“How is it that we’ve gone through all these hearings and meetings, and we’ve arrived at the same place we were four years ago?” Supervisor Chuck Washington asked at the end of Tuesday’s hearing on Ordinance No. 927. “We don’t seem to be moving the needle here. I get the same complaints from constituents. It’s disappointing. I come to work to try to maintain or improve their quality of life.”

The Transportation & Land Management Agency, along with the Department of Planning and Code Enforcement, had sought modifications to the STR ordinance based on studies and community meetings. But after a 90-minute hearing during which more than a dozen people aired grievances, the board voted unanimously to table action to an unspecified date.

However, due to legislative constraints, the board was unable to automatically extend a moratorium on the issuance of STR certificates in Thousand Palms and the B Bar H Ranch. Technically, the moratorium will expire on Feb. 28. But the supervisors’ consensus pointed to the likelihood of their renewing the moratorium, possibly for another 10 months, when they return for their next regular meeting on March 3.

The board implemented a slate of countywide regulations tied to STRs under Ordinance No. 927 in October 2022. The measure has been largely untouched since then, and Tuesday’s hearing was sought by TLMA to make a series of “minor” adjustments.

Short-term rentals are defined as residential dwellings leased for a maximum of 30 days and a minimum of two days and one night. Prior to the ratification of Ordinance No. 927, the county had a somewhat informal process for permitting short-term rentals. Officials said there are now roughly 1,100 certificated STR properties in unincorporated communities countywide.

Most of the comments heard by the board Tuesday reflected the same issues the panel considered when the ordinance was first implemented — lack of enforcement or consequences for STR operators who don’t follow the rules.

“The same bad actors are really the ones we’re talking about,” a Temecula Valley resident named Ron told the board. “The real problem is Code Enforcement doesn’t write citations. You need to rethink the officers’ hours of operation. They’re heading back home just when the parties are starting at night. Noise disturbances are preventing us from sleeping. Without code doing an adequate job, this will never be solved.”

Another Temecula Valley resident complained that regardless of how bad conditions are in the STR property adjacent to his home — where one weekend renter recently rammed a vehicle through the front door — Code Enforcement is ineffectual.

“My life is a living hell,” he told the board. “Nothing is being done. They have massive parties there, and all we’re asking is that Code Enforcement do some actual enforcement.”

An East Thousand Palms senior said her dirt road has been virtually overtaken by partygoers regularly renting out an STR property directly across from her home.

“Sometimes there 100 cars parked on the road, and they go off-roading,” she said. “Some cities in the Coachella Valley have banned STRs. There are too many. We don’t need more.”

Supervisor Jose Medina was aghast at what he heard, noting that he’d never experienced anything remotely like the speakers’ circumstances in his 30 years residing in the same Riverside house.

“We all have the right to live in peaceful, safe neighborhoods,” he said. “I’m glad we won’t vote on this today. We need to see more cooperation between the Sheriff’s Department and Code Enforcement.”

Board members recognized that the majority of STR operators are law-abiding, but said people leasing out some properties for illegal events had grown accustomed to flouting regulations — and had not faced serious penalties to deter them from doing so.

Supervisor Manuel Perez expressed hope that the agencies, with the guidance of the board, could “work out the kinks” to improve Code Enforcement operations.

“We should consider after-hours enforcement,” he said.

Although the county maintains an overnight phone line staffed by a complaint taker, the most that can be done between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. is for the staffer to call the STR operator to alert him or her to complaints. Deputies will respond to properties to investigate excessive noise and other disturbances, but Undersheriff Don Sharp admitted they have to “prioritize” calls. He said they will only go if they’re not needed for something that rates higher, such as a domestic violence or assault report.

The amendments that were under board consideration included a new provision enabling the director of the Department of Code Enforcement, head of the TLMA or the director of the Department of Planning to declare an “urgent circumstance” that grants authority to immediately order the abatement of a public nuisance at an STR.

The ordinance’s proposed new language also specified that any “responsible operator” of an STR may be denied a certificate of renewal if he or she received three notices of violation in a six-month span, or five notices over the entire duration of an STR certificate.

The slate of amendments further called for an increase in the initial STR application fee from $740 to $1,040, and elevating the annual renewal fee from $540 to $750. The Planning Commission voted 4-0 last month to recommend that the board designate funds to expand the county’s STR Enforcement Team.

A moratorium established in April 2025 halted the issuance of all STR certificates in Thousand Palms and the B Bar H Ranch. That suspension followed a surge in boisterous parties at vacation rental properties throughout the communities.

The TLMA confirmed complaints continued in both areas after the moratorium was invoked, but the number over the last six months totaled fewer than 40. The moratorium’s official sunset date is Feb. 28, but the board will discuss resetting it next month.

The post ‘My Life Is A Living Hell’: Complaints Continue About Short-Term Rentals In Riverside County appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The governor, who will address the Legislature and present his budget proposal this week, has spent the past seven years pushing an ambitious agenda. Now in his final year, numerous interest groups will clamor for him to pass their preferred policies, nix the regulations they fear and protect the programs they favor. How he responds will follow him into his expected presidential primary run.

Will he, with his recent focus on affordability, make a dent in Californians’ housing and health care costs? Will he make progress on reducing homelessness? Will he continue pushing green energy as voters demand cheaper gas? Will he weather another dismal budget deficit without punishing cuts that would alienate the progressives whose programs he has championed?

“This really is a pivotal year for him,” Democratic political consultant Kelly Calkin said. “What do voters in the rest of the country want to see? They’re feeling the pinch of affordability. … He’s probably going to look through that lens on what helps shape his agenda for the next year.”

It’s also his final opportunity to make headway on some of the lofty goals Newsom made when he ran for governor in 2018 that he hasn’t always met.

He vowed to tackle homelessness, which has only gotten worse over his seven-year tenure, despite the more than $24 billion his administration has poured into it. He started off his term with an initial, headline-grabbing proposal to grant new parents six months of paid leave, but quickly pared it back to a two-week increase, for a total of eight weeks, and gradual boosts in how much the program pays.

In 2021 he said the state would add 200,000 new subsidized child care slots by this year, but the plan has been delayed for two years and remains tens of thousand of slots short; he has since promised to resume the expansion this year.

He campaigned on establishing a single-payer public health care system, even calling out “politicians saying they support single-payer but that it’s too soon, too expensive or someone else’s problem.” Then he pivoted to “universal coverage,” with the state slowly expanding coverage for low-income Californians, including immigrants who entered the country illegally, but abruptly halted that amid a budget deficit last year.

He spoke, like so many before him, of evening out the state’s boom-and-bust tax system that over-relies on stock market returns, but has largely quashed other proposals to raise revenue as the state stares down a deficit.

‘It never seems like enough’

Newsom’s penchant for big promises and first-in-the-nation ideas has been both a blessing and a curse for the ambitious politician. Advocates of those policies say the lofty goals have made a difference, even if the state ultimately falls short of achieving all of them.

Newsom has left his mark on state government: He started new programs like the expansion of public school to all 4-year-olds, created an office to control rising health care costs, flexed the state’s regulatory powers to achieve its greenhouse gas-reduction goals — only to run into resistance with the Trump administration — and pushed state leaders into overseeing thorny issues like homelessness and the mental health care system that had long been left to local and county governments.

