HEMET – As the new pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Hemet, the Rev. Earl Stewart will celebrate his first service Sunday, Dec. 22, at 10:30 a.m.Stewart’s name was submitted to the congregation by the pastor nominating committee after almost a yearlong search. A congregational meeting was held Nov. 24, at which time Stewart was voted in by...
RIVERSIDE (CNS) - A strong winter storm that arrived in the Inland Empire Christmas night generated rain and snowfall Thursday, forcing the closure of Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass and flooding other roads farther south, in Riverside County.The National Weather Service extended a winter storm warning to 6 a.m. Friday as inclement conditions persist throughout the region, disrupting...
WARNER SPRINGS (CNS) - A 60-year-old woman who was not wearing a seatbelt in the back of a car died Thursday in a solo-vehicle crash on a snowy roadway near Warner Springs, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.The rollover crash was reported around 6:50 a.m. at San Felipe and Montezuma Valley roads, about 5 miles southeast of Warner Springs,...
MURRIETA (CNS) - A 22-year-old man who allegedly robbed a Winchester hemp farm, holding employees at gunpoint while chopping down cannabis plants, pleaded not guilty Thursday to armed robbery and other charges.Hector Tinoco Ochoa, who is also charged with firearm assault and a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a gun in the commission of a felony, was arraigned before Riverside...
MURRIETA (CNS) - A man accused of fatally assaulting a 34-year-old acquaintance in Temecula was charged Thursday with murder.Andrew Christian Temple, 28, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of killing David Deschepper in the 41000 block of Moreno Road, just off of Old Town Front Street.Temple, who's being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center...
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — People along a swath of southern Asia gazed at the sky in marvel on Thursday at a "ring of fire" solar eclipse.
The so-called annular eclipse, in which a thin outer ring of the sun is still visible, could be seen along a path stretching from India and Pakistan to Thailand and Indonesia.
Authorities in Indonesia...
MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press
Pennsylvania's Roman Catholic dioceses have paid nearly $84 million to 564 victims of sexual abuse, a tally that's sure to grow substantially in the new year as compensation fund administrators work through a backlog of claims, according to an Associated Press review.
Seven of the state's eight dioceses launched victim compensation funds in the wake of a...
JOYCE M. ROSENBERG
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — A California law that makes it harder for companies to treat workers as independent contractors takes effect next week, forcing small businesses in and outside the state to rethink their staffing.
The law puts tough restrictions on who can be independent contractors or freelancers rather than employees. Supporters say it addresses...
DON THOMPSON
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO (AP) — An inmate in solitary confinement at a California jail was refusing to leave his cell. The jailers' usual response: Send an "extraction team" of corrections officers to burst into the cell and drag him out.
But not in Contra Costa County, one of three in the state using a kinder, gentler approach in response...
Associated Press
MUIR WOODS NATIONAL MONUMENT PARK, Calif. (AP) — A huge redwood tree fell and killed a man visiting Muir Woods National Monument Park in California on Christmas Eve, authorities said Thursday.
Subhradeep Dutta, 28, of Edina, Minnesota, died while walking on a marked dirt trail with two other people in the park north of San Francisco famous for its...