News

Pala Today News – 9/22/26

Written by John Fox on September 22, 2026

by John Fox – The following items are part of the award-winning “Pala Today” newscast heard this day at noon on PALA REZ RADIO™ 91.3 FM in Pala and worldwide online … click here to listen live. Listen on a smart speaker by asking it to “play KPRI”. Some portions of today’s newscast are only available in the live broadcast and not included in this transcript which is also available an hour or two after broadcast at www.RezRadio.FM . In any emergency, knowledge is power. Use our resources to leverage your family’s safety. Email 91.3@palatribe.com to subscribe to our daily M-F e-newsletter. Follow us at www.facebook.com/rezradio and www.twitter.com/rezradioFM . Additional resources at Palatribe.com

LOCAL AND REGIONAL NEWS

A motorcyclist was hospitalized after a collision with a Toyota 4Runner yesterday afternoon in Fallbrook. It happened at East Live Oak Park Road and Yucca Roads around 4:42p. https://www.villagenews.com/story/2026/09/17/news/motorcyclist-hospitalized-after-collision-with-vehicle-in-fallbrook/82851.html

A 23-year-old man suffered severe head injuries and remained on life support Monday morning after authorities said he jumped from a moving vehicle on North Centre City Parkway late Sunday. The driver was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. California Highway Patrol identified her as 36-year old Lazette Gomez, and the victim as Michael Balderas. https://www.villagenews.com/story/2026/09/17/news/man-jumps-from-moving-car-sustains-unsurvivable-head-trauma/82850.html

A man found stabbed in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven gas station in Bonsall Friday evening is expected to survive. His attacker is still at large. Sheriff’s deputies are continuing to investigate. https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/man-stabbed-at-bonsall-gas-station-parking-lot-suspect-at-large/4076008/?amp=1

The CHP announced Sunday that an Uber driver was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a female passenger last Thursday in San Marcos. It allegedly occurred around 2a on the westbound 78 freeway near the Twin Oaks Valley Road off ramp. 50-year old Ramon Ochoa Reyes was arrested following a complaint by a 21-year old woman riding in his silver 2022 Honda Accord. Officials are asking if anyone else had a similar encounter with Reyes. https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/rideshare-driver-arrested-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-female-passenger

The collapse of a portion of bluff on Friday has closed access to Grandview Beach in Encinitas. This is just south of the spot where a bluff collapse in 2019 killed three people. Experts say the bluffs are being undermined by waves and that bluff collapses are unpredictable, but warn that El Niño conditions could increase the frequency of bluff failures along the coastline. https://www.10news.com/news/bluff-collapse-closes-access-to-grandview-beach-the-same-site-where-3-people-died-in-2019

Vice President JD Vance announced this morning that 750k names have been removed from Obamacare by his White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud due to alleged fraudulent enrollment, saving taxpayers $2.2b. Both Vance and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services emphasized that these names are not real people. Oz estimated that 35% of all people currently on the Affordable Care Act roles have never used their insurance, have no Social Security number, or have never responded to outreach calls. The administration is also putting a six-month moratorium on all new brokers and agents who sign up people for health insurance. Already this year, the CMS has terminated 200 non-compliant agents and brokers. https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/6104381-vance-oz-aca-obamacare-crackdown/

About a dozen SDG&E customers in northern Valley Center lost power this morning around 9:47a. Just about the same time, two dozen customers in southern Escondido lost power. The utility had not stated a time for restoration of either issue as of 11a. https://outage.sdge.com/

Pala will spend the first day of autumn in the mid-80s. We’ll warm into the low 90s for the rest of the week before returning to the mid-80s Sunday and Monday. The full forecast is coming up. (below)

SPORTS

In Major League Baseball – The Padres didn’t play yesterday. Only six major league teams did. Baltimore edged Toronto 4-3, Detroit over Washington 9-2, and the Giants beat the visiting Twins 5-2. Over the weekend, the Red Sox clinched a playoff berth, leaving just the final AL Wild Card up for grabs. Neither the Central, nor Western divisions have been decided yet with Cleveland leading the Central by just one game over the White Sox, and Texas leading the West by a game over Houston. In the National League, Atlanta has clinched the East, Milwaukee has clinched the Central, and the Dodgers have clinched the West. Heading into the final six days of the regular season, both the Padres and Dodgers have been on a tear. The Dodgers are 7 and 3 in their last ten. The Padres are 9 and 1 and won all of the four games before that as well. They remain 9 games behind the Dodgers and their magic number to clinch the playoffs is 2. They’re tied with the Cubs for the first NL Wild Card. Philadelphia is in position for the final Wild Card with Arizona about 2 games behind. The Padres meet the Dodgers in LA tonight. Arizona is at Colorado. The Cubs host Miami. Philly hosts Milwaukee. The Angels play the A’s in Sacramento.

