Dwindling State & Federal Funding Presages More Transportation Tax, Wolfe Says

The San Bernardino County Transportation Agency’s Business 2 Business Expo held at the Ontario Convention Center on September 29 resulted in a couple of revelations that were quite noteworthy if not outright shocking.
The agency’s executive director, Ray Wolfe, told those assembled during his “State of Transportation” address that not only the San Bernardino County Transportation Agency but the California Department of Transportation are now impoverished, apparently because of rising gas prices and the progressive conversion of vehicles to electric power, which is decreasing gasoline sales in the Golden State, and thus reducing gasoline tax revenue. Continue reading

Davis Seeking Return To The Redlands City Council

By Mark Gutglueck
Coming up on her fourth year in elected office, Redlands City Councilwoman Denise Davis is testing ground only rarely explored in the past and never quite mastered by San Bernardino County’s local politicians.
So far, she has done remarkably well in embracing progressivism, becoming a model of what many other progressives hope might become the model of the region’s quintessential new politician. Nevertheless, she faces both inner and out challenges and questions as to whether she can endure in office, and if she holds on to her municipal post, how effectively she will lead going forward.
As one of the region’s first openly homosexual officeholders, she has departed from the traditional role reserved for council members – looking after the issues pertaining to municipal management, land use and development, infrastructure creation and maintenance, as well as public safety – and has instead made her appeal on what are essentially ideological principles. Continue reading

Deputies Damned If They Didn’t & Now Equally Damned That They Did

A homicidal maniac’s rampage that began in Fontana and remanifested a day later in Barstow to continue across a swathe of the High Desert put local law enforcement agencies into a no-win position on Monday and Tuesday, ending in the gunman’s death and creating a situation in which his 16-year-old daughter was extinguished in the violent miasma that consumed her mother and father.
The entire incident involved, both as it was ongoing and in its aftermath, confusion as to fact and circumstance, an element that lent itself to the fatal outcome.
Some salient and reliable details can be plucked from the uncertain narrative that has shifted multiple times since the first reports of mayhem that 45-year-old Anthony John Graziano perpetrated in Fontana, where as recently as three months ago he was living with his wife, Tracy Martinez, 45, and the couple’s 15-year-old daughter, Savannah, and their 11-year-old son, Caleb. Continue reading

Making Gradual Strides Toward Reducing H2O Depletion In Indian Wells Valley

While it is doubtful that the comprehensive mix of water users who fall under the aegis of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority will meet the goal of reducing water drafting in the region by all entities to 7,650 acre-feet by 2040, projects being undertaken by the joint powers authority will bring the area much closer to the idealized balance of water use envisaged by the state.
In 2015, in the aftermath of a four-year running drought and a determination by the California Department of Water Resources that the Indian Wells Valley is one of the 21 basins throughout the State of California in critical overdraft, the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority was formed, pursuant to a joint exercise of powers agreement involving Kern County, San Bernardino County, Inyo County, the City of Ridgecrest and the Indian Wells Valley Water District as general members and the United States Navy and the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management as associate members.
Previously, in 2014, then-California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, mandating water-saving measures throughout the state and requiring local agencies to draft plans to bring groundwater aquifers into balanced levels of pumping and recharge through the adoption of a groundwater sustainability plan. Continue reading

Four Of Five Upland Hopefuls Insist They Are Establishment Material

During the forum held on Tuesday, September 27 for the five competing candidates for the Upland City Council in the upcoming November 8 election, four of those sought to outdo each other only by seeing who could render himself or herself indistinguishable from his or her opponents. One cut, or sought to cut, an independent path.
This year, District 3 Councilman Carlos Garcia drew no opponent. Rudy Zuniga, the incumbent in District 4, is being opposed by Darwin Cruz and Chris Seward. District 2 Councilwoman Janice Elliott is being challenged by James Breitling.
Elliott is the dean of the council, having first been elected at-large in 2016. She astutely ran to represent District 2 when the city moved to district elections in 2018, rather than serving out her original term, as it ended in 2020, at which point it was mid-term for the District 2 representative. Thus, if she did not transition into explicitly representing District 2, she would have been obliged to leave office in 2020, with her only option of remaining politically viable in Upland being to run in that year’s mayoral race. Continue reading

Brehm Divests Of All Four Of Its San Bernardino County Newspapers

The heirs of Bill Brehm have sold the four newspapers he and his wife, Mona, acquired in San Bernardino County to Gold Mountain News Media, which runs newspapers in the United States and Canada.
Gold Mountain California News Media has picked up the Hi-Desert Star Newspaper in Yucca Valley, the Desert Trail Newspaper in Twentynine Palms, the Big Bear Grizzly in Big Bear Lake and the Mountain News in Lake Arrowhead. All four are weeklies printed out of the Brehm Communications Inc. printing plant in Yucca Valley.
All told, Mountain California News Media Inc. is acquiring 11 newspapers in total from Brehm Communications. In addition to the Hi-Desert Star, the Desert Trail, the Grizzly and the Mountain News, the company will purchase the Desert Mobile Home News, which serves the Coachella Valley, along with the Auburn Journal, the Folsom Telegraph, the Roseville Press-Tribune, the Placer Herald, the Loomis News and the Lincoln News Messenger in Northern California. Continue reading

Damned If They Didn’t & Now Equally Damned That They Did

A homicidal maniac’s rampage that began in Fontana and remanifested a day later in Barstow to continue across a swathe of the High Desert put local law enforcement agencies into a no-win position on Monday and Tuesday, ending in the gunman’s death and creating a situation in which his 16-year-old daughter was extinguished in the violent miasma that consumed her mother and father.
The entire incident involved both as it was ongoing and in its aftermath, confusion as to fact and circumstance, an element that lent itself to the fatal outcome.

Chino Commissioners Reconsider The Wisdom Of Booting Their Colleague For Seeking Council Berth

More than two months after Greg Marquez was given indication he was to be bounced off the Chino Community Services Commission based on what at least some community members thought was an excess of political ambition, he was reappointed to the post this week.
In July, after Marquez officially filed as a candidate for the District 2 city council slot in the November election and a question was raised as to whether Marquez’s position on the commission conferred upon him an advantage in the election, a subcommittee of the commission, which included Linda Takeuchi, Neal Jerry, and Brenda Strong, were tasked with considering if allowing Marquez to maintain his status as a commissioner compromised either the integrity of the commission or the electoral process in Chino. Ultimately, the trio felt it would be best for Marquez’s post to be declared vacant and the city to seek applicants to replace him. Marquez’s term had ended on June 30, but Mayor Eunice Ulloa had not appointed a replacement, and his time on the commission had been rolled over. Takeuchi, Jerry and Strong informed Marquez that he would be allowed to remain on the commission only until such time as his replacement was chosen. Continue reading