top story yucca valley’s dan munsey named lre chief: …

11/24/19, 5:10 PMYucca Valley’s Dan Munsey named fire chief: Local man will oversee all fire and rescue operations | News | hidesertstar.com

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TOP STORY

Yucca Valley’s Dan Munsey named Lre chief: Local man willoversee all Lre and rescue operations

Nov 22, 2019

Director Dan Munsey asks General Manager Ed Muzik about the potential to seek bids for engineering services duringconstruction of the sewer system during a Hi-Desert Water District meeting last week.

Sara Kernan Hi-Desert Star

SAN BERNARDINO — Dan Munsey, a Yucca Valley local who is president of Hi-Desert Water District,

was appointed Lre chief for San Bernardino County this week.



Munsey was serving as assistant county Lre chief and was promoted to replace Mark Hartwig, who

left in February to become Lre chief for Santa Barbara County.

“Being chosen to serve as Lre chief for this organization is a tremendous honor,” Munsey said in a

released statement.

“This is a team of highly skilled, dedicated professionals who serve a great community. I am excited

about this opportunity to lead them and provide them with the tools and the environment they need to

help County Fire fully achieve its great potential.”

His promotion is effective immediately, following his appointment by county CEO Gary McBride with

agreement from the board of supervisors.

Munsey, who grew up in Yucca Valley, started with the county as a paid-call LreLghter in 1995. He

became a full-time LreLghter in 1998 and since then has worked in every division of county Lre,

promoting to captain in 2004, battalion chief in 2008 and assistant chief in March 2014.

As assistant chief, Munsey was responsible for rescue, Lre and emergency medical response in the

High Desert, the largest of the Lre department’s Lve regions. It stretches from Apple Valley to Trona,

and from past Interstate 395 to the Nevada border.

Munsey’s appointment to chief concluded a nationwide recruiting effort.

“There were several outstanding candidates,” McBride said. “But the board and I concluded that

Assistant Chief Munsey offered the best combination of the traits we were seeking: the leadership

skills and commitment to operate County Fire effectively and professionally, and the ability and desire

to work productively with public safety agencies throughout the county.”

Munsey holds a master’s degree in public administration with an emphasis on business and

government and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Grand Canyon University.

He is president of the operations section of the California Fire Chiefs Association.



Munsey was Lrst elected to the Hi-Desert Water District board of directors in 2008 and has served as

president this year.

As Lre chief, he will oversee around 1,000 employees responsible for Lghting Lres, providing

emergency medical care, responding to hazardous materials, investigating arson, hazards and

weapons of mass destruction and rescuing people from eooding, mudslides and extreme weather.

County spokesman David Wert said the pay range for county Lre chief $185,681 to $253,531.

The value of his beneLts will depend on what options he chooses, Wert added.

11/24/19, 5:09 PMSupervisor Lovingood looking at innovative models to address homelessness - Victor Valley News Group | VVNG.com

Page 1 of 6https://www.vvng.com/supervisor-lovingood-looking-at-innovative-models-to-address-homelessness/

Supervisor Lovingood

looking at innovative

models to address

homelessness"Housing will never solve homelessness but communitywill."

VictorValleyNewsVictorValleyNews ! " • November 23, 2019

Earlier this month First District Supervisor Robert Lovingood had an

opportunity to visit the Mobile Loaves & Fishes Community First! Village

# (Mobile Loaves & Fishes Youtube)

News



in Austin, Texas to learn about their effective program to transition

homeless individuals into stable lives.

Below is a note from the supervisors trip:

This is an absolute solution for chronic homelessness. It was inspiring to

see, first hand, a project that began with simple community outreach

develop into housing more than 200 chronically homeless individuals

with plans to grow to 1,000 residents. The community is immaculate and

clearly the residents and 65 staff members are proud of what they have

built together. There’s happiness, serenity and hope all around. The

residents are contracted to work in a variety of jobs available within the

village, which helps them earn living expenses, and there are many

resources on site that they have access to. A public transportation stop

at the Community First! Village helps residents get to jobs that they have

obtained off site. Some of the staff members live at the Village and it is

evident in talking with them that they are passionate about the work

they do. All staff are trained in crisis intervention and focused on

helping to build community among neighbors. Any needed calls for law

enforcement support are few and far between.

Community First! Village - A New Movement



Mobile Loaves & Fishes describes Community First! Village as a 51-acre

master planned community that provides affordable, permanent

housing and a supportive community for men and women coming out

of chronic homelessness. This transformative residential program exists

to love and serve the neighbors who have been living on the streets,

while also empowering the surrounding community into a lifestyle of

service with the homeless. There are currently about 300 volunteers

providing 500 hours of service each week at the Village, many of whom

are sharing their professional skills and trades with the community

residents. I’d encourage you to take a few minutes to watch this short

video at https://mlf.org/community-first/

Community First! Village - A New Movement

11/24/19, 7:32 PM‘You are destroying my property:’ Locals learn county slip allowed Frontier to dig miles of trenches | News | hidesertstar.com

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FEATURED

‘You are destroying my property:’ Locals learn county slip allowed Frontier to dig miles of trenchesBy Jené Estrada Hi-Desert Star Nov 22, 2019

A trench on Giant Rock Road and Hoover has been plowed over. No plans are currently in place to repoulate the vegetation.Jene Estrada Hi-Desert Star

JOSHUA TREE — Frontier Communications and county leaders met with locals Thursday night toaddress their concerns about trenching and placement of a wireless internet tower in Copper MountainMesa.

A crew contracted with Frontier started digging trenches in the Copper Mountain Mesa community lastmonth for a wireless internet tower. Due to a misstep in the permitting process, the public was not notifiedof the construction.

This project is part of Frontier Communication’s 2019 Connect America initiative, a federally funded driveto bring broadband into rural communities. The Joshua Tree site is one of eight in San Bernardino Countythat are in different stages of completion.

Unlike the other seven sites, the Joshua Tree site falls under San Bernardino County Special Districts andtherefore had a different permitting process.

When Frontier submitted its plans to Special Districts, county staff believed Frontier was putting in aregular telephone pole and approved the construction, said Luther Snoke, interim director of thedepartment.

However, a regular telephone pole does not require trenching like a wireless system does and whendigging began, dozens of concerned citizens began calling the Special Districts office and Frontier.

11/24/19, 7:32 PM‘You are destroying my property:’ Locals learn county slip allowed Frontier to dig miles of trenches | News | hidesertstar.com

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“You’re destroying my property, my home, and nothing was ever said to us,” said one resident, SteveTuttle.

Others said the contractors were working on their property without permission and leaving trash. Theyalso said the crew killed dozens of creosote plants.

“I can’t go and replant vegetation that’s been destroyed,” Tuttle said.

Frontier said they’ve stopped construction on the site and will attempt to rectify the situation.

“We’ve agreed to stop, not do anything any further until the county is comfortable that we have a plan andthat the community is comfortable that we have a whole plan,” said Bill D’agostino, director of wirelessengineering at Frontier Communications.

“We’ve invested a lot of money in that site but I’m here to tell you that we’re not going to push the issue ofhaving that site in that location.”

Tuttle, however, said construction on the site had not stopped and in fact, he saw a crew digging that veryday.

D’agostino said if there was still construction, he was unaware of it and would make sure it stoppedimmediately.

The owner of the Dhamma Dena Mediation Center, Arinna Weisman, urged Frontier to keep that promise.The wireless pole borders the meditation center and Weisman said there was actually construction for theproject on her property.

Weisman was one of the first to contact the county about the construction and she even hired a lawyer. Atthe meeting, she said she hoped there would be a process for community outreach with updates on theproject.

“I shouldn’t have to hire a lawyer and (make) really probably 50 phone calls to try to access informationabout what’s going on,” she said.

The community should be contacted to give insight into possible new locations for the pole, Weismanargued.

Frontier Communications has agreed to consider moving the location of the pole and is looking to move itonto Copper Mountain Mesa Association property.

Frontier originally wanted to move the pole to outside of the old volunteer fire station, but Weisman saidthat would still border her property. Mary Scott Tuttle said the Copper Mountain Mesa Association ownsthat property and three other neighboring parcels.

“We have a lot of nothing around us and it would be far away from the center,” she said.

She urged Frontier to speak to the association’s president, Kip Fjeld.

Moving forward, D’agostino said the company will have more meetings with the county to produce morepossible locations. Updates on the project will be distributed through the Morongo Basin MunicipalAdvisory Council’s email list.

11/24/19, 5:13 PMIs Weed Church Church? - The New York Times

Page 1 of 7https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/23/style/weed-church-california.html

Where sincerity, religion, sacrament and cannabis collide.

By Arit John

Nov. 23, 2019

LOS ANGELES — Every Sunday, about two dozen people gather at a green cabin along the main drag of Big

Bear, Calif., a small mountain town known for its namesake lake. They go there for Jah Healing Church

services, where joints are passed around.

April Mancini, a founder of the church, said she was drawn to the idea of cannabis as a religious sacrament

back in 2013, after she met a Rastafarian who was running the place as an unlicensed medicinal dispensary.

“I’m a Christian, so I wasn’t sure in the beginning,” Ms. Mancini said. “I didn’t want to go against God.”

But she said she studied the Bible for references to cannabis, and believed she found them in scriptures that

mentioned kaneh bosem oil. (English-language Bibles usually render the term “kaneh bosem,” a component of

an anointing oil mentioned in Exodus, as “fragrant cane” or “sweet calamus.”)

In October 2017, Ms. Mancini filed paperwork with the state to incorporate the Jah Healing Kemetic Temple of

the Divine. The newly registered church stopped requiring medical cards for marijuana for people 21 and over.

Its teachings are largely Christian but borrow from a grab bag of religious traditions as varied as

Rastafarianism, Buddhism and Judaism.

But before the year was up, the county sent the church a notice, accusing it of operating a dispensary. In April

2018, the county raided the church, confiscating the congregation’s sacrament in all its forms.

Is Weed Church Church?



The resulting and continuing legal battle led Jah to ramp up efforts to establish itself as a church in the eyes of

the law. Frances Valerie Rodriguez, who was ordained online through the Universal Life Church, was brought

on as minister.

The church has begun a food pantry and started clothing drives, andstarted its Sunday services (plus Bible

studies every Wednesday).

At the heart of this matter is a possibly unanswerable question: What is religion? And how do you prove

faith?

Critics will try to measure the sincerity of the congregations’ beliefs, Ms. Rodriguez said. But for her, the

church is about restoring people’s relationship with God. If the sacrament of cannabis helps people build that

connection, she and her church want to facilitate that connection.

“There’s no way to measure faith — that’s very intangible,” Ms. Rodriguez said. The state of California isn’t

totally sure it agrees.

Ilona Szwarc for The New York Times



Matters of Money

At many cannabis churches, which are scattered across the state, people don’t technically pay for marijuana.

But they do tithe, or donate money, in exchange for it. And many cannabis churches show up on Weedmaps

and other dispensary listing sites, often with prices attached to their offerings.

Jah Healing Church in Big Bear, Calif., is one of many religious institutions in the statethat treat marijuana as a sacrament. Ilona Szwarc for The New York Times



Some, like Agora Temple in Los Angeles, offer a paid membership that allows people to smoke for free in a

designated common area. (Members donate to the church to take marijuana home.)

Jah Healing Church, which stocks edibles, tinctures, pre-rolls and loose marijuana, has recently changed its

funding method from mandatory donations, handed to a minister, to voluntary donations placed in an

envelope and dropped into a box.

Cities, law enforcement and the hundreds of licensed and regulated weed dispensaries tend to view this as

part of the black market.

In California, legal sellers face long and expensive licensing processes, quality control standards and high

taxes. But 80 percent of California municipalities don’t allow dispensaries, said Robert Solomon, a law

professor at the University of California at Irvine and chair of the Center for the Study of Cannabis there.

This means that illegal weed sales proliferate. A recent audit by a cannabis trade organization found

approximately 2,835 unlicensed dispensaries, versus 873 licensed sellers in the state.

“It’s one thing to say, ‘Why would I buy black market milk from a guy I don’t know, when I could get good

healthy milk from the supermarket?’” Mr. Solomon said. But if there’s no supermarket around, he said, the

“black market looks pretty good.”

Seaside Church was a cannabis church in Redondo Beach, a city in Los Angeles County that voted to ban

dispensaries. The church used to list prices (and happy hour specials) for marijuana on Weedmaps.

The city filed charges against it for acting as an unlicensed dispensary, but agreed to dismiss them if the

church addressed building code violations and stopped dispensing weed.

The church closed in June 2019, only to reopen as the Sacramental Life Church of Redondo Beach a few weeks

later. It now offers Sunday services and yoga, but continues to provide weed for suggested donations.

Melanie Chavira, the deputy city attorney for Redondo Beach overseeing the case, sees the transaction of

marijuana as key to the church’s existence. “In the city’s opinion this isn’t a sacrament of the church, this is

clearly a marijuana dispensary,” she said. “It’s not donation based, the customers are not religious patrons,

everyone’s just there to purchase marijuana. The Catholic church doesn’t charge you to drink the wine.”

Sativa as Sacrament

Near the center of the legal battle between cannabis churches and law enforcement in California is Matthew

Pappas, a lawyer who has made a name for himself fighting to protect marijuana distribution.

In 2010, Mr. Pappas represented a group of disabled patients who said closures of medical marijuana

collectives in Costa Mesa and Lake Forest violated the Americans With Disabilities Act. Both a district court

and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against them.

In 2015, Mr. Pappas represented a medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana that was raided by the police,



during which officers destroyed surveillance systems. Mr. Pappas argued that video footage showed them

eating marijuana edibles during the raid. The city eventually settled with the dispensary for $100,000.

Mr. Pappas has also served as legal counsel to the Oklevueha Native American Church, which asserts that

cannabis is a Native American sacrament, similar to peyote.

The Oklevueha church is not tied to a federally recognized tribe, and is at odds with Native American religious

leaders, including the National Council of Native American Churches, which rejects the idea that cannabis is a

Native American sacrament. (The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected Oklevueha’s

request for a religious exemption for cannabis use in 2016.)

Now, Mr. Pappas is taking on the cause of cannabis churches, representing them in numerous cases across the

state. His task is to prove that his clients’ beliefs are sincere and religious in nature, and that those beliefs are

being burdened by the law in a discriminatory manner.

Mr. Pappas said he often runs into skepticism from judges and prosecutors, who will sometimes laugh or smile

at the idea of a cannabis church. He takes this personally.

“When government gets involved, the point that it must stop at is that sincerity. It can’t get into what the

beliefs are,” he said. “If we truly are the society that we’re supposed to be, the importance of that freedom is as

important as anything else.”

Mr. Pappas said his interest in marijuana legal issues was inspired by his daughter, Victoria, who suffered

from mental and physical health issues that were alleviated by cannabis. She died last year, at age 28.

“I was one of those people that thought it was kind of a joke that there was medical marijuana,” he said. “And it

was discriminatory on my part to have that thought.”

Mr. Pappas said his work with Oklevueha also represented a transition: “I started reading the laws, and I

started seeing that people believed in cannabis as sacrament.” He went to the desert in Nevada with

Oklevueha members, used peyote and was blessed as a medicine man, he said.

But he began to question the way Oklevueha operated and has since severed ties with the group. “I was duped

a couple of times by people who said they were sincere and they were not,” he said. “But my job is on the

secular side — to represent the churches in court.”

In recent years, Mr. Pappas has taken on a new role: religious leader. In 2016, he and a childhood friend

started Sacramental Life Church, a religious umbrella organization that works with about a dozen cannabis

churches in California. (These include Jah Healing Church and Sacramental Life Church in Redondo Beach.)

In addition to serving as legal counsel, Mr. Pappas holds the title of Steward of the Word for all churches that

are members of the umbrella organization.

STYLE | Is Weed Church Church?



The Sacramental Life Church — and all its member churches — has its own series of tenets. The Nine

Epiphanies, at the center, are taken from the writings of Mr. Pappas’s daughter. The Ninth Epiphany contains

a prophecy, predicting the coming of a day when people will no longer be killed over religious differences;

cannabis will be the force that unites all different beliefs.

“In the vision was a world at peace where there was no more war between religions,” the text reads. “The

cannabis sacrament common to all of them in their histories was consumed by the leaders who had come

together to end what had led to deaths of millions over thousands of years.”

The organization has two high priestesses who oversee compliance, working with cannabis churches to make

sure they’re upholding standards.

In Big Bear, new members are now asked to participate in a Ceremony of Acceptance. After getting a form of

identification scanned and signing a form acknowledging they understand they are at a cannabis church, new

members state their name and say: “I am a member of Jah Healing, an open faith church. I believe that

cannabis is a sacrament to heal, and I use it as a tool to connect me with my higher power.”

A church member then presents a donation envelope. New members write their names and how much they

would like to donate, put their cash into the envelope, and drop it into a donation box. Only then may they

receive the sacrament.

High on Belief

Defining what counts as a religion under the law “has been a notoriously difficult question for the courts ever

since the founding,” said James Sonne, a Stanford Law School professor and the director of the Religious

Liberty Clinic at the university.

The addition of drugs has made that question more complicated. A 1990 Supreme Court ruling against two

members of the Native American Church who were fired after taking peyote during a religious ceremony

prompted bipartisan backlash in Congress.

