Category: kesq-local-news

Peter Daut

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – The world is mourning country music icon and philanthropist Dolly Parton, who died Tuesday at the age of 80 after a brief battle with cancer.

Tributes are pouring in from around the world and here in the Coachella Valley, she’s also being remembered by those who knew and worked with her.

News Channel 3 anchor Peter Daut spoke in-depth today with Palm Springs icon and celebrity photographer Michael Childers, who captured one of the most memorable portraits of Dolly Parton, the iconic Parton on a haystack.

Childers said he sold more than two and a half million posters of the poster. And just in the six months, Dollywood Productions purchased all his photographs of her to use for future projects.

Childers worked with Parton several times over the past 30 years, and even co-chaired an event at his home to help provide free meals to people too sick to shop and cook for themselves.

He says she was an extremely funny and generous person.

When asked his favorite memory of the music icon, Childers answered, “She’d tell everyone ‘I can talk like a sailor, but I don’t like dirty words around me if you would please don’t use any curse words.’

“She was the real thing,” Childers added.

“She was so beloved by so many generations. Why do you think that is? What made Dolly Dolly?” Peter asked.

“Because she related to people and their problems and ordinary people, working people. Americana, she was total Americana. And I loved what she did with school libraries. Giving $15 million dollars worth of books to children. I don’t know if people know that, but that’s among her thousands of other charitable contributions,” Childers answered.

Check Out: Sue Cameron, Hollywood journalist and valley resident, shares her Dolly Parton story

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Jesus Reyes

COACHELLA, Calif. (KESQ) – The Coachella City Council passed an ordinance that would permanently ban on data centers in the city, with some exemptions.

The ordinance will go into effect 30 days after Wednesday’s vote. Coachella is now the first city in the Coachella Valley to enact a permanent prohibition, although officials in Indio, Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs have discussed similar action to temporarily block data center developments.

Check Out: Palm Springs City Council approves temporary data center moratorium

On Aug. 12, the council unanimously approved the first reading of Ordinance No. 1231, which defined a data center as a structure or site used to house computers or other equipment associated with the storage, processing or transmission of digital data.

However, “accessory server rooms, data processing equipment or information technology facilities” — an accessory space containing computer servers, data storage equipment, network switching equipment and telecommunications equipment — would be exempt.

The council cited concerns of strained electric infrastructure, water supply, noise and other environmental and land issues from data center involvement.

The item comes after months of public scrutiny from community members throughout the region in the wake of the council’s decision to approve an agreement with Stronghold Power Systems Inc. to develop a proposed large-scale data center earlier this year.

The project, dubbed the Coachella Valley Technology Campus, was to be built near the intersection of Fillmore Street and Avenue 52 on more than 240 acres of agricultural land and was expected to include at least three center buildings and related infrastructure before it was halted.

On June 4, council members voted to adopt a 45-day moratorium and its agreement with the project’s developer was canceled. Many people voiced their concerns to city leaders about the potential negative impacts of data centers, including water and energy use and alleged public health problems.

The city had a temporary moratorium in place until June 3, 2027.

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Garrett Hottle

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) A Riverside County judge has ordered the county and Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco to preserve records from the November 2024 general election and the November 2025 Proposition 50 special election.

Judge Daniel Ottolia granted a temporary restraining order Tuesday afternoon, according to a minute order obtained by News Channel 3. Neither side appeared in court. Ottolia canceled a hearing set for Wednesday morning and ruled based on the written filings alone.

As News Channel 3 first reported Tuesday, the nonprofit Election Accountability Project, Inc. sued Tinoco and the county this week, asking the court to block the destruction of records from both elections and to order the registrar to explain ballot-accounting discrepancies the group says have never been resolved.

The lawsuit centers on two audits by the Riverside Election Integrity Team, the citizens group whose claims helped prompt Sheriff Chad Bianco’s investigation into the 2025 election. The audits claim county records could not account for 33,888 of the ballots counted in 2024 and 45,896 in 2025. The petition expressly declines to allege fraud, illegal voting or intentional misconduct, and acknowledges the discrepancies could have an innocent explanation. It asks only that the records survive long enough for a court to sort out whether the numbers can be reconciled.

County officials have forcefully disputed the group’s math. In a February presentation to the Board of Supervisors, Tinoco said the group relied on incomplete data and raw, handwritten field forms prone to human error, and said the actual variance in the 2025 election, according to the county’s election management system, was 103 ballots. Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office has said the discrepancies were explained by election officials, and said Sunday it has seen no evidence of election crimes in the six months since it intervened against the sheriff’s investigation.