In the NFL – Last night in Los Angeles, the Rams walked all over the visiting New York Giants, 28-6, making their lopsided loss in Australia seem even more out of character. Davante Adams caught two of the Rams four touchdown passes. Quarterback Matt Stafford was intercepted once. New York only managed a pair of field goals. LA had more than double the total yards and held the ball five minutes longer than New York. Sunday’s winners were Carolina, Minnesota, Philadelphia, New England, Green Bay, Cleveland, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Denver, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco, Kansas City and the visiting Raiders over the Chargers 26-14. Week 3 begins Thursday with Green Bay hosting Atlanta.

In college football – The top three teams remain the same on the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll – Texas, followed by Georgia and Notre Dame. On the AP list, Ole Miss moved up four places to #4, moving Indiana, Miami and Ohio State each down one notch. Alabama and BYU each gained two places to #8 and 9. LSU dropped three places to #10. Texas A&M plunged 14 places to #23. https://www.espn.com/college-football/rankings

In the NBA – Doc Rivers has joined NBC as a game analyst, saying his coaching career is over.

With team owner Steve Ballmer facing a one-year suspension from the league, the Clippers have named LA-based lawyer, John Gibson as their interim governor and CEO. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49999248/source-clippers-name-lawyer-john-gibson-interim-governor

In the WNBA – Yesterday’s winners were Atlanta and Phoenix.

In the NHL – Yesterday’s preseason game winners were Washington, Columbus, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, and Montreal

In golf – At the Biltmore Championship in Asheville, North Carolina, Jacob Bridgeman was the winner at 26 under par, 258 – two strokes ahead of Ben James. https://www.espn.com/golf/leaderboard/_/tournamentId/401850914

In racing – Joey Logano was the NASCAR Cup race winner Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Local high school sports –

Bonsall – girls’ volleyball hosting High Tech North County at 5p

Great Oak – girls’ tennis against Chaparral at 3:15p, varsity hosting, JV away; field hockey at Newport Harbor at 3:30p; flag football at Valley View at 4p

Fallbrook – no schedule available

Valley Center – girls’ golf against Mt. Carmel at Rancho Bernardo at 3:30p; girls’ tennis against Oceanside at 3:30p, JV hosting, varsity away; boys’ water polo at Escondido at 4p; varsity girls’ volleyball hosting Escondido Adventist at 5p; flag football at Grossmont at 6p

BUSINE$$

As of midday trading on Wall Street, stocks were mixed. The Dow was down 4 tenths of a percent. The S&P 500 fell a small fraction. The Nasdaq gained three tenths of a percent. Gold futures fell $9.50 on the Comex, trading at $4,374.20 an ounce. The benchmark West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures were up 72 cents to $96.50 a barrel.

We don’t need to tell you that retail fuel prices are up. But those that use diesel are suffering the most. We’ll all be suffering soon since virtually all retail goods spend at least some time on a truck fueled by diesel. According to the Auto Club, the current average price for diesel in Southern California is now $8.42 a gallon, with a good number of stations above $9. That’s significantly higher than last year’s $5.16 a gallon average. The percentage increase in diesel the past year is more than double that of gasoline. https://gasprices.aaa.com/?state=CA

It won’t help with the cost of fuel, but Texas-based Aurora Innovation is looking to lower the overall cost of trucking with completely autonomous semi tractor-trailer rigs. It’s currently operating 20 driverless rigs on I-20 between Fort Worth and El Paso and on I-45 between Houston and Dallas with hopes of expanding the fleet to 200 by the end of this year and major growth beginning next year. According to Bank of America, “Aurora services will cost about 85 cents per mile compared with $1.30 per mile for a human driver’s wages and benefits, before considering indirect labor costs.” Aurora believes its business model, where customers pay by the mile will be attractive to shipping and freight customers. There’s currently a shortage of big rig drivers. According to the Department of Transportation, there are about 3.5m Class 8 semi-trucks on U.S. roads. Only a fraction are autonomous, with Wall Street seeing huge potential. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/22/aurora-autonomous-semi-ride.html

The mega-merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. is back on track after the lawsuit by California and 11 other states was settled yesterday. To complete the merger, Paramount had to agree to conditions that would address potential job losses and concerns about political meddling. Specifically, a board composed entirely of journalists will guarantee the editorial independence of CNN and CBS News. Paramount must pay a fine if it fails to widely distribute at least 30 movies in theaters and at least four indie films each year for the first five years. It also agrees to spend $300m more annually than it did last year on US-based film production. Neither the Paramount, nor Warner Bros. iconic studio lots can be sold for at least five years. Paramount had threatened to move out of state if regulators didn’t approve the deal by the end of this month. Paramount would have owed Warner Bros. a $7m fee if the deal had been delayed past October 1. In return, Paramount won’t have to divest any media assets. The merger could save them $6b over the next three years, although that would require job cuts. And the combined entity will have $87b in debt – about two thirds of it is money Paramount borrowed to buy Warner Bros. www.marketwatch.com

