The developmental imperative in Redlands continued unabated this week as the planning commission gave go-ahead to a mixed-use development proposal along the unimproved stretch of the 900 block of California Street.
The project in question, proposed by JD FUEL, LLC., will be located at 913 California Street, and is to consist of a hotel, coffee shop and car wash. Despite expressed concerns the project’s completion will have on traffic circulation in the area and its potential environmental impact, the project was given approval during the commission’s August 12 meeting, with no dissension, though Commissioner Mat Endsley was not present for the hearing.
According to Redlands Principal Planner Sean Riley, J.D. Fuel had applied for an entitlement to proceed with an energetic project on approximately five-acre site located at 913 California Street, which lies west of California Street, approximately 500 feet south of Interstate 10. The property falls within the property zoned for general commercial in the East Valley Corridor Specific Plan area.
JD Fuel asked for, and Reilly recommended that the planning commission grant, a mitigated negative declaration prepared for the proposed project in accordance with Section 15074 of the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines.
Under the California Environmental Quality Act, an examination of the environmental impacts of a project must be made for it to be given environmental certification. Some discretion is left to the governmental decision-making body that oversees land use issues and possesses approval and/or denial authority regard to a development project as to what type of analysis of the environmental issues is to be carried out and what mitigations of the impacts are to be required. Continue reading →

Detectives and deputies with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department arrested 52 men and four women and seized 3,500 birds, twelve firearms $259.000 in cash and significant amounts of fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine during a more than six-week long investigation into a massive cockfighting ring in San Bernardino County.
The operation, known as “Crowing Rooster,” lasted from June 14 to August 1. It involved the obtaining and serving 26 search warrants at separate locations that were tied to the individuals and activities involved, according to the department.
Of those arrested, ten were charged with felonies. The lion’s share, 48, are San Bernardino County residents, while eight lived in Riverside, Los Angeles or Ventura counties. They ranged in age from 16 to 73 years old.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Rural Crimes Task Force, consisting of deputies from Victor Valley Station Rural Crimes, Victor Valley Station, Twin Peaks Station, San Bernardino County Probation, San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, and San Bernardino County Code Enforcement, conducted the operation from June 14, 2025, through August 1, 2025. In addition, San Bernardino County Animal Care Services, Hesperia Animal Control, Hesperia Code Enforcement, and Highland Code Enforcement assisted with the operation. Continue reading →

By Richard Hernandez and Mark Gutglueck
It does not appear that Governor Gavin Newsom nor his Democratic loyalists in the California Legislature will target either of the Republican members of Congress for removal with the virtually unheard of plan to redistrict the Golden State’s political map to reduce the number of the Republican delegation to Congress from its current nine to four.
The genesis for the California redistricting effort, which was whispered about very early this month but which was taken up with a renewed sense of urgency this week is a plan by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature and that state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, in response to a request by President Donald Trump to redraw the Lone Star State’s political map mid-decade to ensure that Texas has five more congressional district seats that favor the Republicans than it now does, thus greatly increasing the chances that there will be five fewer Democrats and five more Republicans from Texas in the House of Representatives after the mid-term 2026 election.
Doing something like that in Texas is relatively easy, as the formulation of voting districts and their timing is left up to the legislature there. Historically, in the United States, at least since the mid-19th Century, presidents in power have a tendency to start their terms with a majority in one or both houses of Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate – and to see that advantage diminish in the mid-term election two years later. There are multiple examples of U.S. presidents who had comfortable or even commanding majorities in both houses during their initial tenure in office but saw their party lose its majority in one or both of the county’s legislative bodies, creating administrative challenges as they were unable to obtain passage of bills they considered key to their agendas. In January, at his second inaugural following four years out of office, Donald Trump took office with narrow a narrow 220-to-215 Republican majority in the House of Representatives and a 53-Republican to 45-Democrat/2-Independent breakdown in the Senate. The Trump Administration-backed redistricting ploy in Texas appears aimed at preserving the Republican legislative advantage in the face of what is expected to be a minor migration of support away from the Republicans in the November 2026 election. Continue reading →

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME CASE
NUMBER CIV SB 2520496
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner: EDWARD JOSE ESTRADA filed with this court for a decree changing names as follows: EDWARD JOSE ESTRADA to EDWARD JOE ESTRADA
THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
Notice of Hearing:
Date: 09/05/2025, Time: 08:30 AM, Department: S 37
The address of the court is Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, San Bernardino District-Civil Division, 247 West Third Street, San Bernardino, CA 92415
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this order be published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel, once a week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing of the petition.
Dated: 07/23/2025
Judge of the Superior Court: Gilbert G. Ochoa
Shuai Zhou, Deputy Clerk of the Court
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on July 25 and August 1, 8 & 15, 2025.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME CASE
NUMBER CIV SB 2520102
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner: JANET ELIZABETH ZEDAN filed with this court for a decree changing names as follows: NICHOLAS ANTHONY DELGADO to NICHOLAS ANTHONY ZEDAN-DELGADO
THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
Notice of Hearing:
Date: 09/08/2025, Time: 01:30 PM, Department: S 14
The address of the court is Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, San Bernardino District-Civil Division, 247 West Third Street, San Bernardino, CA 92415
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this order be published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel, once a week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing of the petition.
Dated: 07/21/2025
Judge of the Superior Court: Gilbert G. Ochoa
Gilberto Villegas, Deputy Clerk of the Court
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on July 25 and August 1, 8 & 15, 2025.

