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Soboba Hosts AB 1703 Implementation Roundtable | Page A2
Weather: 71o/41o | Volume IV | Issue XLV
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Knott’s Berry Farm releases park events for 2023 | Page C1
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Thursday, December 22 - December 28, 2022 www.HSJChronicle.com |
A FAITH
Nothing But Questions, Questions, & More Questions
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B POLITICS
The Hemet City Council shows some fire and spit
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LIFESTYLE | Page D1
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D LIFESTYLE
Millennial Money: Is meal kit delivery still worth the cost? See more on page D1
Virginia probes hiring of trooper who killed teen’s family DENISE LAVOIE | AP NEWS
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fter a former state trooper from Virginia drove across the country, kidnapped a 15-year-old California girl, killed three members of her family, then shot himself, Virginia State Police and the sheriff ’s office he had recently started working for said they found no warning signs during background checks before he was hired. But in the weeks since Austin Lee Edwards went on a rampage in Riverside, California, it’s become clear Virginia State police missed red flags about Edwards’ mental health that were in plain sight before they hired him in 2021. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has called for a “full investigation” by the state inspector general’s office. “I believe that there was human error here,” Youngkin said last week in response to a reporter’s question about whether state police should have done more to investigate Edwards’ background before hiring him.
“Our job is to not let this happen again,” Youngkin said. Edwards was hired by state police and entered the police academy in July 2021. He graduated as a trooper in January and worked for only nine months before resigning in October. Edwards was hired as a deputy sheriff in Washington County, Virginia, on Nov. 16, just nine days before the killings in California. Authorities in California have said Edwards posed online as a 17-year-old boy while communicating with the girl, a form of deception known as “catfishing.” He asked her to send nude photos of herself and she stopped communicating with him. On Nov. 25, Edwards killed the girl’s mother and grandparents, then set fire to their home in Riverside, a city about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Edwards died by suicide during a shootout with San Bernardino sheriff ’s deputies the same day. The girl was rescued. Family members and police said the girl is now in counseling for trauma.
After repeatedly saying state police found no areas of concern in Edwards’ background, state police spokesperson Corinne Geller said Dec. 7 that a recently completed review found “human error” resulted in an incomplete database query during the hiring process. That admission came in response to news reports that Edwards had been involuntarily held at a psychiatric facility after he threatened to kill his father and himself in 2016, when he was 21. A report written by police in Abingdon, Virginia, near the Tennessee border, said Edwards’ father restrained him after he found his son with a self-inflicted injury to his hand. The incident was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. “Austin made several statements in the presence of Officers that he wanted to die, that he would try to kill himself the instant he was free from restraints, and that he would kill his father,” police wrote in the report, which was obtained by The Associated Press. An emergency custody order
was issued, followed by a temporary detention order, which allowed police to take him to a psychiatric facility. The scope of Virginia Inspector General Michael Westfall’s investigation was not immediately clear. His office released a statement Friday saying it had received a request to “review a recent Virginia State Police matter,” but a spokesperson did not respond to a phone message and email seeking details on the parameters of the investigation. Youngkin’s office also declined to discuss specifics. Spokesperson Macaulay Porter said in a statement that Youngkin “has full confidence that they will follow the evidence, wherever it may lead.” The inspector general’s office focuses on investigating complaints about fraud, waste and abuse in the executive branch of state government. It also conducts investigations and performance audits of state agencies. “The IG has fairly wide-ranging investigatory powers that are defined by statute, but the statute is fuzzy enough so that the IG might
INVESTIGATING: Dozens of candles sit placed on the sidewalk along with bouquets of flowers and stuffed animals outside a charred home in Riverside, Calif., on Nov. 30, 2022. | Courtesy Photo of Amy Taxin/AP
be able to investigate general issues that the governor asks the IG to investigate,” said Henry Chambers, a law professor at the University of Richmond. Geller said state police believe the error made during the hiring process for Edwards was “an isolated incident,” and said “steps are currently underway to ensure the error is not repeated going forward.”
