11/30/2018 San Bernardino County not saying who has applied for board vacancy – San Bernardino Sun
LOCAL NEWS San Bernardino County not saying who has applied for board vacancy Supervisors who campaigned for office won't say who's in the running
By SANDRA EMERSON | [email protected] | Inland Valley Daily Bulletin PUBLISHED: November 29, 2018 at 5:41 pm | UPDATED: November 29, 2018 at 5:42 pm
Residents might have to wait another week to nd out who is applying for the vacant supervisor seat.
The deadline to apply for the 3rd District vacancy is 2 p.m. Monday, Dec. 3, but the county is not releasing the names of the applicants until the day before they are to be interviewed by the board.
The county is withholding the information “in an effort to create as even a playing eld as possible for the applicants and ensure as best as possible that the board’s decision will be based solely on the applications and interviews,” said David Wert, county spokesman, via email Thursday.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/san-bernardino-county-not-saying-who-has-applied-for-board-vacancy/ 1/4 11/30/2018 San Bernardino County not saying who has applied for board vacancy – San Bernardino Sun “Even members of the Board of Supervisors have not yet been provided with the applications.”
On Nov. 13, the board voted to accept applications for the seat being vacated by Supervisor James Ramos, a Democrat who won his bid for the 40th Assembly District midway through his four-year term on the board.
The board also agreed to discuss the process again during its meeting Tuesday, Dec. 4, to assess the number of applications and whether they’ll need to make any changes.
Public interviews, and a potential a vote on their new colleague, are scheduled to happen Tuesday, Dec. 11.
Legally, the county must post the agenda for the meeting no later than 10 a.m. Monday, Dec. 10.
The board, however, has tentatively set aside additional time on Thursday, Dec. 13 and Tuesday, Dec. 18 if necessary, Wert said.
While the county is not releasing applicants’ names, a few people have con rmed their interest, including former 3rd District Supervisor Neil Derry.
Derry sat on the board from 2008 until 2012, when Ramos unseated him following a hotly contested and sometimes contentious race.
Derry also previously served on the San Bernardino City Council. He is currently vice president of public affairs for Desmond & Louis, Inc., a public relations rm.
If appointed, Derry said he wants to see the completion of the Big Bear Alpine Zoo, a project he championed while on the board. He also wants to help steer the board away from relying heavily on county staff.
“We need somebody experienced on the board,” said Derry, of Redlands.
Chris Carillo, Ramos’ deputy chief of staff, also is interested in the job.
Carillo, an attorney who also serves on the East Valley Water District Board of Directors, said he has worked in the district at the federal, county and municipal level for the past 12 years, making him well versed in the issues.
“Having served as James’s Deputy Chief of Staff for two and a half years places me in a unique position to hit the ground running,” said Carillo, of Highland.
Chris Mann, president of Mann Communications and founder of the Inland Empire Taxpayers Association, said he will be applying for the seat.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/san-bernardino-county-not-saying-who-has-applied-for-board-vacancy/ 2/4 11/30/2018 San Bernardino County not saying who has applied for board vacancy – San Bernardino Sun Mann, who currently sits on the Yucaipa Valley Water District board, also served as Supervisor Josie Gonzales’ deputy chief of staff from 2014-17.
In an emailed statement, Mann said he made the decision to apply for the seat a er being approached by a number of community leaders and organizations over the past few months.
“Since making this decision, I have been humbled by the level of support I’ve received, which includes endorsements from county labor groups, industry associations, local business leaders, and other elected of cials,” said Mann, of Yucaipa. “I have a great deal of respect for the members of the Board of Supervisors, who now have an enormously important and dif cult decision in front of them as there will no doubt be a crowded eld of highly quali ed applicants.”
Former Republican state lawmaker Bill Emmerson con rmed his application for the seat.
Emmerson served in the Assembly from 2004-10. He was elected to the Senate in 2010, but retired in 2013, saying his passion for the job diminished. He is currently senior vice president for state relations and advocacy for the California Hospital Association.
Emmerson, of Redlands, said he believes his background on public health and budgeting issues will be bene cial to the board.
“It’s a very bipartisan position and I think I can add some value using my previous legislative experience,” he said. “It’s neither Republican nor Democrat. This is about working to solve the problems at the local government level.”
The board will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4 at the county government center, 385 N. Arrowhead Ave., in San Bernardino.
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https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/san-bernardino-county-not-saying-who-has-applied-for-board-vacancy/T t T St i IVDB T St i PE 3/4 11/30/2018 A Message from Board Chairman Robert A. Lovingood – High Desert Daily
ADELANTO, APPLE VALLEY, BARSTOW, BIG BEAR LAKE, HESPERIA, OAK HILLS, PHELAN, VICTORVILLE, WRIGHTWOOD, YERMO A Message from Board Chairman Robert A. Lovingood by admin • November 29, 2018 • 0 Comments
(Victor Valley)– Sunday marks the third anniversary of the December 2, 2015 attack in San Bernardino. On that horrific day, 14 people including 13 members of our County family were taken from us in an evil act of terror.
We will always remember the people we loved and cherished and we will continue to support those who are still healing from physical and emotional wounds.
http://highdesertdaily.com/2018/11/a-message-from-board-chairman-robert-a-lovingood/ 1/3 11/30/2018 A Message from Board Chairman Robert A. Lovingood – High Desert Daily The County Environmental Health Services family and the Board of Supervisors are asking all County employees, their families, and the public to join us wherever you may be for a moment of remembrance at 10:55 a.m. on Sunday, December 2.
At that time, the County will pay tribute to those who were taken from us and the survivors on our Facebook, Twitterand Instagram accounts. We have also arranged to have full-page memorial messages printed in the Sun, Daily Bulletin, Daily Facts and Daily Press newspapers and on their websites on Sunday.
If you fly an American flag at home, we ask that you lower your flag to half-staff on Sunday in honor of those who were taken from us on that tragic day three years ago. We have asked the same of everyone in our county community.
If you are experiencing trauma due to the events of December 2, 2015, resources are available to help you. Please click here for more information.
Please continue to support those who are still hurting and healing and continue to look out for each other.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Lovingood Chairman of the Board of Supervisors
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Email * http://highdesertdaily.com/2018/11/a-message-from-board-chairman-robert-a-lovingood/ 2/3 11/30/2018 This is how San Bernardino terror attack victims have been remembered – San Bernardino Sun
LOCAL NEWS This is how San Bernardino terror attack victims have been remembered Memorials, gardens and more have been dedicated to the mass shooting victims over the past three years.
Robert and Mari Velasco stand in the memorial garden in memory of their daughter Yvette Velasco at San Sevaine Park in Fontana, Friday, Nov. 23, 2018. Yvette was one of the 14 victims at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino on Dec. 2, 2015. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
By BRIAN WHITEHEAD | [email protected] | San Bernardino https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/this-is-how-san-bernardino-terror-attack-victims-have-been-remembered/ 1/5 11/30/2018 This is how San Bernardino terror attack victims have been remembered – San Bernardino Sun Sun PUBLISHED: November 30, 2018 at 6:00 am | UPDATED: November 30, 2018 at 6:00 am
Four redbud trees welcome visitors to the labyrinth garden at San Sevaine Park in northern Fontana.
One for each of Robert and Mari Velasco’s daughters.
The couple’s youngest, Yvette, was one of 14 people killed during the Dec. 2, 2015, terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. The Cal State San Bernardino alum was an environmental health specialist, described by her family as intelligent, motivated, beautiful and full of life.
“She was more than our sister,” sibling Erica Porteous said a er the attack. “She was our soul mate.”
Three years ago, as San Bernardino County brainstormed ways to honor those killed that day, Upland’s Incredible Edible Community Garden set out to build 14 memorial groves for the victims and another for the survivors.
Six so far have been unveiled, with a seventh scheduled to be dedicated Dec. 15.
“There’s a level of trust that has to be earned by the people trying to do something like this, and the families took us in,” co-executive director Mary Petit said. “Their lives were shattered, and, though we did not know the people who were killed, we’ve gotten to know them through their families.
“It’s been amazing,” Petit continued. “It’s our own journey as well as theirs.”
San Bernardino County remembers
In the a ermath of the Dec. 2, 2015, terrorist attack, a committee of victims’ family members, law enforcement representatives and county of cials was formed to discuss ways to honor the victims, survivors and everyone else affected by the tragedy.
In May 2016, San Bernardino County Supervisor and committee leader Josie Gonzales announced that a memorial would be built at the county government center in downtown San Bernardino. https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/this-is-how-san-bernardino-terror-attack-victims-have-been-remembered/ 2/5 11/30/2018 This is how San Bernardino terror attack victims have been remembered – San Bernardino Sun Last month, the h-district supervisor said the process has been an emotional one for all involved.
“It’s extremely personal,” she said, adding that the group gleaned tips on properly honoring victims from similar committees formed following Sept. 11, 2001 and mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut and Aurora, Colorado.
“There is not a meeting that we as a committee or I as an individual do not struggle,” Gonzales said.
Late last year, the county hired San Francisco-based Community Arts to assist with design proposals.
This summer, a pool of 92 domestic and foreign applicants was whittled to 23 based on criteria created by the special committee. In September, seven artists were chosen to submit maquettes, or small models, of their ideas for the memorial.
The committee is expected to review the models in January, county spokesman David Wert said.
“I’ve worked very hard to have the committee members feel that this is their heart and soul being created in the form of the memorial. That they are the drivers,” said Gonzales, who keeps a notebook detailing every committee meeting and milestone. “Ultimately, it has to be about what they think, what they feel and what they want.
“We have one opportunity to build this memorial and only one.”
Attention to detail
What started as an ambitious, signature project by Incredible Edible Community Garden has since blossomed into an exercise in communal healing.
In addition to Yvette Velasco’s memorial grove in Fontana, groves have been planted for Bennetta Betbadal in Norco; Mike Wetzel in Lake Arrowhead; Hal Bowman in Upland; Nick Thalasinos in Colton; and Daniel Kaufman in Rialto.
This month, Isaac Amanios’ memorial will join Velasco’s at San Sevaine Park.
“This has been a proud experience for all of us, including the families,” said Eleanor Torres, the garden group’s co-executive director. “There’s a spirit of place (at the groves). By far, these places have de nite feeling to them. There is an articulation there of the individual that’s lost.
“This is so beautiful and helpful in healing.”
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/this-is-how-san-bernardino-terror-attack-victims-have-been-remembered/ 3/5 11/30/2018 This is how San Bernardino terror attack victims have been remembered – San Bernardino Sun Robert and Mari Velasco live less than two miles from San Sevaine Park, so they visit o en.
“There’s a sense here of being with (Yvette),” Mari Velasco said on a recent day. “Of peace. Of comfort.”
In April, the Velascos celebrated their late daughter’s 30th birthday at the labyrinth garden.
They’ll be there again Sunday, Dec. 2, marking another anniversary.
It’s been three years since the attack, Mari Velasco said, “and people think because time’s passed, things have changed. Things have changed, but I feel there still are a lot of things I can’t put words to.”
Like the ve other memorial groves, the labyrinth garden at San Sevaine Park is steeped in symbolism.
Twenty trees have been planted in all: four redbuds for the four Velasco girls, two olives for their parents, 13 golden rains for the 13 other victims and, in the center, a pine oak for Yvette Velasco.
Donated by the Incredible Edible Community Garden, the trees should live between 150 and 300 years.
“Our idea was to go with each family that lost a loved one and work with them to create a grove that really personi es the loss,” Torres said. “The accoutrements make all the difference.”
On a recent tour of his daughter’s garden, Robert Velasco said he healed, in part, by building seating for it.
His bench faces north.
“Her sisters always said she was their north star,” he said.
