A lull this week in the severity of the succession of weather systems that hit San Bernardino County’s mountain communities for ten straight days provided a respite from the record hardship those who have chosen to live in the region’s highest altitudes experienced late last and earlier this month.
Beginning on February 22, more than 100 inches of snow fell on various spots in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains in back-to-back-to-back storms, not letting up until March 2, icing major roads and leaving them impassable. Conditions were even worse within the internal communities of Crestline, Lake Gregory, Blue Jay, Lake Arrowhead, Cedarpines Park, Cedar Glen, Valley of Enchantment, Arrowbear, Sugarloaf, Twin Peaks, the county district of Big Bear and the incorporated city of Big Bear Lake, with cars buried in snow to the point that even when snowplows did reach where they were, often those cars would be damaged and rendered undrivable after the snowplow hit them. The sheer weight of the falling snow began causing damage to natural gas lines, resulting in fires and explosions. That weight proved too much for many roofs. Ones that were flat in many cases collapsed. Even some roofs that were slanted were not immune from damage, and many developed water leaks, a complicating factor in an environment where the temperature in some areas might peak in the low 40s by day and become subfreezing at night. Continue reading →

By Jon Coupal
Over the years, my California Commentary column has exposed the myriad ways that the California Legislature enacts laws, not for the public benefit, but to cement progressive political power with one-party rule. A lawsuit filed last week in the Sacramento Superior Court illuminates yet another example.
A coalition of business groups is challenging Senate Bill 1439 (Glazer), signed into law last year. The legislation, which took effect on January 1, requires city and county elected officials to recuse themselves from certain decisions that would financially benefit any entity or person that donated over $250 to that official’s campaign in the past year.
Specifically, SB 1439 amends the Political Reform Act of 1974, which prohibits an officer of an agency from accepting, soliciting, or directing a contribution of more than $250 from any party while a proceeding involving a license, permit, or other entitlement for use is pending before the agency. The new law is targeted mostly toward developers and other real estate interests which, rightly or wrongly, are perceived to make use of “pay to play” tactics, especially at the local level.
But prior to the enactment of SB 1439, the term “agency” was defined to exclude those entities whose members are directly elected by the voters. The thinking is that members of local legislative bodies, particularly city councils and county boards of supervisors, are directly accountable to voters, and citizens can either recall or reject for reelection politicians perceived to be unduly influenced by special interests.
SB 1439 removed the exception for local government agencies, thereby subjecting elected officials to the same prohibition as other officials. But despite what may have been good intentions, SB 1439 is flawed and may end up being invalidated. Continue reading →

Rumors were spreading throughout Ontario this week that Ontario Mayor Paul Leon had a heart attack and was on death’s doorstep while under specialized treatment at a hospital in Hawaii.
In various versions of this narrative, in short order he was to be relieved of his position as mayor by Councilman Alan Wapner or such a transition of authority had already occurred.
The truth, Leon says, was no less dramatic or arresting, but without the dire results that were in the story making the rounds.
Indeed, Leon related, he had earlier this month experienced a cardiac incident, which was the culmination of years of arterial blockage he has been living with and continuing to function through. He was not, as was widely rumored or speculated about, transported to a cutting-edge cardiac facility on the Island of Hawaii in the aftermath of a near deadly infarction, but was actually vacationing on the Big Island when he had an episode he could not ignore. Continue reading →

In an announcement that rankled environmentalists and heartened developmental interests and the politicians they bankroll, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday revealed that it will not list Joshua trees under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The declaration that the two types of plants commonly known as Joshua trees – one with the scientific name of yucca brevifolia, referred to in common parlance as the western Joshua tree, and the other known by botanists as the Yucca jaegeriana, called the eastern Joshua tree – is the second setback at the federal level in the last four years for those seeking to insulate the distinctive plants from encroaching development and climate change.
Environmentalists in 2015 asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior, to study the status of the trees, their fragility and prospect for survival, seeking a determination that the Joshua Tree is threatened and therefore in need of certain protections. That examination, which began during the Barack Obama Administration, extended itself into the Donald Trump Administration. Slightly more than halfway into President Trump’s tenure in office, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found the listing “not warranted.”
In response, the environmental group WildEarth Guardians contested that determination and filed suit in November 2019 in the Central District of California, challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision, arguing that the agency failed to consider multiple climate models and improperly discounted the best available science with regard to Joshua tree reproduction and dispersal. Continue reading →

More than a week after the concerns of many Grand Terrace residents that a drug rehabilitation center or what was termed a halfway house is going to locate in their low-key community appeared to have been allayed, there persists a suggestion the sale of what was an assisted living facility for senior citizens will result in that complex transitioning into a far more intensive use.
At present, Vista Blue Mountain offers various onsite services and amenities for residents, including weekly housekeeping, laundry service, outdoor seating, shuttle service, activities and medical and personal services.
The Sentinel’s inquiries with individuals familiar with the current and projected future nature of the Vista Blue Mountain Assisted Living & Memory Care facility was met with a ghostly silence this week, a week after anxious Grand Terrace residents queried city officials about reports that the 88-unit live-in and specialized care residence for senior citizens located within a two-story, 49,025-square foot building at 22325 Barton Road was to be converted to a drug treatment center for young adults or teens. Continue reading →