The timing drove the emergency request. Records from the 2024 election reach the end of a 22-month federal retention window the petition says closes Sept. 5, after which some categories become eligible for destruction. The sealed ballot packages from the 2025 special election and their six-month retention period expired in May, and the petition argues they exist today only because the California Supreme Court ordered them preserved in April while it reviews Bianco’s seizure of roughly 650,000 ballots.

The justices heard arguments in those cases Monday in San Francisco, with a decision expected by late November. When they rule, the interim preservation orders lapse, and state law would direct prompt destruction of the 2025 ballot packages.

Election Accountability Project says it is a stranger to those cases and takes no position on them. Its restraining order is designed to keep the records intact no matter how the high court rules.

The group’s application asked the court to bar the county from destroying, deleting or overwriting records tied to ballot receipt, accounting and tabulation in both elections; to require any remaining sealed ballot packages to stay sealed, unopened and in official custody; and to require a sworn inventory of preserved records within 10 days.

The minute order confirms the restraining order was granted, but the signed written order spelling out the exact terms had not yet been posted as of Wednesday morning.

Judge Ottolia also granted an order to show cause, meaning the county must return to court to argue why a longer-lasting preliminary injunction should not keep the preservation requirement in place while the case proceeds. A date for the hearing had not yet appeared in court records. The county can also ask the court to dissolve or modify the restraining order.

News Channel 3 reached out to the Registrar of Voters’ office Wednesday morning for an interview and was told the office’s schedule was booked for the day. “Our office will follow all laws and guidance issued,” the office said in an email.

News Channel 3 has also reached out to the group’s attorney, Alexander Haberbush of the Long Beach-based Constitutional Counsel Group, and is awaiting a response.

This is a developing story. Stay with KESQ News Channel 3 for updates.

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Raymond Kalra

PALM DESERT, Calif. (KESQ) — As college students return to campus for a new semester, tuition is only one piece of the financial pressure many are facing. The costs of food, housing and other everyday necessities are increasingly part of the equation for students trying to earn a degree.

At College of the Desert, the school estimates an off-campus student could spend more than $27,000 on food and housing alone during the nine-month academic year. National research also shows basic-needs insecurity is affecting a significant share of students.

Trellis Strategies’ Fall 2025 Student Financial Wellness Survey included more than 65,000 undergraduate students at 153 colleges across the country. The survey found 54% of respondents experienced at least one form of basic-needs insecurity. That included 42% who experienced food insecurity and 35% who experienced housing insecurity.

For COD student Amber Searles, financial challenges have already had a direct impact on her education.

Searles recently completed her first year at COD, but her path back into the classroom was years in the making. She said difficulty getting financial aid was one of the barriers that previously kept her from attending college.

“Since I wasn’t able to get FAFSA, I wasn’t able to do school for about five years,” Searles said. “So now I’m coming back… and I’m able to do school.”

Searles said getting connected with someone who could help her navigate the financial aid process ultimately made a difference.

“I actually did a Zoom call with one of our financial aid officers here, and they got me FAFSA within probably a week,” she said.

Support beyond the classroom

College of the Desert offers several resources aimed at addressing challenges students may be dealing with outside of their classes, including food assistance, basic-needs and housing resources, mental health services and financial aid support.

Dr. Cindy Alvarez, COD’s student support resolution manager, said those outside pressures can have a direct impact on a student’s ability to focus academically.

“The holistic student experience is very important,” Alvarez said. “You can’t focus in school if there are other things going on in your life. So we have systems in place to support students’ well-being.”

Alvarez said the college’s support includes access to therapists through its TimelyCare app as well as services for students struggling with food or housing insecurity. COD also has affinity centers where students can connect with others from similar backgrounds or with shared experiences.

And if a student is struggling but doesn’t know where to begin, Alvarez said reaching out to a staff member can be a starting point. She said the college has a system that allows staff to connect students with a broader support team and resources ranging from crisis counseling and basic needs to assistance communicating with instructors.

Finding a community

For students, support isn’t always financial.

Third-year COD student Eliza Gomez, a health science pre-nursing major and president of the Sexuality Gender Alliance Club, said finding a community on campus can be another important part of the college experience.

“Every time we get a new batch of students, I’m always really excited to push through and be like, ‘Hey, there is community here for you,’” Gomez said. “It’s kind of hidden, but we’re here for you.”

Her advice to students — including those who may be returning to school after time away — is to take the next step after enrolling and get involved.

“You’re already taking the first step, which is coming back,” Gomez said. “It just takes… taking the second step, which is getting involved.”