“I don’t think there was a lot of stuff lacking,” said Anthony Rendon, the former Assembly speaker who led the chamber during Newsom’s first five years in office, of policy issues the governor has yet to address. After years of working with Newsom’s predecessor Jerry Brown, who was focused mostly on fiscal restraint and building up the state’s reserves, Rendon and former Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins recalled Newsom starting off his first term in 2019 pleasing the mostly Democratic Legislature with a long list of progressive ideas and a willingness to spend on them.

“In retrospect, it never seems like enough,” Rendon said.

Case in point: housing. It’s perhaps the most visible measure by which Newsom will be judged after he leaves office and it comprises a bulk of the recent national Democratic platform focused on lowering the cost of living. About 40% of California households are “burdened” by their rent or mortgage, census data shows, a policymaker benchmark meaning housing eats up more than a third of their income.

Newsom ran on lowering those costs by boosting production and said it was “achievable” for the state to build an ambitious 3.5 million new homes by 2025. In 2024, the state added just under 120,000 new units, about a fifth of the annual rate needed to meet that goal. In media appearances the governor now downplays his original figure as a “stretch goal.”

Yet those who favor building more say he’s still accomplished more than any other governor on housing. They blame local resistance to housing density, high interest rates and the persistently high cost of building as reasons for the slow progress.

“You can’t solve a systemic problem overnight or even in seven years, but what you can do is change the trajectory of the issue,” said Ray Pearl, executive director of the California Housing Consortium, a nonprofit that advocates for building affordable housing.

A pivot to modular housing this year?

Pearl pointed to actions Newsom has taken, like an early budget move to quintuple the state’s tax credit for low-income housing construction, backing laws that relax rules on where housing can be built and picking legal fights with cities that refuse to plan adequate housing units for their populations.

“Leadership sets the tone,” he said. “It’s changed the focus and the conversation to where the state of California has finally gotten serious in planning for and producing affordable housing.”

Pearl said in Newsom’s final year in office he hopes the governor will support a proposed $10 billion bond lawmakers want to put on this year’s ballot to boost a state affordable housing fund.

Newsom acknowledges California has yet to see his promised building boom, and last month expressed interest in alternative forms of construction, such as modular housing, as another solution. On The Ezra Klein Show, he hinted at an upcoming legislative debate over how the state can promote modular housing, a cheaper way to build in which houses are assembled in factories then shipped to sites to be installed. An Assembly committee chaired by one of Newsom’s allies on housing, Democratic Oakland Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, is set to discuss the method this year. Its use in the Bay Area has already exposed familiar debates about the use of union labor in housing.

“This holds a lot of promise. It holds a lot of political peril, in the context of the politics within labor. And that has to be accommodated and dealt with,” Newsom said. “By the way, if there’s a big preview for California in my last year, it’s in this space legislatively to take it to the next level.”

It’s the closest Newsom has come in recent weeks to stating a new policy goal or proposal. Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s spokesperson, would not provide any details on his housing or any other agenda, telling CalMatters only to “stay tuned.”

Gardon refused interview requests to discuss the governor’s policy goals for his final year. Newsom is expected to deliver his State of the State address on Thursday.

Tough times for health care and social services

Already, advocates for the comprehensive safety-net services that Newsom has championed — another hallmark of his tenure — are urging him to maintain those programs as he stares down another tough budget deficit estimated at $18 billion. The agency overseeing those services accounts for nearly 40% of the state’s general fund spending and many of its programs are projected to lose significant federal funds through President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill.

During Newsom’s two terms, he added subsidized child care slots, boosted cash assistance for the poor, installed a state surgeon general who has focused on childhood trauma and the racial health gap and most significantly, incrementally expanded health care coverage to different groups of immigrants who are in the country illegally.

The latter, a controversial and costly policy, has allowed the governor to pivot from his original promise of a universal, state-paid health care system that was the pie-in-the-sky dream of progressives and still say he was achieving “universal access.” After passage of the Affordable Care Act, more than 90% of Californians were insured by the time Newsom took office. His expansions, first for immigrant young adults and then for older ones, pushed it to nearly everyone in 2023.

Policy allies generally don’t fault Newsom for shifting away from a single-payer system, which would have required billions more in state funds and complex agreements with an increasingly unaligned federal administration. They are particularly satisfied that his administration has laid some of the groundwork for such a proposal by attempting to rein in the growth of health care costs through price limits imposed by the Office of Health Care Affordability. But now, they’re worried he’ll walk away from his expansive coverage goals altogether.

Last year, facing higher than expected costs in the Medi-Cal program and needing to close a $12 billion deficit, Newsom undid coverage for the last group of immigrants to become eligible: working-age adults. A freeze on new enrollment of adults took effect Jan. 1. Later this year, adult immigrants who entered the country illegally will lose Medi-Cal dental coverage and next year most will face monthly premiums that are expected to force some off coverage, to the disappointment of health advocates who are urging Newsom to reverse the cuts.

Amanda McAllister-Wallner, executive director of the advocacy group Health Access California, said she’s worried the administration will consider further cuts this year, after Newsom has come out heavily against other proposals to raise revenue for the health system, like a nurses’ union proposal for a wealth tax. She doesn’t like that the governor appeared willing to back down on coverage at the same time the state’s provision of social services for immigrants became an increasing political controversy nationally.

“The hope was that the Health for All expansion would be considered the baseline, that that would be something we budget for long term because it’s just something that’s part of who we are as a state,” said McAllister-Wallner. “Health care has been an area where the governor has really made a name for himself in a way that I think he can and should be very proud of, and to see … a backing-off of those commitments would be the biggest disappointment for me.”

The post Gavin Newsom’s legacy: Can he deliver on unmet promises in his final year as governor? appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The signing ceremony came just hours after the House passed the measure on a mostly party-line vote of 222-209. The Senate had already passed the measure Monday.

The shutdown magnified partisan divisions in Washington as Trump took unprecedented unilateral actions — including canceling projects and trying to fire federal workers — to pressure Democrats into relenting on their demands.

Federal government shutdowns

The federal shutdown that ended Wednesday with legislation to fund the government was the longest in U.S. history.

Federal shutdowns lasting 2 or more days since 1981

Democrats wanted to extend an enhanced tax credit expiring at the end of the year that lowers the cost of health coverage obtained through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. They refused to go along with a short-term spending bill that did not include that priority. But Republicans said that was a separate policy fight to be held at another time.

Here’s the latest:

Noem presents $10,000 bonus checks to TSA agents at Houston airport

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem awarded the checks to two dozen TSA agents during a news conference at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, saying the payments recognize employees who went “above and beyond” while working without pay during the shutdown.

Noem said the department will continue awarding bonuses to TSA employees who showed “exceptional” performance, noting that eligibility isn’t limited to those with perfect attendance. She added that some officers went above and beyond by giving coworkers rides to work.

One of the recipients at the news conference was an officer Noem praised for reporting to all of his shifts and volunteering for extra ones to help cover staffing shortages.

BBC apologizes to Trump over its misleading edit, but says there’s no basis for a defamation claim

The BBC apologized Thursday to Trump over a misleading edit of his speech on Jan. 6, 2021 but said it strongly disagreed that there was a basis for a defamation lawsuit.

The BBC said Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House saying that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit of the speech Trump gave before some of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. It said there are no plans to rebroadcast the documentary that spliced together parts of his speech that came almost an hour apart.

