(April 29) Residents of San Bernardino County’s Mojave Desert  on both sides of the political divide are becoming animated this spring, well in advance of the 2016 political season next year.  While a Democrats currently occupies the White House, Republicans boast being the majority party in both the Senate and House of Representatives. Barack Obama’s eight-year hold on the presidency will come to a close after next year’s election and if the Republicans can maintain control of the legislature  while replacing the chief executive with a member of the GOP, they would be poised to put the policies and approach of the Democrats, which they have long denounced as a too-liberal deviation from traditional and conservative American values, into eclipse.  At the state level in California, the Democrats have been for the last several years in ascendancy, controlling both houses of the legislature in Sacramento, as Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has just embarked on his fourth term as governor.
At the east end of San Bernardino County,  a newly formed political arm of the San Bernardino County Democratic Central Committee has established itself as the “Desert Bones” Democratic Club. It will host its first official meeting on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at Juicy’s in Needles.
“We’ve elected an outstanding Democratic citizen and retired educator, Lyn Parker, as our first president and another highly regarded instructor, computer technologist Mary Stein, who will serve as our first vice chairperson,” said Ruth Musser-Lopez who serves as controller/secretary of Desert Bones, along with Nyla Anderson, who is designated the controller/treasurer. “We are calling ourselves the ‘Desert Bones’ club because once in a while, Sacramento throws us a bone. We’ve now lost our local judicial courthouse here in Needles, so I’d say we are an unshielded bony skeleton at this point. This lack of access to justice is the first statewide matter that we want to turn around,” Musser-Lopez, who initiated the organization, said.
Other officers include the board of trustees Margot McKee, Nancy Prochaska and Bonnie Renfro. The club may be contacted by email at Contact@DesertBones.us and invites all who are registered Democrats to join.
Not to be outdone, just two days after the Desert Bones club’s inaugural meeting, the Democrat’s rivals will host a political get-together of their own.
The Victor Valley Republican Club and the Hi-Desert Republican Women, Federated are set to  host a unity dinner featuring the GOP’s California chairman on Thursday, May 7 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Victorville.
“The theme for High Desert Republican Women, Federated this year is Republicans United,” said Valerie Emick, president of the group. “This event, co-hosted by Hi Desert Republican Women, Federated and the Victor Valley Republican Club, is a perfect example of what we are trying to achieve. I believe we have the ability and the willingness to work together as one,” she said.
Jim Brulte, the chairman of the California Republican Party since March 2013, is expected to speak about issues impacting California’s Republican Party.
“Energizing the volunteers in the High-Desert is essential for our success,” said Brulte. Looking ahead, he stated that “The re-election of Congressman Paul Cook and Assemblyman Jay Olbernolte are critical to our 2016 efforts.”
“The California Republican Party has spent far too many years in the political wilderness,” said Richard Williams, president of the Victor Valley Republican Club. “We are looking forward to hearing Mr. Brulte’s assessment of our party’s current situation and his belief about the path we must follow to escape those dark environs.”
For more information about the Brulte dinner or to make reservations for the event, expected to be a sell-out, contact Becky Otwell, 760 964 7504, botwell711@msn.com, or Richard Williams, 818 531 8722, ric722@yahoo.com.

(April 26) The San Bernardino Public Employees Association is now affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.  With just one quarter of its members voting, the association last month entered into an affiliation with Teamsters Local 1932.
The San Bernardino Public Employees Association came into existence in 1938 as the representative of San Bernardino County and San Bernardino City employees.  Today it handles collective bargaining for over 13,000 employees working for San Bernardino County and 3,000 others working for 16 of the county’s cities – Barstow, Big Bear, Chino, Chino Hills, Colton, Fontana, Hesperia, Loma Linda, Montclair, Needles, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Rialto, San Bernardino, and Upland, as well as three cities in east Los Angeles County, Claremont, Pomona and West Covina, and Banning in Riverside County.
For three quarters of a century, the San Bernardino Public Employees Association (SBPEA) had remained in a relatively secure position as the representative of the lion’s share of county workers, but beginning four years ago internal and external events and pressure threatened to shatter the association.