COD is also planning opportunities throughout the semester for students to make those connections. Alvarez said Club Rush is typically held during the fourth week of school, bringing campus clubs together and giving students an opportunity to find organizations and other students with similar interests.

Getting students connected early

Tuesday’s Welcome Day at College of the Desert’s Palm Desert campus was one way the college is trying to put resources in front of students before they have to seek them out on their own.

That effort will continue once classes begin. Alvarez said welcome tents will be stationed around campus during the first week of school, where staff can help students who are lost, need water or have questions as they navigate their first days of the semester.

For Searles, who now has her first year at COD behind her, the message to someone questioning whether they have the time, money or ability to return to school is simple.

“Just do it. Just get it done,” Searles said. “Later on, or even now, you may be thinking, ‘Oh, I’m never going to get my associate’s. I’m never going to do this. I don’t have time.’”

She said students shouldn’t be afraid to use the resources available to them — advice informed by her own experience finding help when she needed it.

“Just don’t give up,” Searles said. “Just keep going.”

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Jesus Reyes

PALM DESERT, Calif. (KESQ) – A 27-year-old man was convicted and immediately sentenced days after being arrested for waving a pistol at a motorist during a road rage confrontation in Palm Desert, then fleeing from deputies.

Willard Alexander Giron Jr. of Thousand Palms was arrested Tuesday following the incident and a brief chase. He was charged with felony evading, brandishing a firearm not in self-defense, and probation violations.

Giron pleaded guilty during his arraignment on Thursday. The judge imposed a sentence the same day of two years and 8 months.

The road rage incident was reported at 10:50 a.m. Tuesday on Cook Street and Gerald Ford Drive.

Deputies were told that Giron approached the victim yelling and holding a handgun. Giron left the area in his vehicle headed northbound on Cook Street toward Interstate 10.

No injuries were reported during the incident.

The victim obtained Giron’s license plate number and description of his vehicle, which was provided to Riverside Sheriff Dispatch and entered into the Flock Safety System. Deputies from the Palm Desert Robbery Burglary Suppression Team received a Flock alert indicating the vehicle’s license plate was captured in the area of Indio Boulevard and Madison Street in Indio.

Deputies located the vehicle and attempted to conduct a vehicle stop, but Giron failed to yield, and a pursuit was initiated. With the assistance of the Riverside Sheriff’s K9 Unit, a Pursuit Intervention Technique was used to disable the vehicle, bringing the pursuit to an end in the area of Varner Road and Jefferson Street in Indio.

Giron was taken into custody without incident.

Court records indicated the defendant has prior convictions that resulted in a state prison sentence, but they weren’t listed.

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KESQ News Team

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved two five-year agreements involving the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, continuing law enforcement services in Rancho Mirage and public safety training at College of the Desert.

The board voted 5-0 without comment on both agreements.

The first agreement, worth approximately $86 million, extends the Sheriff’s Department’s contract to provide all municipal law enforcement services in Rancho Mirage from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.

The city has relied on the Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement services for decades. The agreement requires Rancho Mirage to cover all costs associated with the service, with no county General Fund obligation.

Sheriff’s personnel will handle traffic enforcement, criminal investigations and enforcement of state, county and municipal laws. Staffing will include the equivalent of 16 deputies at all times, along with supervisors, motorcycle deputies and community service officers.

The board also approved a five-year agreement allowing the Sheriff’s Department to continue staffing College of the Desert’s Public Safety Academy through June 30, 2031.

The academy prepares students for careers in law enforcement and also offers firefighter and emergency medical technician training. Sheriff’s instructors provide state-certified courses at several Coachella Valley locations.

The Sheriff’s Department estimates its costs for the five-year academy agreement at approximately $236,000. College of the Desert will provide facilities and handle student admissions, while the department will cover academy operating expenses.

The academy has been offered at College of the Desert since 2001.

The Board also today formally adopted a series of adjustments to the Riverside County ordinance regulating short-term rentals in unincorporated communities, though before voting, the board heardappeals from speakers seeking an outright ban on rentals in residential areas.

In July, the board tentatively signed off on amendments sought by the Transportation & Land Management Agency to Ordinance No. 927. However, the matter came back for a second reading and adoption Tuesday, following the board’s summer recess.

The board revised the numbers to three citations leading to suspension, and five citations triggering revocation proceedings. The supervisors also directed the TLMA to model the publicly accessible electronic complaint platform to match what San Bernardino County has, enabling people to view locations of STR complaints and read what, if any, actions have been taken by officers.

