“These projects reflect the conservancy’s commitment to collaborative science-based conservation that benefits both wildlife and local communities,” CVMC Executive Director Elizabeth King said. “We are proud to support our regional partners in advancing innovative solutions for habitat protection, climate resilience and species conservation.”

In a board meeting on May 11, board members approved of three grants through Proposition 1 and Proposition 4 funding programs.

Two institutions received funding to study and support sustainability efforts for the endangered desert pupfish. A grant of $695,751 went to the Center for Natural Lands Management for its Groundwater-Surface Water Monitoring project. This project aims to study why portions of the Simone Pond have been drying over the past two years, with the information expected to help maintain habit for the species at the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve.

The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens received a conditional grant of up to $863,450 for the Desert Pupfish Conservation Refugia project on land owned by the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians. This project will evaluate methods to establish sustainable refuge habitat and restore functionality to former wetland cells that has conveyed water between the Whitewater River and the Salton Sea ecosystem, officials said.

The board has approved a grant of $512,000 through Proposition 4 local assistance planning grant to Mojave Desert Land Trust for its state Route 62 wildlife crossing project, which aims to advance planning for two wildlife crossings across state Route 62, a busy corridor from the Coachella Valley to Joshua Tree National Park. Organizers said the project is crucial for public and animal safety, as documented deaths of bighorn sheep and mountain lions have been reported along the highway corridor.

The post RivCo Conservancy Awards Over $2M in Conservation Funds appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The exhibition will take place from Friday through June 7 at the Melissa Morgan Fine Art gallery, at 73660 El Paseo Drive, with an opening reception to take place from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Friday. The hours of operation are from 10 a.m. through 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

The artwork will feature different mediums, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, installation, video and photography, and explore the relationship between art, landscape and community.

This year’s Desert X Art Club are comprised of students enrolled in the organization’s free after-school education program called the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program, in partnership with Desert Sands Unified School District. Participating school from DSUSD include Indio Middle School, Desert Ridge Academy, John Glenn Middle School, Carrillo Ranch Elementary and Gerald Ford Elementary School.

Besides the event, students participate in after-school workshops and field trips with Desert X’s educators and artists that encourage young people the relationship with the desert environment and their surroundings.

The post Desert X’s Student Art Exhibition Set For May 22 In Palm Desert appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

“Directing Change gives young people the opportunity to speak openly, support one another and help shape school communities where every student feels valued, understood and encouraged to reach out for help,” Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Edwin Gomez said. “Recognizing our students for expanding mental health awareness is a meaningful opportunity to show how much we value their powerful insights and inspiring creativity.”

Selected entries from the 2026 contest will be shown after a Red Carpet arrival, beginning shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Fox Performing Arts Center in downtown Riverside.

The competition is held annually as part of the “Youth Creating Change” program. Students are invited to produce vignettes, comparable to public service announcements, that are 30 to 60 seconds long.

A total 213 entries from two dozen schools and nonprofit organizations countywide were submitted this year, according to the Riverside University Health System, which sponsors the contests.

“Supporting the well-being of Riverside County’s young people is one of the most meaningful investments we can make in our future,” Board of Supervisors Chair Karen Spiegel said. “Directing Change gives students a powerful platform to share their voices, uplift one another and inspire change through creativity and compassion. These films reflect the insight, courage and heart of our youth, reminding us that honest conversations build stronger schools, healthier communities and a hopeful future.”

Along with the regular categories focused on suicide prevention and mental health awareness, this year’s event established two additional categories — substance abuse and Boys & Young Men Media Challenge — according to RUHS.

“By encouraging honest storytelling and peer connection, the program helps foster empathy, awareness and a culture of care among youth,” the agency stated.

The event is slated to conclude about 8 p.m. Wednesday.

More information is available at hopeandjustice.art/riversidecounty.

The post ‘Directing Change Film Contest’ Fosters Empathy, Awareness, In Riverside County Students appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

“The differences (from year-to-year) were subtle,” UC Riverside School of Public Policy Dean Mark Long told the board Tuesday. “Infrastructure was a little bit more emphasized this year than last. I didn’t come away with any surprise. These surveys are useful information, but I wouldn’t take them as purely what you should do as supervisors.”

Long, as well as two graduate students — Andres Gugig and Esther Mejia — were retained by the county Executive Office to conduct the 2026-27 Community Budget Priorities Survey over the winter. The online polls took place ahead of a series of community workshops held in each of the five supervisorial districts.

The surveys taken during the workshops provided only a very small sampling of opinion, while the online questionnaires received wide participation, with a total 26,543 respondents, according to documents posted to the board’s agenda Tuesday.

It was the second year the county commissioned a countywide survey. The previous one, completed in winter 2025, reflected that the highest level of interest was in public safety.

While the latter slipped into second place this year, it was a marginal difference from public works, which landed a 64% rating among all respondents, compared to 60% for public safety.

The other priorities were healthcare at 53%, human services at 49%, government finance at 23% and “internal services” — the public sector’s inter-agency operations — at 4%.