Last year a contingent of SBPEA members dissatisfied with the association’s leadership urged their fellow union members to reject the contract County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux was proposing, while seeking a special election to decertify the San Bernardino Public Employees Association as the county general line employees’ representative. They instead sought to install Service Employees International Union Local 721 as their bargaining unit. Their effort did not succeed, and SBPEA’s leadership retaliated against the dissidents by expelling those members advocating the change and obtaining a restraining order against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in June 2014, effectively ending SEIU’s ability to lobby SBPEA members.
Despite the injunction the association obtained against SEIU and SEIU agitators, a vote of SBPEA’s professional unit vote was forced in February, in which those members were polled on whether they wanted to keep SBPEA as their representative or bring in SEIU.  As a consequence of that vote the San Bernardino Public Employees Association was decertified as the labor representative for the more than 800 county employees defined as working within the professional unit in favor of the Service Employees International Union.  The professional unit is composed of licensed professionals, including social workers, engineers, physical therapists and nutritionists. The California State Mediator’s Office, to which counting of the ballots had been entrusted, announced in March that in the final tally, SEIU affiliation was favored by 441 of those who participated in the vote, while staying with SBPEA was supported by 137. Thirteen cast votes for no representation. More than 200 of those eligible to vote did not participate. That was followed by yet another defection from SBPEA as 671 of the association’s members working within the San Bernardino County Superior Court system also jumped to the Service Employees International Union last month.
Even before the professional unit’s change to SEIU was voted upon, the SBPEA board and SBPEA General Manager Deidre Rodriguez, reading the writing on the wall, began casting about for a way to reverse the apparent slide toward the decertification of the association altogether.
On February 11, the SBPEA board informed the association’s membership an affiliation with the Teamsters was under consideration, asserting such an affiliation with the Teamsters would increase SBPEA’s leverage at the bargaining table.
With 4,084 of its members participating on the proposal to alter the union’s bylaws to stipulate Teamsters affiliation, 3,113 voted “yes” and 1,971 voted “no ” to a tentative affiliation that is to last four years, during which time SBPEA can opt out of the agreement. Under the terms ratified with the vote, the affiliation becomes permanent after four years elapses.
There had been a contingent within the association adamantly opposed to affiliating with the Teamsters. In addition, there were members dissatisfied with the current SBPEA board. A small but vocal minority of those lobbied against the association affiliating with the Teamsters, asserting that the link with the Teamsters would virtually lock in the current set of union bosses.
The current San Bernardino Public Employee Association board hailed the vote as a positive development that would prevent further erosion of the SBPEA’s position and leverage as a bargaining unit. In recent years, as Devereaux sought across-the-board contract concessions from all of the county’s employee bargaining units to offset skyrocketing governmental operating costs and end what he termed an “institutional structural deficit” plaguing the county, several of the county employee unions came to some form of terms or compromise with Devereaux. This had spread dissension in the ranks of county employees who were not ready to accept the proposed economies and reductions or were unbelieving of the county’s assertions that it had fallen on hard financial times.
Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said the decision by SBPEA’s members to affiliate with his organization would allow the government workers the association represents “to have a more secure future. The Teamsters have the resources, expertise and clout to negotiate the strongest contracts possible. This vote shows that San Bernardino County public employees understand this and want Teamster power at the bargaining table.”

(April 29) The daunting financial burden of providing fire protection services in small outlying rural communities of the 20,105 square mile San Bernardino County is a matter that the city of Needles is being forced to contend with before the new fiscal year commences on July 1. The city with a population of 4,844 at the county’s extreme east end on the banks of the Colorado River has roughly 1,000 owner occupied residences. State law and its own charter mandate the city to provide fire services within its boundaries. Since 2004, Needles has met that requirement by contracting with the San Bernardino County Fire Department (SBCFD).
Given increasing salaries, retirement benefits and fire station construction costs, however, the county of San Bernardino will increase its price on a renewed contract by over 100 percent, going from a current $600,000 to a new price tag of $1,224.902.
“After we saw the offer and picked ourselves up off the floor, we realized that we better act quickly and either come up with the money or another alternative,” Needles City Manager Rick Daniels said.
