The 59.6 square mile, 224,274-population town of San Bernardino isn’t big enough, apparently, for Rochelle Clayton and Sonia Carvalho.
Over the next several weeks, the city council as it now exists will partially recompose itself by shedding Fifth Ward Councilman Ben Reynoso, Sixth Ward Councilwoman Kimberly Calvin and Seventh Ward Councilman Damon Alexander and take on in their places, respectively, Kim Knaus, Mario Flores and Treasure Ortiz. As the calendar progresses into the first weeks and months of 2025 and the latter three acclimate themselves to their positions of authority, either Clayton will be relieved of her current status as acting city manager and be returned to her original position of assistant city manager or she will be promoted to full-fledged status as the city’s top administrator. If, indeed, Clayton is entrusted with the administration of San Bernardino’s municipal government, the continuation of Carvalho’s now more-than-six-year-long tenure as San Bernardino City Attorney will no longer be tenable. She will be forced to leave the city, taking her firm, Best Best & Krieger, with her.
On the other hand, if the city council, in the aftermath of an outside consulting firm’s ongoing evaluation of the performances of the city manager, city attorney and city clerk, ultimately decides to stay the course with Carvalho, the likelihood that the city council would elect to permanentize Clayton in the city manager role is virtually nil and, moreover, her remaining in the assistant city manager position from which she rose into the interim manager post she now holds would present such an awkward circumstance that she would probably have to depart the city altogether. Continue reading →

As the result of what Assemblyman James Ramos considers his most personal, proudest and meaningful accomplishment, the State of California has already renamed a dozen and will change the names on 31 more locations throughout the state that involve the word “squaw.”
Assembly Bill 2022, authored by Ramos, was passed by both houses of the state legislature earlier this year and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 25. It goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, and requires the term “squaw” to be removed from all geographic features and place names in California.
Generations of Americans saw no offense in the term or its use, believing that it was simply a borrowing from the Algonquian language, in which it means “woman” or a young, unmarried woman, first making its way into American English in the 1630s. It had come to mean woman or, when used in conjunction to a reference to a man, his wife.
Some native American advocates, those in the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation among them, as well as women’s advocates, however, consider the word a racial, ethnic, and gender-based slur, particularly aimed at Native American women, likening it to “cunt.” In his written statement commending his legislative colleagues for the passage of Assembly Bill 2022, Ramos refrained from spelling out the word in full, instead writing ‘sq_’ when referencing it. He said that “Its removal is a crucial step in recognizing the ongoing trauma and oppression that native communities have faced.” Continue reading →

By Dan Walters CalMatters
History will — or at least should — see a $165 billion error in revenue estimates as one of California’s most boneheaded political acts.
It happened in 2022, as the state was emerging from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Department of Finance, based on one short-term spike in income taxes, projected that revenues from the state’s three largest sources would remain above $200 billion a year indefinitely.
Newsom then declared that the budget had a $97.5 billion surplus, although that number never appeared in any documents.
“No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this,” Newsom bragged as he unveiled a 2022-23 fiscal year budget that topped $300 billion.
With that in mind, he and the Legislature adopted a budget with billions in new spending, most notably on health and welfare programs and cash payments to poor families.
Within a few weeks, Newsom and legislators learned that real revenues were falling well short of the rosy projections. But the damage, in terms of expanded spending, was done.
Two years later, buried in its fine print, the deficit-ridden 2024-25 budget acknowledged that sales taxes and personal and corporate income tax revenues would fall well short of the $200 billion a year projection, estimating a $165.1 billion shortfall over four years.
The past two years have seen budgets with deficits papered over with direct and indirect borrowing, tapped emergency reserves, vague assumptions of future spending cuts, and accounting gimmicks. For instance, the current budget “saves” several billion dollars by counting next June’s state payroll as an expenditure in the following fiscal year.
This bit of fiscal history is important to remember because the twin 2022 acts of overestimating revenues and overspending billions of nonexistent dollars on new and expanded services continues to haunt the state, as a new analysis indicates.
The Legislature’s budget analyst, Gabe Petek, unveiled his office’s annual overview of the state’s finances Wednesday and it wasn’t a pretty picture.
There’s been a recent uptick in personal income tax revenues thanks to wealthy investors’ stock market gains , some stemming from Donald Trump’s presidential victory. However, Petek said, government spending — much of it dating from 2022’s phony surplus — is continuing to outpace revenues from “a sluggish economy,” creating operating deficits.
“Outside of government and health care, the state has added no jobs in a year and a half,” the analysis declares. “Similarly, the number of Californians who are unemployed is 25% higher than during the strong labor markets of 2019 and 2022. Consumer spending (measured by inflation‑adjusted retail sales and taxable sales) has continued to decline throughout 2024.”
Meanwhile, it continues, “one reason the state faces operating deficits is growth in spending. Our estimate of annual total spending growth across the forecast period — from 2025‑26 to 2028‑29 — is 5.8% (6.3% excluding K‑14 education). By historical standards, this is high.”
Petek’s grim outlook coupled with the more conservative bent of voters, as shown in this month’s election, present a political dilemma for a governor and a Legislature oriented toward expanding government.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, reacting to the analysis in a statement, indicated that he’s gotten the message.
“We need to show restraint with this year’s budget, because California must be prepared for any challenges, including ones from Washington,” Rivas said. “It’s not a moment for expanding programs, but for protecting and preserving services that truly benefit all Californians.”
Newsom will propose a 2025-26 budget in January, but no matter what he and the Legislature decide, the structural budget deficit will still be there when he exits the governorship in 2027. It will be part of his legacy.
CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters.

