Speaking during the opening of budget hearings Monday at the County Administrative Center in Riverside, Bianco said the department requested roughly $250 million beyond what was included in the proposed spending plan. According to the sheriff, about $138 million of that amount is needed simply to maintain current staffing levels.

    “This is a massive number that we cannot recover from,” Bianco told supervisors. “The proposed budget for us is absolutely disastrous.”

    The sheriff said failing to secure the requested funding could force the department to eliminate as many as 622 patrol deputy positions. If cuts were focused on administrative and support staff instead, the total number of positions affected could climb to around 1,000.

    Bianco said any reductions of that scale would likely need to be phased in over several years to avoid severe impacts on public safety. He warned that unincorporated communities could feel the effects first as resources are shifted to maintain law enforcement services for the 17 cities that contract with the county.

    The budget shortfall would also affect major projects, according to the sheriff. Bianco said it would leave little chance of fully opening the Benoit Detention Center in Indio, moving forward with upgrades at the Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center or building a new hangar for the department’s aviation unit at March Air Reserve Base.

    Supervisor Jose Medina acknowledged the financial pressures facing the county and said all departments would need to share in the burden of spending reductions.

    “The pain needs to be distributed across the county departments,” Medina said. “As important as public safety is, it cannot be helped not to feel some of the pain.”

    Supervisor Chuck Washington also pointed to previous budget compromises while discussing the sheriff’s concerns. During a brief exchange, Bianco said he had previously refrained from publicly discussing jail funding issues because he was encouraged to avoid the topic during earlier budget hearings.

    District Attorney Mike Hestrin also appeared before the board, requesting an additional $14 million above the amount recommended by the county Executive Office. Hestrin said the funding would help maintain current staffing levels and cover labor-related costs.

    The district attorney noted that retirements and recruiting efforts by neighboring counties have reduced staffing levels in Riverside County. He said his office currently employs 228 prosecutors and continues to face growing workloads tied to state mandates.

    Part of Hestrin’s proposal includes creating a specialized cryptocurrency and cybercrimes unit. He said financial fraud schemes are becoming increasingly sophisticated and often target senior citizens, making quicker investigative responses necessary.

    Riverside County Fire Chief Robert Fish submitted the smallest request among public safety agencies, seeking an additional $900,000 to expand the county’s nurse navigation program. The initiative allows trained nurses to assist some callers over the phone, reducing unnecessary emergency responses.

    According to Fish, the program has successfully resolved about 3,000 medical calls since its launch in October, helping keep fire personnel available for more serious emergencies.

    County Chief Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen said the county faces a projected $66 million structural deficit heading into the next fiscal year, even before considering the additional public safety requests.

    Van Wagenen recommended continuing a targeted hiring freeze and relying on reserve funds while county leaders work to address long-term financial challenges.

    “Growth is flattening,” Van Wagenen said. “We have to prioritize.”

    The proposed county budget totals approximately $10.34 billion, representing an increase of about 3.5% over the current fiscal year. County officials project reserve balances will reach roughly $650 million by the end of the year.

    Supervisors are expected to continue budget discussions this week, with tentative approval of the spending plan scheduled for June 23.

    Source: City News Service

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“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.

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Audrey Carroll, 30, and Zachary Page, 32, entered their pleas in federal court Monday. Tina Lai, 41, entered her plea in court a few days earlier. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

The fourth person, Dante Anthony-Gaffield, 24, will enter his plea Jan. 20.

The suspects, all from the Los Angeles area, were arrested Dec. 12 in the Mojave Desert east of Los Angeles as they were rehearsing their plot, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said last month. Officials said they made the arrests before the suspects assembled a functional explosive device.

Essayli said Carroll created a detailed plan to bomb five or more business locations owned by two companies across Southern California on New Year’s Eve described as “Amazon-type” logistical centers. He did not identify the alleged targets.

A grand jury indicted the four on multiple counts of providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists and possession of unregistered firearms. Carroll and Page were also indicted on one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Officials said they are members of an offshoot of an anti-capitalist and anti-government group dubbed the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The group calls for decolonization, tribal sovereignty and “the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism,” according to the criminal complaint.

They also are members of what one of the defendants characterized as a “radical” faction of the group that communicated using a chat called “Order of the Black Lotus,” according to the indictment.

The term “Turtle Island” is used by some Indigenous peoples to describe North America in a way that reflects its existence outside of the colonial boundaries put in place by the U.S. and Canada. It comes from Indigenous creation stories where the continent was formed on the back of a giant turtle.

Two of the group’s members also had discussed plans for future attacks targeting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles with pipe bombs, according to the criminal complaint.

Photos included in the court documents show the desert campsite where they were arrested with what investigators said were bomb-making materials strewn across plastic folding tables.

Trial for Carroll, Page, and Lai is scheduled to begin Feb. 17. Anthony-Gaffield’s trial will be scheduled once he enters his plea.

If convicted, Carroll and Page could face a maximum sentence of life in federal prison, and Anthony-Gaffield and Lai could face a maximum sentence of 25 years in federal prison.

