More than 27 years after the gruesome stabbing death of then 40-year-old Valarie Serena in Hesperia in July 1992, her stepson has been arrested following a yet-to-be-publicly-revealed breakthrough in the investigation of the case.
Charles Duane Serena II, now 45 but who was 18 at the time Valerie Serena was stabbed 14 times in the back on July 4, 1992 in the bedroom of her Catalpa Street home in Hesperia, was taken into custody on September 27 by Lewis County Sheriff’s deputies and members of the Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force in the Rimrock Retreat area near White Pass, Washington. His arrest followed by eight days detectives from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department obtaining a warrant for his arrest on September 19.
As of yesterday Serena was yet being held in the Yakima County jail in Washington.
San Bernardino County investigators’ focus has now turned to extracting from Serena a confession that will implicate his father, Charles Duane Serena, in the killing.
Affidavits and other documentation of evidence in support of the arrest warrant lay out the theory that San Bernardino County homicide detectives have developed over more than two decades in their efforts to piece together a case in which suspicion had originally settled on the elder Charles Duane Serena. Detectives believe that Charles Duane Serena II, who had only a month previously graduated as an honors student from Apple Valley High School, had stealthily made his way into the Catalpa  Street residence of his former stepmother in the early morning of Independence Day 1992, and then went into the bedroom while she was sleeping and stabbed her to death.
Charles Duane Serena II was born in 1974 to Charles Duane Serena, a Marine and Viet Nam War veteran who had been exposed to the chemical defoliant Agent Orange during at least one of his two tours of duty in the Southeast Asian country, and his first wife. Following his divorce from his first wife, Charles Duane Serena married Valerie Joyce McDonald in 1981, with whom he had two daughters.
By 1990, the marriage between Charles and Valerie was on the rocks, and their divorce in 1991 was less than amicable, from which arose a bitter custody dispute over their two daughters. His exposure to Agent Orange entitled Charles Serena to disability benefits and his two daughters to Social Security benefits. When the court sided with Valerie on the child custody matter, the Social Security benefits due to Charles Serena’s two daughters were diverted as payable to Valerie. An element of the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department’s theory of the case is that the motive for Valerie Serena’s killing in part consisted of Charles Serena’s determination to obtain for himself the entirety of the benefits that were an offshoot of his Agent Orange exposure.
While the custody dispute was yet ongoing and an order for shared custody and visitation was in place, Charles essentially kidnapped his two daughters and held them without returning them for three weeks. Thereafter, Charles was slapped with a restraining order, preventing him from coming into Valerie’s Catalpa Street home, though his visitation/short term custody rights were not interrupted.
Early in the evening of Friday, July 3, Charles came to the Catalpa Street residence to retrieve both of his daughters for a scheduled weekend visitation with them. He left with both the children, taking them to the home he then lived in with his third wife and his son. A bit later, around 9 p.m., Valerie Serena was seen by her neighbors for the last time. In the wee hours of the following morning, a neighbor heard what was described as something akin to a cat shrieking coming from inside Valerie’s house. The neighbor also heard dogs barking at a nearby residence, what could have been the animals reacting to a stranger on or near the property.
When friends and family sought to reach Valerie by phone on Saturday, July 4, they were unsuccessful. On Sunday, July 5, 1992 her parents contacted one of Valerie’s friends to go to her house to check in on her. When her friend got to the Catalpa Street residence, the door was ajar. The woman ventured into the home, but made it no further than the living room and dining room area, where she saw a set a keys and a purse. When the woman beckoned Valerie by her name, there was no response. Unsettled by the circumstance, the woman came out of the house, just as Charles Serena was pulling into the driveway with his two daughters. The woman told him that something seemed amiss and said he should call the police.
Because of the restraining order against him, Charles Serena went to the next door neighbors house, where he called the sheriff’s department. Responding deputies went into the house where they found Valerie Serena dead in her bedroom. An immediate survey of the property was done and deputies found no indication of a burglary or items taken, no obvious sign of a forced entry and all entrances and windows in the house except for the front door locked. When the deputies informed Charles Serena that a woman was dead inside the house, they noted that he registered no reaction or show of emotion. Under questioning by sheriff’s personnel, Charles Serena said he did not have a key to the house. He denied having any involvement in his ex-wife’s death.
During follow-up inquiries by sheriff’s homicide investigators, Charles Serena grew uncooperative and reportedly told his son not to speak with the sheriff’s investigators. Despite that, Charles Duane Serena II, who went by the name Duane rather than Charles, at least twice submitted to questioning by detectives handling the case. He denied any involvement in or knowledge regarding his stepmother’s death. When he was pressed by investigators to undergo a polygraph examination, he refused and said he was further unwilling to provide the department with a blood sample.
