The little towns of Banning and Beaumont lie adjacent to one another atop the pass leading from the Inland Empire through the San Bernadino Mountains and down into the Palm Springs area of the Southern California desert. The Record Gazette (published five times a week) and the Beaumont Community Advisor (a weekly) serve a population of approximately 40,000 souls. Owned by a regional chain of small-town papers, they are well run and decently edited. They were among the first papers to ever pay me for my writing as a freelancer back in the mid-nineties and have been my full time employer since the summer of 2000.

All materials © Gary M. Pinkston, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001