RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Riverside County Board of Supervisors tentatively approved an ordinance Tuesday to restrict residential picketing to 30 feet or more from a person's property. In a 4-1 vote – with Supervisor Bob Buster dissenting – the board accepted the final draft of the proposed measure, which is expected to be formally adopted next Tuesday. "This ordinance reduces the risk of a violent confrontation and the likelihood of residents becoming captives in their own homes, where they should enjoy ...

By JULIA GLICK The Press-Enterprise Riverside County supervisors will reconsider today residential picketing restrictions that they suspended and sent back for revisions last month. The amended picketing ordinance set to be introduced today differs from the earlier one in that it would limit protests targeting residences in unincorporated Riverside County to 30 feet from the property line instead of 50 feet from the property line. Supervisor Jeff Stone has pushed for the ordinance, supported by the Church of Scientology. The church ...

RIVERSIDE — The Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday suspended a new ordinance that restricts residential picketing to 50 feet or more away from a subject's property in light of evidence that the measure was already proving difficult to interpret. The board voted unanimously to refer the anti-picketing ordinance to the county counsel's office and Riverside County Sheriff's Department to determine what amendments might be necessary to make it easier to enforce. Last week, the board approved the measure as ...

Riverside County supervisors on Tuesday suspended enforcement of a newly approved picketing ordinance, backed by the Church of Scientology, and instructed county staff to return in one month with clearer rules. "I want to make things easier and simpler for everyone involved, particularly for the sheriff which has to enforce it," Supervisor Bob Buster said of the picketing ordinance. "We don't want to pass ordinances that are used in an incorrect way to ... intimidate people from exercising their rights." Last ...

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors today temporarily suspended an ordinance it passed last week to limit protests outside a large Church of Scientology compound near Hemet. Protesters show up about once a month outside Golden Era Productions, home to 500 Scientologists, on Gilman Springs Road. In an incident last week, protesters were swarmed by sheriff's deputies trying to enforce the ordinance. After a vigorous debate among supervisors, the ordinance was suspended today. The measure, which was requested by the church ...

Riverside County supervisors Tuesday fast-tracked and unanimously approved an ordinance that restricts picketing outside homes and a Church of Scientology base near Hemet. Supervisors deemed the restrictions urgent and voted to forgo regular statutory proceedings, which include a second hearing. The ordinance went into effect after its introduction Tuesday despite unresolved questions about exactly how rules will apply to the Scientology base. The new ordinance, backed by the church and Supervisor Jeff Stone, stipulates that pickets must remain at least 50 ...

Riverside County supervisors are set to vote Tuesday on a revised ordinance to limit picketing at residences and outside the Church of Scientology's base in Gilman Hot Springs. The proposed ordinance, supported by the church and Supervisor Jeff Stone, would restrict picketing to 50 feet beyond the property line of a targeted residence or to an across-the-street sidewalk. Stone is also urging supervisors to approve an urgency ordinance Tuesday. If at least four supervisors approve that urgency measure, the limits on ...

RIVERSIDE – Concerned that a proposed anti-picketing ordinance might be too restrictive – and that it did not address the issue that inspired it – the Board of Supervisors Tuesday backed away from the measure, but indicated it may be brought back in different form. “I don't agree we should abandon this completely, but I want us as united on this as possible,” said Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, who sponsored the measure. “It's not an attempt to limit the right ...

Riverside County supervisors Tuesday backed off from picketing restrictions supported by the Church of Scientology that supervisors had preliminarily approved last month. Supervisors stopped final approval of the ordinance and voted unanimously to re-examine its prohibition on picketing within 300 feet of a targeted residence. They agreed to have county counsel and staff retool the ordinance in consultation with the county sheriff's office and Samuel Alhadeff, an attorney representing the Church of Scientology. "I think we may be going too far ...

RIVERSIDE – With two colleagues prepared to vote against the measure, Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone on Tuesday temporarily withdrew his proposed ban on protests that target and take place in front of homes. Stone said that, in consultation with county lawyers, he will try to tweak the ordinance so it lets protesters picket residences for what he considers legitimate purposes, such as when they are home to sex offenders, without trespassing on the constitutional right to free speech. Legal experts, ...