It led to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. This was used by the Supreme Court in 2006 to rule in

favor of a church that used ayahuasca, a sacramental tea made from two plants found in the Amazonian rain

forest.

But those cases deal with federal laws. In California, where recreational (and before that, medicinal)

marijuana is legal, cannabis churches can’t seek protection under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The

law also only applies in states that have passed their own versions of it; California hasn’t.

Lawyers for cannabis churches are arguing that marijuana is a sacrament that must be dispensed by religious

institutions to ensure that the sourcing and the blessing of the product meets their standards. The courts must

determine whether those practices are “analogous to mainstream faiths in terms of moral duty, ultimate



concern, comprehensiveness, that sort of thing,” Mr. Sonne said. The court also must determine whether the

belief system in question is “sincerely held.”

Jah has had success proving the sincerity of its religious beliefs in court, but not in proving that California’s

marijuana laws are discriminatory.

In May 2019, San Bernardino County filed contempt charges against Jah for violating an order to stop

dispensing cannabis. An undercover officer testified that he had visited the church twice in one day and paid

for marijuana without any religious ceremony.

In a hearing in August, San Bernardino Superior Court Judge David Cohn ruled in the city’s favor. He said he

found the officer’s testimony credible. But he had also found Ms. Rodriguez, who testified on the sincerity of

her religious beliefs, to be a credible witness.

“Does that mean everybody in the church holds those beliefs? Of course not,” Judge Cohn said in court. “I

think probably in every religion, every church, synagogue, mosque and temple throughout the nation there

are members and attendees who are sincere believers in the religious doctrine and others who attend for a

variety of reasons. Those ulterior motives of individual members of a congregation don’t in any way

undermine the legitimacy or sincerity of religious doctrine.”

The next hearing in the case is set for Dec. 20. Ms. Mancini could face jail time, and the church could be fined,

if the judge rules that they still have not come into compliance with his order.

Church services continue as usual. On a Sunday in October, a handful of Jah members donated and left with

weed without staying for the service. But the ones who did sit and stay said they had been drawn to the

community after trying out other faiths like Buddhism or Rastafarianism.

It was the first service Ms. Rodriguez performed since a body scan revealed she was clear of thyroid cancer.

“‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good,’” she said in her sermon, reading from Romans

12:21. “We’ve got to stop being so critical of ourselves.”

The space is important to members like Selia Jimenez, a 39-year-old massage therapist from Sugarloaf, Calif.,

who gives free cannabis massages to members of the church. “It’s a place where people who have had bad

experiences with Christianity” can come together, she said. “I would never have thought I would be here in a

church, honestly.”

11/25/2019 Highgrove marijuana store could be unincorporated Riverside County’s first with license – Press Enterprise

https://www.pe.com/2019/11/25/highgrove-marijuana-store-could-be-unincorporated-riverside-countys-first-with-license/ 1/7

By By JEFF HORSEMANJEFF HORSEMAN | | [email protected]@scng.com | The Press-Enterprise | The Press-EnterprisePUBLISHED: PUBLISHED: November 25, 2019 at 6:00 amNovember 25, 2019 at 6:00 am | UPDATED: | UPDATED: November 25, 2019 at 7:54November 25, 2019 at 7:54amam

An artist’s rendering of The Artist Tree, a cannabis retailer in West Hollywood. TheAn artist’s rendering of The Artist Tree, a cannabis retailer in West Hollywood. TheArtist Tree seeks to sell cannabis out of a storefront in Highgrove. It would be the firstArtist Tree seeks to sell cannabis out of a storefront in Highgrove. It would be the firstcounty-licensed cannabis retail operation to open in unincorporated Riverside County.county-licensed cannabis retail operation to open in unincorporated Riverside County.(Photo courtesy of The Artist Tree)(Photo courtesy of The Artist Tree)

LOCAL NEWSLOCAL NEWS

Highgrove marijuana store couldHighgrove marijuana store couldbe unincorporated Riversidebe unincorporated RiversideCounty’s first with licenseCounty’s first with license

https://www.pe.com/author/jeff-horseman/

mailto:[email protected]

https://www.pe.com/local-news/

https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pcs/click?xai=AKAOjsv7XeXhFHL8noKpks3JBa9rfUUiCJ2sB2iei3C3MT4AxBlzbkfnlilV89b7XZ7niZR6P2qSSPL7X9REehO_9ZvNBGInFX2QNALk2D_l3dKN4g_JzkSnX0Bqv-j9RaE_Xe97dHvdVch-ewWpMuDyIwFOJ5zKiHF0-zHGEH0ezjKItDC_Sjg6Qqkn8LXklfHFUHtv2Yp2t7-lDGPN3iKRJhSh70I6J4KDNwi941FQS7wpPkXoPc3YrF6ZdaksnVBXlw&sig=Cg0ArKJSzF_RYUxX1t-6&adurl=https://www.soboba.com/&nx=CLICK_X&ny=CLICK_Y



am

A vacant Highgrove building is on the verge of making history as the first licensedA vacant Highgrove building is on the verge of making history as the first licensed

marijuana store in unincorporated Riverside County.marijuana store in unincorporated Riverside County.

The Artist Tree, which hopes to appeal to cannabis users who appreciate artwork,The Artist Tree, which hopes to appeal to cannabis users who appreciate artwork,

got the unanimous blessing of the county Planning Commission on Wednesday,got the unanimous blessing of the county Planning Commission on Wednesday,

Nov. 20. The project is expected to go before the Board of Supervisors before theNov. 20. The project is expected to go before the Board of Supervisors before the

end of the year.end of the year.

If the board signs off, the store in the 200 block of Iowa Avenue, which also needsIf the board signs off, the store in the 200 block of Iowa Avenue, which also needs

a state permit, would be the first to legally sell marijuana a state permit, would be the first to legally sell marijuana under a set of rulesunder a set of rules

approved by supervisors last yearapproved by supervisors last year to regulate cannabis commerce in to regulate cannabis commerce in

unincorporated areas after California voters legalized recreational use of the drugunincorporated areas after California voters legalized recreational use of the drug

in 2016.in 2016.

The application “represents a fairly significant milestone for the County ofThe application “represents a fairly significant milestone for the County of

Riverside,” John Hildebrand, administrative services manager with the countyRiverside,” John Hildebrand, administrative services manager with the county

Transportation & Land Management Agency, told the panel Wednesday.Transportation & Land Management Agency, told the panel Wednesday.

The Artist Tree was founded by Mitch and Avi Kahan and Lauren Fontein, who co-The Artist Tree was founded by Mitch and Avi Kahan and Lauren Fontein, who co-

own a West Hollywood cannabis retail shop of the same name that held its grandown a West Hollywood cannabis retail shop of the same name that held its grand

opening Friday, Nov. 22.opening Friday, Nov. 22.

The trio has 13 years’ experience in the cannabis industry and the Kahans startedThe trio has 13 years’ experience in the cannabis industry and the Kahans started

out by running medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, Fontein said. Theout by running medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, Fontein said. The

Kahans also “collectively control” two other dispensaries, Kahans also “collectively control” two other dispensaries, according to The Artistaccording to The Artist

Tree websiteTree website..

“We’re excited about bringing access – legal access to Riverside County,” Avi“We’re excited about bringing access – legal access to Riverside County,” Avi

Kahan told planning commissioners. “We think it’s something that RiversideKahan told planning commissioners. “We think it’s something that Riverside

County sorely needs and we want to be beneficial to the community andCounty sorely needs and we want to be beneficial to the community and

integrated into the community.”integrated into the community.”

Lauren Fontein said: “We thought that (the Highgrove location) was a really goodLauren Fontein said: “We thought that (the Highgrove location) was a really good

location based on the community there and the lack of any kind of safe cannabislocation based on the community there and the lack of any kind of safe cannabis

access in the area … we know that consumers want something that’s safe andaccess in the area … we know that consumers want something that’s safe and

reliable, especially with the (vaping health) crisis now.”reliable, especially with the (vaping health) crisis now.”

https://www.pe.com/2018/10/23/marijuana-businesses-will-be-allowed-in-unincorporated-riverside-county/

http://www.theartisttree.com/our-story/





Store will have ‘budtender’ serviceStore will have ‘budtender’ service

The Artist Tree was among 119 applicants who responded to the county’s requestThe Artist Tree was among 119 applicants who responded to the county’s request

for proposals from those interested in selling or cultivating marijuana infor proposals from those interested in selling or cultivating marijuana in

unincorporated areas. unincorporated areas. Cities can decide within their boundaries whether andCities can decide within their boundaries whether and

where cannabis commerce should operatewhere cannabis commerce should operate..

County officials ranked the 119 applications, County officials ranked the 119 applications, with 69 making the cutwith 69 making the cut. The Artist. The Artist

Tree ranked first among 19 retail applications cleared to apply for a conditional-Tree ranked first among 19 retail applications cleared to apply for a conditional-

use permit.use permit.

Plans call for The Artist TreePlans call for The Artist Tree to operate from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. out of two to operate from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. out of two

buildings in a commercial area between Center and West Church Streets visiblebuildings in a commercial area between Center and West Church Streets visible

from the 215 Freeway. Customers would enter a 2,365-square-foot building, wherefrom the 215 Freeway. Customers would enter a 2,365-square-foot building, where

a receptionist would check their ID. Customers must be at least 18 to buy medicala receptionist would check their ID. Customers must be at least 18 to buy medical

marijuana and 21 to buy recreational marijuana.marijuana and 21 to buy recreational marijuana.

https://www.thecannifornian.com/cannabis-business/database-see-cannabis-laws-support-differ-among-california-cities/

https://www.pe.com/2019/06/28/riverside-county-issues-first-stage-approval-to-69-would-be-cannabis-operators/

https://www.scribd.com/document/436405602/The-Artist-Tree-Planning-Commission-Documents



From there, customers would get buzzed into a showroom where “budtenders”From there, customers would get buzzed into a showroom where “budtenders”

help them pick from marijuana displayed in glass cases. After ordering theirhelp them pick from marijuana displayed in glass cases. After ordering their

cannabis, customers would go to the cashier to pay for and pick up their product,cannabis, customers would go to the cashier to pay for and pick up their product,

which is delivered from a secured area.which is delivered from a secured area.

Artwork will be displayed in the showroom, Fontein said.Artwork will be displayed in the showroom, Fontein said.

“It will be a really clean, airy aesthetic,” she said. “So it’ll feel very warm and“It will be a really clean, airy aesthetic,” she said. “So it’ll feel very warm and

welcoming and not necessarily like a cannabis-focused business.”welcoming and not necessarily like a cannabis-focused business.”

There will be “extensive odor control” to make sure cannabis smells don’tThere will be “extensive odor control” to make sure cannabis smells don’t

emanate from the store, she said. Consuming cannabis in the parking lot will beemanate from the store, she said. Consuming cannabis in the parking lot will be

prohibited, Avi Kahan said.prohibited, Avi Kahan said.

The store, which will have 20 parking spaces and 19 employees across all shifts,The store, which will have 20 parking spaces and 19 employees across all shifts,

will also deliver marijuana to customers – “the same way that a Domino’s Pizzawill also deliver marijuana to customers – “the same way that a Domino’s Pizza

delivery would go, just more secure,” Avi Kahan said.delivery would go, just more secure,” Avi Kahan said.


Riverside has concerns about shopRiverside has concerns about shop

The hope is for 300 to 400 customers a day, Avi Kahan said. There will be round-The hope is for 300 to 400 customers a day, Avi Kahan said. There will be round-

the-clock security including guards, cameras and armored trucks that pick upthe-clock security including guards, cameras and armored trucks that pick up

money from the store, he added.money from the store, he added.

Besides getting county and state permits, the store also must sign an agreementBesides getting county and state permits, the store also must sign an agreement

with the county to pay for efforts to enforce county cannabis rules, as well as fundwith the county to pay for efforts to enforce county cannabis rules, as well as fund

to-be-determined community improvements.to-be-determined community improvements.

By getting its application in first, The Artist Tree stands to shut out severalBy getting its application in first, The Artist Tree stands to shut out several

applicants who sought to sell cannabis nearby. County rules forbid cannabisapplicants who sought to sell cannabis nearby. County rules forbid cannabis

retailers from being within 1,000 feet of each other.retailers from being within 1,000 feet of each other.

While no one at Wednesday’s Planning Commission spoke against The Artist Tree,While no one at Wednesday’s Planning Commission spoke against The Artist Tree,

the city of Riverside – whose city limits are about 1,500 feet from the proposedthe city of Riverside – whose city limits are about 1,500 feet from the proposed

store – store – expressed concerns in a letter to the countyexpressed concerns in a letter to the county..

The city, which doesn’t allow retail cannabis, worries that the store might attractThe city, which doesn’t allow retail cannabis, worries that the store might attract

crime, as well as the prospect of minors getting access to marijuana and “backcrime, as well as the prospect of minors getting access to marijuana and “back

door sales” from a lack of proper inventory control.door sales” from a lack of proper inventory control.

“While the County can offset health, safety and enforcement impacts through fees“While the County can offset health, safety and enforcement impacts through fees

and other measures in its development agreement; the City cannot,” the letterand other measures in its development agreement; the City cannot,” the letter

read. “ … The City respects the County’s authority to approve cannabis businessesread. “ … The City respects the County’s authority to approve cannabis businesses

within its jurisdiction, but asked that such approvals not occur near the City ofwithin its jurisdiction, but asked that such approvals not occur near the City of

Riverside.”Riverside.”

Fontein said studies have shown that licensed cannabis retailers can lower crimeFontein said studies have shown that licensed cannabis retailers can lower crime

in a community.in a community.

“I personally field a lot of questions from people, whether it’s whether we’re“I personally field a lot of questions from people, whether it’s whether we’re

hiring or if they do have some concern,” she said. “And we’re really happy to workhiring or if they do have some concern,” she said. “And we’re really happy to work

with the community.”with the community.”

Besides Highgrove, the Kahans and Fontein also are looking to establish aBesides Highgrove, the Kahans and Fontein also are looking to establish a

cannabis shop outside Corona, Fontein said. That application for a site in the 3800cannabis shop outside Corona, Fontein said. That application for a site in the 3800

block of Temescal Street in the Home Gardens area between Corona andblock of Temescal Street in the Home Gardens area between Corona and

Riverside ranked third in Riverside ranked third in the county’s ranking of 19 cannabis retail applicationsthe county’s ranking of 19 cannabis retail applications..

https://www.scribd.com/document/436405734/City-of-Riverside-s-Comment-Letter-on-The-Artist-Tree

https://planning.rctlma.org/Portals/14/DevelopmentProcess/Cannabis_Ranking-FINAL.pdf?ver=2019-07-08-163816-057

11/25/2019 Los Angeles Times - eNewspaper

https://enewspaper.latimes.com/desktop/latimes/default.aspx?edid=fd40b32b-6dd0-408b-9f5d-169f84777403 1/4

Struggling to uproot illegal weedSan Diego-area town legalizes medical pot, but blackmarket persists

BY PAUL SISSON

VISTA, Calif. — Though it is now legal to sell marijuana in Vista, that does not necessarilymean the illegal route has gone away.

On a recent weekday morning, customers trickled into the city’s first two licensed medicalmarijuana storefronts, while just down the street, an unlicensed, illegal shop continued toflourish, sometimes drawing enough vehicles to require overflow parking.

BUDTENDER CHARLES JACKSON restocks shelves at Tradecraft Farms, a licensedmarijuana dispensary in Vista, a city in San Diego County. (Eduardo Contreras SanDiego Union-Tribune)



One year after voters passed Measure Z, the ballot initiative that allows up to 11 licensedmedical marijuana shops in Vista, the north San Diego County city continues to seesignificant unlicensed activity in a location that court records show has been able toreopen again and again despite receiving regular government cease-and-desist orders.

Representatives of the first two licensed medical marijuana shops, open since mid-October, say that though they are excited about their new businesses, the early going hasbeen affected by the city’s long underground culture of illegal shops, which have regularlysprouted throughout the region, only to recede under waves of law enforcement raids,then sprout again once attention wanes.

Illegal shops, said Justin Christman, a Vista native and co-proprietor of Flora Verde, thecity’s second medical marijuana shop to open under the new rules, said illegal shops posedifficult competition. They often don’t charge taxes that, by city and state mandate,exceed 30% at licensed establishments.

“Our biggest issue is actually the illegal stores,” Christman said. “That, compounded withthe fact that we’re medical only, means we get a lot of walkouts who just don’t want to gothrough the medical recommendation process, especially knowing that they don’t have toworry about it down the street.”

Mary Boyd, manager of Tradecraft Farms, the city’s first licensed establishment, whichopened on East Vista Way on Oct. 16, said residents have not adjusted to the notion thatmedical marijuana is the only type of cannabis that can be sold legally within Vista citylimits.

“People are hesitant to get their medical cards because Vista has had all of these shopsthroughout the years that were just walk-in, 21 and up,” Boyd said. “When we opened, itwas kind of a big shock to people that they can’t just walk right in, they have to stop anddo the whole process.”

In recent weeks, the most obvious illegal operation has been a tenant of a two-unit stripmall that has long housed a popular liquor store on South Santa Fe Avenue.

Though it is technically on county land, the building has a Vista address and anastounding history. Even though there is a long-standing moratorium on operatingmarijuana dispensaries that covers unincorporated county ground, the operation hasmanaged to thrive in plain sight for years.

