Former Adelanto Mayor Rich Kerr yesterday, Thursday January 12, agreed to plead guilty to a federal criminal charge of accepting more than $57,000 in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for approving ordinances authorizing commercial marijuana activity within the city and ensuring his co-schemers obtained city licenses or permits for their commercial marijuana activities, the Justice Department announced today.
Kerr, whose full name is Richard Allen Kerr, 65 of Adelanto, acknowledged guilt on a single count of honest services wire fraud, a crime that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Continue reading →

By Mark Gutglueck
For decades medical and mental health professionals warned about the toll that long-term or even shorter duration use of marijuana could have on an individual, impairing his physical and psychological well-being, power of recollection, cognitive skills, reasoning ability and sanity. And while the scientific data to back those caveats remains scattered, incomplete, inconclusive and less than fully convincing in all of its aspects, significant evidence accumulated over the last six years since California’s legalization of marijuana for its intoxicative effect shows that the widespread availability of the substance in the Golden State has resulted in a collective psychosis, one in which governmental function has become outright schizophrenic and compromised by clouded institutional memory. Continue reading →

Over the span of less than two weeks, two hikers on Mt. Blady were killed after falling and sliding on hard ice.
The identity of the first hiker to suffer a fatality this winter season has not been released.
The second victim was Crystal Paula Gonzalez-Landas, 56 of Covina, an experienced hiker and mother of four. She died under challenging conditions on January 8.
Gonzalez-Landas grew up in Covina and ran marathons in her teens and into her thirties. After a back injury, she reduced her running schedule and took up hiking more than a decade-and-a-half ago. She had hiked to the top of Mt. Baldy in the past and had also backpacked in the Sierras, hiking on one of those excursions to the peak of Mt. Whitney. Continue reading →

By Mark Gutglueck
What some Redlands residents say is a nepotistic circumstance at City Hall involving Councilman Paul Barich and his daughter came to light last month, just days after Barich rotated out of a two-year term as the 73,288-population city’s mayor.
City officials and Barich were dismissive of suggestions that an arrangement between Barich & Glaze Insurance Solutions LLC, in which Megan Barich, Paul Barich’s daughter, is a principal, and Teamsters Local 1932, which is the collective bargaining unit representing Redlands city employees, entailed nepotism or impropriety of any sort.
Paul Barich owns Redlands’ premier insurance agency and mentored his daughter in the insurance brokerage profession before she struck out on her own in partnership with Arynne Glaze. Continue reading →

More than six months after former Fontana Unified School District Superintendent Randall Bassett was forced out of his post by a troika of the district’s board members, Miki Inbody has been chosen as his long-term replacement.
Inbody’s contract is to go into effect officially on February 1.
Bassett was felled by vicious crosscurrents among his masters on the district’s board. Bitter, sharper and deepening political divides between those on the board, as well as the demands of an ultimate master to whom Bassett did not officially answer but whom he dared not disappoint – Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren – led to Bassett’s demise. Continue reading →

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in compliance with mandates from both the California legislature and the California Department of Food and Agriculture has recently stepped up monitoring and examination of livestock transport through the region.
That activity has included frequent traffic stops of trucks hauling livestock trailers as they transit Highway 395 and Highway 58 through the Mojave Desert.
According to the state, throughout California in 2022, cattle theft increased by 22 percent over the previous year.
Cattle rustling has been a steady phenomenon in California since it was ruled by Spain. Continue reading →

Slightly more than two months after Patty Holohan’s reelection to the Redlands School Board, the Redlands Police Department has released a series of reports, interviews and evidence summaries documenting that Holohan herself was involved in campaign tactics that have already tainted her victory.
Now under way is an examination of that evidence and documentation to determine if Holohan’s action constituted prosecutable criminal conduct.
Holohan has been a member of the Redlands Unified School District Board of Trustees since just after her initial election to that panel in 2006. She was reelected handily in 2010 and 2014, while positions on the school board were yet ones elected at large by all of the voters in the district. By 2018, the school district had switched to by-district elections, and Holohan competed to remain on the board in the District 1 contest. She comfortably turned back her challenger, Libbern Cook, capturing 6,522 votes or 63.5 percent of the total 10,273 votes cast to Cook’s 3,751 or 36.5 percent.
In 2022, two candidates, Erin Stepien and Victoria Oginrinu, challenged Holohan. Continue reading →

