Claremont Insider: News from the Coachella Valley

Friday, May 11, 2007

News from the Coachella Valley

News that crossed the wire on Monday had the Insider searching for more information. Apparently there was a "terrorist threat" to the Desert Sun, Indio's newspaper. The following is presented nearly verbatim:

Newspaper subscriber allegedly threatens

to bomb The Desert Sun

With apologies to: Mariecar Mendoza and Marie McCain, who, like Glenn Southard, had nothing to do with this.

The Dessert Sun
May 7, 2007


Police arrested a Desert Hot Springs man after he allegedly made threats to bomb The Desert Sun building on Monday, according to Palm Springs Police Department. The person arrested was not Glenn Southard, City Manager of Indio.

The customer, someone other than Glenn Southard, had initially called Sunday because he said he did not receive the coupons he wanted in his Sunday newspaper, said Greg Castro, Director of Circulation for The Desert Sun.

“The customer service representative said she would have the coupons sent out on Monday to the person’s home, not the home of Glenn Southard,” Castro said.

Though a newspaper employee delivered the package as told to a place other than Glenn Southard’s residence, Castro said the man, not Glenn Southard, called the newspaper’s customer service department again on Monday and said he still did not get the coupons he wanted.

“That’s when he (not Glenn Southard) said: ‘What do I have to do? Come down there and blow up the building?’ ” Castro added.

Officers searched the Desert Sun building, assisted by a bomb detection dog and did not find any devices, police said.

Castro said the building was not evacuated during the police search and no employees or bystanders were injured. Nor was Glenn Southard.

“We asked the police to conduct a search as a precaution,” Castro said.

Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs officers located the customer, identified as 65-year-old Nicholas Karas (no relation to Glenn Southard), at his home.

Karas admitted he had made the statement, but denied having malicious intent, police said. Glenn Southard, on the other hand, though often accused of having malicious intent, loves The Desert Sun. “It’s my very most favorite newspaper,” he is often heard saying.

Karas was arrested on suspicion of making a terrorist threat, police said. Glenn Southard is still at large.

He (Karas, not Glenn Southard) is being held in Palm Springs Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.

Disclaimer: The above is obvious satire using parodic elements. No need for anyone to get his knickers in a knot about it. The Desert Sun would never engage in anything so clearly lame, and the entire affair is beneath the notice of any official of the City of Indio.