Candidate List Has Been Nalized for Primary Election in San Bernardino

1/2/2020 Candidate list has been finalized for primary election in San Bernardino County | News | fontanaheraldnews.com

https://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/news/candidate-list-has-been-nalized-for-primary-election-in- san/article_1011e6f0-2bfe-11ea-b170-f70dbf1c3594.html Candidate list has been nalized for primary election in San Bernardino County

Dec 31, 2019

Josie Gonzales will be termed out as a San Bernardino County supervisor in 2020.

The candidate list has now been nalized for the March presidential primary election in San Bernardino County.

A key race for many Fontana residents will be the 5th District seat on the county's Board of Supervisors.

https://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/news/candidate-list-has-been-finalized-for-primary-election-in-san/article_1011e6f0-2bfe-11ea-b170-f70dbf1c359… 1/3 1/2/2020 Candidate list has been finalized for primary election in San Bernardino County | News | fontanaheraldnews.com Josie Gonzales, who has held that seat since 2004, will be termed out, and four candidates are seeking to replace her.

One of those candidates is Jesse Armendarez, who is now a member of the Fontana City Council. Armendarez, who was born and raised in Fontana, is also a local businessman.

Other candidates on the ballot are:

• Joe Baca Jr., a member of the Rialto City Council and a teacher;

• Dan Flores, a member of the Colton Joint Unied School District Board of Education (and the chief of sta for Gonzales);

• Nadia Renner, a business owner.

----- ALSO during the election, voters will cast ballots for representatives from the Chaey Community College District.

In Area 3, which covers most of Fontana, Lee C. McDougal is the incumbent and is seeking reelection.

Lorena Corona, a former member of the Fontana Unied School District Board of Education, will be challenging him for the seat.

For more information about registering to vote, visit the Registrar of Voters website at SBCountyElections.com or call (909) 387-8300.

https://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/news/candidate-list-has-been-finalized-for-primary-election-in-san/article_1011e6f0-2bfe-11ea-b170-f70dbf1c359… 2/3 San Bernardino County Civil Grand Jury seeking applicants – Press Enterprise

   

LOCAL NEWS San Bernardino County Civil Grand Jury seeking applicants

   

By SANDRA EMERSON | [email protected] |  PUBLISHED: December 30, 2019 at 2:31 pm | UPDATED: December 30, 2019 at 2:31 pm

The San Bernardino County Civil Grand Jury is looking for new members.

Residents interested in a spot on the grand jury, which investigates local government agencies and reports of misconduct, have until Feb. 29 to apply.

The 19-member grand jury serves as an independent investigative panel, tasked with looking into all aspects of the county, including cities and special districts, and potentially hearing information on certain criminal investigations, a news release states.

https://www.pe.com/...licants/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow[12/30/2019 2:40:22 PM] San Bernardino County Civil Grand Jury seeking applicants – Press Enterprise

Those chosen will serve from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021. The grand jury releases its annual report every July 1.

TOP ARTICLES 1/5

In 2019, the grand jury investigated complaints about the county’s regional parks system and Upland’s finances.

Applicants must be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen and RELATED LINKS a county resident for at least one year. Elected officials are

not eligible. San Bernardino County working to improve parks after years of neglect Grand jurors work an average of three to five full working days per week, at $60 per day, with mileage. They meet in Grand jury tells Upland it’s time to get San Bernardino. serious about a plan to fund pensions

To apply online, visit www.sbcounty.gov/grandjury. Parks, schools and child services all targeted by San Bernardino County Grand Applications can also be submitted in person after Jury downloading the application from the grand jury’s website, sent by mail or picked up in person. The address is the San Bernardino County Civil Grand Jury second floor of 172 W. Third St, San Bernardino. accepting applications

Grand jury recommends more oversight for San Bernardino code enforcement

Want local news? Sign up for the Localist and stay informed

Tags: government, Top Stories IVDB, Top Stories PE, Top Stories RDF, Top Stories Sun

Sandra Emerson Sandra Emerson covers San Bernardino County government and politics for the Southern California News Group.

 Follow Sandra Emerson @ReporterSandraE

https://www.pe.com/...licants/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow[12/30/2019 2:40:22 PM] San Bernardino added 18,710 county residents in 2019, the 2nd most in California – San Bernardino Sun

   

BUSINESS San Bernardino added 18,710 county residents in 2019, the 2nd most in California Seven counties added just 48,405 residents in the year or 0.2% growth

   

https://www.sbsun.com/...getting-close/?utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com[12/30/2019 2:40:33 PM] San Bernardino added 18,710 county residents in 2019, the 2nd most in California – San Bernardino Sun

STAFF GRAPHIC

By JONATHAN LANSNER | [email protected] | Orange County Register  PUBLISHED: December 30, 2019 at 8:52 am | UPDATED: December 30, 2019 at 11:41 am

Southern California fans of “slow growth” are getting their wish: Local population barely advanced in 2019.

When I put into my trusty spreadsheet new population counts from the state’s Department of Finance, I found the region’s seven Southern California counties (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Imperial and Ventura) added just 48,405 residents in the year ended in July.

This slim 0.2% growth brought the total population to 22.3 million, or a million or so more than the entire state of Florida — the nation’s third-most-populous state.

How small is this increase?

TOP ARTICLES 1/5

READ MORE Judge temporarily blocks California’s forced H

Well, it’s a halving from the previous year’s 99,019 jump. By

Compared with the entire decade — when the region THE REDEMPTION DECADE added residents at a 145,000-per-year pace — it’s one- SERIES M third of the local average. California’s 2.8 million new jobs outpace It’s even meek compared with the rest of the state. The the nation other 51 counties added 92,905 residents in the year, or 0.5% growth. California home-price gains double the nation’s And, it’s a longer-term trend: Southern California population grew 7% growth in the decade vs. 8.8% in the state’s 51 California spending, from No. 2 US drop to No. 2 gain other counties.

How California’s population ‘exodus’ Look, this is a statewide challenge. The number of new shrank California residents dropped to an 80-year low. Big turnabout leaves plenty for California to fix

Why has population growth has stalled? Well, the high cost of California living, especially in coastal communities, makes it a tough place in which to stay or move to if you don’t have a fat paycheck. Plus, tough talk on immigration has lowered the region’s appeal to foreigners. Also, as the state and nation age, births drop and deaths rise.

Now, some folks may cheer slower growth. Yes, the cooling does lower certain strains on infrastructure, from roads to housing to schools. And various forms of congestion may ease.

But the same stagnation also can hurt local businesses, making it tougher for bosses to find workers and customers. Property owners may see lower values for their properties. And taxpayers, please note: Slow growth means fewer new folks to help share the burden of government’s costs.

Are you a real estate fan? Then sign up for The Home Stretch newsletter and its Bubble Watch edition. A twice-a-week review of what’s important for housing around the region! Subscribe here!

Here is how population growth broke down by Southern California county, ranked by 2019 gain. Note a key trend: the closer to the ocean the worse population change looks …

Riverside County: Added 22,740 residents — California’s top gain. That’s 0.9% growth, so accounting for population size, it’s the 14 the-best performance among the counties. The county’s population is now 2.44 million, the No. 4 most-populous. For the 2010s, the county added 285,055 new residents (No. 2 of 58). That’s 13.2% growth — again, No. 4 statewide.

San Bernardino County: Added 18,710 residents — state’s No. 2 gain. That’s 0.9% growth (No. 16 performance among the counties) to 2.2 million. It’s the No. 5 most-populous county. For the 2010s, 175,331 more residents (No. 6 of 58), or 8.7% growth — No. 20 statewide.

San Diego County: Added 13,004 residents — state’s No. 4 gain. That’s 0.4% growth (No. 26 performance among the counties) to 3.36 million. It’s the No. 2 most populous county. For the 2010s, the county added 279,809 residents (No. 3 of 58), or 9.1% growth — No. 17 statewide.

Orange County: Added 5,615 residents — state’s No. 10 gain. That’s 0.2% growth (No. 35 performance among the counties) to 3.22 million. It’s the No. 3 most populous county. For the 2010s, 222,171 more residents (No. 4 of 58), or 7.4% growth — No. 24 statewide.

Imperial County: Added 1,077 residents — state’s No. 25 gain. That’s 0.6% growth (No. 21 performance among the counties) to 0.19 million. It’s the No. 30 most populous county. For the 2010s, 16,784 new residents (No. 25 of 58), or 9.7% growth — No. 15 statewide.

Ventura County: Lost 1,966 residents — state’s fourth-biggest drop. That’s a 0.2% decline (No. 45 performance among the counties) to 0.85 million. It’s the No. 13 most populous county. For the 2010s, 35,201 more residents (No. 18 of 58), or 4.3% growth — No. 31 statewide.

Los Angeles County: Lost 9,698 residents — only fire-ravaged Butte County lost more people. That’s a 0.1% decline (No. 39 performance among the counties) to 10.26 million. It’s the No. 1 most populous county. For the 2010s, 455,004 more residents (No. 1 of 58), or 4.6% growth — No. 30 statewide.

Let's talk business. Catch up on the business news closest to you with our daily newsletter.

Tags: economy, real-estate, Top Stories Breeze, Top Stories IVDB, Top Stories LADN, Top Stories LBPT, Top Stories OCR, Top Stories PE, Top Stories PSN, Top Stories RDF, Top Stories SGVT, Top Stories Sun, Top Stories WDN

https://www.sbsun.com/...getting-close/?utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com[12/30/2019 2:40:33 PM] 1/2/2020 What nonpartisans need to know about California's presidential primary - Los Angeles Times

Find a eale

OPINION

Opinion: You could be disenfranchised in California’s presidential primary if you’ve registered nonpartisan

Voting by mail has exploded in California. In 2020, over 15 million voters in the state will receive ballots in the mail. (Los Angeles Times)

JAN. 2, 2020 3 AM

California is at risk of disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters in the March 2020 presidential primary election. The problem is so large it could impact who becomes the Democratic nominee. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-02/no-preference-party-presidential-primary-california 1/8 1/2/2020 What nonpartisans need to know about California's presidential primary - Los Angeles Times Voters in the Golden State are accustomed to seeing candidates from of all parties on the same ballot. This, of course, is how we vote for governor, and members of the state Legislature and the U.S. Congress.

We have every reason to believe that if we are registered to vote, we will be able to weigh in on the presidential primary contest without doing more. But voting for president is different.

The rules for presidential primaries are set by the national political parties — not California’s secretary of state or local county officials. And the national parties have divined a process sure to trip up millions of nonpartisan voters.

ADVERTISING

Replay

inRead invented by Teads

If you are a nonpartisan voter, there is a different process for how you vote in the presidential primary versus any other election.

If you registered as “no party preference” — previously known as “decline to state” — your ballot will not include any presidential candidates unless you take an extra step. The same applies to those registered with a party so small it isn’t officially recognized. (For instance, maybe you wrote in “Whig party” on your voter registration.)

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-02/no-preference-party-presidential-primary-california 2/8 1/2/2020 What nonpartisans need to know about California's presidential primary - Los Angeles Times If you are a nonpartisan voter, you may request a ballot from the Democratic, Libertarian or American Independent parties. Only those three parties allow nonpartisan voters to “cross over” into their primary elections. You cannot ask for a crossover ballot to vote in the Republican presidential primary, because that party’s leaders closed their primary to nonpartisan voters.

If you are a nonpartisan voter who votes the old-fashioned way, at a polling place, you only need to ask your poll worker for a presidential ballot that includes the Democratic, Libertarian or American Independent candidates. But if you are set to receive your ballot in the mail, you will have to complete and return a postcard you should have received from your county registrar.

Voters that can’t overcome this procedural hurdle — and there may be as many as 600,000 of them, based on an analysis of 2016 data — won’t be able to vote for a presidential candidate. That’s enough votes to decide who will be the Democratic nominee.

How did this become a problem so large it could swing an election?

Nonpartisan voters in the state are hugely important, comprising nearly 30% of the electorate. They are the state’s second-biggest voting group after Democrats. They are also the fastest- growing, youngest and most diverse segment of the state electorate.

In addition, voting by mail has exploded. In 2020, over 15 million voters in the state will receive ballots in the mail. Since nonpartisans who vote by mail have to ask for a crossover ballot to vote in the presidential primary, the state had to mail out 4.2 million crossover ballot requests. In Los Angeles County alone that’s 930,000 postcards, squeezed in between holiday greetings and packages from grandparents.

Most worrisome? Many nonpartisan voters are unaware of or confused by the requirement to request a “crossover” ballot to vote in the presidential primary.

Polling by Capitol Weekly shows that 17% of nonpartisan voters believe they are registered Democrats and another 7% think they are registered Republicans. Even if these registered nonpartisans understand the rules they won’t think the crossover ballot request applies to them. Pair this with the massive growth in voting by mail, driven in large part by the state moving entire

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-02/no-preference-party-presidential-primary-california 3/8 1/2/2020 What nonpartisans need to know about California's presidential primary - Los Angeles Times counties or large parts of them — like Los Angeles County has done — to voting by mail. And voters maybe being unaware they have to vote by mail.