Trump’s lawyer sent the BBC a letter demanding an apology and threatened to file a $1 billion lawsuit.

Trump approves pardon for former Tottenham owner Joe Lewis

The president has agreed to pardon Joe Lewis, 88, the former Premier League soccer club owner who was convicted last year of insider trading and securities fraud, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the yet to be formally announced decision.

Lewis wasn’t sentenced to any time in prison after pleading guilty to federal insider trading and conspiracy charges in New York but did pay a $5 million fine.

When he entered his plea, Lewis admitted that he agreed in 2019 to share secrets about publicly traded companies with several individuals.

His company, Broad Bay Limited, and Lewis, a British citizen and resident of the Bahamas, agreed to pay $50 million in financial penalties.

The official noted that Lewis admitted he made a mistake, did not fight extradition in the case, and paid a hefty fine.

Lewis transferred his majority ownership interest in Tottenham to his family via a trust in 2022, the year before he was charged.

Democratic Wisconsin senator says deal can be reached on health care

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, of Wisconsin, said Thursday that she remained optimistic a deal could be reached with Republicans who share her concerns about rising health care costs. Baldwin said some Republicans are hearing from voters “about the pain that the expiration of these tax credits will cause.”

“I’ve talked to folks who would like to provide some relief for the people who sent them to Washington to represent them,” she said at a news conference.

Baldwin said some deals being floated by Republicans that would approve a multi-year extension of the tax credit, but perhaps with income limits and other changes, are “workable and sensible.”

“We’re going to see if they’re serious and if there’s enough of them to get to the 60 vote threshold,” Baldwin said. “And we’ve got to do that quickly.”

Trump signs executive order seeking to expand opportunities for children who have experienced foster care

The president signed an action championed by his wife, first lady Melania Trump.

She said it is meant to provide “individuals from the foster care community with technology-based scholarships to attend colleges and universities throughout America” and to equip “each scholarship recipient with a fundamental foundation of knowledge that will endure throughout their lifetimes.”

The initiative creates public- and private-sector partnerships that give young people who have experienced foster care “more pathways to success.” It also includes a push to provide “decommissioned federal laptops to youth in foster care,” meant to help them “bridge the digital divide and increase access to online resources.”

Trump has the White House’s East Room will be part of the ‘future’ entrance of his ballroom

The president was addressing an East Room event when he paused to indicate the huge, active construction site nearby where the ballroom is being built – and where the East Wing was demolished to make room.

“In about two years from now, we’ll use a much bigger room,” Trump said, adding that the new ballroom’s entrance will be “right here” and suggested that the project might require removing more of the existing White House.

“It looks pretty nice right now. It’ll look a lot better in a little while,” Trump said. He also said the ballroom has “really become very popular” – an assertion the president has frequently repeated that is not backed up by recent polling.

Trump administration slaps terror designation on 4 left-wing groups in Europe

The Trump administration is designating four European left-wing groups as terrorist organizations, following through on the president’s vow to crack down on leftists after the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The networks all appear to be based in Europe, with no operations in the United States. They are an Italian anarchist front that sent explosive packages to the then-president of the European commission in 2003, two Greek networks believed to have planted bombs outside riot police and labor department buildings in Athens, and an anti-fascist group whose members were prosecuted by German authorities for a hammer attack against neo-Nazis in Dresden.

The designation allows the administration to target any financial support the networks may have in the U.S. Most anarchist and antifa, or anti-fascist, groups are technically not organizations but rather loose affiliations of individuals who join up for specific actions.

First lady headlines executive order signing on foster youth

First lady Melania Trump kicked off an East Room event on Thursday to promote an executive order meant to help current and former foster youth.

Her husband, the president, is to sign the executive order shortly. Melania Trump said it was “truly inspiring to see everyone gather here together, united in support of this remarkable initiative.”

2 Smithsonian museums to reopen

Two of the Smithsonian’s museums along the National Mall in Washington, D.C. – American History and Air and Space – were set to reopen Friday after people had been turned away from the free attractions for more than four weeks during the government shutdown.

The organization says on its website that the rest of the Smithsonian’s sites across the Washington area and New York will reopen by Monday, on a rolling basis.

All Smithsonian buildings and the National Zoo were first closed Oct. 12.

Most of the Smithsonian museums are typically open every day of the year with just one exception for Christmas. The 20 sites together hosted more than 16 million people last year, and the organization has more than 3,600 federal employees.

While the zoo has been closed, the popular livestream feeds capturing the famous giant pandas playing, rolling in the grass or eating were offline. The normally active social media pages sharing animal updates and colorful photographs were silent. Still, even during a shutdown, the animals continue to be fed and get care, unpublicized.

The Education Department brings back staff members

The Education Department said Thursday it had brought back all its staff members who were furloughed during the government shutdown or dismissed in the Trump administration’s round of mass firings in October.

The administration laid off 466 Education Department staffers in the cross-government firings meant to pressure Democratic lawmakers over the shutdown. Those layoffs had been halted by a federal judge.

The department furloughed 2,117 employees at the start of the shutdown, but some were brought back for essential work.

New grants were put on hold during the shutdown. Most school districts received the bulk of their federal funding over the summer, but some grants that schools were counting on for this year have been delayed.

Recipients of Impact Aid, which boosts the budgets of districts with large amounts of federal land that can’t be taxed for local schools, were waiting to learn when their payments would be processed.

Justice Department sues to block California US House map

The Justice Department on Thursday sued to block new congressional district boundaries approved by California voters last week, joining a court battle that could help determine which party wins control of the U.S. House in 2026.

The complaint filed in California federal court targets the new congressional map pushed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in response to a similar Republican-led effort in Texas backed by President Donald Trump. It sets the stage for a high-stakes legal and political fight between the Republican administration and the Democratic governor, who’s seen as a likely 2028 presidential contender.

“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an emailed statement. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”

California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50, a constitutional amendment changing the congressional boundaries to give Democrats a shot at winning five seats now held by Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.

Federal workers to receive backpay by Nov. 19

The Trump administration is working to push out pay for federal workers that had been on hold because of the government shutdown by the middle of next week.

The money will go out in four separate tranches, depending on the agency, according to a senior administration official. The varied dates are because agencies are on different pay schedules and payroll providers.

The White House had pushed federal agencies to expedite backpay for employees, said the official, granted anonymity to discuss the administration’s plans.

The schedule is as follows: —Nov. 15: Employees at the General Services Administration and Office of Personnel Management will be paid a “supercheck” that covers the period of Oct. 1 to Nov. 1 —Nov. 16: Employees at the Departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, and Veterans Affairs will be paid for the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1, as well as civilian employees at the Pentagon. —Nov. 17: Employees at the Departments of Education, State, Interior, and Transportation, as well as those at the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, National Science Foundation, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Social Security Administration will be paid for the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1. —Nov. 19: Employees from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Treasury and the Small Business Administration will be paid for the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 15.

—By Seung Min Kim

Voto Latino criticizes House for ignoring health crisis and voting ‘yes’ on budget bill

On Wednesday evening the House voted on a budget bill that ended the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

Voto Latino leaders said the House “chose to ignore the health crisis millions of Americans are facing” when it voted on a budget bill that they claim will jeopardize the health of Latino communities by failing to fund subsidies provided by the Affordable Care Act that make health coverage more accessible.