Toys R Us has risen from the ashes. After filing for bankruptcy in 2018, the chain eventually closed all of its 735 locations after being unable to compete with Amazon, Walmart and other online retailers. Since then, a small number of stores have reopened in partnership with Macy’s. There are currently forty, nationwide. Five of them are in California. Last week, Toys R Us announced there will be 120 more opening in time for this year’s Christmas shopping season. These stores won’t be the same as before the bankruptcy. They’ll focus on the novelty of the in-person shopping experience, rare collectables, specific fandoms, product launches and unique in-person events. Some will feature candy shops and cafes. https://patch.com/california/across-ca/toys-r-us-open-120-new-stores-what-know-ca

LIFESTYLE / GREEN LIVING

Over the weekend at the movie box office, “Resident Evil” opened big, selling $60.1m worth of tickets – about five times as many as the #2 film, “Practical Magic 2”, which dropped 60% in its second week of release. “Daniel and the Firey Furnace” opened in 6^th place on just 1,500 screens with $3.3m. The 40^th anniversary re-release of “The Transformers” was close behind with $3.1m. “The Weight” opened in 9^th place with $2.3m. Total attendance was up by a third over last weekend to above average for the year. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/2026W38/

Tickets for the 2027 Stagecoach Festival coming to Indio’s Empire Polo Club April 23-25 went on sale Friday. Tier 1 general admission passes are probably already sold out. Acts this year include Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Zach Top, Riley Green, Gretchen Wilson, Florida Georgia Line, Journey, Kelly Clarkson, David Lee Roth, Matchbox 20 and couple dozen more. www.stagecoachfestival.com

On this day in music history – September 22,

1958, with permission from the Army, Elvis Presley gave one last press conference in Brooklyn before leaving for Germany to serve in the 3^rd Armored Division in Bremerhaven.
In 1962, The Springfields including Dusty and her brother had the first US Top 20 hit by any British vocal group. The song was “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”
In 1964, Herman’s Hermits hit #1 with the Carole King and Gerry Goffin song “I’m Into Something Good”.
In 1965, San Francisco band, The Great Society featuring Grace Slick made their live performance debut at The Coffee Gallery in North Beach
In 1969, a new weekly TV show, “The Music Scene” debuted on ABC with Stevie Wonder, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Tom Jones, Cass Elliott, James Brown, Janis Joplin and Sly and the Family Stone all booked for the first episode.
On the same day, The Band released its self-titled album including the tracks “Rag Mama Rag”, “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”. It was added to the National Recording Registry in 2009.
In 1972, David Bowie kicked off the North American leg of his Ziggy Stardust world tour in Cleveland
In 1979, Gary Numan was at #1 on the singles and albums charts in England with “Cars” from “The Pleasure Principle”.
In 1985, the first Farm Aid concert was held for a crowd of 80k in Champaign, Illinois. The benefit was organized by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young. The lineup of performers also included Alabama, Glen Campbell, Charlie Daniels Band, John Denver, Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, Johnny Cash, Vince Gill, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Roger Miller, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Charley Pride, Bonnie Raitt and Kenny Rogers.
In 1990, Garth Brooks’ “No Fences” album entered the charts and went on to become the biggest-selling country album of all time.
In 2004, Cat Stevens, now going by the name Yusuf Islam, was removed from a transatlantic flight and refused entry in to the U.S. by the FBI after his name showed up on a US watch list.
In 2011, European carmaker SEAT found that Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was the song most likely to be found on British iPods – more than 40% of them.
In 2015, a US District Judge ruled that the original copyright for “Happy Birthday” was invalid and that from now on the song would be in the public domain. Warner/Chappell Music Inc. had paid $15m for it in 1988.

Born on this day …

In 1922, Raymond Edwards from the doo-wop group The Silhouettes.
In 1942, Mike Patto from Spooky Tooth and Boxer
In 1943, actress, dancer/choreographer and singer Toni Basil who had the chart-topper “Mickey” in 1982.
In 1951, David Coverdale from Whitesnake
In 1956, Debby Boone who had a #1 hit for ten weeks in 1977 with “You Light Up My Life”.
In 1958, Joan Jett

https://www.thisdayinmusic.com/search/?keyword=&date=22&month=9

Other celebrity anniversaries today …

Actress Shari Belafonte-Harper, daughter of Harry Belafonte is 72
Actor Scott Baio, best-known as Chachi from “Happy Days” is 60
Actress Bonnie Hunt is 65
Among those who’ve passed, actor and comedian Art Metrano was born in 1936

http://www.davesfunstuff.com/a-dd/2080-date0922.htm

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Pala seniors’ lunch menu for tomorrow (9/23) – spaghetti, garlic bread, vegetables and dessert

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WEATHER

Pala Weather – sunny with a high of 85 and winds gusting up to 20 miles an hour this afternoon … 90 tomorrow and Thursday … 91.3 degrees Friday … 92 Saturday … 87 Sunday … 85 Monday … overnight lows, about 59 tonight and tomorrow night … 61 Thursday night … about 63 Friday and Saturday night … 59 Sunday night

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COMMUNITY CALENDAR

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SHOWS

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RESOURCES

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