Month: May 2025

Allie Anthony

DESERT HOT SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the Palm Springs Unified School District (PSUSD) is taking steps to support families and reduce the stigma around mental health.

This Saturday, May 17th, Desert Springs Middle School will host a Mental Health Awareness Conference. The event, held in partnership with Riverside University Health System, aims to support parents and caregivers and provide them with tools to support their children’s mental well-being.

Attendees can take part in six interactive workshops covering key topics such as anxiety, eating disorders, substance use, and building stronger parent-child relationships.

PSUSD offers a multi-tiered support system for students, including on-campus counselors, social workers, and licensed therapists. For those requiring more intensive help, additional services are available.

The upcoming workshops are open to the entire community. Interested participants can register through the PSUSD website. Mental Health Awareness Month is more than a reminder—it’s a call to act.

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Gavin Nguyen

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – The stock market surged and locals are reacting following the latest news on reciprocal tariffs between the United States and China.

In a joint statement with China, the White House announced on Monday the 90-day roll back of tariffs between the two countries.

The change will take effect on Wednesday, May 14th. Tariffs on Chinese goods will be reduced from 145% to 30%, while China’s levies on American goods drop from 125% to 10%.

“100% hurting our bottom line,” says Judy Valdez, the manager of AJ Market in Palm Springs.

The Filipino grocery store, which sells a wide variety of imported Asian goods, has had to raise prices on some items as imports have become more expensive. A bottle of fish sauce, which used to sell for seven dollars, is now being sold for $12.99. It’s just one example Valdez provided of the increased prices.

“It’s absolutely terrifying because about 90% of our products are imported,” she explains. “[The customers] have seen the prices already increase and they are a bit scared. A lot of people have changed their buying patterns where they’re holding back on stuff they spend.”

In contrast, other Palm Springs businesses, like Repair Lab, are seeing minimal impacts. Mark Vanderpol, the owner of the repair shop, says he typically avoids ordering parts from China in the first place. The parts he does source from Chinese companies, though, have been harder to come by.

“There are like websites like Alibaba, AliExpress that we’ve noticed that it like they have actually completely just cut off from even like selling things right now,” says Vanderpol.

Vanderpol says batteries and screens are the only two types of parts he sources from Chinese companies. Even then, the increases have been, by and large, marginal.

“I haven’t seen a big increase in anything else. Batteries have gone up a few bucks. That’s about it.”

With the uncertain nature of tariffs and price increases, Vanderpol says he has steered clear of raising prices at his business. “We’ve chosen not to really talk about or implement it in our business just yet because we don’t want to scare people off or make intimidations, you know, of things getting more expensive unless they really are going to get more expensive.”

At AJ Market, Valdez says that uncertainty is the big worry moving forward, especially as the summer months slow business further. “Everything feels on and off, so everyone’s still unsure. So it’s really nice that it’s paused, but like, I’m pretty sure people are still going to hold the buying patterns as well, because of how summer is going to be. Obviously, the electricity bill is going to go up and all that stuff, so people are still holding on to their money.”

Be sure to stay with KESQ for the latest on these tariffs.

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Tori King

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – The Palm Springs Police Department just launched the largest radar-enabled drone responder program in the U.S., covering 37 square miles without the need for human spotters.

“We’re really excited as department to get this off the ground,” said Lieutenant William Hutchinson with the PSPD. “This asset matters not only to the officers in the field, but the public at large who really depend on emergency services to be there quickly.”

MatrixSpace is the sensor company behind the technology, and says the system speeds up emergency response times.

“We’re going to be able to take our response times from three to five minutes on average, and get get people on scene and assets on scene in under a minute,” explained Hutchinson. The drones will be used to improve public safety, and can be utilized on several types of emergency calls, including stolen vehicles, police pursuits, a missing hiker, a kidnapping, an active shooter, and more. The drones will keep officers safe, and prevent unnecessary injuries and deaths in dangerous situations.