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https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/this-is-how-san-bernardino-terror-attack-victims-have-been-remembered/ 4/5 11/30/2018 Southern California counties will host public forums on sheriffs’ cooperation with ICE – San Bernardino Sun
LOCAL NEWS Southern California counties will host public forums on sheriffs’ cooperation with ICE Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties faced pressure to hold legally required meetings
State law limits how police can work with immigration officials, in part because California does not support the federal crackdown on immigrants undertaken by the Trump administration. This month, four Southern California counties will hold public forums in which sheriff departments will describe the circumstances, including legal contacts, in which they have cooperated with federal authorities. (Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP) ORG XMIT: LA513
By ROXANA KOPETMAN | [email protected] | Orange County Register PUBLISHED: November 27, 2018 at 4:40 pm | UPDATED: November 27, 2018 at 11:12 pm
Four counties in Southern California plan to hold forums in the coming month to tell the public how jail of cials in their communities worked with federal immigration agents.
Cooperation between law enforcement and federal immigration agencies is regulated in California, as part of the state’s controversial sanctuary laws, some of which took effect early this year. Annual public forums, with law enforcement discussing the ways – including legal interactions – that sheriff’s departments, police departments and others have worked with federal immigration authorities, also have been required by the TRUTH Act, a state law that took effect last year.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/27/so-cal-counties-will-host-public-forums-on-sheriffs-cooperation-with-ice/ 1/5 11/30/2018 Southern California counties will host public forums on sheriffs’ cooperation with ICE – San Bernardino Sun
The sanctuary laws have proven controversial. Many cities in California have passed resolutions or taken legal steps against the statutes, saying they violate federal law, while other cities have expressed support.
All four Southern California counties faced public pressure from community and civil rights groups to hold the public forums. Orange and San Bernardino counties will hold their events on Dec. 4; Riverside County scheduled its event for Dec. 11, and Los Angeles County has one set for Dec. 18.
All of the forums are slated to be held during regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meetings according to spokespersons for the counties and sheriff’s departments. That timing – all will take place on weekdays during morning work hours – is drawing criticism from immigrant-rights advocates who argue the forums should be held in the evening when more members of the public can attend.
“It’s clear that holding the forum at 9:30 a.m. on a weekday morning is … in no way was designed to ‘maximize public participation’,” said Sameer Ahmed, an attorney with the American Civil Rights Union of Southern California.
At each meeting, representatives from that county’s Sheriff’s Department is expected to make a presentation to the supervisors. The ACLU and other organizations asked if they, too, could make similar presentations on behalf of the community. Other counties, such as Fresno, have allowed such presentations, said the ACLU’s Ahmed. But, so far, only one Southern California county, San Bernardino, is considering letting organizations make presentations to the board.
Advocates with several immigrant-rights organizations in Southern California expressed some of the same complaints about how their counties went about scheduling the forums, and the lack of communication about them.
“As the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice we are disappointed in the County of San Bernardino and the Sheriff’s Department. We requested for the Truth Act Forum to be hosted in a time accessible to the community… (But) we got no response,” said spokesman Luis Suarez.
Luis Nolasco, an ACLU community engagement and policy advocate in the Inland Empire, said: “The spirit of the TRUTH Act was to increase transparency into how local law enforcement collaborated with ICE. The way that the counties have set up these forums goes against the intent of the TRUTH Act.”
Meanwhile, in Orange County, activist group Resilience Orange County and others plan to hold a rally in front of the Hall of Administration, where supervisors meet, the day of the forum.
“It’s been months that advocates have been pressing the sheriff’s and the board to hold this forum. And we’ve gone without a response,” said Hairo Cortes, executive director of Chispa, an Orange County non-pro t organizing young Latinos.
“The county has not been interested in being transparent with the public about the extent of their cooperation with ICE. Now, they’re hosting this forum, which is required by law, at the end of the year, on a weekday, around 9 a.m., when public participation will be the lowest,” Cortes said Tuesday.
The schedule for the forums:
Dec. 4, 9:30 a.m., Orange County Board of Supervisors, 333 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana Dec. 4, 10 a.m., San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, 385 North Arrowhead Avenue, San Bernardino Dec. 11, 9:30 a.m., Riverside County Board of Supervisors, 4080 Lemon St, rst oor, Riverside Dec. 18, 9:30 a.m., Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, 500 West Temple St., Room 381, Los Angeles
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https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/27/so-cal-counties-will-host-public-forums-on-sheriffs-cooperation-with-ice/ 2/5 11/30/2018 Is this yurt allowed? Alternative rentals wait on county | News | hidesertstar.com
http://www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_3a38c7cc-f370-11e8-bd40-dbd47a54e90d.html
FEATURED Is this yurt allowed? Alternative rentals wait on county
By Stacy Moore Hi-Desert Star Nov 28, 2018 Updated 20 hrs ago
Annie and Tony DeMille offer several tents and teepees at their Lazy Sky Retreat Boutique in Yucca Mesa. Stacy Moore Hi-Desert Star
MORONGO BASIN — Not permitted but not quite forbidden, the tents, trailers, yurts and storage containers rented out as vacation homes in much of the Morongo Basin exist in limbo.
With carefully decorated tents as well as a bathroom and a kitchen with working plumbing, Annie and Tony DeMille have been renting to people from all over the world since spring 2016. They’ve also been in frequent contact with the county code enforcement o ce, advocating for rules that will allow non-traditional places like theirs to stay open. http://www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_3a38c7cc-f370-11e8-bd40-dbd47a54e90d.html 1/4 11/30/2018 Is this yurt allowed? Alternative rentals wait on county | News | hidesertstar.com “We can be the forerunners, because there are glamping retreats everywhere,” Annie DeMille said.
She believes if the county allows places like hers, it can gain plenty of revenue from transient occupancy taxes — the bed taxes hotels pay.
“You can set it up, make it legal and you’ll get a ton of money from TOTs,” she said.
Her husband recently told the county board of supervisors that since opening, their Lazy Sky Boutique Retreat has hosted more than 2,800 guests and paid $22,000 in bed taxes.
But after a few years where the code enforcement o ce allowed the rentals, although they were technically against code, the DeMilles and several other rental owners got word in fall that the county planned to ban all of their businesses, possibly by the start of the new year.
It was a surprise to many of the owners, who said they had been working with code enforcement o cers and planners and gotten the impression that the new code being written would allow alternative rentals.
Katherine Lussier told the board of supervisors that she and her husband’s retirement plans depend on renting out the two trailers on their property.
“As we were told that you guys were going to work with us, we decided to put our money into making sure the septic system was appropriate and the electrical was appropriate,” Lussier said.
“To now have the carpet ripped from underneath us in unfair.”
No short-term vacation rentals are allowed anywhere in county jurisdiction except for in mountain communities such as Big Bear. But county code enforcement had held off on shutting down desert rentals unless there were health and safety problems, DeMille said.
Then rental owners started getting cease-and-desist orders from the county again.
At a September Municipal Advisory Council meeting, she said, Salazar told Tony DeMille that alternative rentals wouldn’t be included in the new ordinance.
The announcement put owners in a quandary. Was it worth investing in a business that could be shut down in January?
http://www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_3a38c7cc-f370-11e8-bd40-dbd47a54e90d.html 2/4 11/30/2018 Is this yurt allowed? Alternative rentals wait on county | News | hidesertstar.com They took their complaints to the board of supervisors meeting on Oct. 16, where several Morongo Basin rental owners spoke.
Jordan Sample, a partner in an Airbnb site in Morongo Valley, said before her friend offered her that opportunity, she lived on less than $500 a month.
“Most importantly for me is knowing each booking puts food on the table for my child, pays tuition for his education, puts gas in the car so we can get around, and pays for activities and sports that we would have to forgo without this honest work,” Sample said.
The county seems to have heard their pleas.
In November, Wingert and Land Use Services Director Terri Rahhal told the Hi-Desert Star the coming ordinance will allow alternative rentals.
“There is no intention to disallow any short-term vacation rentals that make use of tents, trailers or other alternative structures,” county spokesman David Wert said via email after talking to Wingert and Rahhal. “The county clearly understands the importance the of alternative structures to the Morongo Basin.”
The ordinance under effect now, applying only to mountain communities, doesn’t allow any rentals besides single-family homes.
Wert said the planners know the desert is different.
“The county has no intention of excluding the Morongo Basin from the vacation rental economy. However, we have discovered many unique conditions that require a set of regulations different from those that apply in the mountains,” he said via email.
“Our Land Use Services staff is working with property owners in the Morongo Basin to draft these regulations in a new STVR (short-term vacation rental) ordinance,” Wert said.
“In the meantime, we are not shutting down any STVR for lack of a permit that isn’t available.”
Different towns, different rules
Rules on short-term vacation rentals differ depending on place. http://www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_3a38c7cc-f370-11e8-bd40-dbd47a54e90d.html 3/4 11/30/2018 Is this yurt allowed? Alternative rentals wait on county | News | hidesertstar.com Town of Yucca Valley
Only single-family and duplex homes are allowed. Owners must get a permit.
City of Twentynine Palms
Only single-family homes are allowed. Owners must get a permit.
San Bernardino County
In unincorporated areas (everywhere not in city or town boundaries), short-term vacation rentals are technically not allowed, but code enforcement has been allowing them on a case-by-case basis while county planners write an ordinance.
http://www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_3a38c7cc-f370-11e8-bd40-dbd47a54e90d.html 4/4 11/30/2018 Firefighter suffers electrical shock while battling fire in San Bernardino marijuana grow house – San Bernardino Sun
NEWSCRIME + PUBLIC SAFETY Firefighter suffers electrical shock while battling fire in San Bernardino marijuana grow house
By BEATRIZ E. VALENZUELA | [email protected] | San Bernardino Sun PUBLISHED: November 29, 2018 at 12:11 pm | UPDATED: November 29, 2018 at 6:44 pm
A San Bernardino County re ghter was taken to a hospital a er he suffered an electric shock Thursday morning while battling a re at a home being used for an illegal marijuana growing operation in San Bernardino, of cials said.
The re ghter suffered minor injuries and was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton as a precaution, said Eric Sherwin, a spokesman with the re department.
Fire ghters were called to the 800 block of West Campus Way for a structure re just a er 10:30 a.m. They discovered the home was the site where marijuana was growing and had illegally hooked into power from Southern California Edison, according to a news release from San Bernardino police.
The power was turned off, but a charge was le in the house appliances and and outlets. When a re ghter used a metal tool to cut into a metal security gate, he received a shock, the release said.
Arson investigators said the re started in the attic of the home at an electrical panel, and was the result of faulty wiring. https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/firefighter-shocked-while-battling-san-bernardino-fire-hospitalized-as-a-precaution/ 1/3 11/30/2018 Firefighter suffers electrical shock while battling fire in San Bernardino marijuana grow house – San Bernardino Sun San Bernardino police said the home had about 100 marijuana plants growing in two bedrooms, and the incident is under investigation by both the department’s Special Enforcement Team and the city’s code enforcement division.
No arrests were announced.
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Tags: fire, Top Stories PE, Top Stories RDF, Top Stories Sun
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https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/firefighter-shocked-while-battling-san-bernardino-fire-hospitalized-as-a-precaution/ 2/3 11/30/2018 San Bernardino County prosecutors clear Barstow officers in shooting of black man at wheel of Mustang - Los Angeles Times
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L.A. NOW LOCAL San Bernardino County prosecutors clear Barstow o cers in shooting of black man at wheel of Mustang
By RICHARD WINTON NOV 29, 2018 | 8:15 PM
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-barstow-police-shooting-20181129-story.html 1/6 11/30/2018 San Bernardino County prosecutors clear Barstow officers in shooting of black man at wheel of Mustang - Los Angeles Times
San Bernardino County's District Attorney declined to charge four Barstow police officers who fatally shot Diante Yarber, above, on April 5. (Courtesy of S. Lee Merritt)
Prosecutors Thursday declined to charge four Barstow police officers who fatally shot a black man while he was at the wheel of a car, finding that they reasonably used deadly force to protect their lives when the vehicle clipped one of them.
Diante Yarber, 26, was driving the black Ford Mustang in a Walmart parking lot when officers fired 30 rounds into the vehicle on April 5. His death received widespread publicity and sparked large protests in front of Barstow City Hall and police headquarters. The incident came a month after the high-profile killing of another African American young man, Stephon Clark, by police in Sacramento.