Shortly after the murders, Duane Serena enlisted in the Marines, serving four years before being honorably discharged. The year after his enlistment he deployed to Somalia as part of the expeditionary force involved in Operation Restore Hope, and served among the Marine contingent supporting the U.S. Army Ranger and Delta Force troops involved in the Battle of Mogadishu.
After his discharge, Duane Serena seemed to have difficulty getting his life on track despite his excellent academic performance in high school, and he was diagnosed as suffering from post traumatic stress disorder as a consequence of his battle experience in the Marines. At times, according to the investigation carried out by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, he attempted to self-medicate with alcohol and illicit street drugs. He twice was enrolled in Veterans Administration-sponsored drug rehabilitation and recovery programs.
He proved itinerant during the latter 1990s and into the early 2000s, including a time in North Dakota when he and his wife lived with or nearby his biological mother, as well as time spent living in Rhode Island, Nevada and eventually Washington. He was married at least four times and divorced three times.
He had difficulty holding a job, having worked in several different capacities, including as a driver, a metal worker and a butcher.
Like his father, he had never fallen beyond the focus of the detectives who were actively working the case of Valerie Serena’s death in the early to mid-1990s, nor of the cold case unit that subsequently took up the matter.
Early on, after he was contacted by an investigator working the case while he was yet in the Marines, Duane Serena made a curious statement. According to one of the affidavits for his arrest warrant, he had said that “other than the Marine Corps, his father has his total loyalty.”
At times, during his decline into the morass of alcohol and substance abuse, which had created havoc in his marriages and sometimes manifested in physical abuse of at least three of his wives, Duane Serena had hinted to friends and acquaintances that he was involved in the killing of his stepmother. On at least one occasion he said he had assisted his father in killing Valerie Serena and then assisted him in eliminating any evidence that either had taken part in the murder.
During the first 26-plus years of the 27-year-long investigation, detectives had found disparate pieces of evidence which pointed to Duane Serena’s involvement but which did not in total provide a fully integral case against him. It appears that investigators in the last several months came across an individual or individuals to whom he had made statements that provided key corroborative evidence to satisfy a judge that an arrest warrant should be issued.
At present, detectives are executing a plan to render Duane Serena psychologically prone to implicating his father in the murder. The technique being employed against him takes full advantage of his being incarcerated and shut off from the outside world, and unable to communicate with friends, family or anyone within his support network without those conversations being monitored. Of value to the investigators is that Duane Serena has been for some time estranged from his father. Part of the investigative team’s strategy is to maintain Duane Serena in his state of isolation for an extended period of time, cut off from social contact, after which time he will be contacted by investigators, at least one of whom will seek to befriend him by dealing with him on a human level. Thereupon, they will begin questioning him about the events leading up to the killing of Valerie Serena, lacing into their questions suggestions that his culpability in the death is mitigated by the influence and sway his father had over him when he was 18, suggesting that he might greatly reduce his sentence or perhaps avoid prison altogether if he can offer the investigators proof of his father’s involvement.
Moreover, detectives are not overlooking the possibility that during a monitored and recorded phone conversation between father and son, one or both will make a statement implicating Charles Duane Serna, the elder, in the murder.
Having already waited 27 years to get this far, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigators are in no rush, and they have allowed Duane Serna to languish where he is, in the custody of the Yakima County Sheriff’s Department. Following his arrest on September 27, San Bernardino County authorities did not immediately send a team of detectives or deputies to Washington to escort him back to California. Instead, the younger Serena was kept on ice until his preliminary hearing on Tuesday October 4. At that preliminary hearing, he waived extradition, which gives San Bernardino County investigators clearance to remove him at will to San Benardino County. As of yesterday, however, he was yet in the custody of the Yakima County Sheriff’s Department. There was no indication that the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has even begun preparations to have transferred.
-Mark Gutglueck

The City of Rancho Cucamonga will grow by more than 6.38 square miles in accordance with an annexation plan adopted by its city council Wednesday night.  If finalized, the acquisition will zoom Rancho Cucamonga from the twelfth largest municipality in San Bernardino County landwise to the eighth largest.
The property the city is now seeking to be added to the existing 40 square miles within its city limits consists of 4,088 acres of county land located just above the northeastern corner of the city that has long been within the city’s sphere of influence. The council’s action sets in motion the codification of the Etiwanda Heights Neighborhood and Conservation Plan, which is applicable toward all 4,088 acres to be annexed as well as another 305 acres already falling within the city’s boundaries, totaling 4,393 acres. The property included in the annexation request extends to 1,200 acres of what more than a decade ago was categorized as surplus San Bernardino County Flood Control District land.
The property proposed to be brought into the city will run from Haven Avenue on the west all the way to the existing border with Fontana on the east northward from the existing northern outer rim of the city right up to the edge of San Bernardino National Forest at the foothills below Cucamonga Peak.
