Brightline West’s financial backers are teetering on the brink of pulling the plug on the proposal to build what is planned as the United States’ third and fastest high speed rail system spanning the 228 miles from Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas, despite having been planned for over the course of 18 years, its April 2024 groundbreaking ceremony, having been subsidized with a $3 billion federal grant and having been allocated $3.5 billion in federal tax-exempt Private Activity Bonds.
A combination of seven factors, five of which were unanticipated at the time of the groundbreaking, have pushed the current projected cost to 269 percent of its original price tag and 135 percent of a more estimate that the project’s developers intimated would be its actual cost last year.
Preliminary and more advance planning and preparatory work that has taken place in the time since the groundbreaking has been negligible in comparison to the expenditures that are to come if the project is to proceed. If further assistance from the federal government is not forthcoming, corporate officials, who are being backed by New York-based hedge fund, are now resolved to back out of the proposition entirely, abandoning the foundation for the undertaking to prevent the throwing of good money after bad.
Meanwhile, key support in Congress and elsewhere is potentially being eroded as the Justice Department and some federal regulators under the Trump Administration weigh proceeding with probes into public officials of both parties suspected of engaging in investment activity that could ultimately be impacted by the successful establishment of the Southern California-to-Las Vegas fast rail system. Continue reading →

A semi-truck driver who plowed into at least three other vehicles leading to a pileup on the I-10 Freeway in Ontario in which three people were killed was in the country illegally, does not appear to have been properly trained or licensed as a commercial carrier and was likely driving under the influence of a yet-undisclosed substance, according to local, state and federal authorities.
According to the California Highway Patrol, Jashanpreet Singh, a 21-year-old Indian national who entered the country by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in 2022, was at the wheel of a Freightliner tractor pulling a trailer while headed westbound on the 10 Freeway just east of the I-15 Freeway. The dashcam video from Singh’s cab, obtained by the Sentinel, shows the red Freightliner tractor in the number four lane, counting the high occupancy/toll lane as the number one lane, traveling at a high rate of speed estimated at 60 miles per hour or more, failing to brake entirely as it runs into the back of and obliterates a white SUV that had been at a full stop for several seconds before the impact and continues on into the back of a white pickup truck, which is hit hard and careens to the left as the Freightliner continues unabated into the back of another semi-tractor-pulled trailer, the rear of which momentarily lifts into the air upon impact. The momentum of the Freightliner at that point was diminished, though it careened to the right across two lanes of traffic where it ran into the front of a disable tractor connected to a long flatbed trailer and the back of the service truck in front of the disabled tractor that were in place on the shoulder of the freeway. The disabled tractors front hood was draped open forward and appeared to have been clipped and destroyed along with major elements of the truck’s engine in the collision. Continue reading →

At least 5,232 Yucaipa residents, all of them registered voters, have given indication they are opposed to action taken by the city council in August and September that upzoned 1,242 acres surrounding the I-10 Freeway in a way that would have cleared the way from intensive warehouse development on the properties along and around Live Oak Canyon Road.
Consequently, the rezoning has been put on hold and a ballot initiative to rescind the city council’s action will go before the city’s voters perhaps as early as next June.
In November 2008, the Yucaipa City Council adopted its currently applicable development standards and blueprint for land use and its intensity in the 1,242 acres along the freeway and surrounding areas in Yucaipa under what is known as the Freeway Corridor Specific Plan. The planning document allowed for the construction of up to 2,447 residential units on 424.7 acres and up to 4,585,779 square feet of nonresidential uses on 242.7 acres within the designated area.
In recent years, a handful of projects that were proposed and approved, taken together with development proposals within the 1,241-acre expanse prompted calls for the specific plan’s adjustment. Thirteen months ago, the Palmer, Robinson, and Issa families sought permission to construct warehouses along Live Oak Canyon. Continue reading →

