The interminably delayed preliminary hearing for Dr. Stephen Kinzey has been delayed yet again, this time having been rescheduled to begin on March 30.
Kinzey, a tenured professor of kinesiology at Cal State San Bernardino, garnered national and international attention in 2011 when he was indicted along with ten others and charged with being the kingpin in a methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution network.
More than seven months ago, the matter appeared to be heading to a full public airing, with a preliminary hearing that was to start on June 2, 2014. That was vacated in favor of an August 18, 2014. There was a further delays which pushed the preliminary hearing target date to October 27. Tha hearing was vacated, however, and on January 8, 2015, Kinzey was in the courtroom of Judge Steven Malone for a prepreliminary hearing to confirm all would be ready for the previously scheduled January 12 preliminary hearing. But Malone vacated that date and scheduled another pre-preliminary hearing on the matter for March 26 and a preliminary hearing for March 30.
The string of delays and reschedulings is likely to result in Kinzey’s case, which widely drew comparisons to the Sony Pictures Television production Breaking Bad, will not go to trial until nearly four years after his arrest.
Breaking Bad, which originally aired on the American Movie Classics network for five seasons from January 20, 2008 to September 29, 2013, was a fictional depiction of a struggling high school chemistry teacher who with the aid of a former student produces and sells methamphetamine.
A total of eleven defendants were arrested in the matter involving Kinzey: Kinzey, Holly Vandergrift Robinson, Jeremy Disney, Eric Cortez, Edward Freer, Chelsea Marie Johnson, Hans Preszler, Elaine Flores, Wendi Lee Witherell, Christopher Allen Rikerd, and Stephenie Danielle Padilla.
In relatively short order, seven of those charged with Kinzey pleaded guilty to elements of the criminal case brought against them. Witherell pleaded guilty September 2011 to reduced charges. Flores, Padilla, Johnson, and Cortez all pleaded guilty in October 2011 to reduced charges. Freer and Rikerd pleaded guilty to reduced charges in November 2011.
Preszler, who along with Kinzey, Robinson and Disney maintained his innocence for 22 months after the arrests, in June 2013 pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit a crime.
Kinzey, now 48, was charged with drug dealing, running a street gang and possessing illegal firearms. Robinson, his live-in girlfriend and a former Cal State San Bernardino student, is accused of helping him run a handful of meth dealing operations in what law enforcement officials saw as a small-time enterprise that was on the verge of expanding. According to investigators and prosecutors, quantities of methamphetamine, believed to be in the pound to kilogram range, would be provided to drug dealers from the home that Kinzey and Robinson shared in a quiet and relatively upscale neighborhood in Highland.
Kinzey, who had a PH.D in kinesiology, obtained his doctorate from the University of Toledo, and previously earned his masters at Indiana State and his bachelor’s degree at Wayne State. He began teaching at the University of Mississippi in 1995 and transferred into the California State University system in 2001 and eventually became the chairman of the San Bernardino campus’s kinesiology department’s curriculum committee. Kinzey also had an interest, bordering on an obsession, with motorcycling and motorcycle clubs. A Harley-Davidson owner, Kinzey joined a local chapter of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club while he was a professor in Mississippi in 1997.
After coming to California, Kinzey intensified his biker club associations. It is unknown whether Kinzey landing in San Bernardino County, the birthplace of three of what are referred to as outlaw biker gangs – the Hells Angels, the Vagos and the Devils Diciples – was calculation or coincidence.
After his relocation from Mississippi, Kinzey started two local motorcycle clubs in Southern California while he was teaching at San Bernardino State. Curiously, his status with each of the clubs he founded eroded and it appears he was forced out of both.
In time, Kinzey moved on to form a new chapter of the Devils Diciples, a biker gang that originated in Fontana in 1967 but which now has its national headquarters in Detroit. Kinzey formed a San Bernardino Mountain chapter of the club and until his arrest was actively promoting the affiliation, selling Devil’s Diciples shirts, helmets and rider paraphernalia from a website.
Prosecutors have suggested a nexus between Kinzey’s alleged drug manufacturing activity and his ties with the Devil’s Diciples and possibly other motorcycle enthusiasts, but have provided no concrete information with regard to those associations.
Kinzey, represented by attorney James Glick, along with Robinson and Disney, represented respectively by attorney Stephen Sweigart and Ann Cunningham, continue to fight the charges. All three remaining defendants have waived their right to a preliminary hearing within ten court days of their arrest. The now more than three year delay in the case has left unanswered a questions as to whether the alleged drug ring Kinzey headed had a connection to a wider network paralleling the national structure of the Devil’s Diciples or if the conspiracy prosecutors say Kinzey headed was endemic to a handful of small scale local operators and users in and around San Bernardino.
When the preliminary hearing gets under way, the public is likely to get a glimpse of several sophisticated and here-to-now sensitive and/or secret methods of investigation now being utilized against suspected and actual domestic narcotic rings.