While under the plan some 82 percent of the land being brought into the city will be preserved or conserved as recreational, undeveloped or open space, there will be an intensification of the land use on the remaining 17 percent, or 694 acres, as well as on 96 of the acres that already fall within the city limits. On those 790 acres, 3,000 dwelling units in five separate neighborhoods will be, in the city’s land use parlance, “clustered,” meaning grouped closely together, and augmented with a small commercial district which will confine itself to the area of two city blocks.
In a major deviation from the standard that the city has insisted upon from its inception as a municipality in 1977 with only a few exceptions, the residential component will not feature curbs or sidewalks. A condition to be imposed on the street layout is that cul-de-sacs will not be permitted and all streets and roadways must run continuously out of each of the neighborhoods to be created, with no dead-ends.
Of the 3,603 acre identified as rural or conservation space within the plan, areas and vistas are dedicated to ensure the survivability of endangered plants indigenous to the area, along with 85 acres of parks and 11 miles of trails, and an equestrian center replete with stables and an arena.
In a report to the mayor and members of the council dated October 2 from City Manager John Gillison that was initiated and authored by Deputy City Manager Matt Burris, Deputy City Manager Elisa C. Cox and Planning Director Anne McIntosh, it was recommended that the city proceed with actuating the  Etiwanda Heights Neighborhood and Conservation Plan.
“[T]he city has long held a vision for the conservation of the alluvial fan and foothills between our northernmost neighborhoods and the National Forest,” Gillison, Burris, Cox and McIntosh stated, saying the plan proposed would provide an opportunity to achieve that goal. “This detailed vision for the unincorporated foothills above the neighborhoods of Etiwanda was developed after an extensive multiyear process that included analysis of various development and conservation options, a thorough review of the goals and policies described in the general plan, review by the planning commission, directions from city council, and extensive participation and input from the overall community. Through the specific plan, the community has articulated a vision for extensive conservation of the alluvial fans, foothills, and drainage areas that border the city to the north, enabled and supported by high quality, complete, walkable neighborhoods that reflect the rural history of Etiwanda and provide a range of housing opportunities to the south. This vision is unlikely to be seen without gaining local control through annexation of this land currently in the city’s sphere of influence.”
The city council’s action alone does not settle the matter. The annexation must be signed off on by the San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission, known by its acronym LAFCO. All entities interested in the annexation, including owners of the property to be annexed, some of whom are not supportive of the city’s imposition of jurisdictional control over the land, will be provided with an opportunity to offer input on and register opposition to the proposal. The Rancho Cucamonga community in recent years has been well represented on the Local Agency Formation Commission board, a situation that came about after several adverse decisions against the city by the commission in its border war with the City of Fontana in the 1980s. At that time, the LAFCO board had as two of its voting members Bill Kragness, a city councilman in Fontana, and then-San Bernardino County Fifth District Supervisor Robert Hammock, whose campaign war chest was heavily endowed by developmental interests doing business within the City of Fontana who were receiving favorable treatment from that city with regard to the infrastructure requirements and developmental standards to be applied to their respective projects. Since that time, Rancho Cucamonga has sought to cultivate influence over the Local Agency Formation Commission’s processes by placing officeholders from Rancho Cucamonga onto the LAFCO board. Until she left office last year, Rancho Cucamonga Councilwoman Diane Williams was a LAFCO board member. James Curatalo, a board member with the Cucamonga Valley Water District, has long been and remains a member of the Local Agency Formation Commission board. In this way, the board is very likely to cast a favorable eye toward any applications made by the City of Rancho Cucamonga, although Williams was replaced on the board by Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren. Because of Rancho Cucamonga’s historical enmity with Fontana over border and jurisdictional issues and the contiguity of Fontana’s border with the 3,088 acres in question, there remains a possibility that Warren might prove a sympathetic ear to those who might object to the Rancho Cucamonga annexation, and she could potentially logroll sufficient votes on the board to prevent it.
If LAFCO approves the annexation, Rancho Cucamonga will increase from its current 40 square miles to 46.38. If that takes place, the boost in its girth will propel Rancho Cucamonga in size stature above Chino Hills, Fontana, Barstow and Yucca Valley, all of which currently encompass more land than it does.
Victorville is the county’s largest city areawise, including both land and water, at 73.7 square miles. Apple Valley, which is cataloged as a town rather than a city, is next, at 73.5 square miles, though when land area is strictly considered, excluding water-covered acreage, Apple Valley is the largest of San Bernardino County’s municipalities landwise with 73.2 square miles of dry territory. Just behind Apple Valley is Hesperia with 73.2 square miles of total acreage. San Bernardino is fourth, with 59.6 square miles. Twentynine Palms is fifth, at 59.1 square miles total, all of it land with no water. Adelanto is currently the county’s six largest city, at 56 square miles. Ontario is seventh at 49.99 square miles. Chino Hills is the eighth largest city in the county at 44.73 square miles. Fontana ranks ninth with 43.02 square miles. Barstow at 41.33 square miles, is the tenth largest. The Town of Yucca Valley, the eleventh largest incorporated municipality in the county, is just slightly larger than Rancho Cucamonga at present, at 40.02 square miles.