In sum, millions of voters receiving these cards have forgotten they are registered as nonpartisan, or are unaware they will be receiving ballots in mail for the March election and won’t be able to vote in person.

Finally, the deadlines printed on the postcards to request a crossover ballot only confuse the matter. Most Los Angeles County postcards say they need to be returned by Dec. 20 or Dec. 31. But it’s not too late.

If one of these postcards is sitting on your kitchen counter and the return date has passed, just send it in. Despite the “deadlines” on the postcards, the registrar will accept requests for crossover ballots up to seven days before the March 3 election, making Feb. 25 the actual deadline for requests. The request can even be made online.

The 2020 California presidential primary is being held three months earlier, allowing it to potentially play a more important role in the nominating process. When we voted in June, the presidential primaries were already largely decided. Now that they have been moved to March, and we will vote on Super Tuesday along with nine other states, California’s 416 pledged delegates could make the state’s primary relevant again.

If large numbers of us are unable to vote for our preferred presidential candidate, that may not happen.

Recent polling shows record levels of voter excitement, and 75% of nonpartisan voters say they want to vote in the Democratic primary. So far, it appears that only 9% to 15% are returning the postcards that would allow them to vote for a presidential candidate.

Where does this leave us? In the middle of an election official’s nightmare. A large percentage of voters (nonpartisans who vote by mail) in a significant presidential primary may be disenfranchised because of a barrier put up by political parties.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-02/no-preference-party-presidential-primary-california 4/8 1/2/2020 What nonpartisans need to know about California's presidential primary - Los Angeles Times If you’re registered as a nonpartisan and vote by mail, take the extra step that will allow you to vote for a presidential candidate — or go the extra mile and vote in person.

Jessica A. Levinson is a professor at Loyola Law School and founding director of Loyola’s Public Service Institute. @LevinsonJessica Paul Mitchell is vice president of Political Data Inc. and owner of Redistricting Partners. @paulmitche11

OPINION OP-ED

NEWSLETTER

Get our weekly Opinion newsletter

Please enter your email address

TOP ARTICLES 1/5

SKIP AD

— Jessica Keating

Who will operate out of the Eastgate Air Cargo Logistics Center?

A man holds a sign during a public hearing on the Eastgate Air Cargo Logistics Center at Norton Regional Event Center in San Bernardino on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019. The project is proposed for San Bernardino International Airport. (File photo by John Valenzuela, Contributing Photographer)

The story: San Bernardino airport officials and residents of the nearby San Bernardino-Muscoy community got word in late December that the Federal Aviation Administration approved the Eastgate Air Cargo Logistics Center planned for San Bernardino International Airport.

What could happen in 2020: On Monday, Dec. 30, the San Bernardino International Airport Authority, a commission of regional leaders overseeing airport operations, approved a 35-year ground lease with Hillwood Enterprises for development of about 100 acres of land at the airport, including the space for Eastgate. Now that the FAA has given Hillwood its blessing, the master developer can begin construction at the former Norton Air Force Base. Airport Executive Director Michael Burrows said in December that Hillwood is talking with all potential operators.

Why it matters: E-commerce giant Amazon is a rumored tenant, but FedEx and UPS have set root at San Bernardino International. Whichever company operates out of Eastgate will surely elevate the airport’s profile.

— Brian Whitehead

What’s in store with Redlands and its new city manager?

Charles M. Duggan Jr. was hired Nov. 5, 2019, to be Redlands’ new city manager. He is set to start Jan. 13, 2020. (Photo courtesy of City of Redlands)

The story: Redlands hired a new city manager almost a year after firing the last one.

What could happen in 2020: Charlie Duggan Jr. will have to hit the ground running when he starts on Jan. 13. Major issues that will require attention include a March ballot measure on development along the upcoming rail line, a wastewater treatment facility in need of $40 million in upgrades, and a tax initiative, possibly for the November ballot, that could pay for a new public safety hall and more.

Why it matters: After the city’s former top administrator was fired in November 2018 following sexual harassment allegations he denied, officials vowed to take their time to make the right choice for his successor.

— Jennifer Iyer

A car takes the eastbound 210 Freeway on-ramp from Base Line Street in Highland on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. Construction could begin in early 2020 on a freeway-widening project that includes improvements at the interchange. (File photo by Jennifer Iyer, Redlands Daily Facts/SCNG)

Freeway construction still booming

The story: One can’t drive far across the Inland Empire without encountering a lane or road closed for construction. The new year promises more closures, as agencies continue work to relieve freeway congestion and Caltrans ramps up spending on road repairs with cash from the controversial gas-tax increase.

What could happen in 2020: A project to convert car-pool lanes on the 10 Freeway, between the Los Angeles-San Bernardino county line and the 15 Freeway, into express lanes and to build another pay lane on either side is set to launch in spring, Tim Watkins, spokesman for the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, wrote in an email.

Also set to begin in spring, he said, is a project to widen the 210 Freeway, between San Bernardino and Redlands. In Riverside County, construction will begin in a few months on a new westbound lane on the 91 Freeway, from Green River Road in Corona to the 241 toll road, said John Standiford, deputy executive director of the Riverside County Transportation Commission.

In both counties, improvements will be made at multiple interchanges, including the 10 Freeway at University and Alabama streets in Redlands, the 215 Freeway and Barton Road in Grand Terrace, the 60 Freeway at Archibald Avenue in Ontario, and the 60 Freeway at Central Avenue in Chino, officials said.

Work also will continue on the Redlands Passenger Rail Project, Watkins said.

Meanwhile, Standiford said express lanes being built on the 15 Freeway in Corona, Norco, Eastvale and Jurupa Valley are expected to open in the second half of the year.

Why it matters: The opening of the 15 Freeway lanes should bring some relief. The projects on other freeways could temporarily make it worse for commuters.

— David Downey

What will happen with all that money the county got to fight homelessness? RELATED LINKS

Here are 5 stories that shaped San Bernardino County in 2019

These are the 50 best Inland Empire photos of 2019

5 pop culture happenings that shaped the Inland Empire in 2019

San Bernardino County Fifth District Supervisor Josie Gonzales, left, speaks with Sylvia, center, and L.L., right, under a building during the San Bernardino County 2019 Point-in-Time Homeless Count in downtown San Bernardino on Thursday morning, Jan. 24, 2019. (File photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

The story: In 2019, about two dozen organizations and cities split $9.4 million in state money to provide immediate emergency assistance to people experiencing homelessness. In April, the county Board of Supervisors accepted 33 out of 43 applications for the money. The winners included Family Assistance Program, The Salvation Army, Mercy House Living Centers as well as the cities of Colton, Montclair, Redlands and Upland.

What could happen in 2020: As local leaders and organizations put the money to use, the region may see an expansion of homeless services and additional beds. The one-time funding will go for services to homeless adults and youth, rental assistance subsidies and capital improvements. Redlands, for example, is using the $600,000 to fund two part-time Community Outreach Coordinators with the Police Department. The county will be able to apply for $6 million more in state money for homelessness following a Dec. 4 announcement from Gov. Gavin Newsom at the Veterans Village in

Loma Linda.

Why it matters: As lawmakers and advocates work to tackle the state’s homelessness crisis, the infusion of additional money has been welcomed locally. Homelessness is a growing problem in the region. The 2019 survey of homeless persons showed a 23% increase from the 2018 count.

— Sandra Emerson

Want local news? Sign up for the Localist and stay informed

Tags: city-government, development, government, homeless, Top Stories IVDB, Top Stories RDF, Top Stories Sun, transportation

Jessica Keating Jessica Keating is editor of the Redlands Daily Facts. The Society of Professional Journalists awarded her the 2013 Sigma Delta Chi award for editorial writing. She is an experienced editor and writer who began her career in 1997 in her home state, Oregon. Before joining the Facts, Jessica served as the Opinion editor for Los Angeles News Group. She is a former member of the Los Angeles Press Club board of directors.

 Follow Jessica Keating @keating_edits

David Downey Dave is a general assignment reporter based in Riverside, writing about a wide variety of topics ranging from drones and El Nino to trains and wildfires. He has worked for five newspapers in four states: Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and California. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Colorado State University in 1981. Loves hiking, tennis, baseball, the beach, the Lakers and golden retrievers. He is from the Denver area.

 Follow David Downey @DavidDowneySCNG

https://www.dailybulletin.com/...?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-ivdailybulletin[1/2/2020 7:47:36 AM] Here are 5 stories that shaped San Bernardino County in 2019 – San Bernardino Sun

   

LOCAL NEWS Here are 5 stories that shaped San Bernardino County in 2019

   

https://www.sbsun.com/...ounty-in-2019/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow[1/2/2020 7:51:23 AM] Here are 5 stories that shaped San Bernardino County in 2019 – San Bernardino Sun

A collapsed cinder block wall lays in the street outside a home in Trona Saturday July 6. The area has been hit with two major earthquakes since Thursday. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Wildfires, earthquakes, political strife and strides in transportation topped the headlines in San Bernardino County in 2019.

Here’s a look back at five stories that shaped the year.

Earthquakes rattle tiny desert communities M

A collapsed cinder block wall lays in the street outside a home in Trona on July 6, 2019. Residents in Trona and Ridgecrest still are recovering from a series of major earthquakes that hit the area beginning on Independence Day. (File photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

The story: Two earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks centered near the High Desert towns of Ridgecrest and Trona rattled the Inland Empire over the Independence Day holiday.

What happened: A 6.4 magnitude temblor July 4 was followed a day later by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. The larger quake on July 5 could be felt from the Orange County coastline to Sacramento to Las Vegas. The epicenter for the larger quake was 10 miles from Ridgecrest in Kern County, causing heavy damage there and in Trona, a town of less than 2,000 people in San Bernardino County. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated shortly after the July 5 quake that damages in the Ridgecrest area totaled more than $1 billion with mobile homes knocked from foundations, fires ignited from leaking natural gas lines, open trenches formed in the desert, and roadways buckled and cracked. In Trona, the only fresh-water line to the town was broken and water service was not restored until July 11. More than 30 homes were red-tagged.

TOP ARTICLES 1/5

Why it mattered: Months after the powerful quakes, Ridgecrest and Trona residents still are working to recover. Aftershocks that followed for weeks after the larger quakes underscore what seismologists have been telling Southern Californians: that area is likely to keep shaking for years.

— Richard K. De Atley

Chaos at San Bernardino City Hall

Some residents do not want San Bernardino assistant police chief Eric McBride to be promoted to police chief during San Bernardino City Council meeting in Bing Wong Auditorium at Feldheym Library in San Bernardino on Wednesday, Aug 7, 2019. (File photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

The story: New leadership in San Bernardino changed the lay of the land at City Hall.

What happened: During their first meeting of 2019, new San Bernardino Mayor John Valdivia and the City Council debated at length establishing six new positions in the mayor’s office at an ongoing cost of $509,000. While city leaders balked at doing so that evening, the friction on the dais persisted. Throughout the year, council members split on dropping a PR firm halfway through a $410,000 contract; setting a time limit on their own comments; creating new positions in the mayor’s office; reducing the city manager’s sway at City Hall; firing City Manager Andrea Miller; outsourcing animal control services; and reorganizing the Police Department.

And that was just through May.

This summer, the council split on a decision to reduce the total compensation of elected City Attorney Gary Saenz and City Clerk Gigi Hanna as part of a plan to close an $11.2 million gap in the fiscal 2019-20 budget. Hanna and Saenz subsequently sued the city for slashing their pay, and while the lower court ruled in their favor, city leaders, in another split vote, chose to appeal the ruling.

Why it mattered: During the last closed session meeting of the year, city leaders discussed no fewer than 10 outstanding lawsuits against the city, including one filed by Miller, who claimed her firing was the result of exposing a “hostile” work environment created by Valdivia and members of his staff. As strapped for cash as San Bernardino has found itself in since exiting bankruptcy, the money spent defending council decisions could affect the city’s already-dwindling rainy day fund.

— Brian Whitehead

Redlands passenger rail begins construction

Crews work on the old Santa Fe Depot as workers remove the old railroad ties and tracks in Redlands on Monday, Aug. 26, 2019. The work is being done in preparation for the Redlands Passenger Rail Project, slated to begin operations in 2022. (File photo by https://www.sbsun.com/...ounty-in-2019/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow[1/2/2020 7:51:23 AM] Here are 5 stories that shaped San Bernardino County in 2019 – San Bernardino Sun

Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

The story: Mainline construction on the 9-mile track that will connect San Bernardino and Redlands began this summer.

What happened: In the planning stages for years, the $359.7 million Redlands Passenger Rail Project entered a more visible phase as crews started closing roads, ripping up old tracks and installing new ones. A ballot measure proposing relaxed development restrictions along the rail corridor in Redlands will be in front of city voters in March, and the city is working on creating a Transit Villages Specific Plan to regulate that development.

Why it mattered: Expected to begin operations in early 2022 with clean-diesel engine locomotives, by 2024 the line could get a zero-emission train, the first of its kind in the United States.

