Jesus Reyes
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. (KESQ) – No injuries were reported after a rollover crash Friday morning on Interstate 10 near Date Palm.
The crash was first reported just after 2:05 p.m.
The vehicle ended up off the roadway.
According to CHP Officer David Torres, it’s believed that the driver lost control and ended up going to the right shoulder.
Torres confirmed there were no injuries reported.
Ryan Shiner
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A popular chain restaurant is looking to build another location in Columbia.
Culver’s filed for a permit with the city on Feb. 17 to build a location on Pebbles Parkway, a new street being added for the Grindstone Commercial Plat being built on Grindstone Parkway and State Farm Parkway.
The building is valued at $2.7 million and a review is scheduled for March 3.
Culver’s currently has two locations in the city, with one being on Bernadette Drive and the other being on Broadway Bluffs Drive near Trimble Road. It also has a location on Jefferson Street in Jefferson City.
GRINDSTONE_COMMERCIAL_PLAT1A_ADMINISTRATIVE_30OCTOBER2025_PZC22_2026_20251208Download
Ryan Shiner
Editor’s note: A reference to a second case has been removed from this piece.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Columbia man was charged with several felonies after authorities claim he asked police to return electronic devices that contained child pornography.
Marcus Bremer, 45, is charged with five counts of child porn possession. He is being held at the Boone County Jail without bond.
The probable cause statement says Bremer was at University Hospital’s Psychiatric Center on Aug. 12, 2024, for a 96-hour hold and someone found child porn on hard drives he brought to the center. The devices were then given to law enforcement.
Bremer allegedly called law enforcement multiple times from Aug. 14-24, 2024, to ask for the devices back, the statement says.
Police noted in the probable cause statement there were hundreds of images of child porn on multiple devices.
Jesus Reyes
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) – Riverside County supervisors next week are slated to review proposed terms of a loan expansion for bankrupt Palo Verde Hospital, following the Executive Office’s decision to make a $3.4 million payment to sustain the facility.
Earlier this week, a “strike team” previously authorized by the board and composed of medical professionals from the Riverside University Health System initiated a reformation intended to stabilize the Blythe hospital’s emergency clinic.
The team’s deployment was appended to a $1 million stabilization loan for the hospital. However, on Tuesday, county Chief Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen signed off on a $3.44 million payment to the California Department of Health Services. That disbursal was made without a formal vote by the Board of Supervisors because the panel was not in session. Executive Office spokeswoman Brooke Federico said the payment covered a Palo Verde Healthcare District obligation to the state’s Voluntary Rate Range Program, or VRRP.
The “intergovernmental transfer” payment has enabled the Palo Verde Healthcare District to tap into taxpayer-backed credit to bolster hospital operations.
“As a result of the county’s action, the … district has already received approximately $8.9 million in program funds, with the remaining expected in the coming days,” Federico said, adding that because of Medi-Cal requirements, “immediate action was required” and could not wait on the Board of Supervisors to convene.
The board on Tuesday will scrutinize the revised proposed loan agreement with the district, under which it would be on the hook for the county’s $3.44 million outlay, on top of the $1 million previously authorized for the insolvent hospital.
Along with funding arrangements, the supervisors have been requested to fill two vacancies on the Palo Verde District Board of Directors. The vacant seats have hamstrung the district’s ability to convene a quorum to vote on pending actions, according to PVHD President Carmela Garnica.
“In the interest of restoring a fully functioning five-member board, I respectfully request that the county … complete the appointment process for the two vacant seats,” she said in a letter to Supervisor Manuel Perez, whose Fourth District encompasses Blythe. “This approach offers the most practical path forward under the current constraints.”
Under a proposed management services agreement also on the agenda, RUHS staff can implement all necessary processes connected to the county’s 180-day strike team support plan, with the long-term goal of maintaining emergency operations at the cash-strapped hospital.
“We aren’t just here to manage a transition; we are here to support the incredible frontline staff and ensure that every resident has access to the high-quality, stable care they deserve,” RUHS CEO Jennifer Cruikshank said last week.
In January, Palo Verde Healthcare District Clerk Joanna Gonzalez acknowledged the county’s $1 million loan “does not solve every challenge the district faces, but it provides us breathing room to work on long-term solutions.”
Without emergency services at the Blythe facility, the area’s roughly 20,000 residents would lose access to “timely treatment for life-threatening conditions where minutes matter,” according to a county statement in January. Outside of the hospital, the nearest option for emergency healthcare is more than 70 miles away.
The monetary agreement specifies the county will have “first priority” status among the healthcare district’s creditors and will under no circumstances be liable for any of its debts. The loan structure calls for a roughly nine-month grace period, during which no payments on the loan are required. However, starting in October, initial payment on loan principal will be necessary. A 3% annual interest rate will be assessed beginning January 2027, and the $1 million will have to be fully amortized by October 2031.
The Blythe City Council also approved a $330,000 bridge loan to help sustain emergency room operations.
At the end of September, the PVHD board voted to seek federal Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection while efforts were made to stanch ongoing financial losses.