Search warrants obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune show that, even though countycode enforcement officers first issued the property’s owner a cease-and-desist order in2015, the operation has managed to keep its foothold in the same location, cyclingthrough three different names during its tenure and shrugging off all attempts from lawenforcement to keep it closed for good.

The situation clearly does not please San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, whosaid in an emailed statement this month that he is “completely opposed to illegalmarijuana shops, especially with the recent uptick in deaths due to illicit drugs.”

https://www.thefloraverde.com/

https://www.tradecraftfarms.com/



About one week after the statement, the cat-and-mouse game came to a head at 1526 S.Santa Fe Ave. on Thursday when deputies again shut the location down, seizing 80pounds of marijuana products and between $7,000 and $10,000 in cash and citing sixemployees for misdemeanors.

Capt. Greg Rylaarsdam, the officer in charge of the Vista Sheriff’s Station, said Friday thatwhile illegal pot shop activity in the city has slowed significantly since Measure Z passedlast year, the South Santa Fe location has stubbornly persisted.

Businesses are so profitable, he said, that operators tend to simply pay their fines andreopen.

“It is very frustrating that we do everything we can to shut these types of illegal businessesdown, but they just end up coming back,” Rylaarsdam said. “It’s akin to a game of whack-a-mole.”

Marijuana possession and use is treated less severely since voters approved its medicaluse in 1996 and its recreational use in 2016. However, cities and counties can still usetheir zoning powers to bar setting up shop within their boundaries. Until Measure Z, thatwas the case in Vista, and it’s still the case in the county.

Law enforcement agencies throughout California have been shutting down illegal potshops for years. In Vista, Rylaarsdam said, it was not long ago that shops were popping upin residential neighborhoods, eventually generating complaints from neighbors. In somecases, the captain said, deputies would work with the city’s public works department toturn off utilities to properties being used for illegal shops only to return days or weekslater and discover that the operation was up and running again using a generator.

In all cases, he said, it’s difficult to prove who is running illegal operations. All business ishandled in cash, supplies are removed every night and employees don’t disclose who’spaying them. For these shops, Rylaarsdam said, getting shut down, having merchandiseand money seized and getting fined or receiving misdemeanor citations is viewed as thecost of doing business.

“We are going into these places, and we’re taking their products, but they make so muchmoney on the days that they are in existence that the losses are somewhatinconsequential,” Rylaarsdam said.

Two warrants filed in early 2019 just before the San Diego County Sheriff’s Departmentraided the South Santa Fe facility on two separate occasions show that the demand forcheap cannabis has been stronger than a dozen administrative citations, issued across aspan of five months, to the property’s owner in 2017.

County code enforcement, search warrants indicate, first shut down the shop — thenoperating under the name Tree House Collective — in September 2018 after three straightyears of cease-and-desist orders were ignored. But, just 10 days later, on Sept. 14, 2018,the shop was open again, this time under the name Flower House.



Search warrants served in January and February of 2019 not only seized cash, marijuanaand other paraphernalia from the store, but an extensive investigation tracked organizersto a second illegally operating shop called Forever Green in Fallbrook, and to thestorefront on East Vista Way that now houses Tradecraft Farms, the city’s first licensedmedical marijuana dispensary.

Any current connection between Tradecraft and the illegal shop on South Santa Fe isunclear.

Sisson writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune

11/25/2019 Teachers create “Blankets of Love” for foster students - News - vvdailypress.com - Victorville, CA

https://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20191125/teachers-create-blankets-of-love-for-foster-students 1/2

By Rene Ray De La Cruz Staff Writer Posted at 6:43 AM

VICTORVILLE — A group of educators and volunteers from the VictorElementary School District had foster children in mind as they gatheredto create bundles of care during the third annual “Blankets of Love”event.

Part of the Victor Elementary Teacher Association’s CommunityOutreach Program, those assembled last Thursday night brought theirbest cutting and knotting skills as they worked to assemble nearly 100fleece “tie-knot blankets” for incoming foster youth students.

Teacher James Tasso, who is also the union chairman for the VETAoutreach program, told the Daily Press the completed blankets will beplaced in a “Duffle Bag of Love” along with other goodies such as toys,books, socks, coloring supplies, games, a journal, hygiene products andmore.

“The bags will be distributed by the schools to our new foster students,”Tasso said. “Our main purpose is to reach out to those in ourcommunity that need our help and support, and Blankets of Love is oneof the many ways that do that. It’s also our biggest event of the year.”

Sitting next to piles of supplies and blankets, the team chatted mostlyabout education or family as they worked on the colorful blankets,carefully selected duffle bags items or enjoyed slices of pizza. Onegentleman joked about not telling his kids that he was working on ablanket.

Teachers create “Blankets of Love” for

foster students


https://www.vvdailypress.com/

11/25/2019 Teachers create “Blankets of Love” for foster students - News - vvdailypress.com - Victorville, CA

https://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20191125/teachers-create-blankets-of-love-for-foster-students 2/2

Tasso said the duffle bags are a way of showing students that someonecares for them, especially after many of them have been pulled fromtheir homes.

“Many leave with nothing, except for maybe a trash bag of supplies,”Tasso said. “This gives us a chance to give them something that they cancall their own.”

Mojave Vista School of Cultural Arts teacher Mary Mendonca said thedistrict has many foster students who have been moved around so muchthat they have little stability in their lives.

“Foster children have many challenges,” Mendonca said. “When we givethem a bag, it’s telling them that they are welcomed and part of ourschool family at Mojave Vista.”

Reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227,

[email protected], Instagram@renegadereporter, Twitter

@DP_ReneDeLaCruz.


http://www.twitter.com/DP_ReneDeLaCruz

11/24/19, 5:10 PMCitrus greening disease spreads to San Bernardino County - Los Angeles Times

Page 1 of 9https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-11-23/citrus-greening-disease-san-bernardino

BUSINESS

A disease that could devastate citrus growers has reached SanBernardino County

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Blotchy mottle is a typical symptom on citrus leaves infected by Huanglongbing, a deadly citrus disease. (Citrus ResearchBoard )

By GEOFFREY MOHANSTAFF WRITER

NOV. 23, 20195 AM

An economically devastating citrus disease has been detected for the first time in San Bernardino

County, expanding an already large quarantine area aimed at keeping the malady from hitting the

commercial groves centered in the southern San Joaquin Valley, according to California

agricultural authorities.

Just one tree near the city of Montclair was stricken with citrus greening disease, or

Huanglongbing, a bacterial infection spread by a tiny insect, the Asian citrus psyllid, according to

the state Department of Food and Agriculture.

An existing quarantine sparked by previous detections in Los Angeles and Orange counties has

been expanded by 93 square miles, creating a contiguous 1,015-square-mile area. Another

quarantine is in effect in Riverside County.

The measure imposes strict prohibitions on transporting citrus trees and fruit. No fruit that is not

commercially cleaned and packed, including residential citrus, can be moved from the property

on which it is grown, although it may be processed or consumed on the premises.

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Officials plan to inspect, remove and spray citrus trees within 400 meters of the infected tree in

San Bernardino County.

The HLB bacteria attack the citrus tree’s vascular system, resulting in fruit that is hard, bitter and

misshapen. They do do not pose a health threat to humans.

Authorities confirmed the first California case of HLB in Hacienda Heights in 2012, and again in

2015 in San Gabriel, about 20 miles away. Both were residential areas.

California’s nearly $4-billion citrus industry has been concerned about the spread of the disease

since it first was detected in Florida, in 2005, about seven years after the psyllid was first found

there. Federal, state and private efforts to combat it include releasing an exotic wasp that preys

on the psyllid, as well as a genetic engineering of citrus trees to add disease-fighting capabilities.

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The first psyllids in California were found in the U.S.-Mexico border region of San Diego and

Imperial counties in 2008 and have crept northward, largely aided by people transporting

infested trees and fruit, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

CDFA officials are urging anyone who suspects insect or bacterial infestation to call the agency’s

toll-free pest hot line at 1-800-491-1899 or visit their website.

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11/24/19, 5:16 PMSan Bernardino County added to citrus quarantine – San Bernardino Sun

Page 1 of 5https://www.sbsun.com/2019/11/22/san-bernardino-county-added-to-citrus-quarantine/

By CITY NEWS SERVICE | [email protected] |PUBLISHED: November 22, 2019 at 7:11 pm | UPDATED: November 22, 2019 at 7:11 pm

Esteban Rodrigues, lab tech for USDA, left, and Amanda Rawstern, lab assistant for UCR,take root samples from a citrus tree to lab for analyzing for citrus greening bacteria at UCRiverside citrus research station in Riverside on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017. Citrus greeningdisease, also know as HLB or Huanglongbing, is a serious bacterial disease that kills citrustrees. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

NEWS

San Bernardino County added tocitrus quarantine



LOS ANGELES —The citrus plant quarantine already in place in Los Angeles and parts

of Orange counties was expanded Friday by the California Department of Food and

Agriculture to include 93 square miles of San Bernardino County.

The DFA made the announcement a!er "nding the disease Huanglongbing, also

known as HLB or citrus greening, in a single tree near Montclair.

The area will link up with the existing quarantines in Los Angeles and Orange

counties, creating a contiguous 1,015-square-mile area. Quarantines are also already in

place for HLB in portions of Riverside County.

The new portion is bordered on the north by I-210; on the south by Chino Airport; on

the west by Highway 57; and on the east by Ontario International Airport.

Quarantine maps are available at www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/hlb/regulation.html.

HLB is a bacterial disease that affects the vascular system of citrus trees and plants,

but it does not pose a threat to humans or animals, the DFA said.

The disease is carried by the Asian citrus psyllid insect that spreads the bacteria as it

feeds on citrus trees and plants. Once a plant or tree is infected, there is no cure. The

tree will produce bitter and misshapen fruit and die within a few years.

DFA said this is the "rst time the plant disease has been detected in San Bernardino

County, and of"cials are working with the United States Department of Agriculture

and San Bernardino County and Los Angeles County agricultural commissioners to

address it.

According to DFA, The quarantine prohibits the movement of all citrus nursery stock

or plant parts out of the quarantine area. Provisions exist to allow the movement of

commercially cleaned and packed citrus fruit.

Fruit that is not commercially cleaned and packed, including residential citrus such as

oranges, lemons, grapefruits and kumquats, must not be moved from the property on

which it is grown, although it may be processed and/or consumed on the premises.

DFA said it is urging residents with citrus plants to take several steps to help protect

those plants:

• Do not move citrus plants, leaves or foliage into or out of the quarantine area or

across state or international borders. Keep it local.



• Cooperate with agricultural of"cials placing traps, inspecting trees and treating for

the pest.

• If you no longer wish to care for your citrus tree, consider removing it so it does not

become a host to the pest and disease.

DFA staff have scheduled the removal of the infected tree and are in the midst of a

treatment program for citrus trees to knock down Asian citrus psyllid infestations

within 400 meters of the "nd site.

By taking this action, DFA said, a critical reservoir of the disease and its vectors will be

removed, which is essential to protect surrounding citrus from this deadly disease.

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11/24/19, 5:43 PMLos Angeles-Orange County economy ranked 6th-best nationally, Inland Empire No. 18 – San Bernardino Sun

Page 1 of 6https://www.sbsun.com/2019/11/24/los-angeles-orange-county-economy-ranked-6th-best-nationally-inland-empire-no-18/

STAFF GRAPHIC

BUSINESS

Los Angeles-Orange Countyeconomy ranked 6th-bestnationally, Inland Empire No.18The St. Louis Fed created regional economicindexes for 68 major metropolitan areas.



By JONATHAN LANSNER | [email protected] |Orange County RegisterPUBLISHED: November 24, 2019 at 8:00 am | UPDATED:November 24, 2019 at 8:01 am

Los Angeles-Orange County

Inland Empire

Los Angeles and Orange counties had the nation’s sixth-

best regional economy at mid-year — and the Inland

Empire weighed in at No. 18, according to a Federal

Reserve Bank of St. Louis yardstick.

The St. Louis Fed’s regional economic indexes for 68 major

U.S. metro areas use a dozen variables to track the change

in growth in each region’s business output. Here’s what my

trusty spreadsheet found as of June …

The L.A.-O.C. economy was growing at a 4.5% annual pace

— No. 6 among big metros tracked — and its best in four

years. It’s up from 2.7% annual growth pace a year earlier

— when the area ranked No. 34 nationally.

The year’s change in growth — a 1.9 percentage-point

increase — ranked No. 6 among these metros.

The Fed indexes show the economy of Riverside and San

Bernardino counties grew at a 3.6% annual pace in these

12 months — No. 18 among big metros. That’s up

compared with a 3.5% annual growth pace a year earlier —

which ranked No. 17 nationally.

The year’s change in growth — a 0.1 percentage-point

increase — ranked No. 33 among these metro areas.



Nationally

California

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Annualized economic growth in the past year increased in

34 of the 68 metros tracked. Median growth was 2.4% — a

decrease compared with a 2.7% pace a year earlier.

The fastest growth this year was found in Seattle at 5.37%.

The worst performer was Tulsa, off 2.72%.

Who had the biggest improvement nationally? Virginia

Beach — up 2.91 percentage points in the year. And the

biggest decline? Again we go to Tulsa, which was down

10.24 percentage points.

Annualized economic growth in the past year increased in

!ve of the eight metros tracked. Here’s how Fed indexes

saw the rest of the state …

San Diego County: 4.48% growth (No. 6 of 68) up from

3.19% a year earlier (No. 23 nationally).

Bakers!eld: 4.26% growth (No. 9) up from 3.62% a year

earlier (No. 16).

Ventura County: 2.64% growth (No. 29) down from 2.97%

a year earlier (No. 27).

San Francisco: 4.19% growth (No. 11) up from 3.81% a

year earlier (No. 13).

San Jose-Santa Clara: 4.61% growth (No. 4) down from

5.59% a year earlier (No. 2).



Sacramento: 1.37% growth (No. 51) down from 3.4% a

year earlier (No. 18).


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11/24/19, 7:49 PMGun deaths up in state, but Southern California figures vary widely in past 2 decades – San Bernardino Sun

Page 1 of 12https://www.sbsun.com/2019/11/24/gun-deaths-up-in-state-but-southern-california-figures-vary-widely-in-past-2-decades/

NEWS

Gun deaths up in state, butSouthern California figures varywidely in past 2 decadesFirearms have killed 58,111 people since 1999, withRiverside County up 18.7% and LA County down30%. Orange County dipped 4%, San Bernardinorose 11.1%



By TERI SFORZA | [email protected] | Orange County RegisterPUBLISHED: November 24, 2019 at 6:00 am | UPDATED: November 24, 2019 at 6:01 am

Attendees of a vigil held at Central Park in Santa Clarita in the wake of a fatal shooting atSaugus High School left hundreds of messages on a poster dedicated to one of thetragedy’s victims, Dominic Blackwell, 14 (Eric Licas, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Total deaths from !rearms has climbed 5.6% in the Golden State since 1999, but that

increase has been far slower than population growth and far from uniform across

Southern California.

Carnage grew more rapidly in the inland counties — by 18.7% in Riverside and 11.1%

in San Bernardino — while it plunged nearly 30% in Los Angeles and dipped 4% in

Orange.



Rate falls

Statewide, 58,111 people died from !rearms from 1999 to 2017, according to the most

recent !gures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That averages out

to one death every three hours — more than eight per day, and 3,000 per year.

“We all should be angry. This shouldn’t be happening,” said Samantha Dorf, founder of

the San Fernando Valley volunteer group of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in

America and a California chapter leader.

But raw numbers don’t give the full picture, which is considerably brighter, even given

three mass shootings in just four days in California, experts said.

California’s gun laws are among the strictest in the nation, and the number of people

who die from gun violence here is below the national average.

Population grew much more rapidly than did gun deaths — up 18.9% — translating to a

drop in the per-capita gun death rate in the state and all four counties since 1999.

The rate of all gun-related deaths per 100,000 Californians dropped from 9.1 to 8.1 over

the 19 years examined, according to CDC data. That !gure includes homicides,

suicides and accidents.

In Los Angeles, it fell from 11.5 to 7.6; in Orange County, from 6.2 to 5.2; in Riverside,

from 9.9 to 7.3; and in San Bernardino, from 11.8 to 10.2, according to the CDC data.

Gun violence peaked in 1993, dropped dramatically through 1999 and then, but for

blips and bleeps, has been on a steady march downward, said Eugene Volokh, a

professor at UCLA’s School of Law who studies homicide rates.

Once, California’s homicide rate eclipsed the national average. “If you go back and look

at !gures from 1991, you say, ‘Wow, we’re doing so much better,’ ” Volokh said.

No one is certain why, but myriad theories have been advanced: Better policing.

Incarceration. Stricter gun policies. Even the removal of lead from gasoline and lower

teenage pregnancy rates, resulting in the birth of fewer unwanted children.

“It is extremely dif!cult to provide a simple explanation for the homicide !rearm

trends over such a long time period given the ups and downs of the trend across the

years,” said a spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health by email.

“As is clear from these data, there are also major variation across geographic areas.”



Spasms of violence

Hitting hard

The state has launched a Violence Prevention Initiative to examine trends.