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Yarber was wanted in connection with a stolen vehicle, and officers believed he was likely at the wheel because the car was registered to a relative, a report by the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office said.
"The officers were aware Yarber was a gang member known to carry guns and run from law enforcement," the report said.
Citing body cams recordings, prosecutors said Yarber ignored instructions to turn off the ignition and show his https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-barstow-police-shooting-20181129-story.html 2/6 11/30/2018 San Bernardino County prosecutors clear Barstow officers in shooting of black man at wheel of Mustang - Los Angeles Times hands after he was stopped.
Instead, he “put the Mustang in reverse" and struck the front of a patrol car, the report said. Yarber then accelerated the car toward an officer who pointed his handgun and ordered the driver to stop. Hemmed in, Yarber reversed and struck a passenger who had bolted from the Mustang.
Yarber careened the car into another patrol car and then struck Officer Vincent Carrillo in the left thigh after putting the car in reverse. ,After Yarber drove forward and struck another patrol car, Carrillo and Cpl. Jose Barrientos, “afraid for their safety,” fired their handguns, the report said. Officers Matthew Helms and Jimmie Walker "almost simultaneously" opened fire, the report said.
The Mustang then rolled to a stop after striking a patrol car and a civilian vehicle and officers called for medical help to render aid.
"In this case, Officers Carillo, Officer Helms, Officer Walker and Corporal Barrientos each had an honest and objectively reasonable belief that Yarber posed a threat of seriously bodily injury or death to themselves," prosecutors wrote.
Yarber was pronounced dead at the scene while a 23-year-old female passenger was airlifted to a trauma center with multiple gunshot wounds. Two other young men fled from the car during the incident, officials said. Yarber is the father of three girls, ages 9, 7 and 1.
Yarber had prior convictions for fleeing the police and misdemeanor domestic violence and was on three years' probation at the time of the shooting. Court records show he was charged in March with violating his community supervision.
The report from prosecutors noted the background of two of the officers. Walker in 2010 was charged with four misdemeanors including violating a person’s civil rights and he later pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace and public intoxication.
Another officer at the scene, who did not shoot, also had a troubled history. Officer Andrew Buesa while at the Los Angeles Police Department was discharged in connection with misconduct in a 2002 arrest
Yarber’s family has said the shooting was unjustified and filed a federal lawsuit claiming excessive force was used.
Grainy cellphone video from the scene captured the sound of gunfire as police rounds pierced the vehicle and appears to show the Mustang moving slowly backward as the officers fired. But the video does not show the full incident.
“BPD Officers Walker, Barrientos, Carrillo and Helms drew their weapons and began to shout profanities and other violent threats at Diante Yarber as he attempted to step out of the vehicle,” the lawsuit alleges. “The BPD Officers began to take aim at the vehicle and shout threats, profanities and racial slurs."
ADVERTISEMENT https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-barstow-police-shooting-20181129-story.html 3/6 11/30/2018 San Bernardino County prosecutors clear Barstow officers in shooting of black man at wheel of Mustang - Los Angeles Times
Family attorney S. Lee Merritt has alleged officers never attempted to render aid to the dying man. Merritt and Yarber’s family had demanded that the officers face criminal charges.
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Richard Winton is a crime writer for the Los Angeles Times and part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2011. Known as @lacrimes on Twitter, during 20 years at The Times he also has been part of the breaking news staff that won Pulitzers in 1998 and 2004. He won the ASNE Deadline News award in 2006. A native of England, after getting degrees from University of Kent at Canterbury and University of Wisconsin-Madison, he began covering politics but chose a life of crime because it was less dirty.
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37m https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-barstow-police-shooting-20181129-story.html 4/6 11/30/2018 SCLAA bonds finally current - News - vvdailypress.com - Victorville, CA
SCLAA bonds nally current By Scott Nordhues Posted Nov 28, 2018 at 3:30 PM Updated Nov 28, 2018 at 10:52 PM The City of Victorville has announced that payments on bonds issued by the Southern California Logistics Airport Authority are back on track.
Principal and interest payments due on Sunday to holders of nine bonds will be paid on time, city officials said Tuesday, adding that “today’s announcement is good news for Victorville and the broader Victor Valley.”
An improving economy and property values on the rise have enabled the authority to become current on bond payments, according to a statement released by the city.
Victorville Mayor Gloria Garcia said the airport authority “has withstood the biggest recession in our economy since the Great Depression. We are pleased that the issues resulting from the recessionary period are now behind us.”
The fact bond payments are now current signals a significant financial turnaround for the SCLAA. The authority began defaulting on the bonds in 2011 when it began having difficulty making payments.
Declining property values and the dissolution of Redevelopment Agencies by the state of California were cited as reasons for the defaults. Payments are made with revenue generated by taxes paid by property owners within the SCLAA redevelopment area, which covers 85,000 acres and includes parts of unincorporated San Bernardino County, Hesperia, Adelanto, and Apple Valley.
Property values within the redevelopment area began declining in 2010 and reached a low point in 2012, before rising again in 2013. It took another five years for higher valuations to generate enough revenue to make bondholders current.
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20181128/sclaa-bonds-finally-current?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GHM_Daily_News… 1/2 11/30/2018 SCLAA bonds finally current - News - vvdailypress.com - Victorville, CA
Municipal bonds issued by the SCLAA have been the focus of litigation between Victorville and the federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Earlier this year, Victorville and the SEC agreed to settle a legal case in which the SEC claimed fraud in a 2008 bond offering.
The SCLAA first issued bonds in 2001 to raise capital for improvements in a redevelpment area that included the airport, located on the site of the former George Air Force Base. Plans call for infrastructure improvements at the airport industrial manufacturing area to facilitate large industries.
The city said 1.4 million square feet of industrial space has been added in the last year-and-a-half.
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20181128/sclaa-bonds-finally-current?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GHM_Daily_News… 2/2 11/30/2018 Property tax deadline is near - News - vvdailypress.com - Victorville, CA
Property tax deadline is near By Staff Reports Posted Nov 29, 2018 at 8:30 AM Updated Nov 29, 2018 at 8:30 AM SAN BERNARDINO — San Bernardino County Tax Collector Oscar Valdez reminded property owners Thursday they must pay the first installment of their property taxes by Dec. 10 to avoid a 10 percent penalty.
Valdez also noted his office offers many convenient ways to pay, including online, by phone, by mail, and in person.
“Property taxes fund key public services that enhance the quality of life for County residents,” Valdez said in a written statement. “I want to encourage property owners to do what they can to pay their property taxes by the December 10 deadline to avoid costly penalties as a result of late payments.
“Taxpayers can take advantage of our online payment option at www.MyTaxCollector.com, making it easy, secure, and Simply A Better Way To Do Business®.”
Electronic payments are accepted online at www.MyTaxCollector.com, and by phone at 909-387-8308, or 760-241-8829, and can be made using a checking or savings account free of charge. Credit card payments are also accepted, but they include a convenience fee charged by a third-party processing vendor. Property owners interested in electronic tax bill delivery can enroll online to receive property tax bills directly to their email.
Mailed payments should be sent to the Tax Collector’s Office at 268 West Hospitality Lane, First Floor, San Bernardino, CA 92415-0360. Only payments with a USPS postmark cancellation on or before Dec. 10 will be considered timely, Valdez said.
Payments also can be made in person at the Tax Collector’s Office during business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Property Tax Payment Center located at the High Desert Government Center at 15900 Smoke Tree St. in Hesperia also is open from Friday to Dec. 10. Only checks and credit card payments will be accepted at the Hesperia office. For faster service, Valdez encourages taxpayers to bring a copy of their property tax bill.
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20181129/property-tax-deadline-is-near 1/1 11/30/2018 Notice reconfigured lanes on the 10 Freeway in Redlands? Here’s what’s happening – San Bernardino Sun
LOCAL NEWS Notice reconfigured lanes on the 10 Freeway in Redlands? Here’s what’s happening The work is part of a $26.1 million pavement rehabilitation project
As part of a $26.1 million pavement rehabilitation project, Caltrans has temporarily reconfigured lanes of Interstate 10 between Ford and Orange streets. The new configuration includes a westbound crossover lane on the eastbound side of the freeway. (Photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
By JENNIFER IYER | [email protected] | Redlands Daily Facts PUBLISHED: November 29, 2018 at 11:58 am | UPDATED: November 29, 2018 at 2:04 pm
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/notice-reconfigured-lanes-on-the-10-freeway-in-redlands-heres-whats-happening/ 1/3 11/30/2018 Notice reconfigured lanes on the 10 Freeway in Redlands? Here’s what’s happening – San Bernardino Sun Lanes on the 10 Freeway are once again recon gured between Orange and Ford streets in Redlands as part of a $26.1 million pavement rehabilitation project.
Westbound lanes are shi ed to the right, and eastbound to the le for the next three months. There is also a new dedicated crossover lane for westbound traf c. Those who choose to use the lane, which is sandwiched between k-rails, enter just before Ford Street, and exit a er Orange.
Caltrans is working to nish the project in February, weather permitting. Crews will be at work behind the k-rails, so Caltrans asks drivers to be aware of warning signs that are posted.
In 2016, about 5 miles of concrete pavement were replaced between Ford Street in Redlands and Live Oak Canyon Road in Yucaipa. Information: caltrans8.info
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Tags: construction, roads, Top Stories RDF
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Jennifer Iyer https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/notice-reconfigured-lanes-on-the-10-freeway-in-redlands-heres-whats-happening/ 2/3 11/30/2018 Mudslide shuts down Highway 38 near Forest Falls in San Bernardino Mountains – San Bernardino Sun
NEWSCRIME + PUBLIC SAFETY Mudslide shuts down Highway 38 near Forest Falls in San Bernardino Mountains
By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY | [email protected] and ROBERT GUNDRAN | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise PUBLISHED: November 29, 2018 at 2:44 pm | UPDATED: November 29, 2018 at 7:28 pm
Flowing mud trapped cars and their drivers in the San Bernardino Mountains Thursday as a rainstorm swept through the region.
In one car overtaken by a mud ow in the area of Valley of the Falls Drive and Highway 38 near Forest Falls in the mountains le one stuck driver “freaking out,” according to California Highway Patrol reports from the scene.
Rescue crews, including San Bernardino County re personnel were called to the mountain community to assist in freeing the motorists from the debris ow. Both sides of Highway 38 at Valley of the Falls Road was shut down due to the mudslide, CHP of cials said.
The California Department of Transportation said Highway 38 was still closed as of 5:15 p.m. between Angelus Oaks and Bryant Street, with no speci c end in sight for road closures.
Caltrans spokeswoman Ivy Estrada said everyone in the vehicles along the roadway were rescued within a few hours.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/mudslide-shuts-down-highway-38-near-valley-of-the-falls/ 1/4 11/30/2018 Mudslide shuts down Highway 38 near Forest Falls in San Bernardino Mountains – San Bernardino Sun
Caltrans District 8 @Caltrans8
SR 38 bet Bryant and Angelus Oaks still closed - Caltrans crews working very hard to clear debris - rain needs to stop. Duration remains unknown. Stay with us on Twitter & Facebook for updates. #caltrans8 9 5:02 PM - Nov 29, 2018
See Caltrans District 8's other Tweets
“Caltrans crews are working very hard to clear debris, but the rain needs to stop,” the department said on Twitter. “Duration remains unknown.”
“We’re working out there, trying to clear everything up,” Estrada said. “We’re hoping to get everything cleared out tonight, but there’s no way to know for sure.”
A storm moved through the region Thursday that brought inches of rain to the recently charred areas of Riverside and Orange counties as well as in LA and Ventura counties.
