Three Coachella men die when car slams into tree

Three Coachella men were killed in the predawn hours Saturday when their vehicle crashed into a palm tree in the center median of a La Quinta street.

Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, another died at John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio.

A fourth occupant of the car was taken by helicopter to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.

The initial investigation suggested that only one car was involved, and it was traveling at a high speed while heading eastbound on Avenue 52, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Alcohol was a factor in the accident, the department said in a release.

The Riverside County coroner identified the men who were killed as Eric Ceballos, 20; Orlando Diarte, 20, and Michael Garcia, 21. Garcia was driving, authorities said. All were residents of Coachella. 

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Clinton Foundation begins health project in Coachella Valley

The Clinton Foundation has launched a project to reduce health disparities in the Coachella Valley, one of only two U.S. communities being targeted by the new effort.

The project, Clinton Health Matters Initiative, aims to reduce preventable diseases, cut healthcare costs and bridge health gaps between poor and wealthy residents. Organizers brought together more than 100 people Thursday to begin planning how to improve the health of the residents of the region.

The Coachella Valley includes wealthier towns like Palm Springs and poorer communities like Mecca. About 80% of the children in the area live in poverty, and many families lack access to healthcare and healthy communities, according to the foundation.

The project plans to involve corporations, healthcare organizations and schools to accomplish its mission. The foundation has made a seven-year commitment to the national initiative, which is beginning in California and Little Rock, Ark., said Ginny Ehrlich, chief executive officer of the initiative.

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Stench across Southern California highly unusual, officials say

When the rotten egg smell wafted into the Santa Clarita United Methodist Church in Saugus on Monday morning, she thought the church’s sewer pipe had burst.  

More than 70 miles to the east, steelworker Chris Tatum’s nostrils got the punch in Riverside, and he assumed a brush fire had just broken out.

“It reeks,” he said. “It smells like rotten mush.”

Southern California awoke Monday morning to a foul odor that wouldn’t go away.

Residents clogged 911 lines with calls, prompting health officials from Ventura County to Palm Springs to send out investigators looking for everything from a toxic spill to a sewer plant leak.

But the prime suspect was 100 miles away from Los Angeles. The leading theory is that the stink was caused by the annual die-off of fish in the Salton Sea. Officials believe Sunday evening’s thunderstorms and strong winds churned up the water and pushed that dead-fish smell to points west overnight.

Officials from the air quality management district and other agencies said they’ve never dealt with a stench quite like this. Although the fish die-off usually causes foul odors in parts of the Inland Empire, officials cannot recall it moving this far west.

“It’s very unusual that any odor would be this widespread, from the Coachella to Los Angeles County,” said Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “We’re talking well over 100 miles. I can’t recall ever confirming an odor traveling that distance.”

Quarry proposal near Temecula resurfaces with county vote

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to adopt a fast-track permitting system, a measure originally intended to speed up reconsideration of a massive rock quarry near Temecula that was rejected  this year.

The company proposing the controversial open-pit rock mine last week submitted a revised application for the quarry, reducing the size and volunteering to pay a new fee that would raise millions in revenue for the county.

The supervisors voted 3-2 to begin drafting a new fast-track permitting procedure for surface mines and other major developments. The proposal, which initially applied only to mines, is expected to come back before the board in late August.

The Liberty Quarry, proposed by Granite Construction of Watsonville, met with strong opposition from Temecula and the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians.

The firm wanted to develop a 414-acre rock quarry operation on a mountain that looms over Interstate 15. It would have mined about 270 million tons of granite from the mountain over the next 75 years, supplying concrete and asphalt to fast-growing northern San Diego County and southwest Riverside County. The company’s latest proposal reduced the life of the mine to 50 years and lowered the amount of granite to be mined.

Temecula Councilwoman Maryann Edwards criticized Supervisor John Benoit, who wrote the fast-track measure, saying he was doing the bidding of Granite Construction, one of his major campaign contributors. Benoit dismissed the criticism, saying the contributions totalled less than $7,000.