— Jennifer Iyer

Gold Line finds path to Pomona

Plans to extend the Gold Line light-rail from Pomona through Claremont and to Montclair will cost $550 million. The big rail track like ones here at the Claremont Station will need to be moved for the 12.3-mile light-rail extension from Glendora to Montclair, Monday, Aug. 26, 2019. (File photo by John Valenzuela, Contributing Photographer)

The story: Funding for the long-awaited Foothill extension of the Gold Line to Pomona fell into place over the summer.

What happened: Earlier in the year, it seemed the work to extend the light-rail train had hit a wall, with the Gold Line Construction Authority saying escalating costs would delay the project for at least two years or curtail it. But in a unanimous vote in August, the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments Governing Board agreed to give up $126 million in discretionary transportation dollars for the $1.5 billion project, fully funding the extension to Pomona from Azusa, where the line now ends.

Why it mattered: The vote and additional funding means the Foothill extension will be built closer to the original timeline, by 2025. But whether the line will continue to Claremont and Montclair, as originally planned, is not yet known. Funding for that part of the project has not been secured, and some San Bernardino County transportation officials have voiced skepticism about the project crossing county lines.

– Jessica Keating

Wildfires rage again

A bulldozer cuts a fire break just north of 40th Street as the Old Water Fire flares up and makes an aggressive afternoon push down https://www.sbsun.com/...ounty-in-2019/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow[1/2/2020 7:51:23 AM] Here are 5 stories that shaped San Bernardino County in 2019 – San Bernardino Sun

to 40th Street in San Bernardino on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. A heavy aerial attack kept flames from jumping south of 40th Street. Homes along David Way were briefly threatened. (File photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

The story: Numerous wind-fanned wildfires broke out across the Inland Empire during autumn, prompting evacuations, destroying dozens of homes, closing a popular nature reserve and killing two people at a mobile home park.

What happened: One of the worst was the Sandalwood fire that broke out in Calimesa on Oct. 10. The blaze started when a trash truck dumped its burning load near the 10 Freeway on a windy day. Fanned by gusting Santa Ana winds, the roughly 1,000-acre fire swept through a mobile home park, killing two people and destroying 75 homes. Killed in the fire were Hannah Labelle, 61, and Lois Arvikson, 89, when flames consumed their double-wide trailers. In in late October, victims sued the trash hauling company whose driver dumped the burning load.

Among the other October blazes: The Hillside fire in north San Bernardino charred 200 acres, destroyed eight homes and damaged 18 others; the 46 fire in Jurupa Valley and Riverside torched 300 acres, destroyed three homes and incinerated the Louis Robidoux Nature Center; the Hill fire north of the 60 Freeway in Jurupa Valley burned about 630 acres; the Old Water fire in San Bernardino scorched about 150 acres along Highway 18 in Waterman Canyon — invoking memories of the 2003 Old fire that erupted in the same area and destroyed hundreds of homes. In September, the Tenaja fire blackened nearly 2,000 acres in the hills near Murrieta, including 1,700 acres on the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve.

Why it mattered: The blazes were a reminder of how deadly and damaging wildfires can be — and that they can race even through residential areas when propelled by powerful winds.

— David Downey

Want local news? Sign up for the Localist and stay informed

Tags: Earthquakes, government, Ridgecrest Earthquakes, Top Stories IVDB, Top Stories RDF, Top Stories Sun, transportation, wildfires

https://www.sbsun.com/...ounty-in-2019/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow[1/2/2020 7:51:23 AM] Rancho Cucamonga jerky manufacturer shuts down, laying off 371 – San Bernardino Sun

   

BUSINESS Rancho Cucamonga jerky manufacturer shuts down, laying off 371 The company once owned by Tyson has been sold to a Wisconsin jerky maker.

   

https://www.sbsun.com/...ying-off-371/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[12/30/2019 3:38:53 PM] Rancho Cucamonga jerky manufacturer shuts down, laying off 371 – San Bernardino Sun

Golden Island Jerky Co. manufactured and packaged Asian-flavored meat jerky in Rancho Cucamonga for 22 years but closed the facility in mid-December and laid off 371 workers. The company has been sold by parent Tyson to Jack’s Links of Wisconsin. (Courtesy of Golden Island Jerky Co.)

By JACK KATZANEK | [email protected] |  PUBLISHED: December 30, 2019 at 3:37 pm | UPDATED: December 30, 2019 at 3:37 pm

A Rancho Cucamonga company that has manufactured and packaged Asian-flavored meat jerky in the city for 22 years has closed its doors and laid off 371 workers.

Golden Island Jerky Co. announced the closure Dec. 13 in a letter to the California Employment Development Department. That date also was the last day of operations for the company in Rancho Cucamonga, according to the letter.

Employees will continue to be paid until Feb. 10. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, requires employees to either be notified 60 days before a layoff takes effect or be paid for that period.

Golden Island Jerky had been owned by Tyson, one of the largest meat producers in the U.S. Tyson

sold the company to a buyer that opted to cease operations in Rancho Cucamonga, Tyson spokesperson Worth Sparkman said.

Molly Wiltshire, assistant director of San Bernardino County’s Workforce Development Department, said the new owner is Jack Link’s, a Wisconsin company that also makes jerky products. Representatives with Jack Link’s could not be reached for comment Monday.

Sparkman said the sale of Golden Island Jerky has been completed, but he declined to name the buyer or discuss any other details of the sale.

“We received an offer to acquire Golden Island and accepted that offer,” Sparkman said by phone. “It was a difficult decision based on a number of factors, including the possibility that the company would generate a profit.”

Sparkman added the decision to leave Rancho Cucamonga was the entirely the buyer’s.

Wiltshire said county workforce development personnel have been in touch with Golden Island’s human resources department and has scheduled a pair of hiring events in January. Potential employers who could hire the laid-off workers are expected to attend.

The events will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Jan. 7 and Tuesday, Jan. 21, at the workforce development branch office in Rancho Cucamonga at 9650 Ninth St.

“We’re trying to reach out to as many individuals as possible,” Wiltshire said.

This is the third time in six years that ownership of Golden Island has changed. The company was purchased by the parent company of Hillshire Farms in September 2013. Hillshire was, in turn, was bought by Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson about 10 months later, in a deal worth about $8.55 billion.

Golden Island’s roots date back to World War II when a Taiwanese man, Chun-Fa Shih started the company despite the difficulties caused by Japan’s occupation of Taiwan. The family expanded the operation in 1981 to the United States and opened operations in Rancho Cucamonga in 1997.

The facilities had been at 9955 Sixth St. and 10646 Fulton Court.

Let's talk business. Catch up on the business news closest to you with our daily newsletter.

https://www.sbsun.com/...ying-off-371/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[12/30/2019 3:38:53 PM] 1/2/2020 As robots take over warehousing, workers pushed to adapt - Los Angeles Times

BUSINESS

As robots take over warehousing, workers pushed to adapt

Amazon’s orange Kiva robots lift stacks of merchandise and move them to employee stations, eliminating the need for workers to walk around the warehouse searching for items. (Andrea Chang / Los Angeles Times)

By ASSOCIATED PRESS https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-30/robots-warehousing-human-workers 1/10 1/2/2020 As robots take over warehousing, workers pushed to adapt - Los Angeles Times DEC. 30, 2019 4:22 PM

Guess who’s getting used to working with robots in their everyday lives? The very same warehouse workers once predicted to be losing their jobs to mechanical replacements.

But doing your job side-by-side with robots isn’t easy. According to their makers, the machines should take on the most mundane and physically strenuous tasks. In reality, they’re also creating new forms of stress and strain in the form of injuries and the unease of working in close quarters with mobile half-ton devices that direct themselves.

“They weigh a lot,” Amazon worker Amanda Taillon said during the pre-Christmas rush at a company warehouse in Connecticut. Nearby, a fleet of 6-foot-tall roving robot shelves zipped around behind a chain-link fence.

Taillon’s job is to enter a cage and tame Amazon’s wheeled warehouse robots for long enough to pick up a fallen toy or relieve a traffic jam. She straps on a light-up utility belt that works like a superhero’s force field, commanding the nearest robots to abruptly halt and the others to slow down or adjust their routes.

“When you’re out there, and you can hear them moving around, but you can’t see them, it’s like, ‘Where are they going to come from?’,” she said. “It’s a little nerve-racking at first.”

Taillon says she’s gotten used to working with robots — something Amazon and its rivals are increasingly requiring warehouse employees to do. Amazon now has more than 200,000 robotic

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-30/robots-warehousing-human-workers 2/10 1/2/2020 As robots take over warehousing, workers pushed to adapt - Los Angeles Times vehicles it calls “drives” that are moving goods through its delivery-fulfillment centers around the U.S. That’s double the number it had last year and up from 15,000 units in 2014.

Its rivals have taken notice, and many are adding their own robots in a race to speed up productivity and bring down costs.

Without these fast-moving pods, robotic arms and other forms of warehouse automation, retailers say they wouldn’t be able to fulfill consumer demand for packages that can land on doorsteps the day after you order them online.

SPONSORED CONTENT A wine enthusiast's dream destination By Highway 1 In California's Central Coast, San Luis Obispo County abounds with remarkable vineyards and varietals.

But while fears that robots will replace human workers haven’t come to fruition, there are growing concerns that keeping up with the pace of the latest artificial intelligence technology is taking a toll on human workers’ health, safety and morale.

Warehouses powered by robotics and AI software are leading to human burnout by adding more work and upping the pressure on workers to speed up their performance, said Beth Gutelius, who studies urban economic development at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has interviewed warehouse operators around the U.S.

It’s not that workers aren’t getting trained on how to work with robots safely. “The problem is it becomes very difficult to do so when the productivity standards are set so high,” she said.

Much of the boom in warehouse robotics has its roots in Amazon’s $775-million purchase of Massachusetts start-up Kiva Systems in 2012. The tech giant rebranded it as Amazon Robotics and transformed it into an in-house laboratory that for seven years has been designing and building Amazon’s robot armada.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-30/robots-warehousing-human-workers 3/10 1/2/2020 As robots take over warehousing, workers pushed to adapt - Los Angeles Times Amazon’s Kiva purchase “set the tone for all the other retailers to stand up and pay attention,” said Jim Liefer, CEO of San Francisco start-up Kindred AI, which makes an artificially intelligent robotic arm that grasps and sorts items for retailers such as the Gap.

A rush of venture capital and private-sector investment in warehouse robotics spiked to $1.5 billion a year in 2015 and has remained high ever since, said Rian Whitton, a robotics analyst at ABI Research.

Canadian e-commerce company Shopify spent $450 million this fall to buy Massachusetts-based start-up 6 River Systems, which makes an autonomous cart nicknamed Chuck that can follow workers around a warehouse. Other mobile robot start-ups are partnering with delivery giants such as FedEx and DHL or retailers such as Walmart.

Amazon this year bought another warehouse robotics start-up, Colorado-based Canvas Technology, which builds wheeled robots guided by computer vision. Such robots would be more fully autonomous than Amazon’s current fleet of caged-off vehicles, which have to follow bar codes and previously mapped routes within warehouses.

The tech giant is also still rolling out new models descended from the Kiva line, including the Pegasus, a squarish vehicle with a conveyor belt on top that can be found working the early- morning shift at a warehouse in the Phoenix suburb of Goodyear, Ariz. A crisscrossing fleet of robots carries packaged items across the floor and drops them into chutes based on the ZIP Code of their final destination.

All of this is transforming warehouse work in a way that the head of Amazon Robotics says can “extend human capability” by shifting people to what they are best at: problem-solving, common sense and thinking on their feet.

“The efficiencies we gain from our associates and robotics working together harmoniously — what I like to call a symphony of humans and machines working together — allows us to pass along a lower cost to our customer,” said Tye Brady, Amazon Robotics’ chief technologist.

Brady said worker safety remains the top priority and ergonomic design is engineered into the systems at the beginning of the design stage. Gutelius, the University of Illinois researcher, said https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-30/robots-warehousing-human-workers 4/10 1/2/2020 As robots take over warehousing, workers pushed to adapt - Los Angeles Times that the aspiration for symphonic human-machine operations is not always working out in practice.

“It sounds quite lovely, but I rarely hear from a worker’s perspective that that’s what it feels like,” she said.

Gutelius co-authored a report published this fall that found new warehouse technology could contribute to wage stagnation, higher turnover and poorer quality work experiences because of the way AI software can monitor and micromanage workers’ behaviors.

A recent journalistic investigation of injury rates at Amazon warehouses from the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal found that robotic warehouses reported more injuries than those without.

Reveal looked at records from 28 Amazon warehouses in 16 states and found that the overall rate of serious injuries was more than double the warehousing industry average. Amazon has countered it’s misleading to compare its rate with rivals because of the company’s “aggressive stance on recording injuries no matter how big or small.”

The Reveal report also found a correlation between robots and safety problems, such as in Tracy, Calif., where the serious injury rate nearly quadrupled in the four years after robots were introduced.

