By Mark Gutglueck
City officials in Big Bear Lake have gone into crouch and are remaining tight-lipped in the face of recurrent accusations that the accommodationist policy of its [community development] department has subjected some residents to the risk of asbestos exposure.
Over the last six months, the city’s building and safety department has found itself second-guessed the Air Quality Management District, which has shut down some demolition projects that had been given permits by the city. The AQMD took that action because of suspicion or determination that there was asbestos or asbestos containing materials contained in structures that were either being demolished or within the walls, ceilings, floors, siding, framework for appliances or serving as insulation and that the city had either failed to identify or require in the permits a protocol or process for keeping asbestos fibers from becoming liberated and airborne.
Asbestos is a group of naturally occurring, fibrous, fire-resistant and heat-resistant minerals used for insulation, strength, and fireproofing in building materials. It becomes hazardous when damaged or disturbed, releasing microscopic fibers into the air that can be inhaled. These fibers lodge in lungs, causing fatal diseases like mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestiosis years after exposure. Asbestos was heavily used in construction and manufacturing from the early 1900s through the 1970s for fireproofing and insulation. A scientific determination of the danger of asbestos was made in 1970 and the Environmental Protection Agency declared it a carcinogen [cancer-causing] agent in 1975. While restrictions with regard to its use began in the 1970s and continued incrementally thereafter, particularly a 1977 ban on spray-on fireproofing applications, it was not completely phased out of all products until the Environmental Protection Agency’s comprehensive ban on chrysotile asbestos in March 2024. Continue reading →

In what appears to be a forced exit, Stone James, who had served as Twentynine Palms city manager over the last 24 months, tendered his resignation on Thursday, April 9.
James’ official departure will be effective on June 8, though sources say his duties as city manager beyond fully orienting whoever is to succeed him in an interim capacity have drawn to a close.
James was previously the economic development director for Cathedral City, a position he had filled since 2017. His was hired to serve as city manager in Twentynine Palms in March 2024 to replace interim City Manager Larry Bowden, who had been filling that spot since October 2023 when the previous City Manager, Frank Luckino, accepted an offer to serve as the city manager of Desert Hot Springs.
James’ forte in seeking out and encouraging local investment and economic development was perceived positively by the city council at the time of his hiring and for sometime thereafter, but was less well received by some city residents who saw a downside to certain economic advances, such as the conversion of what were traditionally residences into short-term rental units for vacationers, which exacerbated an already existing housing shortage and pushed the cost of housing to a point that resulted in some families being priced out of the community. Continue reading →

By Anthony Serrano and Mark Gutglueck
The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians’ legal effort to convince a judge to dismiss a lawsuit aimed at forcing the United States Forest Service to prevent water from being diverted from near the top of the west San Bernardino Mountains for use as commercial drinking water has triggered an unanticipated, unintended and, from the tribe’s point-of-view, unwanted examination of the tribe’s water entitlements near the base of the mountains on its non-reservation investment property known on the grounds surrounding the historic Arrowhead Springs Hotel. Rulings in that lawsuit expected to be made later this year will potentially have a bearing on who controls or can claim ownership to a significant portion of the water and the water rights in the San Bernardino Basin.
Over the last four decades, there has been steadily increasing tension between environmentalists and entities who have gained access to water flowing in a canyon above the 5,000-foot level in the San Bernardino Mountains. Environmentalists maintain the displacement of that water is wreaking intensive ecological damage within the canyon. It is their further contention that the diversions by the corporate predecessors to those capturing the water now have been taking place in defiance of both federal and state law since the late 1920s based upon a fraudulently-drawn up document substituting water drafting rights further down the mountain at a spot closer to the 2,000-foot level as the basis for the illegal conscription of the water.
Since shortly after the San Manuel Tribe, also known as the Yuhaaviatam Nation, purchased the Arrowhead Springs Hotel in 2016, the succession of companies bottling the water originating in the canyon high up in the San Bernardino Forest have been providing a portion of that diverted water to the tribe. It is for that reason that the Yuhaaviatam Nation relatively recently became involved in the litigation relating to the water. Continue reading →

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the Town of Apple Valley has emerged at the forefront on the most recently forming opposition by local jurisdictions to the remedies to the homeless crisis being imposed on high across the state by legislators and bureaucrats in Sacramento.
At the April 14 town council meeting, the council and top town administration gave expression there rejection of Senate Bill 866, a proposal by State Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) which would mandate strict reporting requirements for cities with regard to their homeless populations and efforts to provide permanent housing or sheltering for them, even if those jurisdictions are not receiving funds from the state to overcome the proliferation of those living on their streets.
For years, local government officials have decried Sacramento’s imposition of what what have been labeled as “unfunded mandates,” demands or requirements that counties, cities, towns or smaller agencies undertake action, invest in or initiate programs or meet requirements for which the smaller governmental entities receive no money or assistance in carrying out.
Those orders from the governor or legislature have ranged over a number of topics and touched on myriad issues, in may cases, locals have charged, attempting to micromanage governmental activity and authority in ways that are not in keeping with or are downright antithetical to the values of those living in the communities being ordered about. Continue reading →

“Mountains should be seen, not heard.”
—Ursala K. Le Guin,
The Left Hand of Darkness

