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New California Law Holds Gun Makers Liable: “They Can No Longer Hide” | Page B1
REAL ESTATE | Page C2
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Thursday, July 14 - 20, 2022
Weather: 96o/60o | Volume IV | Issue XXVIII
A COMMUNITY
www.HSJChronicle.com |
B POLITICS
Soboba Fire Department Shares Fire Safety Tips
California blocks gun sales to those at risk of breaking law
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See more on page B1
D
HEALTH| Page D1
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C REAL ESTATE
Invitation Homes often skipped permits...
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HEMET, CA
Hemet City Council in Total Harmony and Agreement RUSTY STRAIT | SENIOR REPORTER
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his week’s Hemet City Council Meeting was primo from the opening gavel (on time, I might add). With the usual opening ceremonies, they got right down to business. Announcing that in closed session, the council voted 5-0 to settle an issue. Then came public comments. There were several, and they were passionate and pointed: 1. Rosie Roper spoke about the proposed Pickle Ball Court at Gibbel Park, stating that it would be a waste of money to have only two courts; that it would be more economical to have four because the sport is very popular in Hemet
and growing. 2. Stephen (last name not recalled) griped that his neighbor had a motor home with a trailer parked in his yard and that he reported it to code enforcement, etc., and nobody responded or did anything. He believes the neighbor is breaking the law. The council promised to look into it. 3. William Potts stated that his neighbor is housing a dog kennel with seven large dogs and assorted others. Drainage from the kennels drains into his yard, creating a terrible stink. Code enforcement no longer accepts his calls. He says that he and his wife (transplants from San Diego) are fed up. Councilman Males promised to go to the location himself.
4. Jerry Ann Franklin spoke about street lights that need to be installed at Meyer and Devonshire Avenue. Complimented the Hemet Police Department for keeping an eye on a homeless encampment behind Win-Co Grocery across the street from Hemet West Mobile Homes. 5. Andy Allen was somewhat irate that nobody was doing anything about sinking sidewalks on Florida Avenue and wanted to know whose responsibility it was to maintain and repair them? The city of Cal Trans. Council promised to look into it and said it would be helpful if he would provide what blocks on Florida were
See CITY COUNCIL on page C4
RIVERSIDE COUNTY
7-Eleven shooter ended a life that had just turned around AP NEWS | CONTRIBUTED
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PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID HEMET, CA PERMIT NO. 69 92543-9998
fter years of addiction, Matthew Hirsch was sober. He landed a stable job working overnight shifts at a 7-Eleven in Southern California, lived with his girlfriend in a nearby apartment and spoke to his father every day. Around 4:15 a.m. Monday, a masked shooter gunned down the 40-year-old clerk inside the convenience store. Authorities say it was one of six robberies by the same man at 7-Eleven stores across the region, senseless attacks that left two dead and three wounded. The tragedy left Hirsch’s father reeling on Tuesday. Jim Hirsch had long feared his son’s death would come from another heroin overdose. “I’d walk into his room at night and see needles,” Hirsch told The Associated Press. “Do I throw him out to die under a bridge? Or let him overdose in the house?” Still, he always had an opendoor policy for “Matt” at the home where his son grew up. Matt eventually sobered up as “he slowly straightened himself out” more
Around 4:15 a.m. Monday, a masked shooter gunned down the 40-year-old clerk inside the 7-Eleven. | Contributed Photo.
than a year ago, his father said. He began working at the 7-Eleven in Brea about six months ago, juggling his job and his recovery. Jim Hirsch was glad his son was employed but worried about him working alone late at night. “He hadn’t had time to enjoy a normal life,” his father said. “He goes through a struggle for goodness and it ends in a shooting.” The robberies occurred in a five-hour span early on Monday. Following the deadly robberies,
7-Eleven Inc. urged Los Angeles-area stores to close Monday and Tuesday nights for safety. Investigators aren’t sure what what led to Hirsch’s death in Brea, or what sparked the robberies in Ontario, Upland, Riverside, Santa Ana and La Habra. Riverside Police Officer Ryan Railsback said it doesn’t seem coincidental that 7-Eleven was targeted on July 11 — or 7/11, the day when the company celebrates its anniversary. Hirsch was shot to death after authorities believe the gunman earlier gravely wounded a customer in Riverside and then fatally shot Matthew Rule, 24, outside a Santa Ana store. After those three shootings, the suspect then shot two people at a store in La Habra before disappearing Rule’s aunt said his mother was too distraught Tuesday to speak to a reporter. Armed robberies also occurred at stores in Ontario and Upland shortly before the shootings. Authorities in those cities on Tuesday confirmed that the crimes they were investigating are linked to
See SHOOTER on page A4
Hemet city council meeting via Zoom - July 12, 2022. | Photo by Rusty Strait.
CALIFORNIA STATE
California Becomes First State to Move Back School Start Times SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA | CONTRIBUTED
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igh school and middle school classes in California will start later than ever when the school year begins this fall. That means that students (and the parents who schlep them to school) can look forward to a little extra sleep. In 2019, California legislators passed a first-of-its-kind law requiring that public high schools
begin classes no earlier than 8:30 a.m., and that middle schools start no earlier than 8 a.m. The law officially went into effect on July 1. Teenagers not only need as much as 10 hours of sleep each day, but shifts in their biological rhythms also make them become sleepy later. “Asking a teenager to be awake and trying to absorb information at 8:30 in the morning
See MOVE BACK SCHOOL on page A4
High school and middle school classes in California will start later than ever when the school year begins this fall. | Photo by Getty Images.
RIVERSIDE, CA
Report: Southern California county failed Turpin children AP NEWS | CONTRIBUTED
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he social services system “failed” 13 children who were rescued after being starved, shackled and horribly abused by their parents at a Southern California home for years, according to a report released Friday. Some of the Turpin children of Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, were forced to live with people who were later charged with child abuse and some of the adult siblings struggled to get money for housing and food, according to a 634-page report from a law firm hired by the county to investigate their care. The shocking abuse in the Turpin home went unnoticed in the community of Perris, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, until then17-year-old Jordan Turpin escaped in January 2018 and called police.
Photo Courtesy Billy Lambert.
When she escaped, Jordan told a sheriff ’s deputy that her sisters and brothers, who ranged in age from 2 to 29, had been starved, chained to beds and forced to live in squalor. The children slept during the day, were active a few hours at night and had minimal education.
Their parents, David and Louise Turpin, are serving sentences of 25 years to life in state prison. Last year, ABC News reported that most of the siblings received poor care after entering the child welfare system. “They have been victimized again by the system” and were
“living in squalor,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in the ABC documentary. “They’re living in crime-ridden neighborhoods. There’s money for their education. They can’t access it,” Hestrin said. After that report aired, Riverside County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen said his office had hired a law firm run by former federal Judge Stephen G. Larson to analyze the services provided and the quality of care they received. The report, which summarized findings of a months-long investigation, concluded that the county’s social services system was short-staffed and underfunded, leaving workers struggling with high caseloads that made it hard to ensure safety and care “for our most vulnerable populations.” It made several
See TURPIN CHILDREN on page A4
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