In the News

January 26, 2023

A chronic lack of judges and the dismissal of more than 1,300 criminal cases in recent months has become a crisis for Riverside County, two supervisors said.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday, Jan. 24, to endorse a bill from state Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, to add judges and to ask the executive office, which oversees county government’s day-to-day affairs, to study the county’s criminal justice challenges and offer solutions.

January 20, 2023

by Malcolm Maclachlan -- State Sen. Richard Roth was a driving force behind the effort to fund 50 judgeships first approved in the Schwarzenegger era. Now, entering his final two years in office, the Riverside based Democrat has introduced a bill to create 26 new judgeships. But SB 75 faces long odds in light of the shrinking state budget.

January 13, 2023

By Madison Aument, KVCR -- Sonia Otte is the founding program director for Cal State San Bernardino’s new Master of Science Physician Assistant program. Cal State’s program will join the only two other public Physician Assistant programs in California.

“Having our students more closely mirror the communities that we'll be serving is hugely important,” said Otte.

California State Senator Richard Roth has secured more than $11 million in funding for the program since 2021. The program also received $2 million in federal funding earlier this month.

December 09, 2022

PERRIS, Calif. (KABC) -- At the Perris Fairgrounds, popular events from high-speed racing to live Latin music concerts keep drawing thousands of fans to the grounds annually. But a construction project on the nearby Perris Dam, located directly behind the venues, has pitted the businesses on the fairgrounds against the Department of Water Resources, the agency is in charge of the multi-year retrofitting project.

November 28, 2022

The Monday, Nov. 28, event celebrated the school’s eight-man football team’s California Interscholastic Federation championship win — the first in the school’s 70-year-history.

September 12, 2022

" Since UC Riverside’s medical school debuted in 2013 with the dream of expanding healthcare access in the underserved Inland Empire region, the university has relied on partnerships with area hospitals to provide hands-on training.

“They call it locally a hospital without walls,” state Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, said. But that arrangement, Roth said, isn’t going to work much longer.

September 08, 2022

"To ensure that California students enrolled in ASU programs in California can receive federal financial aid, we have supported two bills this year, (Assembly Bill) AB 2341 and (Senate Bill) SB 1433, which would establish processes to obtain that authorization and give more California students access to affordable higher education in their home state," ASU spokesperson Veronica Sanchez wrote in an email to The State Press.

June 23, 2022

"Jurupa Valley officials are insisting that a state agency remove a half dozen containers of lead-contaminated soil they say are stored in violation of state law on a parking lot at the Stringfellow acid pits, one of Southern California’s most notorious toxic waste dumps.

..... On Wednesday, June 22, state Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, and Assembly Member Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, sent a letter in support of the city’s request to California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Jared Blumenfeld. The Department of Toxic Substances Control is a division of Cal EPA.

May 17, 2022

" After its football team’s historic, headline-making season, the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, may be getting upgraded athletic facilities. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised 2022-23 budget proposal, released Friday, May 13, includes an estimated $43.1 million to build a new athletics complex on campus.

June 23, 2021

By Byrhonda Lyons [Published: June 23, 2021] — "State Sen. Richard Roth, a Democrat from Riverside, is pushing legislation that would have the state spend $10 million to expand the program to more locations statewide.  “It has essentially been operating with volunteers,” Roth said. “If we expect to move the needle dramatically — and frankly, we must — we need to do more, and we need to do it now.” Roth’s SB 770 bill would also require the chancellor of the California Community Colleges to report outcomes to the state, something the program hasn’t done previously. It has yet to be incorporated into the Legislature’s whopping $264 billion proposed budget."