At the board’s direction, two Department of Code Enforcement representatives will be on duty at the agency’s Palm Desert and San Jacinto offices from 7 a.m. to midnight Thursday to Sunday, when complaint volume ishighest. Previously, officers were off the clock by 10 p.m.

Another change eliminated the current “60-minute self-correction window” that previously permitted STR owners to address complaints themselves within an hour. Instead, the TLMA now will have enforcement officers go directly to locations where complaints have been lodged and attempt “knock and talk” tactics that immediately make parties aware of noise, obstruction and related problems.

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City News Service

PALM DESERT, Calif. (KESQ) – A motorist died today after experiencing a medical emergency and colliding into another vehicle in Palm Desert, authorities said.

It happened around 10 a.m. Tuesday at 78152 Varner Road, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The agency said a driver in a white Toyota Tacoma experienced an unspecified medical emergency, and a minor crash occurred.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were immediately reported.

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City News Service

WHITEWATER (CNS) – A man was found dead by authorities today near state Route 111 in Whitewater.

Officers responded to a call of a pedestrian down at 11:52 a.m. Tuesday on SR 111 near Interstate 10, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The agency said arriving officers found a deceased man in the “desert area and not on the highway.”

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department was investigating the death.

No further details were immediately available.

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Gavin Nguyen

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – Big changes are coming to the Ramon Road Bridge, but concerns are growing over the impacts of a long construction project.

The Ramon Road Bridge is set to be widened from a 4-lane bridge to a 6-lane bridge, with 3 lanes flowing in each direction. The goal is to reduce congestion and increase traffic flow. New bridge barriers and bridge supports will also be installed to reinforce the bridge infrastructure. Repaving work and driveway improvements are also expected to be done, as shown in the map below.

Project map from the City of Palm Springs (engagepalmsprings.com)

Construction is expected to begin later this year, with a projected end date in Winter 2028/Spring 2029. The Palm Springs City Council will be opening the project to bidders at the next council meeting.

Earlier this year, News Channel 3’s Luis Avila investigated the rough road conditions along the stretch of Ramon in the spotlight. While the expansion and improvements are widely considered to be necessary upgrades in a high-traffic area, there’s some concern over the impact the construction will have.

Concerned cyclists reached out to News Channel 3 about a lengthy detour that would place riders inches alongside traffic. They said they were worried about the lack of an undercrossing connecting the two sides of the CV Link while the bridge is worked on.

John Siegel, a bike safety activist who frequently rides on the Link, questioned why the underpass couldn’t be left open.

“I don’t think is necessary because anytime you go to a big city, you see that people use scaffolding so that people pedestrians use sidewalks, they don’t close bike lanes,” he reasoned. Gesturing to the route behind him, he continued, “Our intention here in Palm Springs to be safe and successful with tourism, it probably makes sense to keep this open.”

The underpass was initially opened in response to a lack of a connector between the Link on the north side and south side of Ramon, as News Channel 3 previously reported at the end of 2025. Now, the detour will take cyclists and pedestrians through a familiar path: through the Dream Homes neighborhood, across two busy intersections (San Luis Rey/Ramon and Lawrence Crossley/Dinah Shore), before Link users rejoin the path near the Dinah Shore Bridge.

It’s the same route Siegel said he and many other cyclists used before the crossing was created. With that experience, he knows many new cyclists and tourists will be unfamiliar with the unclear route. “There’s going to be, I would say, a degree of chaos steering people through neighborhoods in ways that it’s not obvious,” he said.

I asked Joel Montalvo, the city engineer with Palm Springs, why closing the connector underneath Ramon Rd. was the only option.

He answered, “I don’t think it’s really feasible and I think it’s very dangerous. So the contractor wants full control of his construction activities. We’re going to be demoing. We’re going to be doing major construction, renovation underneath the structure itself.”

Montalvo said impacts like these are to be expected during long-term construction projects, and that the decisions were made with safety in mind.

For drivers, that means possible slowdowns, lane narrowing, and lane closures, though crews will work to keep two lanes open on both sides through the duration of the project.

Montalvo’s message for the public during the project: “We do want the general public to have patience [and] to be respectful. But we are going to try to maintain two lanes in each direction. We really appreciate the public’s help in delivering this critical project.”

The project is set to be opened to bidding at Palm Springs’s next city council meeting this week. Once that happens, a clearer project timeline and cost estimate will emerge. Right now, the construction is projected to cost the city between $50-70 million dollars and will last for two years.

Stay with us for continuing coverage.

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