On Saturday March 11th, the fourth bald eagle count of the winter was conducted by local federal and state biologists and volunteers around lakes in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains.
Volunteers enjoyed clear skies and warm temperatures while looking for America’s national bird. The count was successful in tallying the bald eagles spending their winter vacations at local lakes.
A grand total of 15 eagles (9 adults and 5 juveniles, 1 eaglet) were observed at the lake areas during the one hour count. Six eagles (3 adults, 2 juveniles, and 1 eaglet) were observed in the Big Bear/Baldwin Lake area; five eagles (2 adults and 3 juveniles) at Lake Arrowhead/Lake Gregory; 1 adult eagle at Silverwood Lake; and 1 adult eagle was observed at Lake Hemet in Riverside County. While no eagles were observed during the count at Lake Perris, state park ecologist Ken Keitzer stated “the volunteers had a really good time and saw lots of other cool birds.” Volunteers at Diamond Valley Lake, a new census location, observed two adult bald eagles. Juvenile eagles are distinguished by a brown head and tail; adults are recognized by the famous white head and tail – it takes 4-5 years to acquire full adult coloration. Juvenile eagles are the same size as the adults.
Approximately 222 volunteers participated in the 1-hour eagle census (54 in the Big Bear area, 21 at Lake Arrowhead/Lake Gregory, 32 at Lake Hemet, 45 at Silverwood Lake, 60 at Lake Perris, and 10 volunteers at Diamond Valley Lake). The Forest Service and state recreation area biologists expressed their gratitude to the volunteers for their dedication in getting up early and participating in the eagle census.
While this was the last census for this season, the Forest Service and California Department of Fish and Game need more volunteers to monitor the nest site at Big Bear Lake and provide the public with opportunities to view the eaglet from a safe distance. The volunteers will be stationed with spotting scopes at Dana Point Park in Fawnskin. “We are working on getting volunteers scheduled to be there at least on the weekends and hopefully on a lot of weekdays,” said volunteer coordinator Meredith Brandon. People interested in helping monitor the bald eagle nest may contact Brandon at (909) 382-2842 or mbrandon@nationalforestassociation.org.
District biologist Robin Eliason will be presenting a talk on bald eagles at 11 a.m. on March 17th and March 24th at the San Bernardino National Forest Big Bear Discovery Center. For additional information about the bald eagle nest viewing opportunities, contact the Big Bear Discovery Center (909) 382-2789.

Though the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee steered clear of showing any preference, the California Republican Party has endorsed incumbent Congressman Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) over State Senator Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) in their respective efforts to capture the GOP nomination in the race for Congress in the newly redrawn California 31st Congressional District.
The California Republican Party at a convention in Burbank on March 11 made a host of endorsements of GOP members seeking state and congressional offices. Prior to that meeting, state Republican party officials asked local party officials for their recommendations but the San Bernardino County GOP Central Committee declined to endorse either Miller or Dutton.
The race should prove an interesting one. Dutton is the scion of the Dutton Family. His father, Ted, is a wealthy speculator, landowner and developer. Ted Dutton has bankrolled much of his son’s political career, which consisted of two terms on the Rancho Cucamonga City Council, two years in the California Assembly and seven years to date in the California Senate, the last two as Republican leader,
Miller has served as congressman in California’s 42nd Congressional District for nine years and was congressman in the 41st Congressional District for four years previous to that. Miller has relied less upon personal or family wealth but has a political war chest approaching a million dollars in addition to having ready access to the check writing capability of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
In the 31st Congressional District, Miller finds himself somewhat afield from his established constituency. The current 42nd Congressional District which Miller represents is a Republican bastion which encompasses all or portions of Chino, Chino Hills, Rowland Heights, La Habra, Brea, Yorba Linda, and Diamond Bar. The 31st District covers all or portions of Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Rialto, Loma Linda, Grand Terrace, Colton, Muscoy, Ontario and San Bernardino, major portions of which Dutton has represented.
It now appears to be a footrace between the better financed Miller and Dutton, who has greater familiarity with the 31st District’s communities, for the nomination.
Miller declared his candidacy in the 31st following an official announcement from Representative Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, that he will retire after 17 terms in Congress. Mr. Lewis, is the congressman from the current 41st District, a portion of which has been folded into the new 31st District.
Miller does not live in the new 31st District as does Dutton. Miller will not need to relocate into the new 31st Congressional District to run there. Many voters will be surprised to learn that unlike city, county, and state requirements for elected officials as well as federal requirements for senators and the presidency, there is no requirement that members of Congress reside in the district each represents.
According to the U.S. Constitution, a member of Congress must be at least 25 years old, a citizen of the United States for at least seven years, and an inhabitant of the state from which he or she is elected.
In Article I, section 2 the Constitution states: “No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.”
Congressional as well as state legislative districts are redrawn every 10 years following the U.S. census. California requires residency in legislative districts, but, like all states, cannot mandate the same of congressional candidates since the federal constitution trumps any state efforts.
Miller throughout his Congressional career has enjoyed the comfort and advantage of running in districts where the Republicans held a decided voter registration advantage over Democrats. That is not the case in the 31st, which leans slightly in favor of Democrats.
While the GOP predominates in Rancho Cucamonga and Grand Terrace and holds a marginal lead in Redlands and Loma Linda, the cities of Rialto, Colton, Muscoy, Ontario and San Bernardino are Democratic strongholds
Both Miller and Dutton believe they can win in November because of the Republican tendency for greater voter turnout and their relatively superior fundraising capability compared to the Democrats. Nevertheless, a no-holds-barred campaign against each other in the primary campaign could deplete the reservoir of funding the winner will have to run against the prevailing Democrat in November. Among Democrats, Redlands mayor Pete Aguilar and Renea Wickman are declared candidates for their party’s nomination in the 31st Congressional District.

