Contributed

The COVID-19 pandemic and historically low mortgage interest rates have caused a flurry of home buying across the United States. Families are searching for more flexible work or learning spaces, larger homes and spacious yards for cooped up kids.

If you saw Lady Gaga on Monday (May 17), you wouldn’t be faulted for thinking this is not the same woman who once wore a dress made out of meat. Gaga, 35, was the picture of casual comfort while running errands in Los Angeles. The “Rain On Me” singer was spotted in a tie-dye hoodie and short-shorts while picking up some coffee at a Starbucks in Malibu. Her hair was put up in a messy half-updo, and she finished her outfit with a pair of colorful Nikes. Considering this is the same woman who busted out four different looks at the Met Gala in 2019, it’s a bit shocking to see her in such a low-key look, but considering how hard she’s been working, Gaga deserves to keep it casual.

Clover Stewart has spent much of the last 14 months zipping up COVID-19 casualties in body bags. At times, she has felt like one of the many living casualties of the pandemic – frontline medical workers who, at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, have witnessed a lifetime’s worth of gruesome deaths in the course of a typical week. One night in March 2020, amid the frenzied efforts of the medical staff, the grim sounds of patients gasping for air, and the acrid smell of disinfectant, Stewart’s job got very personal: She recognized one of the deceased as the receptionist she and her pregnant daughter recently spoke with at a doctor’s visit.

Rose Salgado, who helped steer the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians through many years of growth and was a force for community betterment, passed away on May 14. She was 65. Rose was the youngest of six children born to Ernest Salgado Sr. and Fidelia Juarez Salgado. She, like her father and her siblings, was raised on the Soboba Reservation. She graduated from San Jacinto High School and attended the University of California, Riverside.

The Hemet/San Jacinto Student of the Month program presented its annual “Night of the Stars” on May 13, to announce its Student of the Year scholarship recipients. Chosen from those who had previously been honored as a Student of the Month during the 2020-2021 school year, one overall winner from each school was chosen to receive a $2,000 scholarship. Other nominees received a $100 gift card, and all got a keepsake box engraved with their name, the program’s logo and lots of goodies from program sponsors.