News

Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. will start processing visa applications from same-sex spouses in the same way it handles those from heterosexual spouses. The change, which takes effect on Friday, will make visas easier to get for same-sex spouses. It also means that the State Department will now be jointly processing applications

A 26-year-old Coachella man was suspected of drunkendriving and crashing his truck into another vehicle in Palm Desert, and wasreleased on bail today. The crash was reported at 8:10 p.m. Thursday at Washington Street andFred Waring Drive. Deputies found a Mazda truck had rear-ended a Volvo whichhad stopped at the traffic light in the southbound

A deal has been reached to pave over 8 miles of unpaved roads in the eastern Coachella Valley, according to a press release from the o ffice of County Supervisor John Benoit. The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) signed the contract with Riverside County to pave approximately 8.3 miles of roads within 31

Ellen DeGeneres will host the Academy Awards inMarch, the second time she will have done so, the show’s producers announcedtoday. “We are thrilled to have Ellen DeGeneres host the Oscars,” producersCraig Zadan and Neil Meron said in a statement. DeGeneres hosted the 79th Academy Awards in 2007 and was nominated foran Emmy for her efforts.

A gay teacher at a Catholic high school in Southern California has lost his job after his wedding pictures were published in a local newspaper. The San Bernardino Sun reports 45-year-old Ken Bencomo was fired from St. Lucy’s Priory after marrying his partner of 10 years. Bencomo’s lawyer says officials were aware of Bencomo’s sexual

A woman suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol when she sideswiped two cars within 10 minutes in Palm Desert, leaving the scene both times, could face possible criminal charges today. Shelly Brown, 49, of Palm Desert, was allegedly at the wheel of a white Lexus that sideswiped a gray Toyota outside a shopping

Two women and a man were behind bars and four children were in protective custody today after deputies conducted a raid in Perris and found hundreds of growing marijuana plants and more than 100 pounds of dried pot, authorities said. A search warrant was served Thursday in the 1000 block of Warbonnett Drive as part

Mount San Jacinto State Park is due to reopen Friday after a closure caused by the now-contained Mountain Fire, which broke out July 15th near Idyllwild. National Forest areas closed by the fire were reopened on Thursday, officials said. The Mountain Fire, which was sparked by an electrical malfunction on private property northeast of Idyllwild

Blogger Joe Jervis will serve as national grand marshal for the 27th. annual Greater Palm Springs Pride Parade later this year. Jervis will join community grand marshals Melanie Jones, Ellen Zimmerman, Mark Jones and Brian Vatcher, and other to-be-announced marshals for the Nov. 3 parade in downtown Palm Springs. The parade is part of the

As bars around the world, including in West Hollywood, emptied bottles of vodka down gutters today in protest of a series of anti-gay laws enacted across Russia, calls were also renewed for the city of Los Angeles to sever its sister-city relationship with St. Petersburg. The California-based Courage Campaign and Los Angeles area gay advocates

Just four weeks away from the start of the high school football season, the Desert Hot Springs should be focused on practice. Instead, they are working with police to figure out who stole nearly $4,000 in equipment from them. “It’s just frustrating, because our guys are always working hard,” said Steven Steed, the senior quarterback

Prepackaged salads could be hazardous to your health. Authorities have revealed some salad mixes could be responsible for making at least 21 people so sick they had to be hospitalized. While no cases have shown up in California yet, the Centers for Disease Control and the FDA are looking into a link between bagged salad

Some major changes on Highway 62, aimed at saving lives. Caltrans has installed a temporary median that prevents cars from crossing the centerline from Morongo Valley to Yucca Valley. But, residents say it’s forcing them to make dangerous u-turns to get to their homes. “Everybody is just so upset about it because they can’t get

El mdico forence dio a conocer la identidad de la mujer que pereci dentro de una vivienda envuelta en llamas, en la ciudad de Desert Hot Springs. Autoridades dijeron que la hoy occisa llevava por nombre Veronica Reyes de 28 aos. Todo indica que ella se encontraba dentro de la unidad abandonada, la cual fue

Los perros habian sido hasta ahora solo fieles compaeros de quienes trabajan en las fronteras, pero varias denuncias los han colocado ltimamente como un peligroso enemigo de quienes intentan llegar a Estados Unidos. Diversas organizaciones de defensa a los migrantes dicen que este tipo de agresiones en contra de quienes solo van en busca de

Federal officials say they are shutting down a California group of debt collectors for alleged extortion, humiliating debtors by calling their friends, employers and families, and making false threats of lawsuits. The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday that it’s using a temporary restraining order to halt four people accused of operating an elaborate debt collection

Police arrested a man in Palm Springs Tuesday after they found him inpossessionof a stolen car and other stolen property, according to a press release from the Palm Springs Police Department. At around 5:55 a.m., PSPD officers noticed an unoccupied car parked at a hotel on the 1600 block of South Palm Canyon Dr that

An Indio man was arrested on DUI charges early Thursday morning after crashing his car into a pole in Palm Desert County Club and attempting to flee the scene on foot. At around 6 a.m., 20-year-old Darrell McClendon Jr crashed a tan Toyota Corolla into a power pole as he attempted, and failed, to make

At the request of Supervisors Jeff Stone and John J. Benoit, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors formally declared two local emergencies for the Mountain Fire and added recent and future potential flood damages to the county’s request for recovery funds. The county is seeking assistance to recoup the costs for suppressing the now fully