Local news

Ontario Christian High School recently became the first in the Inland Empire to start a partnership with the global humanitarian organization World Vision that involves a pen pal exchange with students in Kenya.

In a first exchange of letters, 15-year-old sophomore Courtenay Evans received a photo and a note from an 11-year-old girl. This girl from Kalapa, Kenya, will be her digital pen pal for the next year.

“So she said that she wanted to be a doctor, that her favorite color was green, then she drew a picture of her house,” said Evans.

U.S. Representative Raul Ruiz of Coachella introduced a bill November 18 to increase federal investments in the Salton Sea, a region that continues to grapple with an ongoing public health crisis.

In a press release, the office of Rep. Ruiz said the federal government is one of the largest landowners in the area. This is one of the reasons why the bill aims to hold the federal government accountable to its commitment to restore the lake.

The Riverside City Council voted unanimously to adopt unique new guidelines to minimize the impact of bringing warehouses into the community on November 10. 

Revisions to the 2008 Good Neighbor Guidelines and city zoning codes were five years in the making, but now the city has the strictest requirements for new warehouse developments in the region.

The news of two promising COVID-19 vaccines, had both the Riverside and San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors discussing preliminary plans for distribution at their meetings Tuesday.

San Bernardino County Director of Public Health Corwin Porter says it is not yet clear how many doses the state is set to receive, but the latest vaccine news provides some mid-term hope.

“So that is good news for us because that is one way that we can help combat obviously the virus which has taken a major toll on our county,” said Porter.

It has been an active start to the week for San Bernardino County fault lines. The region was hit with two 3.5 magnitude earthquakes within a 10-hour period according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

On Tuesday morning one quake was centered in the Mojave Desert, 40 miles east of Barstow, and on Monday evening another was recorded 60 miles to the southwest near Morongo Valley. It was felt in Big Bear Lake and Palm Springs.

These are some of the largest seismic events since a 3.9 earthquake was recorded near the Salton Sea in late October.

Ontario International Airport continues to show signs of a steady recovery since hitting a pandemic low in April.

The airport’s October numbers showed a sixth straight month of increased passenger traffic, but total traveler volume is still 56 percent lower than in 2019. This steady recovery puts the airport in the lead among California airports. A full recovery is not expected to happen for another year or more.

As election results continue to trickle in across California and the nation, KVCR’s Megan Jamerson spoke to U.C. Riverside Political Science Professor Francisco Pedraza about some of the big questions post-election. They discussed record voter turnout during the pandemic, what is at stake for American democracy, and how the professionals got the polls wrong once again.

For the 49th year in a row, the Riverside University Health System received a grant from the state to expand access to primary care. 

The grant totaling $625,000 will allow for an increase in the number of medical residents they train for the primary care field. The program has hosted over 300 students during the nearly 50 years it has received this grant.

In a press release, the Family Medicine Resident Program Director Parastou Farhadian said the grant is important as they continue to expand medical access to the region’s most vulnerable community members.

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, Riverside County officials are eyeing a December end to current federal coronavirus funding, which is partly used for testing and tracing. 

Riverside County Executive Officer George Johnson told the board of supervisors at their meeting on November 10, that he is planning for the worst-case scenario of no extended federal stimulus money in 2021 due to gridlock in Washington.

“We do need state and federal assistance to keep paying for these testing and tracing functions," said Johnson. "We can’t do it alone.”

With the presidential election still undecided, a peaceful demonstration in support of protecting uncounted ballots was held in front of the downtown Riverside courthouse Wednesday afternoon.

Around 100 people wearing masks peacefully gathered for the rally. Organizer Matt Abularach-Macias, said he feels California and the Inland Empire had a successful free and fair election with very few issues, but it is the rest of the country that he is worried about.

Election Day is tomorrow, and one of the names many Inland Empire voters will see on their ballot is Agnes Gibboney. Gibboney, a retired education assistant for special education children, is running to represent California's 31st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican. KVCR asked Gibboney about the local and state reaction to the coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter and policing, wildfire season and climate change, and more.

San Bernardino County Department of Public Health kicked off a week of Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention on Monday.

The message they want families and community members to hear is that even small amounts of lead can harm a child’s health. Lead poisoning can have serious effects on the brain and nervous system says County Supervising Public Health Nurse Sara Hernandez-Singh.

The Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California broke ground on its new home in downtown Riverside on October 22. It received over $3.5 million in funding from the state of California in June.

Over 150 people gathered at a dirt lot on the corner of Mission Inn Avenue and Fairmount Boulevard to celebrate the ground breaking of Mission Heritage Plaza. It will be the new home of the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California and the Fair Housing Council of Riverside County.