Many have voiced outrage over spasms of violence in California, including three mass

shootings in November alone.

At Saugus High School in Santa Clarita on Nov. 14, Nathaniel Berhow pulled a pistol

from his backpack and opened !re on schoolmates, killing two, wounding three, and

then fatally turning the gun on himself.

On Nov. 16, a San Diego man killed his estranged wife, three of their children and

then himself. A fourth son was on life support.

On Nov. 17, four people were killed in Fresno a"er a man entered a backyard party

and !red into the crowd. Six were injured.

So far in 2019, there have been 34,844 deaths from gun violence in the United States,

according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks them. The vast majority are

suicides, not homicides, but both were on the rise from 2014 to 2017 and appear to

have dipped in 2018.

But the violence continues to hit some with a disproportionate wallop.

Men are far more likely to die from gun violence than women, and black men are far

more likely to die from gun violence than their white or Hispanic peers, according to

data from the CDC, analyzed by Everytown for Gun Safety, a nationwide nonpro!t that

!ghts for stronger gun laws.

Among black males in California, the death rate is nearly !ve times greater than for

the state as a whole, at 37.1 per 100,000 people. For white males, the rate is 14.4; for

Hispanic males, 10.1; and Asian/Paci!c Islander men, 4.3, according to Everytown’s

analysis.

In counties like Riverside and San Bernardino, where the number of gun deaths has

risen even as per-capita death rates have fallen, statistics can be cold comfort.



More guns?

“Even when an increase in homicides is outpaced by a city’s population growth, it can

nonetheless feel as if crime is getting substantially worse,” said Brian Levin, professor

of criminal justice and director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at Cal

State San Bernardino.

“Homicides are the most vividly reported and deeply feared of all crimes.”

Coastal Los Angeles and Orange counties are generally more densely populated and

heavily policed, and likely have more of!cers assigned to weapons enforcement than

the inland counties, Levin said.

In Los Angeles, of!cials weren’t sure what’s behind the trend.

“This is a complicated issue and we do not know all the factors responsible for

reducing !rearm deaths,” said the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health by

email.

“More research needs to be done to determine any differences between homicides and

suicides, gun violence overall and any other nuances. Through the newly established

Of!ce of Violence Prevention we hope to advance this research and better understand

the factors that lead to a reduction in !rearm deaths.”

If violence appears to be migrating from one county to another, said UCLA’s Volokh, it

could be a function of policing, demographics or even the movement of drug

distribution markets.

“It could be as simple as a turf war between gangs, and one gang won,” he said. “That’s

why it’s so hard to say much about the causes — there is so much data noise from year

to year.”

In 1999, gun dealers sent 513,418 “record of sale transactions” to the Attorney

General’s Of!ce. That skyrocketed 72% by 2017, when 882,585 guns changed hands.

The Attorney General’s Of!ce cautioned that these numbers are the total !rearms

transactions processed by its of!ce each year, and a single !rearm may have been

transferred multiple times in that year, and a single transaction could include the sale

of multiple !rearms.



Mass shootings fraction of total

They also don’t capture the number of guns people already own, and might not

indicate more people have them, but rather that a gun owner is buying a fourth or !"h

or sixth weapon, said UCLA’s Volokh.

The data do, however, suggest a growing preference for handguns. In 1999, less than

half the records were for handguns, and the rest for long guns, according to the

attorney general. In 2017, handguns accounted for more than 59% of sales.

The availability of gun parts on the internet, and the rise of 3-D printing, pose a grave

new threat, activists say.

The Saugus High shooter apparently used a self-manufactured “ghost gun” in the

attack — a !rearm that can be easily assembled from parts for sale on the internet

without a background check.

“They undermine all of our gun safety laws,” said Nick Suplina, managing director for

law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, in a statement. “The bottom line is that

ghost guns are incredibly dangerous and there is no reason why the parts are available

at the click of a button.”

There have been 372 mass shootings in America just this year — more than one per

day. There were 269 in all of 2014.

Nationwide, there have been 492 school shootings from 2013 to today, according to

Everytown for Gun Safety. California has endured 29 of them.

“Mass shootings are a tiny, tiny fraction of homicides, literally less than 1% under any

de!nition,” said UCLA’s Volokh. “They get a lot of attention, but if you’re trying to save

lives, that’s not the place to look.”

Everytown for Gun Safety has launched a new online platform to make CDC data easily

accessible to the public. Anyone can get detailed breakdowns on gun deaths — at the

national, state and county levels — with just a few clicks online.



The group advocates for reforms like better background checks, “red #ag” laws

allowing family members and police to ask a judge to temporarily block !rearms

possession if a person poses a threat to themselves or others, limiting access to

weapons and accessories that can in#ict mass casualties, funding research into gun

violence, developing tools to help law enforcement trace crime guns, and holding the

gun industry accountable.

“People have to get to their angry moment, when they say ‘I’m not complacent any

more, I want to take action,’ ” said Dorf of Moms Demand Action. “For many people,

this was their angry moment.”



Justice reform is failing to gaintractionTwo major laws face resistance by D.A.s in six countiesacross the state, data show.

BY GREG MORAN

For more than half a decade the state Legislature has churned out scores of bills and newinitiatives aimed at disassembling a vast criminal justice system built over nearly 40 yearson tough-on-crime laws that increased punishments and swelled state prison populations.

AN INMATE in L.A. County’s men’s jail in 2014. Two criminal justice reform bills — afelony murder law and pretrial mental health diversion — are not being implementedquickly in the state’s largest counties. (Brian van der Brug Los Angeles Times)



The blizzard of new laws has put the state at the leading edge of the national criminaljustice reform movement that aims at reversing mass incarceration policies by reducingprison sentences, opting for rehabilitation over punishment and mandating newapproaches to policing and prosecution.

Yet since the start of the reforms in 2011, when the Legislature passed a law known aspublic safety realignment that reconfigured the state penal system and kept morenonviolent offenders in local jails instead of state prisons, prosecutors and lawenforcement groups have opposed many of the changes.

That opposition is reflected in how two major criminal justice reform laws are playing outin courtrooms far from the legislative hallways of Sacramento. Data gathered by the SanDiego Union-Tribune show that prosecutors in six major counties — which collectivelyaccount for two of every three inmates sent to state prisons — more often oppose bids byoffenders seeking reduced sentences for accomplice-murder convictions or pretrialdiversion to mental health treatment instead of prosecution.

The data show that two ambitious and controversial criminal justice reform laws passedby the Legislature — Senate Bill 1437 and Assembly Bill 1810 — are slow to gain muchtraction in those courthouses. But opposition by prosecutors is not the only reason that’shappening.

The felony murder law, SB 1437, has been challenged on constitutional grounds inappellate courts, for example. Every case is different and has to be reviewed on its own.Also, the final call on whether a defendant wins is made by judges.

Still, criminal justice reform advocates, some of whom worked to pass the laws and arecontinuing to push for more reforms, say they are not surprised.

“This is in many ways the crux of the challenge when it comes to criminal justice reform,”said Lenore Anderson, president and founder of Californians for Safety and Justice.“Much of the reform is enacted through policy changes in state laws. But, that change instate laws is only as impactful as it is implemented, on the ground.”

The Union-Tribune asked district attorneys in the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino,Los Angeles, Orange, Sacramento and Riverside for information on the number of cases ofpeople seeking resentencings under SB 1437, which made changes to the felony-murderlaw, and Assembly Bill 1810, which allowed for pretrial mental health diversion.

The six counties account for 65% of all inmates imprisoned between 2016 and 2018,according to statistics compiled by the California Department of Corrections andRehabilitation. They are also among the state’s 10 most populated counties.

Those two laws were selected among the dozens of laws and voter-approved initiativesbecause they were controversial when passed and addressed long-standing critiques byreform advocates that the system is overly punitive and does not address the mentalhealth needs of defendants.



Unlike more sweeping reform measures such as public safety realignment, both lawsallow prosecutors to weigh in to support or oppose the defendant’s request for thebenefits under the new laws. They also provide a rough gauge on how the reforms areplaying out in county courthouses.

California’s new felony murder law, SB 1437, changed previous state law so that someonewho was an accomplice to a murder — but not the killer — could not be sentenced to 25years to life in prison. The new law is retroactive, meaning several hundreds of inmateswho were not actual killers and are serving life sentences could be eligible for a reducedsentence.

Inmates have to file a petition with local courts, and if they are eligible they must get areview and a hearing in front of a judge.

The state’s mental health diversion law, or AB 1810, allows people charged with crimesother than murder, sex offenses and child abuse to ask for diversion to a mental healthtreatment plan before the case goes to trial, as long as they can convince a judge that theirmental illness was a motivating factor in committing the crime. The diversion suspendsaction in the case and can last up to two years. If the defendant successfully completestreatment, the charges are dismissed and the records sealed.

A judge has to approve diversion, and it can be canceled at any time if the person does notcomply with treatment.

Prosecutors have resisted the felony murder law the most, data collected by thenewspaper show. Almost since the law’s inception on Jan. 1, district attorney’s officesacross the state have challenged it as unconstitutional. They contend the law is anunauthorized amendment to two previously voter-approved initiatives, Propositions 7 and115, and that state law prohibits the Legislature from amending voter-approved laws.

Rulings from trial judges in various counties have been split on the question ofconstitutionality.

On Tuesday the 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego ruled that the law isconstitutional, rejecting challenges from prosecutors in three cases from San Diego andRiverside counties. They are the first appellate rulings in the state to make adetermination, though the legal tussle may not be over — prosecutors may still ask thestate Supreme Court to review the decision.

In San Diego County, the district attorney’s office said it had received 198 petitionsseeking sentence reductions under the law. It opposed 60, all from defendants the officeconcluded were not eligible for a new sentence under the parameters of the new law.

Since the appeal was filed in May, all cases are on hold in San Diego County SuperiorCourt until the legal issues are settled.

Opposition is nearly universal in other counties. In Riverside, 276 resentencing petitionswere filed since the new law was passed, and the district attorney opposed every one.



Similarly in San Bernardino, 255 petitions for reduced sentences have been filed, and allwere opposed. Sacramento prosecutors opposed 150 of 330 total petitions.

Los Angeles County, the state’s largest, received 1,647 petitions under the new felonymurder law. A spokesman for Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said the office could not provide an“accurate count” of how many it opposed. Judges there have granted 10 petitions, thespokesman said.

That is more than any of the other counties, where the data from prosecutors showedjudges had not granted a single resentencing yet. (A spokeswoman for the Orange Countydistrict attorney said the office does not track these requests.)

The legal battle has largely halted action on demands from inmates for resentencinghearings in county courts. It has also given district attorneys a reason to oppose thosebids.

“There are significant concerns whether the statute itself is constitutional or validlyenacted,” Shelly Orio, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento district attorney’s office said inan email. “Based on those concerns, our office has filed a constitutional challenge to thestatute.”

Michele Hanisee, the leader of the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys in Los Angeles andan outspoken critic of the law, said the numbers can be misleading because many inmateswho are not eligible are applying are clogging up the system.

Cases can also be years old, requiring a hunt for records, transcripts and otherdocuments, which takes time.

Still she said prosecutors disagree with the law.

“Our office is opposing them and prosecutors around the state are opposing them,” shesaid. “Felony murder did not go away. If someone is eligible that does not mean theirconviction is going to be vacated. Prosecutors don’t want people rightly convicted ofmurder getting released.”

When AB 1810 was passed in July 2018, supporters said the law addressed a surge inrecent years of people who had been declared incompetent to stand trial being sent to thestate mental health hospital, straining its resources.

Instead it offered defendants a chance to get treated locally under court supervision, butwithout having to go through a criminal proceeding.

Prosecutors and judges objected to the mental health law immediately, complaining itwent through no hearing and was buried deep in a large bill covering myriad subjects.

The law was soon amended so people charged with serious crimes such as murder andsexual abuse were not eligible, a move that addressed one of the objections from lawenforcement.



Data show that prosecutors are opposing defendants seeking to be moved into treatmentunder the diversion law less frequently than they are opposing those seeking resentencingunder the felony murder law.

In San Diego, prosecutors have opposed 26 of 94 requests for diversion. Judges havegranted 30. In Los Angeles, 342 requests for diversion have been filed, with prosecutorsopposing 147, and judges granting 145. In Sacramento, prosecutors opposed 89 of 140diversion requests, judges granted 57. And in Orange County prosecutors opposed 21 of118 requests, with judges granting 35 total.

San Bernardino and Riverside could not say how many diversion requests had been filedby defendants or how many they opposed.

Mental health advocates who supported the law said it is still a work in progress and werehesitant to draw broad conclusions about how it is playing out in court. The law ispotentially far broader than existing diversion programs that often require someone toenter a plea before getting help, said Anne Hadreas, a staff lawyer for Disability RightsCalifornia.

“There was diversion before but for a smaller group,” she said. “Now I think there is somefear that they want to make sure we are doing this in a way that is safe and appropriate.”

While the legal conflicts continue, state prosecutors are gearing up for an election battlein 2020.

A measure that would reverse some reforms adopted by voters in Proposition 57 will beon the ballot. It would expand the list of violent crimes that would make inmatesineligible for early parole, require DNA collection for some drug and theft offenses, andtighten parole reviews.

Hanisee said the measure would correct “unintended consequences” of the propositions,but opponents see it as an effort to roll back nearly a decade of reform of the state’s justicesystem.

Moran writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

11/24/19, 5:08 PMSan Diego has highest jail mortality rate among largest counties, even with new data - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Page 1 of 18https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2019-11-24…ghest-jail-mortality-rate-among-largest-counties-even-with-new-data

WATCHDOG

San Diego has highest jail mortality rate amonglargest counties, even with new data

Paul Silva, 39, died on March 28, 2018, su!ering from brain damage and other injuries. His death came less than two daysafter he had been taken to jail by San Diego police. He is one of 140 inmates who have died in San Diego County jails

Dying Behind Bars | Paul Silva Explained | San Diego Union-Tribune

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since 2009.

By LAURYN SCHROEDER

NOV. 24, 20195 AM

After the Union-Tribune published the “Dying Behind Bars” investigation in September, showing

that San Diego’s jail death rate significantly exceeds the rate in California’s five other largest

counties, Sheriff Bill Gore wrote an explanation.

In the other counties, Gore said, cities have their own lockups — taking some of the highest risk

inmates off the hands of county jails.

“Experts agree that the first days of custody are the highest risk time for in-custody deaths,” Gore

wrote in a response published in the Union-Tribune. “Many of the comparison counties cited by

the Union-Tribune have pre-arraignment city-run jails where most, if not all, of the newly

arrested in those cities are held.

“As a result, the comparison county jail statistics are lower than San Diego County jails, because

San Diego County has no city-run jails.”

The Union-Tribune decided to re-run the numbers with deaths in city jails included, to see



whether it changes the picture of San Diego’s inmate mortality rate compared to other large

California counties. The review included the same 10 years of data for all six counties, from 2009

through 2018.

For this review, the newspaper used a statewide database maintained by the California

Department of Justice for consistency. The numbers differ slightly from the data set used for the

“Dying Behind Bars” series, which also relied on data collected directly from counties. The state

database does not always reflect complete counts for more recent years, as causes of death take

time to be confirmed and updated.

Data show factoring in city jail deaths didn’t change inmate mortality rates for Santa Clara and

Sacramento counties, which reported no deaths in city-run jails during the 10-year period.

DYING BEHIND BARS



City jail deaths made a slight difference in San Bernardino County, as a result of a death in the

Rialto jail in 2010. In San Diego County, one death in 2013 in an Escondido Police holding cell

was reported to the state and therefore counted in the new 10-year review of jail deaths.

Dying Behind Bars: Timeline of deaths in San Diego County jails since 2009 County Sheri!’s Department questions national standard when countingjail suicide rate

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The most significant number of city jail deaths occurred in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Orange County saw 11 city jail deaths between 2009 and 2018, including three at the Santa Ana

jail. Forty-five people died in city jails in Los Angeles County, most of them in jails run by the

Long Beach and Los Angeles police departments.

Jail mortality rates are calculated by dividing the number of deaths by the average daily

population in each jail, expressed in terms of 100,000. This is the same methodology used by

experts, oversight groups and state and federal government agencies such as the Bureau of

Justice Statistics. The rate allows an apples-to-apples comparison of jail systems of varying size.

When looking only at county jail deaths, the 10-year rate in San Diego County was 243.7 deaths

per 100,000 inmates, compared to 155.9 in San Bernardino, 149.5 in Los Angeles, 145.9 in Santa

Clara, 118.1 in Orange and 93.9 in Sacramento.

Under the new review, which includes deaths in city-run jails, San Diego County still has the

highest 10-year mortality rate of 245.6 deaths per 100,000 inmates. It’s followed by Los Angeles

with 175.8 deaths, San Bernardino at 157.7, Santa Clara at 145.9, Orange at 136.6 and Sacramento

at 93.9.

Lt. Justin White, a spokesman for the sheriff, said the department has taken a serious look at

deaths in jail and is working to make inmates as safe as possible.

“This is a very complicated issue that Sheriff Gore and the Department take very seriously,” he

said by email. “We are not trying to minimize any death by the way statistics are compared. It is

Get the Facts Straight: Vaping and MarijuanaSmoke Are Harmful TooBy Tobacco Free CAYou do so much to protect your family. But in reality one of themost dangerous things of all may be coming from next door.



inappropriate to pick one statistic and use it to measure different detention systems throughout

the state.”

