By Mark Gutglueck
A Mexican standoff has ensued in the aftermath of a move by Ontario Mayor Paul Leon and two members of the city council to censure their colleague, Ruben Valencia, on the basis of Valencia’s continuing association with foreign politicians and the municipal/governmental entities the City of Ontario earlier this year ended its affiliation with.
Valencia and his attorney, Cory Briggs, have sharply contested multiple characterizations Leon and Councilman Alan Wapner and Councilwoman Debbie Dorst-Porada have made about his activity in Sinaloa early last month, and Briggs maintains he has now obtained evidence that shows Leon, Wapner and Dorst-Porada violated the Brown Act, California’s open public meeting law, in militating to discredit Valencia, an effort which the lawyer said had been facilitated by Ontario City Manager Scott Ochoa.
Complicating factors, which include what Briggs and Valencia say is the very real possibility that the council would be subjected to a criminal prosecution, have convinced the council and key elements of the city administration that whatever political advantage the ruling faction on the council’s might obtain through the censure of Valencia would be more than offset by the negative publicity and damage to its own reputation the city council might sustain if the full extent of three of its members’ actions were to be publicly revealed. Continue reading →

Congressmen Jay Obernolte this week took a fair cross section of his Republican constituents aback by joining with another Republican in siding with the American Federation of Government Employees in an apparent dispute between Veterans Affairs management and the union.
Obernolte’s supporters leapt to his defense, insisting the intricacies and subtleties of the issue he had taken up made it prone to misinterpretation, asserting he was remaining faithful to his conservative ideals.
With only a handful of exceptions, Obernolte has sought to identify himself as strongly to the right politically. He has succeeded as an elected official by virtue of his location at the epicenter of one of the last remaining bastions of Republicanism in California. There is debate as to whether the stance he took this week remains solidly in keeping with the reputation he has cultivated or if he is, chameleon-like, preparing to make a lurch leftward as the Congressional district he represents is shifting closer to an alignment with the Democratic Party which dominates the Golden State.
The owner, president, and technical director of FarSight Studios, a video game development company, Obernolte first entered the political fray at the age of 35 in 2005, when he was elected to the Big Bear City Airport Board, overseeing the Big Bear City Airport in the unincorporated San Bernardino Mountain community district. In 2010, Obernolte was elected to Big Bear Lake City Council, where he eventually acceded to the position of mayor. In 2014, he was elected to the California Assembly, representing the heavily Republican 33rd District, which spanned the San Bernardino Mountain Communities and a good portion of San Bernardino County’s Mojave Desert. He succeeded Tim Donnelly, widely celebrated as one of the state’s and nation’s most conservative politicians, who left the Assembly that year in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to obtain the Republican nomination for California governor. Continue reading →

That two competing bills aimed at regulating the proliferation of warehouses have originated from Democratic Assembly members representing adjoining Inland Empire districts perhaps should be but is not really surprising, given the seriousness with which an ever-larger segment of the community views the logistics industry.
As a consequence of San Bernardino County’s location adjacent to Los Angeles County, home to the massive port facilities in San Pedro and Long Beach, where between 400 million tons and 700 million tons of cargo brought in by ship from Asia have been offloaded annually over each of the last five years, an endless parade of merchandise travels through San Bernardino County, making it America’s major logistics hub.
Often before those goods make their way to their secondary, tertiary, quaternary or ultimate destinations, they are reposited into warehouses where a determination of where they are to be transported is made.
In this atmosphere, warehouse developers, the owners of property to be converted to warehousing, land speculators and anyone involved in the construction of warehouses can make a lot of money. Continue reading →