“Latinos are already left behind when it comes to accessing health care coverage,” Voto Latino leaders said in a statement. “With lawmakers choosing to turn a blind eye to this reality, these disparities will only grow, and families will be pushed to make difficult decisions when it comes to seeking medical attention.”

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman hospitalized after fall

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman had what his office says was a “ventricular fibrillation flare-up” that caused him to feel light-headed and fall during an early morning walk Thursday. He was doing well and was hospitalized in Pittsburgh, his office said. He sustained minor injuries to his face and was under “routine observation” at the hospital, the office said.

Fetterman, who suffered a stroke in 2022, has disclosed that he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and a heart condition called atrial fibrillation.

Cardiomyopathy can impede blood flow and potentially cause heartbeats so irregular they can be fatal. Atrial fibrillation can cause blood to pool inside a pocket of the heart, allowing clots to form. Clots then can break off, get stuck and cut off blood, causing a stroke.

Wait and see on poverty program reimbursements

The federal government is back but it is unclear when and if Washington, D.C., will be reimbursed for the payments it made to programs for its impoverished residents while the government was shut down.

Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered that the thousands of recipients of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and the WIC program receive their benefits during the shutdown. The city ultimately covered $18.5 million of the SNAP expense after the federal government made a partial payment of $8 million at the direction of a federal district judge.

Overall, it will be months before city officials know the full impact of the shutdown in terms of economics although at least budgetarily it will be a better outcome than 2024 when the city was unable to spend more than $1 billion of its own tax revenue on its budget because of action by the House.

This year the city retained its spending authority on the budget the council passed.

States scramble to send full SNAP food benefits to millions after government shutdown ends

With the longest U.S. government shutdown over, state officials said Thursday they’re working quickly to get full SNAP food benefits to millions of people, though it still could take up to a week for some to receive their delayed aid.

A back-and-forth series of court rulings and shifting policies from Trump’s administration has led to a patchwork distribution of November benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. While some states already had issued full SNAP benefits, about two-thirds of states had issued only partial benefits or none at all before the government shutdown ended late Wednesday, according to an Associated Press tally.

The federal food program serves about 42 million people, about 1 in 8 Americans, in lower-income households. They receive an average of around $190 monthly per person, though that doesn’t necessarily cover the full cost of groceries for a regular month.

▶ Read more about the shutdown and SNAP food benefits

Judge hears arguments challenging appointment of prosecutor who charged James Comey, Letitia James

Lawyers for two of President Trump’s foes who’ve been charged by the Justice Department asked a judge Thursday to dismiss the cases against them, saying the prosecutor who secured the indictments was illegally installed in the role.

U.S. District Cameron McGowan Currie didn’t immediately rule from the bench but said she expects to decide by Thanksgiving on challenges to Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The requests are part of multiprong efforts by former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James to get their cases dismissed before trial.

At issue during Thursday’s arguments are the complex constitutional and statutory rules governing the appointment of the nation’s U.S. attorneys, who function as top federal prosecutors in Justice Department offices across the country.

▶ Read more about the Justice Department cases

Trump’s new ambassador visits head of Greece’s Orthodox Church

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the first female U.S. ambassador to Greece and a close ally of President Trump, visited the head of Greece’s Orthodox Church on Thursday, telling him he was the first person she called after being nominated to her new post.

Guilfoyle’s visit to Archbishop Ieronymos II came just over a week after she took up her new position in Athens. A former California prosecutor and Fox News host who was once engaged to Donald Trump Jr, the 56-year-old presented her diplomatic credentials to Greece’s president on Nov. 4.

“It’s wonderful to be here and I’m just very grateful that President Trump has blessed me with the opportunity to serve the United States here in Greece, for the relationship that we have and for that growing and blossoming going forward,” Guilfoyle said during the meeting with the 87-year-old archbishop.

Ieronymos extended his thanks “to the president for the opportunity that he gave us today. May God bless these relations.”

The post The Latest: Federal offices reopen as the government shutdown ends appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

“I want to have this conversation in a safe space for everyone with differing viewpoints that would be productive,” Supervisor Chuck Washington said at the July 29 meeting. “I did not believe that the way this was brought forward would produce that, and so I’m not prepared to support this ad hoc committee at this point.”

Supervisor Jose Medina said his goal in bringing the item to the board was to provide the county, the sheriff’s department and the community a forum to discuss the issues and work together to come up with potential solutions through the ad hoc committee.

“In my 10 years of service in the state legislature, I sometimes think I’m doing a good job when I upset [or] piss off people on both sides of the issue, and I think I’ve done that here today,” Medina said at the meeting. “I’ve heard from the advocates that I’m not going fast enough, that it’s not doing enough all at once, [and] I’ve heard from those who are on the other side that I’m going too fast or that I’m not taking their points of view into consideration.”

For more than an hour, the board heard from members of the public, largely in support of sheriff oversight, which is allowed under AB 1185, even if not specifically in favor of the creation of the ad hoc committee.

“People want transparency. People want accountability. People want oversight of the [Riverside] County Sheriff’s Department,” Sky Allen, executive director of local advocacy group Inland Empire United, said at the meeting. “They’re tired of systems that protect power instead of protecting people. This isn’t about politics. It’s about…the pain of families who feel unheard, and the hope of residents who still believe the government can work for them. Please be bold for them today.”

Allen said her team and coalition partners had reached out to more than 7,500 residents all across the county over the last few months to hear their thoughts on the issue. Those responses have since been compiled into a comprehensive report the organization released last week.

Some of those who spoke at the meeting went into greater detail about what they found, including that people felt greater oversight of the department would increase trust and safety and reduce the number of in-custody deaths.

According to data first provided to The Riverside Record by the Riverside Sheriff Accountability Coalition (RSAC), one of the organizations spearheading oversight efforts, and confirmed with data obtained from the California Department of Justice’s Open Justice data portal, there have been 262 reported in-custody deaths between 2011 and 2024 in Riverside County. 

That number not only includes people who died while incarcerated at Riverside County jails, but also those who died during the process of arrest or at crime/arrest scenes. This data was also the basis for a report by CARE First California and RSAC published last fall.

Both Supervisor Karen Spiegel and Sheriff Chad Bianco called those numbers used by RSAC members who spoke at the meeting into question.

“We are here because of a lie…perpetuated by disingenuous politicians, activists and complicit media that dismisses the truth for sensationalist headlines that divide us,” Bianco said at the meeting. “And I will point out the headlines that some of them apparently read, because the numbers that they give you all, know are completely factually inaccurate.”

In an interview with The Record after the meeting, Luis Nolasco, senior policy advocate and organizer with the ACLU of Southern California and RSAC member, pushed back on that assertion.

“That data, in and of itself, that’s directly from the California Attorney General,” he said. “The sheriff’s department is mandated to report all this information about in-custody deaths to the state, so all that information that the attorney general has collected, and that we just asked for, and that was provided to us, it’s public information.”

That data, reported to the state by law enforcement agencies like the sheriff’s department, is collected by the California Department of Justice Criminal Justice Statistics center, updated as necessary and posted to the Open Justice data portal.