There’s an important caveat with the new analysis. While county jails routinely track and report

their average daily population, that statistic is not routinely reported or monitored for city-run

jails. City officials told the Union-Tribune that obtaining that figure for a 10-year data analysis

would be time-consuming, if not impossible.

For example, Anaheim Police Department officials said in October that the information could be

obtained through a public records request. In a November response to the request, police records

manager Danielle Best said there are no responsive documents and the department is not

required by law to create a record containing the requested information.

The Costa Mesa Police Department was able to provide calculations for 2015 through 2019, but

officials said previous years’ numbers were stored on an old records system, which the city no

longer has access to.

Lacking data on average daily populations in city-run jails, the Union-Tribune simply added the

city-run jail deaths to the county jail deaths, then recalculated the death rate using the county jail

population as the denominator.

This method will tend to slightly overstate the death rates in other counties that include more city

run jails than San Diego. This is the most conservative approach to testing the sheriff’s claim; it

nonetheless still shows San Diego with the highest death rate.

WATCHDOG LATEST TOP STORIES DATA WATCH JAIL DEATHS

NEWSLETTER

11/24/19, 5:11 PMDeadline approaching to file for March primary | News | championnewspapers.com

Page 1 of 2http://www.championnewspapers.com/news/article_4b718f34-0d4f-11ea-afc4-a79f71d3d7d5.html

http://www.championnewspapers.com/news/article_4b718f34-0d4f-11ea-afc4-a79f71d3d7d5.html

Deadline approaching to file for March primary

23 hrs ago

San Bernardino County residents interested in running for o!ce in the March 3, 2020

Presidential Primary Election have until 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6 to "le candidacy documents.

The "ling period opened Nov. 12.

Candidate documents may be obtained from the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters

o!ce, 777 E. Rialto Ave., San Bernardino from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Candidates are encouraged to call the Registrar of Voters at 387-8300 to schedule an

appointment.

The Registrar of Voters o!ce will be closed Thursday, Nov. 28 and Friday, Nov. 29 for the

Thanksgiving holiday.

Persons picking up candidacy documents must be registered voters residing in the district and

division/area in which they want to run.

11/24/19, 5:11 PMDeadline approaching to file for March primary | News | championnewspapers.com

Page 2 of 2http://www.championnewspapers.com/news/article_4b718f34-0d4f-11ea-afc4-a79f71d3d7d5.html

Approximately 50 federal, state, county, judicial and local o!ces are up for election, including

the following that a#ect the Chino Valley:

United States Representatives (Congressional) for districts 35 (Chino) and 39 (Chino Hills), State

Senator for 21 (Chino Hills), State Assembly districts 52 (Chino) and 55 (Chino Hills), and Cha#ey

Community College Governing Board district 5 (Chino and Chino Hills).

Partisan county central committee seats will also be up for election in the March primary.

The top two vote-getters, no matter their party, in the Congressional, State Senate and State

Assembly elections will move on to the Nov. 5, 2020 consolidated election for the "nal vote.

11/24/19, 5:14 PMOne of three charged with attacking deputy originally arrested in Chino | News | championnewspapers.com

Page 1 of 3http://www.championnewspapers.com/news/article_87170dc0-0d4f-11ea-951b-1345b52ce23a.html

http://www.championnewspapers.com/news/article_87170dc0-0d4f-11ea-951b-1345b52ce23a.html

One of three charged with attacking deputy originallyarrested in Chino

By Josh Thompson Nov 23, 2019

A 24-year-old woman arrested in August 2018 in Chino on suspicion of kidnapping and

attempted murder is among three West Valley Detention Center inmates charged with attacking

a female jail deputy Nov. 13.

Kyanna Renee Patterson, 24, Rose Villalobos, 32, and Amber Tena, 34, are facing several charges

in the 6:13 p.m. attack in one of the housing units at the West Valley Detention Center, which is

located at 9500 Etiwanda Ave. in Rancho Cucamonga.

The injured deputy was supervising inmates when she came across two inmates lying on the

ground, said San Bernardino County Sheri!’s Department spokeswoman Jodi Miller.

“One of the inmates (Ms. Patterson) appeared to be having a seizure and the other (Ms.

Villalobos) appeared to be assisting her,” Mrs. Miller said. “As the deputy approached them, Ms.

Villalobos stood up and threw a cup of vomit onto the deputy’s face.”



Ms. Villalobos continued attacking the deputies, and at one point, slashed the deputy’s face with

a razor. She then grabbed the deputy’s radio and used it to strike the deputy several times in the

head, Mrs. Miller said.

“Ms. Patterson threw a cup at the deputy, striking her in the chest. Additional deputies

responded to the housing segment and were able to detain the inmates,” Mrs. Miller said.

An investigation showed Ms. Tena helped coordinate the assault, alerting the two inmates when

to attack as the female deputy walked to their cell, the spokeswoman said.

The unidenti"ed deputy was taken to a hospital and was later released.

Ms. Tena has been booked at the jail since August on suspicion of being a prisoner who

manufactured a weapon and Ms. Villalobos has been there since April on an assault charge.

Ms. Patterson was arrested in August 2018 with her sister, Brittney Starr Patterson, on suspicion

of kidnapping and attempted murder after a 28-year-old woman was strangled with a cord

during a disagreement in the parking lot of a Circle K store in Chino.

Chino Police rushed to the parking lot at 12895 Mountain Ave. on report of a passenger inside a

car screaming for help, police said.

O#cers located the vehicle at Benson Avenue, but the driver sped away.



The driver continued to speed away until crashing into two cars in the intersection of 10th Street

and Riverside Drive.

Both women ran but were caught minutes later in the 12900 block of Ninth Street.

When o#cers walked up to the Kia, they discovered the unconscious victim still alive in the

passenger seat with a cord wrapped around her neck, police said.

The three women were traveling from Los Angeles to Indio when they decided to stop in Chino

to rest. When the victim fell asleep, the two other women began to su!ocate and strangle the

victim until she was unconscious, police said.

11/24/19, 5:16 PMRodents, no hot water: Restaurant closures, inspections in San Bernardino County, Nov. 13-21 – San Bernardino Sun

Page 1 of 6https://www.sbsun.com/2019/11/22/rodents-no-hot-water-restaurant-closures-inspections-in-san-bernardino-county-nov-13-21/

By NIKIE JOHNSON | [email protected] |PUBLISHED: November 22, 2019 at 12:57 pm | UPDATED: November 22, 2019 at 6:16 pm

Here are the restaurants and other food facilities closed by health inspectors in SanBernardino County between Nov. 13 and 21, 2019, according to the county’sDepartment of Public Health.

Citrus Kitchen, 10431 Lemon Ave. Suite H, Rancho Cucamonga

Closure date: Nov. 20

Grade: Not graded

Reason for closure: No hot water. The inspector visited in response to a complaint

and found the facility didn’t have hot water. The manager said they’d been having

water heater issues but a technician wasn’t scheduled to come until a!er the holiday.

The complaint alleged that someone had been served raw chicken. The manager said

chicken is cooked to the proper temperature but may look pink because it’s

marinated in wine. The inspector did "nd a critical violation for some cooked

chicken not being held at a safe temperature.

Reopening date: Nov. 21 a!er hot water was restored.

Wingz & Tea, 10709 Town Center, Rancho Cucamonga

LOCAL NEWS

Rodents, no hot water: Restaurantclosures, inspections in SanBernardino County, Nov. 13-21



Non-closure inspections of note

Closure date: Nov. 13

Grade: 82/B

Reason for closure: Rodent infestation. The inspector saw numerous rodent

droppings in the front and rear kitchens and in storage areas. There was one other

critical violation, for chicken wings, rice and a bottle of dressing being held at unsafe

temperatures. Additionally, staff wasn’t washing dishes properly, there was some

mold-like growth in the ice machine (not touching ice) and some of the sinks didn’t

have hot water. This is the restaurant’s second B grade in just over a year.

Reopening date: Nov. 15 a!er pest control visited and the facility was cleaned.

Another follow-up inspection was scheduled in a week.

Here are facilities that weren’t closed but had other signi"cant issues in theirinspections.

Tokyo Restaurant, at 660 E. Redlands Blvd. in Redlands, was visited Nov. 20 in

response to a complaint that its B grade card from a Nov. 8 inspection wasn’t being

displayed as required. The person in charge said the card had gone missing a couple of

days earlier and they didn’t know whom to contact for a replacement.

The Del Taco at 2871 Lenwood Road in Barstow was inspected Nov. 19 in response to a

complaint that two people got sick a!er eating chicken quesadillas. It received a grade

of 87/B with no critical violations and nine lesser violations, including that

preassembled uncooked cheese quesadillas were being le! out at room temperature

and dishes weren’t being washed or stored in hot enough water.

Jim’s Burgers, at 969 W. Foothill Blvd. in Upland, was inspected Nov. 18 and received a

grade of 80/B with one critical violation, for food not being at safe temperatures. The

walk-in cooler, which had been serviced a couple of months ago, was going through a

defrost cycle and the temperature inside was up to 60 degrees. More than 160 pounds

of food had to be discarded, and the restaurant was told to stop using the cooler until it

was repaired and to close for business when its remaining food ran out. Among the 11

lesser violations, the cook didn’t know the safe cooking temperature for hamburgers, a

handwashing sink was missing a soap dispenser and there was some mold-like growth

in the ice maker. The inspector returned the next day and found the cooler had been

repaired.



About this list

Christy’s Donuts, at 870 E. Foothill Blvd. Suite A4 in Upland, was inspected Nov. 15 and

received a grade of 80/B with two critical violations. An employee didn’t wash hands

and some food contact surfaces weren’t clean — dishes weren’t being properly

sanitized and there was some mold inside the ice machine. In the past two years, the

restaurant has now received three B grades and been closed once (for a cockroach

infestation in June 2018).

The Circle K at 681 E. Foothill Blvd. in Upland was inspected Nov. 15 and received a

grade of 80/B with one critical violation. A handwashing sink didn’t have hot water and

the operator said it had been that way since he took over the business a year ago.

Among the 11 lesser violations, there was some mold inside the ice machine and

multiple dead roaches under the frozen drink dispenser (but no live bugs or signs of

an active infestation).

The Alberto’s Mexican Food at 12434 Mainstreet in Rancho Cucamonga (in the

Victoria Gardens food hall) was inspected Nov. 14 and received a grade of 80/B with

three critical violations. Multiple items of food weren’t being held at safe

temperatures, including in a walk-in refrigerator that wasn’t keeping cold (and had an

inoperable thermometer). Three large containers of cooked beef and enchilada sauce

in the fridge since the day before hadn’t cooled down to a safe temperature yet. And an

employee didn’t wash a container properly.

Playas de Nayarit, at 14765 Foothill Blvd. in Fontana, was inspected Nov. 13 and

received a grade of 77/C with two critical violations. Some shriveled red peppers had a

heavy buildup of mold, and a couple of large pots of soup weren’t being cooled down

in a safe manner. Among the 13 lesser violations, a handwashing sink was blocked and

didn’t have soap, and the inspector saw debris, slime and/or a “black substance” on the

meat slicer, inside the ice machine, on some shelving, in a freezer, in the walk-in

cooler and on the #oors.

All food facilities in the county are routinely inspected to ensure they meet healthcodes. A facility loses four points for each critical violation and one to three points forminor violations. An A grade (90 to 100 points) is considered “generally superior,” a Bgrade (80 to 89) is “generally acceptable” and a C grade (70 to 79) is “generallyunacceptable” and requires a follow-up inspection. A facility will be temporarilyclosed if it scores below 70 or has a critical violation that can’t be correctedimmediately.

11/24/19, 5:45 PMOntario airport expects a big increase in holiday travelers this year – San Bernardino Sun

Page 1 of 6https://www.sbsun.com/2019/11/22/ontario-airport-expects-a-big-increase-in-holiday-travelers-this-year/

By STEVE SCAUZILLO | [email protected] |San Gabriel Valley TribunePUBLISHED: November 22, 2019 at 4:49 pm | UPDATED:November 22, 2019 at 4:53 pm

Ontario International Airport will experience about a 13%

increase in passenger travel during the holidays as

compared to last year, airport of!cials said this week.

The bump follows predictions of 5.5 million passengers for

2019, up from about 4.2 million at the close of 2016.

“It is following the pattern of our continued growth,” said

Atif Elkadi, ONT deputy chief executive of!cer, during an

interview Wednesday, Nov. 20. “But there is room for more

growth.”

Speci!cally, about 183,000 travelers will move through

ONT during the 11-day period the began Friday, Nov. 22

through Dec. 2. That represents a 12.3% increase over the

Thanksgiving holiday period last year, according to data

supplied by the Ontario International Airport Authority.

NEWS

Ontario airport expects a bigincrease in holiday travelersthis year



A man checks theflights status on ascreen at OntarioInternationalAirport in Ontarioon Monday, Nov. 4,2019. The airportmarked the thirdanniversary oflocal control onNov. 1.(Photo byWatcharaPhomicinda, ThePress-Enterprise/SCNG)

Peak days: Nov. 27, Dec. 1 and Dec. 2.

Also, passenger volume will jump by

about 13% during the Christmas,

Hanukkah and New Year’s holidays over

2018, OIAA reported. More than 291,000

"iers will depart from ONT from Dec. 19

to Jan. 5, an 18-day period.

Peak winter holiday days: Dec. 19, Dec.

22 and Dec. 29.

Elkadi said the ONT staff, as well as that

of the airlines, concessionaires and

parking crew have been briefed on the

uptick and they’re ready. The airport will

be increasing the staff who roam the

airport terminals wearing green polo

shirts, he said, and they’ll be ready to answer questions

and point out the quickest way to proceed.

“We staff accordingly so we can make sure there are no

delays,” Elkadi said. “We want to make sure their

experience is seamless.”

And while the Inland Empire airport is growing, the

second-busiest airport in the country Los Angeles

International Airport will be "ooded with holiday

travelers.

On Friday, LAX of!cials said the airport would see 3.2

million passengers during the Thanksgiving holiday

period — Wednesday, Nov. 20 through Tuesday, Dec. 3.

In 2018, 87.5 million passengers traveled via LAX.

“]

But it’s not just airports that will see an increase in traf!c,

roadways and the rail lines also will be seeing holiday

travelers off.



For those who prefer to travel by train, Amtrak is

increasing equipment and capacity on the Paci!c Sur"iner

route.

Last year, the Paci!c Sur"iner carried nearly 73,000

passengers to top holiday destinations along the coast

between San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, Ventura,

Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo, according to Amtrak.

And everyone who’s about to get behind the wheel of a

vehicle and make their way across freeways to reach their

holiday destinations, gas is going to cost you more this

year.

GasBuddy, a smartphone app that tracks fuel prices across

the country, projects the national average gasoline price

for Thanksgiving will be at its highest since 2014.

But, they don’t expect higher fuel prices to slow drivers — a

7% increase in motorists on the road is predicted

nationwide for Thanksgiving over last year.


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11/24/19, 5:45 PMCould new blood end bad blood on troubled Rialto water district board? – San Bernardino Sun

Page 1 of 14https://www.sbsun.com/2019/11/22/could-new-blood-end-bad-blood-on-troubled-rialto-water-district-board/

West Valley Water District offices in Rialto. (Photo courtesy ofWest Valley Water District).

NEWS

Could new blood end badblood on troubled Rialto waterdistrict board?'We need to get our house in order,' says newlyelected West Valley Water District boarddirector of the agency's dysfunction



By JOE NELSON | [email protected] and SCOTTSCHWEBKE | [email protected] | SanBernardino SunPUBLISHED: November 22, 2019 at 11:52 am | UPDATED:November 22, 2019 at 5:31 pm

A newly elected director of the West Valley Water District

in Rialto may be the linchpin in dissolving a longstanding

ri! between board members stemming from lingering

corruption allegations, internal investigations, lawsuits

and damning "nancial audits.

Channing Hawkins, a labor representative for a public

employees union in Riverside, was elected earlier this

month to represent West Valley’s District’s Division 4,

which encompasses Colton and a portion of Rialto. He has

vowed to remain independent and not align himself with

the board’s warring factions, led by President Michael

Taylor and board member Clifford Young.

Channing Hawkinswas elected inNovember to theWest Valley WaterDistrict Board.(Contributedphoto)

Hawkins, who also serves on the Rialto

Human Relations Commission, is

resolute that his loyalty lies solely with

ratepayers who are demanding

transparency and a swi! end to years of

dysfunction and allegations of cronyism

plaguing the board.



New blood, bad blood

“The people made themselves loud and clear they don’t

want someone coming in and continue playing these

political games,” he said. “I de"nitely have questions about

how things have happened in the past when it comes to

hiring and other things, so (now) I have an opportunity to

review those policies and "gure out what the next step is.

“I campaigned on a platform of transparency and hope to

stabilize the district. We are in a place now where we need

to get our house in order.”

Anthony “Butch” Araiza — who worked at the water district

for 52 years, 20 of them as general manager — is among

several observers who say they are astounded by the

in"ghting, alleged cronyism and overall dysfunction at

West Valley, which provides drinking water service to

80,000 residents in the communities of Bloomington,

Colton, Fontana, Rialto, San Bernardino and Jurupa Valley.

