W e e k l y RIALTO RECORD
Vol 24, NO. 15
November 13, 2025
Inland Empire Music Awards Turn Unsung Local Artists into Headliners
IECN.com
Alder Square Breaks Ground, Adding 92 Affordable Homes in San Bernardino’s Arrowhead Grove Pg. 4
San Bernardino Veterans Day Salute Adds Resource Fair, Honors Hometown Heroes With Special Challenge Coins
PHOTO MANNY SANDOVAL Kyiemaa accepts the Untapped Artist of the Year award during the Empire Now Awards at the Garcia Center for the Arts.
By Manny Sandoval
T
he Garcia Center for the Arts looked and felt like a hometown Grammys on Saturday, Nov. 8, as Only Empire Now rolled out an over-the-top red carpet for its 3rd Annual Inland Empire Music Awards, celebrating nine winners and dozens of nominees who are reshaping the region’s music scene. Artists arrived in full glam, stopping for interviews and photos on a packed red carpet before stepping into the auditorium to perform and accept awards. Riverside artist
PHOTO MANNY SANDOVAL From left, artists Pak Joko and Jay Kasai pose at the Inland Empire Music Awards on Nov. 8.
Kyiemaa was named Untapped Artist of the Year, and local viral sensation Pak Joko took home Song of the Year for his breakout track “IE IE,” underscoring the event’s mix of new voices and already buzzing acts. For co-founder and awards show visionary Jay Kasai, the night was the realization of a vision he wrote in a notebook nearly a decade ago — one born from the absence of recognition for working musicians. “I got a trophy for film. I got a trophy for tennis and other things,” Kasai said. “I've been doing music since I was 16, and I've
never gotten recognition for it. I thought, okay, we’re missing something.” “So I decided to build a platform that would give other artists — even if I can't participate — a chance to have that void filled,” he added. “Only Empire Now is founded on that principle: making sure other artists won't face the same issue.” Kasai, who manages “all graphic design, all curation, music entertainer outreach,” and calls himself “probably the most ingrained in the community as far as musiMusic Awards, cont. on next pg.
California Governor Candidates Face Off in Inland Empire on Healthcare Access, Housing, $9 Gas, Billionaire Tax Breaks, and Trump
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PHOTO MANNY SANDOVAL California Governor candidates Xavier Becerra (left) and Tony Thurmond (right) respond to a pointed question on whether they would support legislation to require billionaires to pay their fair share in taxes.
By Manny Sandoval
F
our candidates vying to be California’s next governor faced off at UC Riverside in a highstakes forum that peeled back the political gloss and laid bare the urgency of a state in crisis. From health equity to housing, tax reform to homelessness, and how to navi-
PHOTO MANNY SANDOVAL Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa speaks as former State Controller Betty Yee listens during a segment on healthcare equity and structural poverty.
gate the Trump Administration, the 2026 contenders didn’t hold back—and neither did the audience. More than 300 Inland Empire residents packed into the auditorium for Health Matters: A Conversation with Our Next Governor, a nonpartisan forum hosted by a coalition of 11 health-focused foundations
and livestreamed statewide by NBC4 and Telemundo 52. The November 7 event was co-moderated by NBC4 anchor Colleen Williams and Black Voice News publisher Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds, who led a rapid-fire round of questions across five urgent topics: healthcare, taxes, the econoGovernor’s Forum, cont. on next pg.