According to the dataset, which was last updated May 29, the total number of deaths spiked in 2021 when 12 people died while in the custody of county jails and 21 died during the process of arrest. The next year, 2022, the total number of deaths was 32 — 19 of whom died while in the custody of county jails, the highest number in the county’s history. Months later, Attorney General Rob Bonta launched an investigation into the department, which Bianco said was politically motivated.

“This is not about transparency, never has been,” Bianco, who first took office in 2019, said at the meeting. “A politically-motivated DOJ investigation from our attorney general cited ‘alarming reports of wrongdoing and civil rights violations and investigations.’ Mind you that those alarming reports came from the same anti-law enforcement activist groups you are hearing from today.”

Nolasco said RSAC’s calls for oversight of the department were not because of a political grudge against Bianco, who earlier this year announced his run for governor, but were instead a response to the lived experiences of those whose loved ones had died while in the custody of the sheriff’s department.

“For us, it’s all much bigger than just Bianco,” he said. “I think Bianco is a symptom of a much bigger problem, which is the systemic lack of accountability and transparency within this department.”

The total number of in-custody deaths fell to 21 in 2023. Fourteen of those deaths happened while people were in the custody of county jails, six died during the process of arrest and one was marked as “other,” according to the data. Last year, the total number of in-custody deaths dropped to 15, eight of which were people in the custody of county jails, six who died during the process of arrest and one death that was marked as “other.”

Bianco, in an interview with The Record, said that he gets “emotional” every time he gets the call that a person has died while in custody, but that it was impossible for the department to prevent people who are incarcerated from accidentally overdosing or killing themselves.

“It doesn’t mean we failed. It just means we weren’t successful, but we certainly didn’t fail,” he said. “And this anti-law enforcement, blame somebody else, don’t take accountability for your own failures, don’t take accountability for your family members’ failures or for the actions that they did and somehow blame me and, realistically, every single one of them file a lawsuit.”

The cost of those lawsuits was another issue brought up by those in support of a sheriff oversight committee.

“We are paying a massive price for these abuses, not just with our lives, but with the hundreds of millions of dollars we are wasting on [sheriff department] settlements,” Emma Li said. “We deserve, and we demand, real accountability and oversight, and you, the Board of Supervisors, can make this happen.”

According to county data obtained by The Record, the county has paid out more than $107 million for claims made against the sheriff’s department for incidents that happened between 2014 and 2024 as of March of this year. While some claims were paid out within days of the county being notified of the claim, others took nearly a decade to be considered resolved, according to the data.

It was not immediately clear how many pending claims there were against the department, though Riverside County Director of Communications Brooke Federico said between 80-90% of people who file claims do not receive any payment from the county. During the most recent fiscal year, she said 90% of claimants had their claims closed without payment.

It was also not immediately clear how many lawsuits had been filed against the department that were still pending as part of the claims process. The Record filed a California Public Records Act request with the county, though the county has requested an extension to fulfill the request.

When it came to the cost of settlements, Bianco said that they had “nothing to do with wrongdoing,” but were instead business decisions with which he did not agree. 

“I say fight them till the end, because all this is doing by settling these lawsuits is enabling,” he said in an interview with The Record. “These attorneys just keep filing bigger and bigger lawsuits, hoping for bigger and bigger settlements.”

Those in support of sheriff oversight also brought up what they felt was a lack of transparency from the department.

“The [proposed ad hoc] committee is not here to remove the elected sheriff, but to hold the sheriff’s department accountable to the core values of the department, which are integrity, honesty, honesty, honesty and professionalism,” Michael Lujan, a retired sheriff’s captain with 31 years of experience who lost to Bianco in the 2022 election, said at the meeting. “The truth, however painful, always finds its way into the light, and I think over the last few years we’ve been experiencing that through litigation.”

Bianco pushed back against the assertion that his department wasn’t transparent, stating in an interview with The Record that it has always been his position that the department release as much information as legally permitted.

“There [is] some information that we cannot give legally without a judge telling us to give, whether you request [it through] a public records request act or not,” he said. “And because we don’t give you that information, and we tell you why, you can’t say we’re lying. You can’t say we’re covering it up, you just didn’t get that.

“You can get it if you go to a judge and convince a judge that the judge should allow you to see that, you can get it then,” he continued. “But we’re not going to be held civilly liable for violating that law, because we gave you information that we were prevented from giving.”

He also said that there was a preexisting committee that already provides feedback to the department. That committee, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Advisory Committee, was created to “aid in the transparency” of the department, according to a private Facebook group description.

However, prior to last month’s meeting when three of the committee’s members addressed the board, Nolasco said neither he nor other RSAC members had known the identities of any of its members. Bianco said that was done deliberately to ensure the safety of the committee members.

“The reason why I refuse to give you their names is because from week one, when their names did get out, they were absolutely attacked by the activists that we have here, and not only them, their children in school, so I’m not going to give you their names,” he said at the meeting, noting that they were appointed by the sheriff’s department with input from the supervisors. “I was very surprised, thank you very much, to see them show up here today, because I didn’t want them here.”

Of the three self-identified members who spoke at the meeting, one was against the creation of the ad hoc committee and one was in support of increased oversight. All three are members of the private Facebook group.

“An oversight committee can provide an extra layer of support [along with] the existing measures to keep inmates safe from themselves and others,” Rick Saldivar, who said he had served on the committee since 2020, said at the meeting. “Furthermore, the implementation of an oversight committee can bring constructive impact to the sheriff’s department as a whole by promoting transparency, accountability and continuous improvement, and we can work towards creating a safer and more humane environment for both inmates and staff.”

However, Rodney Kyles called the idea “hogwash.”

“I had some preconceived ideas, until I met [Bianco] personally,” he said at the meeting. “He’s taken us through his whole department, every single aspect of it. If the issue comes up, he addresses it [and] we address it with him, so the transparency is there.”

Tamara Frazier, the final member of the committee who spoke at the meeting, had given time to Kyles, but said in her comments that she didn’t necessarily share his sentiments.

“I am here just to say that we are here,” she said. “He established this about four years ago, and we are here to work with anybody in the community that wants to talk to us. 

“We are the direct bridge between the community and the sheriff’s department,” she continued. “So if you have any concerns, I just advise you to reach out to us.”

Bianco told The Record the department has a list of people who want to be part of the committee that gets used to fill vacancies as they arise.

“When we lose people on the committee, we fill them, and have lots of people that reach out to say, ‘Hey, if there’s ever an opening, I want to be a part,’” he told The Record. “We haven’t lost very many lately. They like doing what they’re doing.”

Nolasco said he was able to connect with one of the members after the meeting and was looking forward to being able to talk with the group and learning more about their work, though he said that it was “truly bonkers” that information about a group with the stated aim of increasing transparency had not been made available to the general public prior to the July 29 meeting.

“There is not a single public trace anywhere on any county website or any public document that spells out the purpose of this advisory committee,” he said. “And something that is concerning to us is if this truly is a public body under the county, then they should be held under the same laws of the Brown Act.”

The California Brown Act governs open meetings in the state for all local agencies, inclusive of commissions and committees, and dictates regulations surrounding what constitutes a meeting, notice and agenda requirements, rights of the public and what is permissible to be discussed in closed session along with penalties and remedies for violations of the act.

According to a county official, the committee, which was voluntarily created by the sheriff’s department, is neither a legislative, governing nor statutorily required body.