A San Bernardino County jury has awarded a former Walmart truck driver $34.7 million, based on what that same jury said was the company’s false accusations against him that he had engaged in fraud and was faking the severity of injuries he suffered after he was rear-ended while making a delivery for the retail giant.
The substantial award, what some in the courthouse on November 19 called exorbitant, came after the jury determined that the company falsely accused the driver of fraud, then firing him while he was on injury leave.
Jesus Fonseca was employed for 14 years as a truck driver for Walmart, operating for most of that time out of the Apple Valley Distribution Center. In 2017, while operating one of Walmart’s trucks on I-15, Fonseca was rear-ended by another semi-truck. Fonseca was put on medical leave the day following the accident. After a relatively short time while he was on injury leave, he attempted, according to his lawyers, to return to work for Walmart, but was unable, to engage in “commercial driving” and further disallowed to engage in “pushing, pulling, bending, stooping and lifting over 5-10 pounds.” Continue reading →

FBN 20240009869
The following entity is doing business primarily in San Bernardino County as
SWANK DESIGN 316 E CITRUS AVE REDLANDS, CA 92373: RAELENA VASQUEZ
Business Mailing Address: 316 E CITRUS AVE REDLANDS, CA 92373
The business is conducted by: AN INDIVIDUAL.
The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: APRIL 19, 2016
By signing, I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime (B&P Code 179130). I am also aware that all information on this statement becomes Public Record upon filing.
/s/ RAELENA VASQUEZ, Owner
Statement filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on: 10/24/2024
I hereby certify that this copy is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office San Bernardino County Clerk By:/Deputy J7527
Notice-This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professions Code).
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on September November 1, 8, 15 & 22, 2024.

FBN 20240009838
The following entity is doing business primarily in San Bernardino County as
SOLUTIONS ON THE FLY 1309 W 25TH ST UPLAND, CA 91784:
ROBERT A CABLE
Business Mailing Address: 1309 W 25TH ST UPLAND, CA 91784
The business is conducted by: AN INDIVIDUAL.
The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: N/A
By signing, I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime (B&P Code 179130). I am also aware that all information on this statement becomes Public Record upon filing.
/s/ ROBERT A CABLE, Owner
Statement filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on: 10/24/2024
I hereby certify that this copy is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office San Bernardino County Clerk By:/Deputy J7527
Notice-This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professions Code).
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on September November 1, 8, 15 & 22, 2024.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME
CIV SB 2430892
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS:
Petitioner ENRIQUE PUGA filed with this court for a decree changing names as follows:
ENRIQUE PUGA to HENRY PUGA
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: DECEMBER 5, 2024
Time: 8:30 a.m.
Department: S37
The address of the court is Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, 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 in San Bernardino County California, once a week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing of the petition.
Gilbert G. Ochoa
Judge of the Superior Court.
Filed: OCTOBER 24, 2024 by
Kristina Talley, Deputy Court Clerk
Enrique Puga, In Pro Per
933 Fairway Drive
Colton, CA 92324
Telephone No: (909) 952-0980
Email address: puga_priscilla00@hotmail.com
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on November 1, 8, 15 & 22, 2024.

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