Amid a degree of confusion as to along what lines the still-forming factions on the Yucaipa City Council divide, City Manager Ray Casey, who had served as city manager of the 54,542-population city since he was elevated from the city engineer’s position in 2008, tendered his resignation Monday.
Casey’s departure comes a month after Matt Garner and Chris Venable were installed as council members and a month after they were elected in a contest in which the then-longest serving members of the council, David Avila and Greg Bogh, had opted out of seeking reelection.
Any interpreting of what the impetus for Casey’s departure was is likely to be problematic, as the common policy of confidentiality that attends issues relating to public agency personnel issues prevents the emergence of a clear picture of what went into the sudden change in senior staff at Yucaipa City Hall. It is complicated by the application of what appears to be a cover story intended to protect Casey, a narrative which propounds that he voluntarily retired. Continue reading →

On Tuesday, January 10, Third District Supervisor Dawn Rowe was unanimously chosen by her fellow supervisors to serve as chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors for the next two years, succeeding Fourth District Supervisor Curt Hagman. First District Supervisor Colonel Paul Cook (Ret.) was unanimously chosen to serve as board vice chairman, succeeding Rowe in that role.
“Over the next two years, I will work hard to strengthen our local economy, ensure that public safety remains a top priority, and improve the quality of life for all San Bernardino County residents,” Rowe said. “I am grateful for this new opportunity and look forward to continuing my work as the supervisor for the Third District.”
“The board is in great hands,” Cook said.
Rowe will preside over board of supervisors meetings, sign contracts approved by the board, and work to set the board’s agendas.
“We have a great team up here and a lot to be proud of,” said Fifth District Supervisor Joe Baca, Jr. Speaking to Rowe he said, “You do a great job being responsive to your district. I look forward to seeing that applied to the whole county.”
“I think we have an opportunity to do great things in our community,” said Second District Supervisor Jesse Armendarez.
Hagman has the rare distinction of having been chosen by his board colleagues to serve two consecutive terms as chairman.
Within the county hierarchy, Hagman was lauded as a champion of innovation in public service through the use of the latest technologies as well as exploring fresh approaches to government processes in pursuit of better results and efficiencies.
County officials note that on Hagman’s watch the county won more than 250 state and national awards for leading other counties in service, innovation and efficiency. He was praised for creating the Innovate 2020 program to spur county departments toward better solutions to consistent challenges and rebranding the county’s information services department to the innovation and technology department to emphasize its role in employing technology throughout the county organization to speed the delivery of public services.
Hagman received further kudos for leading the county through the COVID-19 pandemic and the establishment of the COVID-Compliant Business Partnership Program, which provided cash grants to businesses struggling to meet state-imposed mandates and for San Bernardino County being one of the first counties in the state to offer the COVID-19 vaccine.
Some in the county, however, found Hagman’s tenure less than satisfactory.
After the county’s residents voted in 2020 to reduce each supervisor’s total annual compensation to $60,000, he and the board sued their own employee, the clerk of the board, to prevent the vote from going into effect, thus thwarting the will of the county’s residents and keeping each supervisor’s $270,000 per year total compensation intact.
Under Hagman’s leadership, former Supervisor Bill Postmus has solidified his status as the most powerful lobbyist in the county, with tremendous sway over land use and business permitting decisions.
“On behalf of the entire board, we have enjoyed your leadership,” Rowe told Hagman. “I appreciate you leading us through all that you did. You’ve set an example for all of us to follow.”