hovley Gardens Apartments in the

This week’s dry, scorching heat gave way to heavy humidity, rain and rumbling. “I heard the lightning and the thunder and we had probably a quarter inch of rain,” said Paul Copeskey of Rancho Mirage. “It was pretty surprising,” said Eric Brooks of Palm Desert. Fire crews were called out when lighting actually struck a

A 1-year-old girl was bitten today on an ear, lip and cheek by her family’s pit bull in Cathedral City. The girl was bitten just before 5 p.m. at a home on San Susanna Avenue, said John Welsh of the Riverside County Department of Animal Services. The girl was taken to a hospital, but her

Motorcycle lane-splitting is prohibited in 49 of the 50 states, with the lone exception being California. But two weeks ago, proper safety guidelines from certain government websites were removed regarding lane-splitting. One California man made a complaint to the California Office of Administrative Law, saying the service the CHP and DMV was providing was “underground

Assemblyman Victor Manuel Perez is back in the desert from a trip to Central America. He and six other California lawmakers visited El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama. He talked about the conditions people are trying to flee at a news conference at Coachella City Hall. The goal of the trip was to strengthen ties, exchange

The Desert AIDS Project will celebrate 30 years Friday night with a big birthday party at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. It’s fight against AIDS transformed the Coachella Valley, providing thousands of people with support and medical care. “I was diagnosed in 1983,” said Robert Conklin. “One of the first things that they would

El presidente Barack Obama exhort a los mandatarios de tres pases centroamericanos y al Partido Republicano el viernes a que ayuden a detener la afluencia de menores y familias migrantes a la frontera sur. El presidente guatemalteco Otto Prez Molina dijo estar “muy satisfecho” por el resultado “muy favorable” de la reunin, ya que Obama

The director of Riverside County Animal Services said he plans to seek animal cruelty charges against the owner of 61 Shetland sheepdogs that were impounded after a house fire displaced them near Riverside last Sunday. The dogs were recovered after an attic fire damaged a single-story home on Pick Place in the Woodcrest neighborhood south

The Time Warner Cable office in Palm Springs was evacuated Friday morning after a white envelope with a suspicious powder was received. According to the Palm Springs Fire Department, the powder turned out to be nothing more than sugar. Police said an a TWC employee called them at about 10:30 a.m. to report that the

A fundraising festival is scheduled Saturday for a 5-year-old Indio girl battling late-stage cancer. Desirae Cechin — who goes by Desi — was diagnosed in April with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma, which affects the nervous system. The Believing For Desi fund was started to raise money for her treatment, including a trip to Memorial Sloan

A state appeals court has upheld a proposed route for California’s bullet train project connecting the San Francisco Bay Area to the Central Valley. The decision issued Thursday is a short-term win for Gov. Jerry Brown, who has made the $68-billion project a priority. The original lawsuit filed by Bay Area cities had argued that

Using the internet to diagnose your aches and pains has become commonplace. Dr. Erica Ruiz runs a family medical practice in La Quinta. She’s noticed an up-tick in the amount of patients who come in for their check-ups armed with information they gathered on the internet about their symptoms. Dr. Ruiz says, there is some

Larry Deason was with his family and their friends watching TV when a fire suddenly broke out in the yard between his home and the neighbor’s. “We felt the heat coming through the glass,” Deason said. “It looked like it started in the lady next door’s ficus.” “I looked out the window and it was

Indio Police Chief Richard Twiss will meet community members for lunch Friday. The city is launching its “Lunch with the Chief” community outreach program, which will be held at noon monthly on the second-to-last Friday at the Shepherd of the Valley United Methodist Church. Residents can ask questions and voice concerns, Indio police spokesman Sgt.

A family of six is displaced after a fire rips through their Cathedral City Cove home early Thursday evening. The fire started just after 5:00 p.m. at a home on Mountain Shadow Lane near Terrace Drive. According to fire officials on scene, the fire started in brush near the house catching the home on fire.

As the Coachella Valley experiences some of the hottest days of the year, now is the worst possible time to be without electricity. Hundreds of valley residents were dealing with such problems, as Southern California Edison had an unplanned power outage on Wednesday. Over 1,000 customers in Cathedral Canyon Country Club lost power around 5pm.

Firefighters spent Thursday carefully combing through the rubble of buildings at the historic Palm Springs Racquet Club. A fire ripped through a vacant part of the site, damaging four buildings, destroying two hotel buildings. Fire crews were looking for bodies and possible causes of the fire. The flames also destroyed a major piece of Palm

In the severe heat the desert is experiencing, the Mizell Senior Center in Palm Springs is looking out for the well-being of its Meals On Wheels clients. Robert Ochoa is one of seven delivery drivers the senior center uses for food delivery to homebound seniors. Since sometimes he is the only person his clients see

In the week after the Malayasian plane was shot down, two more passenger planes have crashed with deadly consequences. Wednesday a plane went down in Taiwan, Thursday another crash happened. This time in Africa. Late Thursday afternoon the wreckage of the missing Air Algerie flight was found in the northwestern African country Mali. Three plane