Duane Roberts made millions off a food he was initially wholly ignorant of: the humble burrito.

It was the 1950s, and his family owned a small meat wholesaler called the Butcher Boy that sold patties to local restaurants, including one of the first operating McDonald’s, a location in San Bernardino.

As the fast-food chain and other burger joints grew in popularity, the family brainstormed other products they could manufacture, Roberts recalled in a 2007 interview with the Orange County Register.

A butcher who worked at the company, whom Roberts described as having Hispanic heritage, made a suggestion: “Why don’t you make a burrito?”

“I loved Mexican food, but I had no idea what a burrito was,” Roberts told the Register, saying he was more familiar with enchiladas and tacos.

But the entrepreneurial Roberts went on to turn that seed of an idea into a bean and beef burrito that could be sold frozen and then deep-fried.

Roberts, who would parlay his business success into a prominent role in Inland Empire Republican politics and attain local fame as owner of the historic Mission Inn, died Saturday, according to his family. He was 88.

The story goes that the Riverside businessman experimented in the kitchen for two days straight to get the burrito right. Its sales helped expand the family business from one plant with 60 workers to six plants with 1,400 workers.

Roberts made millions off the product when he sold the company to Central Soya Inc. in 1980. At the time, the company was generating $80 million in annual sales and producing 1 million burritos each day.

His wife, Kelly J. Roberts, said in a statement that her husband was a “visionary entrepreneur, devoted husband, and a man whose heart and generosity forever shaped [their] family and community.” She said he died peacefully in his sleep.

She described Roberts as a “proud American” who served in the United States military and was a “staunch supporter” of the Republican Party.

“[H]e believed passionately in the principles of hard work, perseverance and opportunity, values that guided both his business ventures and his life,” she said.

Roberts hosted a reelection fundraiser for then-President George W. Bush in 2003, and his wife was President Trump’s pick for ambassador to Slovenia during Trump’s first term — although she later pulled herself out of the running, Politico reported.

The businessman, who grew up in Riverside, is also known for saving the historic Mission Inn from the brink of demolition.

The hotel — which hosted both the marriage of the Nixons and the honeymoon of the Reagans — closed for a major overhaul in 1985, but the renovation dragged on, and then the hotel market collapsed. Roberts swept in offering $15.6 million, a steal when compared with the $55 million spent on the renovation, financed by Chemical Bank.

The bank acquiesced, however, fearing more losses. Roberts reopened the Mission Inn in 1992.

“How the Mission Inn was saved is the happy tale of a city’s heart restarted,” former Times reporter Daniel Akst wrote after its reopening. “But it’s also an object lesson in what you can do if you’re solvent — and clever — during the worst recession in Southern California since the 1930s.”

Roberts had a sentimental attachment to the hotel, as his meat company had sometimes entertained clients there. His mother also loved the ornate architecture.

“I like beautiful old things. The Mission Inn is the fabric that binds the community together. It’s a heart-welling thing to own. Some people have sports teams, I have my Mission Inn,” he told the Register in 2007.

Roberts and his wife have been longtime residents of Laguna Beach, but earlier this year they purchased a $48.5-million Palm Beach estate, the latest example of wealthy Californians and Trump fans flocking to Florida.

He is survived by his wife and his stepchildren Doug and Casey.

Jon Stewart’s biting satire may have made his new bosses squirm, but they went ahead and extended the comedian’s run on Comedy Central through December 2026.

The channel’s parent company, Paramount, announced Monday that Stewart will continue to host “The Daily Show” on Monday nights and serve as an executive producer through the end of next year.

Members of the show’s news team will continue to share Tuesday-through-Thursday hosting duties. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

“Jon Stewart continues to elevate the genre he created. His return is an ongoing commitment to the incisive comedy and sharp commentary that define The Daily Show,” Ari Pearce, Comedy Central’s manager, said in a prepared statement. “We’re proud to support Jon and the extraordinary news team.”

Stewart’s contract was re-upped nearly four months after Paramount-owned sister network CBS notified Stephen Colbert, who rose to fame on “The Daily Show,” that it was dumping his late night show at the end of the season. The cancellation was revealed days after Colbert lambasted a $16-million settlement Paramount agreed to pay President Trump to end a lawsuit over edits to “60 Minutes.” Colbert called the arrangement “a big fat bribe.”

Paramount settled the Trump suit to win approval from the Trump administration of its sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media and RedBird Capital Partners. CBS has said the reason for Colbert’s cancellation was financial, not political, although many people have expressed doubts.

Ellison took ownership of Paramount in August. Stewart has joked that he, too, might be tossed as the company tries to reposition itself to the political center.

Since taking over the media firm that also includes MTV, BET, Nickelodeon and Hollywood-based Paramount Pictures movie studio, the company has made big bets, including agreeing to pay $7.7 billion for rights to UFC fights and $1.25 billion over five years to Matt Stone and Trey Parker to continue creating their “South Park” cartoon for Comedy Central and the Paramount+ streaming service. Ellison and his team also lured Matt and Ross Duffer, the duo behind “Stranger Things,” from Netflix and paid $150 million to buy the Free Press and bring its co-founder, Bari Weiss, to the company as CBS News editor in chief.

