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Joe Nelson

Joe Nelson is an award-winning investigative reporter for the Southern California News Group's Watchdog Team. He is a graduate of California State University Fullerton and in 2014 completed a fellowship at Loyola Law School's Journalist Law School program. He is a bibliophile, film buff, and lover of the outdoors.

River’s Edge Ranch “ranchers” pray before breakfast on Friday, May 8, 2026. The Lucerne Valley ranch blends toilsome ranch work with worship as residents work on their recovery. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

River’s Edge Ranch offers faith, recovery and hope to struggling addicts

May 30, 2026 at 1:35 p.m.

Residents who come to the Lucerne Valley ranch trade drugs and alcohol for rakes, shovels and Bibles to learn discipline and purpose through hard work.

A civil jury on May 12 awarded Los Angeles attorney Grace W. Kang $4.5 million in damages for false allegations of child abuse by her ex-boyfriend and father of her son, Los Angeles entrepreneur Jason Varughese. Kang’s attorney said he argued during trial that Varughese, creator of the sobriety and recovery app Pink Cloud, was seeking 100% custody of his and Kang’s son for the additional child support money because he was in debt. The verdict, according to Kang’s attorney, is believed to be a first of its kind in California. (Photo courtesy Grace W. Kang)

Beverly Hills mother awarded $4.5 million for ex-boyfriend’s false child abuse claims

May 20, 2026 at 4:56 p.m.

Attorney Grace Kang is believed to be the first person to obtain a jury award for false allegations under California's mandated reporter law.

Clare Weber, pictured left, is the former vice provost at California State University San Bernardino, and Anissa Rogers is the former associate dean of CSUSB’s Palm Desert campus. Both sued the Cal State University system’s board of trustees and top Cal State San Bernardino officials in March 2023 alleging pay disparity and discrimination against female employees. (Courtesy of Courtney Abrams)

Two former Cal State administrators get $12 million in gender discrimination settlement

May 19, 2026 at 4:09 p.m.

The Cal State San Bernardino case is believed to be the largest publicly reported employment discrimination settlement in the CSU system.

Federal lawsuit alleges years of sexual abuse at former San Bernardino Juvenile Hall

May 14, 2026 at 4:31 p.m.

Lawsuit comes amid wave of mounting scrutiny over alleged sexual abuse at juvenile detention facilities across Southern California.

School buses trundle through the bus yard at Hemet Unified School District in August 2014. The CHP’s Border and Inland divisions are investigating allegations that bus drivers have repeatedly violated state laws limiting the hours bus drivers can work in a single day and collectively over an 8-day period. Complaining employees who reported their concerns to the CHP say the alleged violations potentially put students and drivers at risk. (File photo by Frank Bellino, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

CHP probes complaints that Hemet Unified is working bus drivers to exhaustion

May 14, 2026 at 4:30 p.m.

Whistleblowers allege that students and bus drivers are potentially at risk because the drivers are working more hours than the state allows.

Motorists drive along I-15 in 2015 near the proposed site for the Soda Mountain solar power project near Baker. (Photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

California approves controversial $700 million Soda Mountain Solar Project near Baker

April 30, 2026 at 1:18 p.m.

The massive solar and battery storage project is the second in state approved under a law allowing the state to sidestep local control.

Cody Woodson Klemp, 70, of Moreno Valley, was granted parole under the state’s Elderly Parole Program in November 2023, but his parole was blocked by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The parole board denied him parole a year later upon further review. (Photo courtesy the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

Lawmakers ramp up efforts to reform California’s Elderly Parole Program

April 21, 2026 at 2:58 p.m.

Years after the program came under fire in the Inland Empire, the parole of two violent sex offenders in Northern California has sparked new concerns.

Desert bighorn sheep in the Soda Mountains, near the Mojave National Preserve. (Photo courtesy of Michael Gordon)

California poised to OK controversial Soda Mountain Solar Project near Baker

April 13, 2026 at 2:46 p.m.

Opponents say that even with modifications, the 2,600-acre, 300-megawatt project threatens bighorn sheep as well as other desert species and habitat.

A catwalk connecting Colton High School’s main campus to the school’s athletic fields – emblazoned with the school’s Yellowjackets mascot and football team name – crosses over Rancho Avenue in Colton on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. The Colton Joint Unified School District has settled for $19.5 lawsuits filed by a dozen former player’s for the school’s reputed football team who claimed they were sexually abused for years by former athletic trainer Tiffany Strauss-Gordon, daughter of the late Harold Strauss, the school’s esteemed football coach known for preparing his players for the NFL. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Colton Joint Unified settles sex abuse lawsuits with former star football players for $19.5 million

April 9, 2026 at 1:50 p.m.

The daughter of esteemed Colton High football coach Harold Strauss had access to the athletes as the team's trainer in 2001 through 2007.

The California Institution for Women in Chino. (File photo by Joe Blackstock)

DOJ launches probe into ‘biological males’ housed in California women’s prisons

April 1, 2026 at 1:36 p.m.

The federal government is challenging the constitutionality of housing "biological men" in women's prisons, including the facility in Chino.

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