Contributed

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the arrest of and felony charges against members of an organized retail theft ring operating throughout California, including Los Angeles, Alameda, Fresno, Kern, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Ventura counties. The California Department of Justice filed charges against nine defendants following a California Highway Patrol (CHP) investigation that began in 2021. During a search and arrest operation in Los Angeles on Monday, officers arrested five of the targeted suspects and recovered approximately $62,000 in cash and $135,000 of stolen merchandise from major retailers, including Macy’s, Columbia Sportswear, Abercrombie & Fitch, J.C. Penney, and Lululemon. An additional suspect from the operation was charged on Tuesday and remains at large. Three suspects were charged in a separate complaint on Tuesday for allegedly possessing over $17,000 in stolen merchandise.

Adan Deniz, 43, a contractor from Santa Clarita, was arraigned on April 8th on 21 felony counts of forgery, theft by false pretense, and workers’ compensation insurance fraud after allegedly creating fraudulent certificates to secure jobs and underreporting payroll by over $425,000 to save thousands on insurance premiums.

California Department of Insurance detectives arrested former insurance agent Ceaser Guadalupe Salazar, 36, of La Quinta, on multiple counts of identity theft, grand theft, and embezzlement after he allegedly submitted over 60 fraudulent insurance applications with stolen identities to gain over $20,000 in undeserved commissions.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 5th, proclaimed April as National Child Abuse Awareness month as public and private family advocates launched a month of activities aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect. “Abuse and neglect negatively impact the physical health, mental health and overall wellbeing of victims throughout their lives,” said Board Chair and District 5 Supervisor Jeff Hewitt. “We must do all we can do to prevent abuse. An important way is for communities to promote activities and resources that strengthen and support families.” County departments and community partners hosted an awareness event in downtown Riverside on Tuesday. The activities are part of the Pinwheels for Prevention campaign, a national initiative to educate community members, support families and raise funds to prevent child abuse and neglect.

The phone rings. Your child has the flu and has thrown up all over the sofa, and someone just rang your doorbell. You have a stack of books begging to be read, you still haven’t caught up with your emails, and your son needs to be dropped off at soccer practice. It’s really hard to remain focused these days, isn’t it?! Our lives are filled with the urgent, and we seem to have little to no time for the eternal and issues that really matter. It’s like a hippo in a garden - hard to see what truly matters with a large herbivorous creature taking front and center!