Author: KESQ

Kendall Flynn

PALM DESERT, Calif. (KESQ) – The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens is announcing the opening of a brand new greenhouse – something they hope will improve climate resilience and community access to nature across the Coachella Valley.

Officials with the zoo aid Southern California as regional leaders growing native California plants for outplanting in urban areas. This new greenhouse will aid in this effort by helping grow plants to make native habitat for the benefit of people and the wildlife.

The Living Desert’s team, says having the greenhouse will allow them to restore degraded natural areas by outplanting more native and drastically increasing the number of seeds available to restore those areas.

Stay with News Channel 3 to hear from officials on the importance of the greenhouse and how impactful it will be on the Coachella Valley.

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Jesus Reyes

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. (KESQ) – 911 phone lines are down in Cathedral City, police announced Wednesday morning.

The Cathedral City Police Department received a notification at around 7 a.m. that its 911 system was down and callers may receive a busy signal, authorities said.

“We are working with our service provider to restore it, though the exact timeline is currently unknown,” CCPD wrote in a news release.

If you have an emergency, you are asked to text 911 or call CCPD’s business line at 760-770-0303 and a dispatcher will immediately assist you.

CCPD will update the community when the system is back up.

It’s the second 911 outage this week in the Coachella Valley. On Monday, Indio’s 911 system went down for several hours before being resolved due to a Frontier outage. That outage also impacted phone lines at city facilities in Palm Springs. Phone lines were back up by Tuesday morning.

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Athena Jreij

INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) — The nonprofit, Coachella Animal Network, is hosting a low-cost dog and cat clinic June 11 – 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The two day clinic will offer low-cost spay and neuter surgeries Wednesday by appointment only, as well as microchips and vaccines on Thursday for walk-ins.

For Kim Hardee, CAN’s founder, she says the affordable care is needed now more than ever, especially as surgery costs range from $300 to $2,500 for some animals. CAN is offering spay and neuter surgeries for just $30.

“Well it’s keeping animals out of the shelter. Spay and neuter is really the only answer,” Sam Rhodes with Travel Paws said.

It comes as the county is facing an overcrowding and euthanasia crisis. Currently, almost 1,200 animals sit in Riverside shelters.

Officials say they’re at 200% capacity and have long said affordable pet care plus more adopters and fosters will aid in the crisis.

Nonprofits at the clinic say they’re also catching up on thousands of animals who weren’t fixed during the pandemic.

News Channel 3 took those concerns to officials like Supervisor V. Manuel Perez to see if this action is too little, too late.

“It’s never too late to improve those conditions. Change is already here. It’s going to continue. We just approved to allocate another $5 million that was necessary, through our budget process for our shelters that we have within the county of Riverside,” Supervisor Perez said.

News Channel 3 checked how those conditions are improving and found some progress.

Last month, we found 821 animals were taken into shelters and 152 were euthanized between May 20th and 27th.

Within the past week, RCDAS says 790 animals were taken in and 137 were euthanized. The over-capacity also decreased from 220% to 200%.

It’s progress officials say can only continue if the community steps up.

“We really need to get them adopted fosters to care for the animals, while they’re trying to be adopted.”

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Jesus Reyes

Editor’s Note: The wrong address for the Arabian Gardens Mobile Home Park was listed in the original version of the article. The correct address is on Clinton Street and Fred Waring Drive.

INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) – Police recovered several illegal firearms during a search warrant service at a mobile home park in Indio Wednesday morning.

The investigation started at around 5 a.m. at the Arabian Gardens Mobile Home Park

“Early this morning, the Desert Regional SWAT Team and the Coachella Valley Narcotics Task Force, served a search warrant in the Arabian Gardens Mobile Home Park as part of an ongoing investigation,” reads a news release by the Indio Police Department. During the operation, several illegal firearms were recovered. This action is part of our continued efforts to enhance public safety and reduce the presence of illegal weapons in our community.”

There was no word on whether any arrests were made.

Stay with News Channel 3 for any updates.

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City News Service

RIVERSIDE, Calif.(KESQ) – The Board of Supervisors approved Riverside County Fire Department Chief Bill Weiser’s request to draft a revised ordinance delineating which communities should be designated fire risk zones, encompassing large swaths of the county, where households are already feeling the impacts from escalating property insurance costs.

Changes to Ordinance No. 787 will reflect updates to the Fire Hazard Severity Zone Maps published in March by the Office of the State Fire Marshal, which is part of Cal Fire, the agency under contract with the county for fire protection services going back nearly a century.

