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California considers a shortened, 32-hour workweek | Page B1
Weather: 74o/44o | Volume IV | Issue XV
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REAL ESTATE | Page C2
Thursday, April 14 - 20, 2022
A FAITH
Clergy Corner: Beware…the Hippo!
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B POLITICS
Russia war a ‘genocide,’ trying to ‘wipe out’ Ukraine
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BUSINESS | Page D1
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B OPINION
Newsom’s gas rebate would stymie state’s climate goals
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NATIONAL
US inflation jumped 8.5% in past year, highest since 1981 PAUL WISEMAN, ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, MAE ANDERSON | AP NEWS
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Lots of interactive play was offered at the Autism Acceptance Marketplace at the old Soboba Casino on April 3. | Photos courtesy of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians.
SAN JACINTO, CA.
Gasoline prices rocketed 48% in the past 12 months. Used car prices have soared 35%, though they actually fell in February and March. Bedroom furniture is up 14.7%, men’s suits and coats 14.5%. Grocery prices have jumped 10%, including 18% increases for both bacon and oranges. | Photo by Getty Images.
ing Western sanctions against the Russian economy and disrupted food and energy markets. According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of gasoline — $4.10 — is up 43% from a year ago, though it’s dipped in the past couple of weeks. The acceleration of inflation has occurred against the backdrop of a booming job market and a solid overall economy. In March, employers adding a robust 431,000 jobs — the 11th straight month in which they’ve added at least 400,000. For 2021, they added 6.7 million jobs, the most in any year on record. In addition, job openings are near record highs, layoffs are at their lowest point since 1968 and the unemployment rate is just above a half-century low. The escalation of energy prices, a potential threat to the economy’s long-term durability, has led to higher transportation costs for the shipment of goods across the economy, which, in turn, has contributed to higher prices for consumers. The squeeze is being felt particularly hard at the gas pump. “That’s an extra dollar per gallon that I’m paying to get into the city to work,” Jason Emerson of Oakland, California, said as he loaded groceries into his car. “And then, you know, we have the tolls that just went up this past year a
dollar. My eggs are a dollar more as well. So everything’s going up at least a dollar, which, you know, adds up.” The latest inflation numbers solidify expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates aggressively in the coming months to try to slow borrowing and spending and tame inflation. Kathy Bostjancic, an economist at Oxford Economics, said she expects year-over-year inflation to hit 9% in May and then begin “a slow descent.” Some other economists, too, suggest that inflation is at or near its peak. With federal stimulus aid having expired, consumer demand could flag as wages fall behind inflation, households drain more of their savings and the Fed sharply raises rates, all of which could combine to slow inflation. But that could take time. Robust spending, steady pay raises and chronic supply shortages are still fueling inflation. In addition, housing costs, which make up about a third of the consumer price index, have escalated, a trend that seems unlikely to reverse anytime soon. Economists note that as the economy has emerged from the depths of the pandemic, consum-
See INFLATION on page B4
Autism Acceptance Marketplace at Soboba Welcomes Families for a Fun Day Out SOBOBA BAND OF LUISEÑO INDIANS | CONTRIBUTED
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pril is Autism Acceptance month and to help families who have children with special needs, Loren “Nena” Davila and Antiana Briones of Suvóova Sweet Treats teamed up to host a marketplace at the old Soboba Casino on April 3. “We wanted to put together an event to show that it’s important to treat everybody the same; no one should ever be treated as being less because they are autistic or anything else,” Briones, of Soboba, said. Davila’s 14-year-old son, Adrian, was diagnosed at the age of 3. “We had no idea what autism was and the community didn’t have a lot of resources,” she said. “I joined a lot of Facebook groups and started getting more involved and learning more about the topic. I also started a small business of my own so I could be a stay-at-home mom.” “Nena’s” are sweet treats of common favorite gummy-style candies that she coats with her special secret recipe to make them moister and tastier. Davila, of Hemet, said she has hosted small events to help promote autism acceptance and spread awareness but was happy to partner with Suvóova Sweet Treats to have such a large-scale event at Soboba. She has more than 13,000 followers on her social media platforms and
Loren “Nena” Davila and her sister, Jerelly Saucedo, at left, assist customers at their candy booth at the Autism Acceptance Marketplace.