LOMA LINDA—After 20 years on the city council, Stan Brauer will be leaving office later this year. Brauer was first elected in 1992, reelected four times since and was appointed by his colleagues to serve as mayor for four years, He has decided against serving a sixth term.
Three of the positions on the city council in Loma Linda are up for election this year. Two of the incumbents whose terms expire this year, Rhodes Rigsby and Ovie Popescu, are seeking reelection.
Rigsby is currently serving in the appointed mayor’s slot.
John Lenart, a medical doctor at Loma Linda University Medical Center who is currently serving on the planning commission, has filed for candidacy on the council.
With only three in the race, the city is likely to cancel the June election, declare the three winners, and save the city $12,000 in election costs.

The Drug Enforcement Administration this week accomplished what the city of Upland’s expenditure of over $440,000 in legal fees over the last two-and-a-half years could not when officials raided the G3 Holistics medical marijuana clinic at 1710 W. Foothill Boulevard in this city of 73,732.
The DEA agents, accompanied by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies, carted off roughly 25 pounds of marijuana and 89 pounds of cannabis-laced foodstuffs, effectively drawing operations at the facility to a close.
No arrests were made during the raid, though at least four customers were briefly detained, including being handcuffed while they were being questioned. At least two employees were also questioned.
The DEA agents seized customer records, the contents of an office safe, security videotaping equipment, along with the recording software from an on-premises automatic teller machine.
Aaron Sandusky, the owner of G3 Holistics, said the raid was a “terrorist tactic” aimed at warding off his customers and destroying his business.
After G3 Holistics began operating in Upland in 2009, the city acted to directly prevent it from operating, employing zoning restrictions and seeking to obtain court orders to force its closure. Meanwhile, Sandusky, through his attorney Roger Diamond, posited legal arguments that such clinics are legal under state law. The city succeeded in temporarily closing down the G3 Collective in August 2010 after the city filed an injunction in West Valley Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga, but that injunction was stayed by Sandusky’s appeal of the city’s blanket prohibition of medical marijuana dispensaries. On November 9, 2011 the Fourth District Court of Appeals in Riverside ruled that Upland’s banning of clinics did not contradict Proposition 215, the 1996 law that approved medical marijuana in the state, but Sandusky appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court. The G3 Holistics operation in Upland closed down after the Drug Enforcement Agency raided the club on November 1, 2011. Sandusky, on Diamond’s advice, reopened the collective on December 30 on the theory that a stay was in effect while the case is pending before the State Supreme Court.
State law is far more permissive than federal law with regard to marijuana and it is widely perceived that the city’s legal efforts against the clinic, which had previously failed to shutter the operation, has been superfluous as the federal government, in the form of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, is now taking steps against such operations throughout the state, including this week’s operation and the November raid of the G3 clinic in Upland. Drug Enforcement Agency officers told Sandusky in January that he is in violation of federal law. Given the evidence collected against the operation by the agents in November and this week, federal charges may or may not be filed against Sandusky and his employees.
Upland councilman Gino Filippi told the Sentinel, “The California Supreme Court deems the issue of the operation of medical marijuana dispensaries in the City of Upland, as well as other neighboring cities, to be a significant issue to resolve. I have and currently support our city’s direction and the laws as it applies to medical marijuana dispensaries. While I also understand the arguments and facts presented by those who support the need for medicinal marijuana, the city has made it clear that medical marijuana dispensaries are not a permitted or allowed use.
“I remain concerned with the amount of financial resources and attorney’s fees the city of Upland continues to incur in dealing with medical marijuana dispensaries operating in the city, when our general funds are needed for the operation of general services that the city provides to our citizens,” Filippi continued. “The city has paid approximately $500,000 in legal costs on the medical marijuana issue alone. As I have been saying for months, it does not make sense to me to keep spending. As to any issue regarding the stay of enforcement with the city’s prior injunction prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries, I look forward to the California Supreme Court’s ultimate decision in this matter.”