The survey team said “key words” were the determinants of how to classify respondents’ answers to the online questionnaires. For public works, terms such as “road maintenance” and “pothole repairs” were what amplified understanding of residents’ priorities, according to the team.

“People could write whatever they wanted,” Gugig told the board. “But I think if it was things that affect them on a daily basis, that’s what they wrote about.”

The team said poorly lit and damaged streets, or corridors where flooding is an issue, would push a higher number of responses into the public works category.

The Second District’s residents responded at the highest level, with just under 7,000 respondents to the survey. The district encompasses Canyon Lake, Corona, Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Lake Elsinore, Temescal Valley and multiple other communities.

The lowest response rate was in the Fifth District, where there were 4,435 respondents. The district includes Banning, Beaumont, Calimesa, Hemet, Moreno Valley and San Jacinto. Most of the survey takers were English speakers, though 599 responses were exclusively in Spanish.

One Fifth District resident and a frequent commentator on county business, Roy Bleckert, told the board the survey results should speak less to what the supervisors should do and more of what they should refrain from doing.

“Practically everything that comes through here, as you grow the government monster bigger, makes the lives of everyone in Riverside County harder,” Bleckert said. “The more you spend, the worse everything becomes. When do you start to drop, like Sweden did, the influence of government and empower the people you serve?”

Another speaker, Veronica Langworthy of the Third District, touched on a similar topic, saying the results reflected how the board can make people’s lives better by reducing government red tape.

“If you can drop fees to adopt animals from county shelters, how about dropping fees for humans?” she said. “It’s impossible for people to house because of the fees from government on property.”

Supervisor Jose Medina said he found the results “helpful as we look at the budget decisions we make and the priorities we set.”

The entire survey can be found at rivco.gov/budget.

The post 26,543 Riverside County Residents Tell Leaders How Budget Should Be Spent appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Angel Baby Cruz of Riverside was arrested last year following a California Highway Patrol investigation into the deadly wreck.

At the end of a preliminary hearing Tuesday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst found there was sufficient evidence to bound Cruz over for trial on the murder count, along with a sentence-enhancing allegation of committing a felony offense while on bail.

The judge scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for May 27 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

Cruz remains held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail.

According to the CHP, shortly before 5 a.m. April 26, 2025, the defendant was at the wheel of a Mercedes 300 going westbound on the 60 when the sedan went out of control and slammed into the center divider wall between La Rue Street and Rubidoux Boulevard.

“The vehicle then went across all lanes and struck a tree,” Officer Javier Navarro said. “The vehicle became fully engulfed by fire.”

Good Samaritans stopped and went to help Cruz and his front-seat passenger, a young man identified in court documents only as “D.G.”

Navarro said they managed to pull Cruz to safety but couldn’t get to the victim, who was unconscious, before the Mercedes was consumed by the blaze.

“After the Riverside County Fire Department put out the flames, the body was located in the front seat,” the CHP spokesman said.

No one else had been in the car. No other vehicles were involved in the crash.

Cruz underwent treatment at a Riverside hospital for unspecified minor injuries, at which point he was also determined to be intoxicated, Navarro alleged.

The defendant was formally taken into custody without incident. After a brief hospitalization, he was cleared for booking into the downtown Riverside jail.

Cruz has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County. There were no details available concerning the circumstances of his prior arrest, or how long he had been on bond leading up to the fatal crash.

The post Trial Ordered For 20-Year-Old Man Charged With Murder In Jurupa Valley DUI Death appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

According to the Riverside Police Department, a teenage girl was in the area of Market and Sixth streets, near the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, when an unknown man physically assaulted her, possibly inflicting injuries, shortly after 3 a.m. on April 25.

The circumstances were unclear.

Witnesses who were not acquainted with either party called 911, but when patrol officers reached the location, “They learned the parties involved had left the area prior to police contact, and no identifying information was provided,” police Lt. Steve Espinosa said.

“Officers obtained surveillance footage from a nearby business and gathered witness statements,” Espinosa said. “The suspect was identified as an adult male seen in the area at the time of the incident.”

Still-frame video images circulated by investigators did not clearly depict the individual, showing him only as a light-skinned Hispanic or Caucasian man with facial hair and partially bald. His dark-colored tank-top shirt appeared to have been torn open in the picture.

Detectives want to interview the victim, but her identity, too, is a mystery, according to Espinosa.

Her friends and family, or anyone who may have been in the downtown area during the predawn hours of April 25 and who spotted anything unusual in the vicinity of where the attack occurred, was asked to come forward.

Espinosa can be reached at 951-826-5959. Alternately, police dispatch is available at 951-354-2007.

The post Police Searching For Victim, Assailant In RivCo Attack appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

“Narcan saves lives by reversing actual or suspected overdose to opioids,” Riverside University Health System CEO Jennifer Cruikshank, who is also serving as the hospital’s interim manager, said Thursday. “PVH plays a role in the critical infrastructure for our community. We are proud to be able to offer this free resource and access point from the hospital.”