Melonee Wise, CEO of California-based Fetch Robotics, which sells its autonomous robotic carts to retailers and other clients, credits Amazon’s Kiva acquisition for propelling innovation in the industry.

But she said that Amazon’s system forces workers to do “un-ergonomic moves” such as reaching up high or crouching down to pick out and stow inventory into the shelves-on-wheels.

“They have robots that live in cages,” she said. “Our robots are designed to work safely around people, which is a very large distinction between the two systems.”

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-30/robots-warehousing-human-workers 5/10 1/2/2020 As robots take over warehousing, workers pushed to adapt - Los Angeles Times Amazon hasn’t disclosed how its safety record at robot-powered warehouses compares to those without. But company officials remain optimistic that Amazon workers are adapting to the new technology.

At a visit with a reporter earlier in December to the warehouse in North Haven, Conn., Brady was explaining the workings of a powerful robotic arm called a “palletizer” when crates it was stacking on a pallet started tumbling over. Unfazed by the temporary malfunction, he watched as an employee disabled the machine, discovered an apparent structural weakness in the pallet, adjusted the stack of crates and let the robot get back to work.

“His ability to problem-solve that was like this,” Brady said, enthusiastically snapping his fingers. “What I love about that is it’s humans and machines working together.”

BUSINESS

NEWSLETTER

Get our weekly California Inc. newsletter

Please enter your email address

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an independent, not-for-profit news cooperative headquartered in New York City.

TOP ARTICLES 1/5

SKIP AD

Evans said the end of the year is a time to look back and RELATED LINKS not only rejoice over the new lives, but to also share the

sorrow with families who have lost loved ones. Group that helps with child burials will hold New Year’s Eve remembrance walk Information: unforgettables.org in Loma Linda

Matters of Faith: Blue Christmas services are for anyone grieving loss or change

When the holidays aren’t happy, this Inland group helps cope with grief

Mitchell Rosen: Coping with grief and loss during the holidays

https://www.sbsun.com/...little-lives-lost/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow[1/2/2020 7:49:23 AM] Redlands welcomes 2020 with annual Orange Drop – San Bernardino Sun

.    

LOCAL NEWS Redlands welcomes 2020 with annual Orange Drop

   

https://www.sbsun.com/...al-orange-drop/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[1/2/2020 7:47:13 AM] Redlands welcomes 2020 with annual Orange Drop – San Bernardino Sun

Party goers dance in the street after Redlands’ third annual New Year’s Eve Orange Ball Drop in downtown Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

By JENNIFER IYER | [email protected] | Redlands Daily Facts  PUBLISHED: January 1, 2020 at 7:33 am | UPDATED: January 1, 2020 at 7:33 am

Redlands squeezed the last bit of juice out of 2019 and popped the cork on 2020 with New Years’ Eve festivities downtown that included the third annual orange ball drop at midnight near Ed Hales Park.

Staged in cooperation with the Redlands Chamber of Commerce, the event included a DJ, an Orange Drop martini contest, a kid zone and food. M

1 of 14 Victorville resident Hillary Bauman shows her excitement as midnight strikes during Redlands’ third annual New Year’s Eve Orange Ball Drop on  Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

“It’s about just bringing people out downtown, enjoying the community,” Chris Alvarez, the chamber’s executive director, said before the event.

The giant light-up orange joins other food drop traditions RELATED ARTICLES such as a pickle drop in Mount Olive, N.C., a potato drop in

Group gets its elf on helping Calimesa fire Boise, and — closer to home — a grape drop in Temecula. victims, youth from Yucaipa to San Bernardino

Candles, singing Light up the Night at inclusive Redlands Hanukkah event

New Year’s Eve festivities in Redlands come with street closures, martinis

What’s open and closed on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in the Inland Empire

Rainy, windy and snowy weather expected to stick around through late Thursday

“It’s starting to catch on,” Alvarez said, “I think there’s more and more places trying things out.”

Want local news? Sign up for the Localist and stay informed

Tags: Holidays, Top Stories RDF

SPONSORED CONTENT Man Pulls Hidden String In Attic And Discovers Secret Room Filled With... By Upbeat News

Man pulls a mysterious string in his attic which opens to a crawl space filled with mysterious artifacts....

https://www.sbsun.com/...al-orange-drop/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[1/2/2020 7:47:13 AM] 12/30/2019 Rocker Sammy Hagar chills out and offers his Arrowhead retreat for lease - Los Angeles Times

HOT PROPERTY

Rocker Sammy Hagar chills out and offers his Arrowhead retreat for lease

The French chateau can be leased for $30,000 a month -- or for just a weekend. (Shelli Cotriss)

By LAUREN BEALE

DEC. 30, 2019 6:30 AM

Looks like longtime rocker Sammy Hagar will continue to seek a buyer for his Lake Arrrowhead estate into the new year. In the meantime, the French-inspired chateau is also available for lease at https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2019-12-30/rock-star-sammy-hagar-chills-out-and-offers-his-arrowhead-retreat-for-lease 1/7 12/30/2019 Rocker Sammy Hagar chills out and offers his Arrowhead retreat for lease - Los Angeles Times $30,000 a month – or just for weekends.

The sales price is $3.9 million, down from $5.25 million when the property was originally listed a few years back. Public records show Hagar bought the property roughly a decade ago for $2.3 million.

1/24

The three-story chateau overlooks Lake Arrowhead and features a double-island kitchen and eight bedrooms in 6,557 square feet. (Redﬁn.com)

The waterfront house, built in 2009, features beamed ceilings, a two-island kitchen, a formal dining room, a family room and a living room anchored by a limestone fireplace. The 6,557 square feet of living space also contains a wood-paneled game room, a wet bar and a soundproof music room.

ADVERTISING

https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2019-12-30/rock-star-sammy-hagar-chills-out-and-offers-his-arrowhead-retreat-for-lease 2/7 12/30/2019 Rocker Sammy Hagar chills out and offers his Arrowhead retreat for lease - Los Angeles Times

Including the master suite and detached guest house, there are eight bedrooms and 8.5 bathrooms.

The sloping site leads down to the lake.

Hagar, 72, is a vocalist and songwriter. The Red Rocker, as he is known, fronted the bands Montrose and Van Halen and is an inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

David Vail of HK Lane Real Estate and Shelli Cotriss of Shell Properties are the listing agents. Cotriss is also handling the leasing.

HOT PROPERTY BUSINESS

NEWSLETTER

Get our weekly Hot Property newsletter

Please enter your email address

Lauren Beale https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2019-12-30/rock-star-sammy-hagar-chills-out-and-offers-his-arrowhead-retreat-for-lease 3/7 New wave of chicken-killing Newcastle disease hits Southern California – Press Enterprise

   

NEWSENVIRONMENT New wave of chicken-killing Newcastle disease hits Southern California State blames bird owners who've ignored quarantines.

   

https://www.pe.com/...alifornia/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[1/2/2020 7:50:21 AM] New wave of chicken-killing Newcastle disease hits Southern California – Press Enterprise

Chickens roam the back of Guillermo Contreras’ home in Mira Loma on Tuesday, June 25, 2019. Contreras, 60, saw his backyard chickens and ducks euthanized by the state due to a virulent Newcastle disease outbreak. He said his animals were healthy.(Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

By MARTIN WISCKOL | [email protected] | Orange County Register  PUBLISHED: December 31, 2019 at 12:02 pm | UPDATED: December 31, 2019 at 12:05 pm

It’s been a lousy holiday season for Southern California’s chickens.

In recent weeks, new cases of the poultry-killing Newcastle disease hit San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties, reviving an epidemic that state officials believed was nearing its end as recently as last summer. Since May 2018, when the disease was identified in the region, 1.2 million birds in the area have been euthanized.

Careless bird owners who haven’t followed protocol for the highly contagious virus — including R scofflaws who’ve ignored quarantines — are to blame, according to State Veterinarian Annette Jones.

“Over the past month, virulent Newcastle disease cases have increased because people have https://www.pe.com/...alifornia/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[1/2/2020 7:50:21 AM] New wave of chicken-killing Newcastle disease hits Southern California – Press Enterprise

violated the … regional quarantine by moving infected birds or contaminated equipment,” Jones says in a statement on the California Department of Food and Agriculture site. “Put simply, your birds can spread the disease before they show symptoms, so the only way to stop it is to not move birds — period — if you are in the CDFA regional quarantine area. … Stopping the spread will take the combined effort of all bird owners.”

TOP ARTICLES 1/5

SKIP AD

All of Los Angeles County and most of San Bernardino and Riverside counties are under quarantine. Additionally, inspectors, auditors and service providers in those three counties as well as Orange, Ventura and San Diego counties have been ordered by Jones to suspend most visits to poultry areas until at least March 1.

Properly cooked poultry and eggs do not pose a health threat to people, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“In very rare instances, people working directly with sick birds can become infected,” according to the USDA website. “Symptoms are usually very mild and limited to conjunctivitis and/or influenza-like symptoms.”

Disease ebbs, flows

Of the 1.2 million birds euthanized in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties since May 2018, about 1.1 million were connected to commercial and industrial operations. Most of the remaining birds killed were pets or show birds. The majority of the birds killed have been chickens.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that 470 premises in California have been infected with Newcastle disease as of Dec. 27. Of those, 262 are in Riverside County, 158 in San Bernardino County, 46 in Los Angeles County and one each in Ventura, Alameda and San Diego counties. The number of birds euthanized in December was not immediately available.

The 14 locations where the disease was identified in RELATED LINKS December consisted of 11 in San Bernardino County, two

in Riverside County and one in Los Angeles County. Chicken-killing Newcastle disease returns, though numbers remain small The epidemic was waning through the summer, with the disease identified at just four locations from June through Chicken-killing Newcastle epidemic nearly September — and none in October. The numbers began eradicated creeping up in November, with the infections found at five 150 more workers are being hired to wipe locations in San Bernardino County. out chicken-killing Newcastle disease in Southern California Two of the areas with infected birds in November and December were pet and feed stores, with the rest identified Chicken-killing Newcastle disease

as backyard show chickens. prompts euthanasia orders for parts of Chino Southern California’s previous Newcastle epidemic was in 2002-2003, when 3.2 million birds were euthanized. Worried about their chickens, hundreds crowd Norco meeting on deadly Newcastle disease

Coast Lines

important along Southern California's coast.

Tags: environment, Top Stories Breeze, Top Stories IVDB, Top Stories LADN, Top Stories LBPT, Top Stories OCR, Top Stories PE, Top Stories PSN, Top Stories RDF, Top Stories SGVT, Top Stories Sun, Top Stories WDN

Martin Wisckol Martin Wisckol covers coastal environment and development. Previously, he spent two decades as politics reporter and columnist for the Orange County Register. He’s also held reporting positions in Miami, Jacksonville, Detroit and his hometown of San Diego, with an emphasis on land use and urban planning. He is a lifelong surfer and has spent most of his life on the coast. His work has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Headliner Awards, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Florida Press Club and the American Planning Association Florida Chapter.

 Follow Martin Wisckol @MartinWisckol

SPONSORED CONTENT Mom Surprised Daughter By Showing Up To Her Dorm Unannounced, Then Made Humiliating... By Upbeat News

https://www.pe.com/...alifornia/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[1/2/2020 7:50:21 AM] 12/30/2019 The puppy was cute and expensive. And then it died - Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA

The puppy was cute and expensive. And then it died

Manuel Aguilar, 11, worked for a month last summer to raise $600 to pitch in for a Goldendoodle puppy named Penny. The dog died a week after the family brought it home. (Loy Family)

By MARIA L. LA GANGA STAFF WRITER

DEC. 18, 2019 3 AM https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-18/puppy-mill-kenney-family-lawsuit 1/9 12/30/2019 The puppy was cute and expensive. And then it died - Los Angeles Times The Loy family realized pretty quickly that something was wrong with their new puppy, a red-brown bundle of fluff they christened Penny.

But they could not have imagined how much trouble they were in for when they drove into the parking lot of a Tijuana’s Tacos restaurant in Pomona to take possession of a 9- to 12-week-old miniature goldendoodle.

They’d found Penny online and fallen in love. They’d shelled out $1,200 cash in March 2018 for what they thought was a pure-bred designer dog, healthy, happy and hypoallergenic. Half the money came from then-10-year-old Manuel, who earned it sweeping floors in his father’s barbershop. It cleaned out his entire savings.

They eventually found out that the sellers belonged to a Phelan family whose matriarch had been the target of an FBI sting, pleaded guilty in 2011 to a federal fraud charge and was sentenced to 41 months in prison for selling sick and abused horses over the internet.

ADVERTISING

Replay

inRead invented by Teads

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-18/puppy-mill-kenney-family-lawsuit 2/9 12/30/2019 The puppy was cute and expensive. And then it died - Los Angeles Times

Manuel Aguilar, 11, at his home in La Habra on Monday. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones/Los Angeles Times)

But first the Loys had their hearts broken.

