Religious Faithful Navigate the Lockdown in Riverside County's 'Bible Belt'

You have to go inland to find evangelical conservatives. I'm surprised sometimes just how many are out there. Still, until the public evicts the criminal Democrats in Sacramento, this state is toast.

At LAT, "In California’s ‘Bible Belt,’ churches find ways around state’s coronavirus lockdown orders":

The tension between safety and faith has coalesced in the suburbs of Southern California’s so-called “Bible Belt.” ⁦@stephaniealai⁩ https://t.co/WNnb8ssfrJ

— Hector Becerra (@hbecerraLATimes) August 1, 2020

Jennifer Trujillo made a 30-minute trip from her home in San Diego County to the country roads of Wildomar in Riverside County for the first time in weeks.

For the last year, the Pala resident had made the trek up every Sunday to attend the service at Bundy Canyon Christian Church, a complex of colorful old-timey buildings along a rural road.

The coronavirus outbreak had sidelined Trujillo, 37, from her trips to church, leaving her to reading the Bible and practicing her faith at home. She knew about the worries of church services leading to outbreaks of COVID-19. That health officials criticized such gatherings as posing a public health risk to parishioners and others they may come in contact with.

But Trujillo would not ignore the call of her pastor to return.

“I feel safe around this community,” Trujillo said. “The word that the pastor gives forth is amazing and its better in person. I just wanted to go back.”

And so she did on a mid-July Sunday to an all-too-familiar scene of parishioners packing the pews. She was instructed not to sit next to anyone outside of her immediate household members.

It was a vain attempt at social distancing.

After scouring for a seat, her 9-year-old daughter Morgan and Trujillo settled for a spot near the center of the pews. Like others, they were squeezed in closer than six feet from other people. A fan conjured up a light breeze. Three vocalists and a drummer performed on stage as dozens of people sang along.

Churches across the state have been whipsawed by state closure and reopening orders, as church events have been tied to coronavirus outbreaks. In May, infections tied to singing in a church service in Redwood Valley and two more outbreaks from Mother’s Day church services in Mendocino and Butte counties drew concern from public health officials. Cases linked to singing during church services have drawn the ire of scientists and even some church leaders.

till, Bundy Canyon kept its usual choral arrangement as the congregation swayed their arms like concertgoers to the singing.

When the services in this church along Bundy Canyon Road began, congregants greeted one another with hugs. Few wore masks.

“I will give power to my two witnesses ... these men have power to shut off the sky so that it will not rain during the time that they are prophesying and they have the power to turn water to blood and to strike the earth with every type of plague,” Randy Eichert intoned from the pulpit as he read from Revelations.

But whatever final judgment the junior minister preached about — the pandemic seemed, at the moment, far from a growing concern.

The tension between safety and faith has coalesced in the suburbs of Southern California. In parts of California’s so-called Bible Belt, the controversy over rising cases of infection and deaths related to the coronavirus has not stopped residents from packing in-person services.

It’s what his flock wants, Bundy Canyon Christian Church Pastor Michael Khan said.

“They didn’t like being apart at all,” Khan said. “We have trust in God that nothing will happen. Since the start of the pandemic, not one of our members got sick or lost their job. The church will always be victorious.”

It is an altogether not surprising development in this part of Southern California. In May, Riverside County was quick to rescind stay-at-home orders and was among the largest proponents for reopening services...

RTWT.

Snow Comes to SoCal

That Arctic freeze reached all the way down to sunny SoCal. Folks walked out to snowfall on the ground and didn't know what it was, lol.

At LAT, "Snow comes to L.A., with powder in Malibu, Pasadena, West Hollywood":

OMG, the storm system moving through California is so cold that there could be a dusting of snow in the Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood Hills: https://t.co/yk5bblc9aa

— Laura J. Nelson 🦅 (@laura_nelson) February 21, 2019

Xavier Bias walked out of the Whole Foods Market in Pasadena and saw another woman looking to the ground puzzled at the white stuff covering the sidewalk.

The woman wasn’t sure exactly what she was looking at. But Bias, who is originally from the East Coast, quickly set her straight.

It was snow.

“People didn’t know what it was,” Bias said. “I was like, no, this is snow.”

It was that kind of day in some parts of Southern California, where snow dropped at extremely low elevation levels, creating a winter wonderland for a short while. Snow fell in Malibu, Pasadena, West Hollywood, Northridge, San Bernardino, Thousand Oaks and other unexpected places.

Snow level hit the 1,000-foot mark, bringing tiny bits of the white stuff into neighborhoods that had not seen snow in decades. But the show was fleeting, lasting in most cases a few minutes before the sun melted anything that had hit the ground.

By Thursday evening, the storms were moving east, with officials saying the snow elevation level had dropped to 800 feet in Orange County. Snow plows were clearing Ortega Highway between Lake Elsinore and San Juan Capistrano.