Mudslides and debris ows occurred near the Holy re burn area as well as the Woolsey re burn area, but no injuries had been reported, according to of cials. https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/mudslide-shuts-down-highway-38-near-valley-of-the-falls/ 2/4 11/30/2018 Oak tree-killing beetle found in Oak Glen | Public Safety | highlandnews.net
https://www.highlandnews.net/news/public_safety/oak-tree-killing-beetle-found-in-oak- glen/article_6157343e-f414-11e8-a2 -07b627d013a4.html
BREAKING Oak tree-killing beetle found in Oak Glen
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) and U.S. Forest Service Nov 29, 2018 Updated 20 hrs ago
Invasive pest found in Oak Glen
Forest and re o cials ask for the public’s help to stop pest’s spread
An invasive beetle native to southeastern Arizona that can kill oaks native to California, has been detected in recently killed California black oak trees, Quercus kelloggii, in Oak Glen.
Larvae of the Goldspotted Oak Borer (GSOB), Agrilus auroguttatus, extracted by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) and U.S. Forest Service personnel from under the tree bark were subjected to analysis by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and con rmed to be GSOB. This new detection represents the fth long-distance movement of the beetle from its known areas of infestation in San Diego, Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties.
It is believed that the movement of GSOB-infested rewood started the infestation in Oak Glen. It is critical to take precautions to avoid transporting infested rewood. Here are some immediate steps to help prevent the spread of GSOB:
• Use rewood harvested from the local area – “Buy it Where you Burn It.” Visit rewood.ca.gov and rewoodscout.org.
• When traveling, don’t transport rewood from your home or neighborhood to recreational cabins,
campgrounds or parks that you’re going to visit. Buy rewood at your destination and leave behind any
leftover rewood in case it contains pests. Don’t pack a pest! https://www.highlandnews.net/news/public_safety/oak-tree-killing-beetle-found-in-oak-glen/article_6157343e-f414-11e8-a2ff-07b627d013a4.html 1/2 11/30/2018 Oak tree-killing beetle found in Oak Glen | Public Safety | highlandnews.net Visit dontpackapest.com/.
Any community or area that has coast live oaks (Q. agrifolia), California black oaks or canyon live oaks (Q. chrysolepis) is vulnerable to GSOB infestation. Communities with signi cant oak populations include the San Bernardino mountain communities and surrounding national forest lands. Cal Fire and the San Bernardino National Forest will collaborate to develop a response plan for GSOB in Oak Glen and San Bernardino County.
In the interim, at-risk communities should become familiar with the GSOB threat, prevention measures, how to detect and report suspected GSOB, rapid response planning and infestation management at gsob.org.
https://www.highlandnews.net/news/public_safety/oak-tree-killing-beetle-found-in-oak-glen/article_6157343e-f414-11e8-a2ff-07b627d013a4.html 2/2 11/30/2018 Low wages cast shadow on Inland Empire’s rapid growth, UCR report says – San Bernardino Sun
BUSINESS Low wages cast shadow on Inland Empire’s rapid growth, UCR report says UCR's 'State of Work' report outlines economic advantages and disadvantages
The Inland Empire’s biggest employment gain (2011-17) came in distribution and transportation, which added 70,108 jobs. (File photo)
By JACK KATZANEK | [email protected] | PUBLISHED: November 28, 2018 at 4:17 pm | UPDATED: November 28, 2018 at 4:21 pm
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/28/low-wages-cast-shadow-on-inland-empires-rapid-growth-ucr-report-says/ 1/5 11/30/2018 Low wages cast shadow on Inland Empire’s rapid growth, UCR report says – San Bernardino Sun The Inland Empire has more than 1.5 million people drawing paychecks. Job growth in the region over the last seven years has been considerably better than California’s as a whole, and unemployment has dropped from 14.4 percent in 2010 to 4.1 percent.
Despite the economic expansion, many Inland families do not make enough money to make ends meet, and numerous jobs don’t offer workers enough hours. And, while four-year colleges in the region are turning out thousands of graduates a year, many are forced to look elsewhere for the work – and paychecks – to justify that professional diploma.
Those are some of the issues raised in a recent study from the Center for Social Innovation at UC Riverside. The study, “State of Work in the Inland Empire,” outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the local economy, and also addresses local efforts, from government agencies, private employers and nonpro ts, to remedy areas where economic growth is falling short.
“We’re still pretty far behind when it comes to having good jobs,” Karthick Ramakrishnan, a UCR public policy professor and director of the center, said Tuesday. “The poverty rate is still high, and there are racial and gender gaps.”
Using the MIT Living Wage Calculator, the study found an Inland Empire family of four needs two working adults with jobs that earn more than $18 per hour, or $36,000 per year, to make ends meet. But only 38 percent of jobs in the region hit that level. The MIT living wage standard considers housing costs, food, clothing, health care, child care, transportation and taxes.
The living wage standard for a job in Los Angeles and Orange counties is $19.16 per hour.
The UCR study, citing U.S. Census Bureau data, showed Inland poverty rates are outpacing the state. Some 15.3 percent of residents in Riverside County lived below the poverty line in 2016, while in San Bernardino, it was worse, at 17.6 percent. California’s poverty rate was 14.4 percent, according to the most recent census data available.
UCR researchers, again using census studies, said only 65 percent of Inland workers have full-time jobs that last all year, compared with 68 percent in Orange County, 69 percent in Los Angles County and 68 percent statewide. The transportation and warehousing sector, one of the region’s major employers, is one that tends to ramp up hiring during busy seasons. Across all job sectors, some employers furlough workers, and others, who see business slackening, just tell employees to stay home.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/28/low-wages-cast-shadow-on-inland-empires-rapid-growth-ucr-report-says/ 2/5 11/30/2018 Low wages cast shadow on Inland Empire’s rapid growth, UCR report says – San Bernardino Sun “The economy is doing better for some, but there is de nitely inequality across counties,” said Ellen Reese, a UCR sociology professor and one of the report’s authors.
Despite a smaller percentage of workers with college degrees in the two-county area, there has not been a shortage of graduates from local colleges, the report notes. There are more than 12 four-year colleges within a 25-mile radius of the city of Riverside, with a total enrollment of 75,000. Within 25 miles of Ontario, another dozen schools have some 90,000 students.
However, many of those graduates can’t nd professional employment in the region and end up commuting to the coastal counties. Some 79,000 more workers drive from San Bernardino County to Los Angeles County every day compared with those who drive in the opposite direction. The out ow de cit between Riverside and Orange counties was estimated at 61,000, according to census data.
All told, some 350,000 Inland residents are employed outside the two-county region. Many pay more for gas, child care and other costs while taking advantage of lower housing prices.
Rising home prices also have taken a chunk out of paychecks: The median home price in Riverside County was $390,000 in October, a year-over-year increase of 8.1 percent. In San Bernardino County, the median was $316,000 , up 1.5 percent, according to real estate tracker CoreLogic.
Reese added that many Inland workers do not have access to employer-provided insurance, and she said three of the top ve job sectors generally do not pay well.
“There’s a brain-drain here,” Reese said. “There’s a lack of technology, science and management jobs. And, even in the high-skill industries, we nd that Inland Empire workers are earning less than those in the other Southern California counties.”
Solutions ahead
The report said solutions to the wage and skills gap are being driven by training programs through local colleges and private-sector employers.
Schools such as Chaffey College, Norco College and Loma Linda University, along with the workforce development of ces of both counties and several private- sector employers are developing advanced programs and ramping up internships to get people without four-year college degrees into higher skilled jobs.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/28/low-wages-cast-shadow-on-inland-empires-rapid-growth-ucr-report-says/ 3/5 11/30/2018 Low wages cast shadow on Inland Empire’s rapid growth, UCR report says – San Bernardino Sun One of the successes the report notes has been healthcare jobs, which have taken off in recent years under the Affordable Care Act.
Programs include:
Advanced training in manufacturing offered through Chaffey College and California Steel Industries in Fontana; Machine and business information systems instruction at Norco College; Medical training, sponsored by the San Manuel Native American tribe through local hospitals; San Bernardino County has a program geared toward training diesel mechanics, and some programs begin the training steps at the high school level.
Also, the UCR report credited some better paying jobs and bene ts to an increase in union membership in both the private and public sectors. About 20 percent of the workforce belongs to a union, a 26 percent increase over the last 10 years. Nationally, the percentage of union representation has declined 5.5 percent in that period and increased by just 0.5 percent statewide.
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wire AP In California’s Inland Empire, fewer than half of jobs pay a living wage By Margot Roosevelt Los Angeles Times (TNS) Nov 29, 2018 Updated Nov 29, 2018
0 Shares 0 0 0 0 0 0 At first glance, the economy of California’s Inland Empire looks rosy.
The vast area encompassing Riverside and San Bernardino counties has added 200,000 jobs since the peak of the recession. Payrolls are swelling at a year-over-year rate of 2.5 percent, faster than in neighboring Los Angeles County or California overall.
The jobless rate is down to 4.1 percent, and the spectacular growth of the warehouse and transportation industries seems unstoppable, fueled by the region’s e-commerce appetite along with the fact that, despite the current trade dispute with China, the port complex of Los Angeles and Long Beach remains the main hub of imports from across Asia.
But a report released this week by UC Riverside’s new Center for Social Innovation, “State of Work in the Inland Empire,” paints a grim picture of the struggles behind the broad statistics.
“Our region has bounced back in terms of job creation,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, the public policy and political science professor who founded the center this year. “But it shouldn’t be inevitable that we’re doomed to low-wage jobs, low benefits and contingent workers.”
The report, drawing on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and academic studies, found that:
Despite lower housing costs in the Inland Empire than in coastal counties, just 4 in 10 jobs pay enough for families to make ends meet.
Poverty rates in Riverside (15.3 percent) and San Bernardino (17.6 percent) were higher last year than before the Great Recession, and income inequality grew from 2010 to 2016.
https://pilotonline.com/business/jobs/article_19845174-54cb-5709-aec5-4e9791f5f935.html 1/4 11/30/2018 In California’s Inland Empire, fewer than half of jobs pay a living wage | Jobs & Employment | pilotonline.com 350,000 residents commute to jobs outside the region, mainly because of a shortage of well-paying opportunities.
Just 151 out of every 1,000 high school freshmen go on to finish a four-year college degree.
“Compared to employees in the rest of Southern California and statewide, Inland Empire workers have higher rates of poverty and lower earnings, lower percentages with full-time, full-year employment, and lower percentages with employer-provided health insurance,” the report says.
To be sure, Inland Empire’s unemployment rate, which hit 14.4 percent at the depths of the downturn in July 2010, has plummeted. In Riverside, the number of jobs grew by 33 percent from 2010 to 2017. In San Bernardino, it grew by 29 percent. Statewide, the rise was 23 percent.
The report traces the economic history of the region, which bled manufacturing jobs as global competition took hold. Kaiser Steel in Fontana once employed more than 9,000 well-paid unionized workers at its steel mill and iron ore mine. Both shut down in 1983.
The closure of military bases also took a toll. Over just one two-year span, 1991 to 1993, 32,000 jobs were lost with the shuttering of Norton Air Base and Pomona’s guided missile factory and the downsizing of March Air Force Base.
“Without access to local jobs, a growing number of Inland residents began commuting to jobs in coastal counties,” the report says, “while increasing numbers of coastal workers moved inland for cheaper housing.”
This decade, two sectors have accounted for most of the region’s job growth.
More than 85,000 new jobs — a quarter of payroll expansion from 2010 to 2017 — are in healthcare. The surge is driven by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which brought medical insurance to tens of thousands of Inland Empire residents, many of whom work for companies that don’t provide it.
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Moreover, as the baby boom generation has aged, older residents are requiring more care, including by an expanding workforce of home healthcare workers paid through California’s Medi-Cal.
Loma Linda University is raising $366 million to build two hospitals: a 373-bed children’s facility and a 16- story adult hospital that will be the tallest building in San Bernardino County. A new UC Riverside School of Medicine graduated its first class in June 2017.
