A second former top tier West Valley Water District official acknowledged last year that he was caught up in a bribery scheme involving entanglements that connected the district to a growing list of one-time Baldwin Park city officials, several of whom have now been indicted on political corruption charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office disclosed last week.
Since 2022, the way in which the hiring and contracting policy at the West Valley Water District in Rialto had been manipulated as part of a quid-pro-quo arrangement to essentially pay off former Baldwin Park Councilman Richard Pacheco has been known. What has now been learned is that Robert Tafoya, who was Baldwin Park city attorney while he was simultaneously serving as the water district’s general counsel, was in on the graft. Based upon both previously and recently available information, it appears that at least one of the district’s former board members and a local state senator also took part in receiving, in one form or another substantial amounts of graft money – political grease – put up by the owner of a business that succeeded in obtaining a permit to sell marijuana in the Los Angeles County city.
Central to the circumstance is Mike Taylor, who was once seen as a pillar of both the Los Angeles County/Baldwin Park and Los Angeles County/Rialto communities.
Taylor as a young man went to work with the Baldwin Park Police Department in the 1981. Baldwin Park is a 6.9-square mile city in which the population now stands at 72,176. Over Taylor’s first three decades with the police department, he slowly but steadily promoted through the ranks, educating himself to include certificates in specialized law enforcement disciplines extending to completing courses at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia and bachelor of arts and master’s degrees in political science and then a doctorate in education in public administration. In 2014, Taylor reached the top, or very nearly the top, of his profession when he was promoted to Baldwin Park police chief. Continue reading →

The four-fifths strength Yucaipa City Council this week bypassed a prime mover in the successful effort to remove Matt Garner from the council’s ranks when its members made a [3-to-1] decision to fill Garner’s empty council post with an individual who has been less outspokenly critical of the city’s leadership.
Garner’s abbreviated political career was rooted in events that took place in the weeks and months before he was elected to and sworn into office in the Fall of 2022.
At that time, Garner was vying, along with Sherilynn Long, Mark Taylor and Erik Sahakian, to succeed then-incumbent District 1 Councilman David Avila, who had declined to run for reelection that year. Similarly, in the city’s District 2, incumbent Greg Bogh was not seeking reelection. Chris Venable and Nena Dragoo were competing to take Bogh’s place.
On October 23, 2022, 16 days before the November 8, 2022 election, the Yucaipa City Council as it was then composed – consisting of Avila, Bogh, District 3 Councilman, District 4 Councilman Justin Beaver land District 5 Councilman Jon Thorp considered a proposal to extend then-City Manager Ray Casey’s employment contract, one which guaranteed his employment with the city until June 30, 2024, granted him a 3 percent increase of his base salary to $299,420 annually, such that he was making $422,901.50 in total annual compensation, putting him among the 25 highest-paid city managers in California. Comments by the council members that night memorialized their apparent collective belief that Casey’s experience, which included prior work as the Yucaipa’s city engineer/public works director from 2003 until 2008 and his 14 subsequent years as city manager, taken together with his standing within the municipal management profession, justified the action. Continue reading →

Even with the intensification of the effort by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, California Highway Patrol and other local law enforcement agencies clamp down on so-called swarm robberies and smash & grab robberie, in particular as the holiday shopping season is heading toward it zenith, aggressive retail theft in Redlands at its jewelry stores has remained undeterred.
While thieves since time immemorial have devised creative ways to pursue their larcenous inclination, during the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic, coordinated thefts spiked. That approach to property crime has become a permanent phenomenon, with upticks when stores or shopping malls are crowded.
In a typical swarm theft, a significant number of participants – a dozen or more and, in some, multiple dozens or scores of of thieves – will enter a business and spend several minutes collecting and/or pocketing merchandise and then, upon a prearranged signal, walk out en masse without paying for any of it. By their sheer numbers, they overwhelm the clerks or store personnel and their ability to prevent what is occurring.
Smash and grab robberies likewise involve multiple participants, but usually far fewer than in a swarm theft scenario. Such actions similarly involve a rush and entail, at the very least, implied violence which often extends to actual violence, with an intentional display of destruction or mayhem. A key element is the distraction or disabling of any form of security or theft preventative measures. This can involve the brandishing of weapons – usually firearms – or the employment of chemical agents such as bear spray, pepper spray or mace against any security guards, the use of hammers or heavy metal rods in smashing glass display or containment cases, all carried out rapidly and with aggression. In effectuating such a thefts, perpetrators are not reluctant to make noise or conspicuously inflict damage on property to accentuate the intimidation effect. Continue reading →

