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The importance of pets in your life | Page B2
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Where To Find Pumpkin Patches, Halloween Fun Near Temecula | Page C2
Weather: 92o/61o | Volume IV | Issue XXXV
A FAITH
Thursday, October 6, - 12 2022
Chad Bianco-High Praises from Low Places
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WORLD | Page D1
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Brittney Griner appeal date for Oct. 25 See more on page D1
BIKE AND TRAIL UPDATES
Temecula's 17-Mile Bike/Pedestrian Loop Around City Closer To Finish PATCH.COM | CONTRIBUTED
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n Saturday, the city of Temecula celebrated the Santa Gertrudis Creek Interconnect trail opening. The project opened a trail between Ynez and Diaz roads by providing a path that goes under Ynez Road, Interstate 15 and Jefferson Avenue. Residents and city dignitaries turned out over the weekend to ride or walk the new trail section that lets non-motorists avoid heavily trafficked city intersections. The interconnect is only about 1 mile long, but that short trail segment helps extend a planned 17-mile loop around the city that ties several trails together to keep pedestrians and bicyclists safer on paths built especially for them. The loop is nearly finished except for two sections — an approximately 1-mile stretch at Sommers
Bend that is being funded by the developer, and a more than 2-mile segment of the Temecula Creek South Side Trail that will connect east and west Temecula and provide an undercrossing at Redhawk Parkway. Concerns about transients camping out near trail segments, especially the newly opened Santa Gertrudis Creek section, were addressed by city officials on social media last month. "Public Safety remains a top priority for the City of Temecula and our residents," according to the September post. "Once this trail opens, it will actually allow our staff and law enforcement to better patrol the area, which in turn will enhance safety on the trail. Our team remains active and dedicated to ensuring our community members can enjoy the wonderful trails that Temecula has to offer." Here's a look at a map of the 17mile city loop, with an explainer
below. Moving clockwise along the 17mile loop, the newly opened Santa Gertrudis Interconnect (shown in yellow above) joins the open Santa Gertrudis Creek Trail that features a Margarita Road undercrossing. The trail will eventually tie into the approximately 1-milelong Sommers Bend segment (see red stretch at top of map above) that will join the now-open Butterfield Stage Road buffered bike lanes, which are a key connection between north and south Temecula, as well as east Temecula to Murrieta. The Butterfield Stage Road segment will join the approximately 2.5-mile-long Temecula Creek South Side Trail (see bottom red segment) that will hook into now-open Ynez Road bike lanes, the Santiago Road bike lane/trail near Old Town, and the Murrieta Creek Trail that ties into the Santa Gertrudis Interconnect on the northwest side.
TRAIL: The 17-mile bike/pedestrian loop around the city of Temecula. The yellow stretch represents the newly opened Santa Gertrudis Interconnect; the green areas are currently open; the red stretch at the top of the map is the approximately 1-mile segment of the yetto-open Sommers Bend trail; the red segment at the bottom of the map is the yet-to-open Temecula Creek South Side Trail that is approximately 2.5 miles long. | Courtesy Photo of city of Temecula
CRIME AND PUBLIC SAFETY
California jails are trying to keep fentanyl out, but inmates are still dying In Riverside County, fentanyl is blamed in 38% of in-custody deaths so far this year JOE NELSON | CONTRIBUTED
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ails in Southern California are taking steps to guard against fentanyl-related deaths among inmates, but some are still dying and now deputies and nurses at the institutions are facing the threat of exposure. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco recently announced that fentanyl has been confirmed in the deaths of three inmates and suspected in two other deaths so far in 2022. That total, matching the deaths attributed to fentanyl in 2021 and 2020, constitutes more than 38% of the 13 in-custody deaths this year. While the number of inmates dying of fentanyl overdoses is far less than the number of those dying on the streets, the fentanyl epidemic has nonetheless forced Riverside County’s jail system, as well as other law enforcement agencies across Southern Cali-