Penny, it turned out, wasn’t a girl. They renamed the puppy Bear and rolled with it. But he also wasn’t a goldendoodle — half golden retriever, half poodle. Instead, a veterinarian told the family, Bear was, maybe, a Maltipoo — equal parts Maltese and toy poodle. His fur wasn’t red-brown either; the dye began to wash off during his first bath in the Loy’s La Habra home.

All that was bad enough, but it got worse. Bear was only about 4 weeks old — way too young to have been taken from his mother. And he was very, very sick.

SPONSORED CONTENT Compare rates and save at Progressive.com  By Progressive We’ll help you find a great rate. Even if it’s not with us.

Jessica Loy is one of nine people who filed suit against the Kenney family Monday, charging that Trina and Rick Kenney and their children Elijah and Jezriel allegedly operated what the lawsuit described as “one of the worst animal peddling operations in the country — the sale of sick and diseased puppies over the internet.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-18/puppy-mill-kenney-family-lawsuit 3/9 12/30/2019 The puppy was cute and expensive. And then it died - Los Angeles Times The families ended up spending thousands of dollars — on the animals, on veterinary bills, on sanitizing their homes after the dogs were diagnosed with parvovirus or distemper, on replacing furniture fouled by ailing pets who vomited or had diarrhea.

Some paid to put their dying puppies down to end their suffering. Then, they covered the cost of cremation.

Of the seven puppies named in the suit — Bear, Winnie, Teddy, Ruffles, Charlie, Stella and Sicily — none were healthy. They weren’t vaccinated, though the Kenneys supplied records of the dogs’ alleged immunizations, according to the lawsuit. They also weren’t goldendoodles or labradoodles as the Kenneys allegedly claimed in ads on Craigslist, Recycler.com and other internet sites. Four were not the sex promised.

Ruffles was surrendered to his veterinarian by his new owner, Ramtin Mehrvijeh, because Mehrvijeh couldn’t afford to save the puppy’s life. Treatment for parvovirus would have cost $6,000, according to the lawsuit, money the West Hollywood man just didn’t have.

Three of the dogs died.

The Kenneys could not be reached for comment. The Times called 19 telephone numbers listed in various public records as belonging to family members. Most were disconnected, not accepting calls, or were not answered. No messages were responded to.

“We want them to refund the money and get out of town,” said Gary Praglin, a Santa Monica-based attorney who is representing the families. “Don’t sell any more dogs. Stop hurting people.

“When a kid watches a puppy die,” Praglin added, “that’s a tragedy.”

Yes, Bear died. But first, he suffered.

As the Loys — Jessica; husband Anthony; their daughters, Mariah and Isabella; his daughter, Lali; and her son, Manuel Aguilar — waited in the Tijuana’s Tacos parking lot, they say they saw a man they now know is Elijah Kenney drive up in a brand new white Mercedes Benz. As he got out of the car and approached them, Loy said, he was holding two red-brown puppies in his arms, a male and a female.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-18/puppy-mill-kenney-family-lawsuit 4/9 12/30/2019 The puppy was cute and expensive. And then it died - Los Angeles Times

Isabella Loy, 7, does homework at her home in La Habra. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones/Los Angeles Times)

“We agreed on a girl,” Loy said. “They were so little. He said he only accepted cash. He gave us what appeared to be some kind of shot record. We knew nothing about puppies. We trusted him. On the way back to the freeway, less than 15 minutes later, the dog had diarrhea. Right away we texted them, ‘Is the puppy OK?’”

The response was comforting, Loy recounted: “Puppies, when they first leave their mothers, become homesick. It’s normal. Take her home. If there are problems, let me know.”

Back home in La Habra, the puppy still known as Penny wouldn’t eat or drink and kept vomiting. The next day, she continued to throw up and have diarrhea. Loy asked Manuel and Lali if they wanted to give Penny a bath. They took the tiny animal to the kitchen sink, got some dog soap and started to scrub.

“It was a reddish-bronze color all over our hands,” Manuel said. “It was kind of weird.”

When they took Penny to the vet the first time, they found out she was a he. The vet gave the newly named Bear fluids and suggested the family contact the sellers and get a different dog.

“They told us, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry. If you have medical bills, we’ll be happy to help,’” Loy said. “The second night was really bad. The dog wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink, had diarrhea, was vomiting, wasn’t playing, was falling, walking, collapsing.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-18/puppy-mill-kenney-family-lawsuit 5/9 12/30/2019 The puppy was cute and expensive. And then it died - Los Angeles Times The second veterinarian visit involved tests and antibiotics and more fluids. Bear was diagnosed with parvovirus, a highly contagious disease that is often fatal if left untreated. The vet told the family they could try taking Bear to an animal hospital, but it would cost at least $3,000. Loy said the vet added: “I can’t guarantee the dog’s going to live.”

Anthony Loy texted the sellers: “Hey, the dog has parvo.”

They texted back, Loy said: “You’re lying. Show us proof.”

Bear could barely breathe. He couldn’t walk in a straight line. He yelped in pain when he lay on his back. The vet recommended the family have him euthanized. They agreed. First, though, the children said goodbye.

“I didn’t really want to look at him that much,” said Manuel, who is now 11. “It made me sad. I touched his stomach. It was so hard for him to breathe. I was crying.”

When the family contacted the Kenneys, they were harassed and brushed off, according to the lawsuit and texts Loy has kept. In one exchange, a woman Loy identified as Trina Kenney texted: “find me :) I’ll defend myself You never ended up buying a dog from us.”

The Kenneys are not strangers to local officials.

In April 2018, representatives of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, the San Bernardino Valley Humane Society, Rancho Cucamonga Animal Control and San Bernardino County Animal Control inspected the Kenney’s Phelan property. They had a search warrant.

According to the complaint: “Dogs at the location were over density, however animal control took all the dogs at the time of inspection, so there was no longer a violation.” News reports said officials were investigating a breeding and sales operation and had confiscated 32 dogs, including 17 puppies, that needed veterinary care.

It is unclear whether anything came of the investigation. No charges have been filed. San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Randy Stanley said law enforcement agents went along and helped serve the search warrant because the Humane Society did not have sufficient manpower.

“They did have some dogs there,” Stanley said. “It was a fairly nice residence. I never got into the animal cruelty part of the investigation.”

Representatives of the San Bernardino Valley Humane Society and San Bernardino County Animal Control did not respond to requests for comment.

On Monday, when the lawsuit was filed, Loy said the family had no plans to get another puppy, that the last year or so has been too painful. She’s glad, she said, that others have come forward, that “someone is trying to help us and we’re not alone.”

Manuel, though, still has questions. If he could, he said, he’d ask the Kenneys, “Why would you do this to a person? Why would you do this to a dog? It’s pretty messed up.”

That’s what he wants to know, he said. “Just why.” https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-18/puppy-mill-kenney-family-lawsuit 6/9 1/2/2020 Citrus greening disease attacks Corona trees, putting city in quarantine area – San Bernardino Sun

LOCAL NEWS Citrus greening disease attacks Corona trees, putting city in quarantine area

California Department of Food and Agriculture agricultural technician Maritza Paredes collects Asian citrus psyllid nymphs from a tangerine tree in the backyard of a Riverside home in August 2017. In December, the agency found 12 trees in Corona infectedinfected withwith thethe deadlydeadly citruscitrus greeninggreening disease,disease, whichwhich isis spreadspread byby thethe bugs.bugs. (File(File photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

By DAVID DOWNEY || [email protected] || TheThe Press-EnterprisePress-Enterprise PUBLISHED: January 2, 2020 at 6:00 am || UPDATED:UPDATED: January 2, 2020 at 6:14 am

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/01/02/citrus-greening-disease-attacks-corona-trees-putting-city-in-quarantine-area/ 1/6 1/2/2020 Citrus greening disease attacks Corona trees, putting city in quarantine area – San Bernardino Sun

The discovery of a dozen diseased fruit trees in Corona has fanned fears that citrus greening disease maymay soonsoon ravageravage commercialcommercial orchardsorchards inin RiversideRiverside County.

Because of the finding, agriculture officials have expanded a sprawling Southern California quarantine area byby 107107 squaresquare miles,miles, addingadding Corona,Corona, NorcoNorco andand partpart ofof Chino, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The addition creates a 1,127-square-mile quarantine zone thatthat takestakes inin partsparts ofof Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange counties.

People living inside the new area, which stretches from Chino Airport on the north to Black Star Canyon on the south, and east to the 15 Freeway, are forbidden fromfrom movingmoving theirtheir citruscitrus plants,plants, fruitfruit oror foliage.foliage. However,However, statestate officialsofficials saysay itit isis permissible to consume oranges, lemons, grapefruits and kumquats on the properties where they are grown.

“Sometimes it’s hard, especially around the holidays,” said Ruben Arroyo, Riverside County agricultural commissioner and sealer of weights and measures. “You have an orange tree or lemon tree with fruit, and you want to take it to your family.”family.”

But if you reside within the new quarantine area, state and local officials ask that you not move fruit.

“I’m confident that if we follow the rules we’ll get ahead of this thing,” Corona Mayor Jim Steiner said.

Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture in Sacramento, said the movement restrictions are intended to protect a California citrus industry thatthat pumpspumps wellwell moremore thanthan $3$3 billionbillion intointo thethe state’sstate’s economyeconomy eacheach year.

Citrus growers generate more than $1.5 billion from selling oranges, $1.3 billion fromfrom tangerines,tangerines, $823$823 millionmillion fromfrom lemonslemons andand $89$89 millionmillion fromfrom grapefruit,grapefruit, LyleLyle said.

Huanglongbing, or citrus greening disease, has exacted enormous damage on Florida’s citrus industry inin recentrecent yearsyears andand isis consideredconsidered aa formidableformidable threatthreat toto California’s industry. The bacterial disease is spread by a tiny bug, the aphid-like Asian citrus psyllid, which saddles infected trees with mottled leaves and deformed fruit and eventually kills them.

The disease also threatens a popular residential landscape tree. https://www.sbsun.com/2020/01/02/citrus-greening-disease-attacks-corona-trees-putting-city-in-quarantine-area/ 2/6 1/2/2020 Citrus greening disease attacks Corona trees, putting city in quarantine area – San Bernardino Sun Beth Grafton-Cardwell, an entomologist and director of the Lindcove Research and Extension Center in the Central Valley, said there are 15 million citrus trees on residential properties in California.

“It’s a huge part of California’s heritage,” Lyle said. “It’s a huge part of living in California.”

Lyle said the bacteria isn’t harmful to humans. But it’s fatal to citrus.

“There’s no cure for the disease,” he said. “So tree removal is the only option, which is an unfortunate thing for everybody.”

In December, the state found 12 infected trees on 11 properties in a west Corona neighborhood south of the 91 Freeway, in an area between Green River Road, Palisades Drive and Serfas Club Drive, Lyle said. Each tree has been removed, he added.

Department of Food and Agriculture workers also found nine Asian citrus psyllids carrying the bacteria in Corona, he said.

Grafton-Cardwell said the discovery of bugs with the disease was of particular concern.

“That suggests the problem has been there a while,” she said.

It’s also concerning, she said, because the disease is edging closer to citrus farmingfarming areas.areas.

Arroyo said there are “small patches” of farming in the Riverside area, with larger commercial production areas around Hemet and in the Coachella Valley.

Citrus farms once spread across much of Southern California, but these days Riverside is the last major urban county in the region with significant production, Arroyo said.

As well, the city of Riverside is home of the parent Washington navel orange tree thatthat launchedlaunched muchmuch ofof thethe region’sregion’s historichistoric citruscitrus production.production. AuthoritiesAuthorities havehave been covering the original tree since early 2018,, inin aa desperatedesperate bidbid toto protectprotect it.it.

“We’re kind of ground zero when it comes to this infection of HLB,” Arroyo said.

Thus far, said Georgios Vidalakis, a UC Riverside professor and director of the university’s citrus clonal protection program, thethe historichistoric navelnavel orangeorange treetree hashas escaped infection and the bacteria has been kept away from commercial orchards.

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/01/02/citrus-greening-disease-attacks-corona-trees-putting-city-in-quarantine-area/ 3/6 1/2/2020 Citrus greening disease attacks Corona trees, putting city in quarantine area – San Bernardino Sun “We’ve been successful in California — if you want to call it a success,” Vidalakis said.

However, since the first discovery of an infected tree in California in 2012 in the frontfront yardyard ofof aa HaciendaHacienda HeightsHeights home,home, LyleLyle saidsaid thethe diseasedisease hashas spreadspread toto 1,7411,741 treestrees statewidestatewide —— allall inin SouthernSouthern California.California.

Sooner or later, Vidalakis said, the disease will reach a citrus farm.

“It only takes one accident of transfer, one error,” he said.

But if residents do their part, he said, they can help prevent the disease from reaching commercial orchards for longer than would otherwise be the case.

“Please follow the rules,” Vidalakis said. “Don’t move fruit. Don’t move plants.”