A preliminary hearing, also known as an evidentiary hearing, is a proceeding that takes place after a criminal complaint has been filed by the prosecution in which the judge hearing the matter is to make a determination whether there is enough evidence to warrant having the matter proceed to trial. While sufficient evidence to convict need not be demonstrated, enough evidence to satisfy the judge that there is probable cause to conclude that a crime was committed and those charged are responsible must be aired in open court. All evidence and witnesses brought forth are subject to examination by counsel for the defense, making it likely that more than a cursory vetting of the evidence will occur and that prosecutors, to some degree, will be locked in on the case they will need to present to a jury. A preliminary hearing has the further effect of locking the prosecution in with regard to those elements of the case that are previewed.
What is known is that the Kinzey ring was the focus of a joint task force that involved the FBI, the San Bernardino Police Department and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. There is at present some mystery as to how the investigation into the Kinzey ring evolved, that is, whether investigators worked the case from the top down or ground up. A ground up investigation would have involved local investigators coming across indications of drug activity, potentially drug dealing at the street level, and tracing that activity up the ladder, ultimately reaching Kinzey. A top down investigation would have entailed an investigation that had as its overarching target the alleged network of drug manufacturers and distributors working in conjunction with organizations such as the Devil’s Diciples, which came across Kinzey as investigators, in this case those with the FBI, worked their way down the chain of command or geographically across the country to California.
Federal authorities and other law enforcement agencies have been striving, for some time, to make drug trafficking cases against the Devil’s Diciples. Federal Prosecutors in 2009 charged the club’s national president, Jeff Garvin, “Fat Dog” Smith and 17 other Diciples members with drug trafficking, but then dropped the case six months later. In July 2012, 41 members and associates of the Devils Diciples, including Fat Dog Smith and national vice president Paul Anthony Darrah, were indicted on a variety of criminal charges, including racketeering, drug trafficking, illegal firearms offenses, obstruction of justice, illegal gambling, and other federal offenses. Eighteen of the defendants, including Smith and Darrah, were charged with violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Kinzey was the target of an investigation that involved intense surveillance which tracked his movements and saw his communications, both telephonic and via the internet, closely monitored.
As the president of the local chapter of the Devil’s Diciples, Kinzey administered a website that was utilized to promote the club. In his representation of the group, Kinzey was known by the moniker “Skinz.” Undercover agents analyzed the postings to and from the website Kinzey controlled and took particular interest in purchases made, ostensibly for Devil’s Diciples t-shirts and other regalia, utilizing the website or e-Bay, with law enforcement officials seeking to determine if the sales masked or signaled drug buys or pick-ups.
Agents also shadowed Kinzey during his occasional meetings with Devil’s Diciples members when those confabs took place in public, including ones that took place at Chad’s Place, a bar in Big Bear frequented by bikers of all stripes.
Investigators obtained warrants to listen in to conversations or overlook text messages involving the ring’s members. Several of those communications piqued officers’ attention, giving them leads on his suspected network of drug distributors. For example, one text message sent to a suspected distributer read: “Bring whatever cabbage u got for my soup cuz ingredients are low.”
Despite the net of surveillance that had been stretched around Kinzey toward the end of the investigation, he eluded it when the task force made its move and served arrest and search warrants on the accused and their places of residence. When police descended on Kinzey’s upscale East Highlands Ranch Spanish-style home, they nabbed Robinson, and found a pound of methampetamine, loaded handguns and rifles and Kinzey’s biker leathers, but Kinzey was not there and he did not return. Instead, after an all points bulletin went out for his arrest in which it was reported that he was to be considered armed and dangerous, Kinzey days later came forward with his lawyer and $300,000 in bond money, which was posted without him being booked, photographed or fingerprinted. It was not until he turned up for his arraignment where he pleaded not guilty that he was subjected to the formalities of arrest, and then was immediately set loose.
Of peripheral interest is just how far beyond the confines of the motorcycle club and the circle of eleven people indicted the drug manufacturing and distribution activity extended. One indication was that Kinzey was not the “cook,” i.e., the chemist, who manufactured the drugs, but rather the first link in the chain between the lab and the eventual end users who bought it at the street level.

(January 14)  In local Democratic Party circles there is already peripheral discussion of the need to mount a challenge of Marc Steinorth in the 40th Assembly District in 2016.
The Sentinel has learned that a cabal of Democratic Women who think of themselves as the progressive wing of the party are angling to package Eloise Gomez Reyes, who an attorney and long time Democratic Party activist and fundraiser who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the 31st District in 2014, as the best Democrat to challenge Steinorth next year.
As an Hispanic woman, Reyes is considered by an early crop of backers to be an ideal progressive voice to challenge Steinorth, a former Rancho Cucamonga City councilman who possesses the multiple strengths of owning an advertising agency, being a Republican in a district where voter turnout numbers significantly favor Republicans, as well as the power of incumbency. .