“With these projects, healthcare will grow middle-class jobs,” Ramakrishnan said.
https://pilotonline.com/business/jobs/article_19845174-54cb-5709-aec5-4e9791f5f935.html 2/4 11/30/2018 In California’s Inland Empire, fewer than half of jobs pay a living wage | Jobs & Employment | pilotonline.com The transportation and warehouse sector added 68,000 jobs over the same period, the second-largest number after healthcare’s. Amazon, with 13 massive warehouses, is now the region’s largest single employer, with about 18,000 workers.
Facing a labor shortage as unemployment dropped, the company last month raised its base wage to $15 an hour, while cutting workers’ bonuses and stock plans. But while $15 an hour is higher than the state’s current minimum wage — $11 an hour for large companies, rising to $12 on Jan. 1 — it fails to provide what economists call a “living wage” in the region, according to the report.
According to a widely used standard created by MIT to measure local living costs and wages, in an Inland Empire family of four with two working adults, each parent must earn about $18 an hour, or about $37,000 a year, to make ends meet. “Only 38 percent of jobs in the Inland Empire” pay $36,000 or more a year, the report says.
A case study in the report describes a family in which both parents are Teamsters at a Stater Bros. warehouse in San Bernardino. The mother makes $26 an hour, with a $13 hourly bonus in high productivity periods, along with health insurance, a pension, sick days and four weeks of paid vacation. By contrast, her daughter, who works at Amazon, earns far less with fewer benefits, the study says, and cannot afford Amazon’s health insurance, which would require premiums amounting to about half her full-time wages.
A fifth of all workers in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area belong to unions. Union membership has grown by 26 percent over the last decade, even as statewide unionization has remained flat. But much of the growth has been among public employees in healthcare, social services and education. Teamsters Local 1932, with 14,500 public sector workers in the region, recently organized 500 early childhood education specialists at San Bernardino’s preschool division, raising their wages with a first contract this year.
No Amazon employees are unionized, and “nonunion workers are struggling to make ends meet,” said Ellen Reese, a sociology professor and coauthor of the report. “Workers, unions, community organizations and employers need to work together to improve conditions.”
“Improving earnings, benefits and job stability for workers in the Inland Empire would not only help reduce poverty, it would also increase consumer spending and local revenues, creating positive ripple effects for the regional economy,” the report concludes.
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https://pilotonline.com/business/jobs/article_19845174-54cb-5709-aec5-4e9791f5f935.html 3/4 11/30/2018 Negrete alleges Gomez 'stole election' in Victorville on behalf of Ramirez - News - vvdailypress.com - Victorville, CA
Negrete alleges Gomez ‘stole election’ in Victorville on behalf of Ramirez By Paola Baker Staff Writer Posted Nov 24, 2018 at 7:53 PM Updated Nov 26, 2018 at 10:32 AM VICTORVILLE — Eric Negrete has filed a complaint alleging Blanca Gomez engaged in voting fraud to flip his council seat in favor of another candidate.
The complaint, filed with California’s Secretary of State Investigative Services office, claimed Gomez used fraudulent practices — including illegal voter registrations — to flip Negrete’s council seat in favor of candidate Rita Ramirez, Negrete told the Daily Press.
Negrete claimed Gomez and supporters used “illegal alien voter registrations” on Election Day — “just like in 2016″ — to turn the election over to Ramirez, who was running for Negrete’s seat.
“They were all same-day registrations, so it seems kind of suspicious,” Negrete said.
He also alleged Gomez and her group illegally campaigned at city polling places and used mail and conditional ballots to tip the scales further.
“There are eyewitness accounts of this happening this year,” Negrete said. “These practices seriously harm both voter integrity and ballot integrity.”
Gomez, however, said Negrete was attempting to “scapegoat his loss” by making false allegations toward her.
“Same day registration and voting is permitted at select locations in San Bernardino County by the Registrar of Voters Office, including Victorville City Hall,” Gomez said in an emailed statement.
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20181124/negrete-alleges-gomez-stole-election-in-victorville-on-behalf-of-ramirez?utm_source=SFMC&utm_mediu… 1/2 11/30/2018 Negrete alleges Gomez 'stole election' in Victorville on behalf of Ramirez - News - vvdailypress.com - Victorville, CA
She also denied Negrete’s other claims, characterizing them as “typical” of a “failed” candidate.
“I wish he would take his 2018 election loss with dignity and retreat from the Victorville City Council with some honor,” Gomez said.
Negrete stressed the complaint was not driven by the possibility of losing his seat on the dais, but instead, a concern over fair voting practices.
“If we as Americans can’t say with certainty that our votes matter, the process is free of fraud, and the outcome is valid, what incentive do we have to turn out in the first place?” Negrete said.
Ramirez initially trailed Negrete on Election Night but has since widened the gap. The last updates from the county’s Elections Office showed her with a 156- vote lead.
Paola Baker may be reached at 760-955-5332 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @DP_PaolaBaker.
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20181124/negrete-alleges-gomez-stole-election-in-victorville-on-behalf-of-ramirez?utm_source=SFMC&utm_mediu… 2/2 11/21/2018 Montclair mayor-elect under fire for election intimidation – Daily Bulletin
LOCAL NEWS Montclair mayor-elect under re for election intimidation
By DAVID ALLEN | [email protected] | Inland Valley Daily Bulletin PUBLISHED: November 20, 2018 at 2:15 pm | UPDATED: November 21, 2018 at 6:58 am
Montclair Councilman John Dutrey has emerged as the winner in a four-way contest to be the city’s rst new elected mayor in more than two decades.
The new mayor of Montclair hasn’t even taken of ce and already he’s in hot water. https://www.dailybulletin.com/2018/11/20/montclair-mayor-elect-under-fire-for-election-intimidation/ 1/5 11/21/2018 Montclair mayor-elect under fire for election intimidation – Daily Bulletin At the City Council meeting Monday, Nov. 19, two city employees said J. John Dutrey appeared to threaten their employment because they supported his opponent.
Rob Pipersky said Dutrey objected to the sight of Carolyn Raft signs in his front yard and had intermediaries contact him and his wife on vacation to make his displeasure known.
Pipersky works for the Police Department and his wife, Ester, manages the Senior Center. They have posted Dutrey signs in their yard in the past. Pipersky said he’s been interviewed by a District Attorney’s Of ce investigator concerning the matter.
Pipersky also shared a private Facebook message Dutrey sent to a second employee, Edmund Garcia Jr., after the information technology staffer expressed his support for Raft.
“Edmund. I think your embarrassment as an employee to post on facebook about Montclair elections,” Dutrey wrote. “Your supposed to keep your opinions to yourself and not piss off people who approve your pay check. You may want to talk to ed starr tomorrow,” a reference to the city manager.
I don’t know which is more “embarrassment” – Dutrey’s strong-arm tactics or his poor grammar.
Following Pipersky to the microphone during public comment Monday were the parents of Garcia, who is 24.
“My son is far from an embarrassment,” Alice Garcia said. She told Dutrey: “You are a disgrace to this community.”
Edmund Garcia Sr. said his family members actively volunteer in Montclair, that his son didn’t deserve to be “berated” and that Dutrey should at minimum be admonished.
Who knew Montclair was such a hotbed of intrigue? Actually, I’d been tipped off that I should attend and am glad I did.
Later in the meeting, two council members commented on Dutrey’s actions.
“I want to extend my sincerest apologies to the Piperskys, the Garcias. I just apologize for your experience,” Trisha Martinez said. “Our motto in Montclair is ‘The people are the city.’ It says that on our ag. I stand by that.”
Raft, too, apologized, saying, “I appreciate your support and I’m sorry it came at such a high cost to you.”
Dutrey also offered an apology, albeit not for his grammar. https://www.dailybulletin.com/2018/11/20/montclair-mayor-elect-under-fire-for-election-intimidation/ 2/5 11/21/2018 Montclair mayor-elect under fire for election intimidation – Daily Bulletin “All you guys are great employees. I’m not going to make any excuses. I never made any comments about ring anyone or reducing anyone’s salary,” Dutrey said. City employees, he said, work hard and do a good job.
“I’m glad the election is over and all the stress,” he added.
Dutrey felt under stress? To become mayor of Montclair?
On the council since 1996, he was running in the middle of his council term, ensuring he still had a job if he lost the mayorship. And he won in a cakewalk over Raft, whom he bested by about 1,000 votes, and two minor candidates.
They were seeking to replace Paul Eaton, the city’s mayor since 1995, who died in July.
If this was stress, how’s Dutrey going to handle whatever might pass for a crisis in Montclair, like a long line for gas at Costco?
His apology wasn’t accepted, by the way. In the lobby afterward, Pipersky said: “It doesn’t do a whole lot. He still has the power and he still made the threats.”
“His actions speak louder than his words,” Garcia Sr. said. “He should know better. He’s been in public of ce a long time.”
It was kind of a wacky meeting, one with a little bit of everything, all crammed into an hour.
Gabe Chavez, representing Supervisor Curt Hagman, is a nice man with a knack for saying the wrong thing. Attempting to congratulate Bill Ruh on winning re-election, he mentioned that Ruh had once worked for Jay Kim – a former congressman who set a record for campaign nance violations. “I worked for Fred Aguiar,” Ruh said tersely.
Then Chavez asked Mayor Ginger Eaton how her daughter Annette was doing. Eaton replied that Annette was seated behind him.
During the council comment period, Raft brought up an insect she referred to as an “ankle biter” that covered her in welts. Her doctor told her they’re out in daytime. Raft urged people to cover up: “They’ll bite you and they’re all over Montclair. Also Pomona and Claremont.”
Probably unconsciously, Eaton scratched the back of her neck throughout Raft’s comments.
https://www.dailybulletin.com/2018/11/20/montclair-mayor-elect-under-fire-for-election-intimidation/ 3/5 11/21/2018 Montclair mayor-elect under fire for election intimidation – Daily Bulletin Martinez noted my attendance, thanking me for being there – Dutrey, I’m guessing, was less grateful – and telling the audience that she had attended a recent talk by yours truly. She recommended that people attend my talks and buy my book, “On Track.”
Well, any hour of entertainment like a Montclair council meeting does need a break for a commercial.
(In the parking lot afterward, two people bought copies of my book out of my trunk. First time I ever made money at a council meeting. I’m hoping Martinez doesn’t demand a percentage.)
The city manager gave a report on the limbo into which the Gold Line rail extension to his city has fallen – it may end in La Verne, either temporarily or much longer – and outlined efforts he’s making to salvage the timeline.
The recent tree lighting at Montclair Place included music from “The Nutcracker,” which Ruh brought up to say it reminded him of the mall’s early days, in which the Christmas ballet was a theme.
“It had the Mouse King, the Sugar Plum Fairy,” Ruh enthused, with the gures and decorations starting in front of J.C. Penney and continuing on both sides of the mall.
Seguing to Thanksgiving, Ruh said it’s been 55 years since President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, and an equal amount of time since Kennedy’s last Thanksgiving proclamation, which he proceeded to read.
“This year,” Ruh said somberly, “Thanksgiving falls on the date of his death.”
Any council meeting that encompasses JFK’s assassination, threats by the mayor- elect and biting insects can’t be said to lack interest. I didn’t even mention the couple in the front row who had their hands on each other the whole time. Maybe it was date night.
Meanwhile, council members will hear a report Dec. 3 on how to ll the vacancy Dutrey’s promotion opens up.
Dutrey will be sworn in as mayor Dec. 10, if he doesn’t crack under the pressure rst.
David Allen keeps his cool Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Email [email protected], phone 909-483-9339, visit insidesocal.com/davidallen, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.
Want local news? Sign up for the Localist and stay informed https://www.dailybulletin.com/2018/11/20/montclair-mayor-elect-under-fire-for-election-intimidation/ 4/5 11/30/2018 Top Workplaces 2018: Great camaraderie fuels the social side of work at Inland Regional Center – San Bernardino Sun
BUSINESS Top Workplaces 2018: Great camaraderie fuels the social side of work at Inland Regional Center The center is the No. 1 large employer for second year in a row
Associate Executive Director Kevin Urtz, left, and Executive Director Lavinia Johnson at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino on Tuesday, November 20, 2018. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
By JACK KATZANEK | [email protected] | PUBLISHED: November 30, 2018 at 6:30 am | UPDATED: November 30, 2018 at 6:31 am
When seen from the outside, the Inland Regional Center, based on its accomplishments over almost a half-century, deserves a special place in Inland Empire residents’ hearts.