In taking Wednesday night’s action, Rancho Cucamonga city officials made the somewhat dubitable claim of having engaged 150,000 people in an online effort to obtain input and feedback with regard to the Etiwanda Heights Neighborhood and Conservation Plan after an outpouring of objections from some stakeholders, city residents and property owners following a preview of the plan at the May 16, 2018 Rancho Cucamonga City Council. Neither the Sentinel, which is based in Rancho Cucamonga, nor its publisher, who lives in the Etiwanda district of Rancho Cucamonga, was contacted by the city with regard to the Etiwanda Heights Neighborhood and Conservation Plan.
–Mark Gutglueck

A paradox of divergent intentions and resolve was on display today just west of the San Bernardino County/Los Angeles County border at Pomona City Hall where the ceremonial signing of the Alignment Design-Build Contract for the 12.3-mile, six-station Foothill Gold Line light rail project from Glendora to Montclair was held.
Some of the region’s civic leaders want the Gold Line project to continue to fruition. Some of the region’s civic leaders want to kill the undertaking before it crosses into San Bernardino County.
The $2.1 billion project represents the second rail transportation project linking Downtown Los Angeles with the Inland Empire, one which upon its eventual completion will augment the existing MetroLink system, which spans from Union Station in Los Angeles to San Bernardino. MetroLink runs on a south-lying rail line. The Gold Line traverses Los Angeles County north of where MetroLink runs, coming away from Union Station northward before heading east across the San Gabriel Foothill communities.
There was considerable enthusiasm this morning as the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority met publicly to formalize the contract with the joint venture team of Kiewit-Parsons for the $805.6 million project to complete nine miles of track from Glendora to Pomona, with a two-year contract option to complete the full project to Montclair for a total contract amount of $1,186.9 million if additional funds are secured by October 2021.
That is a big if. While for years San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, in the form of what was formerly called SANBAG, the acronym for San Bernardino Associated Governments, had signaled it was on board with the project, that course abruptly changed last month. At the September 4 meeting for SANBAG’s successor agency, the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, that agency’s executive director, Ray Wolfe, said he recommended that the San Bernardino County transit collective “throw in the towel” on the Gold Line, meaning that it should discontinue the funding commitment formerly made to bring the Gold Line from Claremont, the last stop in Los Angeles County, to Montclair, the first stop in San Bernardino County.
Wolfe quibbles with the necessity of San Bernardino County involving itself with the Gold Line, which is described as a “light-rail” project, separate and apart from the heavier and larger Metro-Link trains and line. The Gold Line would involve a newly constructed track. Wolfe is advising that San Bernardino County forego the construction of a new track and simply add additional low-emission locomotives on the existing tracks used by MetroLink between Pomona and Montclair, eventually extending that light rail option through into Upland and then to Rancho Cucamonga.
Previously, the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority had agreed to put up $39 million toward the extension of the Gold Line to Montclair. When San Bernardino County’s share of the cost rose to $80 million, officials made a joint application with the Los Angles Metro Transit Agency for a State of California Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program grant. That application was successful and it brought in $41 million to fill in San Bernardino County’s portion of the funding gap. Now the cost has risen to $97.4 million to complete the line from Claremont to Montclair, and Wolfe is counseling county officials to pull the plug on the extension, give the $41 million back to the state and devote the $39 million toward transportation projects elsewhere.
What was made clear at this morning’s festivities in Pomona is that the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority is 100 percent committed to bringing the Gold Line to Pomona. Whether the train will ever make it to Montclair or beyond is now unknown, dependent upon whether Los Angeles County transportation officials and San Bernardino County municipal officials who are heavily in favor of the Gold Line, such as the city councilmembers, mayors and city managers in Montclair and Ontario, can prevail on the board members with the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority to override Wolfe’s recommendation and stay the course with the light rail project.
The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority’s board consists of a single representative – either the mayor or a council member – from each of the county’s 24 cities and all five of the members of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.
In Pomona this morning the focus was on the extension to be completed by Kiewit-Parsons to add new stations to the Metro Gold Line system in the cities of Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, and Pomona. Left up in the air is whether funding will in fact be secured to complete the two additional phases to Claremont and then Montclair. The Glendora to Pomona segment is anticipated to be completed in 2025, and the entire project to Montclair by 2028 if the contract option is initiated.
“Today, as we sign the contract that kicks off major construction for the next Gold Line segment, we are one step closer to improving mobility and the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of residents, workers, students and others as they travel to and from the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys each day,” said Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority Board Chair and Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval. “Getting to today’s contract signing would not have been possible without the partnership and collaboration with LA Metro’s board and executive team; and the support of elected officials at all levels, including the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments and the State of California that provided hundreds of millions of dollars of funding that helped make today possible.”