HOW TO PROTECT CITRUS TREES

For those in the quarantine area

Keep it local: Don’tDon’t movemove citruscitrus plants,plants, leavesleaves oror foliagefoliage outsideoutside thethe quarantinequarantine area

Cooperate: WorkWork withwith agriculturalagricultural officialsofficials whowho areare placingplacing traps,traps, inspectinginspecting treestrees andand treatingtreating forfor thethe pestpest

Remove: IfIf youyou nono longerlonger wishwish toto carecare forfor youryour citruscitrus tree,tree, considerconsider removingremoving itit soso itit doesn’tdoesn’t spreadspread thethe diseasedisease

If your tree may be infected: CallCall thethe RiversideRiverside CountyCounty agriculturalagricultural commissioner’s office, 951-955-3045

Information: California Department of Agriculture,, Agricultural Commissioner’s Office

Want local news? Sign up for the Localist and stay informed

Enter your email to subscribe

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/01/02/citrus-greening-disease-attacks-corona-trees-putting-city-in-quarantine-area/ 4/6 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA

Unsheltered, Part 3: Can Orange County cities find the political will to fix homelessness?

A homeless shelter opened at Lighthouse Church of the Nazarene in Costa Mesa in April. (Don Leach / Daily Pilot)

By LUKE MONEY, FAITH E. PINHO, HILLARY DAVIS, PRISCELLA VEGA

JAN. 1, 2020 7 AM

Editor’s note: This is the third story in a series examining homelessness in Orange County, including the cities of Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach and https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 1/17 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times Newport Beach.

When it comes to the distribution of homeless services, Orange County is like a patchwork quilt.

Some cities have relatively robust resources. Others have very few. And no city has declared itself to be in charge.

“There’s no single entity that [is] sort of acknowledged as the one that’s going to take the reins and the leadership in a regional problem like this,” said Dawn Price, executive director of Friendship Shelter in Laguna Beach. “In L.A., it’s going to be [the] Los Angeles mayor and City Council. … O.C. is sitting here with a fairly large population and no central city. It’s a unique set of sort of governmental circumstances or jurisdictional circumstances that ... makes it hard for people to accept responsibility or say ‘I’ll do my part.’”

This disconnect, which extends to county and state officials, has historically presented one of the most significant challenges to addressing the growing crisis of homelessness. So much so that an Orange County grand jury report from May 2018 blamed “finger-pointing and lack of trust” between the county and cities for failures to address the regional nature of the problem.

But as tent encampments continue to pop up, local leaders are increasingly getting on the same page and acknowledging the need for more cooperation among cities, the county and the state.

The challenge now is summoning the political will, often over the objections of residents, to move ahead with solutions to homelessness. An elected official’s political fortunes could be determined https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 2/17 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times by one controversial vote — and when it comes to homelessness, controversy is rarely in short supply.

Resistance from residents

Newport Beach residents opposed to a proposed homeless shelter rally outside City Hall before a City Council meeting in October. (Don Leach / Daily Pilot)

Public sentiment has always played a key role in shaping cities’ responses to homelessness, advocates say. As cities across the county consider opening new homeless shelters, residents have ramped up their efforts to keep such facilities out of their proverbial backyards.

“The NIMBYs want everybody to just leave out of their neighborhoods, but they have to go somewhere,” said Bill Nelson, executive director of Fresh Beginnings Ministries, a Costa Mesa- based homeless services provider. “Somebody needs to ask at one point, ‘Whose backyard is it going to be? Where are we going to put them?’”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 3/17 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times Residents worry that shelters will attract homeless people, and those people will ruin their neighborhoods by loitering, littering, drinking alcohol, using drugs, committing crimes and creating a general nuisance wherever they congregate. The result, they argue, will be neighborhoods that are less safe and homes that are worth less as the quality of life declines.

Meetings to discuss potential homeless shelters have, at times, morphed into heated affairs.

During a City Council meeting in April, Huntington Beach resident Doug Hein asserted — without evidence, which indicates otherwise — that a proliferation of sober-living homes and addiction- treatment facilities has lured many people to Orange County, where they eventually become homeless.

"“The ‘NIMBYs’ want everybody to just leave out of their neighborhoods, but they have to go somewhere. Somebody needs to ask at one point, ‘Whose backyard is it going to be? Where are we going to put them?’”

BILL NELSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FRESH BEGINNINGS MINISTRIES

“We have patients from the entire 50 states ending up here,” he said. “Our weather attracts people from many other states. So, I seriously doubt that the majority of people living on our streets are Huntington Beach residents. They’re people from other states and so, to me, it’s unfair that we have to bear ... the financial burden and the burdens of housing this.”

Residents had fiercely opposed a decision by the Huntington Beach City Council to buy a building to use as a shelter. They complained that the site-selection process had been opaque and needlessly rushed. The city is now looking for another location after a group of residents, property owners and businesses sued, arguing that the first site could only be used for industrial purposes.

In Newport Beach, residents are upset over at least one possible site for a homeless shelter — the city public works yard on Superior Avenue.

“I don’t want to have to look 360 degrees every time I go for a walk or take my dog for a stroll in my own neighborhood,” homeowner Ryan Janis wrote to the city in September. “If this is added on https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 4/17 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times Superior, it will increase the flow of transient monsters in my neighborhood, which is not a place anyone will ever want to raise a family or buy property.”

Many Newport Beach residents have ﬁercely resisted a proposal to convert a portion of the city’s public works yard into a 40-bed homeless shelter, predicting it would turn the area into a skid row. (Don Leach / Daily Pilot)

Some assert that being homeless is a choice.

“I am all for helping people that want to help themselves, but a lot of the homeless, if you go out there and talk to them, they don’t. ... They’re happy,” Huntington Beach resident Katrina Tengan insisted in April. “They’ve got things pretty good. Do you know how much money they can make by just begging on the street? I’ll tell you, it’s more money than I can make. And yet we’re enabling this.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 5/17 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times Others question why cities are trying to house homeless people at all — even in Laguna Beach, which was well ahead of neighboring cities in opening a shelter, the Alternative Sleeping Location.

“I think we’re sheltering more people than we should be sheltering,” Councilman Peter Blake said, “and I would like to see those numbers reduced.”

Homeless people say they are aware of how they’re perceived. “It’s almost to a point where people are giving you resources, but they almost think they’re enabling you,” said Josh Webster, 42, a homeless resident of Laguna Beach. “But at the same time, it’s like you need those resources just to survive.”

Such claims about Orange County’s homeless population are largely untrue. For example, a 2017 study commissioned by the United Way, UC Irvine and Jamboree Housing Corp. found “the vast majority” of homeless people are American citizens and long-term Orange County residents.

Becks Heyhoe, director of the United to End Homelessness initiative for the Orange County United Way, conducts a homelessness education class at the United Way oce in Irvine. (Don Leach / Daily Pilot) https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 6/17 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times Becks Heyhoe, director of the United to End Homelessness initiative for Orange County United Way, said these myths might have taken root because it’s more comfortable for the public to view homeless people as separate or different from broader society.

“When we do that, we are able to distance ourselves from them, because if we turn somebody into the ‘other,’ especially ... when we kind of assign blame to them — that it’s their fault that they are this way — it’s very easy for them to remain the other, and then we don’t need to engage.”

Dispelling these myths is key to changing the public’s resistance to developing resources and building shelters for homeless people, advocates say, making the role of local elected leaders even more vital.

“The political will of city councils can change outcomes,” said Helen Cameron, community outreach director for developer Jamboree Housing. “I think city councils need to show their bravery and realize that they can make a decision that can end homelessness.”

Some former and current elected officials say showing “courage” can carry a cost beyond losing votes.

Laguna Beach, for example, was well ahead of other Orange County cities in opening a shelter, but the American Civil Liberties Union still sued the city in 2015, accusing it of trying to push out homeless people with disabilities.

“All the example that we set was, ‘Don’t be stupid like Laguna Beach and create a shelter and then destroy your downtown, destroy Main Beach and then find yourselves being sued to the tune of millions of dollars … because of all you’ve done,’” Blake said.

Economics of homelessness

In addition to public resistance, the high price of housing is a significant hurdle to addressing homelessness.

“In our community, that’s as much based on our location as it is construction and development costs,” said Barbara Delgleize, a Huntington Beach City Council member and real estate broker. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 7/17 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times “We also don’t have enough units at various income levels across the region … nor do we have enough shelter beds or crisis stabilization unit beds or supportive housing units.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 8/17 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 9/17 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 10/17 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times

Daily Pilot (Greg Diaz / Daily Pilot)

Advocates say shelter beds are not enough, though.

“I think we need a lot more exits from shelters so the shelter beds can turn over,” said Price of Friendship Shelter in Laguna Beach.

Cities need to plan for what’s next, and a big part of that is getting elected officials and their constituents on board with developing more affordable housing for low-income people

“I would like to see more cities really championing housing developments in their communities, affordable for working-class poor as well as affordable for people who are homeless,” she said.

Advocates are particularly excited about the recent creation of the Orange County Housing Finance Trust, a joint authority between the county and cities to secure and allocate funding for affordable and supportive housing projects.

Such entities are likely to be key in realizing the ultimate solution to homelessness, which is getting more people housed permanently. That will, in turn, alleviate some of the effects of the crisis on businesses and neighborhoods.

“They loiter. They carry around a lot of junk. They’re unsightly. They stink,” said David Snow, a UC Irvine professor who was an author of the 2017 homelessness study. “All of those things disappear when people have housing.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 11/17 1/2/2020 Can Orange County find the political will to fix homelessness? - Los Angeles Times

A homeless man sleeps on a sidewalk in Laguna Beach. (Don Leach / Daily Pilot)

While much remains to be done, some elected officials have expressed optimism that their cities — and the county as a whole — are well on their way.

“Local governments have already developed partnerships in Orange County to reduce homelessness, and more partnerships are being discussed on a regular basis,” said Huntington Beach City Councilwoman Kim Carr. “If there is the political will, the financial incentive and the compassion among our residents and community leaders to solve the problem, it can be done. I don’t think there will ever be an end to homelessness in America, but I feel Orange County is on the right track and, in time, we will be the model for the rest of the nation.”

Daily Pilot staff writers Lilly Nguyen and Julia Sclafani contributed to this report. Priscella Vega writes for the Los Angeles Times.

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/homeless-orange-county-housing-political-will-unsheltered-part-3 12/17 12/30/2019 Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved? - Los Angeles Times

ADVERTISEMENT automated investing, managed for free.

CALIFORNIA

Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved?

Workers speak with homeless men in Costa Mesa during an ocial count of Orange County’s homeless population at the beginning of 2019. (Raul Roa / Times Community News)

By LUKE MONEY, FAITH E. PINHO, HILLARY DAVIS, PRISCELLA VEGA

DEC. 30, 2019 10:18 AM

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-30/orange-county-homeless-problem-solutions 1/15 12/30/2019 Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved? - Los Angeles Times Editor’s note: This is the first story in a five-part series examining homelessness in the cities of Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach and Newport Beach. While many private organizations and various levels of government are involved in the search for solutions, the “Unsheltered” series looks at what these specific cities are doing to address homelessness and what more might be done. This article examines some of the major factors that contribute to local homelessness, along with who and where homeless people are.

On a dreary morning about a year ago,, almost 4,000 people were living with no roof over their heads in Orange County.

They instead found refuge wherever they could — huddled for warmth amid roadside shrubs in the Westside Costa Mesa neighborhood, camped under Newport Beach’s Balboa Pier, squeezed into the backseat of a van parked in Huntington Beach.

Individually, they couldn’t be more different. They hail from different walks of life. They’ve had different experiences. They face different challenges.

*Oﬀer disclosure 2019 TRANSIT PASSENGER VAN

$ 2,750 CASH BACK

PLUS $ COMMER- 500 CIAL CASH

PLUS UP TO $ UPFIT 1,000 ASSISTANCE*

VIEW OFFERS

BUILD & PRICE Your Southern California Ford Dealers

But all have these things in common: the streets they call home, and the stigmas and struggles they face as a result.

They are Orange County’s homeless — a group that, when you include those staying in shelters or other transient living situations, numbered 6,860 in January 2019 during the latest Point in Time count, which surveyed the county’s homeless population.

Collectively, they could be a city unto themselves, with a population larger than the Orange County city of Villa Park.

They are at once the county’s most vulnerable residents and its most pressing challenge.

SPONSORED CONTENT It's all about the kids By UNICEF USA Just who is UNICEF helping, exactly? See their faces and learn the facts.

NEWS

Latest Point in Time count finds almost 7,000 homeless people in Orange County; local cities see increases in their numbers April 24, 2019

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-30/orange-county-homeless-problem-solutions 2/15 12/30/2019 Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved? - Los Angeles Times In recent years, homelessness has become an increasingly visible and talked-about issue. When a sprawling tent city mushroomed along the Santa Ana River trail in Anaheim — a stone’s throw from the Honda Center and Angel Stadium — it sparked headlines nationwide.

From the outside looking in, the homeless camp appeared to clash with the common characterization of Orange County as an archetype of sun-soaked, cozy affluence.

