By Carlos Avalos
An official complaint submitted to Ensen Mason, the San Bernardino County Controller, Auditor, and Tax Collector, reveals a web of self-dealing, illegal meetings, and potential violations of California’s laws regarding the gift of public funds by the office of the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools.
The complaint alleges a culture of insider dealing has flourished for over a decade, enriching friends and family while potentially violating multiple state laws. This complaint alleges to have uncovered a systematic pattern of cronyism, nepotism, and conflicts of interest that may constitute violations of California’s Brown Act, constitutional prohibitions on gifts of public funds, and the Political Reform Act.
The scope of misconduct spans from the superintendent’s office to school district boardrooms, creating an interconnected web of self-dealing that has cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars while undermining public trust in one of California’s largest educational oversight bodies.
The $3,000-Per-Hour Consulting Empire: At the center of this web sits Sherman Garnett, a former San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools administrator who has transformed his government connections into a lucrative consulting empire. Since 2019, Garnett has secured consulting contracts with the office of the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools paying rates exceeding $3,000 per hour, a figure that would make him among the highest-paid consultants in public education.
The arrangement began through Garnett’s mentorship of Don English, whom he hired at Chaffey West County Community School early in English’s career. This relationship has proven extraordinarily profitable: English now serves as Director of the Children Deserve Success Branch at the office of the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, the very position that approves Garnett’s consulting contracts.
According to internal documents reviewed in this formal complaint, Garnett’s contracts contain unusual “per attendee” fee structures, with revenue splits between Garnett and English’s department. Even more troubling, the contracts require San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools employees to handle all marketing and recruitment for Garnett’s private workshops – a potential violation of California Constitution Article XVI, Section 6, which prohibits gifts of public funds. Continue reading →

SACRAMENTO (September 10) —The evolving reaction of the contingent of outnumbered Republican officeholders in the state’s capital to Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to gerrymander California’s political map now includes a proposal to split the state in two.
The concept, to a certain extent, revives a now discarded move by San Bernardino County to break off from California, which the county’s voters narrowly approved almost three years ago but which the politicians who sponsored it subsequently rejected as both politically and financially unfeasible when they examined what secession would entail.
Governor Newsom and the Democratic supermajorities in the California State Senate and California Assembly last month approved a $283 million special election in November to have the state’s voters override the map that was put in place in 2021 by the state’s non-partisan redistricting commission setting the boundaries for the state’s 52 Congressional seats. Already, under that map, the Democrats hold a commanding 44-to-9 lead over the Republicans among the members of the House of Representatives from California.
Earlier this summer, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Republican-dominated Texas legislature in Austin undertook to redraw the Lone Star State’s political map, such that in the 2026 midterm election, the 26-to-12 advantage the Republicans hold over the Democrats will be likely to increase to 31-to-7. Abbott, a Republican, and his allies were responding to requests by President Donald Trump’s supporters, who are concerned that the slim majorities the GOP enjoys in both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate that were established in the 2024 election with President Trump’s return to office four years after his 2020 defeat by Joseph Biden might be eroded or lost in 2026. The Texas Republicans responded by redrafting their state’s Congressional District Map such that five Congressional districts currently served by a Democrat had their borders changed. In making those shifts, portions of neighborhoods in those districts which are heavily populated by Democrats were moved into an adjoining district where there are already an overwhelming number of Republicans, and neighborhoods from contiguous districts in which the Republicans greatly outnumber Democrats were brought within that district’s borders. This was done in such a way that the strong Republican majority districts from which the Republican voters were imported into the Democratic-leaning districts retained Republican majorities. In this way, Abbott and his Republican cohorts believed the Republicans stand a realistic chance of picking up five more Congressional seats from Texas alone. Continue reading →

California state senators Tony Stickland and Roger Niello State this week were the recipients of a significant unanticipated political benefit from what is or had been an unlikely and unanticipated source: the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee.
Given that Strickland and Niello are two of the state’s foremost members of the Golden State’s minority party, the infusion of what is likely to exceed $100,000 from San Bernardino County’s Republican Party into their electioneering funds is not surprising from a political viewpoint. What is eye-opening is that neither Strickland nor Niello represent San Bernardino County and the central committee has not yet moved to make any money in its coffers available to the four incumbent Republicans currently representing San Bernardino County in the California Senate or the four incumbent Republicans representing San Bernardino County in the California Assembly.
When party higher ups were queried during the August 11 meeting as to why the county party was committing to concentrating its financial firepower on assisting politicians outside the county, no reason was given. No answers
Central committees are allowed to raise money and support political candidates and are not subject to strict limitations as are individuals and corporations and enjoy even fewer restrictions than political action committees, which as collectives, have fewer restrictions than individual donors.
In this case the central committee, prompted to the action by its leadership, is on a trajectory to provide funding to the campaigns of two particular state senators. The action taken by a majority vote of the central committee was to endorse Tony Strickland and Roger Niello, both of whom are individuals of uncommon substance and gravitas with dynamic political backgrounds that have pushed them to the front of the Republican Party in a state dominated by Democrats. Continue reading →