But the internal workings of the San Bernardino-based nonpro t, which assists families with members struggling with developmental disabilities, is also strong on the inside as well. The IRC has been named the Inland News Group’s Top Workplace for 2018 among the largest employers in the Inland Empire.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/top-workplaces-2018-great-camaraderie-fuels-the-social-side-of-work-at-inland-regional-center/ 1/4 11/30/2018 Top Workplaces 2018: Great camaraderie fuels the social side of work at Inland Regional Center – San Bernardino Sun
Inland Regional Center provides case management and service coordination and support to 37,000 people across all of San Bernardino and Riverside counties who suffer from intellectual dif culties, autism, cerebral palsy and epilepsy, setting them up with services at various agencies. It employs 760 people, with 100 of them in a satellite of ce in Riverside.
The center, which drew headlines a er a mass shooting at the facility in late 2015, has taken the top honor for two years in a row, a testament to its employees’ resilience. The Top Workplace program recognizes employers who set an example by treating employees with great respect and empowering workers to reach high levels of achievement.
Lavinia Johnson is the executive director of IRC, and Kevin Urtz is the associate executive director. Johnson has been there for 30 years, and Urtz for 28 years, both starting as case managers. They spoke with us about their work and that of their colleagues.
Q: What makes this organization something people stay at for a long time?
Johnson: I just like working with people with developmental disabilities. I love what I do, and people have so many needs. It’s just great to be able to help them. It’s just a great place to work. Basically, they’re social workers, and social workers tend to be very sociable people. And they network internally. That’s how they gure out ways to do things. There’s a great camaraderie.
Urtz: We give people an opportunity to be challenged, and it makes people enjoy working here. We don’t want to micromanage people. We want them to be creative and innovative. We want to help them do things, not do things for them.
Q: What are the rewards for working at your organization? Are the levels of compensation considered competitive?
Johnson: It is competitive, especially for the Inland Empire. But there is an intrinsic reward for helping people in the area. We hire a lot of college students who graduate from area schools. There’s no shortage of people to hire. There may be a shortage of money, but there’s a lot of people who want to do this sort of work.
Urtz: Because there are so many services, it can be dif cult for a family member to nd what’s out there. And, in our building, we all care that we can nd those services. If they exist we try to nd it, and our staff is all in this together. Everyone has a piece; it’s not an either-or thing.
Q: Do you offer what is considered good bene ts?
Johnson: We try to make sure the bene ts package is a decent one. We have what is called the “980 work week,” which means a 7:30-5:30 schedule that gives workers every other Friday off. It’s good for people who have families.
Q: How do you navigate California’s network of laws that regulate employment?
Johnson: We have a good human resources department, and the director is also an attorney. So we manage to stay on top of things.
Urtz: These days, in an agency this large, you need informed advice.
Q: Your employee turnover rate is very low. Does empowering the staff to come up with ideas play a part in that?
Urtz: We try to walk around and talk to our people — and listen. I think people like to talk. We also have what we call joint input meetings, where people put their thoughts into writing. I think it helps them to be heard.
Johnson: We’ve been here so long, and I think we know what we need. And, we bond like family.
Few people will think of the Inland Regional Center and not remember the horri c events of three years ago when a mass shooting le 14 people dead. But it did toughen the workforce bonds.
“As bad as it was, it did help pull us together as an agency,” Urtz said. He and Johnson assumed their current positions about six months before the tragedy. “A lot of trivial issues fell by the wayside a er that happened.”
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Tags: business, Top Stories IVDB, Top Stories PE, Top Stories RDF, Top Stories Sun, Top Workplaces
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/top-workplaces-2018-great-camaraderie-fuels-the-social-side-of-work-at-inland-regional-center/ 2/4 11/30/2018 Wildfires have put a spotlight on state’s housing shortage – San Bernardino Sun
OPINION Wildfires have put a spotlight on state’s housing shortage
CHICO, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 13: People made homeless by the devastating Camp Fire in Butte County live in a tent city growing around the Walmart parking lot Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Chico, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD | [email protected] | PUBLISHED: November 28, 2018 at 8:00 pm | UPDATED: November 28, 2018 at 8:00 pm
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/28/wildfires-have-put-a-spotlight-on-states-housing-shortage/ 1/4 11/30/2018 Wildfires have put a spotlight on state’s housing shortage – San Bernardino Sun
Nearly 14,000 homes were destroyed by the Camp re, including roughly 90 percent of the homes in the town of Paradise. As if more evidence was needed, the plight of residents there has put a harsh spotlight on the problem of California’s tight housing supply.
According to Butte County of cials, there is enough permanent housing available for about 1,000 families. Thousands of others will be living in trailers or relocating outside the county.
Any crisis brings with it the opportunity to make changes that otherwise are considered too dif cult or even impossible. In this crisis, Californians should demand that lawmakers look at why it has been so dif cult to build enough housing in the state.
In February, the California Department of Housing and Community Development released a statewide housing assessment titled “California’s Housing Future: Challenges and Opportunities.”
The report said the state needs approximately 1.8 million new homes through 2025 to meet projected population and household growth.
There are many obstacles to residential development, but one problem that could be addressed immediately is the impact on affordability caused by what the report called “permit and construction policies that drive up unit cost.”
The report recommended action to “streamline housing construction” by limiting delays and duplicative reviews. There’s no time like the present.
Another goal that has remained elusive is reform of the California Environmental Quality Act. The law known as CEQA is notorious for enabling lawsuits that kill projects through extended delays and high legal costs.
One study found that residential housing development accounted for about 20 percent of CEQA lawsuits.
Some projects in California qualify for exemptions from CEQA and others win exemptions through political pull. A better approach is to reform the law for every project, especially housing.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development de nes housing as “affordable” when a person pays no more than 30 percent of his or her income towards housing costs. For renters, HUD de nes housing costs as rent plus utilities. For homeowners, it’s mortgage payments, utilities, insurance and taxes. https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/28/wildfires-have-put-a-spotlight-on-states-housing-shortage/ 2/4 11/30/2018 Wildfires have put a spotlight on state’s housing shortage – San Bernardino Sun If the entire state of California isn’t already unaffordable, it soon will be. Lawmakers in Sacramento should use the wild res as an opportunity to thin the regulations that are fueling the housing crisis.
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Tags: editorials
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The Editorial Board The editorial board and opinion section staff are independent of the news- gathering side of our organization. Through our staff-written editorials, we take positions on important issues affecting our readership, from pension reform to protecting our region’s unique natural resources to transportation. The editorials are unsigned because, while written by one or more members of our staff, they represent the point of view of our news organization’s management. In order to take informed positions, we meet frequently with government, community and business leaders on important issues affecting our cities, region and state. During elections, we meet with candidates for of ce and https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/28/wildfires-have-put-a-spotlight-on-states-housing-shortage/ 3/4 11/30/2018 Has legal weed boosted California’s illicit operators? So far, yes. – San Bernardino Sun
NEWSCALIFORNIA NEWS Has legal weed boosted California’s illicit operators? So far, yes. Pot Inc. was huge before Prop 64. It still is, and legal operators are only a fraction of the market
By BROOKE STAGGS | [email protected] | Orange County Register PUBLISHED: November 30, 2018 at 6:00 am | UPDATED: November 30, 2018 at 6:01 am
The owner of a family-run cannabis farm, tucked away in a rural Riverside County community known for marijuana cultivation, says he’s paid taxes and lab tested his crops for years.
At the start of this year, he thought he was well situated to join California’s newly legal recreational marijuana industry.
But the market, quite literally, refused to come to him.
Proposition 64, California’s cannabis law, allows each community to decide where commercial marijuana is allowed — or if it’s allowed at all. The farmer’s community said the closest area where he can legally grow his crop is miles away. He can’t get a state business license unless he uproots his family and sells his land at a loss.
So the farmer plans on quietly staying put, with his 24 plants, for as long as he can before authorities force him out of business.
He’s hardly the only marijuana entrepreneur in California who’d prefer not to be a criminal.
Consider the double life of the guy who runs a marijuana delivery service.
As he’s tried, and failed, to get a state license this year, he said he’s laid off several employees and, of cially, shuttered his business.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/has-legal-weed-boosted-californias-illicit-operators-so-far-yes/ 1/9 11/30/2018 Has legal weed boosted California’s illicit operators? So far, yes. – San Bernardino Sun But behind closed doors the industry veteran is staying a oat by brokering the sale of prized California cannabis to buyers in states where weed isn’t yet legal. Wholesale cannabis fetches twice its domestic price out of state, with none of the taxes.
“A lot of people would like to be full-on legitimate,” the delivery operator said. But “you have to pay rent, you have to be able to eat, so you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Multiply those stories by a few thousand, and you’ve got a glimpse of the size and scope of the illicit side of California’s marijuana industry.
Their stories — as well as market research, police activity and other measures — suggest that even as a legal market for recreational marijuana is starting to take root in California, the illicit side of the weed business is only growing stronger.
Rocky transition
California established a gray market for cannabis 22 years ago when it legalized medical marijuana. Though the drug technically was legal only for medical patients, in reality it also was easy to nd and relatively cheap for recreational users, too. So when Prop. 64 was approved by voters — promising to legalize, tax and regulate cannabis for all adults — no one expected the gray market to dissolve overnight.
And data indicates it hasn’t.
Two years ago, industry trade groups estimated that California was home to 50,000 growers and some 12,500 dispensaries. But in the year that Prop. 64 has been in effect, the state has issued licenses to only a fraction of those businesses; about 5,500 growers and 600 retailers.
Experts say that’s why California’s cannabis tax revenue is, so far, falling well below budgeted projections.
“We’ve still got tons of illegal grows,” said Sgt. Tyson Voss, who heads up the Riverside County Sheriff’s Marijuana Eradication Team. “And dispensary storefronts, a bunch of those just opened up.”
Just as there are bootleggers for alcohol 85 years a er the end of prohibition, there are marijuana farmers and sellers in California who say they don’t intend to change the way they’ve operated for years. They call themselves the “free people’s market,” and they prefer the risk of arrest over the fees and strict oversight that comes with joining California’s newly regulated market.
Their risk is minimized by the fact that Prop. 64 has reduced the penalties for most marijuana crimes and eliminated others entirely.
“There are clearly some people who just want to ride it until the wheels fall off,” said Kip Morrison, founder of the California Cannabis Manufacturer’s Association.
But that attitude accounts for only part of the state’s current illicit market. https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/has-legal-weed-boosted-californias-illicit-operators-so-far-yes/ 2/9 11/30/2018 Has legal weed boosted California’s illicit operators? So far, yes. – San Bernardino Sun There are ambitious newcomers who hoped to make a mark in California’s newly legal weed industry. There are also many long-time industry veterans who wanted to leave behind the anxiety and limited opportunities of the state’s former gray market. Operators from both camps are ending 2018 with at least one foot planted rmly in the illicit market.
The reason: They have no pathway to get licenses, a result of local bans, zoning rules and pricey registration fees. They’ve also been frustrated by a lack of access to start-up capital, a lack of viable real estate and the sluggish rollout of local commercial cannabis programs.
“There are thousands of people who would love to participate in the regulated market who are totally locked out,” said Casey O’Neill, a longtime Mendocino County cannabis farmer who’s on the leadership board for the California Growers Association trade group.
O’Neill says he knows people who’ve spent their life savings trying to comply with state rules, only to discover some barrier to entry they can’t overcome.
Many, O’Neill added, are “heartbroken” to be shut out of an industry they helped build. But most of these businesses are small farms with little capital — and no way to get more, since the the federal rules on marijuana make legal business loans out of reach.
As a result, O’Neill said, people are stuck choosing between their ethics and the need to feed their families. Those people, he added, “have de nitely propped up the unregulated market.”