Those who rush can yet secure a reservation to hear Sheriff Shannon Dicus address the Redlands Republican Women’s Club during its luncheon at the Redlands Country Club on April 21.
For $25 and either an email to reservations@RedlandsRWF.org or a phone call to Laurie Tremain at 909-792-2501, a ticket to the event, which is to last from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. and will include the serving of lunch, can be had.
Those who cannot get a ticket to the event, to be held at 1749 Garden Street, can hear the sheriff’s address, but will not be seated for lunch.
Dicus was appointed to the the San Bernardino County sheriff’s post by the board of supervisors in 2021 upon the recommendation of his predecessor, John McMahon. He is the latest holder of the sheriff’s reins as the head of the historic Frank Bland Political Machine, which came into existence in 1954 when Frank Bland defeated then-incumbent Sheriff Gene Mueller. Control of the machine passed from Bland to Floyd Tidwell in 1982, from Tidwell to Dick Williams in 1990, from Williams to Gary Penrod in 1994, from Penrod to Rod Hoops in 2009 and from Hoops to McMahon in 2012.
Dicus graduated from Twentynine Palms Highs School and served in the U.S. Army for three years as a military policemen assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, in which capacity he was deployed to the Middle East and South America. After his discharge from the Army, Dicus returned to San Bernardino County where he worked for the Office of Veterans Affairs as a police officer at the Jerry L. Pettis Veterans Hospital in Loma Linda.
Dicus holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University San Bernardino in criminal justice studies. He has a master’s degree in communication from California Baptist University.
With the sheriff’s department, he was assigned at one time or another to the department’s corrections division at the Glen Helen Rehabilitation and West Valley Detention centers. He worked patrol out of the Apple Valley, Victorville, Barstow and Victor Valley sheriff’s stations. He worked in the department’s specialized investigations unit as a narcotics detective. He was assigned to the special weapons and tactics team, known as SWAT. He for a time worked in the department’s intelligence division, which was attached to the department’s command echelon, a position from which he and that unit’s investigators gathered compromising information relating to the county’s politicians, elected officials and community leaders, in particular the council members in the cities and towns which contract with the sheriff’s department to provide law enforcement services. He also had a supervisory assignment in the department’s technical services, communications and records divisions, as well as its bureau of administration.
With the 2017 retirement of Assistant Sheriff David Williams, who previously appeared to be on a trajectory to succeed McMahon as sheriff, an effort to groom Dicus as the next sheriff began. Dicus moved into the undersheriff post, where he had immediate authority over the internal affairs division which is referred to in San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department parlance as the professional standards division, its civil liabilities division which goes hand-in-hand with professional standards, and the bureau of administration.

By James Joyce

I hear an army charging upon the land,   
  And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:   
Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,   
  Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.   
   
They cry unto the night their battle-name:        
  I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.   
They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,   
  Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.   
   
They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:   
  They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore. 
My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?   
  My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?

By Mark Gutglueck

I
Muhammad, Jesus and the Gautama were standing together near the street corner closest to the Café of Eternity after having had a sumptuous breakfast, for which Muhammad had paid the tab and the Gautama had left a generous tip. Jesus was feeling a little self-conscious because he had only recently returned from five weeks and five days in the desert, and he had no silver on him. Soon their animated conversation devolved from some good-natured repartee having to do with the exigencies of living into a heated exchange between Muhammad and Jesus over hindrances to happiness during earthly existence. The Gautama interrupted them, saying, “You will excuse me, gentlemen, but I am must go to the apothecary to get my wife some lavender soap.”

II
The Gautama came into the apothecary, rattling the bell when he opened the door and then shut it behind him. The proprietor came out from the back and asked what it was the Gautama needed.

“Do you perhaps have some violet scented soap made from sheep tallow?” asked the Gautama.

“I am afraid we are out of that product at the moment,” said the pharmacist, “but we do have some castile bars of suet and lilic.”

III
The Gautama came out from the apothecary carrying a pleasantly scented package and headed in an easterly direction on the sidewalk back toward the Highway of Eternity. As he approached his two friends he could see that they had calmed down somewhat, though Jesus still had something of an agitated cast to his aspect. As he came into earshot, the Guatama could hear what was being said.

“Well, I’m just telling you that I have found very little in the way of anything here that is useful in the narrative I’m trying to construct,” said Jesus.

“Might I suggest then that you just scrape off whatever surface material you find and put those scrapings in an envelope in the file or into a test tube with a stopper so we have them for further examination and analysis later?” said Mohammed.

Notice is hereby given pursuant to
Sections 3071 of the Civil Code of the
State of California the undersigned will
sell the following vehicle(s) at lien sale at
said address below on: 04/28/2023 09:00 AM
Year of Car / Make of Car / Vehicle ID No. / License No. (State)
18 FIAT  ZFBCFXDB4JP651918 8KJH650  CA
To be sold by AGUIARS TOWING,INC 10785 SANTA FE AVE E  HESPERIA  CA   92345
Said sale is for the purpose of satisfying
lien for together with costs of advertising
and expenses of sale.
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on April 14, 2023