Monday’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court setting aside, at least temporarily, parallel rulings by U.S. District Judge U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong and a three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal[s] hobbling the Trump Administration and the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in their enforcement of immigration law in seven Southern California counties has not, as of press time today, had any discernible impact on the lull in the arrests of undocumented migrants regionally since July.
Judge Frimpong on July 12 ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s practice of engaging in “roving patrols” aimed at finding suspected illegal aliens and stopping individuals based on race, language, location and occupation violated the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures and the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process. Judge Frimpong ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
The Trump Administration, represented by the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Bilal Essayli and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Roth, along with Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General Sean Skedzielewski made an appeal of Judge Frimpong’s ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. A panel of three judges with the 9th Circuit – Judges Marsha S. Berzon, Jennifer Sung and Ronald M. Gould – upheld Judge Frimpong. Thereupon the Trump Administration appealed to the Supreme Court, asking for an expedited ruling on the issue. Continue reading →

The Department of Water Resources (DWR), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), and California State Parks have confirmed presence of the invasive golden mussel at Pyramid Lake in Los Angeles County and Silverwood Lake in San Bernardino County. These lakes are the southernmost State Water Project (SWP) reservoirs where golden mussels have been detected. The invasive species was recently discovered during a routine water test by DWR; in response, State Parks has updated Silverwood Lake’s boat inspection protocols, effective immediately. Pyramid Lake, which is managed by DWR, implemented exit inspections following the discovery of quagga mussels in 2016.
The golden mussel, native to China and Southeast Asia, was initially detected in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and O’Neill Forebay in October 2024 and has subsequently spread south. This small freshwater bivalve is known for its rapid reproduction and ability to clog water infrastructures, disrupt ecosystems, and outcompete native species.These invasive mussels can also cause significant damage to boats by attaching to hulls and clogging engines, leading to increased costs for boaters and other motorized vessel owners. Currently, there are no effective methods to treat or eliminate the golden mussel from infested waterways, making prevention of further spread to non-infested waterways a top priority. Continue reading →

Abject panic gave way to relief yesterday afternoon when it turned out that the disappearance of a first grader at Donald F. Bradach Elementary School was not a kidnapping but rather a case of a child mistaking a man there to pick up his grandson as his grandfather and the grandfather similarly misidentifying the 6-year-old boy as his grandson.
As students poured out from the 437-student school following the dismissal bell at 2:25 p.m. on Thursday, September 11, some headed off campus on their own or in small groups to walk homeward, while others hopped on busses. The remainder met with parents or caretakers to return home on foot.
Before 2:30 p.m., a mother who had come to the school, located at 15550 Bellflower Street, grew alarmed that her son was not at their established rendezvous point. She redoubled her efforts to find him. Unsuccessful, she informed school officials her child was gone. A 9-1-1 call was made, and was immediately patched through to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, which serves as the contract law enforcement agency/police department in the City of Adelanto. The dispatch log shows the sheriff’s department was called at 2:31 p.m.
The incoming call reported that a 6-year-old student had left the campus with an “unknown male,” according to the dispatch log. Continue reading →

Having overcome a threatened walkout of its store clerks, warehouse workers and truck drivers, and having survived the first round of layoffs in its 89-year history, San Bernardino-based Stater Bros. Markets is making a change at the top of its administrative and management echelon.
Peter Van Helden is leaving as the company’s CEO to take on the auxiliary title of executive chairman and will be replaced by Greg McNiff. The change was announced on September 10.
McNiff’s advancement is the second consecutive time that Stater Bros. has tapped a former Albertson’s executive managerial employee to over see the company’s day-to-day operations. McNiff began with Stater Bros. in 2019, coming in as the president of the board and being promoted by Van Helden to chief operating officer in 2022. Prior to that, he was the president of Albertson/Safeway’s Portland division from 2016 until 2019 and the senior vice president of marketing and merchandizing for Albertson’s/Von’s/Pavilion from March 2015 until January 2016, the vice president of marketing and merchandising for Albertson’s in Southern California from 2013 to to 2015 and the Senior vice president of operations of Albertson’s at its Fullerton office from 2010 until 2013. He began in management as a store director with Albertsons in Southern California in 1990 after having worked his way up the ladder after starting as bagger/courtesy clerk in 1981.
Van Helden has been the chief executive officer of Stater Bros. since April 2013. He was the executive vice president of SuperValu prior to that. He previously was employed by Albertson’s. Continue reading →