The updated maps depict locations that rate “moderate,” “high” and “very high” under criteria established by Cal Fire.

The practice of classifying localities by zone began in the early 1990s, and since then, the Legislature has modified how classifications occur, focusing on “local responsibility areas,” in addition to “state responsibility areas.”   

After the maps are ironed out, they’re submitted to local jurisdictions — counties and cities — for consideration and approval after public hearings.

“The dramatic increase in areas designated as high fire risk, specifically within the city limits, has been exponential,” Lake Elsinore Mayor Bob Magee said in a statement released Friday. “The insurance industry has responded, raising rates and cancelling homeowners’ insurance policies left and right.”  

Magee has been one of the most outspoken critics of the latest zone changes, complaining that the Office of the State Fire Marshal did not accommodate the city’s and others’ attempts to contribute to the rating process.

Magee said that as a member of the State Board of Fire Services, he and the lobbying organization the League of California Cities tried to arrange for an agendized hearing involving Cal Fire administrators.

“The Zoom link on the agenda was missing one digit, preventing remote participation from those wishing to comment,” the mayor said.   

Magee expressed bewilderment over the updated maps and how they were arranged, pointing out that “a significant portion of our lake — underwater — has been designated as a High Fire Risk.”

Comments from Cal Fire were requested several times, but as of Tuesday afternoon, the agency had not responded after acknowledging receipt of questions.

“Once again, the elites in Sacramento stiff-armed the ability for local officials with intimate knowledge of their communities to have a voice,” Magee said. “As a result, hundreds of taxpaying homeowners now face the very real possibility of being unable to obtain homeowners insurance to protect their largest investment.”   

Along with Lake Elsinore, other cities and unincorporated communities countywide now have high or very high Fire Hazard Severity Zone risk designations.

The thousands of homes ringing the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park in Riverside, as well as properties within a large slice of the city’s western border with Norco, fall into red-lined tiers.

The same applies to parts of Banning, Canyon Lake, Calimesa, French Valley, Mead Valley, Meadowbrook, Menifee, Moreno Valley and Temescal Valley. Segments of the Coachella Valley generally rank at the moderate level.   

Movable maps can be viewed at osfm.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/community- wildfire-preparedness-and-mitigation/fire-hazard-severity-zones.   

Representatives in other cities were asked to comment on the changes but did not immediately respond.

Although the California Department of Insurance placed a moratorium on policy cancellations in January, the requirement only covers areas impacted by the major wildfires in Los Angeles County that resulted in thousands of damaged or destroyed properties amid the Santa Ana windstorm at the start of the year.  

“Fire Hazard Severity Zones are designated based on the likelihood of fire occurring and its expected behavior over a 30- to 50-year period,” according to a county fire statement posted to the board’s agenda Tuesday. “These zones are determined using factors such as fuel loading, terrain, fire weather conditions, historical fire activity and wind patterns.”   

The revised county ordinance will include mandates regarding “defensible space” around properties, land use planning, building code standards and full disclosures when real estate is sold, according to fire officials.

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Julia Castro

INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) — A man was killed late Tuesday night after being struck by a car on State Route 86, just south of Interstate 10, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The crash happened around 10:56 p.m. The California Highway Patrol says a white Nissan Altima was traveling southbound on SR-86 near Dillon Road when a pedestrian attempted to cross the highway from the east to the west shoulder.

The driver, a man from Mexicali, Mexico, tried to avoid the collision but was unable to stop in time. The pedestrian died at the scene. His identity has not been released.

CHP says alcohol and drugs do not appear to be factors.

SR-86 was closed for approximately three hours while the investigation was underway. Traffic was detoured through Dillon Road to eastbound I-10 before returning to the highway.

The investigation is ongoing.

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Shay Lawson

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. (KESQ)  – The recent immigration raids in Cathedral City are leaving behind more than fear — some workers said it’s hitting the local economy hard.

Alexander Rosas, landscape worker, who posted about the issue on social media, said when he was driving around the Coachella Valley he didn’t see a single landscaper or gardener.

“We thought it was weird because right now it’s Palm season. It’s a very busy time for gardeners and landscapers,” Rosas said.

He said workers in agriculture, landscaping and pest control are skipping shifts, amid mounting fears of immigration enforcement.

“My cousin works in agriculture,” Rosas said. “She was telling me that a lot of her workers are not showing up as well, because a lot of people are just scared.”

Multiple landscaping supply companies in the region also told News Channel 3 that they are seeing a noticeable drop in foot traffic and order volume.