.

“I’ve never seen anything like what’s going on there now,”

Araiza said. “It’s a mess.”

And perhaps even more troubling is that ratepayers are

paying the price.

Records obtained by the Southern California News Group

reveal that within the past three years, the water district

has spent about $734,000 to settle lawsuits "led by

employees who claim they were unjustly "red and to

investigate former board president Young.

On Nov. 2, Hawkins defeated Don Olinger, a retired school

principal who had served on the water district board since

2003.



Former friends now board rivals

Incumbents Kyle Crowther, who typically votes in lockstep

with Taylor, and Greg Young, who usually sides with

Clifford Young, also were reelected. Greg Young and

Clifford Young are not related.

In the election’s a!ermath, the board likely will soon

determine if Taylor should remain as president. Hawkins,

who could be the swing vote in that decision, said he is

uncertain who he will vote for until he reviews district

records and policies.

Hawkins "nds himself in the middle of warring factions

that, oddly, are led by two board members who once were

longtime friends, neighbors and political allies.

Clifford Young was already on the board in 2016 when he

encouraged Taylor — a former Baldwin Park police chief

who was "red that same year — to run for a seat on the

board to help “"x everything,” Taylor said in an interview.

“One of the things he says is, ‘When we get in there, we

really need to shake up the staff, we need to change

everybody out,” Taylor said.

A!er Taylor and Crowther were elected to the board,

Young quickly presented an item in closed session to put

most of the district’s administrative staff on leave,

including the the chief "nancial of"cer, assistant general

manager, board secretary and human resources and risk

manager.

“Eventually, they were all let go, We started fresh with new

people, mainly brought in by Clifford,” Taylor said. He

didn’t have a problem with what Young was doing at the

time, Taylor said, because he thought those hired were

quali"ed.



Legal entanglements

West Valley WaterDistrict Board ofDirectorspresident andformer BaldwinPark Police ChiefMichael Taylor. Heis pictured here ina San GabrielValley Tribunestaff photo fromSept. 7, 2008.

And then more "rings and hirings followed during Young’s

tenure as board president, which were

red #ags to Taylor, he said.

“He was poking his nose in things that he

shouldn’t have been involving personnel

issues and all kinds of things an elected

of"cial shouldn’t be involved in,” Taylor

said.

When he addressed the issue with

Young, Taylor said, the board leader

became incensed.

“He said, ‘I’m the president, I’ll do what I

damn well please,” Taylor recalled.

“Clifford was basically de facto running

the organization. I told (Young), ‘You

can’t keep doing this. You can’t keep

changing out staff. You can’t keep yelling

at people, cussing at them, berating

them.’ He’s the Lego guy: You build something up and then

you destroy it.”

But it was not until October 2018 that Taylor engineered a

power play against Young. That’s when the board voted 3-2,

with Taylor, Crowther and Olinger in the majority, to strip

Young of his presidency amid multiple complaints about

his alleged authoritarian leadership style.

Records show that while Young served as board president

from December 2015 through October 2018, the district

went through four chief "nancial of"cers, three general

managers, and two human resources and risk managers.

The "rings or resignations of those administrators was

attributed to unresolvable con#icts with Young, according

to lawsuits and water district of"cials.



Within the past three years, West Valley has paid out about

$515,000 to settle lawsuits "led by seven of those workers

who were terminated.

Those receiving settlements included former Chief

Financial Of"cers Suzanne Cook and Marie Ricci, former

board Secretary Shanae Smith, former General Manager

Thomas Crowley, and former Human Resources and Risk

Manager Karen Logue.

Additionally, the district has paid more than $219,000 in

the past two years for a trio of investigations into Young’s

conduct. Details of those investigations have not been

made public.

Two of the probes were conducted by the Kaufman Law

Firm, based in Los Angeles, which the district

commissioned in 2017. The "rst involved allegations

against Young by former General Manager Matthew

Litch"eld over an alleged July 2016 “hit list” of employees

he wanted "red.

West Valley WaterDistrict Board ofDirector CliffordYoung.(Photo byJoe Nelson, TheSun/SCNG)

When Litch"eld refused to terminate the

employees without legal grounds, Young

allegedly berated him and stripped him

of his duties. Litch"eld ultimately

resigned in April 2018 and "led a lawsuit

against Young that remains unsettled.

Attorney Martin Kaufman, who

conducted the investigation, said he

found Litch"eld’s allegations

unsubstantiated.

In late 2018, Kaufman led another probe of Young’s

conduct during board meetings and other of"cial

functions, according to a copy of a 50-page internal report

obtained by the Southern California News Group.



Speci"cally, General Manager Clarence Mansell Jr. and

Human Resources and Risk Management Manager

Deborah Martinez complained that Young berated and

threatened to "re them during a September 2018 meeting.

“You are all here because of me! I brought you here and I

can take you out!” Young is reported to have shouted

during the meeting in Mansell’s of"ce, according to the

report.

Young said in an interview that while he was forceful

during the meeting to discuss the district’s public affairs

budget, he wasn’t verbally abusive.



Board member Greg Young, who was interviewed by

Kaufman, said the complaint arose a!er Taylor and

attorney Robert Tafoya, the water district’s chief counsel,

launched a coup to wrestle power away from him and

Clifford Young. He described the investigation as

politically motivated and illegal because the board had not

approved it.

However, Tafoya countered that all of the board’s

investigations involving Clifford Young were approved in

closed session, and there was no legal requirement to

announce them publicly.

Kaufman determined that while Young didn’t break any

employment laws, he had violated the district’s ethics

policies.

In February, the water district hired Pasadena attorney

Angel Pluas to launch a third investigation involving Young

following a complaint from Don Griggs, president of the

West Valley Water District Ratepayer Association.



Blame game

The complaint alleges Young used $1,897 in district funds

for an election victory celebration on Dec. 7, 2017, at Sierra

Lakes Golf Club in Fontana for himself, Taylor, Crowther,

their families and political supporters.

Pluas substantiated allegations that Young paid for the

private event, and was reimbursed by the district, under

the guise it was a Christmas party.

State law prohibits elected of"cials from using public

resources for personal purposes.

The district sent the case to the San Bernardino County

District Attorney’s Of"ce and pushed for criminal charges

against Young. However, the of"ce did not respond to the

complaint and closed the case, said Rachel Fiset, who is

Young’s attorney. She said the $1,897 tab for the

installation dinner was approved by then district General

Manager Robert Christman, leaving Young in the clear.

“This is an intentional effort to de#ect the current issues of

corrupt practices at (West Valley Water District),

misinform the public, and smear Cliff,” Fiset said in an

email. “This is the same stuff — same Christmas party over

and over again. Taylor just "les a complaint on the same

exact allegation to distract from his wrongdoing.”

Young scoffed at the Sierra Lakes investigation, noting the

district spent more than $100,000 in legal fees to probe an

$1,800 expense. “It was an inappropriate use of public

funds to investigate an elected of"cial,” he said.



Audits uncover deficiencies

Young and two other former district employees have "led

a lawsuit blaming Tafoya, Taylor, former Assistant General

Manager Ricardo Pacheco and Crowther for perpetuating

a culture of political corruption.

The complaint accuses the defendants of approving

lucrative employment contracts with attorneys and various

consultants who are their friends and business associates

in exchange for expensive gi!s and campaign

contributions.

“The lawsuit is based on the actions (Taylor and Tafoya)

have taken to "ll their personal pockets and the pockets of

their friends,” Young said. “They need to explain the

misappropriation of public funds.”

Taylor maintains the motivation for the lawsuit is purely

political. “Clifford is angry because he’s not the president

of the board anymore,” he said.

Questionable "scal and management practices at the

district have also prompted a pair of audits — one

commissioned by the district itself and another by the

state Controller’s Of"ce.

The audits have so far uncovered a slew of de"ciencies,

including questionable hiring and promotion practices,

no-bid contracts, abuse of credit cards and work

performed without contracts.

The state Controller’s Of"ce is expected to release the

"ndings from its audit by the end of the year, though it is

known that the report mirrors issues in the local audit.

Taylor said the district has been moving to address some

of the audits’ "ndings and remedy the problems. “We’re

doing our best. We certainly don’t want to be under the

lens like this,” he said.



Meanwhile, observers like Araiza believe Taylor and Young

both share blame for the district’s troubles.

“All you have to do is look who they’re hiring and it’s not

just Clifford (Young),” he said “It’s Clarence (Mansell) and

(Michael) Taylor, too. They’re the ones who are the brains

behind the whole thing. “They’re not friends right now, but

Clifford started it and they continued on when Clifford got

set aside.”

Ultimately, the chaos is costing water district customers,

according to Griggs. “There is a lot of dysfunctional things

going on,” he said. “All of this is resting on the ratepayers’

backs.”


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Tags: Investigative Reporting,SoCal Watchdog,Top Stories IVDB,Top Stories PE,Top Stories PSN,Top Stories RDF,Top Stories SGVT,Top Stories Sun,Top Stories WDN,West Valley WaterDistrict

11/24/19, 5:43 PMThese San Bernardino, Redlands streets will close for rail work Thanksgiving week – San Bernardino Sun

Page 1 of 5https://www.sbsun.com/2019/11/24/these-san-bernardino-redlands-streets-will-close-for-rail-work-thanksgiving-week/

By JENNIFER IYER | [email protected] | RedlandsDaily FactsPUBLISHED: November 24, 2019 at 7:00 am | UPDATED:November 24, 2019 at 7:01 am

Traffic slows along Sixth Street at the rail line in Redlands assigns warn of roadwork on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019. The workis part of the Redlands Passenger Rail Project. (Photo byJennifer Iyer, Redlands Daily Facts/SCNG)

LOCAL NEWS

These San Bernardino,Redlands streets will close forrail work Thanksgiving week

11/24/19, 5:43 PMThese San Bernardino, Redlands streets will close for rail work Thanksgiving week – San Bernardino Sun

Page 2 of 5https://www.sbsun.com/2019/11/24/these-san-bernardino-redlands-streets-will-close-for-rail-work-thanksgiving-week/

While there will be no regularly scheduled closures along

nine miles of rail line between Redlands and San

Bernardino on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, activity

is set for the !rst three days of the week.

The 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily closure of Sixth Street at the

tracks in Redlands that started last week is scheduled to

continue.

The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority

shared suggested detours. Motorists heading north on

Sixth can take Redlands Boulevard east, then go north on

Seventh Street and west on High Avenue to get back on

track. Southbound travelers can take Orange Street to

Redlands Boulevard back to Sixth.

Emergency closures announced Nov. 20 due to the rain

include Colton Avenue and Tennessee Street intersections

with Redlands Boulevard, both in Redlands. They are

scheduled to run through Wednesday, and pedestrian

access will be available. The Colton intersection will be

closed from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, and the Tennessee

intersection from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. nightly.

A planned Eureka Street closure has been pushed back to

December. California Street will also be closed next

month.

Other weekday work along the tracks that won’t completely

close roads is scheduled in San Bernardino from Mill

Street to Central Avenue, where crews are installing rail, at

the Santa Ana River bridge, and between Tippecanoe and

Mountain View avenues.

The $359.7 million Redlands Passenger Rail Project is

expected to start operation in early 2022.

Information: gosbcta.com/project/redlands-passenger-rail-

project-arrow

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11/24/19, 4:51 PM

Page 1 of 4https://enewspaper.latimes.com/desktop/latimes/default.aspx?edid=cdce3d71-a087-40ce-b8c7-bbc10bafc2a0

How California can live with wildfiresThe future will see more outages, but that raises concernsover fairness, expert says.

BY ROB NIKOLEWSKI

Like strands inside a power line, the reasons — and possible remedies — to reduce the

A RESIDENT in La Conchita hoses down burning shrubbery at a home. The Thomasfire raced through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in 2017. (Wally Skalij LosAngeles Times)

11/24/19, 4:51 PM


impact of deadly wildfires in California are varied and intertwined.

Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at the Woods Institutefor the Environment at Stanford University, constantly thinks about those strands. It’s anissue, he says, that “can’t be overstated.”

Addressing wildfires includes a host of issues, including: Hotter temperatures and drierbrush, homes constructed in forested areas, whether homeowners can access insuranceand — of course — how much all this will cost beleaguered Californians already saddledwith high taxes and utility rates.

Last year in an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, Wara gave an estimate of $30billion. And that was before Pacific Gas & Electric came under blistering criticism lastmonth for shutting off power to more than 2 million people across the Bay Area as theKincade fire roared. Wara and his family were left without electricity for four days.

One of five members of the state’s Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost andRecovery, Wara talked to the San Diego Union-Tribune recently while he attended theLesley K. McAllister Symposium on Climate and Energy Law at the Energy PolicyInitiatives Center. This interview is condensed for space and clarity, and incorporatesremarks Wara made at the symposium:

What’s going on in California when it comes to wildfires?

This is a combination of a bunch of factors and probably in the absence of climate change,all the other decisions would have been OK.

You think climate change kind of tipped it over the edge?

I think that’s right. But what’s good about that is there’s a bunch of things we can change.We definitely can’t change climate change in the near term. But there’s a lot of things youcan change to make our communities safer.

Part of it is learning from the experience from San Diego [Gas & Electric] and thatincludes turning off the grid when the fire threat is high. That’s part of the permanentsolution.

I think wildfire is a problem we can make a lot better on a statewide scale, in the ways thatSan Diego has made it better. But I think that also means there is going to be a lot ofpeople living with power shut-offs for the indefinite future. We need to deal with that.

How do we make sure all the efforts are cost-effective?

I don’t think we should do it in electricity rates. I don’t think it’s possible to do that. Ithink we need to look to other funding sources and in particular, either bond funding or

11/24/19, 4:51 PM


general fund revenue from the state. There’s a state interest there. And frankly, in thescheme of things, the state has the money to do this. It’s not clear that local governmentsdo. I just think it’s not going to be able to happen in rates.

Why not?

Because if we raised rates to pay for all of this, people are going to exit the system. They’regoing to just get solar and leave.

Or they will get solar plus battery storage systems so they can operate when the powershuts off. But wouldn’t that worsen the equity problem — rich people who’ve got solar andpeople who don’t?

I’m getting there. Everything about fire raises big equity issues. All the solutions we’retalking about here — microgrids and batteries for individual customers — raise hugefairness questions because it is not acceptable to make low-income people in California sitin the dark while the rich have batteries.

In places where people have good FICO [credit] scores, they’re getting batteries — rightnow. They’re not wasting any time. They’re not waiting for some state support.

The other reason I prefer bond funding or general fund revenue is that we can do it fast.Once we’re doing something at the [California Public Utilities Commission] in rates that’sbig, it’s going to take a long time just to get to the regulatory process before we’re evendeploying things in the field. And we need to be doing this right away.

We need to figure out how to do that at the state level because if we don’t, everyone isgoing to suffer from lack of access and affordability of homeowners insurance, whethertheir house burns down or not. And that’s a crisis to be avoided.

Should there be more restrictions on building in fire-prone areas?

What we need to make sure of is that homes are being built responsibly, which meansmuch larger setbacks so that the home next door can’t ignite the home next to it. I don’tthink we need a blanket ban, but we need to change the economics so that the full cost ofbuilding there is incorporated.

If I buy a house and I can’t get insurance, what do I do? Build defensible space and go toan insurance company and say, “Look, I’m doing a good job, please give me insurance”?

No, that’s not gonna work. You need to do it. All of Marin County needs to do it to makethat solution attractive to home insurers.

So how does the county do it?

11/24/19, 4:51 PM


The county needs to have tough enforcement. And ideally, this is where I think the statecan really help. We’ve tried to do this in Northern California and it has met enormouslocal opposition because people like their trees and their leafy environments. And theydon’t want to replace it with succulents or crushed granite in a 5-foot ring around theirhouse.

That’s where I think it might be worth it to have the state take some of the heat and say,“You have to do this, but we’re going to provide a lot of resources to help you do it.”

A lot of people, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, are angry at PG&E for power shut-offs. Doyou think they were necessary?

Yes, I do think they were necessary. I think also that the governor and everyone, myselfincluded, has a right to be angry at PG&E for how they have treated their customers. Theircustomer relations management has been abysmal and needs to really change.

California is already an expensive state to live in. If someone said, “I want to get this thingfixed,” one response is this is going to cost Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer a lot of money.

I think that’s right. It would be better if it’s Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer instead of Mr. andMrs. Ratepayer because taxes are much more progressive. And we can make sure that Mr.Zuckerberg is paying more of the share and a single mom in Bakersfield is paying less.

But everyone is going to have to pay?

Everyone is going to have to pay. And climate change has costs. They are real, they arenow. And it’s unfortunate but it’s reality. And I think the main thing is to make sure thatthe money we do spend is spent effectively and, hopefully, that it has multiple benefits.

These blackouts are really great dress rehearsals for big earthquakes that will inevitablyhappen. And all of this is making us better for that disaster, which is going to totally dwarfthese fires.

Nikolewski writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.



L.A. needs new ideas onhomelessnessLong-term housing and shelters are taking time to build.The city must find places for people to live other than asidewalk — and now.Building housing for homeless people in the city of Los Angeles is an infuriatingly slowprocess. Even the so-called bridge shelters that are supposed to be an interim solutionwhile we wait for new permanent housing have been taking a year or two to go up.