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors this week revised a portion of the county’s general plan relating to any future development in Oak Glen.
Oak Glen is an unincorporated district of the county in the foothills above Yucaipa famous for its apple orchards.
According to Christine Kelly, the county’s director of land use services, in March 2007 the board of supervisors updated the county’s general plan with regard to development standards in 13 communities including Oak Glen, and by that update had aimed to preserve the rural character of the community by maintaining agricultural activities, low-density residential development, and limited commercial development in accordance with the wishes of local residents and landowners. Kelly this week told the board of supervisors, “It was intended that this would be accomplished by balancing the desire for the preservation of the rural character of the area with the desire to provide local jobs and promote local businesses through agritourism opportunities. However, since that time, it has become apparent that certain clarifications to the code are warranted. Many of the residents in the community expected all businesses within the rural living land use zoning district would be subject to the agritourism development standards outlined in the development code, but that is not the case as the code is currently adopted.”
The ordinance passed on Tuesday which amends the Oak Glen Community Plan specifies regulations on non-agritourism business, including hours of operation limited to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on outdoor activities. The ordinance further requires that all amplified music be indoors unless a special event permit is obtained, or when the music is played a minimum of 330 feet from the nearest residence.

The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board on March 14 approved Pacific Gas & Electric’s payment of $3.6 million as a regulatory settlement for failing to adequately address chromium contamination in the High Desert community of Hinkley.
Of the total $3.6 million in fines and administrative charges assessed against the company, $1.8 million will be used to develop a water supply replacement system at Hinkley Elementary School. The fines and charges were imposed because PG&E failed to adhere to Lahontan’s order to sequester a plume of chromium 6 spreading through the water table below Hinkley to its known limits as of 2008.
Four years ago, Lahontan ordered PG&E to dam the aquifer at Thompson Road, install extraction wells north of Thompson Road and collect any chromium 6 before it migrated south of Thompson Road. PG&E claims it was unable to move ahead with that plan partially because of the concerns of environmentalists that the work could harm the habitat of desert tortoises and Mojave ground squirrels in the area.
Between 1952 and 1966, PG&E used chromium 6, also known as hexavalent chromium, to reduce corrosion in its cooling towers for the compression stations the company maintained to transport natural gas in pipelines that stretched from fields in New Mexico and Texas to San Francisco. The chromium 6-laden water was disposed of in unlined trenches near Hinkley, and the highly toxic substance leached into the water table.
Chromium 6 is a man-made compound, does not occur in nature and represents a far greater health hazard than naturally occurring Chromium 3. Testing of wells around Hinkley Elementary School pegged the chromium 6 content at 2 parts per billion. The federal Environmental Protection Agency standard for chromium in drinking water is 100 parts per billion, but the State of California calculates that .02 parts per billion of chromium 6 is a more realistic standard. Chromium 6 has been linked to gastrointestinal tumors, liver and kidney damage, and stomach cancer.
PG&E admitted no wrongdoing in making the settlement. While some local residents had initially indicated they would accept the $3.6 million settlement, since that time a vocal group among them called for it to be rejected. They said the entirety of the $3.6 million should be applied to redressing the plume. Half of the money will go to Lahontan for administrative costs. Residents said Lahontan should reject the settlement because PG&E is acknowledging no responsibility for the contamination. They called upon Lahontan to impose a heftier fine. The Lahontan board ultimately rejected that request, finding that in addition to paying the $3.6 million settlement, the company would continue with the chromium 6 abatement effort.

