Month: November 2025

KESQ News Team

MECCA, Calif. (KESQ) – A new cell tower in the east valley will benefit low income communities with better cell coverage.

In January, a cell tower was approved in the community of Mecca, located on 66th Avenue.

New towers are put up in areas when there is a lack of coverage, or when there’s enough customers complaining about dropped calls.

Riverside County District 4 Principal Planner Jose Merlan says, “The benefits to the community for this cell tower is that now they’ll be able to not only get cell service outdoors, but they’ll be able to get it indoors, outside their house, and in open areas – areas such as open fields, high up in the mountains. So the range has now increased from a smaller range to a higher range.”

The new tower is installed and is almost fully operational.

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Cynthia White

BANNING, Calif. (KESQ) – The Morongo Band of Mission Indians gave away 15,000 turkeys this week to 122 non-profit organizations to provide holiday meals to families, seniors, and veterans in need for its 39th Annual Thanksgiving Outreach program.

Tribal members and volunteers gathered at the Morongo Community Center for two days starting on Monday to distribute the Thanksgiving turkeys to the organizations, including food pantries, churches, senior centers, schools and veteran groups from across Southern California.

“The roots of Morongo’s Thanksgiving Outreach program stretch back decades to a time when our tribe sought to help others even as we struggled in face of adversity,” said Morongo Tribal Chairman Charles Martin. “This year, we continue to honor our Tribe’s legacy of giving to others by providing tens of thousands of holiday meals to those who are struggling across the region.”

Numerous groups from across the Coachella Valley received turkeys from Morongo, including

Coachella Valley Rescue Mission in Indio

St. Elizabeth of Hungary Food Pantry in Desert Hot Springs

First Community Baptist Church in Desert Hot Springs

Family Services of the Desert – Food Now in Desert Hot Springs

Christ is Salvation Church in Thermal

Palm Springs Unified School District in Palm Springs

The Galilee Center in Mecca

The Palm Springs Unified School District’s Family and Community Engagement Department received 200 turkeys to help students and their families enjoy a meaningful holiday meal together while easing the burden for those experiencing food insecurity during the holiday season.

“On behalf of the Palm Springs Unified School District, we extend our heartfelt appreciation to the Morongo Band of Mission Indians for their incredible generosity,” said Jarvis Williams, the Palm Springs Family and Community Engagement Coordinator. “These are challenging times for many in our community, and these turkeys will make an amazing difference in helping our families and students celebrate Thanksgiving with true joy. Partnerships like this strengthen our district and the community, showing our students that they are truly valued and supported.”

“The contribution from Morongo will touch lives across the Coachella Valley, helping us provide nutritious holiday meals to families who need them most,” said Lupe Torres-Hilario, Director of Operations of the Galilee Center in Mecca. “Morongo’s partnership strengthens our mission to serve the most vulnerable in our community with compassion, dignity, and hope.”

Lupe Torres Hilario of the Galilee Center said they received 300 turkeys, adding, “So many families are going to be blessed out in the east Coachella Valley right now. We’re serving about 530 families, but for Christmas we are expecting over 800 families to come out and get their turkey box.”

Other organizations receiving turkeys were from Banning, Beaumont, Riverside, San Bernardino, Moreno Valley, Temecula, Redlands, Los Angeles, and other communities.

The turkeys donated this year will provide nearly 300,000 holiday meals. Morongo has contributed almost 230,000 turkeys over the years in its Annual Thanksgiving Outreach program, which have helped provide nearly 4.5 million holiday meals.

Participating groups submitted applications to the Tribe earlier this year. For organizations interested in receiving turkeys next Thanksgiving, applications are due in Spring 2026. Applications will be available at https://morongonation.org/thanksgiving-outreach.

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Kendall Flynn

PALM DESERT, Calif. (KESQ) – The In-Home Supportive Service program continues to see a growing need for caregiving services in Riverside County and the Coachella Valley. It’s a high demand local caregivers said they cannot keep up with.

There are over 55,000 caregivers with IHSS in Riverside County and over 61,000 clients. Caregivers usually have one to two patients, depending on the extent of the care, but that still leaves a large deficit in the number of providers to those in need.

IHSS hosted an appreciation luncheon Tuesday, recognizing the important work these caregivers are going in keeping people safe and healthy at home. While they appreciate the recognition, many caregivers share challenges they’ve faced that they believe need more attention.

Two of the challenges they’re facing are pending Medi-Cal cuts and low wages. Local caregivers said many of their clients rely on Medi-Cal to pay for the in-home caregiving program, and they worry the cuts will keep them from affording the program in the future.

“A couple of my clients felt like they were going to lose Medi-Cal, especially with this whole shutdown with government,” Elizabeth Herrera, a local caregiver, said. “It’s hard sometimes because you can’t, you know, take it personal, but you kind of do take it personal because you’re there for them.” 

Another problem they’re facing is low wages. The United Domestic Workers union, supporting IHSS Riverside County caregivers, said they are earning just over minimum wage. They said the wage has always been stagnant but they should be earning more for the extensive work they do.

Herrera said she’s seen it impact how many people enroll to work in the program as they believe it is not a “livable” wage.

“There’s a lot of people I’ve talked to, don’t want to do it because, ‘Oh, I have children, and how am I gonna feed my family?'”, She said. “But you have to think about the care for them.” 

Stay with News Channel 3 to hear how Riverside County and the United Domestic Workers are working to find a solution to the wage concerns.

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KESQ News Team

In continuing coverage, the death of former local Assemblymember Brian Nestande was back in the headlines on Tuesday.

News Channel 3 is confirming with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office that all fentanyl deaths are investigated as a homicide.

As we reported back in May 2024, an autopsy report confirms the former state assembly member died of an overdose of fentanyl and cocaine.

Nestande was found dead in his home in Palm Desert back in March 2024.

Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez found Nestande’s body after not hearing from him for several days.

News Channel 3’s Karen Devine reached out to Sheriff Chad Bianco and found there are no new updates to the case.

“From the very beginning, when we received toxicology results and learned this was a fentanyl death, we have considered it a homicide investigation,“ Bianco wrote. “We treat all fentanyl deaths as homicides.”

It’s also of note that after questions from multiple local news outlets today, Bianco began by saying, “He doesn’t understand why everyone is reaching out.”

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