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NEW YORK – Since his diagnosis with Parkinson’s Disease cut short his acting career, Michael J. Fox has every reason to be a pessimist. Instead, he’s doing a special for ABC in May about the nature of optimism. Fox explores science and his own personal experiences – he says the past decade since his diagnosis

MURRIETA – Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco Monday touted the success of the three-year-old Gang Task Force, which in 2008 logged 2,129 arrests, most of those gang members. The task force also seized 188 illegal weapons, filed 1,001 criminal cases with 437 gang enhancements, conducted 1,992 probation searches and served 226 search warrants last

SAN DIEGO- Torrey Pines Golf Course will host an LPGA Tour event for the first time in 27 years under an agreement to hold the Samsung World Championship on the South Course in September. The Samsung World Championship, to be held Sept. 17-20, features a 20-player field that includes the four major champions and top

Singer Amy Winehouse will be kept from performing at this year’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival. The troubled British pop singer was one of the biggest names on this year’s line-up. Winehouse was supposed to make her big comeback at this year’s three-day rock concert at the Empire Polo Fields. But Winehouse’s spokesman Monday said

“It’s a quiet neighborhood,” Beaumont resident Jodi Fisher observed a day after gunshots rang out on Helen Avenue. Police received a 911 call from a 12-year-old in a home on Helen Avenue around 10:40 a.m. Thursday who said he heard a gunshot and that his friend was injured. Police arrived on scene moments later and

INDIO – The Coachella Valley Chapter of the NAACP demanded today that Cathedral City police wrap up their investigation into the death of an 18- year-old pregnant woman struck by an alleged hit-and-run driver last month. “It’s already a month since this event occurred. To draw it out any longer is ridiculous,” said Kenneth Booth

LA QUINTA – LifeStreamblood centerintrouced the Tanner family to Kathrine Meyers and Tyler Johnson, the blood donors who saved their two-year-old daughter’s life. Natalie Tanner was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer atthree-months-old. No more than 350 cases are diagnosed each year. LifeStream blood donors provided the lifesaving components Natalie needed during her

Raevin Rossi and other students at Colonel Mitchell Page Middle School in La Quinta can’t get over the excitement of seeing their neighborhood ice cream man Pablo. “Everybody missed him so much and we really, really wanted to know if he was OK and if he was going to come back,” Raevin said. Last week,

RIVERSIDE – A former Beaumont mechanic was convicted Friday of five counts of first-degree murder for setting the 2006 Esperanza wildfire near Cabazon that killed five U.S. Forest Service firefighters and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes. Raymond Lee Oyler, 38, faces a possible death sentence for sparking the blaze that killed Capt. Mark Allen

Unemployment rates continue to soar in the Golden State. New numbers for Riverside County put it at more than 12 percent. Local State Senator John Benoit says not only are jobs being lost, but the state is losing businesses at an alarming rate. In fact, according Senator Benoit, more than 240 small businesses leave the

In these tough economic times, a growing number of stay-at-home moms and dads are going back to work. But with both parents out of the house working, children either go to daycare, which can be expensive, or they’re left at home by themselves. “We had it brought to our attention that without this program being

RANCHO MIRAGE – Two motorists died in a traffic collision just after midnight Friday after a van and a motorcycle collided in a major intersection, police said. Initial reports showed amotorcycle traveling eastbound on Gerald Ford Dr. collided with a Ford Windstar van traveling north on Bob Hope Dr. The motorcyclist, identified as 28-year-old Alexander

INDIO-The Coachella Valley Chapter of the NAACP demanded that Cathedral City police wrap up their investigation into the death of an 18-year-old pregnant woman struck by an alleged hit-and-run driver last month. “It’s already a month since this event occurred. To draw it out any longer is ridiculous,” said Kenneth Booth Jr., president-elect of the

Community colleges in the Golden State finally have a projected budget for the next year. Although the budget isn’t good, leaders at College of the Desert say they’re lucky compared to many other colleges and kindergarten-through-12th grade schools. Educators at COD have mixed feeling about their financial future. They finally have a projected budget and

Customers at a Cathedral City thrift store, which donates proceeds to the Desert Aids Project, are calling an armed robber’s crime at the store Tuesday a “low, desperate” act. According to Cathedral City Police, the robber described as a Hispanic man walked into the Revivals store in the 68-100 block of Ramon Road, pointed a

CATHEDRAL CITY- Police are searching for a man who robbed a Cathedral City thrift store at gunpoint. Officers responded to the reported armed robbery at Revivals Thrift Store at 68401 E. Palm Canyon Drive about 6:02 p.m. Wednesday, said Cathedral City police Lt. Earl Moss. The lieutenant said a middle-aged man wearing a black baseball

Environmentalists say a decision by the Palm Desert City Council is a major defeat for Bighorn Sheep in our local mountains. A luxury home project the city previously rejected will now be allowed. Jim DeForge with the Bighorn Institute looks at the lambing pens where endangered bighorn sheep are raised. Housing developers have honored a

CATHEDRAL CITY- Police said they are reviewing newly discovered surveillance video in their investigation of a deadly hit-and-run crash that killed a pregnant woman. “The video does not show the collision, but it is helping us determine vehicle and pedestrian placement,” said Cathedral City police Lt. Glen Haas. Danica Denton, 18, who was eight months

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INDIO – Three suspects were arrested on suspicion of burglarizing at least 20 homes for sale across the Coachella Valley by breaking into “lock boxes,” which are used by real estate agents to allow properties to be shown to prospective buyers, police said Tuesday. Matthew Garrett McLeroy, 27, of Indian Wells, and Indio residents Melissa