Paramount also signed a 10-year lease on a film and television production facility under construction in New Jersey.

Last week, the company began a deep round of layoffs, cutting 1,000 employees with plans to terminate another 1,000 in the coming weeks, in an effort to trim its workforce by 10%. About 100 people from CBS News were among the layoffs.

After a nine-year absence, Stewart returned as a host in February 2024. He had helmed the show for 16 years before taking a break in 2015. His current contract was expiring.

The show was hosted by Trevor Noah until 2022, when he stepped down. That prompted a rotation of guest hosts, including Kal Penn, Charlamagne tha God, Sarah Silverman and Michelle Wolf.

Last month, during a conversation with the New Yorker at a cultural festival, Stewart was asked whether he might stick around longer. “We’re working on staying,” Stewart told the New Yorker’s David Remnick.

The rotation of “The Daily Show” hosts also will include Ronny Chieng, Josh Johnson, Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta and Desi Lydic with Troy Iwata and Grace Kuhlenschmidt.

San Francisco has been mourning the death of KitKat, a beloved corner-store cat who died after being struck by a Waymo robotaxi last week.

KitKat graced the counters of Randa’s Market on 16th Street, near the historic Roxie Theater in the Mission District. KitKat was first introduced on the store’s Instagram page six years ago, quickly winning over the hearts of customers. He wasn’t a surly or suspicious cat — he could be seen playing with someone’s dangling hoodie drawstrings; snoozing in front of shelves with liquor bottles; inside a cardboard box marked with his name; greeting the neighborhood dogs; even dressing up as Santa Claus.

He shot to fame during the COVID-19 pandemic’s first year. Not only was he posted on the @bodegacatsofinstagram account (which now has more than 500,000 followers), but he also won a mention in a news story on beloved store cats. “The atmosphere in the store definitely changed after KitKat arrived,” Daniel Zeidan, the store owner’s son, told SFGate. Not only did he get treats from customers, but also “someone recently brought him a blanket so he would stay warm in the winter.”

More recently, he was caught curled up asleep on his own heating pad.

He even made appearances in the next-door bar, Dalva, where his arrival felt like “the president had arrived, making their rounds, shaking hands and charming everyone,” said one mourning Instagram commenter.

But he was fatally wounded around 11:40 p.m. on Oct. 27 just outside the market, Mission Local reported. Two witnesses, speaking anonymously, told the news outlet that they had just left Dalva and saw KitKat sitting in front of a stopped self-driving Waymo for about seven seconds. Then the cat walked under the vehicle, heading toward the sidewalk, as the car pulled away. The right rear tire ran over KitKat, the website said.

“It was an awful sight,” one of the witnesses told Mission Local.

Another person driving by saw the Waymo swerve and told Mission Local he thought the robotaxi was driving faster than he would expect a human would drive on a busy street. “Killed the neighborhoods baby,” a comment on the city’s 311 website said shortly after the collision.

A bartender from another nearby bar, Delirium, rushed KitKat to a veterinarian hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to Mission Local.

The cat was 9 years old, the San Francisco Standard reported.

“We’re heartbroken,” Randa’s Market said on Instagram. “He brought warmth, smiles, and comfort to everyone who walked through our doors…. The store won’t be the same without his little paws padding around.”

One mourner, responding to the post, called KitKat “the best city bodega cat anyone could ever ask for. His lil pet requests meant a lot for some of us passing through, whether we missed our own pet or just wanted to share some love with a neighbor.”

In a statement, Waymo said: “We reviewed this, and while our vehicle was stopped to pick up passengers, a nearby cat darted under our vehicle as it was pulling away.

“We send our deepest sympathies to the cat’s owner and the community who knew and loved him, and we will be making a donation to a local animal rights organization in his honor,” the statement said. “The trust and safety of the communities we serve is our highest priority.”

A Waymo has had a run-in with a pet before. News outlets in 2023 reported on a Waymo striking and killing a small off-leash dog in San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood; in that case, a test driver was in the vehicle, but the car was in self-driving mode.

In one close call, a Waymo narrowly avoided running over a runaway dog in Santa Monica in May. An 8-year-old Labrador mix, Trevor, had escaped his owner’s yard and ran into the street in front of a Waymo, which braked suddenly, KCAL-TV reported. The station broadcast video of the near-collision. The dog was uninjured, and his owner praised the car’s quick action.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has received reports of 884 collisions involving autonomous vehicles dating to 2014.

A Waymo robotaxi in downtown Los Angeles in September.

(Gary Coronado/For The Times)

Waymo, owned by Google’s parent, Alphabet, has been expanding its footprint across California. The robotaxis — electric Jaguar I-Paces — don’t use a human driver and can be hailed on an app in San Francisco and a swath of northern San Mateo County, including Daly City, San Bruno and Burlingame. They’re also available in parts of Silicon Valley and surrounding areas, including Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto and Menlo Park.

In Los Angeles County, Waymos can be hailed across a portion of central L.A., South L.A., and the Westside, including downtown L.A., Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Inglewood.

The self-driving cars are also available in Phoenix.