“Based on the information available on the sheriff’s advisory committee, this group is not likely subject to the Brown Act,” Federico said in an email to The Record. “Please refer to the sheriff’s department for more information.”

In an emailed statement to The Record, Bianco said that the advisory committee was not subject to the Brown Act and “shouldn’t be.”

“From the formation of the committee, several members and their children were subjected to ridicule and harassment for participating in the committee,” he said. “I am deeply concerned about their safety and troubled by the constant demand and maneuvering from activist groups and the media to obtain their names.”

Those who spoke against the ad hoc committee and sheriff oversight generally at the meeting, including Desert Hot Springs Councilmember Dirk Voss and La Quinta Councilmember Steve Sanchez, said they felt the agenda item was politically motivated and would create additional costly and unnecessary bureaucracy.

“I look at this as nothing more than…a solution looking for a problem,” Voss said. “It’s creating unnecessary and politically-driven policy that will ultimately prove to be a bureaucracy of duplication, wasted time [and] unlawful investigations that will ultimately violate personnel rules and employee protections creating litigation and lawsuits.”

Bianco echoed their sentiments, stating at the meeting that the department was the “most scrutinized government office in our county,” with oversight already being provided by the supervisors, the executive office, the district attorney, the California Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice among other local, state and federal entities.

“Let me be very clear that this is not about transparency, and it is not about deaths,” he told the board, accusing Medina of bringing partisan politics into the county. “This is purely about political control and influence.”

Despite the outcome, Nolasco said RSAC would continue to push for greater oversight, transparency and accountability of the sheriff’s department.

“System change work is very slow, but I think if I were to have a conversation with myself from 2020 when we started this work, just the fact that we even had this item on a formal agenda for discussion, I think, was a victory in and of itself,” he said. “Was it the result we wanted? No, but I don’t think it was a loss.”

The post Proposal To Create Ad Hoc Committee On Sheriff Oversight Fails appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The legislation would also require officers “to be identifiable via their uniform, whether with name or other identifier,” according to Democratic Sens. Scott Wiener of San Francisco and Jesse Arreguin of Berkeley, who introduced Senate Bill 627, also known as the “No Secret Police Act.”

The bill would prohibit local, state and federal law enforcement officers, or any person acting on behalf of a law enforcement agency from covering their faces. The measure includes exceptions for SWAT teams, medical-grade masks such as surgical or N95 masks, and masks designed to protect against smoke during a wildfire-related state of emergency.

Wiener said the legislation was prompted by the Trump administration’s recent immigration crackdown and reports of federal agents wearing masks and allegedly not identifying themselves during operations.

“People are afraid, families are being torn apart,” the senator said at a news conference in San Francisco on Monday. “And it’s important that anyone who is engaged in law enforcement activity whether state, county or whether its federal that there’s full transparency in terms of what happening.”

The lawmakers said they believed the measure would improve public trust in law enforcement.

“This law is rooted in two principles. One, to protect the safety of California’s communities. And two, to ensure that there is transparency and accountability for law enforcement,” Arreguin said.

In an interview with Margaret Brennan of “Face the Nation” on June 8, Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem has defended law enforcement covering their faces.

“It’s for the safety of those individuals or the work that they’re doing as far as protecting their identity so they can continue to do investigative work,” Noem said.

The post California “No Secret Police Act” introduced, would ban police from covering their faces appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The bill, AB 839, was initially introduced in February. Following its passage in the Assembly, the bill was transferred to the California Senate, where it is currently under review by the Committee on Environmental Quality and the Committee on Judiciary. 

If signed into law, the legislation would provide for expedited California Environmental Quality Act review for up to three SAF projects that do not use fossil fuels in the production process and meet specified environmental and labor requirements. 

CEQA, signed into law in 1970, established statewide regulations for the environmental review of discretionary projects and a process for mitigating or avoiding potential environmental impacts. The review process aims to inform the public, local agencies and decision makers about the potential environmental impacts associated with certain planning approvals. 

Separate bills signed into law in 2021 and 2023 allow the California Governors Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation to certify eligible infrastructure projects to benefit from expedited judicial review of lawsuits challenging the projects under CEQA. According to the office, the certification can reduce lawsuit-related delays from 3-5 years to approximately 270 days. Certified projects may also have improved access to financing and be more competitive for federal funding. AB 839 would allow up to three SAF projects to qualify for this expedited judicial review as “infrastructure projects.” 

The bill defines SAF projects to include projects to manufacture, process, store, distribute or transport SAF or feedstock used for the production of SAF. If the project involves the conversion or replacement of an existing major source of air pollution, such as a refinery, the project must reduce emissions of air pollutants compared to the baseline environmental conditions in the vicinity of the project. Projects that do not involve the conversion or replacement of an existing major source of air pollution must not cause a significant effect on the environment attributable to any air pollutant. 

A full copy of the bill is available on the California State Assembly website.

The post California bill aims to expedite development of up to 3 SAF projects appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

In a 51 to 44 vote, the Senate overturned a Biden-era waiver that enabled California and a contingent of Democrat-led states to enforce zero-emission requirements for the sale of new passenger vehicles. After several hours of debate and testimony, legislators struck down a landmark regulation that aimed to drastically accelerate electric vehicle sales in California and nearly a dozen other states that chose to follow its lead, substantially reducing air pollution and planet-warming carbon emissions from tailpipes.

The Advanced Clean Cars II rule, enacted in 2022 by the California Air Resources Board and granted a federal waiver by the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency in December 2024, required car manufacturers to sell an increasing percentage of zero-emission or plug-in hybrid vehicles to California dealerships over the next decade. Starting next year, the rule would have mandated that 35% of all new vehicles supplied to California dealerships be zero-emission vehicles or plug-in hybrids. By 2035, it would’ve prohibited the sale of new, gas-only cars statewide.

By invalidating the rule, Republican senators stamped out one of California’s most ambitious environmental policies and, more broadly, challenged the state’s authority to enact vehicle standards to combat its notoriously unhealthy air quality. If the measure is signed into law by President Trump and survives impending legal challenges, the vote would serve as a coup de grace to the state’s decades-long efforts to comply with federal smog standards in Southern California and meet California’s own ambitious climate goals.

The zero-emission requirements were expected to eliminate nearly 70,000 tons of smog-forming emissions and 4,500 tons of soot statewide by 2040, preventing more than 1,200 premature deaths and providing $13 billion in public health benefits, according to the California Air Resources Board. It also was expected to prevent the release of 395 million metric tons of carbon emissions — roughly the amount released by 100 coal plants in a year.

Ahead of the vote, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) warned that nullifying this rule and stripping California’s regulatory power would have serious health effects across the state.

“We are sowing poison seeds for the future,” Schiff said. “Seeds that will grow to be more asthma and more sickness and more hospitalization and more death. That is the bleak but blatant reality of what we are debating here today.”

Republicans, however, argued that California’s zero-emission requirements threatened to cripple the American auto industry and significantly limit the options for car buyers. In the coming days, Republicans plan to undo additional California clean-air rules that require the state’s heavy-duty truck fleet to adopt cleaner engines and a growing percentage of zero-emission vehicles.

“Democrats have this delusional dream of eliminating gas-powered vehicles in America,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Tuesday from a lectern on the floor of the U.S. Capitol. “They want to force-feed electric vehicles to every man and woman who drives in this country. Well, Republicans are ready to use the Congressional Review Act to end this Democrat electric vehicle fantasy.”

