Free Republic

A third assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump was thwarted at the last minute Saturday when local cops stopped a man armed with guns and fake passes outside his rally at Coachella Valley, the local sheriff said. The suspect was caught about a mile from the rally venue with a phony-entry pass, according to police. He was also carrying a loaded shotgun, handgun and high capacity magazine. “We probably stopped another assassination attempt,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said. The suspect, identified as Vem Miller, was intercepted by police at a checkpoint about a half-mile from the rally entrance....

Spotlight 29, Tortoise Rock and the Morongo casinos this week will become the first to reopen in the Coachella Valley. Others will join next week, including the Pechanga Resort Casino near Temecula, Soboba Casino near San Jacinto and Cahuilla Casino Hotel near Anza. The move comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom last week sent tribal leaders a letter, urging them to align their reopening plans with local and state orders. But as sovereign nations, tribal groups are not required to follow the guidance. The resorts had voluntarily shut their doors in March. Since then, Riverside County’s coronavirus outbreak has grown to...

(Meredith) -- A woman who recently purchased a storage unit from "Storage Wars" Dan Dotson found $7.5 million in cash inside the unit. According to the Desert Sun, the A&E reality "Storage Wars" star sold a unit to a woman for $500 in Southern California. A month later, a friend of the woman told Dotson at a charity event that her friend found the load of cash inside a safe in the unit. Dotson said the attorney for the original owners of the unit found out their storage was sold and contacted the woman to negotiate a deal.

Post-presidential visits to the desert are nothing new. Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon and Ford all came to the Coachella Valley after their time in office. President Obama though will make history Friday when he becomes the first president to head straight for the desert the moment he becomes a private citizen. After all, they don't call the Coachella Valley "the playground of presidents" for no reasons.

Cancel any upcoming flights to the moon, because living in Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack home is a great reason to stay on Earth. Named "Villa Maggio," Sinatra's hideaway from Hollywood is on the market for $3.9 million. The Palm Desert, California home was a spot where Sinatra and fellow Rat Pack members Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop would hang out and get some R&R from their fans in a private location.

The hook-nosed, snarling mascot who wears a head scarf did not appear at the school’s season opening football game Friday. A belly-dancing genie that often appears with the mascot was also retired. ... The Arab mascot has existed since the 1920s to recognize the desert region’s reliance on date farming, a traditionally Middle Eastern crop.... The school district refused to change the school’s “Arabs” nickname, but agreed to redesign the Arab face on the school logo.

Anti-Semitism at Coachella Valley, California taxpayer funded schools is far more pervasive than the “Beat the Jew” game hatched by La Quinta High School kids. The left leaning Desert Sun has dredged up a plethora of other incidents including swastikas on school walls and desks, anti- Semitic jokes and taunts toward Jewish students and worse. A Jewish student at Palm Desert High School spoke anonymously: "• The student said the school ‘has swastikas (drawn) all over our desks … all over campus.’ Some students have the Nazi symbol drawn on their skin, and a group of ‘wannabe skinhead’ students wear...

President Bush will visit the Coachella Valley and the Twentynine Palms Marine base next weekend. Bush will attend a Republican National Committee fundraiser at the Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells on April 22. Tickets to the dinner cost $25,000, said Palm Desert Mayor Jim Ferguson, a longtime Republican activist who received an invitation but is not attending. Bush will spend the nights of April 22 and April 23 in Rancho Mirage, said Alex Conant, a White House spokesman. However, the White House is not yet divulging where in Rancho Mirage the president will stay, he said. On April 23,...

Nowhere in the Inland area is the crunch to house the poor more evident than in the Coachella Valley, where 15,000 migrant workers are expected to arrive in the next few weeks for the grape and citrus harvest. Most will spend each night outside or crammed in a car or shed, said Nadia Villagran, special projects manager for the Indio-based Coachella Valley Housing Coalition. "They're working hard during the day and have to sleep at night in cardboard boxes, in a tree or in a car," she said. "It's shocking to see." Migrant-housing programs in the desert are confronting the...

AP) INDIO Authorities seized 31 pounds of black-tar heroin in a bust that one official said was so big it looked like something out of a movie. "In 34 years, I've never seen this large of a heroin seizure," Riverside County Assistant Sheriff John Boyd said after a news conference Thursday. The seizure on Tuesday followed a seven-month operation in the Coachella Valley involving the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Palm Springs and Indio police departments. Agents estimated the heroin's street value at $1.3 million. It was enough for 140,000 to 280,000 doses, said Stephen...

INDIO, Calif. (AP) - Tens of thousands of music fans descended on this California desert town Saturday, despite sizzling temperatures, for a two-day music festival featuring more than 80 rock, rap and other acts. Organizers of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival anticipated crowds of around 50,000 people on each of the two days of performances on the grassy grounds of the Empire Polo Field. Fans tried to keep cool as the midday temperature reached 90 degrees by huddling in shade under large open-sided tents. "I'm drinking a lot of water and trying not to think about it," said...

<p>Severe growth-restricting sanctions could be placed on the Coachella Valley if, over the next month, it cannot come up with a plan for cutting the amount of dust blowing across the desert.</p> <p>Builders and farmers were among those who questioned South Coast Air Quality Management District’s draft plan for reducing local dust emissions at a public hearing Thursday.</p>