Man to stand trial for allegedly supplying deadly dose of fentanyl
Palm Desert's Concerts in the Park series to conclude Thursday
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Mission Inn Museum's future uncertain amid stalled lease negotiations By Staff
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iverside city officials released an update last week on the now uncertain future of the Mission Inn Museum, noting roadblocks to a new lease agreement from state regulators and the museum's landlord. The museum's 22-year lease expired at the end of 2022, and state law prohibits the lease's renewal, according to the California Department of Finance. "The City has worked cooperatively with the Historic Mission Inn Hotel & Spa and the Mission Inn Foundation for almost two years in an effort to find alternative sites, create a transition plan and generally facilitate a good outcome," officials said in a statement Oct. 19. "To date, however, these efforts between the Mission Inn and the Mission Inn Foundation have not borne fruit. "On Sept. 29, 2023,
the Historic Mission Inn Corporation served the Successor Agency for the Redevelopment Agency and the Mission Inn Foundation with a notice to vacate the premises," the statement continued. "As the primary tenant on the lease, the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency then served the same notice to its sub-tenant, the Mission Inn Foundation. "The City recognizes the importance of the Mission Inn, the value of the museum and the many, many hours that docents have devoted to providing tours of the Inn and supporting the Foundation. The City remains hopeful a solution still can be reached." Riverside officials began the city's collaborative work with the Historic Mission Inn Hotel & Spa and the Mission Inn Foundation to enable the operation of the Foundation’s museum
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California oil companies face tougher enforcement under new law This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
C The Historic Mission Inn in Riverside. | Photo courtesy of 3Kathleen3/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
within the hotel, officials said. Through the Riverside Redevelopment Agency, a separate incorporated entity, city officials facilitated the reopening of the hotel in 1992. "In 2000 a lease was entered into between the Historic Mission Inn Corpo-
ration and the Riverside Redevelopment Agency for space within the Mission Inn," according to the city's statement. "That space was then subleased by the Redevelopment Agency to the Mission Inn Foundation at no cost for the Foundation’s museum. The lease was for
See MIssion Inn Museum Page 28
By City News Service following a Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation into the alleged acts of domestic violence. He had already been charged separately for alleged drug abuse. A preliminary hearing was convened Friday morning to weigh the validity of the domestic
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By Janet Wilson, The Desert Sun, ProPublica
Ex-Cathedral City police officer to stand trial for alleged domestic violence former Cathedral City policeman accused of assaulting and harassing a former girlfriend must stand trial for making criminal threats and other offenses, a judge ruled Friday. Claudiu Murzea, 46, of Rancho Cucamonga was arrested earlier this month
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violence case exclusively. After hearing evidence, Superior Court Judge Steven Counelis found there was sufficient evidence to warrant a trial on the criminal threats count, along with misdemeanor charges of battery on a
domestic partner and violating a domestic violence restraining order. The judge scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for Nov. 3 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. On a motion by the defense, Counelis also agreed to
See Domestic violence Page 28
alifornia will soon have more authority to fine oil companies that cause major spills or other hazards. The new law, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, was authored in response to a Desert Sun and ProPublica probe that found the state agency charged with regulating fossil fuel companies had a spotty enforcement record and had collected no fines in 2020. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 631 on Oct. 7. The law increases penalties to as much as $70,000 per day for continuing violations, and it gives state regulators new abilities to request criminal enforcement. “This measure ensures California has 21st-century enforcement tools to protect communities from oil operators that violate the law, endanger public health and threaten the environment,” said Assemblymember Gregg Hart, who authored the bill. “AB 631 will strengthen compliance and deter the pattern of treating violations as the cost of doing business. I applaud Gov. Newsom for signing this significant legislation.” Under the new law, California’s oil regulator, the California Geologic Energy Management Division, or CalGEM, can refer cases to local prosecutors and ask a Superior Court judge to compel operators to correct violations that might threaten public health, safety and the environment. The oil and gas supervisor, who heads CalGEM, can also for the first time recover all response, prosecution and enforcement costs from the petroleum companies. Critics have long questioned CalGEM’s willingness to exercise its enforcement authority. In 2021, The Desert Sun and ProPublica found that the agency had imposed few fines above $5,000, despite enhanced powers — and had yet to collect a fine above $35,000. Officials at the agency had vowed to improve enforcement transparency, and CalGEM’s public affairs office said last week that the agency has collected nearly $1.2 million for 24 civil penalty orders in 2022-23. But it did not respond to questions for this article about whether penalties assessed against oil companies from 2018 to 2020 were ever paid, despite promises by officials presented with those findings to improve enforcement transparency. In an unsigned email, the office also did not answer whether Chevron had paid any or all of a $2.7 million penalty for a 2019 spill, known as a “surface expression” because raw crude shoots straight out of the ground. Chevron had protested the fine at the time, saying there was no safety See Oil companies Page 27