Raymond Carrion, a California teen with Cerebral Palsy, excels in Pickleball USA PICKLE BALL | CONTRIBUTED
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hen Raymond Carrion was six months old, doctors told his family that he would not be able to walk. Now 15 years old, Carrion just won gold in a recent pickleball tournament. The Hemet, California native was born with cerebral palsy, with limited use of the left side of his body. He fell in love with pickleball after picking up a paddle two years ago when his mother, Monica Lopez, recommended he try it out. “He's completely changed,” Lopez said. “He's started talking to everyone and making jokes, and he feels very secure around people. I can tell he's really happy with pickleball because it’s helped him so much – not just his body, but with his
mentality.” Carrion, a longtime basketball fan, was initially skeptical of the sport and whether he would be motivated to play, but decided to give it a try. His skills improved rapidly. “I never thought I would like pickleball and I was scared at first because of my physical disability, but I decided to try it and I liked it a lot,” Carrion said. “I have more advantages when it comes to pickleball compared to basketball. There are a lot of strategies and ways to be competitive in pickleball. Once I realized that, I started playing more.” After getting started in the sport, Carrion met Melinda Terrian, a USA Pickleball ambassador who introduced him to pickleball players in their area, many of whom are 30 or 40 years his senior and have been playing for 15 years or
more. Carrion has been steadily improving by practicing with this group of experienced players, including Suzy Bozeman, an avid pickleball fan with a court at her home that Carrion frequently trains at. Carrion said Bozeman and the group as a whole have welcomed him with open arms. “All the people he's playing with are much older, but they make him feel so comfortable. They’re now like his family,” Lopez said. “He’s been so happy, even without me there. I’ll drop him off and he'll be playing there for hours.” Carrion, currently a freshman at Tahquitz High School, has begun playing more competitively in recent months with encouragement from Terrian. He recently won gold and bronze medals in doubles competition in the last two tourna-
Raymond Carrion . | Photos courtesy of USA Pickle Ball
ments that he has played in. “If it's possible, I'd like to try and become a professional pickleball player and compete in big tournaments someday. I really want to motivate other kids to play the game as well,” Carrion said. “I was on social media one day and saw famous NBA players buying pickleball teams and getting involved. I was in shock – it made me really excited to keep playing.”
Carrion is committed to working on his game, watching highlights on YouTube frequently and practicing with Terrian and his local group a few times a week. “[Raymond]’s been able to make the necessary adjustments to serve and hit the ball very well – he’s excelled at playing the game and will play any-
See PICKLEBALL on page A4
California & the Midwest face ‘high risk’ CalRTA makes the Holiday Season of electricity shortages in next five years brighter for local educators CATHERINE CLIFFORD | CONTRIBUTOR
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merica’s electrical grid is being pushed to the breaking point, and California, parts of the Midwest and parts of the South Central United States are at “high risk” for energy shortfalls, says the not-for-profit organization charged with managing and evaluating the grid. “High risk” regions, marked in red on the map, may see shortfalls at “normal peak conditions,” according to the 54th annual assessment from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation released Thursday. The reasons for the shortfalls vary. In the Midwestern states and Ontario, more power generation is being retired than is being added back online, NERC’s Mark Olson told reporters
Thursday. Energy shortfalls have been projected in that region since 2018, Olson said. In California, the risk is due to a “variable resource mix” and “demand variability,” Olson said. That means there’s a lot of renewable energy in the state, and its generation is not coordinated with the times people need the most energy. NERC predicts that demand could fall below supply for 10 hours during peak summer months in 2024. Much of the rest of the Midwest and the rest of the Western part of the United States are at “elevated risk” (yellow on the map), which means shortfalls may occur in extreme conditions, like during severe weather or hot spells where everyone is running air conditioners. In New England, the elevated risk comes in the winter when peo-
See ELECTRICITY on page A4
SUE BREYER | CALRTA VICE PRESIDENT
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e’ve all witnessed the glimmer of excitement in the eye of a child as the winter holidays draw near and their hope for that special gift brings a sense of anticipation. But that feeling of excitement isn’t limited to young kids. Four local teachers experienced that same excitement when they recently learned that they were the lucky recipients of a $100 Teacher Grant from the California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA). Hemet High School’s Kim Blair, Hemet Elementary School’s Mekel Bromley, and Harvest Hill STEAM Academy’s Lindsey Button each received a check for $100 from CalRTA’s local Division 33 after being randomly selected from nearly 90 applicants. Kim Vannaman from Cawston Elementary School received $100 from the state CalRTA Teacher
Grant program, but because she teaches at a school within the Division 33 area, she received not only the state $100 check but also a matching $100 bill from Division 33 President Gayle Mattson, for a total of $200. Upon hearing that she had been chosen as one of Division 33’s $100 grant recipients, Hemet High School 9th and 10th grade social science teacher Kim Blair said, “Thank you very much for the funds! In 2015 my AP Human Geography students began an outreach club which engages in fundraising and then uses the money to help those without homes in our valley. Once a month students plan, purchase, prepare and serve a meal at Hemet's Valley Restart Shelter. One Saturday a month the students plan, purchase and pack lunch bags for those on the streets of our town. This winter they also ran a blanket drive for homeless
See CALRTA on page B4