B
State ponders prison closures, as inmate population drops | Page B1
Weather: 96o/69o | Volume IV | Issue XXXI
A NEWS
Soboba Students Recognized for Academic Achievements
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C
REAL ESTATE | Page C2
Thursday, August 4 - 10, 2022
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www.HSJChronicle.com |
WORLD NEWS | Page D1
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D WORLD NEWS
A FAITH
Biden: Killing of al-Qaida leader is long-sought ‘justice’
CLERGY CORNER: These
Are a Few of My Fakery Things
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HEMET, CA
San Jacinto City Council Meeting RUSTY STRAIT | SENIOR REPORTER
T
he San Jacinto City Council was late starting their meeting this week. Mayor Crystal Ruiz called the meeting to order at about 6:45 PM. She gaveled it closed at 7:36, less than an hour later. They set a record as the shortest meeting anyone can remember. They always seem to take care of matters before a meeting and usually do not discuss items on the consent calendar. Three members would have recused themselves if three different items were pulled, but none were and the Consent Calendar was passed with those exceptions. If a nearby community could do so well. But this is about San Jacinto. After the preliminaries, the Mayor called for Public Comments and boy were they ever forthcoming and direct. Mayor Ruiz prefaced the public
not to accept comments from the Council but assured them that staff would be handling their requests. 1. Clementine Morris - has issues with the homeless near State Street and Ramona. She said it is rife with panhandlers, etc., and there is a mounting amount of unsightly trash and debris and she would like the city to do something about it. 2. EMWD representative discussed the progress of a pipeline at Esplanade and south from there. 3. Julie Ann - Says she is new to the Council Meetings. She complained that code enforcement had stifled her plans. She went on with her complaints and when her 3 minutes were up she requested more time. The Mayor assured her that someone would contact her and address all her complaints and issues. She said she hoped so because, “My issue is urgent.”
4. Marcie - Loves the community and wants the City Council to work hard to improve conditions in the city. 5. Mr. Ortiz seems to be a city employee. He says he has worked on the Community Garden and other community efforts to beautify the city. 6. Joe - Clerk for the city and meets people all day, every day who come into his place of employment. Seems to have a beef over a contract, claiming that the city is dragging its feet and should come to the bargaining table and stop fiddling around. 7. Lynne Peterson - A wellknown citizen who contributed a lot to the valley and she is complaining about trash pickup, or the lack thereof near Old Mountain Road. She said she had reported it to no avail and now the winds have tossed it about so that the whole area looks somewhat like a garbage dump. Her final words to the Council were,
“Please pick up the trash.” 8. Debra - Had more than a little to say about the Ramona Bowl Board of Directors, and none of it was positive. She said they are intentionally rude and nasty, and with the Ramona Pagent approaching 100 years in 2023, that the Board should get rid of the two-weekend productions and go back to the three weekends as it has always been in the past. She said the valley should clean the house, attend the board meeting the following evening and get rid of the current Board because they have no leadership. “The players,” she said, “perform for free and do so because they love the play and this valley.” She reminded the Council that the election was the following day and urged them to show up en masse. 9. Lori Jo Van Arsdale - one of the most prolific speakers this valley has ever seen, took to the floor and defended the
Rusty Strait, Senior Reporter for the HSJC. | File Photo
past handling of events at the Bowl. “I was on the Hemet City Council for 17 years and also a member of the Ramona Pageant Board for many years. The current Board cut down the Pageant to two weekends and it was the wrong thing to do. The third weekend was all profit because we brought people from all over the United States as well as California and Canada. I urge you to demand the Board to bring back the third weekend because our business community booms
See CITY COUNCIL on page B4
CALIFORNIA STATE
Senate Sends Honoring our PACT Act to President’s Desk with Ruiz-Authored Provisions
Legislative package includes Dr. Ruiz’s priority to establish a presumption of service connection between veterans’ burn pit exposure and their health KELLY O’KEEFFE | CONTRIBUTED
O