Meanwhile, tent encampments continue to multiply on sidewalks, in parks, under freewayoverpasses — and frustration over their presence grows. Elected officials, advocates forthe homeless and service providers must think outside the tent, so to speak, to come upwith places for homeless people to live that won’t leave them vulnerable to the weather,crime and the many indignities of life on the street.

Here are some ideas. They are not long-term solutions to the problem of homelessness,and they’re by no means ideal. But neither is the situation we have on the streets today.

The city could expand “safe parking” lots for people who live in their cars. This is beingdone throughout Los Angeles with some success. Let’s do more. City officials need to findmore vacant lots or convince more churches, temples and owners of commercialproperties with parking lots that are empty at night to open them to people living in theircars. With block-by-block restrictions against overnight parking proliferating and shelterspace remaining scarce, do we really want people climbing out of their vehicles andsleeping on sidewalks at night just to avoid getting a ticket they can’t afford?

Tiny houses, which are wooden structures the size of garden sheds, have become a cleveralternative for homeless people who otherwise would have to sleep on a street. They are,generally, rudimentary and usually lack plumbing and heating. They’ve run into trouble,understandably, when people have tried to park them on sidewalks or at curbs here inL.A. But it might make sense to set up one or more enclaves of city-supplied tiny houses —the way Portland, Ore., has done on city-owned property — somewhere as an experimentand figure out how to provide water, sewer and power services.

Here’s another idea that is neither terribly appealing nor a long-term solution, but whichshould not be ruled out without consideration. On a vacant lot or other public space, thecity could set up emergency-response-style shared dwellings — larger than tiny houses



but less permanent in nature — that offer privacy, security, restrooms, trash collectionand outreach services. The presence of security would mean less risk of street crime, andpeople wouldn’t have to worry about the arrival of police officers and sanitation workerstelling them to move along. L.A. City Councilman Paul Koretz introduced a motion tostudy the Outdoor Emergency Shelter that the city of Modesto has set up with an array ofindividual tents in one location. Koretz asked the chief administrative officer to look intothe feasibility of doing some version of that on at least one location in every councildistrict.

Again, as with any new approach to the crisis, the point isn’t to concentrate hundreds ofhomeless people in remote areas where they’ll be out of sight, out of mind. It’s to providesafer, healthier alternatives to street encampments that are within easy reach oftransportation and social services, and that can be brought to fruition quickly. Admission— it should go without saying — should be totally voluntary. These are not relocationcamps.

To be honest, this sort of clustering already exists in a less formal, less regulated sense. Inparts of the city where tent encampments are, in fact, tightly knit groups, there are serviceproviders who are already working with and treating them as communities. Serviceproviders are getting them things they need right now — trash receptacles, brooms,portable toilets — to make the encampment a healthier place to live while people wait forhousing.

None of these are solutions to the problem of homelessness. They are at best short-termmeasures to try to address the chaotic, tragic and dangerous situation we have on thestreets today. We don’t want people living in improvised dormitories or garden shedspermanently. But to ignore the fact that they’re already living in tents and that there isscarce housing and shelter doesn’t help anyone.

In any case, what we don’t want is to make homeless people invisible, lulling city residentsand elected officials into thinking a grove of tiny houses or a lot of parked cars has solvedhomelessness. Only housing, treatment, service and jobs will solve this problem in thelonger run.

11/24/19, 5:51 PMAn institutional approach to homelessness: James Gray – San Bernardino Sun

Page 1 of 7https://www.sbsun.com/2019/11/22/an-institutional-approach-to-homelessness-james-gray/

By JAMES P. GRAY | |PUBLISHED: November 22, 2019 at 10:28 pm | UPDATED:November 22, 2019 at 10:28 pm

Homeless tents are dwarfed by skyscrapers as 63-year-oldVincent, who only gave his first name, sorts his belongingsFriday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

OPINION

An institutional approach tohomelessness: James Gray



All of us should take affront that people living in the

United States and within its laws are being reduced to

living on the streets.” So how is this situation being

perpetuated, and how should it be addressed?

As we have seen, the various governments’ responses

around the country to the homeless issue have been

sporadic if not spasmodic. Every once in a while a state or

the federal government will set aside fairly large amounts

of money in one-time payments, or temporarily open an

armory, either to make themselves feel better or to reduce

some political heat. But then, the cold hard facts are that

the problems continue on virtually as before.

So what we need instead is an institutional response that

should greatly reduce this national and even moral

problem. My approach is modeled a!er Milton Friedman’s

“negative income tax” proposal, and is as follows, with the

amounts of money used only for illustrative purposes:

No one in our country will pay any income taxes on their

"rst $30,000 of earnings from whatever source — not you,

me, Bill Gates or anyone else. (This could evolve into a

national graduated #at tax, but that is a different issue.)

For those people who earn no money, regardless of the

reason, anyone who is at least 18 years of age, a citizen of

our country or here legally with a green card will receive a

stipend from the federal government in the amount of

$15,000 per year — probably broken down into monthly

payments of $1,250. However, for every dollar they earn

they will lose 50 cents of the stipend. (Accordingly,

everyone will have an incentive to earn the extra dollar.)

And, importantly enough, all other welfare payments

could be abolished, except those for people with truly

special needs.



So what about the homeless? The answer is that if each of

those people had the equivalent of an ATM account with

$1,250 automatically deposited into it each month the

private sector would quickly start providing low-cost room

and board-style living for each of them, probably at a

competitive rate of about $1,000 per month, which would

leave the recipients an additional $250 to pay for personal

items, clothing, etc.

That would be the program. Of course, the opposing

argument is that many of these people would simply throw

their money away on alcohol and other drugs, gambling or

otherwise be irresponsible. So what about them? The

answer is that basically the homeless issue is and should

be a local problem overseen by city and county

governments. The federal government could and should

participate as stated above, and then leave the issue to

local control. And then at the local level there should be a

triage system to address different groups of the homeless

people, as follows:

Some people are temporarily down on their luck, but they

both can and want again to function successfully in our

society. For those people a temporary "nancial boost in

their ATM accounts would probably be all they would need

to get back on their feet.

Another much larger group would need to be screened for

mental health, drug and alcohol and other debilitating

conditions. Then they would, if necessary, be given access

to appropriate assistance, to the degree that if they needed

a conservatorship or a program of drug rehabilitation, that

would be mandated.



Of course, there are always complications involved in any

system like this, such as extra provisions being made for

children and the differences in the costs of living in

different parts of our country. But those issues can be

addressed locally without making the approach too

complicated.

The "nal group would be comprised of those who simply

want to continue living that type of life — or at least think

they do. Those people would be provided places to live

such as at one of these room-and-board facilities, or at

various government developmental centers, or even some

of the presently lightly used reserve military facilities or

the like. As we all agree, no one in our society should be

arrested for “camping” or trespassing on public property

unless they have a place to live with a roof over their

heads. But this system would provide those places. Then,

once that system is in place, the police could resume their

enforcement of local ordinances that prohibit things like

littering and camping, urinating or defecating in public,

etc. And a day or three in jail would help convince some of

them to change habits.

Accordingly, with the publication of this column, I am

reaching out to all people of good will in our society,

including the legal, medical, religious and social

communities. In that regard, I openly say that I don’t

purport to have all of the answers, but please join me in

actively trying to "nd some by joining me in sending these

ideas to our elected representatives. Because, as it now

exists, the homeless problem is untenable and is an insult

to who we are a people. And it calls for an institutional

response to resolve it.

James P. Gray is a retired judge of the Superior Court inOrange County, a former Peace Corps volunteer in CostaRica, criminal defense attorney in the Navy JAG Corps,federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and the 2012 Libertariancandidate for vice president.

11/24/19, 4:59 PM

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A struggle to stay warm, dryStorms, colder weather pose risks for the tens of thousandsof people on streets of Los Angeles, where a winter shelterwon’t open till Dec. 1

JOHN GUNN, who lives on Crocker Street, mused that he and his skid row neighborsneeded “tents on stilts” to avoid stormwater. (Photographs by Al Seib Los AngelesTimes)

11/24/19, 4:59 PM


BY BENJAMIN ORESKES AND EMILY ALPERT REYES

Walter Smith was awakened on Wednesday morning by the rain. It poured in from above,through the tattered holes in the tent he had pitched in a downtown park, and seepedthrough the bottom, soaking his shirt, pants and socks.

“If you don’t wake up before it comes down hard, you gonna wake up soaking wet,” saidSmith, a 56-year-old with a hacking cough who says he has been homeless for three years.He fretted about where he would find more clothing to fit his burly frame — size 13 shoesand size 40 pants. “I cannot find a way to waterproof a tent.”

As storms, hail and chilling temperatures have descended on Los Angeles, tens ofthousands of people who bed down on the streets are struggling to stay dry and warm.

The wet and chilly weather comes less than two weeks before the Los Angeles HomelessServices Authority is scheduled to begin its winter shelter program, which aims to givepeople more nighttime options as temperatures drop.

“EVERYTHING THAT will keep me warm got soaked,” said Margaret Wiley. Last year,five homeless people in Los Angeles County died of hypothermia. ()

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LAHSA spokesman Ahmad Chapman said that “due to funding constraints, that programdoes not open until Dec. 1.”

At the Union Rescue Mission on skid row, CEO Andy Bales said the building was packedand lamented that his nonprofit was still awaiting approval from the city to open a newstructure in its parking lot to shelter homeless women.

“There’s no way anyone could take this for very long,” Bales said of the weather.

On nearby Crocker Street, John Gunn and Margaret Wiley were reckoning Wednesdaywith the wet mess in their side-by-side tents.

Gunn said pooling water had made it into his tent overnight and mused that they needed“tents on stilts.” Wiley had returned to her tentafter a burst of hail and found that her newclothes had been drenched.

“Everything that will keep me warm got soaked,” Wiley said, shivering.

At San Julian Park, Wendell Blassingame had set up a large umbrella and a folding tableshielded by a tarp, maintaining his usual post as the “skid row fixer,” helping homelesspeople however possible.

On Tuesday, he said he handed out nearly a thousand pairs of socks. Armed with a smallnotebook on Wednesday, he was awaiting scores of jackets from someone who had justcalled him on his flip phone.

“I had only four plastic coats with hoods and by 8 a.m., bam! I passed them right out,” hesaid.

Activists say they have been flooded with requests for tarps and blankets for homelesspeople.

Jane Nguyen, one of the co-founders of Ktown for All, said she was “appalled” that it hadfallen to “a group of unpaid volunteers to meet the basic survival needs of the mostvulnerable people,” rather than government agencies.

“We’re scrambling, trying to fill the need,” Nguyen said. She warned that the rain wouldlikely lead to more people suffering hypothermia and other ailments.

Last year, five homeless people died in L.A. County of causes that included or werecomplicated by hypothermia, the coroner’s office said. That’s more than in New York Cityor San Francisco.

Joanna Swan, who volunteers with the group Street Watch L.A., said she had beengathering plastic left over from wrapping huge works of art at her day job and bringing it

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to people living on the streets in Chinatown to help protect their belongings. In extremeweather, “minor issues with your tent become much larger issues,” Swan said.

The rain can be especially perilous for people camping near waterways, such as the LosAngeles River. Chapman, the LAHSA spokesman, said outreach teams had gone out inrecent days to areas susceptible to flooding to warn of the upcoming rain and “encouragethose individuals to seek a safer location.”

Some city rules are eased during the rain, according to L.A. officials. Alex Comisar, aspokesman for Mayor Eric Garcetti, says in areas where it is raining, tents are allowed tostay up during the day and city crews only do “spot cleanings” rather than comprehensivecleanups that require people to take down their tents and move.

Members of the Services Not Sweeps coalition, however, complained that cleanups hadcontinued in the days leading up to the rain and that people had lost crucial possessionsas a result.

As the rain stopped for a moment on skid row, Taviah Hopkins stood under the overhangof a building, flanked by shopping carts full of her belongings. She was headed to a nearbycenter to shower, but for a moment the cold seemed to overwhelm her.

“I can’t move,” Hopkins said. “The rain — it throws me off.”

11/24/19, 4:57 PM


Quake retrofit of apartment buildingshas L.A. steadierAbout 27% of the city’s 11,400 risky wood-frame structuresare fixed, up from 5% just 14 months ago.BY JON SCHLEUSS AND RONG-GONG LIN II

An earthquake safety revolution is spreading along the streets and back alleys of LosAngeles, as steel frames and strong walls appear inside the first-story parking garages ofthousands of apartment buildings.

The construction is designed to fix one of the most dangerous earthquake risks: so-calledsoft-story wood-frame apartment buildings collapsing because the skinny poles makingspace for ground-level parking are not strong enough to withstand the shaking.

Now, 27% of Los Angeles’ 11,400 soft-story apartment buildings are retrofitted to betterresist earthquakes, up from 5% just 14 months ago. Retrofit progress has been steadyacross the city, a Times analysis of city records shows. Among the regions with the mostsoft-story apartments, 29% of such buildings on the Westside and in the San FernandoValley are retrofitted, and 26% have been completed in central L.A., which includesHollywood, Mid-City and Koreatown. The Westside, Valley and central L.A. regions arehome to more than 80% of the soft-story apartments in the city.

Only the Eastside lags substantially behind the rest of the city, with 17% of such retrofitscompleted. But there are relatively few soft-story apartments there — fewer than 180buildings.

There are still more than 8,000 soft-story buildings that need to be retrofitted across thecity.

The Times analysis found that some of the best progress for retrofits was inneighborhoods with the most soft-story buildings, also known as dingbats.

The Palms neighborhood on the Westside has more of these vulnerable structures than

11/24/19, 4:57 PM


any other neighborhood in the city, with almost every single building a dingbat on someblocks. In Palms, there are more than 700 suspected soft-story buildings holding morethan 9,000 residential units. About 30% of the buildings have been retrofitted so far.

The completion of more than 3,000 apartment building retrofits in Los Angelesrepresents a big advance in strengthening dangerous soft-story buildings acrossCalifornia. It’s a type that caused the deaths of 16 people when the Northridge Meadowsapartment complex collapsed in the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake of 1994, and atleast three people, including a baby, in San Francisco during the magnitude 6.9 LomaPrieta earthquake in 1989.

In Los Angeles, the retrofits represent significant progress for a city that only in 2015passed a sweeping retrofit law authored by Mayor Eric Garcetti for these vulnerable woodbuildings with a flimsy ground floor. Building owners in L.A. have seven years oncethey’re notified to retrofit.

“When we think about preparing for a major earthquake, our first thought has to be aboutsaving lives — and I know that aggressive action on these retrofits will make thatdifference when the Big One hits,” Garcetti said in a statement. “Our progress is ahead ofschedule, but we have to keep pushing to make certain that we get the job done as quicklyas possible.”

While many California cities have long resisted forcing owners to retrofit these apartmentbuildings, more local officials in recent years have expressed interest in focusing attentionon the issue. In October, Culver City released a report that said there were more than 600potentially vulnerable wood-frame soft-story buildings. Ontario has completed aninventory of seismically vulnerable buildings and staff is now studying the list, said cityspokesman Dan Bell.

In May, the Pasadena City Council backed a mandatory retrofit law estimated to affectnearly 500 buildings, joining the ranks of Santa Monica,West Hollywood and BeverlyHills, which have all passed new laws in recent years to require soft-story apartmentretrofits.

“For me, this is a public safety — life safety — issue, not for just the residents … but eventhose possibly who would be walking by in a major incident,” Pasadena Vice Mayor JohnJ. Kennedy said at a council meeting in February. “We’re obligated to do something ifwe’re really serious about a safe city.”

Retrofits also lower owners’ potential liability by reducing the chance that people can behurt when a quake hits, Kennedy said. A California appeals court decision in 2010 foundthat juries could hold owners financially responsible for people killed by collapsingbuildings if they did not take action to make them safer.

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“It’s the moral, legal, right thing to do,” Kennedy said.

In Northern California, Oakland enacted a mandatory soft-story retrofit law earlier thisyear, joining San Francisco and Berkeley, which adopted similar laws in 2013 and 2014,respectively. In San Francisco, 67% of about 5,000 wood-frame apartment buildings atleast three stories tall and with at least five residential units have been retrofitted. About79% of 292 soft-story buildings in Berkeley have been retrofitted, as have all 27 soft-storybuildings known to exist in Fremont.

The East Bay city of Hayward, whose downtown is bedeviled by the Hayward fault,stopped short of a mandatory retrofit law. But the City Council recently passed a lawrequiring owners of nearly 300 suspect buildings with at least five units to have theirapartments screened for seismic vulnerability and report the findings to the city.

Such programs can cause owners to voluntarily retrofit. Alameda in 2009 passed a similarlaw, and as of last year, out of 184 soft-story buildings, about 60% had been retrofitted.

Other cities have resisted taking action, citing the cost to property owners and concernsthat the work could worsen an already serious housing affordability crisis. Some of LosAngeles County’s most populous cities that have many older buildings, like Long Beachand Glendale, haven’t passed laws recently requiring retrofit of soft-story apartmentbuildings.

Neither has the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which governs 1 million peoplein unincorporated communities that don’t have their own city councils, and is responsiblefor areas like East Los Angeles, Florence-Firestone and Hacienda Heights. There are alsomany cities in Northern California that haven’t passed mandatory retrofit laws, includingin Silicon Valley, such as San Jose, California’s third most-populous city. More than 1,000soft-story buildings might be in San Jose.