Nevertheless, some Democrats feel that Gomez-Reyes, who raised more than $1 million for her 2014 primary race in which she bucked the Democratic establishment’s support of the eventual winner, former Redlands mayor Pete Aguilar, possesses several qualities that would potentially lead to an effective Democratic voter registration drive and companion effort to get those voters to the polls to prevent Steinorth from achieving reelection.
In 2014, Steinorth comfortably outpolled his Democratic opponent, Kathleen Henry, 39,303 votes, or 55.66 percent to 31,309 votes, or 44.34 percent.
Currently, registration in the 40th Assembly District slightly favors the Democrats, with 77,475, or 37 percent of the district’s 209,499 total voters registered as Democrats, 76,959 or 36.7 percent registered as Republicans, 44,566 or 21.3 percent expressing no party preference, 7,043 or 3.4 percent registered as members of the American Independent Party, 1,121 registered as members of the Libertarian Party, 882 registered as members of the Peace and Freedom Party, 818 registered with the Green Party and 25 registered as members of the American Elect Party.

HESPERIA—(January 15) Without stating a reason for the delay, the California Department of Water Resources said the Ranchero Road bridge over the California Aqueduct will not be completed until the first week of February.
The California Department of Water Resources contracted for a $736,000 seismic retrofit to the bridge, which was constructed in the early 1970s as part of the California Aqueduct. Because of continual heavy use, the concrete bridge deck has deteriorated.
The improvements were begun in early September and had been projected for completion by early November.
As a consequence of the project, those transiting the area have encountered closures, detours and delays. Those traveling in the area are advised to avoid the crossing, if feasible. A detour route around the construction zone has been specified and posted.
Once work on the Ranchero Bridge is completed, the Maple Street Bridge over the aqueduct is to be closed.

UPLAND—(January 14)  The tandem of Craig Beresh and Randy Welty have turned a second corner in their crusade to break the resistance of the political leaders of various communities in San Bernardino County to permitting marijuana clinics to operate within their respective jurisdictions’ borders.
Beresh is the president of the California Cannabis Coalition. Welty is a board member of that coalition. In October they undertook a petition drive in Upland to gather enough signatures to force a special election asking the city’s voters to overturn the city’s ban on marijuana dispensaries. They completed that drive earlier this week and presented the petitions to the city clerk’s office on Wednesday.
That accomplishment in Upland replicates the pair’s drive in the town of Yucca Valley initiated this summer and concluded in December.
In both Yucca Valley and in Upland, the elected leadership has been opposed to allowing medical marijuana clinics to proliferate.
In Yucca Valley, town officials had taken a hard line against making the drug legally available under the auspices of Proposition 215, which was passed by California’s voters in 1996, making medical marijuana availability legal. Despite the town hierarchy’s opposition, an enterprising entrepreneur had gotten an operating charter for a clinic from the city by lying beneath official’s radar and applying for a business license as a “herbal shop.”
Upon town officials learning that the enterprise was a dispensary, they initiated efforts to close it but were met by the owner’s threat of litigation. The town and the clinic owner arrived at an agreement by which the owner was able to remain in business for a specified period. Before that deadline elapsed, the operation proved lucrative enough for the owner to reach his financial goals and he voluntarily closed. Last summer, the Alliance for Safe Access of Yucca Valley, led by Jason Elsasser, with assistance from the California Cannabis Coalition, Beresh and Welty, began circulating a petition in September that called for the town to permit the opening and operation of one medical marijuana clinic per 10,000 residents living in the 20,700 population town under a set of rules governing hours when the dispensaries can be operated and within zones outside the proximity of churches and schools. By December, advocates had obtained more than 1,900 signatures of the town’s 9,945 registered voters on those petitions, of which 1,873 were determined by the San Bernardino County Register of Voters Office to be valid, roughly 400 more than was needed by the petitioners to force the town council to either adopt the initiative language calling for the granting of two dispensary permits or otherwise undertake the scheduling of a special election in which voters would be given a straight up-or-down vote on whether to approve the initiative.
In Upland, the city, led by former city councilman Ken Willis, sought to prohibit such operations by restrictive zoning codes. Nevertheless, a number of determined clinic proprietors braved the city’s prohibition, setting up shops that were so lucrative in the short run their owners could afford the cost of being shut down after anywhere from two weeks to four months of operation. Upon being provided with an abatement notice, most clinic operators would close out their operations at the cited address and reopen in another location, repeating the two week-to-four-month cycle again. One clinic operation, G3 Holistics, took a different approach, resisting the city’s efforts to shut it down by challenging the city’s action in state court, reaping a series of mixed rulings that allowed the clinic to remain open, even in the face of one ruling sustaining the city, which was immediately appealed. The city spent over $400,000 in legal fees in seeking to shutter G3 Holistics. Ultimately, G3 was put out of business, though that outcome was not effectuated by the city. Rather it was the federal government’s criminal prosecution of G3 Holistic’s owner, Aaron Sandusky, that forced it into closure.
At present, there are more than a dozen marijuana clinics doing business in the city.