Narcan, formally known as Naloxone, is an opioid antagonist nose spray that can arrest the effects of an overdose from fentanyl and other illicit drugs. It’s carried by fire crews and sheriff’s deputies countywide.

Palo Verde Hospital received more than 200 Narcan kits via the California Naloxone Distribution Project.

“A single dose of Narcan is administered as one spray into one nostril,” according to a hospital statement. “Each kit contains two nasal sprayers. Narcan should be stored in a cool, dry place. Given Blythe’s extreme summer heat, residents are strongly advised not to store Narcan in a vehicle, where high temperatures can degrade the medication and reduce its effectiveness.”

Residents can procure a free kit from staff in the hospital’s emergency room, which is the only functioning component of the medical facility, at 250 N. First St.

The hospital is under bankruptcy protection and a six-month management services agreement with the county, which is working to rectify the facility’s ongoing financial and operational challenges.

Without emergency services at the hospital, the area’s roughly 20,000 residents would lose access to “timely treatment for life-threatening conditions where minutes matter,” according to a county statement in January. Outside of the hospital, the nearest option for emergency healthcare is more than 70 miles away.

Preliminary county health department statistics indicated there were 229 suspected fentanyl-related fatalities countywide in 2025, compared to 351 confirmed poisonings in 2024, a roughly 40 percent decline.

The post RivCo Hospital Offering Narcan Safety Kits To Combat Overdose Deaths appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The Sunday social is scheduled from noon to 4 p.m. on May 17 in the museum’s Heritage House, 8193 Magnolia Ave.

The museum described the event as “a sweet afternoon that pairs 250 years of American history with one of Riverside’s favorite traditions: the old- fashioned ice cream social.”

The U.S. will officially turn 250 on July 4th, the date on which the Declaration of Independence was formally recognized in 1776. The instrument was then publicized and circulated far and wide, while war with Great Britain intensified.

The Museum of Riverside is among a variety of organizations throughout Riverside County hosting different functions ahead of the Fourth of July to mark the “Semiquincentennial.”

“This free family-friendly event will include live music, crafts, games, house tours and, of course, plenty of ice cream,” the museum stated.

Thrifty Ice Cream will be providing the treats, without charge, according to officials.

They said that one of the “surprise additions” is the red, white and blue sherbet.

The post RivCo Museum To Host ‘Ice Cream Social’ With Patriotic Theme appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

In a 4-0 vote without comment Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors formally approved the Executive Office’s revised “anonymous incident reporting system.”

Anyone associated with county government who has witnessed or become aware of alleged acts that conflict with the county’s Code of Ethics can file reports via www.auditorcontroller.org, or 833-590-0004.

The phone number features prompts, while the website directs visitors to a site listed at the top of the home page designated “Report Fraud, Waste and Abuse 24/7.”

Previously, other online and telephonic reporting methods were available, but they’ve since been deactivated.

“It is the duty of every employee to report any known violation of this (ethical conduct) policy, or what would appear to a reasonable person to be a violation of this policy,” according to board Policy C-35. “Examples of reportable offenses include theft, conflicts of interest, misuse of county equipment or vehicles, embezzlement, bribes and kickbacks, abuse of work hours (and) inappropriate use of county credit cards.”

Policy C-35 was first implemented in January 1991 and later underwent revisions based on the California Citizen Complaint Act of 1997 and related legislation.

The county’s auditor-controller, currently Ben Benoit, is recognized as the initial processor of fraud, waste and abuse complaints, which are then assigned to the appropriate investigating agency, inside or outside the county.

“County employees shall adhere to and uphold the county’s Code of Ethics both in practice and in spirit,” according to the policy. “It is expected that employees act in the public’s interest first and not their own. It is further expected that their behavior, both on the job and off, reflects positively on the county, its reputation and its employees.”

The post See Fraud, Waste In RivCo? Report It Over New Number, Web Portal appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

In a 4-0 vote without comment — during which Supervisor Yxstian Gutierrez was absent — on Tuesday, the board signed off on the district’s plan to augment outlays for the “Heli-Hydrant Fire Protection System Phase 2 Project” from $513,000 to a total $754,000.

According to documents posted to the board’s agenda, following solicitation of bids from contractors to complete the work, the “total cost of the project increased beyond the amount originally contemplated.”

The Flood Control & Water Conservation District partnered with the Jurupa Community Services District in 2024 to initiate the protection system project, which will rely on water supplies managed by JCSD to feed open water tanks containing up to 10,000 gallons each.

“This will provide supplemental water resources for Cal Fire (rotor craft) during wildfire response in fire-prone areas … in Riverside County,” according to Flood Control & Water Conservation District documents.

JCSD personnel will be responsible for maintaining the tanks after they’re constructed.

The sites designated for the new supply systems are at the intersection of Bain Street and Limonite Avenue, along the north side of the Santa Ana River bottom in Jurupa Valley; near Citrus Street and Hamner Avenue in Eastvale; and just east of the Oak Quarry Golf Club, near McLaren Lane and Sandra Drive, at the northern edge of Jurupa Valley.

There was no indication of when the projects may be completed.

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