The contract signing with Kiewit-Parsons concludes a two-year procurement process and officially marks the beginning of major construction for the $2.1 billion light rail project. Kiewit-Parsons, the same design-build team responsible for successfully building the two earlier segments of the Foothill Gold Line between Union Station and Azusa, was ranked the top team in all technical categories by the evaluation committees. It also provided the lowest overall bid price. Officials deemed Kiewit-Parsons as offering the best value for the agency when the consortium was awarded the contract in mid-August.
“The Kiewit-Parsons team has a long history working for the construction authority and doing an excellent job,“ stated Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority CEO Habib F. Balian. “I am confident that their team, and my team at the construction authority, are ready to go to work to deliver another successful project for this region.”
“Kiewit is excited to have been chosen to build this important rail transportation project in the region,” said Terry Robinson, senior vice president, Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. “Our long, successful history with the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority since the late 1990s will only help the Kiewit-Parsons team as we closely collaborate throughout the life of the contract. We look forward to using our extensive rail transportation experience to safely deliver a high-quality project that commuters and those visiting the area will ultimately use and enjoy.”
“We are excited to partner with the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority and our team in delivering full-service integrated delivery including design and technological capabilities that will benefit travelers across the LA Metro service area,” said Mark Fialkowski, executive vice president of mobility solutions, Parsons Corporation. “Parsons will provide innovative, sustainable solutions that reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality, while helping San Gabriel Valley commuters get to their destinations safely and reliably.”
Today’s historic signing event was attended by elected officials at all levels of government, the Foothill Gold Line Board of Directors, officials from the project’s corridor cities, transportation officials – including Foothill Gold Line CEO Habib F. Balian, Metro CEO Phillip A. Washington and California State Transportation Agency Undersecretary Elissa Konove – and San Gabriel Valley stakeholders. The notable list of speakers included U.S. Representative Norma Torres; California State Senator Anthony Portantino; California State Assembly Member Chris Holden; Foothill Gold Line Board Chair and Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval; Metro Board Chair and Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr.; Metro Board First Vice Chair and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti; Metro Board Second Vice Chair and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis; Metro Board Member and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger; and Metro Board Member, Foothill Gold Line Board Member and Duarte Council Member John Fasana.
The Glendora-to-Montclair project is named as one of Metro’s 28 priority projects to be completed before the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and is the fourth rail project currently in major construction in Los Angeles County. It will provide connections to important regional destinations like the LA County Fairplex, two dozen more colleges and universities, historic downtowns, museums, regional parks and open space areas, and more. In addition, the extension will provide a direct link between the Metro and MetroLink systems, allowing riders from each system to easily transfer; creating endless possibilities for connections throughout the region.
It is estimated that during construction alone, the Foothill Gold Line from Glendora to Montclair will create as many as 16,000 jobs and up to $2.6 billion in economic output for the region, as well as up to $1 billion in labor income and potentially $40 million in tax revenue, according to an economic study by Beacon Economics. Once completed, it is estimated the line will add more than 8,300 daily riders to the Metro system.

Undocumented aliens throughout San Bernardino County have been put on special alert by groups advocating on their behalf in the aftermath of comments by Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren that were interpreted as a signal that federal census workers who will be tallying the number of residents living in the Inland Empire in 2020 will utilize the access they will have into all corners of the community to alert the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency of their whereabouts.
The U.S. Census is conducted every ten years by the United States Census Bureau, a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System. The census provides data relating to the American people and the nation’s economy.  Seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are allocated to the 50 states based on the population figures produced in the census, and the bureau’s various survey statistics are used in the distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds yearly to the states and local governmental entities. Relevant statistics provided by the census inform decisions on where, to what standards and to what scale to build and maintain schools, hospitals, transportation infrastructure, and police and fire departments.
The Census Bureau is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce and its director is appointed by the president of the United States.
President Donald Trump prior to taking office in 2017 and since has advocated an aggressive effort to maintain border security and round up foreign nationals who are in the United States illegally or otherwise in defiance of U.S. immigration laws and policies.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is the branch of the federal government principally responsible for immigration enforcement, with additional responsibilities in countering transnational crime. While many states and local agencies including California and some of the cities within it have adopted a policy of noncooperation with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, President Trump has issued an edict requiring that all arms of the federal government cooperate with each other in carrying out their various missions, and that order extends to assisting the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency in its operations aimed at collaring illegal immigrants. When word of that policy reached the public, concern was expressed that it would result in various segments of the population within the United States eluding, hiding from or otherwise evading census takers in the upcoming 2020 Census. Consequently, the Trump administration issued a statement in which it said census workers will not seek out information from census respondents about their immigration status. While that statement may be true in so far as it goes, there has been no order from on high in the Trump Administration rescinding the order that all federal employees, including those employed with the Census Bureau, further the goals of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. There remains widespread fear in immigrant communities, most pointedly among those who are undocumented, that their interaction with census takers will result in information about them being provided to federal immigration officials.