A temporary problem?
Regulators and researchers are con dent that any boost Prop. 64 is giving to the state’s illicit cannabis market is only temporary.
A nal dra of state regulations is slated to be adopted in January, which, many say, will remove much of the uncertainty that operators have faced during the rst year of legalization.
Also coming is a fundamental shi in California’s strategy regarding the illicit market.
Early this year, regulators tried the carrot approach to regulation, encouraging operators to join the legal market. Recently, they’ve turned to the stick — cracking down on operators who aren’t making any effort to join the regulated market. The Bureau of Cannabis Control in recent months has partnered with other state and local authorities, serving search warrants at a handful of unlicensed shops and delivery services. More resources will be dedicated to enforcement in 2019.
But some argue the crackdown alone won’t work, saying the state needs to expand the number of licenses it issues and nd other ways to bring operators into compliance.
“Enforcement without opportunity is a broken paradigm,” said cannabis farmer and trade group leader O’Neill.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/has-legal-weed-boosted-californias-illicit-operators-so-far-yes/ 3/9 11/30/2018 Has legal weed boosted California’s illicit operators? So far, yes. – San Bernardino Sun So far, only about one in three California communities allows any form of cannabis business, according to a database of local policies compiled by the Southern California News Group. More cities are coming on board each quarter, but O’Neill and others note that the pace is much slower than anyone anticipated.
That patchwork, city-by-city legality of weed in California is creating huge holes in the market — holes that illicit operators have been lling for decades.
Even in communities where leaders or voters are opting to welcome the cannabis industry, zoning rules and other regulations have le thousands of businesses with no way to legally operate.
There are an estimated 1,000 cannabis growers, for example, operating in rural unincorporated areas of Riverside County, according to Gem Montes, executive director for the Inland Empire chapter of the marijuana advocacy group NORML. But the county just approved zones for commercial marijuana businesses that exclude nearly all of those farms — effectively banishing the others to go out of business or continue as illicit growers.
Montes said the city of San Bernardino’s cap of 17 cultivation licenses assumes the several hundred growers already operating in warehouses scattered throughout the city will leave town.
But unregulated cannabis operators pose tough questions for cities and counties. While the long-term presence of an illicit business doesn’t mean that industry is a good t for neighbors or the environment, will refusing to license those businesses make them disappear? And if those businesses go away, what happens to the community a er they leave?
Cannabis operations in parts of California, long before Prop. 64, rented warehouse space and employed residents. Indirectly, the industry was a factor in everything from increased property values to lower need for social services.
“Like it or not, the unregulated cannabis market was a massive support system for rural economies all over the state,” O’Neill said.
How not to end prohibition
Some observers of California’s cannabis industry suggest the state hasn’t yet learned from history.
In 1934, when prohibition was ending in the United States, Rear Admiral Luther E. Gregory led Washington’s Liquor Control Board with a simple plan: He made it cheap and easy for speakeasies to become licensed taverns, setting rock-bottom liquor taxes and easy-to- secure liquor licenses.
And those who ignored Gregory and tried to operate illegally came to regret it.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/has-legal-weed-boosted-californias-illicit-operators-so-far-yes/ 4/9 11/30/2018 Has legal weed boosted California’s illicit operators? So far, yes. – San Bernardino Sun “(Gregory) was also ruthless about weeding out those unwilling to conform to the new law,” said William Rorabaugh, a history professor at University of Washington who has studied America’s history with alcohol and prohibition.
Gregory also was playing the long game. Once he’d all but eradicated the illegal liquor market, Gregory phased in stiffer taxes on licensed sellers. The market took care of the rest.
California’s laws on cannabis, Morrison points out, are almost the exact opposite of Gregory’s strategy.
Prop. 64 lowered the penalties for illegal operators, essentially inducing operators to stay in the shadows. It also launched a regulation system that includes strict rules on everything from growing to product testing and insurance. And it set tax rates that, when combined with city taxes in some communities, can add 50 percent to the price of the product.
“What they’re doing with all the barriers to entry and all the taxes and the fees is they’re sti ing the ability to control the supply,” Morrison said of California’s cannabis regulations.
“That should be the focus at this time: Take whatever steps you need to take to have the regulated market actually control the supply.”
Do consumers care?
Nearly a year into legal weed in California, one thing is clear: illicit weed merchants have no trouble nding customers.
One in ve Californians said they’d purchased cannabis from an unlicensed shop in the past three months, according to a survey conducted this summer by marijuana delivery platform Eaze. Consumers in Southern California are more likely to purchase from an unlicensed source than are consumers from Northern California, and a whopping 84 percent of all respondents are inclined to buy again from an illegal source, saying products are cheaper and sometimes better.
Illicit shops remain easy to nd through online directories like Weedmaps, which still lists them despite receiving a cease and desist letter from state regulators. (The Irvine-based company declined to talk for this story.)
A comparison of products available from stores listed on Weedmaps shows the price discrepancies. Shoppers can buy marijuana for as little as $7 a gram at unlicensed shops in Orange County cities that, theoretically, don’t allow such stores. But shoppers who go to licensed stores in Santa Ana — the only city in the county that permits them — generally pay $13 to $15 per gram, and up to $20 a gram when all taxes are included. That doesn’t factor in other perks that illicit shops can offer, such as higher potency products and free samples.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/has-legal-weed-boosted-californias-illicit-operators-so-far-yes/ 5/9 11/30/2018 Has legal weed boosted California’s illicit operators? So far, yes. – San Bernardino Sun Price isn’t the only issue. Customers are willing to pay more for cannabis that’s been tested for safety, properly labeled and sold in legal shops, according to a study published this September in the journal Addiction.
But there’s clearly a limit to how much they’ll pay, according to Michael Amlung, a psychiatry professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada who headed up the study.
Even if illicit weed is cheaper, the study found customers are willing to spend up to $10 a gram to support the legal market. But beyond the $10 threshold, customers start turning to the illicit market, Amlung said.
The ndings are rm enough that economic models can be predicated on them. For example, a 5 percent cut in the overall tax rate of cannabis in California could drive 23 percent of illicit market customers back to the legal market, the Eaze survey found.
Other changes gure to affect illicit farmers.
For now, most states and countries still regulate cannabis as an illegal drug. But demand for California cannabis gures to go down as other states and countries move toward legalization.
Ten states have now legalized recreational marijuana, with New Jersey expected to join the list through a vote by the legislature. Canada launched its own legal commercial market in October, and Mexico is on the verge of doing the same.
Federal law in the United States also could shi , bringing new, easier banking rules for cannabis businesses that comply with state laws. Any such change would give operators a major incentive to move to the licensed market, since they could then avoid the risk of operating all-cash businesses and access to capital.
But it will take time for such changes to put a dent in California’s illicit market.
“I think it will be ve or more years before it gets somewhat under control,” said Riverside County sheriff Sgt. Voss.
As they struggle to comply with state regulations and fend off competition from the illicit sector, many licensed businesses aren’t sure they’ll be able to survive another few years until the market stabilizes.
“This has been the most challenging year that I’ve ever had in my life work-wise,” said Bryce Berryessa, who operates several legal cannabis operations in Santa Cruz County.
Still, Berryessa doesn’t regret his decision to trade the stress of worrying about getting booted by his landlord, or having his door kicked in by law enforcement, for the stress of trying to generate cash ow or pass stringent testing requirements.
“I believe that what I do is a legitimate way to make a living and I’m proud of what I do.”
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/30/has-legal-weed-boosted-californias-illicit-operators-so-far-yes/ 6/9 11/30/2018 Democrats control California, but are fragmenting – San Bernardino Sun
OPINION Democrats control California, but are fragmenting
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, at podium, shakes hands with California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman as Gov. Jerry Brown watches during a unity rally at state Democratic headquarters in Sacramento, Calif. on Wednesday, June 13, 2018. Brown endorsed Newsom Wednesday in the race to replace him as California governor.(AP Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper)
By DAN WALTERS | PUBLISHED: November 29, 2018 at 3:54 pm | UPDATED: November 29, 2018 at 3:54 pm
Political con icts are wars without guns, and ordinarily, they pit those of one political party against those of another.
But what happens when one of the two major American parties becomes dominant in a city, a county, a state or the nation?
History tells us that warfare continues within the hegemonic party, which fragments into quasi-parties based on even minuscule differences of ideology, personality, ethnicity or geography. And these intra-party rivalries are o en quite nasty.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/democrats-control-california-but-are-fragmenting/ 1/4 11/30/2018 Democrats control California, but are fragmenting – San Bernardino Sun
For decades, that’s been true in San Francisco among its dominant Democrats and was true for decades in Orange County when it was controlled by Republicans.
Democrats’ grip on California became even tighter in this month’s elections as the party ipped six or seven of the Republicans’ 14 congressional seats – one district is still too close to call – and gained even stronger majorities in the Legislature.
True to form, Democratic gains appear to be sharpening the simmering power struggle among three major factions – the regular establishment, the moderates and the le ist acolytes of Bernie Sanders.
Capturing legislative seats in relatively conservative regions that had been formerly held by Republicans strengthens the ranks of the Capitol’s “Mod-Squad.” That could frustrate le -of-center advocacy groups, such as environmentalists and unions, which hope that the election of a seemingly more liberal governor, Gavin Newsom, would advance their agendas of more taxes, more spending and more business regulation.
The most obvious indication of a sharpening intra-party con ict, however, is a demand by the state Democratic Party’s second vice-chair, Berniecrat Daraka Larimore-Hall, that chairman Eric Bauman be removed, alleging that Bauman “sexually harassed, and in some cases sexually assaulted, individuals during party functions.”
Larimore-Hall said he had spoken with two victims and a witness whom Bauman allegedly intimidated, although he offered no details – a scenario reminiscent of the battle just weeks ago over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court con rmation.
“I believe the victims,” Larimore-Hall continued. “Their stories illustrate a clear and escalating pattern of chairman Bauman’s horri c and dehumanizing behavior. This is unacceptable for a political organization dedicated to feminism, human rights and just working conditions. Our activists and voters look to us as a force for social change, and we must embody the values we ght for in society.”
Almost immediately, others on the party’s le wing joined Larimore-Hall in demanding that Bauman step down or be removed. Congressman Ro Khanna, a Fremont Democrat, for example, urged the party to replace Bauman with either Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor who led the recall of former Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky, or Bay Area liberal activist Kimberly Ellis.
Bauman did not directly deny the charges, saying in a statement, “I take seriously any allegation brought forward by anyone who believes they have been caused pain. To that end, a prompt, thorough and independent investigation of the allegations has been undertaken by a respected outside investigator, ensuring these individuals making the charges are treated with respect and free from any concerns of retaliation.” On Monday, a statement from the California Democratic Party said Bauman will take a leave of absence until the investigation is concluded.
Bauman, who is gay, chaired the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and was a legislative staffer before winning the party’s state chairmanship with establishment backing. He staved off a strong challenge from Ellis, winning by just 60 votes out of 3,000 cast – an outcome whose validity the le ist wing still questions.
No matter how the harassment allegation against him plays out, it tells us that while Democrats may control California, who controls the Democrats is very uncertain with the state poised to become a major presidential nomination battleground, thanks to its March 2020 primary.
CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary
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OPINION The thrills and chills of a Democratic supermajority
The dome of the state Capitol glows in the early evening Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, in Sacramento. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD | [email protected] | PUBLISHED: November 29, 2018 at 8:41 pm | UPDATED: November 29, 2018 at 8:41 pm
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/the-thrills-and-chills-of-a-democratic-supermajority/ 1/6 11/30/2018 The thrills and chills of a Democratic supermajority – San Bernardino Sun A blue-wave blowout in California has swept Democrats into total and unchecked control of state government, and that carries both risks and opportunities.
There are opportunities to do dif cult things, including the long-elusive goal of many in both parties to reform the California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA. There are risks that new and higher taxes may be imposed without debate or restraint.