Edwards also criticized the board for considering the measure, saying that Riverside was no longer Southern California's dumping ground with only "meth labs and chicken slaughter houses.” Like the rest of the Temecula City Council, Edwards said dust and increased pollution from the quarry would threaten the health of residents and devastate wineries and other economic foundations of southwest Riverside County.

“I’m embarrassed for this body and the county I call home," she told the supervisors before the vote.

Mark Macarro, chairman of the Pechanga Band of Mission Indians, told the supervisors that the mountain that Granite wants to mine is part of a range where Luiseño people believe life was created. He urged the board to reject the fast-track proposal.

Supervisor John Tavaglione was the swing vote on the five-member board. In February, he joined supervisors Jeff Stone of Temecula and Bob Buster of Riverside in voting against the quarry. On Tuesday, he joined Benoit of Indio and Supervisor Marion Ashley of Perris in favoring the fast-track process.

Tavaglione bristled at the suggestion that campaign contributions, or politics, influenced his vote. He did say, however, that he was “threatened” politically when the quarry came up for a vote earlier in the year, but did not disclose who tried to pressure him. He said his only priority is creating jobs in a county leveled by the recession.

Tavaglione, a Republican from Riverside, is running for the House of Representatives against Democrat Mark Takano.

During the hearing, Stone suggested that quarry supporters wanted the supervisors to reconsider the proposed mine before Tavaglione would leave for Washington, if elected. Stone said mine supporters feared that Gov. Jerry Brown, who would choose Tavaglione's successor, would appoint a supervisor less likely to support the quarry.

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Photo: Karie Ruther and Gary Nolan of Granite Construction Co. at the proposed site of the Liberty Quarry, beside Interstate 15 near Temecula. Credit: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times

Two people attacked by swarm of bees in Indio

Two people were recovering Wednesday after a swarm of bees stung them, more than 80 times each, at a Riverside County home.

Firefighters arrived on the 81200 block of Francis Avenue in Indio early Tuesday morning and found an elderly woman and a man surrounded by bees. The firefighters quickly sprayed foam to disperse the large swarm from the backyard.

The woman was stung more than 100 times and the man was stung more than 80 times in the upper torso and head, fire officials said. Both were sent to the hospital with moderate injuries.

Another elderly man was found in the home unharmed.

“If [people] see a swarm of bees outside, they need to stay inside,” advised Jody Hagemann, a spokesman for the Riverside County Fire Department.

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Photo: Approximate location of incident shown in red. Credit: Google Maps

No fireworks allowed in state and national parks for July 4th

Amid the profusion of regulations that campers, picnickers and day hikers must keep in mind when visiting state or national parks for the Fourth of July, one simple rule is foremost: No fireworks. Ever.

With the wildfire season in full swing during this holiday week, park managers are emphasizing fire safety behavior. That means in the parks, campfires are allowed only in designated areas. And in national parks, such as Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, smoking is not allowed in areas where vegetation is present.

“There are always, always fires started somewhere from fireworks,” said Kathy Kirkpatrick, fire management officer at Santa Monica Mountains. “Most people feel like they are not holding fireworks if they have a sparkler in their hands, but they don’t realize that it is an ignition source. They don’t realize how easy it is to start fires in our dry grasses.”

MAP: Where to see Fourth of July fireworks

On property managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management—high desert areas such as Barstow, Needles and Ridgecrest and in the Mojave Desert--a permit is required for campfires and the use of a barbecue. As in the parks, fireworks are illegal on BLM land.

Teri Raml, BLM desert district manager, said the restrictions are necessary due to rising seasonal temperatures combined with dry vegetation.

“Historically, these conditions have fueled very large wildfires,” she said. “These fire restrictions are needed to reduce the wildfire threat to private property and the fragile desert ecosystem.”

