Both Riverside and San Bernardino County issued evacuation warnings for residents in the Apple Fire and El Dorado Fire burn scar areas Wednesday. KVCR’s Megan Jamerson has the latest. The evacuation warning was issued out of concern for potential flash flood events due to an incoming storm expected to bring several inches of rain to the region from Thursday into Friday. In Riverside County, the warning applies to residents in the Mias A, Mias B, Bench A, Noble A, Noble B, Noble F and Noble G

Newly elected Riverside City Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson will give her first State of the City address virtually on January 28. She is expected to review both the city’s accomplishments in 2020 and take a look ahead at the top issues facing the community in 2021. According to a press release, the mayor will also announce the winner of the diversity and inclusion award, named after UC Riverside Professor Emeritus Dr. Carlos Cortés, and the Greater Riverside Chamber of Commerce will announce the

The limited supply of vaccine nationwide could mean a much longer rollout for the Inland Empire than originally intended. KVCR’s Megan Jamerson has more on the efforts to get the first and second doses to the public. Riverside County Public Health Director Dr. Kim Saruwatari says they receive around 30,000 vaccine doses a week from the state. At that rate, if only 70 percent of the 800,000 currently eligible for the vaccine opt in, it could take nearly nine months to serve those currently

Residents and businesses with a landline 909 telephone number, will now need to dial '1' and the area code for all calls, effective immediately, while wireless customers will need to just dial the area code before phone numbers. This is all to make way for the introduction of the 840 area code next month. Starting February 23, customers requesting new or additional telephone numbers may be assigned the 840 area code in order to address the shortage of available numbers in the region currently

Monday through Thursday at lunchtime, KVCR News has your daily news rundown. Stories highlighted today include: Latino Media Collaborative launches a website to provide resources to formerly incarcerated people. Californians are allowed to dine out again and hold small gatherings, and scientists say this is a crucial step for peoples’ mental health. California’s move to lift the Coronavirus stay-at-home order on Monday was a surprise to many, but Governor Newsom says county health departments

The Latino Media Collaborative has launched a website designed to provide resources to formerly incarcerated people throughout the Inland Empire and the rest of Southern California. The website, called StepForwardCA.com, directs formerly incarcerated people to organizations in their area that provide services like job placement, mental health treatment, and legal services. Armando Carmona is Program Manager with the Latino Media Collaborative. “We're creating resource guides that can speak to

Longtime Inland Empire journalist and KVCR contributor Cassie MacDuff and KVCR's Benjamin Purper review some of the big Inland Empire news stories from the past week, including: 1.The Redlands City Council may let voters decide whether to elect the mayor directly, or rotate the job among the five council members on a yearly basis. 2. There is also some news regarding the Riverside City Council. 3. Remembering several former Inland Empire mayors who have passed away recently.

Pixar’s latest animated hit Soul , about the life-after-death adventures of a jazz musician, has an Inland Empire connection. Cal State University of San Bernardino biology professor, Dr. Stuart Sumida, worked with animators to help create one of the movie’s central characters, a very round cat named Mr. Mittens. “He’s built a little bit more like a hamster, but he has to convince the audience he is a cat, that he is acting like a cat,” said Sumida. This is what storytellers call suspending

The city of Riverside has approved a plan to help small businesses with their utility costs by allowing them to apply their deposits to their account balances. KVCR’s Benjamin Purper spoke with Councilmember Ronaldo Fierro about the program, which is designed to help small businesses impacted by COVID-19. More information on the program is available at riversideca.gov/SBDC .

Riverside County is opening up COVID-19 vaccine appointments at noon Thursday for six upcoming vaccination clinics. The Riverside County sites will administer 3,900 does free of charge over the weekend. Appointments are required and available to residents in all tiers of Phase 1a, tier one of Phase 1b and people age 65 and older. Locations include Lake Elsinore’s Diamond Stadium, the Perris Fairgrounds, and the Indio Fairgrounds. To learn more and register visit Riverside University Health