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The state will notify everyone who needs to obtain a new REAL ID in January. All fees will be waived, and you may not even need to visit a DMV facility to make the change, the statement assures.

Steve Gordon, CA’s DMV Director, released a statement on the software issue, saying:

“We proactively reviewed our records, identified a legacy system issue from 2006, and are notifying impacted customers with clear guidance on how to maintain a valid California-issued credential,” Gordon stated. “For nearly 99% of REAL ID holders, no action is required. The DMV remains committed to serving all Californians and ensuring REAL ID credentials meet federal standards.”

Only a fraction of California drivers will be notified, approximately 1%, they said. “Approximately 99% of the REAL ID Holders in California do not need to take any action.”

The REAL ID has been required for anyone who wishes to fly in the United States or enter federal buildings, courthouses, and secure areas, including military bases.

The California DMV states it is fully compliant with federal REAL ID requirements and is taking steps to maintain compliance. “This was a limited technical issue involving the expiration date formatting in legacy software,” they said. This issue is unrelated to voting or voter registration, according to the department. It is also unrelated to ineligible people receiving REAL IDs.

“People without legal presence are not eligible for a REAL ID and were not issued one,” the department states. “This has no impact on non-REAL ID licenses.”

How will you be contacted?

The DMV will notify all 325,000 individuals of the actions they must take in the coming weeks to take immediate steps to ensure compliance with federal requirements. The IDs will be expedited, according to the DMV.

“The DMV will not call, text, or email you asking for your personal information or payment to address this issue,” they said. “If you need to verify DMV action, please call 1-800-777-0133.”

Those affected can handle the change online, they said.

“The DMV encourages customers to use its online services and other service channels for tasks such as eligible driver’s license and vehicle registration renewals. Customers can also use the Service Advisor on the DMV website to learn about options to complete DMV tasks,” the news release states.

To sign up for paperless vehicle registration and driver’s license renewal notices, sign in or create a secure online account at dmv.ca.gov to opt in.

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Misty Britan was arrested at the scene of Monday’s crash in Moreno Valley, according to Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Marcos Acosta. She was being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center and was due in court at the Riverside Hall of Justice on Friday to answer a charge of vehicular manslaughter.

Just after 6:15 p.m. Monday, a major two-car collision occurred at the intersection of Alessandro Boulevard and Frederick Street. “Both drivers, sole occupants, were trapped inside their vehicles,” Acosta said.

Yoseph Asfaw, 37, of Moreno Valley, was pronounced deceased at the hospital, his identity was released after notification of next of kin.

This is an ongoing investigation, and no further details are available at this time, police said.

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to call Deputy Jonathan Glass of the Moreno Valley Sheriff’s Station at 951-486-6700 or the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office at 951-776-1099.

The post Southwest RivCo Woman Arrested In Fatal Crash appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Brooklyn Spencer has not been seen since 10:40 p.m. on Wednesday, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Her last known location was at Fall Classic and Outfield, near Diamond Drive, according to the CHP, which issued the alert on behalf of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Spencer is Black, 5 foot, 7 inches tall and 200 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes, and was last seen wearing a black-and-brown strapless dress.

Authorities believe she may be traveling on foot.

Anyone with additional information on her whereabouts was asked to call 911.

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Now signed into law and taking effect Jan. 1, it takes aim at an issue that is much less prevalent on the streets of California. It says cities cannot punish outreach workers for helping homeless clients, even if those clients are sleeping in an illegal encampment. 

More precisely, the law says cities cannot bar people or organizations from providing homeless residents with legal services, medical care or things needed for survival, such as food, water, blankets, pillows and materials to protect themselves from the elements. 

“The legislation provides commonsense protections for service providers, especially non-profits and faith-based ones, who are doing the work every day to assist unhoused Californians,” Pérez said in an October statement. 

San Bernardino County, on the other hand, said the law will “override local authority and restrict enforcement tools that cities and counties use to promote public safety.”

It’s not unheard of for aid workers to find themselves caught in the crosshairs of a city’s crackdown on homeless encampments. The Bay Area city of Fremont earlier this year briefly made “aiding, abetting or concealing” an illegal homeless encampment a misdemeanor. Its city council later walked back that language — after CalMatters first reported it — but it made a lasting impression on state legislators. 

The legislation follows a statewide push toward the increased policing of homeless Californians. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court gave cities more power to cite and arrest people for sleeping outside, even if they have no shelter available. Since then, arrests and citations for homelessness-related offenses have soared in cities across the state.

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Mitchell Akira Takata, 23, of Los Altos, had pleaded guilty to the crimes in October, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

In May 2024, Riverside police began investigating reports of sexual abuse involving a child who authorities described as “severely handicapped and non-verbal.”

The reporting party told police that during a therapy session, the girl had been sexually abused by Takata, who was her behavioral therapist. 

Officers arrived at the girl’s home where, following an investigation, Takata was taken into custody. He was held at the Robert Presley Detention Center on $1 million bail.

Takata had been working as a behavioral therapist for around three years at the time of his arrest and he primarily worked with disabled children, prosecutors said.

