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Dear Abby Advice | Page B2
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10 things to do in the Coachella Valley this week, Sept. 19-25 | Page C1
Weather: 93o/63o | Volume IV | Issue XXXVIII
Thursday, September 22 - 28, 2022
A FAITH
| $2.00 (Tax Incl.)
D CALIFORNIA
CA governor signs sweeping climate legislation See more on page D1
How Biden Harms American Families
See more on page B1
See more on page A4
CALIFORNIA | Page D1
www.HSJChronicle.com |
B EDITORIAL
CLERGY CORNER Freedom’s Stubborn DNA
D
GAS PRICES
US gas prices tick up, ending 99-day streak of lower costs
DAVID KOENIG AND MICHELLE CHAPMAN | AP NEWS
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99-day run of falling gasoline prices — a streak that gave consumers a glimmer of hope that red-hot inflation might be cooling — has ended, with pump prices still much higher than a year ago. The nationwide average price for a gallon ticked up less than a penny Wednesday, to $3.68 a gallon, according to AAA. That’s down from the record $5.02 average in mid-June. The question now is whether Wednesday’s increase is just a blip or the
precursor to the return of higher prices. The answer matters to motorists and to President Joe Biden, who has taken credit for driving prices lower by releasing millions of barrels of oil from the nation’s reserves. The 14-week decline in prices was the longest streak since 2015. Gasoline prices mostly reflect trends in global oil prices, and crude — both the U.S. benchmark and the international Brent — have been slumping since mid-June on growing fears of a global recession that would reduce demand for energy. Many energy analysts believe that prices
WILL PRICES RISE OR FALL?: A driver delivers 8,500 gallons of gasoline at an ARCO gas station in Riverside, California earlier this year.| Courtesy photo of Politico.com are more likely to rise than fall in the next few months. However, changes in sentiment about the economy, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and
even hurricane season — always a threat to disrupt refineries along the Gulf Coast — make predictions uncertain. “I suspect that we will
see choppy prices for gasoline through year end, with some down days and up days,” said Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service. He predicted that the next streak will be a run of price increases early next year, driven by investors, speculators and “the fear that there won’t be enough fuel to go around.” Phil Flynn, an analyst with the Price Futures Group, said prices will head higher once withdrawals from U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve — a million barrels per day for six months — end this fall. “The market is going to start pricing that in, and
refiners are not going to be getting this cheap oil from the reserve,” Flynn said. “The odds are we’ll see a significant price spike of oil come winter.” Some businesses, such as airlines, have been able to pass higher fuel prices on to their customers. Others haven’t been able to do that. “We haul for farmers, and we can’t raise (prices) for the farmer because they are struggling too,” said Mike Mitchell, part owner of Mitchell Milk Hauling, which carries about 10 million pounds of milk a year from farms in northwestern Pennsyl-
See GAS on page C4
RIVERSIDE COUNTY'S
Unemployment Rate Edges Up The jobless rate in August, based on preliminary EDD estimates, was 4.3%, up from 4% in July. CNS | CONTRIBUTED
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ains in some sectors of the regional economy were outweighed by losses in others, pushing Riverside County's unemployment rate higher last month, according to figures released Friday by the California Employment Development Department. The jobless rate in August, based on preliminary EDD estimates, was 4.3%, up from 4% in July. According to figures, the August rate was more than three percentage points lower than the year-ago level, when countywide unemployment stood at 7.5%, as the statewide coronavirus pub-
lic health closures were gradually eased. An estimated 49,900 county residents were recorded as out of work in August, and 1,115,600 were employed, according to EDD. Coachella had the highest unemployment rate countywide last month at 11.5%, followed by Cherry Valley at 8%, Mecca at 6.9%, Rancho Mirage at 6.5%, and Indio at 6.4%. The combined unemployment rate for Riverside and San Bernardino counties in August was 4.2%, up from 4% in July, according to figures. Bi-county data indicated payrolls expanded by the widest margins in the public, professional
business services and health services sectors, which altogether swelled by 9,500 positions last month. Additional gains were documented in the hospitality and warehousing sectors, which grew by an aggregate 1,900 jobs. Payrolls declined in the agricultural, construction, financial services, information technology, manufacturing and mining sectors, which lost a total 4,600 positions. Miscellaneous unclassified industries also shed about 900 jobs, according to the EDD. Data indicated that the statewide non-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in August was 4.1%.
JOBLESS: The combined unemployment rate for Riverside and San Bernardino counties in August was 4.2%, up from 4% in July, according to figures. | Courtesy Photo of Shutterstock
Noli Indian School Graduates Return to Campus to Help Educate SOBOBA BAND OF LUISEÑO INDIANS | CONTRIBUTED
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hen Vanessa Fernandez and Shania House graduated from Noli Indian School on the Soboba Indian Reservation in June of 2021, they were ranked first and second in their senior class of 13. As valedictorian, Fernandez spoke at commencement of looking forward to the opportunity to further her education to advance herself with integrity and dignity as she continues to honor her Indigenous heritage. Salutatorian House shared that she learned that hard work pays off and encouraged her classmates to never stop believing in themselves and never stop working towards their dreams. The cousins, both members of the Navajo Nation, are in their second year of college. Fernandez is studying Sociology with an emphasis on Native Studies at UC, Berkeley and House is a psychology major at UC, Irvine. About a year and a half ago, they began to collaborate on a project that is of
great importance to them as Native American women. With the help of funding from Thriving Women Fellowship sponsored by the 7th Generation Fund, they began researching the plight of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Having recently completed a PowerPoint presentation on the subject, Fernandez and House visited their alma mater to educate current students on the problem and what they can possibly do to help. “This was a personal project, but it was supported by my studies at the university,” Fernandez said. “Shania and I work well together and have the same goals so we’ve been working on this project together since application.” They describe MMIW as an epidemic of disproportionate violence against Indigenous women in the Americas, whereas Indigenous women and girls are irregularly the victims of femicide, which is the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female. “Noli is the first school we’ve presented at and was our target audience,” Fernandez said. “This
STATISTICS: Shania House explains some of the alarming statistics she uncovered during the grant-funded research she and Vanessa Fernandez conducted for their presentation on the MMIW crisis. | Courtesy Photos of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians
was more of a longitudinal study to present our research through scholarship and our school’s teachings as well as amplify our existing knowledge. It is a project to further expand on communal knowledge on MMIW. Statistics are important, however, they were not our main research goal, as it is a qualitative study.” Although living miles away from one another, Fernandez and House communicated consistently through all forms of media, but phone was the most used. Oc-
casionally, Fernandez would fly down to Southern California for in-person meetings. Students from each high school grade level had the opportunity to attend one of the 45-minute sessions held throughout the morning of Sept. 16 in the classroom of Lorin Alvarez, who oversees the school’s AVID program. Titled “MMIW: Rooted in Colonization” the “fundamental theme proposed within this proj
See MMIW on page D4