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M O N D AY, N O V E M B E R 06- N O V E M B E R 12, 2023
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Highland Fire scorches thousands of acres; blazes erupt near 60 Freeway, San Jacinto By City News Service
41, in the 2008 Palm Springs killing of Clifford Lambert, and both were sentenced to life terms. But they were granted new trials because of the behavior of the judge in the original trial. Niroula, however, was killed at the Cois Byrd Detention Center on Sept. 6, 2022. Co-defendants Miguel
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. ver since he was a medical student, Dr. Neil Martinson has confronted the horrors of tuberculosis, the world’s oldest and deadliest pandemic. For more than 30 years, patients have streamed into the South African clinics where he has worked — migrant workers, malnourished children and pregnant women with HIV — coughing up blood. Some were so emaciated, he could see their ribs. They’d breathed in the contagious bacteria from a cough on a crowded bus or in the homes of loved ones who didn’t know they had TB. Once infected, their best option was to spend months swallowing pills that often carried terrible side effects. Many died. So, when Martinson joined a call in April 2018, he was anxious for the verdict about a tuberculosis vaccine he’d helped test on hundreds of people. The results blew him away: The shot prevented over half of those infected from getting sick; it was the biggest TB vaccine breakthrough in a century. He hung up, excited, and waited for the next step, a trial that would determine whether the shot was safe and effective enough to sell. Weeks passed. Then months. More than five years after the call, he’s still waiting, because the company that owns the vaccine decided to prioritize far more lucrative business. Pharmaceutical giant GSK pulled back on its global public health work and leaned into serving the world’s most-profitable market, the United States, which CEO Emma Walmsley recently called its “top priority.” As the London-based company turned away from its vaccine for TB, a disease that kills 1.6 million mostly poor people each year, it went all in on a vaccine against shingles, a viral infection that comes with a painful rash. It afflicts mostly older people who, in the U.S., are largely covered by government insurance. Importantly, the shingles vaccine shared a key ingredient with the TB shot, a component that enhanced the effectiveness of both but was in limited supply. From a business standpoint, GSK’s decision made sense. Shingrix would become what the company calls a “crown jewel,” raking in more than $14 billion since 2018. But the ability of a corporation to allow a potentially lifesaving vaccine to languish lays bare the distressing reality of public health vaccine creation. With limited resources, governments have long seen no other option but to team with Big Pharma to develop vaccines for global scourges. But after the governments pump taxpayer money and resources into the efforts, the companies get control of the products, locking up ownership and prioritizing their own gain. That’s what GSK did with the TB vaccine. Decades ago, the U.S. Army brought in GSK to work on a malaria vaccine and helped develop the ingredient that would prove game-changing for the company. It was an adjuvant, a
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This map outlines the containment area for the Highland Fire. | Image courtesy of the Riverside County Fire Department/X
Winds were not a factor Wednesday or Thursday, and according to the National Weather Service, they’re forecast to be minimal on Friday. According to the fire department, firefighters were trying to stamp out flames in “extremely steep and rugged terrain.” Two firefighters were reported injured. Weather conditions Friday are predicted to be favorable. Sixteen structures,
including three homes, were either damaged or destroyed by the fire. There were 1,500 structures threatened, according to reports released Friday. GoFundMe accounts were established for those who suffered property losses. They are at the following links: -www.gofundme. com/f/mike-doehr-losteverything-from-a-wildSee Highland Fire Page 28
Man convicted again in 2008 financially motivated Palm Springs murder By Kristy Ramirez, City News Service
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41-year-old man was convicted again Tuesday of murder and other felony charges in connection to the financially motivated killing of a Palm Springs retiree in 2008. Daniel Garcia was convicted of one felony count each of murder, conspiracy to commit a crime, using the personal identity information of
How a big pharma company stalled a potentially lifesaving vaccine in pursuit of bigger profits
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roads, near the junction of Highways 79 and 371. It has burned 2,487 acres — a number that hasn’t changed since Tuesday morning, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. A public safety power shutoff — during which transmission lines are de-energized — requested by fire personnel during the first hours of the fire along Highway 79 ended at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
another to obtain credit, and using a forged instrument. He was also convicted of three felony counts of burglary, two of grand theft over $950 and one misdemeanor count of receiving stolen property. A special circumstance allegation of murder for financial gain and a sentence-enhancing allegation of fraud or embezzlement were also found true.
Jurors began deliberating Monday afternoon and reached the guilty verdicts by Tuesday morning, which Riverside County Superior Court Judge Anthony Villalobos read shortly before 2:30 p.m. in the Larson Justice Center in Indio. A sentencing date was set for Nov. 17. Garcia was convicted in 2012 with Kaushal Niroula,
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By Anna Maria Barry-Jester, ProPublica
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ontainment of the roughly 2,500acre Highland Fire in Aguanga was at 50% Friday with full containment expected Wednesday, according to Cal Fire Riverside and the Riverside County Fire Department. The area of the fire did not increase Thursday while containment grew from 40%. Air operations were officially terminated Thursday, and a temporary flight restriction placed over the fire zone to prevent civilian aircraft from disrupting air tankers and helicopters working the blaze was set for termination at 8 a.m. Friday. A reconnaissance mission by a Cal Fire helicopter crew Thursday afternoon found no signs of hot spots that threatened to spill outside of the existing burn zone and tentative containment lines. The fire started about 12:40 p.m. Monday in the area of Highlands and Aguanga Ranchos
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