SUMMONS – (FAMILY LAW)
NOTICE TO RESPONDENT (AVISO AL DEMANDADO): PAULINE PHUONG BUTCHER-TRUONG
YOU HAVE BEEN SUED. Read the information below and on the next page. Lo han demandado. Lea la informacion a continuacion y en la pagina siguiente.
PETITIONER’S NAME IS (Nombre del demandante): JAMES STEPHEN BUTCHER
CASE NUMBER FLHE2206214
You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (Form FL-120) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter or phone call will not protect you. If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnership, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs. For legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. Get help finding a lawyer at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.cagov/selfhelp), at the California Legal Services website (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), or by contacting your local county bar association.
Tiene 30 DIAS DE CALENDARIO después de haber recibido la entrega legal de esta Citacion y Peticion para presentar una Respuesta (formulario FL-120) ante la corte y efectuar la entrega legal de una copia al demandante. Una carta o liamada telefonica o una audiencia de la corte no basta para protegerio. Si no presenta su Respuesta a tiemp, la corte puede dar ordenes que afecten su matrimonio o pareja de heco, sus bienes y la custodia de sus hijos. La corte tambien le puede ordenar que pague manutencion, y honorarios y costos legales. Para asesoramiento legal, pongase en contacto de inmediato con un abogado. Puede obtener informacion para encontrar un abogado en el Contro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www.sucorte.ca.gov), en el sitio web de los Servicios Legales de California (www.lahelpca.org) o poniendose en contacto con el colegio de abodgados de su condado.
NOTICE – Restraining orders on page 2: These restraining orders are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until the petition is dismissed, a judgment is entered, or the court makes further orders. They are enforceable anywhere in California by any law enforcement officer who has received or seen a copy of them.
AVISO – Las ordenes de restriction se encuentran en la pagina 2 : Las ordenes de restriccion estan en vigencia en cuanto a ambos conyuges o miembros de la pareja de hecho hasta que se despida la peticion, se emita un fallo o la corte de otras ordenes. Cualquier agencia del orden publico que haya rocibido o visto una copia de estas ordenes puede hacerlas acatar en cualquier lugar de California.
FEE WAIVER : If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form. The court may order you to pay back all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for you or the other party.
Exencion de cuotas : Si no puede pagar la cuota de presentacion, pida al secretario un formulario de execion de cuotas. La corte puede ordenar que ested pague, ya sea en parte o por completo, las cuotas y costos de la corte previamente exentos a peticion de usted o de la otra parte.
SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA
COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE
Filed: OCTOBER 12, 2022
The name and address of the court is: (El nombre y dirrecion de la corte son):
HEMET COURTHOUSE
880 N. STATE STREET
HEMET, CA 92543
The name, address and telephone number of petitioner’s attorney, or petitioner without an attorney, are: (El nombre, direccion y numero de telefono del abogado del demandante, o del demendante si no tiene abogado, son):
ANDREW L. WESTOVER, CFLS (STATE BAR #253398)
WESTOVER LAW GROUP, APC.
24640 JEFFERSON AVENUE, SUITE 204
MURRIETA, CA 92562
(951) 894-8440
Case electronically filed: OCTOBER 12, 2022
by Maria Martinez, Deputy (Asistente) for Clerk of the Court (Secretario)
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on March 24, 31 and April 7 & 14, 2023.

Continue reading →

By Mark Gutglueck
In Greek mythology, Cassandra is a Trojan priestess upon whom the god Apollo conferred the gift of prophecy but whom the Fates cursed by ensuring that no one believed her utterances. Time and again, Cassandra would predict an outcome that individuals and whole societies would prefer not to hear and after her warnings were disregarded, events would transpire to attest her unerring wisdom. Her warnings, nonetheless, were ever disregarded, leading to unenviable outcomes for those ignoring her.
In San Bernardino County and particularly in Redlands, Steve Rogers, a civil engineer, has proven out to be a modern Cassandra of sorts, one who has accurately foretold, or at least predicted, critical issues in the way public works projects have been poorly planned, engineered or executed, sometimes with devastating effect.
The most recent example of this is Tuesday night’s horrific collision in which Dr. Heather Lynn Woolard and her 11-year-old daughter were in a silver sedan northbound on Alabama Street north of Redlands Boulevard at around 8:24 pm. when the mother and daughter became trapped on the Arrow Route railroad tracks running between Redlands and San Bernardino and were hit by a Metrolink train traveling west from the University of Redlands moving about 50 miles per hour. Continue reading →