How, many seemed to wonder, had it come to this?

There isn’t a simple answer. Interviews with service providers, municipal leaders and advocates for homeless people paint a picture of a problem whose complexity matches its magnitude.

“There’s no one reason for homelessness, and there’s no one solution,” said John Begin, homelessness initiative director for Trellis, a Costa Mesa faith-based consortium that seeks to address significant local issues.

A lost job or a rent increase can be enough to push someone onto the street.

Others might end up homeless as a result of health issues or struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, or because they’ve recently been released from jail or had to flee an unstable or unsafe living situation.

Aside from individual predicaments, dealing with homelessness in Orange County as a whole will take bold cooperative efforts, said many of the officials, advocates and experts who spoke with the Daily Pilot. They agreed that finding a solution would take leaders willing to see those efforts through, even in the face of potentially fierce opposition.

Municipal officials often say they’re willing to do their “fair share.” What that means depends on whom you ask.

“There’s no one reason for homelessness, and there’s no one solution.”

JOHN BEGIN, HOMELESSNESS INITIATIVE DIRECTOR FOR TRELLIS

Relying on hundreds of pages of documents and dozens of interviews with local leaders, advocates, experts, public safety officials and homeless people, the Pilot is taking a comprehensive look at the issue in hopes of answering several critical questions:

How did we get here? What factors are fueling the growth in homelessness countywide? What might potential solutions look like?

Perhaps the most complicated questions are: What role should cities play in addressing the problem? What is their “fair share”?

History

“County urged to give more assistance to the homeless.”

It’s a headline that wouldn’t look out of place today. But the article — which begins, “The government of Orange County needs to do more to provide the housing, emergency shelters and monetary assistance the homeless need, the leader of the Orange County https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-30/orange-county-homeless-problem-solutions 3/15 12/30/2019 Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved? - Los Angeles Times Coalition on the Homeless said” — appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 2, 1985.

Homelessness is far from a new issue in Orange County. So why is it seemingly grabbing public attention now like never before?

There are several reasons, experts and advocates say. First is the sheer magnitude of the issue. Recent surveys show significant increases in the number of people living on the streets.

The Point in Time count — a federally required biennial census of the homeless population — recorded 4,792 such individuals throughout Orange County in January 2017, including 2,584 who were unsheltered, meaning they were staying in a place where people normally wouldn’t sleep regularly, such as on the street, in a park or in a vehicle.

Both of those numbers increased sharply in the most recent count last January, which tallied 6,860 homeless people, 3,961 of them unsheltered.

The remaining 2,899 homeless people documented in the latest survey were considered “sheltered,” meaning they had some kind of temporary roof over their heads. They may have been staying in an emergency shelter or been enrolled in a transitional housing program.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-30/orange-county-homeless-problem-solutions 4/15 12/30/2019 Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved? - Los Angeles Times

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-30/orange-county-homeless-problem-solutions 5/15 12/30/2019 Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved? - Los Angeles Times

(Greg Diaz / Daily Pilot)

Many areas of the state saw increases in their homeless populations, but Orange County’s was among the steepest.

California is split into a number of so-called continuums of care — local planning bodies that work to coordinate homeless services within specific areas.

Of the state’s 15 largest continuums — those that cover areas with a population of at least 700,000 — Orange County had the fourth- largest proportional increase in its homeless population from 2017 to 2019. According to a final Point in Time report released July 30, Orange County’s 43.2% increase was exceeded only by continuums covering Stockton/San Joaquin County, 70.5%; Bakersfield/Kern County, 64.2%; and Oxnard, San Buenaventura/Ventura County, 44.9%.

It isn’t just the size of Orange County’s homeless population that has changed but also where those people are. Historically, the county’s homeless people seemingly have lived on the fringes of public consciousness — not necessarily out of sight but largely out of mind.

That’s no longer the case. In recent years, homeless people have begun appearing in areas where they haven’t typically been visible, at least not in large numbers.

The homeless have been in downtown Santa Ana for decades, “but the majority of the population didn’t see it unless they went to the courthouse or had to go get a document at the Civic Center. … It was kind of like, ‘Oh, that’s that problem in Santa Ana,’” said https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-30/orange-county-homeless-problem-solutions 6/15 12/30/2019 Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved? - Los Angeles Times Helen Cameron, community outreach director for Jamboree Housing Corp., an Irvine-based developer of affordable and supportive housing.

“So when it became visible in other areas of the community and it began to be seen in parks … people felt violated,” she said. “They couldn’t use their own parks. They weren’t feeling safe.”

The 2019 homeless count reflected the dispersion. Of Orange County’s 34 cities, 16 had a homeless population of at least 100 — up from 12 two years before.

At the top end, homeless people numbered 1,769 in Santa Ana and 1,202 in Anaheim. Smaller cities such as Aliso Viejo and Yorba Linda had only one, and Villa Park had none.

The count found 349 homeless people (60 of them sheltered) in Huntington Beach, 193 (six sheltered) in Costa Mesa, 147 (76 sheltered) in Laguna Beach, 42 (14 sheltered) in Fountain Valley and 64 (none sheltered) in Newport Beach.

In each case, the numbers were higher than in the 2017 count, and every city except Fountain Valley saw at least a 56% increase in its documented homeless population.

The riverbed

An encampment along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim, shown on Jan. 22, 2018, swelled to a sprawling tent city where hundreds of people lived. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The increase in the number of homeless people probably came as no surprise to those who saw the scene along the Santa Ana River trail.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-30/orange-county-homeless-problem-solutions 7/15 12/30/2019 Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved? - Los Angeles Times When officials, citing public safety and sanitation concerns, moved to clear the sprawling encampment, a handful of people living there sued the county as well as the cities of Costa Mesa, Anaheim and Orange.

The plaintiffs alleged that the cities, by enforcing local laws against camping, trespassing and loitering, had effectively criminalized homelessness and forced their homeless people to seek refuge in the riverbed. In moving to clear the camp, the plaintiffs claimed, the county was effectively pushing homeless people back into those communities without a plan to shelter them.

The case eventually triggered a seismic shift in Orange County’s homelessness landscape. The man doing most of the shaking was U.S. District Judge David Carter, who presided over the lawsuit.

From the beginning, Carter took a hands-on approach, making multiple trips to the riverbed and documenting the conditions with his cellphone camera. During conferences on the case, he repeatedly pushed city and county officials to develop additional transitional and emergency beds. He eventually set a target of having enough beds to serve 60% of the 2,584 unsheltered people tallied during the 2017 Point in Time count.

U.S. District Judge David Carter, with Elder Law and Disability Rights Center attorney Brooke Weitzman, surveys a homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River in February 2018. (Guy Coronado / Los Angeles Times )

Those efforts received a major boost in September 2018, when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it is unconstitutional to prosecute homeless people for sleeping on public property when they don’t have access to shelter.

The decision in the case of Martin vs. the city of Boise found that “as long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors on public property on the false premise [that] they had a choice in the matter.”

Two weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, meaning the 9th Circuit ruling stands. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-30/orange-county-homeless-problem-solutions 8/15 12/30/2019 Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved? - Los Angeles Times It didn’t take long for that ruling to reverberate locally. Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach have cited it as part of their rationale for taking steps to develop local homeless shelters. Newport Beach also is considering opening a shelter.

“You’re going to see a lot more shelters go up in Orange County,” said Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem John Stephens. “I think ... within a year, there will be shelters complying with the city of Boise case in probably half the cities in Orange County. That’s just my guess.”

Some advocates, however, say new shelters — although welcome — are merely a Band-Aid for those who require ongoing care that meets their particular needs.

“The response is not, ‘Oh, let’s find out how to have permanent solutions for homelessness through housing,’” said Julia Devanthery, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. “The response has been, ‘How can we, as quickly as possible, make as many temporary shelters for people to sleep in so we can go back to criminalizing people who are not in those shelters?’”

Portrait of the homeless

John Wagner, who said he’d been homeless for 14 years, holds a care package during the January 2019 Orange County Point in Time homeless count. (Raul Roa / Los Angeles Times)

But who are the people living on the streets? Information from the latest Point in Time count paints a general picture.

Of 2,146 unsheltered individuals who responded to informational surveys during the count, almost 52% said they were attending or had attended schools in Orange County or had family there. About 72% reported they were currently working or had previously worked in the county.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-30/orange-county-homeless-problem-solutions 9/15 12/30/2019 Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved? - Los Angeles Times Almost three-quarters said their last permanent address was in Orange County.

A June 2017 collaborative study by Jamboree Housing Corp., UC Irvine and the Orange County United Way, titled “Homelessness in Orange County: The Costs to Our Community,” concluded that “the vast majority of Orange County’s homeless, whether male or female,” had lived in the county for at least a decade.

Those findings don’t jibe with the perception of some that most homeless people are outsiders drawn to California by its agreeable weather or what they might consider its more permissive policies.

A man who goes by the name “Ghost” maintained a campsite under a structure at the public bus station in Newport Beach, at least before homeless people were cleared from the depot in September.

When interviewed in July, he said he had been there for two years, pushed to sleeping in the open after a tough divorce and the recession of a decade ago led to the loss of his home in Costa Mesa. He said he was trapped by not being able to get a job without an address and vice versa.

He said he didn’t want that life — he wanted a job and a home.

Ghost, 58 at the time, said the influx of homeless people at the bus station happened “because they got kicked out of every other city they’ve been in.”

Addiction and mental health issues are commonly seen as factors driving homelessness. Of the 252 respondents in the United Way/UCI/Jamboree study, 22% said alcohol or drug use was a major contributor to their homelessness, while 17% cited mental health issues and 7% pointed to a release from jail or prison.

Forty percent said their homelessness was fueled at least in part by their inability to secure or keep a job with sustainable wages, and 36% said they’d had difficulty finding or retaining affordable housing. Twenty-eight percent cited family-related issues such as domestic violence, the end of a relationship or the death of a relative.

The study called the findings “revelatory in the sense that they shift the focus of attention from the often-repeated stereotypical causes of homelessness, namely mental illness and substance abuse, to the gap between the availability of affordable housing and work that pays a wage sufficient to enable the economically marginal to access that housing.”

“Most people tend to imagine the kind of worst-case scenario that everybody is homeless because they’ve been released from jail or prison, they have a mental health diagnosis, they’re an addict and an alcoholic and they came from New York,” said Becks Heyhoe, director of United to End Homelessness for Orange County United Way. “We sort of make it this kind of homogeneous group.”

Tenuous economic and social circumstances aren’t unique to the Golden State, but they can be particularly pronounced in California, especially when it comes to affordable housing.

“While many factors have a role in driving California’s high housing costs, the most important is the significant shortage of housing, particularly within coastal communities,” according to a February report from the California legislative analyst’s office. “Today, an average California home costs 2.5 times the national average. California’s average monthly rent is about 50% higher than the rest of the country.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-30/orange-county-homeless-problem-solutions 10/15 12/30/2019 Why does Orange County have a homeless problem and how can it be solved? - Los Angeles Times Still, there’s little doubt that addiction and other health-related factors are significant contributors to homelessness. With the nation in the grip of a deadly opioid crisis, many people have traveled to cities such as Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach to seek treatment for their addictions. In some cases, those people have left or been kicked out of their sober-living or other recovery programs and ended up on their own with no way to get home.

Dawn Price, executive director of Friendship Shelter in Laguna Beach, said her organization had regularly worked to help people “who get sent here for rehab and then went into sober living and, for some reason, that fell apart and now they’re on the street.”

Reason for optimism?

Friendship Shelter site supervisor Miranda Prado checks in volunteer Christopher Jones at the Alternative Sleeping Location homeless shelter in Laguna Beach in October. (Raul Roa / Los Angeles Times)

Though the homelessness issue is immense in its scale and intricacy, advocates and experts say there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

In Heyhoe’s mind, a key to any discussion of how to end homelessness needs to include the question “How do we change the dialogue from ... despair and crisis to hope?

“We can end homelessness,” she said. “This is Orange County, California. We have the resources, the intellect. We have everything we need to end homelessness here.”

Coming in Part 2: What’s being done to address homelessness? https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-30/orange-county-homeless-problem-solutions 11/15 1/2/2020 In newly blue Orange County, Democrats struggle over how far left is too far - Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA

In newly blue Orange County, Democrats struggle over how far left is too far

Cesar Lara, 39, and about 200 other people attended the opening of Bernie Sanders’ new Orange County campaign headquarters Sunday in Santa Ana. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

By GUSTAVO ARELLANO STAFF WRITER

JAN. 2, 2020 5 AM https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-02/orange-county-democrats-progressive 1/9 1/2/2020 In newly blue Orange County, Democrats struggle over how far left is too far - Los Angeles Times Emma Jenson, standing in front of over 200 Bernie Sanders supporters gathered in the parking lot of a Santa Ana office park, asked for a show of hands to see who had knocked on doors for the 2016 election.

Few had.

“Notice that my hand didn’t go up,” the San Clemente resident said. “But things are different now. This is what democracy looks like.”