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Gunman who killed woman is fatally shot by Indio police

A man who killed a woman Monday in the parking lot of an Indio apartment complex was himself shot dead by a responding police officer, authorities said.  

Officers were dispatched to Las Brisas Apartments, at Hoover Avenue and Monroe Street, about 2:25 p.m. to investigate a report of shots fired, Indio Police Department spokesman Ben Guitron said.  

The first officer on the scene observed a man firing a handgun into a tan sedan occupied by a female, Guitron said. The man then used his weapon to strike the approaching officer in the face and upper shoulder.

Other officers arrived, and the man was shot. Both he and his shooting victim were pronounced dead at the scene. The injured officer was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries to the face and mouth.

The names and ages of the parties involved were not immediately released. It was not known if the dead man and woman knew each other.

The Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office will investigate the officer-involved shooting, and the Indio Police Department will also conduct a review. Such investigations are standard in officer-involved shootings.

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Two Palm Desert women bitten by coyotes in 10 days

A 69-year-old Palm Desert woman was bitten by a coyote Sunday morning during an early morning walk, the second coyote attack in the area in 10 days.

The woman, who lives in the Del Webb Sun City retirement community, was bitten about 4:30 a.m., treated at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage and later released, according to the Riverside County Animal Services agency.

Shortly after the woman was bitten, a state Fish and Game warden shot and killed a coyote inside the retirement community near the site of the attack.

Ten days earlier, another woman, also 69, was bitten by a coyote while she was gardening near the same area, according to John Welsh, spokesman for the county animal services agency. Trappers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture captured the animal, which was later destroyed.

Rabies tests on both coyotes are pending.

Coyote attacks on people are unusual, although they are often seen in neighborhoods near wilderness areas when searching for easy sources of food and water, county and state officials said. The lack of winter rains this year may explain the rise in sightings, they said.

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Image: Approximate location of one incident shown in red. Credit: Google Maps

Westbound Interstate 10 reopens in Indio after CHP shooting

Westbound lanes of Interstate 10 through Indio began to reopen about 1:30 p.m. Monday after being closed since the early morning shooting of a motorist by California Highway Patrol officers who found the man’s empty pickup truck crashed into a concrete median.

The shooting occurred about 5 a.m. when two CHP officers confronted the man north of the freeway, near the Jefferson Street offramp, said Ben Guitron, a spokesman for the Indio Police Department, which is investigating the shooting.

The man, whose name has not been released, was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs for treatment of at least one gunshot wound, Guitron said. His condition was unknown.

“So far it appears this person was the only occupant of the vehicle,” Guitron said. “We don’t know why he collided into the K-rail at the center median.”

Guitron said he did not know what prompted the shooting, nor if the man was armed.

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Image: Map shows approximate location of where I-10 was closed after a shooting involving a CHP officer. Source: Google Maps

CHP officers shoot man; westbound Interstate 10 closed in Indio

Westbound lanes of Interstate 10 remained closed Monday after the shooting of a motorist by California Highway Patrol officers who found the man’s empty pickup truck crashed into a concrete median, Indio police said.

The shooting occurred about 5 a.m. when two CHP officers confronted the man north of the freeway, near the Jefferson Street offramp, said Ben Guitron, a spokesman for the Indio Police Department, which is investigating the shooting.

The man, whose name has not been released, was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs for treatment of at least one gunshot wound, Guitron said. His condition was unknown.

“So far it appears this person was the only occupant of the vehicle,” Guitron said. “We don’t know why he collided into the K-rail at the center median.”

Guitron said he did not know what prompted the shooting, nor if the man was armed. It was unclear how long the westbound lanes would remain closed, according to the CHP, which diverted traffic around the scene.

At 10 a.m., traffic was backed up for about a mile.

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Image: Map shows approximate location of where I-10 was closed after a shooting involving a CHP officer. Source: Google Maps