In running their petition drive, Beresh and Welty, appealed to those genuinely wanting medical marijuana to be available, as well as those alarmed at the proliferation of the large number of clinics currently in the city. They obtained 6,865 signatures endorsing their petition, which calls for the permitting of three clinics in a relatively limited portion of the city’s the west side between Foothill Boulevard to the south, Cable Airport to the north, Airport Drive to the east and Monte Vista to the west.
On January 12, both Beresh and Welty addressed the Upland City Council.
Beresh said that by qualifying the initiative for the ballot, Upland residents have said “We have a right to put into our bodies what we want. I would remind the city council this is a human right, the right to medicate and take care of yourself.”
Conveying that he believed the city will continue to resist the marijuana availability movement that is afoot, Beresh said, “We are about to make a loud noise. Take the time to think about what you are doing.”
More so than Beresh, Welty’s reputation in Upland proceeded him. The owner of the Tropical Lei nude dancing venue and other properties in the same portion of Upland where the zoning for marijuana clinics is proposed in the initiative, Welty is the owner/operator of the Hawaii Theatre in the city of Industry, Eye Candy Showgirls Theater in Chula Vista, three Spearmint Rhino bars, several adult bookstores and was the owner of the Flesh Club on Hospitality Lane in San Bernardino before it was shut down amid charges of being a venue for prostitution activity. He also has an interest in at least 63 medical marijuana dispensaries. Undeterred by accusations that he has shrewdly profited by engaging in operations traditionally considered to involve vice activity, Welty said that as a Vietnam Veteran, he and the rest of the California Cannabis Coalition were “looking forward to working with the city on this. We have at this time a black market in Upland that is costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lawyers working on an injunction while the black market is here is absolutely absurd. Medical marijuana is a land use issue.”
The council, Welty said, should take stock of “What the people here in Upland believe. They don’t think you have the right to tell them what to take. You are not doctors. They do not trust your medical judgment. Let’s save the city some money and put money in city coffers.”
The city is hopelessly behind the times, Welty said. Medical marijuana is already legal he said, and the city has failed to recognize that reality. And the time is fast approaching when it will be legalized for personal use by all adults, he said. “It will become legal as a recreational drug in 2016,” he predicted.
At issue is whether the special election Beresh and Welty have requested will be scheduled this year or consolidated with the municipal election to be held in 2016.
Beresh and Welty maintain their petition contains language which would require the city to hold the election this year at a cost of more than $80,000. The city maintains the coalition failed to request a special election at the time it initiated the petition drive in October, allowing the city to hold off on the balloting until a regular municipal election is held.

(January 14)  Senator Barbara Boxer’s announcement last week that she will not seek reelection next year triggered two further announcements, the last of which is that San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos intends to make his pitch to Governor Jerry Brown for his appointment as California Attorney General if that position becomes vacant in 2016.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who was just reelected to a second four-year term as the state’s top prosecutor in November, reacted to Boxer’s announcement by jumping foursquare into the race to succeed her.
One question at this time is whether Harris would run for Senate as an incumbent attorney general or whether she would resign at some point in 2016 to fully concentrate on her senatorial campaign.
Ramos, a Republican who ran for reelection last year with the endorsement of Harris, a Democrat, also endorsed her in her reelection bid for Attorney General, giving voters the impression that they are part of one large law enforcement fraternity, wherein party affiliation is a secondary consideration to cooperation. Looking at the possibility that Harris might step down as attorney general to run for Senator or might prove victorious in the race, Ramos is looking to open a dialogue with Governor Jerry Brown, who is also a Democrat but who was California Attorney General until 2010 and collaborated with Ramos on some criminal cases, in which Ramos might request that Brown consider appointing him to fill a vacancy that would be created by Harris’s leaving.
In November, when Ramos announced he would seek election as California Attorney General, he indicated he would remain as district attorney for the full current term, which runs through 2018. Ramos was first elected in 2002, faced no opposition in 2006, bested two challengers in 2010 and was reelected last June in a race that featured only one opponent. His declared intention of serving out the entirety of his current term in San Bernardino County is now being tested by Harris’s reaction to Boxer’s pending departure two years hence.
One group, California Crime Victims United, sent a letter to Brown January 4, asking him to consider Ramos as Harris’s successor, should she depart as state attorney general.

by Ruth Musser-Lopez
(January 15)  It rained again in the Mojave Desert last Sunday, pouring life and renewal into its parched soils. Meanwhile, renewing the election cycle for the Democratic party, inside the halls of the California Teacher’s Association office in Hesperia, Victor Valley resident Mike Curran was being elected as “Executive Board Representative” from amongst the 14 newly elected Democratic State Central Committee (DSCC) Delegates from Assembly District 33. Curran will represent Democratic voters in Assembly District 33 at California Democratic State Central Committee Executive Board Meetings. Curran replaces outgoing AD33 Executive Board Representative (EBd-Rep), John Putcko. Mr. Michael Castellano was a close runner up for the E-Board position.