fornia, to adjust to the threat by ramping up training in the use of Narcan, an over-the-counter nasal spray used to revive unconscious people who have overdosed on drugs. Narcan is now readily available to staff in all the jails. Inmate education Inmates, or “correctional patients” as Riverside University Health System calls them, now receive extensive education on the dangers of taking drugs that are not ordered by a provider or delivered by staff, and deputies and correctional health staff are trained to administer Narcan, according to RUHS. Last fall, at least three nurses and two deputies were exposed to fentanyl while treating an inmate at the Robert Presley Detention Center who consumed the drug but survived. At least two of the nurses went to an ER to be treated, but the deputies
declined treatment, according to a nurse who was working at the jail at the time of the incident. Sheriff ’s Sgt. Brandi Swan said in an email Friday that “no information is available on that incident.” And RUHS spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez also declined to provide any information on it. Court buses a problem The nurse, who asked to not be identified, said the incident occurred in the basement area of Robert Presely’s transportation wing, where inmates are bused to and from court. It is where most of the overdoses in the jail occur and where drugs, including fentanyl, are most frequently smuggled into the jail, she said. “I personally saw only one potential overdose outside the basement area. That is the movement area of the jail. Someone goes off to court, they manage to get fentanyl and they come back,” she said.
Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. | Courtesy Photo of riversidesheriff.org
In one incident, she said, she treated an inmate who overdosed on fentanyl on a bus that returned to the jail from court. She resuscitated him with Narcan, he was taken to the hospital and he returned to the jail a cou-
ple hours later. While increased training and Narcan has helped staff in adressing the fentanyl problem in the jails, a continued staffing
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YOUR VOTE 2022:
SAN JACINTO, CA
Soboba students get excited Meet CA’s 25th Congressional District candidates about STEM lessons SOBOBA BAND OF LUISEÑO INDIANS | CONTRIBUTED
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recent robotics lesson at Soboba Tribal Preschool proved that even the youngest children can learn to enjoy science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Thanks to an education program through the nonprofit organization AISES (American Indian Science and Engineering Society), kindergarten students are being taught the basics of coding and having fun doing so. Kindergarten teacher Sierra Vivanco had a training session this past summer with Stacy Smith Ledford, who is the PK-12 Student Success Program Officer for AISES. This enabled Vivanco to be able to introduce the STEM program to her students when the new school year began.
Ledford, who lives in Colorado, previously taught kindergarten, first, third and fifth grades before joining the nonprofit in January. She was in her element when she brought robotic cars to the Soboba classroom on Sept. 22 and worked directly with the students. “As an educator, I was able to impact a small group of students on an annual basis,” she said. “In this position I have been able to give back to my Native community and reach hundreds of students and help them discover pathways to STEM.” Ledford is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Through AISES’ SPRK-ing Interest in Computer Science program, she works with preschool through high school age students. There are addition-
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HALLOWEEN EVE:
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here is just more than a month until the November 8 Election Day. After redistricting, the Coachella Valley is now sliced into two congressional districts. District 25 includes Hemet, Banning, Beaumont, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, the eastern Coachella Valley, all of Imperial County, and parts of San Bernardino County. Sitting Congressman Raul Ruiz, a Democrat, is being challenged by Republican candidate and San Jacinto councilmember Brian Hawkins, who is endorsed by the state's GOP. "I've taken a very pragmatic, doctor approach to problem solving, to putting people above politics," Ruiz said. "I want people to know that me
REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE: Pastor and Councilmember Brian Hawkins. | Courtesy Photo of Facebook
getting elected into office, you're not going to lose a voice," Hawkins said. In the June primary, Ruiz earned 56 percent of the vote. Hawkins
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Oct 30, 2022 | Market 9AM - 7PM | Trunk or Treat 3-7pm SJ FARMERS MARKET 2575 SAN JACINTO AVE