ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME CASE NUMBER CIVMB 2200115
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner SHANNAN ELLY GOLDSMITH filed with this court for a decree changing names as follows:
SHANNAN ELLY GOLDSMITH to SHANAN ELLY GOLDSMITH
THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
Notice of Hearing
Date: October 21, 2022
Time: 8:30 AM
Department: M4
The address of the court is Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino,
Joshua Tree District
6527 White Feather Road
Joshua Tree, CA 92252
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this order be published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel in San Bernardino County California, once a week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing of the petition.
Dated: 08/12/2022
Judge of the Superior Court: JOHN W. BURDICK
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on 09/09/2022, 09/16/2022, 09/23/2022 & 09/30/2022

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By Mark Gutglueck
Some nine months after the Barstow City Council censored Mayor Paul Anthony Courtney and authorized what was termed a “third-party” investigation into what some of its members characterized as “unauthorized” action in his official capacity, that investigation is nearing completion or has been concluded.
The secrecy around the investigation itself and what appear to be selective leaks of its contents have brought into question both the motive and validity of the probe, to say nothing of its conclusions, which have yet to be made public.
The city in pursuing the matter has made a few questionable calls along the way. One consideration is the transparency of the undertaking. So far, the city has refused to disclose who is carrying out the inquiry, or how much has been paid to that contractor for the work, in itself an irregular and questionable circumstance. While it is standard practice to maintain confidentiality with regard to the matters being covered and the individuals being interviewed or interrogated in such internal investigations, preventing disclosure of the company, individual, law firm or entity doing the investigating is unusual. Insofar as the vote to hire the investigator took place in a closed session and was not disclosed, a violation of the Brown Act, California’s open public meeting law may have occurred. No one, however, has contested that action legally, including Courtney, who perhaps has reason to do so, nor any citizens or open government advocates. Continue reading →

Roughly a month-and-a-half into the 2022-23 academic year, the San Bernardino City Unified School District is experiencing a variable degree of success in keeping under wraps reports of faculty members abusing students.
On September 7 the district officials found themselves in the unenviable position of having national attention drawn to the fashion in which students at Arrowview Middle School were subjected to having to sit on scorching hot pavement during the unforgiving heat wave that had descended on Southern California over the week commencing on September 4.
That day, television reporter Christine Gonzales with Fox News 11 in Los Angeles came to San Bernardino, summoned by calls from parents and reports on social media indicating that students at Arrowview, dressed out for physical education class in attire that included gym shorts, were made to sit on asphalt while their P.E. teachers were taking roll and that they had been forced to remain seated on the asphalt because some among them were talking and the instructors wanted them to be silent. While she was in San Bernardino on that assignment, Gonzales learned that at Arrowview Middle School, the students were not being allowed to use the restrooms. Continue reading →

Scott Jacobson, the associate USC athletic director who departed from that position in January 2020 just weeks after USC was revealed as one of the primary venues where the then-raging college admissions scandal was playing out, has objected to a multitude of characterizations in a September 9 Sentinel article that depicted the degree to which the specter of that scandal had come to taint operations at Ontario International Airport and darkened the reputation of the airport authority’s board president, Ontario Councilman Alan Wapner.
In the same 2019-to-2020 timeframe as Jacobson left USC, senior associate athletic director Ron Orr, USC athletic department chief operating officer/chief financial officer Steve Lopes, USC soccer coaches Ali Khosroshahin and Laura Janke, athletic department administrator Donna Heinel and water polo coach Jovan Vavic also departed. This came on the heels of revelations of the abuse of discretion that occurred within the USC Athletic Department. One of those pertained to how actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli obtained for their daughters, Olivia Jade Gianulli and Isabella Gianulli, admission to USC by paying $500,000 in bribes to have them listed as members of the rowing team, though neither had ever previously participated in the sport. Likewise, Gamal Abdelaziz, a casino magnate, and Robert Zangrillo, a Miami developer, each paid the standard “fee” of $250,000 to get their daughters admitted into USC. Continue reading →

Dr. Heidi Strikwerda, who is herself a professional educator, is seeking a position on the Yucaipa Calimesa Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees.
The district, which straddles San Bernardino and Riverside counties, has an enrollment of 9,982 students and consists of seven elementary schools, four middle schools/junior high schools and three high schools.
Strikwerda is at present employed as the principal of Excelsior Charter Schools in the City of San Bernardino, where she is also the English learner programs administrator. In addition, she is employed as an adjunct professor at the University of Redlands, where she teaches courses in literacy in the School of Education’s master’s program.
Strikwerda is a resident of the school district’s Area 5, and therefore is running to represent that division on the board. She is the mother of six children, the youngest of whom currently attends the district’s Park View Middle School.

