By Mark Gutglueck
The fentanyl overdose death of an Upland High student last weekend entailed elements that virtually all of those involved in the fatality, even at the most removed and indirect levels, are loathe to have fully explored for a variety of reasons, from potential criminal culpability to political correctness to philosophical discomfort to deep personal grief. Simultaneously, family members, school district officials and police investigators are all stymied by questions about what occurred, what responses are appropriate and socially acceptable and how much information can and should be released. Consideration extends to the balance between the courtesy of being respectful to family members grieving their loss versus the necessity of making efforts to prevent the victim’s misfortune from being visited upon others.
At once the victim in this case was similar and profoundly different from others, one who was born female but in the last several years had become persuaded that he was more properly identified as male. With the apparent concurrence of her parents, she began a transition as early as the fifth grade to being a man, using a variety of hormones and chemicals, including testosterone, to suppress her female traits and adopt or take on male characteristics. Continue reading →

A wide cross section of the fewer than the 1,200 residents of the 75-square mile expanse of Wonder Valley and its outlying environs is adamantly opposed to the general concept of converting the 4,407-square foot former Southern California Edison facility most commonly known by locals as “the pink building” near the southwest corner of Gammel and Amboy Road into a year-round resort to be dubbed the Wonder Valley Inn.
No Wonder Valley residents contacted by the Sentinel and no Wonder Valley residents contacting the Sentinel are in favor of the project.
Greenberg and Landver in November 2021 applied for a conditional use permit, including a rezoning request for 21.22 of the acres on the site which are currently zoned for low density housing under the county’s RL-5 zoning designation, to CS, or commercial service use, to allow the project as proposed to proceed. The current RL-5 designation allows single family homes on lots no smaller than five acres. Greenberg and Landver either own outright or have tied up approximately 134.6 acres at the Amboy/Gammel corner, which bears the address of 78201 Amboy Road. The 3.18 acres closest to the two roads is already zoned for commercial service use. Continue reading →

After More Than A Decade During Which Valdivia & Bankruptcy Devastated The City

After a nearly 11-year absence, Charles McNeely is back in the position of San Bernardino city manager.
In December, in the final weeks of John Valdivia’s tenure as mayor, Robert Field was persuaded to resign as the county seat’s city manager. The following month, with Helen Tran having supplanted
Valdivia as mayor, she and the council agreed on having McNeely, who had served as San Bernardino city manager from 2009 until 2012, return to the position of top administrator on an interim basis.
Some have observed that San Bernardino, at 62.45 square miles and a population of 222,101, simply wasn’t big enough for both Valdivia and McNeely.
It certainly appears that Valdivia’s tenure in the capacity of an elected official in San Bernardino was incompatible with McNeely’s service in the capacity as that city’s administrator.
In 2009, McNeely was the city manager of Reno, Nevada, the self-styled Biggest Little City in the Word, when he was lured to take on the city manager’s post in San Bernardino.
Coming into that position, McNeely recognized he faced a challenge, as San Bernardino was struggling to overcome stiff financial headwinds, ones that were an outgrowth of the decision by the Department of Defense a decade-and-a-half previously to shutter Norton Air Force Base in 1994. In the intervening time, the local economy had contracted, such that throughout the first decade of the Third Millennium San Bernardino was engaging in deficit spending with each annual budget, depleting the reserves the municipality had built up over the course of nearly a century. Continue reading →

Those living within even distant proximity to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Wonder Valley, Desert Heights, Landers, Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley, Johnson Valley and the Morongo Basin will need endure the rolling sound of thunderous cannons, mortars, impacting shells, gunfire and explosives as well as aircraft while the Marine Corps conducts a series of training events known as service level training exercises throughout February.
The service level training exercises are highly realistic combat simulations utilizing live ammunition and actively engaged armament to prepare Marines and other U.S. and allied participating forces to deliver “rapid, powerful and sustainable response on a global scale,” according to the Marine Corps. “Critical training performed by Marines and sailors aboard the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center prepares them for combat. They must train as they would fight — using the mortars, artillery, tanks, aircraft and guns they would use in combat.” Continue reading →