In recent weeks, Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren entered the fray. In an effort to prompt the cooperation of the entirety of Fontana’s citizenry in cooperating with census takers, she encouraged all Fontana residents to interact freely with census takers and provide them with the full range of information contained on the census surveys. When she was directly questioned about the concern that many Fontana residents have that cooperating with the census workers could leave them vulnerable to follow-up action by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, Warren acknowledged that some people may have that concern but that participating in the census survey should not result in anyone being carted off by immigration officials.
For some, the manner in which Warren handled the question came off as too glib, and they interpreted what she said as a confirmation that for those who are not in this country legally the census takers will be wolves dressed up as sheep. For starters, Warren blurred the distinction between federal and city officials, in what some saw as an effort to mislead the public into thinking the census takers work for the city rather than the U.S. Government.
“The important thing to remember is we’re not immigration officials,” Warren said, while calling upon Fontana residents to help the city get as full of a counting of its residents as is possible.
This brought an immediate reaction from pro-immigration activists, who pointed out that Warren is a close Donald Trump associate and supporter, who has traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with him personally.
Indeed, Warren, who is assumed by some to be a Democrat, is actually a Republican who has endorsed Trump, was endorsed by him, and who is on a first name basis with him, having exchanged with him numerous phone calls, text messages emails and letters.
The most recently available demographic data relating to Fontana indicate 68.7 percent of the city’s 214,000-plus population is Hispanic or Latino. Estimates are that in excess of 11,000 of the city’s residents (5.14 percent) are undocumented.
-M.G.

The regional water table over the last 12 months has experienced a level of natural recharge that has not taken place for 32 years, according to the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District.
During the 2018-19 Water Year, which runs annually from October 1 to September 30, the level of snowmelt and rainfall, taken together with imported water obtained from the State Water Project and other sources that either percolated or was injected into the East Valley and Central Valley aquifers, resulted in a total net recharge of 70,000 acre-feet, reflecting a number not seen since 1987. That recharge was conveyed into holding ponds, and seeped naturally through silt and sand into the groundwater basin for future use.
San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District General Manager Daniel Cozad attributed the success of this water year to a very wet winter and several local cities and water agencies having established in 2018 the Groundwater Council, through which they pledged to contribute what they deemed to be a fair share of imported State Project water for local storage.
The water stored so far this year is enough to serve 210,000 families for an entire year, Cozad said, but it is being saved to help make up for significant overdrafts in the past.
“Our region is blessed with large underground aquifers that can store significant amounts of water for use in times of severe drought,” Cozad said. “Thanks to our partner agencies on the Groundwater Council, we have been hit by a double-windfall of heavy precipitation and unprecedented collaboration to store as much water as we can.”
The San Bernardino Valley Groundwater Council is what Cozad termed a 21st Century model for cooperation, where member agencies pitch in their fair share of water for recharge or contribute money for the purchase of imported water to achieve optimum levels of water storage in the San Bernardino and Bunker Hill groundwater basins.
Participation in the council is open to all groundwater producers in the San Bernardino Basin Area. Current members include the East Valley Water District; the cities of Colton, Loma Linda and Rialto; the San Bernardino Municipal Water Department; the Fontana Water Company; the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District; the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District; and the Yucaipa Valley Water District.
The last time the region stored this much groundwater was in 1987, following a period of successive wet winters. Prior to that spell, 22.8 million gallons of storage had not been achieved since the late 1940s.
This year’s significant degree of water storage comes on the heels of two other years of significant recharge.
The 2017-18 water year reflected the highest streamflow recharge level in five years at 16 billion gallons – the 16th highest recharge amount since the district started recording measurements 106 years ago.
The 2016-17 water year’s total was 236 percent above average.
Previous years of substantial streamflow recharge include: 2011 (53,986 acre-feet); 2010 (30,565 acre-feet); 2005 (56,980 acre-feet); 1998 (55,576 acre-feet); and 1995 (35,876 acre-feet). The record year for water recharge in the district was in 1922, when 104,545 acre-feet of water was captured in retention ponds where it was allowed to filter underground.
From 2012 to 2016, San Bernardino County, Southern California and California experienced a four-year drought.
Since 1912, the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District has conserved more than one million acre-feet or 326 billion gallons of water by diverting the natural flow of the Santa Ana River and Mill Creek into 71 percolation basins that allow the water to collect and permeate naturally into the ground, where it can be pumped out for future use.

By Mark Gutglueck
John Perry Ensley was an accomplished citrus grower in Ontario and Upland and a politician in Ontario before during and after the turn of the 19th to the 20th Century. As a farmer, he followed in the footsteps of his father, George, who had worked the soil in Indiana, and who for a short time, like his son and at his son’s suggestion, was himself an orange grower in Ontario.