The last three of Edin Alex Enamorado’s acolytes who emulated his physically aggressive brand of activism and followed him into jail as a result have been released from custody, after spending the previous 364 days incarcerated.
Six of his followers and Edin Enamorado had a part in two separate assaults on September 3, 2023 in Pomona, one against a security guard the activists claimed was wrongfully hassling street vendors and another against a man who exchanged angry words with them when their protest at that city’s police headquarters prevented him from being able to lodge a police report. The security guard was chemically maced, punched, kicked, beaten and knocked to the ground. The second man was challenged to a fight, threatened with death and forced to kneel on the ground and beg to be spared the beating his attackers were preparing to subject him to. On September 24, 2013, the same seven who were involved in the Pomona confrontations and an eighth member of the Enamorados were present in Victorville for a protest against the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department when the group set upon a bystander who had objected to the protesters surrounding the car in which he and his wife were riding, preventing them from leaving the area. He was punched, kicked, knocked to the ground and chemically maced.
Edin Enamorado, who most often goes by his middle name Alex, and his followers do not consider themselves to be criminals but avenging angels. Alex Enamorado has stated in numerous forums that North America rightfully belongs to the indigenous people of the continent and that the European oppressors and occupiers have usurped their land and are violating their human rights with the imposition of their capitalistic economic system. He is committed, as are those who follow his example, to standing up for La Raza. In recent years, the cause he and his followers – the Enamorados – have most often taken up is that of street vendors, whose rights and ability to make a living for themselves is being abridged unjustly and illegally, they maintain, by competing economic interests such as brick and mortar commercial establishments and restaurants who are being assisted by equally mendacious security guards, code enforcement officers, police officers, city governments, law enforcement agencies, public health officials and the like through personal confrontation, efforts to remove vendors and their vehicles from parking lots and the public right-of-way such as streets, sidewalks and parkways by enforcing county and city codes and ordinances and laws. In their efforts to protect street vendors, the Enamorados have sought them out, providing them with their phone numbers and arming them with pepper spray or chemical mace, instructing them to call for assistance if they are confronted by citizens; business owners or operators proximate to where the vendors have set up their carts, tables or vehicles; health department inspectors or officers; code enforcement officers; other authorities; or police officers. The Enamorados will then respond, singly or in multiple numbers and occasionally en masse. While the Enamorados have for the most part shown discretion and drawn the line at being merely verbally confrontational with police officers or sheriff’s deputies, they tended toward being more physical in dealing with others, intimidating health department inspectors and code enforcement officers and becoming physically confrontational with security officers employed by commercial business owners who objected to vendors operating from their parking lots or on the sidewalk or street in front of or near their places of business. Continue reading →

Texas-based McLane Company Incorporated has informed the California’s Employment Development Department that as of January 27, 2025, it will lay off 97 employees from its Rancho Cucamonga distribution facility.
McLane is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated.
Since 2000, after it acquired many of AmeriServes Food Distribution’s assets, McLane Company has been a major player in the foodservice industry, business in December 2000, when it acquired certain assets from AmeriServe Food Distribution to create McLane Foodservice.
In 2012, McLane acquired Meadowbrook Meat Company, another major foodservice distributor.
McLane Foodservice are part of the Yum! Brands corporation: McLane delivers grocery and food items to Walmart, Sam’s Club, Walgreens, Pilot Flying J, Circle K, Wawa, ExxonMobil, Target, Kmart, and Family Dollar.
It also provides grocery, food items and food service items to Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby’s, Del Taco, Denny’s, Jack in the Box, Hardee’s and Applebee’s.
The McLane Company’s Rancho Cucamonga distribution facility is located at 9408 Richmond Place.
In addition to the Rancho Cucamonga facility, McLane has two other distribution centers in San Bernardino County, one in Ontario and another in San Bernardino, as well as two in Riverside. None of those are to experience layoffs, and some of the workers in Rancho Cucamonga may be eligible to take on assignments at those locations.

FBN20240010209
The following entity is doing business primarily in San Bernardino County as
BARBARA’S DIGITAL TAX SERVICE 2306 N. RIVERSIDE AVE RIALTO, CA 92377: BARBARA N. LONDON
Business Mailing Address: 2306 N. RIVERSIDE AVE RIALTO, CA 92377
The business is conducted by: AN INDIVIDUAL.
The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: N/A
By signing, I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime (B&P Code 179130). I am also aware that all information on this statement becomes Public Record upon filing.
/s/ BARBARA N. LONDON, Owner
Statement filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on: 11/05/2024
I hereby certify that this copy is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office San Bernardino County Clerk By:/Deputy K1583
Notice-This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professions Code).
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on November 22, 29 and December 6 & 13, 2024.

FBN20240010416
The following entity is doing business primarily in San Bernardino County as
THE ESTEEMED LUXURY CRUMB
[and]
CHLOE’S CRUMBS
955 N DUESENBERG DR. STE 2318 ONTARIO, CA 91764: RX 4 U PHARMACY SERVICES, INC. 955 N DUESENBERG DR APT 2318 ONTARIO, CA 91764
Business Mailing Address: 955 N DUESENBERG DR. STE 2318 ONTARIO, CA 91764
The business is conducted by: A CORPORATION registered with the State of California.
The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: N/A
By signing, I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime (B&P Code 179130). I am also aware that all information on this statement becomes Public Record upon filing.
/s/ SAMIRA ATALLA, President
Statement filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on: 11/08/2024
I hereby certify that this copy is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office San Bernardino County Clerk By:/Deputy K4626
Notice-This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professions Code).
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on November 22, 29 and December 6 & 13, 2024.

FBN20240010739
The following entity is doing business primarily in San Bernardino County as
SUMMIT HEIGHTS JUICE IT UP!
15068 SUMMIT AVE FONTANA. CA 92336: D3 MANAGEMENT LLC. 14854 SHETLAND LANE FONTANA, CA 92336
Business Mailing Address: 14854 SHETLAND LANE FONTANA, CA 92336
The business is conducted by: A LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY registered with the State of California.
The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: N/A
By signing, I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime (B&P Code 179130). I am also aware that all information on this statement becomes Public Record upon filing.
/s/ TONY L HOUSTON, CEO
Statement filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on: 11/22/2024
I hereby certify that this copy is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office San Bernardino County Clerk By:/Deputy K4624
Notice-This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professions Code).
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on November 22, 29 and December 6 & 13, 2024.

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