The SBCFD provided an alternative proposed contract with reduced services for $612,451 as a one-time offer provided that the city agrees to work toward annexing into the county’s current fire protection service district through the Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO).   Annexation to the current county fire district would be preceded by a notification to the property owners and would need to be approved by the voters if 20 percent to 50 percent of the property owners object. If there is no objection, or if less than 20 percent  object, then the LAFCO decision becomes final.
The SBCFD states that the county will absorb administrative costs after annexation, thus reducing the taxation apportionment to $582,024 of the city’s total current property tax base of $800,000. After annexation, future apportionment to the fire district would continue as a fixed percentage assigned through LAFCO.   If property values increase, then the fire district would benefit from that increased revenue from the difference in the taxed value. On the other hand, if property values stay the same or decrease, then the county would be obligated to accept the devaluation and decrease in revenue.
Daniels interjected that Needles has not seen a significant increase in property values in recent years and with a shrug appeared skeptical that there would be in the future. During this discussion, there was no mention made by the manager of a proposed “inland port” (truck stop), casino and other proposed developments along historic Route 66 that might serve to increase the tax base.
Daniels offered several alternative scenarios that the city council could potentially investigate, including obtaining fire services from another provider such as the fire department on the Arizona side of the Colorado River, or a private provider,  also stating the drawbacks of each. Daniels addressed the option of returning to the pre-2004 state of affairs, when the city operated its own fire department with its own fire chief, paid call firefighters, and volunteers. Daniels asserted that this operation would need to be “perfectly” in place by July 1 when the county contract ends.
Councilman Tom Darcy did not see a city owned fire department as a viable option and asserted that working with the county was the only realistic alternative. Vice mayor Jeff Williams, agreed that the city needed to work with the county.
Councilman Shawn Gudmundson, however, did not dismiss the idea of a locally controlled fire department and demonstrated a deep concern with regard to the availability of a fire truck and crew when needed in the city, should the county crew be called out to a remote desert area. His concerns seemed to be echoed by Councilwoman Louise Evans who offered to the city manager a copy of Barstow’s current system.
“I see this as a big shake down,” said Needles resident Ruth Musser-Lopez who owns a small rental house business in Needles and is an occasional columnist with the Sentinel. “I went home and ran the numbers Rick didn’t mention that county fire wants a whopping 73% of our property tax revenue base. That is a huge percentage for any town, especially if the revenue base expands as it most certainly will with the city’s effort to double its population.   The county is building a 3 million dollar fire station in town and now is basically giving Needles an ultimatum–either annex into the county controlled fire district or the county is going to hike and double the price of Needles’ contract.
“Personally,” she continued, “I haven’t been too impressed with what the county has offered in the way of fire suppression services. What I have experienced is that by the time they arrive at a fire and find the nearest hydrant, they are basically in the ‘keep it from spreading to the next house’ mode. We have our own firehouse now and I like the idea of keeping it and a local fire department partly comprised of volunteers who know the community and know how to put out city fires, including electrical fires at downed wires during or after a windstorm and such. We need more than sage and range fire suppression—those skills are different than the skills and training needed for city situations. We now have and should have our own fire truck here, available at all times to serve our own community and not yanked off to put out fires 30 miles or more away leaving us vulnerable.”

(April 28) The effort to sustain the historic San Bernardino County mining town of Trona was boosted last month by a bill introduced into the House of Representatives by Congressman Paul Cook.
Cook (R-Apple Valley) introduced HR 1992, the American Soda Ash Competitiveness Act, on April 23. HR 1992l would set the royalties collected on soda ash at a 2-percent rate for five years.
While the bill would help American soda ash producers generally remain competitive with China, it is of moment in Searles Valley, where Trona is located at the extreme northwest corner of San Bernardino County near the gateway to Death Valley and is host to a significant sodium carbonate mining operation.
Soda ash, or sodium carbonate, is used to manufacture glass and produce chemicals, detergents, paper, and other products.