John Ensley was born in Butler Center in DeKalb County, near Auburn, Indiana on October 9, 1853, the seventh son of George and Lydia Ensley, née Noel. John Perry Ensley obtained a thorough education, attending and graduating from Auburn High School in Indiana and subsequently attending Indiana State University.  He thereafter found employment as a teacher, and taught eight winter terms of school. When he was extended the opportunity to move into the position of principal of the Auburn schools, he spurned the offer.
His father, who was born in 1815, worked with his hands, both as a farmer and a mechanic in what was the first generation of the industrial revolution. At one point, George Ensley had operated a sawmill he had himself built. Admiring and emulating his father, John Ensley felt himself drawn to the practical vocation of farming.
In 1884, the same year that his mother died, John Ensley married Miss Clara B. Clark, a native of Indiana, and in 1886 for the benefit of her health, he came to Ontario and bought twenty acres of wild land at the northeast corner of Eighteenth Street and Euclid Avenue, in what is now Upland but at the time was considered north Ontario.  He cleared the rocky soil and planted citrus trees there during 1887.
In 1886, George Ensley had come to Ontario, as well, where he had purchased a five-acre orange grove on West Fourth Street along with ten acres of unimproved land on West G Street.
August 1888 was a tough month for John Ensley. By that point his wife, Clara, had given birth to two of the Ensley’s children, one of whom had died in infancy. On August 1, Clara died. Twenty-five days later, on August 26, George Ensley died.
After his father’s death, John Ensley purchased from his father’s other heirs – his brothers and sisters – their combined interests in his father’s property in Ontario. He maintained the Fourth Street grove and developed the unimproved tract off of G Street into a citrus grove.
According to “History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties” by John Brown and James Boyd, which was published in 1922, “All of this land he actually improved by his own labors and efforts, and in addition to his thirty-five acres of producing groves he had other valuable investments.”
On July 25, 1894, Ensley married Elizabeth Borthwick, who was born in Liverpool, England on October 23, 1865, her parents being John P. and Margaret Borthwick, née Dunn, natives of Scotland and Ireland, respectively. The Borthwicks crossed the Atlantic to the United States in 1869, locating first at Scranton, Pennsylvania, whence in April, 1884, they moved Ontario, where John Borthwick was a jeweler. Elizabeth was educated in Pennsylvania public schools. According to Brown and Boyd, “She was one of the first young ladies to live in Ontario.” Through her marriage to John Perry Ensley she became the mother of five children, four of whom survived into adulthood. Her stepson, Oliver P. Ensley, the son of John Ensley and Clara Ensley, was born in Indiana on May 6, 1886, graduated from the Chaffey High School in Ontario and then attended and graduated from the University of Southern California, where he pursued both classical and law courses.  Oliver Ensley was admitted to the bar in 1912 and during that year pursued a commercial course in the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. He became a successful practicing attorney in Southern California, and was a member of the Masons and the Odd Fellows. Oliver Ensley married Miss Catherine Todd, of Indiana, in June, 1919, and they had three sons:  Edward Clark, born March 23, 1921; Harold, born May 9, 1922; and George, born December 9, 1927. The oldest of John and Elizabeth’s children was Laura Isabelle, born April 2, 1899. She graduated from Chaffey Union High School and the University of Southern California, and married Fred Smith, of Riverside, with whom she had a son, Richard.  Gladys Theresa, was John and Elizabeth Ensley’s second child, born December 24, 1901. She graduated from Chaffey Union High School, Chaffey Junior College and the University of Southern California. She married John Poyet of Anaheim.  Elizabeth Borthwick born August 7, 1906, became the wife of Lyle P. Rathbun, a successful dentist in Ontario.  She graduated from Chaffey Union High School and then from the University of Southern California.
John Ensley was a director of the A Street Citrus Association, and a member of the Ontario Fruit Association for nearly two decades, and represented that organization on the Ontario-Cucamonga Fruit Exchange Board.
Upon Ontario’s incorporation as a municipal entity in 1893, John Ensley was elected as a member of the city’s board of trustees, serving in that capacity for nine years, and was later the city’s mayor for multiple terms. He was subsequently elected to the Ontario City Council, last serving in that capacity in 1918.
Brown and Boyd credit him with “being largely instrumental in the building of good roads,” during his civic tenure.
Ensley was a prime mover in the formation of the San Antonio Water Company, and then served three one-year terms as one of the company’s directors after its formation.
Ensley was characterized as “one of the community’s strongest Democrats,” and as such was a member of the Democratic Central Committee for a number of years.  “He always worked for good, clean government and decent citizenship,” according to Brown and Boyd.
For his wife, daughters and himself, he built a splendid home at 126 West D Street.
Upon reaching the age of 77 years one month and five days, Ensley died on Friday, November 14, 1930.

