Palm Desert Ca

Someone is swiping the cactuses in this upscale desert city. Over the last six months, there has been an epidemic of thefts. Officials say they have lost nearly $20,000 worth of the plants. The main target is the golden barrel, which, depending on its size, can fetch anywhere from $100 to $800 each.

A 24-year-old man was arrested early Thursday on suspicion of possessing stolen weapons, authorities said. Shane Riddle of Palm Desert was taken into custody about 2:15 a.m. after driving away from police and leading them on a chase. At the time of his arrest, officers said, Riddle had a sawed-off assault rifle, a shotgun with a pistol grip and a tripod-mounted World War II machine gun with about 100 rounds of belt-fed ammunition in his car.

NEAR the 18th hole of the Bighorn golf course in Palm Desert, publishing tycoon Duane Hagadone laid out his vision for a dream home to his architect. It would be set high on the bald mountain rising near the green yet be so inconspicuous that he'd have to point it out even to golf buddies.

As they prepared to act as hosts during the first official memorial for Gerald R. Ford, residents of Palm Desert took their cue Thursday from the unassuming style of the 38th president -- stepping aside as the military and Secret Service swept in to handle the funeral procession. A trickle of curious and reverential onlookers gathered Thursday on the fringes of sun-washed St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, watching the military Guard of Honor rehearse.

Artworks by Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall were stolen from a Palm Desert gallery Tuesday night, authorities said. An alarm sounded at Modern Masters Fine Art gallery about 11 p.m. When authorities responded, they found a door had been forced open. The gallery's owner identified the two missing works and said they were worth nearly $100,000 combined.

The mother of Nicholas Farber, the Palm Desert boy whose kidnapping triggered an Amber alert in August 2002, was sentenced Friday to five years in state prison for her role in planning the abduction. Debra Rose, 39, and her boyfriend, Michael Riley, 49, paid two San Diego men to break into the Palm Desert home of Michael Farber, Nicholas' father, and snatch the boy after Farber took him from Rose's custody in Colorado.

It was dark and pin-drop quiet when we pulled into Mojave's circular driveway and walked down a winding path to our poolside room. Steam rose from the lighted Jacuzzi, and grapefruit trees cast misshapen shadows on the patio. Inside our room, Frank Sinatra (or a worthy imitator) crooned songs from a bedside radio, and a vintage lamp illuminated French Moderne reproduction armchairs and black-and-white photographs of stark desert landscapes.

A 17-year-old boy angered by his girlfriend's decision to have an abortion shot her in the neck in the waiting room of a Palm Desert clinic Thursday and was arrested about six hours later when deputies broke into his parents' home, authorities said. The girl was in critical condition, they said. Witnesses said that about 11 a.m., the youth argued with the girl at the Women's Health Center about her claim that it was not he who had made her pregnant and about her decision to have an abortion.

Odd as it is, I've always enjoyed the desert in the summer. When I was a boy, my family made its annual reverse "Grapes of Wrath" trip each summer from California to Oklahoma to visit relatives, driving across the scorching Arizona and New Mexico highways in our Buick. Memories mostly involve stopping for grape Nehi sodas and swimming in Travelodge pools at night.

Most residents who shed the family car tool around town in golf carts. Now, they can scoot around on those single-rider Segway human transporters. The City Council decided Thursday to allow the operation of Segways or other motorized nonvehicle devices. California law classifies Segway devices as "electric personal assistive mobility devices," so they are considered pedestrian devices, not vehicles.