In 2006, Congress passed the Soda Ash Royalty Reduction Act (SAARA), which temporarily reduced the royalties collected on soda ash by the federal government from six percent to two percent. This was done in response to Chinese manufacturing of artificial soda ash. China’s heavily subsidized manufacturing program has made it the largest producer of soda ash in the world. The royalty reduction was meant to keep U.S. producers competitive and to ensure that the domestic soda ash production capability is maintained. SAARA expired in 2011, returning the royalty rate to six percent. This was later reduced to four percent in 2013, where it stands today. In October 2015, without this bill, it is scheduled to return to six percent
The American Soda Ash Competitiveness Act would return the royalty to a two percent rate for five years, giving the mining industry time to continue growing into foreign markets, and, according to Cook, “protect hundreds of good-paying jobs.”
This bill has significant bipartisan support. Reps. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), David Valadao (R-Calif.), and  Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) joined Rep. Paul Cook as original cosponsors of the bill. The bill has support from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who said the Mojave desert “is home to many pioneers of innovation that work on technologies that strengthen our national security and improve the way we go about our daily lives,” McCarthy said. “The research and development of these technologies often require critical minerals that are also mined in Trona. I am proud of Paul’s leadership to ensure our communities can continue to lead the world on this work. California has been blessed with abundant natural resources and Congress will continue to advance bills like Paul’s that promote job creation, support American business competitiveness in the global economy, and keep us at the epicenter of innovation and exploration.”
Cook said, “Aside from the economic benefit, promoting American soda ash is good for the environment. While American soda ash is found naturally, Chinese soda ash is produced synthetically. Chinese synthetic production uses twice the energy which results in over three times the carbon emissions as natural soda ash production.”
Cook continued, ““This is an important bill that will protect a vital industry, grow jobs, and do this with little impact to the federal budget. Sodium carbonate production is a $1.8 billion industry within the U.S., providing over 3,000 direct jobs. Soda ash is mined in my district and is exported through California ports. This bill will protect and expand mining jobs in my district, while strengthening our national security.”
Trona is an unincorporated community, with a population of around 2,000. Located on the western edge of Searles Lake, a dry lake bed, the town takes its name from the mineral trona, abundant in the lakebed. Beginning in the late 1800s mining industry set up around Searles Dry Lake to mine borax and Trona was officially established in 1913, as a self-contained company town, wholly operated by its resident mining company to house employees. Employees were once paid in company scrip instead of cash. The basic infrastructure and facilities in the town – roads, library, stores, a school, housing, and recreation facilities – were originally built by the mining company, The Trona Railway was built in 1913–14 to provide the town with a rail connection to the Southern Pacific (now the Union Pacific) line at Searles. The railway still operates today. During World War I, Trona was the only reliable American source of potash, an important element used in the production of gunpowder. Economic booms and busts have buffeted the town for over a century. Today, Searles Valley Minerals Inc.’s soda ash processing plant remains the largest firm in town. Other operations nearby include evaporative salt extraction from the dry lake bed’s surface, and a lime quarry.

DAGGETT—(April 27) The San Bernardino County Planning Commission on April 23 signed off on a  conditional use permit for Sunray Energy to construct a 44-megawatt solar photovoltaic electricity generation facility in Daggett.
Located at 35100 Santa Fe Street, the project will replace an existing concentrating solar power facility built in 1984, which was owned by Southern California Edison (SCE) and authorized by the California Energy Commission. The existing facility, which has been acquired by Sunray, generates solar thermal electricity using 25-foot high mirrors which track the sun and focus the solar rays on a tower to produce heat. The heat is concentrated into a heat transfer fluid, a synthetic petroleum product known as therminol, which is then run through a heat converter to produce steam used to run a turbine to produce electricity.
In February 1999, a heat transfer fluid fire began in the on-site therminol tanks. With the fire department standing by, over a two day period, the heat transfer fluid fire was allowed to burn itself out. There were no injuries, but extensive property damage. The therminol tanks were removed and the contaminated soil was treated.
Subsequent Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments showed that no recognized environmental conditions exist as a result of the fire.
Sunray Energy last week sought, and the planning commission gave, approval to replacing the existing heat conversion system into a solar facility using photovoltaic cells.  All existing power generation equipment will be demolished and removed. Several existing on-site structures will remain.
According to the county’s land use services staff report on the project, “Planned facilities are proposed to include photovoltaic panels mounted on single axis trackers, supported by steel piles. The photovoltaic panels are proposed to be a maximum height of 20 feet, in rows running north and south on the project site. The proposed design also includes inverters and transformers mounted on small concrete pads and distributed across the site.”