While none would speak on camera, each confirmed that business has slowed significantly since the ICE raid last week.

“We were going to get supplies and usually when you pull up to anywhere that has supplies for gardeners and everything, it would be packed,” Rosas said. “These places were empty.”

The owner of Lead Pest Control, who asked to remain anonymous, said he’s worried about the future of his business.

“I am truly scared of what’s going to happen, what the country has in store for us in the next year,” the owner said.

Stay with News Channel 3 at 10 and 11 p.m. for the full report.

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Jesus Reyes

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KESQ) – Governor Gavin Newsom addressed Californians from Los Angeles. You can watch the address below:

Newsom said President Donald Trump “chose theatrics over public safety” in deploying the National Guard to respond to protests in Los Angeles.

He criticized the Trump administration for carrying out mass deportations.

When immigration raids took place in Los Angeles, “everyday Angelenos came out to exercise their constitutional right to free speech and assembly, to protest their government’s action,” Newsom said.

Instead of targeting undocumented immigrants and criminals, the Trump administration is focusing on mass deportations, according to Newsom.

The Trump administration is “indiscriminately targeting hardworking immigrant families regardless of their roots or risk,” Newsom said Tuesday.

Newsom’s address comes a few hours after a federal judge denied a request by the state of California for an emergency order blocking the deployment of additional federalized National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to the Los Angeles area.

The ruling came hours after California filed an emergency motion against the Trump administration asking the court to take immediate action to block President Donald Trump and the U.S. Department of Defense from expanding the current mission of National Guard personnel and Marines in Los Angeles.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer scheduled a hearing for Thursday afternoon in San Francisco federal court on the state’s request for a restraining order.

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Athena Jreij

PALM DESERT, Calif. (KESQ) — As President Trump orders over 4,000 troops to Los Angeles, the reaction among former Marines in the desert is mixed.

That number also includes 700 Marines from 29 Palms.

The protests, which have now entered their fifth day, have gone from peaceful to chaotic at times, with scenes of burning cars and some protesters looting buildings.

“You have to be on the side of public safety and law and order, and that’s what it’s going to take, law and order. We have to squash this riot,” Former Marine and La Quinta Councilman Steve Sanchez said.

For Jonathan Rich, a Palm Desert veteran, Trump’s deployment strikes a different chord.

“It’s difficult for somebody like me because the military means a lot to me. To be put in the position where what you’ve learned and trained for is to carry a weapon, but you’re not supposed to carry that weapon against civilians,” Rich said.

Rich says he fears a military presence will only escalate tensions.

“Neither the mayor nor the governor authorized or asked for these people, and by putting them there, he’s putting them and civilians in harm’s way.”

Sanchez disagrees with that.

“The rioters escalated it. The looters escalated it. The burning of buildings, police vehicles, attacking law enforcement. They’re the ones that escalated it.”

There’s also been questions if military personnel are properly trained to handle civilian protests.

Rich denies it, but Sanchez says his experience in the Marines did include riot training.

“We’re trained obviously in combat, but we’re also trained in riots. Because when we go overseas, often we have to take part in riot control or the, possibility of riots happening.”

One thing they can agree on is that demonstrations should continue peacefully.

“What we’re seeing is people taking advantage of peaceful protesters, taking the opportunity to do violence,” Sanchez said.

“Do not confront the National Guard or the Marines. Don’t confront them. Go somewhere else. Do it peacefully,” Rich said.

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Garrett Hottle

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KESQ) Assemblyman Jeff Gonzalez is calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to immediately withdraw a proposal that would slash $700 million from California’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), program a move Gonzalez says would devastate seniors, people with disabilities, and rural families across the state.

“IHSS is not a luxury…it is a lifeline,” said Gonzalez, speaking Tuesday at a press conference on the Capitol steps in Sacramento. “Cutting this support puts real people at risk, especially families in rural areas and families raising those with disabilities.”

Gonzalez, whose son has cerebral palsy, was joined by fellow lawmakers, caregivers, and advocates who said the proposed cap on caregiver overtime and travel would force some families into crisis.

“These cuts would force families to make impossible choices: between work and care, between safety and survival,” Gonzalez said. “Governor Newsom must find a way to balance the budget without cutting critical care away from the people who need it the most. It is absolutely unacceptable.”

The IHSS program supports in-home care for low-income seniors and people with disabilities, allowing them to live independently rather than in institutions. Advocates warn the proposed cuts would not only strain families, but also threaten caregiver jobs and lead to increased costs elsewhere in the healthcare system.

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