Reorganization of the Democratic State Central Committee  begins at the end of 2014 when applications are made for the fourteen Delegate seats, which Delegates then elect the Executive Board Representative. The biennial meeting in January to elect Delegates and E-Board Reps commences the 2015-2017 election cycle for the California Democratic party. In each of California’s 80 Assembly Districts, the Democratic party convened elections either on Saturday, January 10 or Sunday January 11 to elect the assembly district delegates (ADDs). A person may only participate in the assembly district election meeting (ADEM) if he/she is a Democrat residing in and registered to vote by the October 20, 2014, voter registration deadline, in the assembly district that person wishes to represent, unless the person turned 18 or was a naturalized after the deadline, and is registered or registers on-site.
Delegate hopefuls must submit applications for the positions in advance of the election. Where insufficient applications are submitted, nominations are taken from the floor providing that the individuals are present to agree to their nominations. Upon their election, newly elected Delegates then elect an assembly district executive board representatives (“EBd Reps”) at the same meeting.
The newly elected delegates had the option of selecting an executive board representative from amongst the newly elected Delegates or from one of the their elected Democrats or nominee in a State or Congressional office or their highest vote getting Democrat in a state or congressional special election in which that Democrat did not win the election. In the case of Assembly District 33, those Delegates are Robert Conaway, John Coffey and Ruth Musser-Lopez who serve by virtue of their nomination as party candidates in the 2014 election cycle for Congressional and State offices. Each of these candidates or elected officials also appoint two or three delegates depending upon the office they ran for. Appointed delegates residing within the assembly district could have also been elected an assembly district executive board representative from amongst the two or three Delegates appointed by Conaway, Coffey or Musser-Lopez. Since the deadline for making appointments is February 9, sometime after the assembly district executive board representatives election, appointed delegates are often never considered for the position of assembly district executive board representative.
The California Assembly District Delegation consists of fourteen people (7 men / 7 women) from each assembly district elected to represent their district as Democratic State Central Committee delegates at both the 2015 and 2016 state conventions. They become voting members at those state conventions.
Regional Coordinator Diana Love convened the meeting in AD33 where all who were eligible and desired to volunteer as Delegates, were elected. Since only six women were available to serve, an eighth man was seated as a delegate. Newly seated delegates were:
Michael J. Curran, Michael Castellano, Mark Wirth, Antonio Vazquez, Kirk Anderson, Jeffrey McClain, Richard Turnbull, John Putcko, Laura Quigley, Donna Castellano, Adele Turner-McClain, Jacquese Conaway, Barbara James-Dew, and Diedra Mathis.
Elsewhere in San Bernardino County, Marlene Flowers convened the AD 47 assembly district election meeting election at USCW local 11 in Bloomington on Saturday, January 10. Joe Britt was elected executive board representative. Other Delegates include Carlos Avalos, Victor Quiroz, Edward Killgore, Robert Garcia, Jordan Wright, Rikki VanJohnson, Sara Garcia, Linda Gonzalez, Bobi Johnson, Dina Walker, Lynn Brown-Summers, Roxanne Williams and Ayanna Blackmon-Balogun.
San Bernardino County Democratic Central Committee Chairperson, Chris Robles convened the assembly district election meeting for AD 40 on Saturday, January 10 at the Islamic Center of the Inland Empire. Elected as assembly district executive board representative is Talat Khan. Other Delegates include Elvira Harris, Stacey Aldstadt, Laurie Stalnaker, Sanjuana Laurel, D. Dianne Landeros, Kristin Washington, Erick Jimenez, Terrace Masl, Donald Singer, Mohamed Gibani, Sean Houle, Dr. Reyes L. Quezada and Mike Saifie.
AD 41 overlaps in both Los Angeles and San Bernardino County. Tray Taylor was the Convener for the election held at UFCW1428 in Claremont on Sunday, January 11. Alexandra Zucco was elected as executive board representative. Other delegates include Tim Wendler, Hoyt Hilsman, Peter Baker, Garland Byrum II, John Harabedian, Sahag Yedalian, Garen Kirakosian, Linda Baker, Joanne Wendler, Darla Dyson, Teresa Lamb Simpson, Wendy Eccles and Aida Dimejian.
AD42 overlaps in both Riverside and San Bernardino County. Doris Foreman convened the election at the Democratic Headquarters in Hemet on Saturday, January 10, at which time Karalee Hargrove, a Delegate by virtue of her candidacy for assembly in that District was appointed as assembly district executive board representative. The 2015 assembly district delegates include Ruth Debra, Nancy Carroll Eileen Stern, Marie McDonald, July Bornstein, Nancy Humenik Sappington, Maryanne Ennis, Craig Scott, Steve Mehiman, Robert Westwood, Robert Moon, Lanny Swedlow, Tim Johnson and Norberto Gonzalez.