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID HEMET, CA PERMIT NO. 69 92543-9998
n August 2nd, the U.S. Senate passed the Sergeant First Class Heath Robison Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022, sending it to President Biden’s desk for signature. At the heart of the legislative package are provisions authored by Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D. (CA-36) to establish a presumption of service connection for 23 conditions, including respiratory conditions and cancers for approximately 3.5 million veterans who were exposed to burn pits and other airborne
hazards. Dr. Ruiz, the founder and cochair of the Congressional Burn Pits Caucus, has helped lead the charge in Congress to address the military’s use of toxic burn pits since the death of his constituent, Jennifer Kepner, an Air Force medic from Cathedral City, CA who died from pancreatic cancer that was linked to her burn pit exposure overseas. “Today is a victorious day for our nation’s veterans. In memory of Cathedral City veteran Jennifer Kepner, I have fought tooth and nail to get veterans the presumptive benefits and care they need, earned, and deserve,” said Dr. Ruiz. “With the Honoring our
PACT Act now on its way to the President’s desk, we will finally recognize Jennifer’s vision for her fellow veterans. I urge President Biden to swiftly sign the PACT Act into law! Our veterans have waited for too long.” The Honoring our PACT Act also includes language from the Congressman’s bill, the Jennifer Kepner HOPE Act, to expand eligibility for care to veterans who participated in a toxic exposure risk activity while serving on active duty, active duty for training, or inactive duty training. The legislative package is now on its way to President Biden’s desk after Senate Republicans blocked final passage last week.
Heath Robinson. of Pickerington, died from cancer in 2020 after being exposed to toxic smoke from trash burning pits during his deployment to the Middle East. | Photo Contributed via Columbus Dispatch/Doral Chenoweth.
SAN JACINTO, CA
Suspect Nancy Wischmeyer arrested for the murder of her sister and attempted murder of the sister’s wife
RUSTY STRAIT | SENIOR REPORTER
A
murder always makes good copy, but when it happens in one's own orbit, that's something else again. Every Friday night I have dinner with my friends at their home located on North Meridian Street in San Jacinto. We spend the rest of the evenings playing UNO. Sometimes we are joined by their next-door neighbors, a married couple. One can only imagine my shock when my friend phoned me and said there had been a shooting next door. As a reporter, such information is like money in the bank. This was different. These things don't happen in your personal circle. So far, here is what I've managed to dig up. On Monday morning, my friend's neighbors were tending
their small vegetable garden in the backyard. Monday evening, one was flat on her back in the hospital. Her spouse was lying stone cold dead in the Riverside County Morgue. It was deemed to be domestic violence since the dead woman's relative had been living with them for a while and apparently, friction took over, resulting in violence and death. The suspect shot and killed her sister and wounded the spouse. She will recover. We read about shootings all of the time. Domestic violence is the primary cause of death by gunfire. The public only takes notice when there are numerous deaths, as in Uvalde, Texas. When several hundred die from across the country individually, it doesn't have the impact that a mass shooting has and I must admit that we, the media, blow everything gigantic out of
Deputies detained 67-year-old Nancy Wischmeyer, a San Jacinto resident, as the suspect in the shooting. | Photo by Riverside County Sheriff's Department.
proportion. Headlines sell papers, but wait a minute folks. Gun violence in a quiet, middle-classed neighborhood brings immediate repercussions. When bright red lights, sirens, a helicop-
ter and yellow tape are what you are faced with when you open the door, you are not dealing with some cross-town incident. This is happening in your front yard and you have reason to be confused and concerned. What you normally are greeted with at 9 AM are baby strollers and dog walkers, which make your neighborhood akin to that of Mr. Rogers - but not today. It is not their heritage. Now, one sister will probably die in prison while the other will be preparing for a funeral. Guns are lethal and there is rarely any time when they are necessary to protect yourself in the home. But it does happen and one should know something about gun safety. These incidents remind us that guns kill. That is their primary function and we
See MURDER on page C4
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