The new facility will be constructed in phases on approximately 333 acres approximately one quarter mile north of Santa Fe Street, west of the logical extension of 1st Street, unofficially named Sunray Lane and/or Luz Lane.
“Phase 1 (20 megawatts) and 10 megawatts of phase 2 will interconnect to an existing SCE 115kV transmission line on the interior of the site near the southern boundary, while the remainder of phase 2 will interconnect to the existing SCE 33kV transmission line on the interior of the site north of the logical extension of Silver Valley Road,” according to the staff report. “Power lines will continue to be overhead. The site is currently surrounded by a slatted chain link perimeter fence topped with three strands of barbed wire. As a condition of project approval, the existing barbed wire will be removed. The electric power produced by the current Solar Energy Generating Systems I & II, which comprise the Sunray Energy solar thermal or CSP plant, continues to be sold to SCE under long-term power purchase agreement that will expire December 31, 2015. The applicant has executed a new, 20-year power purchase agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). The new PG&E power purchase agreement has a commercial operation date of December 1, 2016.”
According to the staff report on the project, which was ratified by the planning commission’s vote, the project has “consistency with the county’s general plan and zoning regulations: The current general plan land use designation for the proposed project area is regional industrial (IR). This designation allows development of renewable energy generation facilities with a conditional use permit as requested by the project applicant. The photovoltaic project is proposed because the existing equipment is at the end of its life. The new technology is more efficient, more cost effective, and better on the environment. The proposed photovoltaic facility is less impactful than the existing concentrating solar power facility. The photovoltaic facility will reduce the height of the panels from 25 feet to a maximum of 20 feet. Water usage will be dramatically reduced because the photovoltaic facility requires no water for cooling. The photovoltaic facility does not use heat transfer fluid, which eliminates the need for cooling towers, evaporation ponds, and land treatment units. The existing concentrating solar power facility produces approximately 10,000 metric tons of direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per year while generating electricity; the project will not produce any GHG emissions to generate electricity. Furthermore, elimination of heat transfer fluid and the associated high temperatures reduces the possibility of another fire.”
Also, according to the staff report, “Because the site is within a biotic resources overlay area with the potential to support desert tortoise and burrowing owl, SummitWest Environmental, Inc. conducted a survey of the site and prepared a focused survey for the desert tortoise & western burrowing owl report in March 2015. Results of the report were that no desert tortoise or burrowing owl individuals were found and no evidence was observed that would indicate their recent or historic occurrence on site. SummitWest concluded that desert tortoise and burrowing owl are absent from the site.”
According to the staff report, roughly seven to ten people will be employed at the facility.
Despite the desirability from an environmental perspective of a transition to renewable sources of energy on a macro level, at the immediate land use level, many regional environmentalists are opposed to building solar projects in the desert. Those opponents have one month to file an appeal of the planning commission’s approval to the board of supervisors.

(April 30) Slightly less than a year after M.J. “Mac” Dube passed into eternity, the Twentynine Palms Post Office on Gorgonio Drive was renamed in his honor.
Dube, a career Marine, was with the Corps for  38 years, at one point acceding to the post  of  chief of staff at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base.
Upon retirement from the Marine Corps as a colonel in 1989, Dube settled in Twentynine Palms. He served on the Twentynine Palms City Council from 1994 to 2002 and twice held the position of mayor, being elevated to the post upon a vote of his fellow council members.
Congressman Paul Cook, who was himself a Marine before serving n the Yucca Valley Town Council, then in the California Assembly and now in the House of Representatives, sponsored legislation that named the post office for  Dube.