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigators are struggling to get a fix on the motive and possible suspect or suspects in the murder of three family members discovered in a residential home on a cul-de-sac in the West End on January 30.
The victims have been identified as Sonia C. Ramirez, 68; her husband, George M. Ramirez, whose age was given as 66 but was actually 72, having been born on April 30, 1950; and their son, David Ramirez, also known as David Renteria, 43. The three were found shot to death in the home located at 4804 Ramona Place, in the unincorporated county area north of Chino, south of Montclair, west of Ontario and east of Pomona and the Los Angeles County line.
The sheriff’s department was called to the 1,350-square foot, two-story three-bedroom home at 9:09 p.m. by an unidentified individual, believed to be one of the three other residents of the house, who came upon the bodies shortly before the call was made.
Deputies working out of the Chino Hills Sheriff’s Station, which is roughly 6.4 miles from the home, were dispatched to the scene, arriving there after a driving time of about 11 minutes.
Continue reading →

The San Bernardino City Council this week declared the city it oversees to be in a state of emergency based on the housing and homelessness crisis that has beset it.
Making the declaration furthered the council’s administrative authority to implement a series of measures to meet the dire consequences of homelessness among what has exceeded half of one percent the city’s population.
The 220,101-population city at present has some 1,350 residents who are officially homeless.
After hearing a staff report on the matter that was presented by Cassandra Searcy, who was hired nearly seven months ago as the city’s deputy director of housing and homelessness, the council voted to expedite the develop of shelters and interim housing, work with landlords to rent available vacant apartments to those who are unhoused and speed up the permitting processes on new housing construction.
Searcy gave an overview of efforts the city has made generally over the past fifteen years and specifically more recently in dealing with the crisis. She said that in some measure, “the city has done things right.”
According to Searcy, “Homelessness is a national issue. It is negatively impacting the city it is true, but it’s not only affecting the unhoused population, it’s also affecting those who are housed. It’s affecting our neighbors. It’s affecting the community. It’s affecting everyone. For years, the city has partnered with multiple service agencies to provide shelter to provide care and assistance, but unfortunately, with those efforts, it doesn’t really seem to be having an impact. So, we need to shift gears and we need to identify what are the gaps and what programs and services do we need to put in place. It is true that housing ends homelessness, but we can’t negate the fact that we still need to have some level of interim housing and shelters to help people stabilize so they can successfully transition into permanent housing.” Continue reading →