An unusually chilly storm system that originated in Alberta, Canada, was lingering over Nevada and had already blanketed Las Vegas with snow early Thursday. Before daybreak, snow was falling in parts of the Southland, dusting Palmdale and the Lucerne Valley. By the early afternoon, it was snowing across Southern California and winter weather had forced the closure of the 5 Freeway through the Grapevine.

“This is probably the coldest storm system I’ve seen in my time in California,” said David Sweet, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “We’ve had cold mornings and freeze conditions, but I don’t remember seeing anything quite this cold.”

Forecasters predict that up to 6 inches of powder could fall in the eastern San Gabriel Mountains. Sweet said snow could fall in the Santa Monica Mountains and even some sections of the Hollywood Hills.

By around noon, the predictions were proving to be true.

“We’re seeing a little bit of everything out there,” said Eric Boldt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

After seeing the confusion on social media and as residents began calling in to the weather service, Boldt took it upon himself to clear things up.

“Correct, that is snow! Lots of confusion today,” he posted on the National Weather Service’s Twitter account.

He explained that if the precipitation bounces off the ground, then it contains ice, which would make it hail or sleet. If it floats, it’s snow. In many areas, residents reported seeing small slushy balls, which Boldt said is graupel, snowflakes slightly melted and bunched together...

More.

Perris Child-Torturing Parents Plead Guilty, Face Possible 25 Years-to-Life in Prison

Well, they certainly deserve it.

The parents from hell pleaded guilty, and they're going away for a long time.

At LAT, "Perris couple plead guilty to torturing their 13 children":

David and Louise Turpin, a couple accused of torturing, starving and keeping their 13 children captive in their Perris home, have pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts, including one count of torture. https://t.co/ACMb80XF2P

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) February 22, 2019

The Turpin siblings were tortured and abused by their parents for years in ways so extreme, prosecutors said, it appeared to have caused malnutrition, cognitive impairment and nerve damage in some of them.

Since being freed last year from a Perris home, the 13 siblings have had to rebuild their lives.

All that time, they have also had to contend with the prospect of a trial — of being called to testify and having to relive, in front of their parents and the public, the horrific treatment they suffered, said Jack Osborn, an attorney who represents the adult children.

“The issue of their parents’ trial has always been weighing heavy with them,” Osborn said.

So the siblings were relieved to learn earlier this month that their parents, David and Louise Turpin, had each agreed to plead guilty to 14 felony charges, ending the prospect of a trial, Osborn said.

The Turpins entered those pleas Friday during a short hearing in Riverside County Superior Court. They are expected to be sentenced in April to 25 years to life in prison, Riverside County Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin said.

The charges include one count of torture, four of false imprisonment, six of cruelty to adult dependents and three of willful child cruelty.

Hestrin told the siblings, now ages 3 to 30, about the plea agreement during a meeting this month at his Riverside offices.

“It was a very good day for them to be all together,” Hestrin said, recalling the meeting during a news conference Friday.

The story of the abuse the Turpin children suffered made headlines around the world and left their neighbors struggling to understand how the cruelty could have gone unnoticed for so long.

Prosecutors have said the couple subjected their children to abuse and neglect for years, dating back to when the family lived in Texas in the 1990s and continuing after they moved to California several years ago.

It was brought to an end by the brave act of their then-17-year-old daughter who, early one morning in January 2018, summoned the courage to climb out a window and call 911 to ask for help.

The girl told a dispatcher that her little sisters were chained up, that they would wake up crying at night, and that they wanted her to “call somebody and tell them.”

When deputies entered the Turpin home on Muir Woods Road, they discovered a nightmarish scene, including two young girls who had been chained to their bed for weeks.

The chains were punishment for stealing candy, investigators were later told.

Twelve of the 13 siblings were so frail and malnourished that deputies at first assumed they were all minors; they later learned that seven were adults. The youngest child, a toddler, appeared to have been spared the lack of food, prosecutors said.

Deputies arrested the couple, and shortly after, Riverside County prosecutors filed dozens of charges against them related to allegations of abuse, captivity and torture of the children. Additional charges of child abuse were later filed against both parents, along with a charge of felony assault against Louise Turpin and a perjury count against David Turpin.

In June, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz ordered the couple to stand trial after finding sufficient evidence to support 49 of 50 charges.

The Turpins initially pleaded not guilty to all charges last year.

Prosecutors had been gathering evidence and preparing for trial, but after continued conversations with the defense, Hestrin said the Turpins opted for a plea agreement.

“This is among the worst, most aggravated child abuse cases that I have ever seen or been involved in in my career as a prosecutor,” he said.

Hestrin said he had hoped to spare the children any further trauma that might come with a trial...

Parents Arrested After 13 Kids Found Chained to Beds and Starving in Riverside County Home (VIDEO)

House of horrors.

A report at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "13 Children Ages 2 to 29 Found Shackled to Beds In Perris Home, Parents Arrested."

Twenty-nine years old? I can't believe it, man.

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Children found shackled and malnourished in Perris home; parents arrested":

The 911 call came in at 6 a.m. Sunday. A teenage girl was on the line with an unsettling tale.