SPRING VALLEY LAKE—With two of four incumbents whose positions are up for election in this year’s race ineligible to seek reinstatement to the Spring Valley Lake Association Board of Directors, there will be a total of five candidates on the ballot for the board April 28.
Incumbents Jeff Morgan, who is currently Spring Valley Lake Association vice president, and recent board appointee Scott Eckert are vying to remain on the board. They are joined by challengers Marvin Jobes, Dennis Verhagen and Mike Visser.
Current vice president Ernie Martell and Ken Bodle cannot run again, as both have served two consecutive terms on the board and thus must depart because of the term limitations in the association’s charter.
There are 8,220 people living in 3,072 households at Spring Valley Lake, which encompasses 2.969 square miles of land surrounding a .564 square mile man-made lake. The community has not yet reached build out, as there are 4,200 parcels in the confines of the property.
Residents at Spring Valley Lake are now wrestling with approval of the site plan and environmental impact report for the 25-acre Tamarisk Marketplace project, which is to involve a Wal-Mart supercenter to be built near the community’s entrance on Bear Valley Road.
Another perpetual issue at Spring Valley Lake is the continual tension between preventing runaway homeowner costs to maintain and administer the association while providing services and amenities.
Those elected at the April 28 election will join treasurer Ilene Bandringa, secretary Derek Couse and director Jonathan Tasker on the board.
A candidate forum will be held at 10 a.m. on March 31 at the Equestrian Estates Clubhouse, at 12660 Indian River Drive, Apple Valley.
The election will be held at the Spring Valley Lake Association Community Building and commence

TWENTYNINE PALMS—The Twentynine Palms Planning Commission now has a full complement of five members.
On February 27, the city council designated Pamela Carmichael and Richard Banneck to serve the remaining unexpired terms of Steve Whitten and Christina Benton, both of whom resigned last year. The city council had previously sought to replace Whitten with Christopher Plummer, but Plummer declined the appointment. The selections were made on the basis of evaluations of candidates for the positions done by councilmen Joel Klink and Jim Harris.
On March 6 Carmichael, an account manager, and Banneck, an architect, took up their positions on the panel.

The Inland area consisting of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties qualifies as one of the most racially diverse regions in the nation, according to a recently completed demographic study by sociologists at the University of Southern California published March 15.
California already qualifies as the most
Survey Defines SB County As Particularly Racially Diverseracially and ethnically mixed state in the nation. Within Southern California and the five-counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino, the latter two counties are the most diverse, with 81 percent of Riverside County cities and 71 percent of San Bernardino County cities defined as “multiethnic.”
Surprisingly, in Los Angeles County, which is home to the city of Los Angeles – widely considered one of the most cosmopolitan of the world’s major population centers – 53 percent of its cities meet the multiethnic criteria, which is well below San Bernardino County. In both Orange and Ventura counties, 60 percent of their cities are recognized as multiethnic.
To be defined as multiethnic, a city’s second largest ethnic group had to compose at least 20 percent of the population or have three different races or ethnicities make up at least 15 percent of the population, or otherwise have its fourth largest group represent at least 8 percent of the population.
The study made further distinctions as to the blend of cultures, race and ethnicity, creating categories that measured the level of diversity, such as “three-way” and “four-way” multiracial cities. Four-way cities, which were defined as the most racially balanced, had a population wherein the largest of the city’s racial and ethnic groups did not exceed 55 percent and the fourth largest group was no less than 8 percent
Of the 182 incorporated cities in the five counties, 13 were considered four-way, with three of those – Rancho Cucamonga, Loma Linda and Highland – in San Bernardino County.
The statistics for the study, entitled “Racially Balanced Cities in Southern California, 1999 to 2010,” were compiled by USC students and professors working within the PopDynamics Research Group in the Sol Price School of Public Policy, based upon data provided in the 2010 census. The work was overseen by USC professor of demographics, Dowell Myers.
An ironic finding of the study was that some cities are now so heavily Hispanic that they failed to obtain the multiethnic label. Colton, with a population of 52,154; San Bernardino, with a population of 209,924; Rialto, with a population of 99,171; and Fontana, with a 196,069 all have Latino populations exceeding 60 percent and all other ethnic groups in those cities were less that 20 percent of their respective head counts. Both San Bernardino and Riverside counties had the largest increases in Hispanics between 2000 and 2010 of any U.S. metropolitan areas.
The incorporated towns of Yucca Valley and Apple Valley, both of which have sizeable Caucasian populations, were not considered multiethnic.
In San Bernardino County overall, 49.2 percent of the population is Hispanic, 33.3 percent is Caucasian, 8.4 percent is African-American, 6.1 percent is Asian, 0.4 percent is Indian, and 0.3 percent is Islander. Those cataloging themselves as other are 0.2 percent and 2.1 percent say they fit in two of the categories.