Book Review
By Carol Sissom
In my estimation, The Prophetic Almanac 2023 is a must have book for the upcoming year.
Written by a Rancho Cucamonga author, it will be of interest to locals for that reason, but I recommend it to everyone, not just those Rancho Cucamonga residents enthused about their city’s literary talent.
I believe that nurses, doctors, paramedics, teachers, policemen, congressmen and bakery workers will have an especial interest in this offering, which deserves more than a one-paragraph review on Amazon or Walmart.com.
The author, Pastor Bill Jenkins, is an author and businessman is a life-changing individual and his recent, latest work of prose is something that could very well save your life.
I write from experience, based upon Pastor Jenkins 2021 undertaking, The Prophetic Almanac 2022.
It was Christmas season 2021 and I was in shopping mode when I first saw it.
“A handbook,” I mused. “A new book for Christmas? What a nice, lovely gift for someone.”
I purchased two copies of the Prophetic Almanac 2022 about 15 months ago when it came out. I meant them as unique and heart-felt gifts when I ordered them for my daughter, an adult school teacher, and for a very close friend of mine who lives in Florida. I was thrilled to give them an autographed book and then I ordered a few copies for myself to keep in my car and my house.
Just so you know, while some people keep a first aid kit in their car, I keep a Prophetic Almanac, a dictionary, and a thesaurus around for reference. I’m just one of those people who like an old-fashioned book to hold in your hands in every room of the house. I just love books! The Prophetic Almanac is so unique, so incredible, I would say if it had a temperature gauge on it that it would register “Hot.” That’s as in “hot to touch.” I’m certain the Prophetic Almanac 2022 that I purchased in late 2021 prepared me for what hit me in 2022.
Yes, I said, “hit me” as in like a ton of bricks. Had I not read this Almanac (which is very similar to the Farmer’s Almanac), I would likely not been able to handle the two, consecutive, nearly unbearable, possibly unspeakable crisis situations that I dealt with in 2022. This book warned me in advance of what was to come. I repeat, this book gave me warning and that is what this author does and it’s spot on.
The irony is that I just didn’t know how or what it would be until one day, out of the wild blue, about mid-year, I looked out on my porch and saw the blond-hair of my ex-husband and his pretty wife knocking on my front door. It was a Saturday morning at 9 am. “Huh?” I thought to myself. “What the heck?” I said out loud as I opened the door. “It’s Saturday!” Someone who hadn’t come to my house in almost a decade was on my porch with a terrible look on his face? “Oh, no….” I said as I sunk to my knees and my stomach fell and did flip flops and I almost threw up as I realized why he was there. It wasn’t good news. After my stomach had fully collapsed, I felt myself turn pale and shaken and literally ill as I asked the two whose faces were stained with bad news, “What happened?” My daughter was in the hospital. I hadn’t heard from her in about three days and although I was mildly concerned I wasn’t too worried but there stood her Dad, his face scrunched up as he delivered the bad news to me as gently as he could. She was in the hospital. That’s all I’m going to say about that morning, because I want you to read this book for yourself. But the Prophetic Almanac Book had warned me about that morning and as I stood on the porch too shocked to sob, I remembered the book I had purchased the previous fall! It had warned me! It had warned me in advance about what was going on! Had I not read the Prophetic Almanac I don’t know if I could have handled it. This book helped me to prepare. It not only saved me from thinking the worst, I didn’t dwell on the bad because I had also read about the good that would happen to me in this book. In the other situation relating to the other person I had bought the book for, I had devastating news in the Summer of 2022 that he had been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer, that he had had to have multiple painful surgeries, that he was on dialysis and faced ancer treatment that most people couldn’t bear. I had mailed him a copy of the Prophetic Almanac! What a wretchedly difficult year for both folks born on the 22nd of the month!
The good news is that I was able to handle the year because of the book I had read. It laid out steps for me to follow and this step-by-step guide helped me navigate a difficult year.
Author Bill Jenkins is not Nostradamus, that’s for sure. He isn’t even Billy Graham or Joel Osteen. But people read Nostradamus, the most well-known prophet born in 1503 because he came from a group of Jewish doctors and scholars. Author Jenkins came from Chicago and I met him when he pastored a church in Indianapolis, known as the Crossroads of America, for 30 years. This man is spot on and he’s not only an inspirational speaker, a diagnoser-of-the-truth, and a teller-of-the-future but he’s better at what he does than any psychic or professed psychic on the planet. And a bonus feature is he is a dynamic writer.
I recommend his latest book because it might just save someone like it did me. I have purchased ten copies for my friends so far, and I plan on getting more. This book is light and easy to carry around with you if you travel. It’s similar to a college handbook or a dictionary. This book kept me from having a nervous breakdown when I got bad news and it helped me drive through some very bad traffic in my life in the year 2022. It was uplifting, fun and a quick, fun read. Of course, that’s what inspirational authors do, and Jenkins does it well.
This book is not all about preparing for the bad. It has a lot of good, happy facts in it.
Jenkins is worth following in part because of the Daily Minute that Matters feature he publishes on many social media platforms. You won’t be sorry if you buy this book.
Oh, I forgot one more thing! Remember I told you that my dad who died when I was a young girl was born on the 22nd of the month? Well, my father was an auto body repairman. About ten years ago I became a classic car show host in his memory. Last October, after hosting classic car shows for ten years, I had the largest attendance of cars I’ve ever had at my fall-festival car show. We had so many cars come out to our event we had to get spill-over parking set up. Everyone was astounded at the miraculous turnout. For me, that was a little twinkle from my Daddy in Heaven. My year wasn’t all difficult moments – I had a few spectacular ones too.
I hope you enjoy reading Jenkins’ book. Get a copy today for yourself, and a few for your friends!
ISBN-13: 9798218108892
Bill Jenkins
Destinyland Christian Center
9797 Feron Blvd.
Rancho Cucamonga, California 91730
(909) 727-3452 (his wife Britain
or
(317) 361-3007 (his personal assistant)