Contributed

As Carol Lynn Etchells’ explanation of her mother’s disappearance unraveled, a Riverside police detective dialed the cell phone belonging to 87-year-old Miriam Travis, who Etchells had asserted was in Minnesota checking on a burglarized cabin.

The severity of California’s housing crisis is difficult to exaggerate. Families in which spouses both have solid middle-income jobs struggle to afford mortgages for condos, not just single-family homes. Families in which spouses both have lower-income jobs often share apartments with others. Many single employed people — and some families — have no choice but to live in their cars. The nation’s richest state is also, perversely, its most impoverished.

Faced with criticism from many Californians thrown out of work during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday gave his approval to a package of bills aimed at reducing delays and fraud in the state’s beleaguered unemployment benefits system.

The letter below it’s a response for the “Densification alone will not create housing affordability in California” column published on Sept. 27 in the San Diego Union-Tribune Newspaper. You can find the article on page C2 in this issue.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco acknowledged being a dues-paying member of Oath Keepers during 2014, a group whose reputation is one of militant anti-government extremists.