KVCR recently put out a survey to our listeners asking them what’s on their minds as Election Day approaches. KVCR’s Megan Jamerson compiled the results and spoke with Benjamin Purper about them in this interview.

California’s annual earthquake drill is happening Thursday October 15. This year during distanced learning, teachers and students are being asked to participate virtually. 

San Bernardino City Unified School District Emergency Manager, Eric Vetere, says normally the annual Great ShakeOut earthquake drill is done in-person and involves the evacuation of entire school campuses into field areas.

U.C. Riverside’s School of Business gave an optimistic outlook for the Inland Empire’s economic recovery from the pandemic-related recession during its annual conference on October 13. In many sectors, the region fairs better than the state despite a slowed recovery of jobs lost due to the shutdown. 

Dr. Christopher Thornberg, director of U.C.R.’s Center for Economic Forecasting, says record home sales and increased consumer spending in recent months shows that people are learning to live as normally as possible with COVID-19.

Both the Riverside and San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters say the U.S. Postal Service received mail-in ballots ready to send to voters on Monday, October 5.

Voters can sign up with the Secretary of State’s “Where’s My Ballot” tracking system to see when their ballots are mailed, received, and counted.

Riverside County received a warning from the state Tuesday that it is in danger of slipping back into the first phase or purple tier of the re-opening plan. This could cause some recently reopened businesses to close once again. 

On September 22, Riverside County’s COVID-19 numbers were improving and so the county advanced into the state’s second or red tier re-opening phase, allowing some businesses like gyms, restaurants and salons to partially resume indoor services.

September 25 is California’s Native American Day and to celebrate, Riverside National Cemetery is breaking ground on the nation’s first major memorial to honor Indigenous veterans at a national cemetery.

California has a resolution to encourage voter registration in high schools. But just last week the city of San Bernardino’s School Board became the first in the Inland Empire to make it a requirement with just over a month to go before the November election. KVCR's Megan Jamerson has the story.

The Riverside Police Department is warning the community about a mail fraud scheme involving letters from the Employment Development Department or E.D.D. which handles unemployment insurance. 

Officer Ryan Railsback spokesperson for the Riverside P.D. says over the last few weeks they have seen an increase in calls about the fraudulent letters, sometimes dozens sent to the same address.

“I saw another call today where somebody was calling in saying that they had at least thirty pieces of mail in different people’s names that got sent to them somehow,” said Railsback.

The presidential, and other elections, are just under six weeks away. But making sure non-English speakers and young voters have the information they need to participate in the election is a concern, according to a new study from U.C. Riverside. 

As part of KVCR’s series for Suicide Prevention Month called “Wellness for Times of Uncertainty,” we are talking about grief and loss during the coronavirus pandemic.

For most of us when we think of grief, bereavement or the traditional grief that involves mourning the death of a loved one comes to mind. But we actually grieve every kind of loss.

Dr. Veronica Kelley, Director of San Bernardino County’s Department of Behavioral Health says grief is defined as deep sorrow, trouble or annoyance and:

“Today our grief is hitting us on multiple levels,” said Kelley.

Local literary nonprofit the Inlandia Institute and the Riverside Art Museum have teamed up for Suicide Prevention Month, presenting an online juried exhibition around suicide prevention in September. 

Cati Porter is the executive director of the Inlandia Institute. She says the project originated with the Riverside Art Museum, where some artists wanted to find a way to commemorate Suicide Prevention Month.

Windy conditions, low humidity and dry brush accelerated the El Dorado Fire in the San Bernardino Mountains Wednesday night. KVCR’s Megan Jamerson reports as of Thursday morning the blaze had burned 12,610 acres and is 23 percent contained.

San Bernardino County Fire officials say four homes have been lost but hundreds more were saved Wednesday evening by firefighting crews. More than 21,000 people have been evacuated so far.

Through COVID-19 contact tracing, Riverside County is now reaching close to 100 percent of infected people and San Bernardino County is reaching nearly 70 percent.  KVCR’s Megan Jamerson reports tracing plus testing is key to getting the counties moved to the next tier on the state’s re-opening scheme.

Lana Culp, spokesperson for San Bernardino County Public Health, says tracing has shown that a lot of transmission is happening through gatherings between family and friends. Which she says is hard to avoid in a time when seeing those people brings comfort.

Santa Ana winds caused the El Dorado Fire to flare up Tuesday evening to 11,479 acres, prompting new evacuation warnings. But KVCR’s Megan Jamerson reports crews were able to hold the perimeter overnight and increase containment to 19 percent.

Nearly 1,000 personnel are battling the El Dorado fire flames on Wednesday along with over 100 engines, six helicopters, and four fixed-wing airplanes.