The Church of Scientology's concerns about protesters outside their Gilman Hot Springs base led Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone to seek and gain approval Tuesday for county restrictions on picketing in residential neighborhoods. Only Supervisor Bob Buster voted against the ordinance, which forbids demonstrators from coming within 300 feet of a home they are targeting in unincorporated Riverside County. Buster said a 300-foot buffer would effectively quash demonstrations outside residences. He said the ordinance threatens free-speech rights. Stone said that protesters ...

Residents of an Indio mobile home park continue to live with toxic tap water. Starting Tuesday, Riverside County is fining La Quinta Ridge Mobile Park owners a $1,000 a day for health violations. The water coming out of these taps is toxic. Perchlorates, often found in rocket fuel, was found by county health officials coming from wells behind the complex. Residents now pick up their daily ration of bottled water supplied by park management. Resident Dutch Haling said, "It's frustrating when ...

OREM, UTAH - Officer Terry Sparks says he feels like he was beaten with a sledgehammer. The pounding headache was bad enough, but the surging nausea made it almost unbearable. He gathered his energy and once again entered the nondescript clinic in this rural community south of Salt Lake City. The side effects of his treatment there are a price he is willing to pay to purge his body of toxins he believes have built up in his system after years ...

Body of woman found by hikers The body of a woman was found by two hikers at about 10 a.m. Tuesday dumped about 100 feet from Gilman Springs Road. The body was decomposed and investigators could not determine how long it had been at that location, said Riverside County sheriff's Investigator Jerry Franchville. The person was not yet identified and the cause of death could not be determined, Franchville said. –Jessica Logan jlogan@PE.com Hemet

Golden Era Golf Course, a historic golf course owned by the Church of Scientology near San Jacinto, is closing to the public effective July 15, church officials said. The golf course, which traces its roots to the early 1930s when it was established as the Gilman Hot Springs Golf Course, will remain a golf course, although its focus will shift from use as a public course to being a venue for charitable golfing tournaments and other community events, church spokeswoman Muriel ...

Arizona to extradite Scientology protester to Riverside County LAW: The fugitive will be sent to Riverside County. He fled before sentencing on a misdemeanor in '01. 10:00 PM PST on Thursday, February 8, 2007 By KENNY KLEIN The Press-Enterprise A Scientology protester who fled to Canada before he could be sentenced to 180 days in county jail in 2001 has been arrested in Arizona and will be extradited back to Riverside County, officials reported. Former Palo Alto resident Keith Henson, now ...

It was 2:15 p.m. when Keith Henson and his friend Gregg Hagglund finished picking up contact-lens solution and shaving lotion at a suburban Toronto mall and climbed into their car. Before they could fasten their seat belts, two unmarked vans squealed up, pinning their Mazda economy sedan in from the rear and the passenger side. A handful of emergency-services task-force officers – Canada‘s version of a police SWAT team – spilled out, wearing body armor and carrying submachine guns. As shoppers ...

Hemet — A man involved in a traffic collision that killed a 16 year old San Jacinto girl pleaded not guilty to a charge of vehicular manslaughter Wednesday. Thomas Nove, 35, of Moreno Valley was taken into custody on an unrelated matter following the arraignment in Hemet. He is charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in connection with the death of Ashlee Shaner last year. She was killed the night of May 17 when her car crashed into the bucket of a ...

WASHINGTON – A California jury has convicted Keith Henson, a prominent critic of Scientology, of terrorizing the group through Usenet posts and by picketing one of its offices. Henson, a computer engineer who has been involved in prior legal skirmishes with Scientology, was found guilty on Thursday of interfering with Scientologists' civil rights and now faces a prison sentence of up to one year and a fine of up to $5,000. The charges revolved around posts Henson made in the alt.religion.scientology ...

The 20-year-old Hemet woman died after she fell in a transformer vault. SAN JACINTO — A woman killed on the Church of Scientology's film studio grounds near San Jacinto is 20-year-old Hemet resident Stacey Myer, according to the county coroner. She apparently was electrocuted when she fell in a transformer vault at Golden Era Productions north of San Jacinto, said Riverside County sheriff's spokeswoman Perri Feinstein-Portales. "Her autopsy was performed today," Feinstein-Portales said Tuesday. "Right now the cause of death is ...