Delegates attend the annual California Democratic Party convention, this year to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center on May 15 – 17. Roughly 3500 people are expected to attend from throughout the state providing Delegates the opportunity to network with other Democrats. Delegates represent their constituency and also elect party officers, promote the California Democratic Party agenda, endorse candidates for statewide, legislative and congressional office positions and vote to endorse resolutions and ballot measures. Besides the commitment in time, according to Diana Love, assembly district executive board representatives can expect to spend twice as much as Delegates in travel and miscellaneous costs, somewhere upwards of $2,000 per election cycle.

By Count Friedrich von Olsen

As a confirmed member of the older generation, I must acknowledge a profound sense of befuddlement over this whole marijuana issue. In my twilight years, with senility encroaching upon me, I am incapable of understanding how it is that a drug being made available for medical purposes can be marketed openly as an intoxicant…
In the interest of complete and full disclosure, I was not in California in 1996 when the state’s voters, in their wisdom, voted to make medical marijuana available to those who can benefit from it. Had I been here, I would have voted against it. But the voters spoke and Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, is now the law…
To my way of thinking, compassionate medical use means just that. If marijuana is medicine, then it should be treated as such. It should be available at licensed pharmacies staffed by conscientious and trained medical professionals. If it is a legitimate medication, it should be kept in the pharmaceutical vault with all the other medicine…
There is something not quite right about a store that is devoted to just one product. Perhaps there are exceptions, but usually a grocery store has a healthy selection of edibles. What grocery store would sell nothing but tomatoes? Or nothing but rutabagas? Or nothing but squash? What sort of drug store would sell nothing but penicillin? Wouldn’t people question a pharmacy that just sold Nembutal? Wouldn’t the medical industry become alarmed at a drug store that sold nothing except Ritodran? Am I the only one who sees the utter absurdity of a store, or actually hundreds of stores, selling nothing but marijuana?
I am not naive. I wish I could be naive. Life was more fun when I was naive. The thing is, I can’t believe that there is anyone naive enough to think that medical marijuana clinics are selling marijuana, in the main, for medical purposes. I would never bother to look into this myself, but I detailed my butler, Hudson, to do some research for me. There are literally hundreds of strains of marijuana that have been bred and genetically altered to boost the amount of the major intoxicant in the marijuana plant, Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC for short. THC is the primary psychotropic agent in marijuana. Many of these strains with intensified concentrations of THC have been patented. They are given names that celebrate their psychotropic intensity. Let me regale you with a few: White Widow, One Eyed Jamaican, Abra Cadabra, Acapulco Gold Afghan Kush, Agent Orange, AK 47, Bog LSD, Godcrack, Green Crack, Island Maui Haze, Knock Out, LSD, Purple Haze, Sputnik, Sweet Dreams, Trainwreck, Tsunami Crush, Yuckleberry Wow, Premium KB Killer, Perma Hash, Night Train, Maui Wowie, Alaska Thunderbolt, Alaskan Thunderf–k, Jack Kevorkian, Jack The Ripper, Green Poison, Full Melt Hash, Assassin and let’s not leave out F——g Incredible…
It goes without saying that LSD marijuana is not intended as a cure for glaucoma. It is intended to make the person who smokes it hallucinate…
None of this, it seems to me, is in keeping with the declared intention of the Compassionate Use Act to make medical marijuana, which I understand has some value in treating nausea, available to patients made ill by chemotherapy…
As old fashioned and behind the times as I am, I think I might have a solution to the problem of perfectly healthy young and maybe even not so young people abusing our collective compassion to obtain a drug that has only limited and maybe even marginal medical applicability for the dubious purpose of smoking themselves into a hallucinogenic state, while allowing unscrupulous individuals who are barely higher in the social order than dope peddlers from reaping a huge profit. The state legislature should enact a law requiring that all pharmaceuticals are to be dispensed by a licensed pharmacist within the context of an actual pharmacy, which would be subject to exacting regulation to ensure the quality of the product’s dispensed and the health and safety of the consumers. Indeed, I am mystified as to why this has not already occurred….