Republicans moved ahead with the vote despite the warnings from the Government Accountability Office and the Senate Parliamentarian that the waivers could not be overturned with the Congressional Review Act — a law that was meant to allow legislators to inspect and potentially block federal rules adopted in the waning days of a previous presidential administration.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, said the vote was a flagrant abuse of the Congressional Review Act. He threatened to block or delay the confirmation process for four Trump nominees to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency if Senate Republicans voted to overturn California’s vehicle emission standards.

“It appears that Republicans want to overturn half a century of precedent in order to undermine California’s ability to protect the health of our residents by using the Congressional Review Act to revoke California’s waivers that allow us to set our own vehicle emission standards,” Padilla said. “Republicans seem to be putting the wealth of the big oil industry over the health of our constituents.”

Environmental advocates, many of whom had spent years supporting California’s emissions standards, expressed their disappointment in the vote.

“This is a major blow to the decades-long public health protections delivered under the Clean Air Act,” said Will Barrett, senior director of nationwide clean air advocacy for the American Lung Assn. “It is more important than ever that California and all other states that rely on Clean Air Act waivers continue to cut tailpipe pollution through homegrown, health-protective policies.”

Because of its historically poor air quality, California has been an innovator in clean car policy, enacting the nation’s first tailpipe emissions standards in 1966. California was later granted the special authority to adopt vehicle emission standards that are more strict than the federal government’s under the Clean Air Act. But the state must seek a federal waiver from the U.S. EPA for any specific rule to be enforceable.

In the five decades since then, the state has enacted dozens of rules to reduce air pollution and planet-warming greenhouse gases. Padilla stressed that these rules were largely meant to alleviate lung-aggravating smog, which was a persistent threat where he grew up in Los Angeles.

“On a pretty regular basis, we would be sent home from grade school because of the intensity and dangers of smog that settled over the San Fernando Valley,” Padilla said. “That’s the case for far too many Californians, still to this day. But it’s the reason why, decades ago, Congress recognized both California’s unique air quality challenges and its technical ingenuity, and granted California special authority to do something about it.”

Due to its enormous economy and population, automakers have conformed to California’s rules. In addition, many Democrat-led states have chosen to adhere to California’s auto emissions rules, applying more pressure on car companies first to make cleaner engines and later to manufacture more electric vehicles.

California leads the nation in zero-emission vehicle sales. In 2023 and 2024, about 25% of new cars sold in California were zero-emission or plug-in hybrids, according to the California Energy Commission. This year, the share of zero-emission vehicle sales has slightly slumped, making up only 23% of light-duty vehicle sales.

But the Advanced Clean Cars II rule would require a jump in zero-emission sales next year, with at least 35% of vehicles supplied to car dealer lots to be zero-emission or plug-in hybrids.

Mike Stanton, president of the National Automobile Dealers Assn., contended that consumer demand for electric vehicles falls far below California’s requirements, in part, because of unreliable charging infrastructure.

“Banning gas and hybrid cars is a national issue that should be decided by Congress, not an unelected state agency,” Stanton wrote in a letter to senators, referring to the California Air Resources Board.

In February, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin brought the Biden-era waivers to Congress, suggesting that they were federal rules that had not been reviewed. However, none of California’s waivers for the state’s vehicle emission standards had been brought before Congress for review, because they were largely regarded as administrative orders.

The House of Representatives voted this month to advance the resolution to the Senate. Thirty-five Democratic lawmakers, including California Reps. George Whitesides (D-Agua Dulce) and Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), joined with the Republican majority.

In the Senate, the 51-44 vote was split along party lines.

Experts say the Senate vote could have lasting implications for congressional procedures.

To topple California auto emission standards, Senate Republicans controversially invoked the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that allows an incoming Congress to rescind major federal rules approved near the end of a previous presidential administration. This process notably allows federal legislators to bypass a filibuster and requires only a simple majority to repeal federal rules rather than the typical 60 votes.

However, the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan government watchdog, said federal waivers for California emission standards were not subject to the Congressional Review Act, because the federal waiver is technically not a rule; it’s an order. The Senate Parliamentarian, a non-partisan advisor to the congressional body, upheld that interpretation, ruling that the Senate couldn’t use the Congressional Review Act to repeal California’s waivers.

The Senate vote proceeded in defiance of the parliamentarian’s ruling, marking a stunning rebuke of congressional norms.

The decision by Republican senators amounted to a “nuclear option” that would set a dangerous precedent, Padilla said.

“The old adage says, ‘What goes around comes around,’” he said. “It won’t be long before Democrats are once again in the driver’s seat, in the majority once again. And when that happens, all bets would be off.”

The post Senate votes to overturn California’s landmark ban on new gas-only car sales appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

A Life Shaped by Integrity and Responsibility

Chad Bianco’s story starts far from the chaos of Sacramento. Born in 1967 at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah, Bianco grew up the eldest of three boys in a small mining town. Raised by hardworking parents, he learned early on that integrity, perseverance, and personal responsibility weren’t just words—they were ways of life. In today’s California, where politicians too often say one thing and do another, Bianco’s belief that “respect is earned through actions, character, and commitment to service” couldn’t be more refreshing.

A Sheriff Who Rose Through the Ranks

Bianco made his way to California in 1989, seeking the kind of opportunity and community he wanted for his future family. He worked his way up from the bottom, graduating at the top of his class at the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Academy in 1993. Shortly after, he began his more than 31-year career with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department—protecting the very communities we call home.

In 2018, we put our trust in Bianco as Sheriff at a time when the department was facing serious challenges: budget shortfalls, deputies leaving in droves, and strained relations with local police. Instead of making excuses or blaming others, Bianco rolled up his sleeves and delivered. He stabilized the department’s finances, rebuilt morale, and forged new partnerships with other law enforcement agencies. When our county faced the double punch of civil unrest and a global pandemic, Bianco led from the front, earning the respect of deputies and the community alike. It’s no wonder Riverside County voters re-elected him in 2022.

Standing Up for Freedom During COVID-19

One of the moments that truly defined Sheriff Bianco’s leadership was his stance during the COVID-19 pandemic. While other parts of California buckled under Sacramento’s heavy-handed mandates, Bianco stood firm in defense of individual liberty and local control. He made it clear that his department would not become the “mask police” or enforce orders that infringed on personal freedoms. Instead, Bianco respected the right of business owners to make their own decisions and the responsibility of individuals to assess risk for themselves and their families.

This approach wasn’t about ignoring public health—it was about trusting people over government mandates and preserving the freedoms that make America unique. Bianco’s refusal to enforce ever-changing restrictions won him both praise and criticism, but he never wavered. That’s real leadership. For many in Riverside County and across California, Bianco was a rare voice of reason and common sense during a time of chaos and government overreach.

Championing Real Reform for California

Sheriff Bianco isn’t just managing problems—he’s a leader willing to stand up to Sacramento’s failed policies. Day in and day out, he’s seen the impact of soft-on-crime laws and political games that leave families less safe. That’s why Bianco became a leading advocate for reform, most recently with Proposition 36, which passed by a landslide in November 2024. Thanks to Bianco’s tireless efforts, commonsense is finally being restored to California’s criminal sentencing laws.