She had managed to escape from her family's home in Perris, where her parents had been holding her captive. Her brothers and sisters were still locked inside — 12 of them. Some were chained to their beds, she said.

Riverside County sheriff's deputies were dispatched to find the 17-year-old girl. When they saw her, they were struck by her small size and emaciated appearance. She looked to be only 10, according to the sheriff's account released Monday.

The nightmarish scene deputies discovered when they entered the house on Muir Woods Road was as bad as the girl had described. They found "several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings," the statement said.

The parents, David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, "were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner," deputies wrote. The couple were arrested on suspicion of torture and child endangerment and each was being held Monday night in lieu of $9-million bail.

The youngest child was 2. At first deputies assumed from their frail and malnourished appearance that all in the group were minors, but they later determined that seven of them were adults ages 18 to 29, the sheriff's statement said.

It was not clear from the statement how many of the children were found locked to their beds.

Deputies provided food and drinks to the children, who "claimed to be starving," before they were admitted to hospitals.

Public records show the couple own the tract house where the children were found. Its address is also listed in a state Department of Education directory as the location of the Sandcastle Day School, a private K-12 campus. David Turpin is listed as the principal.

During the last school year, the school was listed in state records as a non-religious and co-ed institution. There were six students enrolled — one each in the fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, 10th and 12th grades.

David Turpin's parents, James and Betty Turpin of West Virginia, told ABC News they were "surprised and shocked" at the allegations. They said their grandchildren are home-schooled, and that they had not seen their son and daughter-in-law in four or five years.

Public records indicate the couple have lived at the address for several years and lived in Texas for many years before coming to California. They declared bankruptcy twice, public records show...

And note as well:

Ivan Trahan, an attorney who represented the couple in their latest bankruptcy in 2011, said Monday he was shocked at news of the arrests....Trahan said that David Turpin, who worked as an engineer at Northrop Grumman, an aeronautics and defense technology company, had a "relatively high" income, but had trouble keeping up with his expenses because he had so many children.

Well, one would think two or three kids would be sufficient, although I'm not one to impose mandatory family size like leftists, heh.

Still more.

Trump's First 100 Days at the Riverside Convention Center (VIDEO)

At the Riverside Press-Enterprise, "Why there were cheers for Donald Trump in Riverside":

Why there were cheers for Donald Trump in Riverside https://t.co/mHOLBfWkr0 pic.twitter.com/4DAtKxyXkx

— The Press-Enterprise (@PEcom_news) May 1, 2017

As they gave President Donald Trump high marks for his first 100 days in office, a trio of conservative radio talk show hosts at a Riverside conference Sunday, April 30 urged congressional Republicans to get their act together and pass the president’s agenda, especially repealing Obamacare.

“It’s OK to disagree. It’s fine to be a divided caucus if at the end of the day, you come together and take 75 percent of what you want and call it a win,” Dennis Prager told an audience of more than 800 at the Fourth Annual Unite IE Conservative Conference.

Republicans “generally do not perceive the threat that the left is to our society,” he added. “This is the Achilles’ heel of the Republican Party … If you do understand it, then any victory is a victory.”

The conference, which took place at the Riverside Convention Center, offered a chance for conservatives to gather, network and be inspired in a state that’s been hostile ground for their beliefs.

This year’s conference focused on the first 100 days of the Trump administration, which hit that mark Saturday. Radio host Hugh Hewitt, who served as a panelist for four debates of GOP presidential hopefuls, gave Trump a “solid B,” saying the Republican real estate mogul and reality TV star needs to fill more judgeships.

Another radio personality, Larry Elder, gave Trump an A+, calling the nomination and confirmation of conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch “far and away” the president’s most important accomplishment.

Prager gave Trump an A- and apologized for resisting Trump’s quest for the GOP presidential nomination.

“I am starting to love this man and I thought I would never say that in my life,” Prager said.

Unlike liberals, Trump doesn’t care if America is loved, Prager said, adding: “The recipe for peace on Earth is not for America to be loved, but feared.”

More.

New Lanes Open on 91 Freeway in Corona (VIDEO)

Well, two of the lanes are toll lanes, with another lane added going both directions for regular traffic.

Some folks don't seem too ecstatic.

At the Riverside Press-Enterprise, "91 Freeway toll lanes now open, but is traffic any better?"

And at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Inland Empire Woman Burned by Exploding E-Cigarette Wins Nearly $2 Million from Distributor (VIDEO)

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Silver Fire Still Burns in Riverside County

At the Riverside Press Enterprise, "SILVER FIRE: Blaze waning, but firefighters still cautious."

And "SILVER FIRE: Evacuation meeting 5:30 p.m. in Hemet."

And a dramatic pictorial at the Atlantic, "California's Silver Fire."



And at the Los Angeles Times, "Silver fire: 'God, I'm gonna die,' survivor kept thinking." And, "Silver fire: More than 2 dozen homes destroyed, 5 firefighters hurt."