The ostensible reason for the recent Sunday evening rally was the opening of Sanders’ Orange County campaign office. But Jenson’s remarks about how Democratic people power can beat Republican might resonated with the crowd for reasons beyond their favored candidate.

It was like a family reunion for the Orange County left. College students who were in the U.S. illegally stood shoulder to shoulder alongside hijabis. Huntington Beach residents who fought against a garbage dump in their barrio chatted with Brea anti-racism activists. Most were people of color.

Along with liberal white activists, they had helped to do the once-unthinkable: turn Orange County — a longtime Republican citadel — blue. And push the historically moderate local Democratic Party to the left.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-02/orange-county-democrats-progressive 2/9 1/2/2020 In newly blue Orange County, Democrats struggle over how far left is too far - Los Angeles Times

The opening of Bernie Sanders’ Santa Ana campaign oce was like a family reunion for the Orange County left. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen all of us together at the same time,” said Benjamin Vazquez, an ethnic studies teacher at Valley High School in Santa Ana. “Not even for May Day.”

Andy Lewandowski, who said he grew up in “the white privilege bubble” of Costa Mesa and Orange, marveled at the scene before him.

“It’s great,” said the 59-year-old, who wore an OC Women’s March T-shirt with a button that said “Unidos con Bernie” (“United with Bernie”). “Progressives are starting to work within the political system. It’s time.”

Ever since 2016, when Hillary Clinton became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the county since Franklin D. Roosevelt, academics and the news media have heavily covered Orange County’s political transformation. A clean sweep of the congressional districts in 2018, coupled with Democrats’ overtaking Republicans in registered voters last summer, has made the story even more compelling.

Pundits have attributed the shift to college-educated women, changing demographics, conservative dislike for President Trump and the urbanization of a county Ronald Reagan once described as “the place all the good Republicans go to die.”

The new, blue Orange County is a cause celebre among Democratic presidential candidates. Vermont Sen. Sanders has addressed cheering Disneyland Resort employees. Businessman Andrew Yang visited twice last year. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-02/orange-county-democrats-progressive 3/9 1/2/2020 In newly blue Orange County, Democrats struggle over how far left is too far - Los Angeles Times sent a recorded message to the O.C. Democrats’ annual awards dinner praising their gains. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar addressed a packed town hall in August, later tweeting: “Now I know how you turned the tide from red to blue…. Keep it up!”

Lesser known is the ongoing fight between progressive and moderate Democrats in Orange County for the party’s soul.

To outsiders, the rift is befuddling. After decades in the political wilderness, why risk the Orange County Democrats’ historic wins?

But the divide between moderates (generally wealthier, older and white) and progressives (younger, forged in the social justice battles of the last decade and Latino-led) is real. And it mirrors the debate across the U.S. among Democrats about whether a more centrist or more leftist candidate has the best chance to defeat Trump in 2020.

Some of those attending the opening of Bernie Sanders’ new campaign oce in Santa Ana. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

“There’s always going to be people who want to start desmadre [raise hell],” said Claudio Gallegos, district director for Rep. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), who has long weathered attacks from within his own party for a middle-of-the-road approach. “The old guard needs to realize that change is coming. This isn’t your grandpa’s Orange County, and we need to bring [progressives] in. But to progressives, I say beware of tribalism. They seem to stick to their own clique and freeze out people who may have potential, but because they started under moderate politicians, they cut them off. That helps no one.”

“It’s true that we’re in Orange County, and that we’ve got to be careful,” said Ada Briceño, co-president of Unite Here Local 11 and chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County. “I’m the chair for everyone. But we’ve got to bring one person at a time around to believe in collective activism and change.” https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-02/orange-county-democrats-progressive 4/9 1/2/2020 In newly blue Orange County, Democrats struggle over how far left is too far - Los Angeles Times The Nicaraguan immigrant is part of that change. Two weeks after becoming party chair last January, Briceño was arrested along with other protesters for blocking an intersection in Anaheim in support of higher wages for hotel workers. And her union nearly forced the cancellation of the Dec. 19 Democratic presidential debate at Loyola Marymount University over a labor dispute.

Briceño said that during the recent California Democratic Party state convention in Long Beach, delegates and politicians from across the state wanted to know how to bottle her party’s newfound pixie dust.

“People are looking to what we’ve been doing here long-term,” she said. “It’s been impressive to see that we matter.”

Randall Avila, executive director of the Republican Party of Orange County, said local Democrats “are not doing themselves any favors” by focusing on “virtue-signaling” issues, arguing that residents care more about day-to-day things like traffic and housing.

“We’re going to take it to the voters and show them how far left they’re going,” he said. “Orange County has always been the gold standard for Republicans, and [Democrats] capturing that crown jewel got them too excited to reshape it completely.”

Despite its conservative stereotype, one born from decades-long reality, Orange County has seen a long, lively history of progressive — even radical — activism.

Mexican, Jamaican and Japanese fieldworkers staged strikes back when the county was an agricultural powerhouse. Latino plaintiffs won some of the earliest court cases in the U.S. against housing covenants and school segregation in the 1940s; the Black Panthers established a chapter in Santa Ana during the 1960s.

But in the last decade, a rainbow’s worth of causes — homelessness, police brutality, Disneyland workers, “sanctuary” cities, LGBTQ rights, even the Ku Klux Klan — brought out a new generation of grass-roots organizers with numbers and stridency never before seen locally.

They publicly confronted Democratic luminaries like former Rep. Loretta Sanchez and longtime Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido over their supposed centrist sins — in Sanchez’s case, not speaking out more loudly about undocumented college students, while getting after Pulido for aligning himself too closely with developers who have gentrified Santa Ana.

A 2014 American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit that brought district elections to Anaheim pushed Fullerton, Costa Mesa, San Juan Capistrano, Orange and Garden Grove to follow and inspired more rabble-rousing novices to run for office.

Joesé Hernandez, a Sanders co-regional director for Orange County alongside Jenson, found his political awakening in the Occupy movement and eventually helped in campaigns for affordable housing and voter turnout in Anaheim and Santa Ana. He said progressives tended to “hit a brick wall” when confronted with the reality that their actions frequently proved moot against unsympathetic politicians.

In the last few years, though, “it’s been quite a markup of individuals coming out of the shadows [to] run as progressives, unashamed and unabashed,” the 35-year-old said. “That was once not even in the realm of possibilities.”

More recently, activists have criticized trade unions — a crucial part of the Democratic fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts — over their support of construction projects like a desalination plant and hotels that activists say exacerbate environmental and cost- of-living problems.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-02/orange-county-democrats-progressive 5/9 1/2/2020 In newly blue Orange County, Democrats struggle over how far left is too far - Los Angeles Times Briceño has faced criticism from the party’s moderate flank but also from the left. In October, the Orange County Democratic Party Central Committee passed a resolution that asks the federal government to “reform” Immigration and Customs Enforcement instead of “abolish” the agency, as the resolution originally stated. As a result, Lewandowski and other Sanders supporters plan to run for Central Committee seats.

Meanwhile, Briceño is undeterred by criticism that people like her are moving the party in Orange County too left too fast. She pointed out that Democrats outpaced Republicans in voter registration by 15,000 voters since this summer — an unimaginable margin just a few years ago.

“People are really fearful that if we push too little or too much, we’ll lose what we’ve won,” she said. “But we overcome fear by having a really strong plan.”

CALIFORNIA POLITICS CAMPAIGN 2020

NEWSLETTER

Get our Essential California newsletter

Please enter your email address

Gustavo Arellano

Twitter Instagram Email Facebook

Gustavo Arellano is a features writer for the Los Angeles Times, covering Southern California everything and a bunch of the West and beyond. He previously worked at OC Weekly, where he was an investigative reporter for 15 years and editor for six, wrote a column called ¡Ask a Mexican! and is the author of “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America.” He’s the child of two Mexican immigrants, one of whom came to this country in the trunk of a Chevy.

Show Comments

TOP ARTICLES 1/5

https://www.sbsun.com/...l-near-barstow/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow[1/2/2020 7:46:48 AM] 21-year-old rescued from top of 200-foot dry desert waterfall on New Year’s Eve – San Bernardino Sun

Crew Chief Deputy Chris Mejia hoisted San Bernardino County Fire Capt. Scott Michaels about 125 feet down to Johansen, Futscher wrote. Michaels placed a rescue harness around Johansen’s waist, but before Michaels could secure optional leg straps, Johansen slid from the rock, he wrote.

Mejia then lifted Michaels and Johansen, Futscher said, moving them to a place where they could safely stand before lowering them to the ground.

Once on the ground, the team placed Johansen in an additional rescue harness and hoisted him up to the helicopter, Futscher wrote.

https://www.sbsun.com/...l-near-barstow/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow[1/2/2020 7:46:48 AM] Woman Burned When Vape Device Explodes in Backpack at Yucaipa Store POSTED 6:45 PM, JANUARY 1, 2020, BY BRIAN DAY, UPDATED AT 10:54PM, JANUARY 1, 2020

A woman suffered burns over about 20% of her body after a vape device exploded in her backpack at a Yucaipa Rite Aid store on Tuesday, ofcials said.

The incident unfolded about 6 p.m. at the store, 34420 Yucaipa Boulevard, Calre Battalion Chief Josh Janssen said.

"We received multiple reports of a female on re in a local Rite Aid," he said. "While responding to the incident, we received updated information that the re was caused by a vape pen that had exploded inside the female's backpack."

Fireghters found the woman suffering from rst- and second-degree burns on her back, covering about 20 percent of her body, he said. / The woman was taken to a burn center for treatment.

A woman was burned after a vape device exploded in her backpack at a Rite Aid store in Yucaipa on Dec. 31, 2019. (Credit: Calre via RMG New)

Images from the scene showed a backpack with a hole burned through it, as well as several pieces of charred clothing.

No further details were available.

TOP ARTICLES 1/5

https://www.sbsun.com/...e-starts-in-attic/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-sbsun[1/2/2020 7:44:38 AM] Redlands family escapes home after fire starts in attic – San Bernardino Sun

Damage was limited primarily to the attic space and one RELATED ARTICLES bedroom of the home. Total damages to the property and

Trash fire burns inside Burrtec facility in the contents of the home are estimated at $120,000. Fontana The cause of the fire remained under investigation Mother who lost husband, 3 children in Wednesday, according to the city’s news release. Hemet fire meets with firefighters at fundraiser

Hemet community helps mother, 2 kids after apartment fire kills husband and 3 children

Neighbor’s pounding on burning mobile

https://www.sbsun.com/...e-starts-in-attic/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-sbsun[1/2/2020 7:44:38 AM] Woman dead in hit-and-run crash in San Bernardino – Press Enterprise

   

NEWSCRIME + PUBLIC SAFETY Woman dead in hit-and-run crash in San Bernardino

   

By ROBERT GUNDRAN | [email protected] |  PUBLISHED: December 30, 2019 at 6:09 pm | UPDATED: December 31, 2019 at 4:58 pm

A Highland woman was hit and killed by a vehicle in San Bernardino on Sunday evening, and the vehicle left the scene before police arrived.

The hit-and-run crash happened just before 6:30 p.m., when a vehicle was traveling east on 5th Street, approaching Ramona Avenue and hit a woman who was walking east in the right lane of 5th Street.

Authorities said the woman was transported to a local hospital, where she died of her injuries. The vehicle that hit her left the scene before police arrived.

The woman who was hit was identified as Angela Rosales, 29, of Highland. Police said it is unknown if speed or alcohol were a factor in the crash.

TOP ARTICLES 1/5

https://www.pe.com/...rnardino/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[1/2/2020 7:49:39 AM] Woman dead in hit-and-run crash in San Bernardino – Press Enterprise

Information on the vehicle and driver involved in the hit-and-run were not immediately available.

Anyone with information on the crash can call the San Bernardino Police Department at 909-384- 5792.

CHP seeking car that fled scene of fatal hit-run in Lakeland Village

Lakeland Village hit-and-run crash leaves man dead

Man arrested on suspicion of intentionally

https://www.pe.com/...rnardino/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[1/2/2020 7:49:39 AM] 32-year-old San Bernardino woman killed in collision with big rig – Daily Bulletin

   

NEWSCRIME + PUBLIC SAFETY 32-year-old San Bernardino woman killed in collision with big rig

   

By JONAH VALDEZ | [email protected] | San Gabriel Valley Tribune  PUBLISHED: December 31, 2019 at 5:44 pm | UPDATED: December 31, 2019 at 10:07 pm

A woman died after her car collided with a big rig in San Bernardino on Monday evening, authorities said.

Authorities identified the woman as Vanessa Garcia-Barbarin, 32, of San Bernardino.

Garcia-Barbarin was driving her Volkswagen sedan north on Tippecanoe Avenue toward the intersection with Orange Show Road around 11:20 p.m., said San Bernardino police in a news release. Also driving toward the intersection, west along Orange Show, was Sergio Medina, 52, of San Bernardino who manned a Freightliner tractor-trailer.

The two vehicles entered the intersection at the same time and collided, authorities said.