In November, 63 municipal posts throughout San Bernardino County will be up for election. One of those positions, a council seat in Victorville, is not currently occupied. There are two existing and filled positions on the Colton City Council which are to be consolidated into two others on that panel following the November election and will thereafter cease to exist, as the Colton City Council, which now stands at six council members and the city’s mayor, will be reduced to four council members and the mayor.
While a handful of those incumbents will probably not seek reelection, it is anticipated that the vast majority of those in office who must stand for reelection to retain their positions will do so. With the exceptions of Wade Evans, who was appointed last year to the Needles City Council to succeed Tim Terral; Perri Melnick, who was appointed to the Big Bear Lake City Council in July 2021 to replace Mayor David Caretto; Keron Jones, who was appointed to the Adelanto City Council in June 2021 to replace Gerry Hernandez; Continue reading →

Assemblywoman Eloise Gómez Reyes’ legislative effort to regulate warehouse development locally has stalled out.
Assembly Bill 2840, which was authored by Gómez Reyes (Democrat-47th District) will not be considered in this year’s legislative session because of what those opposed to it said were uneven elements in its makeup.
Gómez Reyes said she had elected to withhold the bill at this time because of “concerns around maintaining the integrity of the bill after committee-proposed amendments.”
Gómez Reyes, the Assembly majority leader, introduced AB 2840 in March. If passed in its original form, it would have required local governments, when approving new logistics projects of 100,000 square feet or Continue reading →

With the advent of July, Waste Management Inc. is coming in to establish itself as Chino Hills’ franchised trash hauler, displacing Republic Services, which was formerly known as Taormina Industries.
The changeover from Republic represents by some estimations a healthy realignment in the complicated dynamic and balancing of influence related to refuse handling in what is the largest county geographically in the United States, involving a business that traditionally throughout the United States is intertwined with the mob, gangsters and racketeers.
At the same time, there is concern that the city evinced favoritism in awarding the franchise, which went to a service provider with a demonstrated history of using questionable methods, including bribery and intimidation, to advance its standing in the industry.
San Bernardino County has for the most part managed to sidestep some of the worst elements of underworld culture that coexist with many of the companies that dispose of domestic, commercial and industrial trash, and tales of bodies ending up in the waste stream buried in the region’s landfills are relatively rare. There have been along the way, nevertheless, efforts at influencing politicians and government officials in illicit ways that reflect poorly on the trash hauling industry, certain companies, the politicians who are in their pockets and the politicians who are not taking bribes but tolerate their colleagues who do. Continue reading →

A zone-tailed hawk was observed for the first time in Joshua Tree National Park in May.
The zone-tailed hawk, known by its scientific name, Buteo albonotatus, is a medium-sized hawk native to deserts and other warm and dry areas of the Americas. A sleek that can be found year-round in various regions of South America and in the U.S. during the spring and summer, the zone-tailed hawk is visually similar to the turkey vulture, which in the United States is a common scavenger. Because its plumage, flight style and broad black wingspan resembles that of the turkey vulture, it sometimes blends into groups of vultures. Continue reading →

The once quaint but more recently significantly delapidated historic El Rancho Motel in Barstow was largely destroyed in what officials say was a suspicious fire on Tuesday, July 5.
The Barstow Fire Department raced to the scene at 112 East Main Street around 9:35 p.m. and was later joined by units with Fort Irwin Fire Corps and the Victorville Fire Department. Concerted efforts to douse the flames were made. The fire raged for a good 50 minutes after the arrival of the first responding engine to the three-alarm fire. The fire was eventually knocked down, but not before nearly three-fourths of the rooms at the motel were fully engulfed and destroyed.
There was no immediate indication that the fire was deliberately set, but arson investigators have been combing the wreckage, searching for clues. Continue reading →

An untold number of burros in the Reche Canyon Area stretching between San Bernardino County and Riverside County have contracted a respiratory illness believed to be equine influenza that is decimating their population.
For years, the burros have lived at large in the wildland foothills stretching from Reche Canyon in Colton over to San Timoteo Canyon in south Redlands and ultimately meeting up with Moreno Valley in Riverside County and the area near Box Springs Mountain and along Pigeon Pass Road. Residents have tolerated them, though they on occasion have gone into the roadway, where they represent a traffic hazard. Scores of the donkeys have been killed over the years when struck by vehicles. Continue reading →