In a blow that compounded his string of misfortune yet further, 26-year-old Brandon Padilla-Aguilera was arrested last week by the Barstow Police Department on suspicion of murder in the September 18 drowning death of his 2-year-old autistic son.
Four days later, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office balked at characterizing Padilla-Aguilera’s transgression as murder, substituting a charge of reckless endangerment that nevertheless will result in a sentence of 25 years-to-life if he is prosecuted and convicted.
September 18 was a horrible day for Padilla-Aguilera, of Barstow, and his family.
The remnants of Tropical Storm Mario brought widespread rainfall to Southern California that moved across the American Southwest on September 17, worsening on September 18.
Padilla-Aguilera’s grandmother had died earlier that month. Her funeral had been scheduled for September 18. Despite the inclemency, which entailed torrential rains and flash floods that overwhelmed streets, roads and washes in Apple Valley, Barstow, Hesperia, Lucerne Valley and other areas throughout the Mojave Desert, the funeral was held.
After that somber service and the get-together that followed, Padilla-Aguilera and son, Xavier, were making their way home in Padilla-Aguilera’s white sedan. It is not entirely clear what then occurred. Somewhere in the vicinity of Lenwood Road and West Main Street, Padilla-Aguilera reportedly encountered a UPS truck that was positioned sideways in the road and apparently made an effort to drive around it. The vehicle in which Padilla-Aguilera and his son were traveling was propelled off the roadway by floodwaters and was thrust into a wash north of West Main Street. Continue reading →

In a coordinated effort to address public health and safety concerns while extending outreach to individuals experiencing homelessness who have the right attitude, San Bernardino County Code Enforcement, Public Works, Homeless Services and the Sheriff’s Department conducted a one-day enforcement and outreach operation on Wednesday, October 22, in Bloomington and unincorporated areas adjacent to Fontana.
“We are addressing homelessness and creating safe, healthy spaces for everyone” said Board of Supervisors Chairman and Third District Supervisor Dawn Rowe. “By combining enforcement with outreach, we ensure that every resident, housed or unhoused, is treated with dignity and respect.”
At least some of the displaced homeless disagree, but since they are not actually legal residents, they are not eligible to vote in San Bernardino County. Most of Rowe’s constituents agree. They want the homeless to leave.
The operation was organized in response to numerous community reports about unsafe conditions and environmental health concerns linked to encampments in the areas.
“Homelessness is not an issue any one city or agency can solve alone — it requires a regional, united effort,” said Board of Supervisors Vice Chair and Fifth District Supervisor Joe Baca, Jr., who represents Bloomington. “Together, we’re taking meaningful steps to provide compassionate outreach and restore safety in our communities.” Continue reading →

All five of the Chino Valley Unified School Board members are foursquare behind the strategy of staying the course with the district’s revival of the school prayer initiative that failed when it was pursued a decade ago.
That game plan anticipates a repeat of the losses the district sustained with regard to the issue in 2016 and 2018. Board members and their advisors are taking in stride the repetition of the 2016 defeat that took place on October 13 in Federal Court in Riverside. They are prepared to have their noses bloodied when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal in San Francisco takes up the appeal they are making of the October 13 ruling. The final and true victory will come, they believe, in Washington, D.C. late next year or in 2027, when the U.S. Supreme Court considers the matter.
In 2012, Andrew Cruz, a member of the Calvary Chapel Chino Hills Congregation, was elected to the school board. Cruz joined James Na and Sylvia Orozco, who were also Calvary Chapel parishioners, on the panel. Orozco, Na and Cruz adhered to Calvary Chapel Chino Hills Pastor Jack Hibbs’ denominationalist philosophy, which holds that Christians have a duty to stand up for their beliefs by either running for election to public office themselves or supporting other Christians who do run, and then, upon taking office, Christianize public policy.
Under the leadership of Orozco, Na and Cruz, the district made Bible study part of the district curriculum and included benedictions at the beginning of the school board meetings. Na, upon becoming board president, engaged in evangelism from the district board dais, telling those present at meetings that they should seek out Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Continue reading →