many were excited to hear about the marketplace. Jazmine Carmona of San Jacinto attended with a large support group of family members for her 3-yearold son, Jayden Gaarde, who was diagnosed when he was two and a half. “He was walking on his tippy toes and not paying attention,” she said. “I was arguing with the doctors who didn’t think anything was wrong and I’ve been fighting for him ever since.” Carmona lets her family members know everything she is teach-
See SOBOBA on page C4
SAN JACINTO, CA.
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID HEMET, CA PERMIT NO. 69 92543-9998
nflation soared over the past year at its fastest pace in more than 40 years, with costs for food, gasoline, housing and other necessities squeezing American consumers and wiping out the pay raises that many people have received. The Labor Department said Tuesday that its consumer price index jumped 8.5% in March from 12 months earlier, the sharpest year-over-year increase since 1981. Prices have been driven up by bottlenecked supply chains, robust consumer demand and disruptions to global food and energy markets worsened by Russia’s war against Ukraine. From February to March, inflation rose 1.2%, the biggest month-tomonth jump since 2005. Gasoline prices drove more than half that increase. Across the economy, the yearover-year price spikes were widespread. Gasoline prices rocketed 48% in the past 12 months. Used car prices have soared 35%, though they actually fell in February and March. Bedroom furniture is up 14.7%, men’s suits and coats 14.5%. Grocery prices have jumped 10%, including 18% increases for both bacon and oranges. Investors focused on a bright spot in the report and sent stock prices up: So-called core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose just 0.3% from February to March, the smallest monthly rise since September. Over the past year, though, core prices are up 6.5%, the most since 1982. “The inflation fire is still out of control, said Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at the research firm FWDBONDS LLC. The March inflation numbers were the first to fully capture the surge in gasoline prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Moscow’s attacks have triggered far-reach-
MSJC Art Gallery Hosts Online Art Talk with Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello MSJC | CONTRIBUTED Inside Dollar Tree Store locations ahead of earnings figures. | Courtesy Photo.
RIVERSIDE COUNTY
Consumer Prices See Double-Digit Rise Throughout Riverside Area CNS | CONTRIBUTED
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rices for goods and services climbed 2.7% throughout the Riverside metropolitan area in the last two months, outpacing surges nationwide and raising pocketbook pressure locally by an estimated 10% in the last year, federal officials said Tuesday. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statis-
tics’ bimonthly Consumer Price Index for the Riverside area showed that, like the rest of the country, energy prices — mainly gasoline — were the main driver behind inflation, with a 15.3% jump in February and March in the metro area, which covers northwestern Riverside County, as well as the cit-
See PRICES on page A4
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he Mt. San Jacinto College (MSJC) Art Gallery is pleased to welcome the public to its next online Art Talk on April 14, featuring Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, a design, architecture, artist, and activist duo based in the Bay Area. The MSJC Art Talk, generously sponsored by the MSJC Foundation, will take place from 1 to 2 p.m. April 14. Details are available at www.msjc.edu/artgallery. Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello's work ranges from the political to the playful and often a combination of both. Last year, they won the Design of the Year Award from London’s Design Museum for their hot pink teeter-totter on the Mexico/United States
border wall. The duo draws, builds, 3D prints, teach, and write about architecture and design as a cultural endeavor deeply influenced by craft traditions and contemporary technologies. They are the founding partners in the Oakland-based make-tank Emerging Objects. Wired magazine writes of their innovations, “while others busy themselves trying to prove that it’s possible to 3-D print a house, Rael and San Fratello are occupied with trying to design one people would actually want to live in.” They also speculate about the social agency of design, particularly along the border between the U.S. and Mexico, in their studio RAEL SAN FRATELLO. You can see their
See MSJC on page C4