“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 →

The San Bernardino County Behavioral Health Department is entering into an approximately $1.3 million contract with San Bernardino-based VARP, Inc. and expanded agreements with several community providers to increase access to substance use treatment and recovery services throughout the county.
The action includes an additional $800,000 in funding to support services for individuals referred by San Bernardino County Children and Family Services, bringing the total available funding for these services to $4 million. Providers receiving updated agreements include High Desert Child, Adolescent and Family Services Center, Inland Behavioral and Health Services, Inland Valley Drug and Alcohol Recovery Services and Cedar House Life Change Center.
These services include early intervention, outpatient care and long-term recovery support, helping residents in need access treatment earlier and maintain recovery over time.
By increasing access to substance use disorder treatment and recovery services for individuals and families in need, the county is furthering the county’s wellness goals.
The San Bernardino County Public Health Department received an approximately $669,000 grant award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program through February 28, 2027. Continue reading →

Upland Mayor Bill Velto and all four of his council colleagues this week found themselves in Dutch with some 2,223 of their constituents who just learned the rental/leasing rate on their abodes are about to escalate dramatically.
The residents of the City of Gracious Living’s six mobile home parks are now seeing or are about to experience a hefty rise in the amount of money they are being charged to rent space on a per month basis. For some of those, the jump in the amount they must fork over to their landlords to keep a roof over their heads could be as much as 25 percent.
On the order of 2,81 percent of the city’s 79,040 residents will be affected by the erasure of mobile home rent control Their personal bout with inflation is to come about as a consequence of action taken very quietly by the city council ten months ago.
Indeed, many of those now animated against City Hall see the manner in which the mayor and council acted as being almost as offensive as what they did.
Members of the council have not denied that what they did was self-consciously sneaky nor that some arrangement was made with the landowners who stood to profit by the council’s action to impose a temporal gap between the council’s action dropping the restrictions on rental rates and the imposing of the lease increases to delay the outpouring of the now accumulating sense of outrage.
In June 2025, hidden in a single legislative bundle, was a complete and radical undoing of a protection measure put in place for the benefit of a group or what might reasonably be considered a class of city residents collectively described as among the city’s most economically vulnerable. Continue reading →

The board of supervisors this week approved an arrangement involving the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, County Probation Department, San Bernardino Police Department, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security establishing a multi-agency Gang Intelligence Team to investigate, disrupt and dismantle criminal street and prison gangs operating throughout the Inland Empire.
The task force was created under a non-financial memorandum of understanding by which the activities and joint programs will be funded by the already existing budget allotments specified for the participating entities.
The agreement formalizes a partnership among the agencies and departments involved to enhance intelligence sharing and enforcement strategies. The team will conduct coordinated investigations targeting violent and organized gang activity across the region.
According to a report authored by Sheriff Shannon Dicus and Tracy Reeece, the chief probation officer in the county probation department presented to the board of supervisors by Carolina Mendoza,, the chief financial manager within the sheriff’s department, “The Inland Empire’s region of San Bernardino County is a major hub for gang activity and drug trafficking, due to its strategic location for transportation, which represents a complex and evolving problem that extends beyond major urban areas into suburban and rural pockets. As a result, the region experiences a high rate of gang-related organized street crime and drug trafficking. The memorandum of understanding formalizes relationships between participating agencies and delineates their responsibilities within the Gang Intelligence Team. The participating agencies include: the Sheriff/Coroner/Public Administrator’s Department (Sheriff), Probation Department, City of San Bernardino Police Department, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and United States Department of Homeland Security.” Continue reading →

On February 19, 2021 the San Bernardino Sentinel published an article headlined “Incoming Upland City Attorney Had A Hand In The 1980’s Southridge Graftfest.”
The article in the main dealt with Upland’s hiring of Steven Deitsch as that city’s city attorney. As a much younger man in the 1980s, Deistsh, who was then in partnership with Timothy Sabo in the law firm of Sabo & Deitsch, had alternated with Sabo in serving as the City of Fontana’s redevelopment agency attorney.
While he was Fontana redevelopment attorney, Deitsch had advised the city when it issued $65 million in certificates of participation – a type of municipal bond – and took in $55 million loans from the Glaziers’ Union to construct $120 million worth of infrastructure to facilitate the completion of the Southridge residential project. The Ten-Ninety Corporation, which was owned and controlled by brothers Dick and Bill Ashby and Larry Redman, was the proponent of the Southridge Project, originally planned to be comprised of 9,100 residential units, some neighborhood commercial elements and a school in the southwest quadrant of Fontana.
Fontana’s then-city manager, Jack Daze Ratelle, had convinced the members of the Fontana City Council that the Ten-Ninety Corporation lacked the financial wherewithal to finance the construction of the infrastructure to support the Southridge project and that the project would not come to fruition unless the city and its taxpayers defrayed the cost of the infrastructure. Continue reading →

As was most likely inevitable, local resident has utilized the Redlands Unified School District’s policy allowing the removal of books from school libraries and classroom shelves deemed to be age inappropriate for students to lodge a challenge of the King James Bible.
Last year, on August 19, 2025, by a bare 3-to-2 majority with members Candy Olson, Jeannette Wilson and Michelle Rendler prevailing and Melissa Ayala-Quintero and Patty Holohan dissenting, the board voted to allow virtually anyone to challenge a book on the basis of its “explicit” content and have it temporarily removed while an evaluation of whether it should be permanently banned will consider the first two such challenges lodged.
Under the library book policy, anyone who has knowledge about the presence of a particular book in any district school library can object to or challenge its “explicit” content, have the book in question within three days consequently temporarily taken out of circulation and then have it provided to a “district review committee” comprised of the superintendent, assistant superintendent of educational services and either the director of elementary or the director of secondary education. The district review committee then has two months to read and review the book and use a somewhat idiosyncratic or subjective numerical grading system ranking the book in question as to its sexual content, violence, social and educational context, suitability for the varying ages of students who have access to the library where it is available and the book’s potential for negative impacts on those reading it. Continue reading →