By Count Friedrich von Olsen
Ask anyone who knows me: I am not a gambling man. I get more pleasure using my money for something tangible than from experiencing the ersatz excitement of losing it on a bet. Nevertheless, I have had a lifelong appreciation of horse racing. For those of you who insist on the thrill of laying your money down, you could do worse than considering my handicapping of this year’s Run for the Roses…
Ocho Ocho Ocho: Elvis Trujillo is a fine jockey, but you are plain stupid if you put any money on this horse, even at 50-1. If the race were six furlongs, he would take it, but after jumping out in front at Churchill Downs he will fade a quarter mile past the clubhouse turn and, mark my words, finish dead last…
Carpe Diem: Not a strong bet at 8-1. A winner in a lot of slow races, but outclassed in this field…
Materiality: A very good, maybe even great mount, but not very experienced. Did win in a very fast field in the Florida Derby. Worth a minor wager at 12-1…:
Tencendur: Fast and a strong finisher. Better than the 30-1 odds he has been given. If Manny Franco lets him get pinned inside, though, he doesn’t have a chance…
Danzig Moon: Forget this nag…
Mubtaahij: Ran away – by eight lengths! – from the field in a $2 million race in Dubai. But that field was slow. If Christophe Soumillion runs the right race – a big if – he has a shot…
El Kabeir: Mediocre horse at best, ridden by perhaps the best jockey, Calvin Borel…
Dortmund:  In six races, this horse has never lost. Obviously a strong contender…
Bolo: No chance…
Firing Line: Lost two photo finishes to Dortmund. And he won the Sunland Derby by 14 lengths. If jockey Gary Stevens maneuvers correctly, this horse could be right there…
Stanford: Should not be in this race…
International Star: A superb stretch runner, but with the sheer speed of this field, can Miguel Mena keep him close enough to the front so a finishing sprint matters?
Itsaknockout: Not fast enough for this field…
Keen Ice: This horse will have to run the best race of its short life to finish fifth…
Frosted: Don’t count this fast and strong-finishing colt, or jockey Joel Rosario, out…
War Story: Staying power, but insufficient speed in this field…
Mr. Z: The exact opposite of War Story: Blinding speed, but no staying power…
American Pharoah: At 5-2, clearly the favorite. Won the Arkansas Derby by eight lengths. Fast, and trained by Bob Baffert, which means he’s ready for this race. There are other fast horses running, though, including at least two as fast as he is. His status as the favorite is justified, but Victor Espinoza needs to execute and head into the home stretch with enough of a lead to shut the door on the four strong stretch runners in the field or Dortmund, who was also trained by Bob Baffert…
Upstart: This fast and strong-finishing  horse has never run a bad race in seven competitions…
Far Right: I like this horse’s political ideology, but in its second place showing in the Arkansas Derby, American Pharoah outdistanced him by eight lengths..

Oscar Newburg, a Jewish emigrant to America from Prussia, was born in Stettin, Germany, on December 1, 1848, the son of Moses and Rahel Newburg. He came to America in 1863 at the age of 15 with other Jewish emigrants and settled in San Bernardino.
Many historical writing spell his name “Newberg,” though he always spelled it “Newburg.”
In San Bernardino, Newburg obtained employment as a clerk in a store and steadily began to make himself a respected and prosperous citizen. He was naturalized on July 19, 1869 in San Bernardino.
An event which assisted him was his marriage on July 7, 1878 to 19-year-old Sarah Jacobs, the daughter of a wealthy merchant and banker, Lewis  Jacobs, also a native of Prussia. Oscar and Sarah Newburg had one son, Mervin Jacobs Newburg, born on April 14, 1881, and a daughter, Lucille, born on June 19, 1887.
Newburg became the proprietor of a successful grain and shipping business. He later engaged in general merchandizing and became of one of the most prominent businessmen in San Bernardino. He instituted the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Token Lodge #290 in San Bernardino on March 27, 1880, and became the Grand Master. In 1882, Newburg and Dan Rathbun, a Second District county supervisor in 1859 and 1860, established the “Caley-Caro” Sawmill in a stand of swarthout timber at  Cedar Springs on the forks of the Mojave River in Summit Valley. It became known as the Summit Shingle Mill. The products were hauled out via Horsethief Canyon and down Cajon Pass or out to the desert towns. In October 1887, Mr. Newburg was elected vice-president of the newly-organized Board of Trade which was formed to aid in improving the image of San Bernardino, securing public improvements and attracting new settlers and capital investments.  In July 1887, Newburg, W.N Crandall, W.J. Curtis and N.B. Garner, who was county supervisor from 1883 to 1889, became a link in the valley railroad network. The new Redlands motor line brought its first train to Redlands on May 17, 1888. Regular two-hourly service began on June 4 and was a most important factor in the growth of that community. Mr. Newburg became the president of the San Bernardino and Redlands Railroad Company.