Continue reading →

By Richard Hernandez
Characterizing the Donald Trump Administration’s effort to round up and deport those in the United States who are unregistered aliens from foreign countries as “extreme and overreaching,” senior California U.S. Senator Alex Padilla announced this week that he is introducing legislation that will transform a substantial number of those who have been in the country for over seven years into U.S. citizens.
If the measure Padilla is sponsoring is passed into law and overcomes what most assuredly will be a veto by President Donald Trump, approaching 96,000 of the 127,681 unregistered aliens in San Bernardino County would not only be provided with permanent residency status but have the opportunity to obtain full rights as U.S. citizens, including the ability to participate in the voting process.
On August 5, Padilla appeared on the CBS Late Show, which was being taped at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City. Padilla decried the Donald Trump Administrations “Obsession with this massive deportation agenda,” which he characterized as being cruel and unpopular and involving indiscriminate enforcement unprecedented militarization, which he said came in response to overwhelmingly peaceful protests in Los Angeles.
According to Padilla, the administration’s anti-immigrant actions are stoking fear in communities across the county, most particularly in California. He told Colbert he was offering a better path forward under a program that would modernize the United States’ “outdated” immigration system, including his bill to update the existing immigrant registry statute and expand a pathway to permanent lawful residency for, in the words of his office, “millions of long-term U.S. residents.” Continue reading →

In a significant reversal of an unpopular 2022 move, Redlands city officials are lowering the speed limits along 55 stretches of city streets, effective in September.
City officials at all levels in Redlands, from the city council down through city management to various department heads that included the police chief, the fire chief and the head of the city’s public works division, sustained uniform black eyes when in the immediate aftermath of raising the speed limit on 45 spans of road throughout the 36.4-square mile city, a 16-year-old on a bicycle in close proximity to Moore Middle School ended up dead, after being run down by a car.
To duck their collective responsibility, Redlands officials, rather than rescind the speed limit increases, elected to wait “a decent interim” in an effort to save face, waiting until now, 32 months later, to restore the safer speed limits.
In accordance with California Vehicle Code and standards outlined in the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the Redlands public works division in early 2022 had an outside consultant initiate a traffic study that is generally required to be completed in most California municipalities every seven to fourteen years under the supervision of those cities’ engineering divisions.
Conceptually and in accordance with state standards, those surveys monitor the average speed of vehicles along specific spans of roadway, such that, corresponding to those speed averages, a determination of the appropriate speed limit along those roadways at those points is set. Although the average speed of cars measured during the survey period is not the sole criterion used in ascertaining the appropriate speed limit along a given span of roadway, the application of elements of the vehicle code, jurisprudence standards used in California traffic courts, case law and other considerations have resulted in those cited for exceeding the posted speed limit having their citations dismissed upon a demonstration that the posted speed is below the 85th percentile of the actual free-flow collective average speeds of vehicles measured passing along that particular corridor. Thus, a loose standard among traffic engineers and cities has evolved where cities use a standard of the 85th percentile of the average speed along a given road as the speed limit that is to be posted. Continue reading →

An effort to impose a 45-day moratorium on the planning, consideration, approval and construction of gas stations and car washes in Yucaipa while the planning division arrives at a new set of standards for such projects fell two votes short when the city council took up the matter at its last meeting in July.
According to a staff report dated July 28, 2025, prepared for that evening’s city council meeting by Fermin Preciado, Yucaipa’s director of development services and city engineer, and Benjamin Matlock, the deputy director of community development and city planner, “Within the city’s approximately 28 square mile jurisdiction, there are currently 14 fuel station facilities in operation and an additional four that have been entitled, three of which are under construction. In combination, a total of 18 fuel stations could be in operation in the near future. In addition, there are currently 10 existing carwash facilities, with two that are under construction. These car facilities include a mix of accessory washes to to a fuel station, several ‘full service’ carwashes, several express carwash tunnels, or coin operated washes. The City of Yucaipa has a current population of approximately 55,000 people, and a general plan buildout of approximately 80,000 people Due to the relatively high sales margins of these specific, uses, the City has seen a proliferation of these businesses.”
According to Preciado and Matlock, during discussion by city officials, “[I]t was recognized that the city has seen substantial growth with these two land uses, and that community members have expressed concern over the saturation of those uses. In addition, [the] council has recognized that the oversaturation of car washes in the city provides minimal economic benefit to the city or city residents, as that use results in low sales tax revenues, and does not hire a significant number of employees. The city council also recognized that the development of these saturated uses would result in the loss of commercially zoned land in prime areas of the community that could otherwise be developed to provide a significant benefit and revenue to the community “ Continue reading →