Administrators noted the hospital had been struggling to remain afloat since the start of the current decade, with revenue streams withering while patient loads remained unchanged.
The California Health Facilities Financing Authority extended an $8.5 million infusion from the Distressed Hospital Program in 2023, but that turned into a short-term fix, according to the district. Administrators expressed frustration at the time about the inability to recruit a chief financial officer who would stay the course in sorting out possible solutions. Four CFOs came and went in an 18-month span.
Only the emergency room remains open. All other hospital operations have been shut down.
The county’s original loan will pay for staff salaries and benefits, pharmaceuticals, equipment purchases, utilities, billing operations and some legal expenses associated with Chapter 9 proceedings.
The possibility of a wholesale county takeover of the hospital’s emergency department has not been ruled out publicly.
Alissa Orozco
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – In a News Channel Political Talk-Back, former state senator Hannah-Beth Jackson and former Santa Barbara City councilman Dale Francisco discuss the touchy topics making recent headlines. Both Jackson and Francisco cover both sides of the political spectrum – but what do you think?
Leave your comments, thoughts, questions below!
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Doug Long
DUBOIS, Idaho (KIFI) – A 31-year-old Clark County man is in custody after investigators with the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Unit (ICAC) found him in possession of child pornography.
Austin McKelsen was arrested Wednesday, February 25th, and charged with five counts of possession of child sexual exploitation material and five counts of distribution of child sexual exploitation material. The ICAC was assisted by eight other law enforcement agencies in Southeast Idaho, including Homeland Security Investigators.
“Every arrest we make is a step toward protecting Idaho children from exploitation,” said Attorney General Labrador. “I’m grateful for the hard work of our ICAC investigators and the partnerships we’ve built with law enforcement agencies across the state to protect children.”
Anyone with information regarding the exploitation of children is encouraged to contact local police, the Attorney General’s ICAC Unit at 208-947-8700, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.
The Attorney General’s ICAC Unit works with the Idaho ICAC Task Force, a coalition of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, to investigate and prosecute individuals who use the internet to criminally exploit children.
Parents, educators, and law enforcement officials can find more information and helpful resources at the ICAC website, ICACIdaho.org.
Barney Lerten
SISTERS, Ore. (KTVZ) — The challenging off-and-on season is back on again at Hoodoo Ski and Recreation Area, which reopened on Friday, a few days after heavy rainstorms caused flooding that forced its closure.
“Fortunately, the waters have largely receded and things have firmed back up, so we are able to bring you some fun once again,” the resort said in Friday’s mountain conditions report.
The snow base remains low, at 25 inches, but the resort called it a “perfect spring day. … With light winds, mostly sunny skies and a high near 46 degrees, it doesn’t get much better.”
Early-season conditions are still in place, so visitors were urged to “please keep an eye out for marked, unmarked and hidden hazards, right with caution and, as always, scout before you send it.”
Hoodoo had reopened on Thursday, Feb. 19 after a mid-winter shutdown caused by days of warm, dry weather.
Ryan Shiner
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Lincoln University sprinter accused of killing her boyfriend earlier this pleaded not guilty in court on Friday.
Denita Jackson, 27, is charged in Cole County with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. She pleaded not guilty during her arraignment on Friday. She is being held at the Cole County Jail without bond and a review hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday.
Jackson was accused of stabbing and killing her boyfriend, men’s track team member Kevaughn Goldson during a struggle on Monday that allegedly started when she found him with another woman.
ICE issued an immigration hold on Jackson on Thursday, according to Cole County Sheriff John Wheeler.
LU’s track team has a meet this weekend in Indianapolis. Someone from the school told ABC 17 News on Thursday that the teams still planned to attend.
Ryan Shiner
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A 40-year-old man who was shot by Jefferson City police officers on Thursday has been charged with five felonies.
Joey Hampton, of Jefferson City, was charged on Friday with two counts of first-degree assault, shooting at a vehicle, armed criminal action and illegal gun possession. He was not listed on the Cole County Jail’s online roster on Friday.
The probable cause statement filed by the Missouri State Highway Patrol says officers were trying to contact Hampton “in relation to reports that had received that Hampton was involved in the sale and use of illegal drugs, was in possession of a stolen firearm, and had brandished a firearm and/or threatened person(s) with a firearm.”
Officers saw him riding an electric scooter and he ran away to the 800 block of Broadway Street, the statement says.
Court documents allege Hampton fired shots at the officers and struck the patrol vehicle and that officers returned fire.
MSHP’s division of drug and crime control is investigating the shooting, according to previous reporting. No officers were injured during the exchange, police said in a Thursday evening release.
The names of the officers involved in the shooting have not been released.
Check back for updates.
Jesus Reyes
LA QUINTA, Calif. (KESQ) – A hiker was rescued today from the Cove Trail in La Quinta after suffering unspecified minor injuries.
The rescue was reported at 10:33 a.m. Friday, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.
The injured hiker and was taken to a hospital by ground ambulance, fire officials said.
No further information was immediately available.
