Month: May 2025

Cynthia White

WASHINGTON, D.C. (KESQ) – Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-41) is cosponsoring a bill to allow Canadian citizens who own or lease a residence in the U.S. to extend their stay from 182 days to 240 days per year.

Calvert joined together with Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL-15), Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ-4), and other House members to cosponsor the Canadian Snowbird Visa Act, H.R. 3070. Rep Calvert is an original cosponsor of the bipartisan bill. “The Canadian Snowbird Visa Act will provide an important boost to the economic engine of the Coachella Valley, which is fueled by visitors from Canada and all over the world,” said Rep. Calvert. “I’ve joined together with my colleagues on a bipartisan basis to introduce this bill to give those who own or lease homes a longer window to enjoy their time in our country. This new policy will ultimately create jobs and expand economic growth in the Coachella Valley.” “I’m proud to cosponsor the Canadian Snowbird Visa Act because it’s a win for America’s economy. Canadian residents contribute billions of dollars each year to our small businesses, real estate markets, and local economies. . . By extending the time Canadian visitors who own or lease homes can spend here, we’re supporting job growth, strengthening our bond with our closest neighbors, and helping local communities thrive,” said Congresswoman Laurel Lee.

News Channel 3’s Karen Devine recently reported on the economic impacts of Canadian visitors in the Coachella Valley. According to a study conducted by Visit Greater Palm Springs, more than 300,000 visitors from Canada spent $236 million in 2017. In a 2021 study conducted by the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, they found seven percent of Coachella Valley properties are owned by Canadians, making them the largest source of non-U.S. owners in the region.

Click here to follow the original article.

Cynthia White

MURRIETA, Calif. (KESQ) – Investigators are looking into how an inmate at the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta died in custody on Thursday.

In a statement from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, deputies report that they found 53-year-old Michael Allen Weaver of Lake Elsinore unresponsive inside a housing unit cell. Life saving measures were performed by custody staff and jail medical personnel until medics arrived, but Weaver was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene.

The Riverside Sheriff’s Office Corrections Central Investigations Unit is handling the investigation. They say there were no signs of foul play, and the investigation is ongoing.

Click here to follow the original article.

Shay Lawson

COACHELLA, Calif. (KESQ)  – The TODEC Legal Center on Thursday opened the first-ever Farmworker Justice Center in the Coachella Valley.

Officials said it’s offering legal aid, digital access, unemployment support and more to farmworkers and their families.

Luz Gallegos, Executive Director, said the center, located at 1560 Sixth St. in Coachella, aims to address decades of systemic neglect by providing wraparound services.

“Not only dealing with their rights, as in labor and immigration, but also their health and well-being,” Gallegos said. “We want to make sure that we’re also going to be hosting citizenship classes, English classes and computer literacy classes.”

Services are already being offered in the building, which will continue to extend as expansion moves forward in the coming months.

In the meantime, TODEC is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., now offering these free services and an emergency hotline for urgent needs.

Click here to follow the original article.

City News Service

BANNING, Calif. (KESQ) – An 82-year-old man accused of bludgeoning a senior who had invited him to stay at her and her husband’s Palm Springs home may have attacked her during an argument over something as incidental as a television program, fatally beating her with a barstool, a prosecutor said today.  

Stephen Roy McKernan allegedly killed 75-year-old Claire Carsman in 2019.  

During his closing statement Thursday, Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Steven Sorensen acknowledged, “We don’t know why Mr. McKernan did it.”

But the prosecutor said testimony in the two-week trial had revealed there were political differences between the defendant and victim — she a Democrat, he a Republican.

“She was watching one of her TV shows, and they bickered,” Sorensen said. “He had a sadistic reason.”  

McKernan is charged with first-degree murder and sentence-enhancing allegations of using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony, inflicting great bodily injury and being in possession of a firearm during a felony.   

The prosecution rested Tuesday, and McKernan’s attorney called witnesses Wednesday before concluding his case at the Banning Justice Center.   

Due to the length of the prosecution’s closing argument Thursday, the defense did not get a chance to make a final argument, prompting Superior Court Judge Samuel Diaz to direct jurors to return to the courthouse for the defense’s presentation Friday morning.

McKernan is being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility.   

According to testimony, the defendant had known Carsman and her husband, whose identity was not disclosed, for years, and the couple invited him to stay with them in April 2019.

In the early afternoon of April 22, the victim’s spouse headed to an area casino to gamble, as was his habit, leaving his wife and McKernan alone at the single-story residence at 360 W. Pico Road, near Zanjero Road.   

Sorensen said nothing was amiss until 5:53 p.m., when the man received a rapid succession of four calls from McKernan in under 10 minutes, all of which he missed.

One of the voicemail messages was replayed for the jury, during which McKernan was heard saying, “It’s a nightmare you’ve never been in your life. I need you to stay away so you’re not in any danger. We got attacked. We need your attorney. Jesus Christ.”

McKernan then called 911, telling the dispatcher, “We had a break-in. I think someone is dead.”   Carsman’s husband and the police arrived to find a grisly scene.   

“She was bludgeoned,” Sorensen said, adding that blood spatter covering the defendant’s clothes indicated he “had to hold the barstool facing Mrs. Carsman.”

McKernan was taken into custody without incident.   

He has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

Click here to follow the original article.

City News Service

LOS ANGELES (KESQ) – The Trump administration today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a lower court’s order preserving Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants, including a Culver City woman, who contend they are unable to safely return to Venezuela.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attempted to end the protections just days after taking office in January. However, a federal district court put her decision on hold pending a final resolution in the case, finding that the secretary’s decision appeared to be motivated by racial bias toward Venezuelans and violated the law governing TPS.   

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the government’s stay request last month. If the Supreme Court grants a stay, Venezuelans who first registered for TPS in 2023 would immediately lose the interim protection provided by the district court’s order and face the prospect of deportation to Venezuela while the case proceeds.   

“The district court’s detailed, well-reasoned order allows the Venezuelan community to continue living and working in this country while the case moves forward,” said Ahilan Arulanantham of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law. “We hope the Supreme Court will see the government’s request for what it is: an attempt to seize power that neither Congress nor the Constitution allows it to exercise.”   

The lawsuit in which the National TPS Alliance and seven Venezuelans accuse Noem of illegally revoking an 18-month extension of TPS for Venezuelans that was granted by the Biden administration was filed in February in San Francisco.

After U.S. District Judge Ed Chen’s ruling in the Northern District of California blocked the government’s attempt to strip Venezuelan migrants of their lawful immigration status, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin blasted the decision.

“This is yet another example of an activist judge trying to obstruct President Trump’s agenda,” McLaughlin said in a statement sent to City News Service last month. “This unelected judge didn’t get the memo that on Nov. 5, the American people voted for reinstituting integrity in our immigration enforcement and mass deportations of illegal aliens.  

“Secretary Noem will continue fighting to return integrity to the TPS system, which has been abused and exploited by illegal aliens for decades. We will return TPS to its original status: temporary,” the statementcontinued.

Click here to follow the original article.