Legendary Memorial Day motorcycle ride returns to Riverside
Suspect in 2020 armed robbery gets 4 years in state prison
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Local. Relevant. Trusted.
Thursday, June 01-June 07, 2023
VOL. 9,
NO. 123
Corona seventh grader advances to national spelling bee quarterfinals By City News Service
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seventh grader from Corona advanced to the quarterfinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee Tuesday, following in the footsteps of his two older sisters. In the first round, Avijeet S. Randhawa correctly spelled cacaxte, a square wooden packing frame or crate that has four legs and a net cover and is carried on the back, especially by Guatemalan Indians with the help of a tumpline, according to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary, the bee's official dictionary. The Auburndale Inter-
mediate School student then correctly answered his multiple-choice word meaning question, "An osteopath is a type of:" correctly selecting medical practitioner. In the third round Tuesday afternoon, the 12-year-old correctly spelled transitory, an adjective meaning of brief duration. When the bee resumes at 5 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time Wednesday at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, Avijeet will be among 121 spellers competing from the original field of 231 spellers from all 50 states,
the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, the Bahamas, Germany and Ghana. There were 59 spellers eliminated in the first round, 33 in the second and 19 in the third. Avijeet will be the eighth speller to compete Wednesday. The quarterfinals are scheduled for 5-9:45 a.m., followed by the semifinals from 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be streamed on spellingbee.com, ION Plus and Bounce XL. A special two-hour semifinal broadcast will air from 5-7
Avijeet Randhawa. | Photo courtesy of the Corona-Norco Unified School District/YouTube
p.m. on ION and Bounce. The finals will be held Thursday. Avijeet qualified for the national bee by winning by
the Riverside County bee, correctly spelling forbs, a plant species, as the final word. Avijeet's sister Aisha competed in the national
bee from 2016-19, tying for seventh in the 2018 bee. See Bee quarterfinals Page 44
Man's trial in fatal Cathedral City shooting gets underway By Kristy Ramirez, City News Service
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San Bernardino man fatally shot a man outside a Cathedral City home in 2019 and left him screaming in pain in the street over stolen property, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday, but a defense attorney insisted that his client was wrongly accused and, in a haze of chaos,
shot the decedent to avoid getting shot himself. Christian Isaiah Jimenez, 24, is charged with one felony count of murder in the Aug. 19, 2019, shooting death of 21-year-old Alberto Rafael Sosa Alvarez. He additionally faces a sentence-enhancing allegation of discharging a firearm
causing great bodily injury. Deputy District Attorney Jenna Barsamian told jurors during opening statements Tuesday morning at the Larson Justice Center that on the night of Aug. 18, 2019, the defendant went to a small party in Cathedral City with around six people unknown to the girl who
was hosting the gathering. At some point, Jimenez excused himself to go to the bathroom and when the girl saw the light on in her parents' room she went to check on him, Barsamian said. She saw the defendant and one his friends holding a pair of her dad's pants and believed they were stealing
property. The two fled the scene as she screamed to alert the other guests about what just happened, Barsamian said. The defendant returned to the home two times, once to pick up two friends and again shortly after midnight Aug. 19, 2019, when he made it known that he
was armed and the victim started approaching him. "The defendant issued a warning, 'Ima pop you, get back,' and then he started to count like he was a parent disciplining a child," Barsamian told jurors. "Then See Cathedral City shooting Page 44
Riverside Art Museum to receive nation's highest honor for community service By City News Service
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he Riverside Art Museum is one of two Southern California institutions that will be honored this summer with a 2023 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. It will join the Los Angeles County Library
system among the eight recipients of the nation's highest honor for museum and library services. The medals have been presented for the past 29 years by the Washington, D.C., based Institute of Museum and Library Services to celebrate insti-
tutions that are making a difference for individuals, families and communities. This year's recipients were selected from among 30 national finalists "that provide dynamic programming and services that exceed expected levels of service," Institute Director
Crosby Kemper said. "Through their community outreach, these institutions bring about change that touches the lives of individuals and helps communities thrive. "Riverside Art Museum integrates art into the lives of people in a way
that engages, inspires, and builds community through thought-provoking exhibits and art classes that instill a lifelong love of the arts. The museum values art education as well as exhibitions and collections and aims to uplift untold stories." The museum was formed
in the early 1950s by a loose-knit group of artists and formally opened in 1967 in a building designed by award winning architect Julia Morgan. A second outlet, The Cheech Marin Center for See Art Museum Page 21