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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20-NOVEMBER 26 , 2023
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NO. 147
Riverside church to serve thousands for Thanksgiving; PS tram to offer meals
The historic claims that put a few California farming families first in line for Colorado River water
By City News Service
By Janet Wilson, The Desert Sun, and Nat Lash, ProPublica
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Riverside church that provides meals to thousands of Riverside County residents on Thanksgiving each year sent a call out Tuesday asking for volunteers to help with the distribution effort. “This is a meal for the homeless, senior citizens, families in need and those who will be home alone,” Central Community Christian Fellowship said in a statement. “We need volunteers each year to help serve and deliver the dinners to our community.” This Thanksgiving will mark the 36th year that the church has made meal deliveries available as part of its Thanksgiving Day Outreach. In previous years, over 4,000 meals have dished out, largely to Meals-on-Wheels recipients. However, during the COVID lockdowns of 2020, the church expanded service to many people who were out of work during the holiday period. Delivery service generally begins the morning of Thanksgiving and concludes by early afternoon.
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.
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electrical lines,” the report states, according to the Post. “This caused a shower of sparks, which caused the fire.” Southern California Edison has previously denied any allegations of its involvement in the fire. David Eisenhauer, Southern California Edison’s,
raig Elmore’s family history is the stuff of Westerns. His grandfather, John Elmore, a poor son of a Missouri preacher, arrived in California’s Imperial Valley in 1908 and dug ditches to deliver water to homesteaders. Thanks to his marriage to a citrus magnate’s daughter, reputed good fortune as a gambler and business acumen, he amassed the Elmore Desert Ranch, part of roughly 12,000 acres that two branches of the family still farm. All that land in the blazing-hot southeastern corner of California came with a huge bonanza: water from the Colorado River. In 2022, the present-day Elmores consumed an estimated 22.5 billion gallons, according to a Desert Sun and ProPublica analysis of satellite data combined with business and agricultural records. That’s almost as much as the entire city of Scottsdale, Arizona, is allotted. That puts the Elmores in exclusive company. They are one of 20 extended families who receive fully one-seventh of the river’s flow through its lower half — a whopping 1,186,200 acre-feet, or about 386.5 billion gallons, the analysis showed. The Colorado River system, which supplies 35 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico, nearly collapsed last year. Even after a wet winter, it is dwindling due to overuse and climate change. But no matter how low its reservoirs sink, the historic claims of these families and all of Imperial County place them first in line — ahead of every state and major city — for whatever water remains. How a handful of families and a rural irrigation district came to control so much of the West’s most valuable river is a story of geography and good timing, intermarrying and shrewd strategy, and a rich but sometimes ugly past when racist laws and wartime policies excluded farmers of color. Together, they winnowed the greatest access to these 20 clans, who today use more of the river than all of Wyoming, New Mexico or Nevada. A vast, laserleveled green quilt of crops covers this naturally bone-dry valley, all of it grown with Colorado River water. The water is held “in trust” by the Imperial Irrigation District and two smaller agencies, meaning they are legally required to deliver the water to any county landowner for use on their property. But many farmers here see the river water as virtually their private property, though nearly all acknowledge it can’t be sold apart from their land. “It’s not a public resource,” says Rachel Magos, executive director of the Imperial County Farm Bureau. “It’s called prior perfected rights.” That phrase, “prior perfected rights,” is shorthand for legal decisions spanning 100 years, including three by the U.S. Supreme Court, that have perpetuated those rights since early would-be developers staked claims for the Imperial Valley that amounted to the river’s entire flow. Blood ties, and the ceaseless buying of lands from less successful farmers or descendants who want a “windfall,” have
See Fairview Fire Page 32
See Colorado River Page 16
| Photo courtesy of Eric Denton/Facebook
Volunteers retrieve hot plates from the church kitchen on Arlington Avenue and fan out into Riverside and surrounding communities in the metropolitan area. On-site meal service is also planned at the church, where upwards of 500 people often gather to enjoy traditional dinners. The only exception was in 2020, when restrictions on public gatherings prevented volunteers from providing meals at the house of worship. Turkeys, along with stuffing, mashed potatoes and other trimmings are made in
the church kitchen, typically with help from a Riversidebased catering service. “Everyone is invited to join in sharing Thanksgiving dinners together with our families from Central Community,” according to the church. Anyone interested in lending a hand this year — or may know of someone who needs a meal delivered — was asked to contact the church at 951-689-5806, or via email at office@centralcommunity. com. Further information is
available at www.centralcommunity.com. In Palm Springs, the Aerial Tramway will offer modified menus for Thanksgiving and operate on a modified schedule over the holiday weekend. During the holiday weekend from Nov. 23-26, the first tram up will be at 8 a.m. and the last tram down will be at 9:30 p.m., according to tramway spokesperson Madison Morgan. Tram cars See Thanksgiving Page 31
Report holds Southern California Edison responsible for Fairview Fire By City News Service
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VOL. 7,
outhern California Edison is responsible for the 2022 Fairview Fire near Hemet which killed two people and burned more than 28,000 acres, according to a report published Wednesday. A report by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection obtained by the Washington Post determined that because of a sag in one of SCE’s electrical
lines near Fairview Avenue in Hemet, the wire came into contact with a communication line below it and caused a flurry of sparks, igniting flammable vegetation nearby. The report has not been made public. The California Public Utilities Commission encourages utilities to temporarily shut down power to specific areas at risk of a wildfire,
known as a public safety power shutoff. But despite the presence of strong winds and extreme heat conditions ripe for an inferno, the Cal Fire report said, SCE power lines remained energized that day, according to the Post. “It was determined the SCE energized overhead electrical line contacted a Frontier communication line that was suspended underneath the