In June 2024, he was charged with the crimes and in October 2025, he pleaded guilty to one count of an attempt to commit rape and one count of lewd and lascivious acts of a child under 14 years of age.

On Dec. 15, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison. At the time, investigators were also searching for more possible victims.

Anyone with additional information on the case can call Detective Daniel Suarez at 951-353-7120 or email dsuarez@riversideca.gov.

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Investigators from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Central Homicide Unit arrested 51-year-old Anthony Miera for suspicion of murder in the shooting death of 21-year-old Raymond Cardenas on June 18, 2006, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Jarred Bishop.

Cardenas was found inside a home in the 1000 block of Citrus Street and pronounced dead at the scene, Bishop said.

“Although Miera was identified as a suspect, there was insufficient evidence to charge him during the initial investigation, and the case went cold,” Bishop said.

The sheriff’s Cold Case Unit reopened the case in August, he said. “After conducting additional investigation, the Cold Case Unit developed sufficient evidence to charge Miera.”

Miera was arrested without incident in Spring Valley Friday and booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, Bishop said.

The investigation is ongoing, he said. Anyone with information helpful to investigators was asked to call Lead Investigator Dan Brown of the Central Homicide Unit at 951-955-2777.

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The last time the parade got drenched was in 2006, when sheets of rain soaked the floats and marching bands making their way past poncho-wearing spectators on the five and a half mile route in Pasadena.

Prior to that, rain had not fallen on the parade since 1955 — and only eight other times since the floats, traditionally decorated with real flowers, began rolling in 1890, usually on New Year’s Day, except when Jan. 1 falls on a Sunday.

The New Year’s storm won’t pack anything close to the punch of the one that turned the region into a muddy mess last week, producing a small tornado in Boyle Heights and playing a role in the deaths of five people.

But it could put a damper on the Rose Parade, beginning with the spectators camping out along Colorado Boulevard on New Year’s Eve to secure a prime viewing spot.

Rain should start to fall that night, with as much as a tenth of an inch expected, along with another half an inch on New Year’s Day, said Rich Thompson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“People camping out New Year’s Eve for the parade will probably get a little bit wet,” he said. “During the parade itself, it should be raining, but nothing anywhere near what we just experienced — not even in the same ballpark.”

In the interim, things should stay dry, with Santa Ana conditions expected through Tuesday.

Officials with the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Assn. are trying to remain optimistic, saying they try to avoid “the word that begins with an R.”

“History shows us the sun tends to show up right on time,” said David Eads, the association’s chief executive. “But no matter the weather, we’re prepared. The Rose Parade will be magical, and the Rose Bowl game will be spectacular.”

If rain does come, the tops will go up on the convertibles that traverse the parade route, Eads said. On the upside, he added, rain is “actually really good for the flowers, which do better in cooler weather.”

This year’s parade theme is “The Magic in Teamwork,” and the grand marshal is basketball legend and entrepreneur Earvin “Magic” Johnson. In 2006, the parade’s theme was also magic-related.

With so much rain over the past two months, there should be no repeat of January’s devastating wildfires.

“Fire season is definitely done now,” said Thompson of the National Weather Service. “We’re good until late spring, early summer at this point.”

The Christmas holiday rain totals came on top of strong storms in November, making the start to Southern California’s rainy season — which began Oct. 1 — one of the wettest ever. By midday Friday, it already ranked among the seven wettest for the region — a major departure from last year’s dry weather.

Downtown Los Angeles has received 11.13 inches so far this rainy season. A normal amount by this point would be 3.28 inches, Thompson said.

Last week’s storm broke rainfall records for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in many places.

Some mountain areas received close to 18 inches of rain for the last five days, through Saturday morning. Downtown L.A. got 4.2 inches of rain. Porter Ranch got more than 9 inches and La Cañada Flintridge got more than 7 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

In Wrightwood, nestled in the San Gabriel Mountains, residents were digging out of rivers of mud and debris that washed through their homes.

In Los Angeles, police responded to more than 520 traffic accidents during the storm. Firefighters went to five river rescue incidents, and city crews fielded calls for about 750 “tree emergencies,” including downed trees and fallen branches.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared emergencies in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Shasta counties.

In Redding, a 74‑year‑old man died after driving his pickup truck into a flooded roadway. In Mendocino County, a woman was knocked off a rock by a large wave at a beach. And in San Diego, a man was fatally struck by a falling tree.

On Friday, authorities reported finding a deceased man in a partially submerged vehicle in the Lancaster area.

A fifth storm-related death took place in Fresno County, where the body of a 21-year-old was found in a vehicle, which was 12 feet underwater in a canal, according to ABC30 in Central California.

At Mammoth Mountain, two ski patrollers suffered significant injuries Friday morning when a slide hit as they performed “avalanche mitigation work.” One patroller sustained serious injuries and was transported out of the area for further care; the second patroller may have suffered broken bones.

On Saturday, during one of the busiest times of the year for local ski resorts, the mountain remained closed. It will reopen Sunday.

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