A two-thirds majority in both the Assembly and Senate is required to pass tax increases, override a governor’s veto and place constitutional amendments on the ballot. Those can be politically risky votes, but now Democrats will have votes to spare, allowing leadership to free up the most vulnerable members to stay home or cast their vote the opposite way.
With many ballots yet to be counted, it appears Democrats will have 60 votes in the 80- member Assembly and 29 votes in the 40-member Senate.
There hasn’t been a Democratic supermajority of this size in California since 1883. However, the votes have been trending in this direction. Democrats brie y held a supermajority in both houses a er the 2012 election until resignations eroded it in 2013. They won a supermajority again in 2016, then lost it to resignations over sexual- harassment allegations and the recall of Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton.
The new supermajorities of roughly three-quarters in each house represent an unprecedented level of power, particularly when added to Democratic control of every statewide of ce. The future of California could be reshaped by it.
Governor-elect Gavin Newsom has vowed to expand child care and home health services, at a cost to be determined. Many Democrats are committed to replacing private health insurance with a state-run plan such as the one in Senate Bill 562, which passed in the Senate despite a cost estimate equal to twice the total state budget.
Stakeholders are lined up to demand more money for affordable housing, infrastructure and expanded public assistance.
Yet the state faces an enormous unfunded liability for public worker pensions and bene ts. Combined with increased spending, it could plunge the state into disaster in an economic downturn.
That’s where the risks to taxpayers from the supermajorities are most acute. Longtime homeowners will remember when property tax assessments rose automatically with the market value of real estate and the statewide average tax rate on property was 2.67 percent. Sacramento was ooded with cash as homeowners risked a stroke when they opened their property tax bills.
That’s how Proposition 13, a constitutional amendment that limited the property tax rate to 1 percent and xed the assessed value at the purchase price plus an annual increase capped at 2 percent, passed overwhelmingly in 1978.
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/the-thrills-and-chills-of-a-democratic-supermajority/ 2/6 11/30/2018 The thrills and chills of a Democratic supermajority – San Bernardino Sun The Democrats will have the votes in Sacramento to put a new constitutional amendment on the ballot that changes or even repeals Prop. 13. It would require only a simple majority of voters to become law.
Short of that, Democrats may decide to attack the requirement for bonds and special taxes to be approved by two-thirds of voters. In 2000, the state constitution was amended to allow education bonds to pass with only 55 percent of the vote. A number of proposals that aimed to make the same change for other bonds and taxes have so far failed to reach the needed two-thirds vote in the Assembly and the Senate.
That could change in January.
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The Editorial Board The editorial board and opinion section staff are independent of the news-gathering side of our organization. Through our staff-written editorials, we take positions on important issues affecting our readership, from pension reform to protecting our region’s unique natural resources to transportation. The editorials are unsigned because, while written by one or more members of our staff, they represent the point of view of our news organization’s management. In order to take informed positions, we meet frequently with government, community and business leaders on important issues affecting our https://www.sbsun.com/2018/11/29/the-thrills-and-chills-of-a-democratic-supermajority/ 3/6 11/30/2018 Chad Bianco: Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff ‘acting like a child’ in transition – Press Enterprise
NEWSPOLITICS Chad Bianco: Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff ‘acting like a child’ in transition
From left, Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff and Sheriff-elect Chad Bianco (File photos).
By JEFF HORSEMAN | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise PUBLISHED: November 26, 2018 at 3:23 pm | UPDATED: November 26, 2018 at 5:03 pm
Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff, who lost his re-election bid earlier this month, is not cooperating with the transition to a new sheriff, his successor said Monday.
https://www.pe.com/2018/11/26/chad-bianco-riverside-county-sheriff-stan-sniff-acting-like-a-child-in-transition/ 1/4 11/30/2018 Chad Bianco: Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff ‘acting like a child’ in transition – Press Enterprise “There is not a transition,” sheriff’s Lt. Chad Bianco said in a Nov. 26 phone interview. “It is very unfortunate. We are now in the process of trying to work around that … The current sheriff is doing nothing to make this at all seamless.”
Sniff, Bianco said, is “acting like a child.”
In an emailed statement, Sniff, who has been sheriff since 2007, said Bianco’s comments “continue the unfortunate campaign rhetoric… that we hope will disappear at some point.”
In a phone interview Monday, Sniff added: “I think … it’s pretty clear we’re cooperating pretty well on the transition, I’m not sure where they’re coming from on that. It sounds like they’re still in campaign (mode).”
Bianco, who lost to Sniff in 2014, is currently leading the incumbent, 57-to-43 percent, in votes still being tallied by the county Registrar of Voters. Sniff conceded on Nov. 7, saying voters had “decided upon a change in direction.”
The election capped an expensive and bitter campaign. Bianco, who had the backing of the union representing sheriff’s deputies, accused Sniff of mismanagement that compromised public safety, wasted money and caused deputy morale to plummet.
Sniff countered that Bianco lacked the experience needed to become sheriff and would be a union puppet if elected.
Warning signs for Sniff rose in the June primary, when 68 percent of voters chose one of three candidates running against the incumbent. Bianco jumped to a lead in early election-night returns and never looked back.
According to a timeline included in the sheriff’s statement, Bianco on Nov. 14 sent an email to Jessica Gore, the sheriff’s legislative assistant, asking for a transition meeting. Bianco was told the sheriff had “a number of commitments” and that Assistant Sheriff Kevin Vest was the designated contact for transition meetings.
The sheriff OK’d Bianco’s request to attend the California State Sheriffs’ Association’s training for new sheriffs the week of Dec. 10, and on Nov. 16, Vest emailed Bianco to coordinate a start of transition meetings, and they agreed the rst of those meetings would take place Nov. 26, the statement added.
Bianco said Monday was the rst opportunity he had to meet with members of Sniff’s executive team to discuss a transition. “This is the rst conversation I’ve had with any of his staff, other than his secretary telling me he’s too busy,” Bianco said, adding the sheriff has refused to meet with him.
https://www.pe.com/2018/11/26/chad-bianco-riverside-county-sheriff-stan-sniff-acting-like-a-child-in-transition/ 2/4 11/30/2018 Chad Bianco: Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff ‘acting like a child’ in transition – Press Enterprise “There is not a transition for this campaign because we have an outgoing sheriff that is acting like a child,” said Bianco, who takes of ce in early January. “We’re trying to do everything possible behind the scenes to make this a seamless transition. It’s not working. There’s a lot I won’t be able to do until I take of ce.”
Bianco’s comments come a er Sniff’s department announced the cancellation of the annual Blue Light ceremonies, which honor county peace of cers who died in the line of duty.
Since then, the Riverside and Palm Springs police departments have agreed to hold the ceremonies with the Sheriff’s Department taking on a supporting role.
“It’s two different optics,” Bianco said of the transition and the ceremonies. “But the common denominator is an outgoing sheriff that just doesn’t care.”
According to the sheriff’s statement, the ceremonies are coordinated by Sheriff’s Department executives, “the very group” who will be departing for other jobs when the new sheriff takes of ce.
“Because of the special (circumstances) this year, other willing agencies are picking up the responsibility through coordination with (department) leadership,” the statement read.
Tags: 2018 Elections, politics, public safety, Top Stories PE
Jeff Horseman Jeff Horseman got into journalism because he liked to write and stunk at math. He grew up in Vermont and he honed his interviewing skills as a supermarket cashier by asking Bernie Sanders “Paper or plastic?” A er graduating from Syracuse University in 1999, Jeff began his journalistic odyssey at The Watertown Daily Times in upstate New York, where he impressed then-U.S. Senate candidate Hillary Clinton so much she called him “John” at the end of an interview. From there, he went to Annapolis, Maryland, where he covered city, county and state government at The Capital newspaper before love and the quest for snowless winters took him in 2007 to Southern California, where he started out covering Temecula for The Press-Enterprise. Today, Jeff writes about Riverside County government and regional politics. Along the way, Jeff has covered wild res, a tropical storm, 9/11 and the Dec. 2 terror attack in San Bernardino. If you have a question or story idea about politics or the inner workings of government, please let Jeff know. He’ll do his best to answer, even if it involves a little math. Follow Jeff Horseman @JeffHorseman https://www.pe.com/2018/11/26/chad-bianco-riverside-county-sheriff-stan-sniff-acting-like-a-child-in-transition/ 3/4 11/30/2018 County gets failing grade for jail plan: ‘Double fail’ for prison realignment funding, state activist group reports | Local News | smdailyjourn…
From the Daily Journal archives County gets failing grade for jail plan: ‘Double fail’ for prison realignment funding, state activist group reports
By Michelle Durand Daily Journal Staff Nov 29, 2013
San Mateo County received a “double fail” grade for its construction of a new county jail, according to a California activist group’s 2013 report card on the state’s criminal justice realignment actions and funding.
Californians United for a Responsible Budget graded 13 counties, as it has since 2011, based on their use of realignment funding and this year added the “double fail” category for counties like San Mateo that are building or planning to build jail facilities.
“The opportunity to reverse the policies of mass incarceration that has been masquerading as public policy is slipping away,” Emily Harris, a CURB member who has organized against the San Mateo County jail, said in a prepared statement. “Instead, Sacramento is encouraging more counties to expand jails.”
(//www.smdailyjournal.com/tncms/tracking/bannerad/clicks/? rd=www.google.com&i=ros/fixed-big-ad-top- asset1/7079ee72-c10e-11e8-aaa4- df6a8daea388&r=https://www.thepeptech.com/) CURB released its 2013 report card earlier this week.
The report card argues that San Mateo County — along with fellow “double fail” recipients Kern, Riverside, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties — are “pursing multiple jail expansions, have almost no alternatives to incarceration and offer little support for service provision through community -based organizations.
According to CURB, these counties “must develop an entirely new approach to realignment if they are to succeed.” https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/county-gets-failing-grade-for-jail-plan-double-fail-for/article_a4b455e2-9e69-57ad-9781-a0f0bec9f1d7.html 1/4 11/30/2018 County gets failing grade for jail plan: ‘Double fail’ for prison realignment funding, state activist group reports | Local News | smdailyjourn… Realignment is the state shift beginning in October 2011 of offenders of certain crimes to county jails and local responsibility rather than state prison. In response, some offenders receive split sentences in which they serve half the time in jail and the other under mandatory supervision.
San Mateo County has some alternatives to incarceration but needs instead to invest in more options along with job training and affordable housing, according to CURB.
Only two of the 13 graded counties passed and another six failed in addition to the ve, like San Mateo County, that received the double fail.
CURB said it plans to demand an end to jail construction Dec. 4 at the Board of State and Community Corrections in Sacramento.
Sheriff Greg Munks could not be immediately reached for comment on the CURB report but has argued the need for a new jail to alleviate chronic overcrowding at the existing Maguire Correctional Facility, replace the antiquated women’s jail, provide more space for programming and absorb the increase of inmates due to state realignment.
CURB has long protested San Mateo County’s plans for a new jail which is under construction on 4.95 acres east of Highway 101 in Redwood City. The county is funding the project itself because the state, which is giving millions in construction money to other counties, won’t pay for projects that have already broken ground. The construction price tag is capped at $126 million and yearly operations are estimated at $40 million.
The new facility will have 576 beds for both men and women in three stories and 40 feet of un nished space known as a warm shell which can be developed in the future if the need arises. Future expansion can be up to 832 beds.
The facility is expected to open in mid-2015.
But while the jail project led to CURB’s failing grade of San Mateo County, the county was heralded earlier this month by a Stanford University study as the “poster counties” for what lawmakers intended with realignment. Along, with Monterey, https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/county-gets-failing-grade-for-jail-plan-double-fail-for/article_a4b455e2-9e69-57ad-9781-a0f0bec9f1d7.html 2/4 11/30/2018 County gets failing grade for jail plan: ‘Double fail’ for prison realignment funding, state activist group reports | Local News | smdailyjourn… Santa Barbara, Santa Clara and Shasta counties, San Mateo County received a nod by the Stanford Criminal Justice Center for moving after realignment toward funding treatment over incarceration.
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