rs

Dear San Bernardino County Supervisors,
I am writing to bring to your attention a critical issue that my family and neighbors have been facing due to the extended power outages in our community. In January 2025 alone, electrical power has been shut off for a total of 190 hours (so far) as a precautionary measure due to high winds and fire danger. While I understand the importance of these measures to ensure public safety, the prolonged outages have created severe hardships for vulnerable residents in our area.
In my case, my 80-year-old mother, who is handicapped, relies on an electric chair stair lift to move between levels of our home. She also depends on power for showering, cooking, and accessing her medical alert devices. During the outages, I had no choice but to relocate my family to ensure her safety and well-being.
Additionally, one of my neighbors, who is battling stage 4 cancer, relies on an electrical oxygen machine and is without central heating during these outages. The lack of power has exacerbated his already fragile health, and as a result, he has been readmitted to the hospital. Continue reading →

Despite, or perhaps because of, some influencers adamantly militating on her behalf, Rochelle Clayton is on the losing end of a progression of sentiment against her aspiration to move into the long-term city managerial post in the county seat.
The absolute support for Clayton’s that existed four months ago among all eight elected decision-makers with the authority to hire the city’s top tier employees has dwindled to two. Even though both of her supporters – Mayor Helen Tran and newly-installed Councilwoman Treasure Ortiz – remain committed to seeing her shed the qualifiers “acting” and/or “interim” from her current title, past and recent events have transpired which have created what is described to the Sentinel as a “virtually unbridgeable” gap with three of the council members. The basis for mutual accommodation between Clayton and a fourth council member, in the words of an individual, knowledgeable about the interpersonal relationships at the pinnacle of San Bernardino government, has been “severely compromised.” Meanwhile, two of the three newest members of the council whose participation in a coalition that would effectuate Clayton’s elevation had been taken for granted have been exposed to information and experience that have impressed on them that the supposition of comity that was to proceed from cohesion and consensus among no fewer than five of the council and the mayor was not just unrealistic but unworkable, given the conflicting priorities of those involved.
Mayor Tran, whose first two years in office following her 2022 election have been marred by managerial uncertainty and inconsistency, for months has been heavily banking upon getting Clayton installed as the undisputed city manager so that she can choreograph municipal policy and action to create a record of accomplishment that can be attributed to her mayoral administration.
Clayton, who was hired by former City Manager Charles Montoya to serve as deputy city manager in April 2024, the following month was propelled into the role of acting city manager when the council precipitously fired Montoya on May 22. Continue reading →

A Sentinel reader, a decent, if somewhat gullible chap, was recently in need of some new wheels. He surveyed the offerings at a handful of local car dealerships, at last settling upon a modern vintage used vehicle that had hardly been driven, one with fewer than 8,000 miles on its odometer. To ensure that he was not being taken advantage of, he took the car out on a test spin, driving to a garage run by a good friend of his. His friend, employing his own expertise and the diagnostic tools that in this day and age are at the ready in the arsenal of any true mechanic, pronounced the car fit in every way.
Back at the dealership, the Sentinel reader, having settled upon a purchase price of $22,000, made a down payment of $3,000. It was established that he owed a balance of $19,000, and he was handed a four-page contract, the first page-and-a-half of which he had skimmed over. He had satisfied himself with language that he found in the body of the details and fine print that the contract laid out that he would pay the specified $19,000 remainder over the course of 36 months, which comported with the representation made by the salesman. Satisfied and looking forward to driving about in what was to him a very nice, and almost new, car, he signed the document and drove off the lot. Continue reading →

Continue reading →

The Barstow City Council on Tuesday night voted to place Police Chief Albert Espinoza on paid administrative leave.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department personnel on Monday moved in on a cockfighting operation in Yucaipa, detaining 38 observers or participants, of whom two were arrested and charged. In addition, some 200 gaming cocks were seized, along with money and 25 firearms.
 On January 19, 2025, at approximately 10:02 a.m., deputies from the Yucaipa Station were dispatched to the 32000 block of Avenue E in response to reports of illegal “cockfighting” occurring on the property.
When deputies arrived, approximately 50 vehicles were seen on the property. Shortly thereafter, a large number of those assembled on the property got into a majority of the cars present on property and began to drive away. When deputies attempted to stop one of the vehicles, the driver, later identified as 33-year-old Jose Luis Adame of Riverside, accelerated the car toward a patrol unit. The deputy avoided being struck. When he sought to initiate a traffic stop, a pursuit ensued. The vehicle stopped near 16th Street and Yucaipa Boulevard where Adame and three passengers were taken into custody. Six live roosters were found in the rear cargo area. Adame was arrested and his vehicle was impounded.
Deputies detained 33 other people identified as spectators on the property where approximately 250 roosters were kept, and a fighting ring with a scoreboard and steel talons were found. Sheriff’s Aviation observed a subject hiding inside of a truck at the rear of the property. Carlos Romero was found lying down inside the truck with seven live roosters in boxes. He was detained and found to have a large sum of U.S. currency on his person and a hidden Ruger semi-automatic handgun inside the truck.
Adame was arrested for P.C. 245 and CVC 2800.2, and Romero, 36 of Perris, was arrested for PC 597 and PC 29805. Both subjects were booked at Central Detention Center.
The San Bernardino County Rural Task Force responded and authored a search warrant for the property. Additional steel talons were located and approximately 24 firearms were seized from a large safe. Yucaipa City Code Enforcement responded and red tagged several buildings including a trailer on the property. San Bernardino County Animal Control recovered approximately 17 dead roosters, seized eight live roosters, and tagged 61 boxed roosters.