CHINO HILLS –The mediation effort between the city of Chino Hills and Southern California Edison to find alternatives to the 200-foot high power line towers Edison is building through this upscale community has broken down. As a result, it now appears that the city’s last hope hinges on the outcome of a petition for modification to the California Public Utilities Commission, the same panel that in December 2009 authorized the construction of the towers through the heart of Chino Hills.
The $2.1 billion Tehachapi Line, a portion of which is to traverse the city, is intended to convey electricity from what will be the nation’s largest wind farm in Kern County to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area.
The city of Chino Hills has expended more than $2 million to fund a legal effort to block the project and over the same two year period enlisted the help of local legislators in seeking to prevent Edison from intensifying its use of its existing utility corridor through town. Both the court and the legislative efforts failed to provide the city relief, as the judge hearing the case and the state legislature deferred to the utilities commission final authority on the matter. In October, even as Edison was erecting the towers, city officials made a desperate plea to the California Public Utility Commission, which now has three new members who did not participate in the December 2009 vote, to reconsider that approval. The city lobbied all of the commission’s members and induced the  chairman of the commission, Michael Peevey, to visit Chino Hills and see first hand the towers and their overbearing proximity to the city’s residential neighborhoods.

Michael Peevey

On October 19, the commission ordered a temporary halt to the project over an issue unrelated to the city’s protests, i.e., the failure to include red lights on the towers to ensure their visibility to low-flying aircraft. The city followed up on October 31 with an application for a rehearing and motion for partial stay of the 2009 decision and in response, the commission extended the tower construction stay and directed Southern California Edison to produce by January 10 a feasibility study on an alternative route for the transmission line through or around Chino Hills.  On January 10, Southern California Edison offered up four variant ways of bringing the electricity through Chino Hills by means other than the 200-foot high towers. Those methods were routing the lines through Chino Hills State Park, undergrounding 500 kilovolt lines through the city, utilizing a route that skirted the perimeter of the city, and using the existing right of way with shorter and more closely-spaced towers.
Also in January, administrative law judge Jean Vieth directed Southern California Edison to give serious consideration to a suggestion by Michael B. Day, the city’s legal counsel, that the utility company could use a single circuit 400 kV underground cable to transmit the electricity.
Vieth called upon the city of Chino Hills and Edison to initiate a mediation of the matter by early February. In sixteen total days of negotiations, the two sides were unable to come to terms over how Edison could meet its mandate of delivering the electricity through some alternative means and recoup its losses after having in good faith erected 12 of the 18 towers that were to span the city.
Edison officials are faced with the reality that even the least expensive alternative at this point will entail an added expense of no less than $8 million, given that two thirds of the towers intended for Chino Hills are already erected. The plan approved in 2009 by the California Public Utilities Commission is the least expensive method, at a cost of $166 million. The alternative of erecting shorter towers would boost that projection to at least $174 million and perhaps as much as $192 million. By skirting the city and going through the state park, the cost would escalate to at least $424 million and could go as high as $589 million. The undergrounding option would be the most expensive, running from $601 million to more than $1 billion, Southern California Edison officials maintain. Reportedly, when having Chino Hills pick up the difference in the cost was broached by Edison’s representatives, city officials balked, ultimately leading to a collapse in the mediation effort.
Consequently, the matter will now return for a determination by an administrative law judge. A prehearing conference for that process has been set for March 19.