On an end note, I fear that there will be many who will dismiss my rumblings here as the close-minded misimpressions of an old man who cannot possibly relate to the realities of the modern world, the drug culture and those immersed in it. My words might be discounted as the spouting of someone too timid to venture to taste any of the forbidden fruit this world has to offer. For those, I would like to relate – that is, confess – that I once had an experience with marijuana, having smoked some myself. This was in Port Said in 1943, where I had been dispatched to ensure the delivery of some very important materiel crucial to the war effort, upon which the delivery into the right hands the lives of many depended. I was with some other chaps who were also engaged in some activities equal to or even greater than my own in daring and responsibility. On this particular day, there was a lull in the stress and demands we all faced, as we were all awaiting the arrival of a much larger contingent of our countrymen, which would allow our collective effort to move on to the next level. The four or five of us found ourselves at lunch at an outdoor café about equidistant from the hotel in which I was staying and the docks. After a rather sumptuous meal, the proprietor of that establishment, as was the local custom, presented us with a hookah, that is a waterpipe, at the pinnacle of which was loaded what was represented to us as “Egyptian tobacco” over some Turkish tobacco. We all partook of the acrid smoke and I had several deep draws on the mouthpiece attached to a narrow hose that led from the implement, the final one of which, I seem to recall, was punctuated by an almost strangulating cough. Before we left the table, someone inquired as to the nature of the Egyptian tobacco, at which point we were informed that it was actually Moroccan kif. I must admit that the remainder of that afternoon was a singullar one for me, as I found myself engaged in a rather spirited internal monologue and my head filled with some very interesting ruminations and some even more unconventional and even bizarre abstract projections. I soon separated from the others and began to drift back to the hotel where I was staying and did all right for several blocks, but then came to the intersection where my hotel was located. I was on the corner diagonally across from, that is cater corner to, the hotel. I remained there, seemingly wedded to that spot for what must have been at least 45 minutes or maybe as long as an hour, unable to figure out how I could get to my destination. Being a man who was constantly engaged in some very complicated, even daunting and might I say risky assignments in which I had to have my wits about me, my experience that day, in which I was left utterly unable engage in as simple of a task as cross the street, left me with the impression that this kif, hashish, marijuana or whatever it was, really isn’t my cup of tea…

By Mark Gutglueck
In 1880 Dr. J.P. Widney, a brother of Judge R. M. Widney of Ontario, publicized San Antonio Heights for its “varied and beautiful scenery of plain, mesa, canyon and mountain, with proximity to fine hunting and fishing grounds.”
In 1881 Charles Chaffey, Sr. interested his sons, Charles Chaffey, Jr. and William Chaffey, in developing property in the Etiwanda/Rancho Cucamonga/Ontario area. After Charles Chaffey, Jr. founded Etiwanda, he and his brother embarked on creating the Model Colony, known today as Ontario and Upland. Their plan was built around Euclid Avenue, a wide boulevard/vista extending from the top of Chino north toward Mt. San Antonio. Early on they considered including San Antonio Heights, “near the foothills” above Upland on the mesa described as “lying at the mouth of San Antonio Canyon” at an elevation of more than 2,000 feet “where water was easily available from a source already being developed.” as part of the colony. Consequently, the Ontario Land Company, as early as 1883 had designs of seeing the property on the mesa being developed into an upscale residential community.
On October 25, 1882, George Chaffey, Jr. incorporated the San Antonio Water Company.
In 1884 J.B. Tays undertook to build a personal residence on the mesa. That year, property on the mesa had been subdivided and lots were to be sold for $300 and $400.
The first map of the Ontario Land Company undertaking shows a v-shaped area next to the foothills above 24th Street
In 1886, the Australian Government invited the Chaffey Brothers to move there and undertake a much larger development in The Land Down Under. They sold their interest in the Model Colony and left.
Charles Frankish became the resident manager of the new Ontario Land Company. In that first year of Frankish’s management, which corresponded with the Boom of 1887, San Antonio Heights sprang to life.
In that boom year, Tays, Nelson Stoddard and I.S. Miller set about to build new houses on the mesa that became known as San Antonio Heights. Stoddard and Tays invested $2,000 each into the homes they erected and Miller had a grander design that cost $4,200.
On January 10, 1887 the sale of a one-acre lot for $1,000 was recorded. Water was not sold with he property, but there were assurances of the near-time completion of a domestic water system that would entail costs of no more than maintenance and operating for homeowners. The New Ontario Land Company had involved plans which included a pleasure park, a resort, a hotel, a sanitarium and residential lots.
In the first year, 37 lots were sold at a total price of $40,350, with the highest price being $3,000 for a singled well-positioned lot. In December of 1887, however, sales of property in San Antonio Height abruptly ceased. No further sales activity in San Antonio Heights would take place for more than 13 years.
The end of the boom brought about a complete halt in building in the spring of 1888. Pictures taken years later show only one house near the foothills which was later known as “the haunted house.” Mrs. Miller, the wife of the owner, died before the house was completed and he never lived there. One tale was that some workers who stayed overnight there were frightened by a ghost. Some said the apparition’s were white owls that came through an open door or windows. The fortunes of the model colony did not improve for some time. Members of Ontario Land Improvement Company took unsold land in exchange for shares of stock. As a consequence of this division of land, 290 acres on San Antonio Heights were given to members.
A few new homes were built as residences for the land owners. In 1891 Lyman Steward started a house at the head of the avenue that would eclipse anything yet built in Ontario. Tays contracted with John Gerry, a contractor from Ontario, to construct his second San Antonio residence, this one at a cost of $8,000. Other houses were built nearby. E. P. Fuller built a residence at the head of the avenue in 1894. The Ontario Electric Company built a power house in 1895 on the north side of Mountain Avenue, just east of Park Boulevard. E. H. Richardson, the inventor of the Hot Point electric iron, lived in a tent house beside the power station where he was employed by the Ontario Electric Company.
