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Wildfires burning in Riverside County scorch over 3,100 acres By Joe Taglieri joet@beaconmedianews.com
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wo active wildfires in Riverside County on Wednesday have burned more than 3,100 acres, threatening thousands of structures and prompting evacuations. The Wolf Fire in Banning grew to 2,414 acres by Tuesday morning, with firefighters achieving 40% containment, according to Cal Fire. The fire started Sunday just after 3 p.m. near Old Banning Idyllwild Road and Wolfskill Truck Trail. Road closures and evacuation orders and warnings remained in effect for an area south of the 10 Freeway and east of State Route 79. "Cooler temperatures and higher humidity (Monday) night allowed firefighters to secure the majority of Highway 243 and the
southern part of the fire that was threatening our forest," San Bernardino National Forest officials reported Tuesday. Crews were contending with "steep, rugged terrain," according to the Riverside County Fire Department, which is affiliated with the state agency Cal Fire. "Firefighters worked hard reinforcing current containment lines," Cal Fire reported Tuesday night. "Despite the steep and rocky terrain, the ongoing efforts of ground forces lead to increased containment. Unburned pockets of vegetation inside the perimeter continue to burn, producing some smoke. The anticipated weather changes will make favorable conditions for ground forces improving and extending containment lines
Wolf Fire flames engulf a hillside near Banning on Sunday evening. | Photo courtesy of @RandomNetNerd/X
throughout the night." Numerous air tankers
from throughout the state flew firefighting missions.
Personnel fighting the blaze totaled 1,098 Wednesday morning, with 31 crews, 100 engines, 9 dozers and 15 water tenders, according to Cal Fire. An evacuation shelter was established at Hemet High School, 41701 Stetson Ave., and a shelter for animals is at the county's San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus, 581 S. Grand Ave. Three firefighters suffered non-life-threatening injuries. No structures were damaged as of Wednesday morning, but 4,261 were threatened, Cal Fire reported. The cause of the fire was under investigation. Juniper Fire The Juniper fire in Mead Valley had consumed 755 acres as of Wednesday morning, with containment
jumping from 30% to 95% from Tuesday, officials said. All evacuation warnings and orders were lifted. The blaze damaged several rural structures after starting around 11:20 a.m. Monday south of Ann Way and Juniper Road. Numerous engine and hand crews from Riverside County, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and other agencies Tuesday were battling the fire that was moving at a moderate rate in light brush to the southeast, according to Cal Fire. Crews managed to stop the fire's forward progress and begin establishing containment lines. "Firefighters worked throughout (Monday) night See Wildfires Page 12
Kristi Noem secretly took a cut of political donations By Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica 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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n 2023, while Kristi Noem was governor of South Dakota, she supplemented her income by secretly accepting a cut of the money she raised for a nonprofit that promotes her political career, tax records show. In what experts described as a highly unusual arrangement, the nonprofit routed funds to a personal company of Noem’s that had recently been established in Delaware. The payment totaled $80,000 that year, a significant boost to her roughly $130,000
government salary. Since the nonprofit is a so-called dark money group — one that’s not required to disclose the names of its donors — the original source of the money remains unknown. Noem then failed to disclose the $80,000 payment to the public. After President Donald Trump selected Noem to be his secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, she had to release a detailed accounting of her assets and sources of income from
Then Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem speaking with attendees at The People’s Convention at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan. | Photo by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0
2023 on. She did not include the income from the dark
money group on her disclosure form, which experts
called a likely violation of federal ethics requirements. Experts told ProPublica it was troubling that Noem was personally taking money that came from political donors. In a filing, the group, a nonprofit called American Resolve Policy Fund, described the $80,000 as a payment for fundraising. The organization said Noem had brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
There is nothing remarkable about a politician raising money for nonprofits and other groups that promote their campaigns or agendas. What’s unusual, experts said, is for a politician to keep some of the money for themselves. “If donors to these nonprofits are not just holding the keys to an elected official’s political future but also literally providing them with their income,
See Political donations Page 23