Grounded in Faith, Family, and Community

But for those of us in Riverside County, what truly sets Chad Bianco apart is his commitment to faith and family. He and his wife Denise have built their life right here in the Woodcrest area, raising children, doting on grandchildren, and staying active with Sandals Church. Bianco isn’t interested in Sacramento power plays—he’s interested in service, putting others above self, and keeping California a place where our families can thrive.

The Leadership California Needs

At a time when our state is at a crossroads, Chad Bianco offers a clear, conservative alternative to business as usual. He understands what it means to earn respect, not demand it. He’s proven that principled leadership can turn around even the toughest situations. For voters in Hemet, San Jacinto, and beyond, Bianco isn’t just another politician—he’s one of us, fighting for our future.

The post Chad Bianco: Proven Leadership Rooted in Family, and Service appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Every year, Sacramento and city halls across California find new ways to squeeze more money out of taxpayers. Property taxes creep up, sales taxes increase, and new local levies are dreamed up—often in the name of “equity” initiatives or DEI programs that rarely deliver real value for the vast majority of working Californians. While bureaucrats expand their pet projects, middle-class families are left footing the bill.

Now, with budget negotiations heating up in Washington, there is a renewed push by some California lawmakers to raise the SALT deduction cap, so wealthy taxpayers can write off even more of their ever-increasing local tax bills. This isn’t a solution; it’s a band-aid that hides the root problem—our state’s addiction to overspending and ever-bigger government.

Let’s be clear: increasing the SALT cap is a handout to local politicians who refuse to say “no” to new spending. It allows them to keep raising taxes and expanding programs, knowing that federal taxpayers in other states will absorb part of the pain. That is not fiscal responsibility. That is not fairness. And it’s not how America should work.

If we want real change, it’s up to Californians to push back. We must demand that our elected officials get serious about cutting wasteful spending and focus on core services like public safety, infrastructure, and education. We need to stop rewarding politicians who promise everything to everyone, then send us the bill. And if they won’t listen, it’s time to vote them out and elect leaders who understand that government should live within its means—just like the rest of us do.

The answer isn’t to shift the burden to taxpayers in Texas, Florida, or Ohio. The answer is to fix what’s broken in our own backyard. Congress must pass a budget bill without SALT increases, and Californians must demand real fiscal responsibility from our local and state leaders. Enough is enough.

The post Congress Must Pass a Budget Bill—Without SALT Increases. Californians Need to Demand Fiscal Responsibility at Home appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said at a news conference Tuesday that the agency would take steps to eliminate the synthetic dyes by the end of 2026, largely by relying on voluntary efforts from the food industry. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who joined the gathering, said he had heard from food manufacturers, but had no formal agreements with them.

“We don’t have an agreement, we have an understanding,” Kennedy said.

The officials said the FDA would establish a standard and timeline for industry to switch to natural alternatives, revoke authorization for dyes not in production within coming weeks and take action to remove remaining dyes on the market.

“Today, the FDA is asking food companies to substitute petrochemical dyes with natural ingredients for American children as they already do in Europe and Canada,” Makary said.

The proposed move is aimed at boosting children’s health, he added.

“For the last 50 years we have been running one of the largest uncontrolled scientific experiments in the world on our nation’s children without their consent,” he said.

The process to revoke approved additives from the food supply typically takes several years and requires public comment, agency review and final rulemaking procedures.

Industry groups said that the chemicals are safe and suggested they would try to negotiate with regulators to keep them available.

“FDA and regulatory bodies around the world have deemed our products and ingredients safe, and we look forward to working with the Trump Administration and Congress on this issue,” said Christopher Gindlesperger, spokesman for the National Confectioners Association. “We are in firm agreement that science-based evaluation of food additives will help eliminate consumer confusion and rebuild trust in our national food safety system.”

Health advocates have long called for the removal of artificial dyes from foods, citing mixed studies indicating they can cause neurobehavioral problems, including hyperactivity and attention issues, in some children. The FDA has maintained that the approved dyes are safe and that “the totality of scientific evidence shows that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives.”

The FDA currently allows 36 food color additives, including eight synthetic dyes. In January, the agency announced that the dye known as Red 3 — used in candies, cakes and some medications — would be banned in food by 2027 because it caused cancer in laboratory rats.

Artificial dyes are used widely in U.S. foods. In Canada and in Europe — where synthetic colors are required to carry warning labels — manufacturers mostly use natural substitutes. Several states, including California and West Virginia, have passed laws restricting the use of artificial colors in foods.

The announcement drew praise from advocates who say the dyes carry health risks and serve no purpose beyond the cosmetic.

“Their only purpose is to make food companies money,” said Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a former FDA official. “Food dyes help make ultraprocessed foods more attractive, especially to children, often by masking the absence of a colorful ingredient, like fruit.”

Removing artificial dyes from foods has long been a goal of so-called MAHA moms, key supporters of Kennedy and his “Make America Healthy Again” initiatives. They were among protesters who signed petitions and rallied outside the Michigan headquarters of WK Kellogg Co. last year, demanding that the company remove artificial dyes from its breakfast cereals in the U.S.

Health officials insisted that foodmakers wanted clarity on the issue and were receptive to the changes, but the response from industry groups was mixed.

Consumer Brands Association, a trade group for food manufacturers, said it had long asked FDA to assert its authority to regulate foods at a national level, rather than leaving it to a patchwork of state laws. But, in a statement, the group also urged FDA officials to “prioritize research that is objective, peer-reviewed and relevant to human health and safety.”

It added that the ingredients in question have been rigorously studied and demonstrated to be safe.

Hours before the announcement, the International Dairy Foods Association said its members would voluntarily eliminate artificial colors in milk, cheese and yogurt products sold to U.S. school meal programs by July 2026.

Other industry groups didn’t pledge any quick changes.

The International Association of Color Manufacturers said requiring reformulation in less than two years “ignores scientific evidence and underestimates the complexity of food production. This process is neither simple nor immediate, and the resulting supply disruptions will limit access to familiar, affordable grocery items.”

Removing dyes from the food supply will not address the chief health problems that plague Americans, said Susan Mayne, a Yale University chronic disease expert and former director of the FDA’s food center.

“With every one of their announcements, they’re focusing in on something that’s not going to accomplish what they say it is,” Mayne said of Kennedy’s initiatives. “Most of these food dyes have been in our food supply for 100 years. … So why aren’t they driving toward reductions in things that do drive chronic disease rates?”

In the past, FDA officials said the threat of legal action from the food industry required the government to have significant scientific evidence before banning additives. Red 3 was banned from cosmetics more than three decades before it was stripped from food and medicine. It took five decades for the FDA to ban brominated vegetable oil because of health concerns.

Some of the state laws banning synthetic dyes in school meals have aggressive timelines. West Virginia’s ban, for example, prohibits red, yellow, blue and green artificial dyes in school meals starting Aug. 1. A broader ban will extend the restrictions to all foods sold in the state on Jan. 1, 2028.

Many U.S. food companies are already reformulating their foods, according to Sensient Colors, one of the world’s largest producers of food dyes and flavorings. In place of synthetic dyes, foodmakers can use natural hues made from beets, algae and crushed insects and pigments from purple sweet potatoes, radishes and red cabbage.

The post US health officials seek to phase out artificial dyes from the food supply appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.