A park was laid out at the northwest corner of Mountain Avenue and 24th Street. The trees were set out, a baseball diamond constructed and a pavilion promised. An article in the Ontario Record on July 30, 1904, stated: “The San Antonio Heights people gave an ice cream social at the head of the avenue last Thursday for the purpose of raising funds to put in a fountain in the little 24th Street park.”
The electric railroad was extended to a new terminus at the park in 1907. J.A. Armstrong bought a block of 19 lots in 1919 and used the land for a nursery. Another spurt of sales began in 1923 and 1924. By then the Ontario Land and Improvement Company had been dissolved and the Charles Frankish Company had taken over. Most of the unsold land was held by the Charles Frankish Family and the San Antonio Water Company. While San Antonio Heights never fulfilled the dreams of its would-be developers in the 1880s, it became a district of upscale and quaint homes with scenic and yards and impressive views.

(January 14)  A measles outbreak in four states includes California and San Bernardino County, county health officials have confirmed.
At least some of the cases are related to exposure at the California Disneyland theme parks December 15 through December 20.
Measles, though highly contagious, has been controlled in recent decades by extensive vaccination of the public. Most of the population born prior to 1957 is immune to the virus, due to their having contracted the disease in their youth. According to public health officials, in excess of 90 percent of the schoolchildren in San Bernardino County have been inoculated for measles. State law requires children entering school to show proof of measles immunization. Over the years, measles immunizations have been highly refined and are better than 95 percent effective.
Those born after 1957 who have not been immunized are at risk during the current epidemic, health officials say.
Thirty-two cases in four states – California, Utah, Colorado and Washington – have now been confirmed, with 22 of those cases in California. There are nine confirmed cases in Orange County, one each in the Los Angeles County cities of Long Beach and Pasadena, another at an unspecified location in Los Angeles County, two cases in San Diego County, two in Riverside County, one in Ventura County, three in Alameda County and the two aforementioned cases in San Bernardino County. There are, however, a significant number of suspected cases at a handful of hot spots in Southern California that indicate the disease is spreading. At a clinic in La Mesa in San Diego County, more than a half dozen people sought treatment for measles-like symptoms, including fever and rashes. That clinic has been temporarily closed down to limit the spread of the illness.
In six of the cases in California, hospitalization was ordered by doctors. At least twelve of the California victims had not been immunized, but four had been vaccinated.
A list of locations in Southern California where an individual or individuals now known to have measles within the last several weeks has been compiled and health officials are looking into other cases of potential exposure to the public.
Health officials have confirmed the December 15 to 20 dates of exposure at Disneyland, but said that any further exposure at that location had passed. Other locations of potential exposure were the Magic Wok at 12029 Central Avenue in Chino on Tuesday, January 6 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Pomona Valley Health Center’s Urgent Care facility at 3110 Chino Avenue Suite #150 in Chino on Thursday, January 8, 2015 from 3:56 p.m. to 5:05 p.m., Casino Morongo, 49500 Seminole Drive, Cabazon on Sunday, January 4 from 6 p.m.to 11:30 p.m. and Jimmy’s Warehouse Sportscard at 12327 Whittier Blvd in Whittier on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015 from 3 p.m.to 10 p.m.
California health officials advised those that develop measles symptoms, consisting of a rash and fever, to stay at home and call a health care provider immediately or the county health department communicable disease program at 1-800-722-4794. They should not, health officials said, visit a health care provider without first notifying them about the potential exposure.

Wire Lettuce, the Stephanoneria pauciflora, also known as the Desert Straw and browplume wirelettuce, is a perennial herb which grows and flowers nearly year round in the Mojave Desert. These plants can grow more than three feet tall and three feet wide. They are slightly woody below. Mature plants develop many curving stems, some living, many dead, giving a basket-like appearance. Broken green stems exude milky sap like other members of the lettuce subfamily.
They are quite common on rocky slopes, washes and on disturbed sites throughout the desert. They sport lavender flowers which appear to have five or six petals. This is deceiving, however, as the Stephanoneria pauciflora is a composite flower, and each ‘petal’ is actually a distinct flower. The five notches at tip of each flower are actually five petals. Each of the composite’s flowers is equipped with two-parted stigma and stamens. The flower heads occur at intervals along the mostly naked stems.
Atop each seed is a plumose pappus that sheds easily.
There plants have no thorns. The leaves are small, linear leaves and scale-like, shedding after drought to leave the green, wiry stems to photosynthesize. The superabundity of dead and arching straw provides a sunscreen which protects the plant and allows it to survive, indeed flourish, during hot, dry periods.
In contrast to some similar species which tend to have less branched, taller and more vertical stems, the stems of stephanomeria pauciflora are thin, green, branched and grow at different angles, often forming a rounded, tangled mass, mixed with the dead brown stems from the previous year. The small leaves are mostly basal; those on the stems are reduced to small scales, and are well-separated so when not in bloom the plant is easy to miss. Stem leaves tend to be withered at flowering time. The stems contain milky sap. Stems and leaves are usually smooth and hairless.