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She is running for mayor, Janet Jernigan said, because “I feel I bring business experience, a common-sense thinking approach for Needles, and I am committed to work hard for our current businesses and any new development to move Needles forward. I will work to clean up and provide safety for our community so we continue our family environment and all departments in the city.
She will fit in and is qualified to serve as mayor Jernigan said.
“Currently I attend city meetings and have the necessary time to devote to Needles,” she said. She emphasized, “I have been a small business owner for 30 years and active in the community as a volunteer working for the betterment of Needles.” Continue reading →

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, 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.
Based upon a survey of water usage patterns undertaken by an engineering consultant, Carlsbad-based Stetson Engineers, the authority and the Indian Wells Valley Water District sought to derive a strategy for both reducing water use in the valley and increasing groundwater recharge to reach a balance of both that will end the overdraft.
Any realistic assessment of the existing population, industrial, agricultural and commercial operations in the area and the decreases in the drafting of water from the regional aquifer that could be achieved through efficientization, conservation, increased recycling of water and perhaps the minimization of evaporation demonstrated that it would not be possible to achieve by the target year of 2040, as is mandated by the state, a balance of natural water recharge to the region from rainfall and the amount of water usage, such that the depletion of the aquifer will end.
According to the surveys completed to provide the data needed to formulate the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Sustainability Plan, the average natural annual recharge in the basin is 7,650 acre-feet while the annual drafting of groundwater in the region by all entities is three to four times that amount.
Accordingly, staff and the board of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority long ago concluded that the sought-after goal of bringing the region’s water table out of a state of overdraft can only be achieved by the importation of water from outside the valley and injected it deep into the ground to avoid evaporation and replenish water lost from excessive production.
At the September 14 board meeting for the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority, the board heard updates on some of its major projects from Stetson Engineers, the authority’s leading consultant on the water-sue balancing effort.
Participants focused on the water importation efforts. This includes plans to construct a pipeline to import water from the California Aqueduct. That water is to then be channeled into settling basins to recharge the aquifer beneath Indian Wells Valley. The water will then be extracted by well owners throughout the region.
In July, the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority committed $449,100 toward determining the most efficient and affordable route and realistic approach toward right-of-way acquisition for the pipeline, an assignment being carried out by Provost & Pritchard Consulting Group.
In addition, the authority obtained a $7.6 million grant from the California Department of Water Resources to perform an alignment study for the pipeline.
The collective will also need to build up a financial fund it can use to purchase both water rights and water from the State Water Project.
According to Stetson Engineers principal Jeff Helsley, the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority made headway in obtaining the grant because of the state’s priority on curing water overdrafts throughout the state.
In addition to Stetson Engineers, the authority is highly dependent upon the guidance of the Indian Wells Valley Water District. The district and Provost & Pritchard are coordinating to undertake and complete a preliminary environmental information form, an environmental study that is far less exacting than a full-blown environmental impact report, on the pipeline proposal, based on inexact location criteria for the pipeline, by November 30.
Also, according to Helsey, the participants in the Indian Wells Valley Water Authority will need to refine an energetic water recycling program to make strides toward balancing the region’s water use and natural recharge to limit the depletion of the water table.
While traditional recycled water is not potable, Helsley said that the plan is to collect as much recycled water as possible, treat it and then inject it into the aquifer.
–Mark Gutglueck

Commuters and the public at large are being put in danger as a result of the latest trend in vandalism and thievery targeting train signaling systems in the Southland.

Within the last week, at a multitude of stops along the Orange County and Inland Empire-Orange County Line, traffic and signaling equipment for the Metrolink trains – primarily wire and copper-laden electrical connections – has been stolen.

This can result in the crossing gates and signals of the roads where the trains cross to fail or become dysfunctional. That could cause collisions with the trains, which can reach speeds of upwards of 40 miles per hour and as high as 50 miles per hour along the route.

Overall yesterday, precautions taken at spots where the trains intersect major roads along the Metrolink route entailed nearly an accumulated six hour delay. The trains would slow to a near stop or craw, with Metrolink personnel jumping from a lead car to serve as traffic officers at the road crossings, after which the trains would again pick up speed, only to slow at the next crossing.

Not all or even a majority of the electronic boxes near the intersections had been breached, but enough had been so that Metrolink officials out of an abundance of caution initiated the crossing stops or near-stops.

The thefts at what were at least two crossings happened in the early a.m. of September 22 in Orange County along the Metrolink track that ultimately extends into Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.

An emergency crew did repairs to the electrical/electronic signal boxes between the Orange and Santa Ana stations to replace wiring that had been removed.