COLTON COURIER Weekly
Vol 148 , NO. 42
October 01, 202 0
La Loma Hills residents oppose proposed cluster development project By Maryjoy Duncan
www.iecn.com
First American I n d i a n Ve t e r a n s memorial breaks ground Pg. 5
A
new residential development proposal has residents in the La Loma Hills area of Colton frustrated with the lack of access in making public comments regarding the project during planning commission meetings and workshops held between April and July via Zoom due to the pandemic; many retired residents either have no access to the virtual meeting platform, or in some cases for those who joined by phone their calls were inadvertently dropped from the meeting due to technical difficulties. Over 150 residents, who comprise the La Loma Hills Residents Alliance (Alliance), signed a petition asking for the postponement of any further discussion/action until the public can safely meet in person to address concerns; the project moved forward. Project , cont. on next pg.
Pg. 7
H OW TO R E AC H US Inland Empire Com munity Newspaper s Of fice: (909) 381- 9898 Editorial: iec n1@mac .c om Adve rt ising: sales@i ec n.com Leg als : ie cnleg als@hotmail.c om
CITY OF COLTON
Widespread and pandemic-created scams to beware of
By Maryjoy Duncan
Inland doctor donates $45K to support distance lear ning
PHOTO
“We’re not trying to stop development, we just want a project that’s neighborhood-friendly and compatible to existing lot sizes,” said retired engineer and La Loma Hills resident Richard Zaragoza.
I
f it’s too good to be true, it generally is. That is the message that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), California Attorney General’s Office, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Riverside County District Attorney’s Office underlined during a virtual meeting hosted by Ethnic Media Services aimed at warning the community of prevalent scams as well as new ones generated by the pandemic. “People are far more likely to avoid a scam if they hear about it,” FTC Associate Director Division of Consumer Response and Operations Monica Vaca noted.
The top reported scam in the Inland Empire is online shopping orders never arriving; those include critical items such as face masks and hand sanitizers, Vaca indicated. Additional scams involve treatments and tests, revenue opportunities, fabricated tracking information of online orders, and threats of eviction. Chief Deputy District Attorney of Riverside County Kelli Catlett warned consumers fraudsters will attempt to charge up to $185 for fake tests – rapid or blood – and offer to meet in a medical facility’s parking lot to administer the test, promising results in under an hour.
COURTESY PHOTOS
BILL MURDOCH, FBI
Examples of fraudulent text messages luring people to click on the hyperlink. FBI Agent Bill Murdoch emphatically insists we avoid clicking links on text messages and emails. “That is not true, that does not happen, there is nothing that’s been approved by the FDA that facilitates that,” Catlett noted. “We are seeing that (scammers) prey upon people that they overhear, it’s almost like they’re sending people out into the community to recruit for that money.”
A COVID-19 related scam to watch for is the “opportunity” of earning $1,000 to sign up for a trial. That is false. FTC
Regional
Director,
Scams, cont. on next pg.