By Phill Courtney
One hundred and twenty years ago this month, the cosmopolitan, Californian metropolis of San Francisco was devastated first by an earthquake centered near the city that approached an 8 on the Richter scale and then, after that, by a three-day urban inferno that completed the job. Thousands were dead in that beautiful “City by the Bay,” but also elsewhere along a fracture that extended for over two hundred miles.
Other U.S. quakes since then have caused more economic damage, but, In terms of the human toll alone, it remains the worst earthquake in the history of the United States, with the only other natural disaster to exceed it being the Galveston, Texas hurricane, which swept away somewhere between five to ten thousand (many bodies were never found) just over five years before.
I grew up hearing about the quake since a cousin of my mother’s, Zell Henley (who was still with us when I was young), had moved from Indiana, a state which may occasionally—very occasionally—get a 4-pointer from time to time, to San Francisco when he was 23, after landing a job with a photography studio only a few months before April 18th, 1906.
Among the “sacred” family relics I’ve held on to through years is a yellowed newspaper clipping from Zell’s hometown newspaper which consists of a letter he wrote to his parents back in Indiana which the paper headlined as a “vivid” account of what he’d gone through and deemed worthy of publication. Continue reading →

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME
CASE NUMBER CIVBA2600136
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner RANA SALEEM MUWANAS filed with this court for a decree changing names as follows:
RANA SALEEM MUWANAS to RANA SALEEM ANTABEEL
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: April 24, 2026 Time: 8:30 AM, Department: B1
The address of the court is Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, Barstow District-235 East Mountain View Street Barstow, CA 92311
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: 3/06/2026
Judge of the Superior Court: James R. Baxter
By Brian Gutierrez, Deputy Court Clerk
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on April 17, 2026.

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF :
Cheryl Ann Gray
Case NO. PROVA2600205
To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both of Cheryl Ann Gray:
A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Megan J Jones in the Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino.
THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.
THE PETITION requests Megan J Jones be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.
THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.
A hearing on the petition will be held in Dept. F3-Fontana at 09:00 AM on 05/07/2026 at Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino Fontana Division, 17780 Arrow Boulevard, Fontana, California 92335, Fontana Division
IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.
IF YOU ARE A CREDI TOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent,
you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of fi rst issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under Section 9052 of the California Probate Code.
Other California statutes and legal authority may aff ect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.
YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.
A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.
In Pro Per: Megan J Jones
11569 Lancaster Wa y
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
Telephone No: 562 – 341 – 2001
Published in the SBCS
Rancho Cucamonga on:
04/03/2026, 04/10/2026, 04/17/2026

Continue reading →

A self-styled labor activist who claims he was economically exploited by both Kimberly-Clark and NFI Industries while he was working at the Ontario distribution center operated by the latter exacted revenge against both Tuesday morning by by torching the contents and the internal workings of his workplace, resulting what is estimated as a half of a billion dollars damages.
Chamel Abdulkarim, 29, apparently was motivated by intense resentment toward the companies and had no intention of sidestepping responsibility for what he did, having recorded videos of himself as he engaged in the mayhem, which consisted of igniting highly flammable paper goods stacked on pallets throughout the warehouse, located at 4815 S. Hellman Avenue in Ontario, while he made statements conveying what he said was the issue that motivated his actions – corporate greed – while he intimated that the companies would be subject to more of the same if they did not provide what he and his colleagues at the facility considered a fair and decent wage. /s/ Complainant’s signature
As Abdulkarim was engaged in the mayhem inside the facility sometime between midnight and 12:30 a.m. on April 7, he posted to his personal Instagram account, “gentleman_without_a_filter,” a video in which a pallet of a paper product can be seen while a voice, later identified as that of Abdulkarim is heard saying, “If you’re not going to pay us enough to fucking live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this shit.” A hand holding a lighter bearing “FC Bayern Munich” branding is then seen within the video’s visual frame as the lighter is used to set the paper products on fire. The video continued to show, from a first-person perspective, an individual using the same lighter setting fires to multiple pallets of paper goods inside a warehouse. The video then cut to a shot depicting a pallet of paper products set on fire within a large warehouse Continue reading →

31st District California State Senator Sabrina Cervantes has sued the City of Sacramento, four identified officers in its police department and as many as 20 of their unidentified law enforcement colleagues in the aftermath of her arrest last year on charges of driving under the influence, an accusation authorities now acknowledge had no basis in fact.
According to the suit, filed on April 6 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Cervantes was “targeted by Sacramento police officers and subjected to a baseless DUI investigation and arrest” following a crash that occurred on May 19, 2025 at approximately 12:55 p.m. as she was headed east on S Street in a state-issued Toyota Camry to the state Capitol building for a legislative session when a Ford Explorer headed north on 14th Street failed yield at a stop sign and broadsided her. The lawsuit contends at least four of the department’s officers engaged in official misconduct; that two of the officers engaged in perjury; that three of the officers lied with regard to the crash and the events of its aftermath, including one officer who lied to another officer; that the most senior of the four officers conspired with the others to have Cervantes falsely arrested and charged; and that the officers, either singly or collectively were responsible for making misrepresentations to a judge and state officials.
The attorneys representing Cervantes – James Quadra, Rebecca Coll and Robert Sanford – seized upon the results of a toxicology test done on blood drawn from Cervantes at the hospital to which she had been driven in the immediate aftermath of the accident which indisputably established that she had no alcohol nor drugs in her system to make their case that the police had no grounds to effectuate the driving under the influence arrest.
Quadra, Coll and Sanford were able to further credibly contradict the police department’s assertion that the officers had reasonable suspicion and/or probable cause to believe Cervantes was intoxicated by using the officers’ bodyworn video cameras with audio recording capability to show that Cervantes was not evincing signs of intoxication – an unsteady gait and slurred speech – which the officers cited in their arrest reports and in the application for a warrant provided to a judge to forcefully draw blood from her. Continue reading →