A worsening COVID-19 outbreak at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino has prompted the nonprofit Disability Rights California to demand the hospital release a sizable portion of its patients there. 349 patients at Patton have tested positive for COVID-19 and 11 patients have died since May. More than 100 patients have tested positive in the last 15 days. The facility is a lockdown hospital for people with mental illness committed by the courts, and has 1,527 beds. On Monday, Disability Rights

Longtime Inland Empire journalist and KVCR contributor Cassie MacDuff and KVCR's Alfredo Cruz review some of the big Inland Empire news stories from the past week, including: 1. The coronavirus is surging in the Inland Empire, yet San Bernardino County supervisors are suing the state over COVID restrictions. 2. Now that the election results are finalized, some new IE elected officials are going to be sworn in. 3. In a sentencing document for the mother of the San Bernardino terrorist shooter,

A law that will allow inmate firefighters to have their records expunged, so they can pursue firefighting jobs after release, goes into effect in January. State Assemblymember Eloise Reyes hosted a virtual town hall on Thursday about the law she authored. Thomas Stone, Interim Public Defender told the virtual audience his office is ready for an expected surge of applications from people who have been released for years but were not previously eligible to apply. “But it’s going to plateau down

Monday through Thursday at lunchtime, KVCR News has your daily news rundown. Stories highlighted today include: San Bernardino County administered the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday afternoon, offering some hope for healthcare workers. Menifee woman illegally cashes in on virus-related benefits, obtaining more than $500,000. Teachers, first responders, grocery, and restaurant workers were among those recommended Wednesday to get the next round of vaccines in California. A California

Just six hours after over 15,600 Pfizer vaccine doses arrived in San Bernardino County, the very first shot was given to ICU nurse Sonya Harrell at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center Wednesday afternoon. “For me, it means an end in sight to something we’ve been dealing with since March, so I’m really excited about it,” said Harrell. Harrell was one of five high-risk frontline healthcare workers who were selected to be the first to receive the vaccine. The arrival is welcome news as the percentage

Monday through Thursday at lunchtime, KVCR News has your daily news rundown. Stories highlighted today include: Two men from Corona will be receiving honors from the Carnegie Hero Fund for a rescue they performed in 2018. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says he plans to force Amazon to comply with legal requests for information on how it’s protecting workers from COVID-19. Democratic State Assemblymember David Chiu is introducing legislation intended to keep renters in their homes.

The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines is expected to arrive in San Bernardino County Wednesday and Riverside County Friday as ICU capacity continues to shrink and deaths are on the rise. That's according to the latest reports provided by county officials at Tuesday's Riverside and San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors meetings. “The first individuals who are going to be getting it are in the emergency department, in the intensive care units [and] in our COVID units across all the

Monday through Thursday at lunchtime, KVCR News has your daily news rundown. Stories highlighted today include: 1. ICU bed capacity in Riverside County dropped to 0% amid COVID-19 surge. 2. Riverside County is due to receive over 14,000 COVID Pfizer vaccine doses. 3. California’s presidential electors cast all of the state’s electoral college votes for Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this Monday. 4. Recycling Christmas trees ensures they are turned into nutrient rich mulch to enhance soil.

In the Inland Empire, where the logistics industry supports the region’s shopping habits, vulnerable communities are disproportionately affected by air pollution caused by truck traffic. With the holiday shopping season shifting online due to the pandemic, KVCR’s Megan Jamerson had a discussion over Zoom with Dr. Jimmy O’Dea of the Union of Concerned Scientists and Andrea Vidaurre of the Warehouse Workers Resource Center about concerns and solutions.

After a three-year freeze on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA, December 7 marked the first day new applications could once again be submitted. For students who have been unable to support their higher education with DACA’s deportation protection and work authorization, this is a huge boon, said Dr. Jennifer Nájera, a U.C. Riverside Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies. “If you think about the cycle of the university, most people are in and out in four or five