The Wrightwood Community Services District Board is considering a proposal to reestablish the long-shuttered Wild Horse Canyon Shooting Range.
Located in the National Forest at the periphery of Wrightwood, the shooting range was subject to the whims of the Bureau of Land Management, which more than 15 years ago decided to discontinue the use.
This summer, proponents of its revival presented just such a proposal to the Wrightwood Community Services District Board at its August meeting. The facility in question would incorporate pistol, rifle and shotgun ranges.
While the facility would need to meet standards and regulations pertaining to land use, environmental use, sound impacts, environmental impacts, firearm discharging in public areas and safety, a preliminary survey indicates the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management could prove amenable to the granting of a specified land use permit relating to both public access to forest lands and recreational use for a facility within the footprint of the old shooting range.
The site referred to has a boundary on one side that is nearly a half-mile long. It is easily accessed off Highway 2.
According to the discussions at the August Wrightwood Community Services District Board meeting, a commercial component would accompany the shooting range revival, including gun shops, ski shops and a Bass Pro Shop.
In addition to meeting county land use development standards, the project would need to be in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, which would include a survey or study of significant environmental impacts and measures to mitigate them. It is also anticipated that efforts would need to be made to keep any structures or elements of the project visually compatible with the surrounding area.
The proposal envisions the permanent employment of a resident camp host and range master.
The proponents have requested that the Wrightwood Community Services District act as the lead agency on the application for the land use permit with the National Forest under its Community Forest Program.
Input on the project concept can be made to the Wrightwood Community Services District in care of General Manager Lori Golden at the Wrightwood Community Services District office located at 1275 Hwy 2 or by mail to The Wrightwood Community Services District 1275 Hwy 2 P.O. Box 218 Wrightwood, CA 92397 or by phone at (760) 249-3205 or email at office@wrightwoodcsd.org

By Sandy Steers, Executive Director
Friends of Big Bear Valley
According to the final environmental impact report submitted to the County of San Bernardino, a proposal for 50 luxury house sites with new roads, a huge private marina and parking area only a half mile from Big Bear Valley’s only known bald eagle nest would have significant impacts on bald eagles that cannot be mitigated. The now forested lakefront site can be seen from the nest cam. The decision will be made by County Supervisors on October 8.
The county’s planning staff is recommending project approval, citing the need for housing as an overriding circumstance to the harm that would be caused to bald eagles. Big Bear Valley currently has over 600 homes for sale, 150 more than a year ago, with many already on the market for over a year.
The proposed project site, along a National Forest boundary, is currently zoned for one house per 40 acres, rural living, so approval would require a zone change. County code requires any zone change to be in the public interest. According to studies, increases in housing density along the National Forest boundary escalate the fire risk for the whole area. The valley is already plagued with such a high fire risk that many local homeowners have had their homeowner’s insurance cancelled.
The zoning change would also aggravate the area’s potentially dire evacuation deficiency. According to an analysis that was released by the USA Today Network-California last May, Big Bear Valley communities, including the north shore stretch where this site is located, are within the worst 1 percent statewide when it comes to population-to-evacuation ratios.

Current view of the site proposed for development

Regarding the bald eagle impacts, the most recent environmental impact report concluded in 2011 that there would be significant adverse impacts to bald eagles. That analysis was based on bald eagles only wintering in the valley for a few months a year. Beginning in 2012, a pair of bald eagles began nesting only a half mile from the proposed project site. The much more significant impacts this project would cause based on this key change have never been evaluated.

Photo from Friends of Big Bear Valley bald eagle nest camera. The outlined area near the top right of the photo shows the proposed project site.

The bald eagle pair nesting here, Jackie and Shadow, became popular nationwide as people watched their eggs hatch on the live stream of the Friends of Big Bear Valley’s bald eagle nest camera. Tens of thousands of people, including classrooms across the country, watched as the eagles raised their chicks this past spring.
Other major issues include:
-Limited water supplies (nearby wells already run out of water in busy times),
-Increased traffic on this already accident-prone section of highway,
-The unnecessary loss of endangered plant species and a rare habitat all of which exist here and nowhere else in the world. Less than one-third of it is planned for conservation.

By Grace Bernal
This season the cape is headed west. Yes, the cape is a strong piece coming out this fall. It was featured in the runways and, let’s face it, it’s been around for a long time. Who doesn’t like the simple yet chic blanket feel over an outfit? The capelet comes in solid colors, and prints like leopard skin. It’s a great basic piece for any wardrobe. On the go and can’t decide if the chill factor is going up or down? Bring the cape along. The cape is ideal for any occasion because of its variations. Be sure to get your cape ready for the day or night out and get into the neatest trend fall has to offer thus far. Enjoy the Cape strolling around town.

“If you like something, rock it. If you want to rock a cape every day, go for it.”   -Post Malone