Riverside gang member sentenced for meth trafficking
DHS councilman, mayoral candidate accused of vandalism, false imprisonment
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Thursday, November 21-November 27, 2024
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Medina declares victory in Riverside County board race; Roth concedes By Joe Taglieri joet@beaconmedianews.com
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ormer Assemblyman Jose Medina has declared victory over state Sen. Richard Roth in the race for a Riverside County Board of Supervisors, becoming the board's first Latino member. The two Riverside Democrats were competing for the District 1 post currently held by longtime Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, who is retiring. Medina added to his lead following the conclusion of vote counting Monday night. The latest tally showed Medina just over 1% ahead, expanding his lead to 1,509 votes, or 50.6% to 49.4%, according to the Riverside County Registrar of Voters' Office. Monday's total was 67,413-65,904. An estimated 44,600 vote-by-mail and provi-
Former Assemblyman Jose Medina and the soon-to-be 1st District Riverside County supervisor. | Photo courtesy Jose Medina for Riverside County District 1/Facebook
sional ballots in the county have yet to be processed. The next vote-count update
was scheduled for Tuesday evening. Roth had a nearly 10%
vote cushion on election night last week. His lead dissipated each day since
then, and on Nov. 12 the night's vote tally showed Medina ahead by 0.3%.
Medina's lead has increased steadily since then. "It is deeply meaningful to me to become the first Latino Supervisor to represent our area of the county," Medina said in a statement on Friday. "I am excited to get to work and look forward to uniting our community to achieve meaningful oversight of the Sheriff’s Department, address the homelessness and housing crisis, protect our environment, and expand economic and educational opportunities for everyone in Riverside County." Roth issued a statement conceding the race to Medina. "Although there are votes that remain to be counted, it See Supervisor Page 28
Agency's debatable weather modification project on hold for winter season
Thousands of UC patient care, service workers strike Wednesday, Thursday
By Paul J. Young, City News Service
By City News Service
A
weather modification program that utilizes "cloud seeding" to, ideally, increase precipitation and generate more water for the Santa Ana River Watershed will not be restarted until a year from Friday, though the debate over whether the program has value, or potentially negative impacts, will likely continue. The Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, a multi-agency cooperative that focuses on groundwater management in the Inland
Empire and elsewhere, initiated its "Cloud Seeding Pilot Project" last November, deploying dispersal units in select locations to pump out streams of silver iodide when storms arrive, with the goal of producing up to 15% more precipitation than might otherwise fall in the region. "The water supply benefits in recharging groundwater occurs in both wet and dry years," SAWPA General
Manager Jeff Mosher told City News Service. "Additional precipitation benefits soil moisture in forested areas and habitats due to additional stream flows." The $1.2 million program, paid for in part by a California Department of Water Resources grant, was inaugurated on Nov. 15, 2023, following feasibility studies and a California Environmental Quality Act report that found no signifi-
See Weather project Page 13
T
housands of patient care and service workers at UC Riverside and other University of California campuses across the state began a two-day strike Wednesday, alleging unfair bargaining tactics, allegations the UC system denies. According to the AFSCME Local 3299 union, the strike includes roughly 37,000 UC workers "at every UC campus and medical facility across the state." The strike began at midnight Wednesday and
continues until midnight Thursday night. Picketing both days will be from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. "The University's serial lawbreaking at the bargaining table means that the epidemic of understaffing at UC facilities, and the related cost of living and housing affordability crises plaguing frontline UC workers are only getting worse," AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant See Strike Page 27
said in a statement. "By failing to meet its most basic legal responsibilities to the dedicated professionals who clean its facilities, serve students food, and treat its patients, UC has left workers with no choice but to exercise their legal right to strike." The UC system issued a statement earlier this month when the strike notice was issued, saying officials "fundamentally