San Bernardino, reincorporated as a city on August 10, 1886, was then governed by a board of trustees or city council. Oscar Newburg was elected to this board for a term of four years in 1887. He served as its president, the equivalent of mayor from April 6, 1889 until January 21, 1891, at which time he tendered his resignation. He was elected to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, representing the Fourth Supervisorial District, in 1894 and served from January 7, 1895 to January 2, 1899. He succeeded Jacob N. Victor and was succeeded by Theodore F. White.
Mr. Newburg became affiliated with the Bank of San Bernardino, the first bank in the city, which had been co-founded by his father-in-law, Lewis Jacobs and the brothers, Julius and Caesar Meyerstein in 1874. Mr. Jacobs became the manager in 1875 and after his death in 1900, Mr. Newburg became the manager. Following the Panic of 1907, the bank, along with many others around the country, failed. Newburg sold his properties in and around San Bernardino during 1909 and 1910 and moved to San Francisco. His is listed in the 1911 San Francisco city director as residing in the Granada Hotel, corner of Sutter and Hyde Streets, occupation: “Capitalist.” At the time of his death on July 9, 1929, at the age of nearly 81, the Newburgs resided at the Warrington Apartments, San Francisco.
Mr. Newburg was survived by his wife, Sarah; a son, Mervin of Manhattan Beach, California; a daughter, Lucille (Mrs. Korn, wife of Felix Korn of the Zellerbach Paper Company); and a sister, Miss Jennie Newburg. Mr. and Mrs. Newburg had no grandchildren. At the time of his death, Mr. Newburg still owned over one-fourth of the frontage on both sides of Third Street between “F” and “G” streets in San Bernardino.

Desert Mallow  is the common name of Sphaeralcea ambigua, which is also referred to as the Apricot Mallow or the Desert Hollyhock. A member of the genus Sphaeralcea in the mallow family (Malvaceae), it is a perennial shrub native to the Mojave Desert as well as other parts of  California and  Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in the United States and  Sonora and Baja California in Northwest Mexico. It grows well in alkaline soil, both sandy or clay, usually in the company of creosote bush scrub and desert chaparral habitats, from 490 feet to 8,200 feet in elevation.
The Sphaeralcea ambigua plant grows to three feet  in height, and spreads to two to three feet in width.
This perennial generally sports many one inch orange flowers on a two to three foot spike with gray, almost fuzzy foliage, though there are pinkish forms around Mojave most often in those places where the desert meets a pine forest, or oak or juniper woodland. The Desert Mallow, Desert Hollyhock or Apricot Mallow needs sun and good air flow.
The leaves are fuzzy with white hairs on both sides, lobed, palmately veined, and on long stems, the number of which increase with age. The fruit is a brown capsule containing numerous seeds, first quite spherical as implied by the genus name, later flattening to a disk. The flowers are bowl-shaped, 5-petaled, and most often apricot to orange in color. They begin to bloom in the spring and continue to bloom into the summer, as one of the most spectacular floral display of the desert.
Sphaeralcea ambigua’s foliage type is evergreen.
Although it is a desert plant  and does well in disturbed areas such as roadsides or gardens with little care, the desert mallow grows even better in a fertile soil and will really thrive if it is provided with liberal irrigation.
Sphaeralcea ambigua is larval food for the Northern White Skipper

The rainy Saturday over the weekend gave us a sunny Sunday. It was sweet to see the  tasteful attire choices people were making  everywhere explode in color. It went from a gloomy day, to a rainy evening,  to a  summery Sunday. But the spring shower was great this weekend. Some spring coats were pretty interesting.to see, too. Anything  from reptile trenches to summer coats were worn out this past Saturday. I also saw a lot of of runners out on Sunday with their colorful running outfits. Gym gear is looking pretty heavy in color this spring. These two pieces blossomed together this weekend  along with all the planting and color that the earth gathered for us to see. Enjoy the color of spring because summer will be taking over before we know it. Until next week, stay tuned…

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
~Coco Chanel