Former Adelanto City Councilman Jermaine Wright Convicted On Federal Bribery & Arson Counts

More than four-and-a-half years after he was arrested by the FBI, Former Adelanto City Councilman Jermaine Wright on June 22 was found guilty by a jury on federal criminal charges that he accepted a $10,000 cash bribe and that he hired a man to burn down his restaurant so he could fraudulently collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance proceeds.
Wright, 46, of Riverside, was found guilty late Wednesday afternoon of one count of bribery involving an entity receiving federal funds and one count of attempted arson of a building affecting interstate commerce. Wright was remanded into federal custody following the verdict’s announcement. Continue reading

Redlands Joins Colton And Chino As Third San Bernardino County City To Place Moratorium On Warehouses

Redlands has joined with the cities of Chino and Colton in imposing a temporary moratorium on the further construction of warehouses in San Bernardino County.
In October, Chino placed a 45-day moratorium on property readily available and properly zoned for warehousing, which lies primarily within the city’s southwest triangle formed by Monte Vista and Chino avenues, the northeast corner of Yorba and Schaefer avenues and the southwest corner of Chino and Central avenues.
In May 2021, Colton slapped a temporary, 45-day ban on warehouse development in that 16.04-square mile city, subsequently extending the ban to a full year.
One source, unverified by the Sentinel, holds that there are 3,013 warehouses in San Bernardino County Continue reading

June 24 SBC Sentinel Legal Notices

Notice is hereby given pursuant to
Sections 3071 of the Civil Code of the tate of California the undersigned will sell the following vehicle(s) at lien sale at said address below on: 07/08/2022 09:00 AM
Year of Car / Make of Car / Vehicle ID No. / License No. (State)
2015 HONDA 19XFB2F55FE223220 7JQB569 CA
To be sold by AIR EXPRESSWAY TOWING 17435 CATALPA STREET HESPERIA CA 92345
Said sale is for the purpose of satisfying lien for together with costs of advertising and expenses of sale.
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on June 24, 2022.

Notice is hereby given pursuant to
Sections 3071 of the Civil Code of the State of California the undersigned will sell the following vehicle(s) at lien sale at said address below on: 07/08/2022 09:00 AM
Year of Car / Make of Car / Vehicle ID No. / License No. (State)
2017 BMW WBA4U7C57H5D42744 8PJL436 CA
To be sold by AIR EXPRESSWAY TOWING 17435 CATALPA STREET HESPERIA CA 92345
Said sale is for the purpose of satisfying lien for together with costs of advertising and expenses of sale.
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on June 24, 2022.

Notice is hereby given pursuant to
Sections 3071 of the Civil Code of the State of California the undersigned will sell the following vehicle(s) at lien sale at said address below on: 07/08/2022 09:00 AM
Year of Car / Make of Car / Vehicle ID No. / License No. (State)
2005 HYUNDAI 3H3V532C65T098027 4TC6457 CA
To be sold by LUIS TOWING & TRANSPORT, LLC 15995 CERES AVE FONTANA CA 92335 Continue reading

Former Adelanto Councilman Jermaine Wright Convicted On Bribery Charges

     Former Adelanto City Councilman Jermaine Wright was found guilty by a jury of federal criminal charges for accepting a $10,000 cash bribe and hiring a man to burn down his restaurant so he could fraudulently collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance proceeds, the Justice Department announced today.

      Wright, 46, of Riverside, was found guilty late Wednesday afternoon of one count of bribery of programs receiving federal funds and one count of attempted arson of a building affecting interstate commerce. Wright was remanded into federal custody following the verdict’s announcement. Continue reading

Lawsuits Assert Countywide Races Must Be Decided In November And Not June

The official conclusion of this year’s election that resulted in the reelection of five countywide incumbents was not in compliance with the county’s charter, two lawsuits filed last week contend.
According to a lawsuit filed by Robert Conaway on his own behalf and another Conaway filed on behalf of sheriff candidate Cliff Harris, San Bernardino County’s charter, as adjusted ten years ago in 2012, requires that the five countywide positions elected in the years corresponding with California’s gubernatorial elections – sheriff, district attorney, treasure/tax collector/auditor controller, assessor/county clerk and county superintendent of schools – are to be held in the November general election. According to Conaway’s and Harris’s suits, the county’s practice of declaring a candidate for any of those five offices to be Continue reading

Halfhearted Campaign For Mayor Creates Suspicion That Valdivia Has Designs On His Electioneering War Chest

There is concern among both San Bernardino Mayor John Valdivia’s constituents and his political supporters that a significant amount of the more than $850,000 he amassed into his electioneering fund is being diverted to what will eventually become his personal use.
Valdivia, who has held elective office since 2012 following his 2011 election to the city council and who has been the mayor of what is both San Bernardino County’s largest city and its county seat since 2018, has himself contemplated being, and been considered by others as, a potential candidate for higher office, such as U.S. Congressman or a position in the California legislature. On June 7, however, he finished in third place for reelection as mayor, an event which instantaneously transformed him into a lame duck. Moreover, the nature of his loss and the events surrounding him and what led up to his defeat knells, a large number of the county’s more sophisticated political observers have indicated, the end of his viability as a politician, at least locally. Continue reading

Further Intimations Of Graft Among Redlands Municipal Elected & Appointed Officials

By Mark Gutglueck
Redlands City Officials’ mad rush to approve the redevelopment project on the site of the shuttered Redlands Mall may very well have resulted in a further decade-long or more delay in that project coming to fruition, meaning that the 11.15-acre site at the heart of one of San Bernardino County’s most resplendent cities, which has already been dormant for over a decade, will have lain fallow for a quarter-of-a-century before the project hastily approved last month will materialize.
At the root of the massive faux pas was the determination of city officials to prevent height limitations on buildings within the city that a committed core of city residents is purposed to impose on future development from being applicable in the downtown area and the developers who have cultivated a rapport with the city’s municipal establishment. The project approved last month is to entail residential structures at least four stories high and perhaps a parking facility six stories in height. In their desire to Continue reading

Once Behind, Ibarra Moves Even Further Into 2nd Ward Lead

Though the results are not official, San Bernardino Second Ward Councilwoman Sandra Ibarra’s come-from-behind victory in the June 7 balloting seems virtually assured.
Ibarra, a community activist who was first elected to the city council in 2018, had to battle through two contests that year – the June primary and the November general election – to land a berth on the council. In 2018, Benito Barrios was the incumbent Second Ward councilman. He was challenged by Ibarra and Cecilia Miranda-Dolan. Barrios’s incumbent status did him no good, as Miranda-Dolan prevailed in the June balloting with 699 votes or 39.6 percent, outdistancing both Barrios, with 525 votes or 29.75 percent, and Ibarra, who outpolled Barrios as well, with 541 votes or 30.65 percent. That November, Ibarra Continue reading