MatrixSpace tells News Channel 3 the new tech will also improve safety for drone flights around airports and hospitals, especially when flying near medical helicopters.

“We want to geo-fence some areas so we don’t crash into buildings, or we don’t crash into power lines and things like that,” said Hutchinson. “And we have areas like the airport here. It’s outlined in red. So that means if our drone tries to go there, the system is going to stop it. It won’t even allow our pilots to go there.”

In addition to that, the company claims the sensors will allow the drone to conduct operations at night and during bad weather.

“We have thermal capabilities on our drones,” said Hutchinson. “Thermal capabilities means I can see heat at night. I cannot see into your home. I cannot use it as x-ray vision to see through objects. But if you’re running from the police and you try to hide under a bush, your body is going to emit heat, and we’re going to be able to see that. If you commit a crime and try to run, we will find you, and we will catch you.

MatrixSpace’s Chief Revenue Officer Lori DeMatteis says this radar technology is changing public safety in Palm Springs, and can inspire other cities to follow Palm Springs’ lead. And Hutchinson says transparency and honor are most important with programs like this. He explained that keeping the public’s trust is of the utmost priority when it comes to using drones.

“Not only are laws in place, but we have good policy in place to make sure that these drones are being used for the right purposes,” said Hutchinson. “First and foremost, we’re not going to conduct random surveillance. We’re not going to be flying over your house, looking into your pool and seeing you sunbathing in the backyard. We are going to be responding directly to calls for service.”

Hutchinson also says the public will be able to use a live dashboard to see where and when police drones have been used.

“We’re looking at these again, very responsibly, and we are putting good policy, good audit trails in place,” said Hutchinson. “We’re going to provide all of the flights that we conduct on a dashboard that are going to be available to the public. We do that now, but we’re now going to increase the type of transparency that we have. So if there is a question, you’ll see the flight path, where the drone went to, what it was there flying for. If you have a question about a drone over your house, or if you want to know if it was us, you can reach out to us. We’ll look at our logs, if it wasn’t already provided to you on our dashboard, and be able to confirm if that was our drone or not. And so I think that’s really, really important that we have that type of technology and that type of transparency for this program.”

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Luis Avila

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (KESQ) – A nursing shortage impacting the Coachella Valley. Hundreds of nursing positions are open right now as the need for care expands with a growing community.

According to a recent report, about 10% of nursing positions across the Valley are unfilled. That’s about 280.

Doctors say the shortage is driven by factors including:

Retirements outpacing new entrants to the field

Increased demand for health care from aging and chronic disease populations

Lingering impacts of the pandemic

But Eisenhower Health is getting ahead of the shortages by investing in resources for nurses. Their latest effort, a new statue to recognize the extraordinary contributions of staff.

“This statue and this event today is meant to honor individual nurses who go above and beyond and share compassionate and very skillful care with our patients.”

Martin Massiello, Eisenhower Health President and CEO

“That’s part of this wellness garden and why Eisenhower wanted to create this special tribute to the nurses so when it’s a rough day, we can put resources around the nurses and they can just come and have a moment.”

Sara Kollman, Eisenhower Health Senior Director of Professional Development

Stay with News Channel 3 for more.

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City News Service

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – The City of Palm Springs announced today a limited-time promotion called “Love Local Palm Springs” to encourage spending at participating local businesses during Greater Palm Springs Restaurant Week.   

The citywide promotion lets customers buy a $100 digital gift card and receive a $50 bonus card while supplies last, city officials said. The bonus card must be purchased on or after May 19 and used by June 8.

Both cards can be redeemed at participating restaurants and businesses.   

“We are thrilled to host the Love Local Palm Springs Restaurant Week promotion with our partner the Visit Greater Palm Springs CVB,” Palm Springs Mayor Ron deHarte said in a statement. “This year, we’re making Greater Palm Springs Restaurant Week even more enticing for residents and visitors to explore the vibrant and diverse culinary scene in Palm Springs while also supporting local businesses.”  

Details and gift card purchases are available at LoveLocalPS.com.

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