Soft-story buildings were generally built before 1980 and are vulnerable because theskinny poles making space for carports can snap in an earthquake. Just 14 months ago,only 5% of Los Angeles’ vulnerable soft-story buildings had been retrofitted.

In 2018, Long Beach, Los Angeles County’s second-largest city, had discussed spending $1million to identify as many as 5,000 potentially vulnerable buildings, but the City Councilended up not taking a vote on that idea.

In the coming months, Long Beach plans to hire a consultant to study how other citieshave tackled vulnerable buildings, said David Khorram, the city’s superintendent ofbuilding and safety.

Most soft-story apartment buildings cost $40,000 to $160,000 to retrofit, with theaverage cost about $80,000, according to a recent estimate presented to Culver City

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officials.

In cities with rent control, who should pay for the fixes has been the subject of somedebate. The Los Angeles City Council decided that owners can pass half the retrofit coststo tenants over a 10-year period through a rent surcharge capped at $38 per month.

San Francisco lets all retrofit costs be passed onto renters, even those protected by rentcontrol, over a 20-year period; the retrofit surcharge can be no more than 10% of baserent. Low-income tenants can seek and receive hardship exemptions to rent surchargesrelated to the retrofit.

Experts say retrofitting these buildings will not only save lives, but also preserve older,more affordable housing after a major earthquake and keep rent checks coming throughto landlords. The destruction of many older apartment buildings in a major quake wouldsuddenly worsen the state’s housing crisis.

Just before the 25th anniversary of the Northridge earthquake this year, experts notedthat many California apartment owners had seen a big increase in property values, and aprudent use of that equity would be to invest it in a seismic retrofit.

“It’s better to invest now,” said Heidi Tremayne, executive director of the EarthquakeEngineering Research Institute.

Garcetti said much the same earlier this year.

“The destruction of tens of thousands of units of housing after a big earthquake will bringon a housing crisis unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” the mayor said. “This is the rainyday. Spend it now before something bad happens.”

Los Angeles has also identified about 1,300 soft-story condo buildings that will need to bestrengthened under the city’s earthquake safety law. So far, about 9% have beenretrofitted.

In addition to soft-story apartment buildings, Los Angeles, West Hollywood and SantaMonica have also required owners of suspected brittle concrete-frame buildings to alsoconduct retrofits if they’re found to be hazardous in an earthquake.

A Times analysis in 2013 found that more than 1,000 older concrete buildings in LosAngeles and hundreds more throughout the county might be at risk of collapsing in amajor earthquake.

Those retrofits are far more expensive, due to the large size of concrete structures. Suchfixes could cost $1 million or more per building, and occupants probably would have tomove out during the renovation at an additional cost.

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But concrete buildings can also be especially deadly when they collapse, owing to theirenormous size. Just two such buildings collapsed catastrophically in an earthquake inChristchurch, New Zealand in 2011, killing 133 people, accounting for more than two-thirds of the death toll of the entire disaster.

In Los Angeles, the collapse of concrete buildings during the Sylmar earthquake of 1971killed 49 people at the Veterans Administration Hospital in San Fernando. Similardamage at Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar killed three people.

Steel-frame buildings designed before the Northridge earthquake are also a concern.Santa Monica and West Hollywood have passed laws requiring retrofits of thosebuildings; about 25 were significantly damaged in the Northridge quake, including one inSanta Clarita owned by the Automobile Club of Southern California that almost collapsed.

Los Angeles has not passed a retrofit mandate for steel-frame buildings.

It’s plausible that five unretrofitted steel buildings could collapse in a magnitude 7.8earthquake on the San Andreas fault in Southern California, according to the U.S.Geological Survey.

11/24/19, 7:37 PMPlacer County adopts new short-term rental ordinance | SierraSun.com

Page 1 of 2https://www.sierrasun.com/news/local/placer-county-adopts-new-short-term-rental-ordinance-2/

Placer County adopts new short-term rental ordinance

Hannah Joneshjones@[email protected]

A new short-term rental ordinance and the fees required to obtain a permit has been adopted by the Placer County Board ofSupervisors, months after residents came forward requesting additional regulations.

“Staff has moved expeditiously to address this situation and I really appreciate the time and dedication it’s taken to get this forwardthis quickly,” said Supervisor Cindy Gustafson.

The ordinance requires property owners to submit a short-term rental application that includes the name of a local contact personto respond to complaints from neighbors, the number of bedrooms, total number of parking spaces in the rental and the maximumoccupancy allowed.

Regulations only apply to short-term rentals in eastern Placer County, or those that sit above 5,000 feet elevation.

" The ordinance requires property owners to submit an application that includes the name of a local

contact to respond to complaints from neighbors …

To ensure compliance with fire codes, the ordinance requires fire district staff to conduct a life-safety inspection to make sure homesare equipped with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and that barbecues and outdoor fireplaces are in compliance.

The ordinance will exempt short-term rentals within both resorts and residential associations. To qualify for the exemption, propertyowners must provide a formal written request and live in an association that has regulations for parking, noise and trash.

The total cost of the permit, including the application fee and fire inspection, is $200 for professionally managed properties and $337for privately managed properties. The permit must be renewed annually. It will go into effect Jan. 1, 2020, with property ownersrequired to obtain a short-term rental permit by March 31.

The ordinance restricts occupancy of short-term rentals to two people per bedroom, with an additional two people allowed to stay inthe house. Those new limits on occupancy, which take effect at 10 p.m. daily, do not apply to children age 16 or under.

Property owners must already have a Transient Occupancy Tax certificate to apply. Placer County requires property owners toregister and collect Transient Occupancy Tax within 30 days of making the unit available for short-term renters. New TOTregulations adopted last year require those registered to read and acknowledge existing county ordinances on trash, noise andparking.

Across the county 5,140 Transient Occupancy Tax certificates have been issued in Placer County which include motels, hotels,timeshares and bed and breakfasts. Of those, 3,778 certificates have been issued to short-term rentals, and 3,638 of them are ineastern Placer County.

Local | November 22, 2019

11/24/19, 7:37 PMPlacer County adopts new short-term rental ordinance | SierraSun.com

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The county began working on the ordinance after residents came forward urging the county to enforce stricter regulations onproperty owners. County staff held various public meetings and conducted extensive research about short-term rental ordinances inneighboring jurisdictions.

Hannah Jones is a reporter for the Sierra Sun. She can be reached at 530-550-2652 or [email protected].

11/24/19, 4:55 PM


Many seniors live on financial edgeBLOOMBERG

The majority of Americans living alone are at risk of not being able to pay for basic needs.

That’s according to new estimates of financial insecurity among Americans 65 and olderfrom the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

“As an increasing number of baby boomers retire, we’ll see more and more Americansstruggle to get by on just their Social Security checks,” said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), vice chairwoman of the Joint Economic Committee, in emailed comments.

The Elder Index, calculated by the university and other researchers, tracks the incomeneeded for older adults in good health. It shows that on average a single homeownerwithout a mortgage requires $21,012 a year to pay for basic needs; a couple would require$31,800. Regional price variations change the estimates significantly.

The estimated budget covers basic needs such as housing and food but excludes vacations,restaurant meals and entertainment expenses. Regionally, the cost of living independentlyranges from $21,504 for singles renting in Alabama to a high of $33,060 in the nation’scapital.

California ranks sixth, with the cost of living independently for singles at $30,276 and forcouples at $40,380.

Rounding out the top 10 for renters were Massachusetts ($33,048 for singles, $45,252 forcouples) in second place, followed by Hawaii ($32,688, $44,700), Maryland ($30,480,$42,984), New York ($30,480, $41,640), New Jersey ($29,616, $40,128), Vermont($29,340, $43,392), Connecticut ($28,536, $39,660) and New Hampshire ($28,308,$40,884).

When that cost of living is weighed against older people’s incomes, the index shows thathalf of singles and 23% of couples lack the financial resources to cover basic needs.

States in the Northeast constitute the majority of the 10 states with the largest eldereconomic insecurity rates, with Massachusetts highest for singles (61.7%) and Vermont

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for couples (34.8%). The costliest states also break down overwhelmingly as those thattend to vote Democratic, while the most affordable generally lean Republican.

California was No. 8 for singles’ economic insecurity (53.8%) and No. 5 for couples(27.4%).

The most affordable state for singles was Nevada (41.1%) and for couples was Alaska(14.7%).

Most older adults rely on Social Security as a key component of income, but on averagemore than half who live below the Elder Index rely on Social Security for at least 90% oftheir incomes.

“As the older adult population grows, the federal government and each state must learn torecognize the security gap and those who fall into it,” the report concluded.

Although the research highlights the economic security challenges for many older adultswho live independently, the situation is probably even worse for those who aren’t in goodhealth.

Almost one-fifth of Americans 65 and older are struggling with poor health, according to arecent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One in 5 reported “alot of difficulty” and an additional 4 in 10 have “some difficulty” in at least one categoryincluding vision, hearing, mobility, communication, cognition and self-care. Suchlimitations probably add to expenses.

The CDC also found baby boomers are retiring in larger numbers and living longer. At age75, men are projected to live an additional 11.3 years; the figure is 13 years for women.Those estimates have risen from 8.8 years and 11.5 years since 1980.

11/24/19, 4:55 PM


A misuse of ratepayer money bySoCalGas?Critics say the utility undermines the state’s climate goalsby funding groups that promote natural gas.

BY SAMMY ROTH

A WORKER tests for a leak at SoCalGas’ Aliso Canyon facility near Porter Ranch in2017. The utility says it funds groups whose advocacy benefits its customers. (Jae C.Hong Associated Press)

11/24/19, 4:55 PM


The Gas Genius social media accounts feature softly lit images of families and millennialscooking on outdoor grills, enjoying warm baths and relaxing by roaring fire pits.

“Will 2020 be the year you upgrade your home to natural gas?” asked a recent caption onthe Gas Genius Instagram.

The posts are part of a national campaign to highlight the virtues of natural gas, one of themain contributors to global climate change, as California and other states make plans tophase out fossil fuels. The campaign is led by the American Public Gas Assn., a tradegroup for municipal gas providers.

But some of the funding has come from unknowing customers of Southern California GasCo., newly disclosed documents show.

The Los Angeles-based utility — one of America’s largest private gas companies — hasbeen charging ratepayers, rather than shareholders, for some of its contributions to APGAand other gas industry advocacy groups, according to data shared with The Times. Thatmeans money paid by SoCalGas customers on their monthly bills has been used tosupport groups working to promote natural gas and preserve the gas utility businessmodel.

Critics say it’s wrong for SoCalGas to spend customer money in ways they see as at oddswith California’s climate change policies.

SoCalGas argues that ratepayer funding is appropriate because it’s trying to help the statemeet its climate goals, not undermine them. The company funds organizations “thatprovide benefits to our customers, including energy efficiency programs and research thathelp keep our customers’ monthly bills affordable, and programs that combat climatechange and air pollution from every sector of the economy,” spokesman Chris Gilbridesaid in an email.

Monopoly utilities such as SoCalGas can generally spend shareholder money howeverthey want. But they’re supposed to spend ratepayer money only on projects that benefitratepayers — infrastructure upgrades that improve safety, for instance, or outreach tocustomers about rebate programs.

Consumer watchdogs at the California Public Utilities Commission are working todetermine whether the gas company’s use of customer money to support industry groupsis appropriate.

But based on the information available so far, it appears the utility’s spending may be partof a “systematic and intentional response to the threat” posed by California’s increasinglyaggressive efforts to slash planet-warming emissions, said Daniel Buch, a supervisor atthe PUC’s Public Advocates Office.

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“Using ratepayer funds to undermine the state’s interests and goals is inappropriate,”Buch said.

The Public Advocates Office compelled SoCalGas to turn over data last month detailing itscontributions to several industry groups and revealing how much of that money camefrom ratepayers versus shareholders. The independent watchdog office shared the datawith the Los Angeles Times. California’s other investor-owned utilities could also facescrutiny over their funding of industry groups. Buch said the Public Advocates Office hasasked for similar data from Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and SanDiego Gas & Electric, which like SoCalGas is owned by Sempra Energy.

For SoCalGas, at least, the dollar figures are relatively small.

The utility has given $50,000 to APGA each of the last three years, charging half thatmoney to ratepayers and half to shareholders. SoCalGas serves nearly 6 million homesand businesses from the Central Valley to the U.S.-Mexico border, meaning $25,000comes out to less than half a cent per customer.

The gas company could easily cover the entirety of those contributions with shareholderfunds. In its latest federal financial filing, the utility’s corporate parent, San Diego-basedSempra, reported $813 million in earnings in the third quarter of 2019, with $106 millionin cash on hand as of Sept. 30.

This isn’t the first time SoCalGashas been accused of using ratepayer dollars to try to keepits customers hooked on gas.

The Public Advocates Office has sparred with SoCalGas over the company’s alleged use ofcustomer funds to fight energy efficiency rules. The watchdog also discovered thatSoCalGas used customer money to help launch a pro-gas advocacy group calledCalifornians for Balanced Energy Solutions, or C4BES. SoCalGas says its infrastructurehas a vital role to play in combating climate change. The company plans to replace 20% ofthe fossil gas in its pipelines with climate-neutral biomethane, also known as renewablegas, by 2030, and later add large amounts of renewable hydrogen and other non-fossilfuels.

Some environmentalists are skeptical those alternate fuels will pan out. But SoCalGasofficials say taking advantage of existing gas infrastructure is an easier, cheaper climatesolution than asking consumers to replace their gas appliances with electric versions,which is preferred by activists.

“With growing renewable gas supplies, promising renewable hydrogen technologies,micro-grids and residential fuel cells, our natural gas system is a critical asset that canhelp California achieve its climate goals, without sacrificing reliability or making energyunaffordable,” Gilbride said.

11/24/19, 4:55 PM


Fending off threats to natural gasAPGA commissioned the Gas Genius social media blitz through a task group led by aformer SoCalGas employee, who now runs a public utility in Tennessee. That’s accordingto documents obtained by the Climate Investigations Center, a nonprofit watchdog group,and shared with The Times.

APGA’s advocacy has included pushing the Trump administration to overhaul regulationsand fighting policies that promote zero-emission construction. SoCalGas has participatedin some of those efforts.

For instance, a SoCalGas employee helped develop alternate versions of two climatechange resolutions APGA was trying to block at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, accordingto emails obtained by the Climate Investigations Center. One of the original resolutionscalled for a “comprehensive national response to climate change.” The other expressedsupport for a transition to net-zero-energy buildings by 2050.

In APGA’s alternate versions, references to a “carbon-free” economy and “net-zero”buildings were replaced by calls for a “low-carbon” economy and a “lower ... carbonfootprint” for buildings. Both of the original resolutions opposed by APGA were approvedby the mayors earlier this year. APGA says its advocacy benefits SoCalGas customers, inpart because natural gas produces fewer planet-warming emissions than other fuelspeople use to keep warm, such as heating oil and propane. Natural gas-fired electricityhas also helped wean America off coal, the most polluting fossil fuel.

Natural gas “provides a multitude of benefits to energy consumers, communities and ourcountry,” APGA said in a written statement to The Times.

“Families in California and across the country benefit from balanced energy policies thatpreserve consumer choice and affordability and provide a pathway for a sustainableenergy future,” APGA said.

Ratepayer funding for advocacy groupsUtilities typically argue that trade groups provide technical know-how and industryupdates that help them serve customers, and therefore customers ought to fund theirmembership in those groups, said Matt Freedman, an attorney with the Utility ReformNetwork, an independent consumer watchdog.

But in many cases, “there are big questions about whether these trade associations addvalue from the ratepayer perspective,” Freedman said.

“If it’s pure political advocacy, there’s no good argument for ratepayers to fund that,” hesaid. In response to data requests from the Public Advocates Office, SoCalGas

11/24/19, 4:55 PM


acknowledged charging ratepayers for contributions to several advocacy groups.

Since 2017, the California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition received $188,000 in ratepayerfunds and $29,250 in shareholder funds from SoCalGas. The coalition describes itself as“an association of natural gas vehicle and engine manufacturers, utilities, fuel providersand fleet operators” looking to reduce California’s dependence on petroleum — in part bypushing lawmakers and regulators to promote adoption of vehicles powered by naturalgas.

Asked how its work benefits SoCalGas customers, the coalition’s president, ThomasLawson, pointed out that California cities have some of the nation’s worst air pollution.Replacing diesel trucks with vehicles powered by cleaner natural gas, Lawson said, “canprovide relief for those Californians right now.”

Environmentalists say electric cars are better than natural gas vehicles, because they’repowered by California’s increasingly clean electricity supply.

Another group, the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, has gotten nearly $90,000 fromSoCalGas since 2017, with the funding split about evenly between ratepayers andshareholders. The coalition advocates at the federal and state levels for policies thatpromote use of renewable gas, which is captured from dairy farms, landfills, sewagetreatment plants and other industrial operations that would otherwise spew the heat-trapping gas into the atmosphere.

The coalition is participating in a Public Utilities Commission proceeding to developprograms for reducing emissions from residential and commercial buildings. AnotherSoCalGas-funded group, C4BES, withdrew from that proceeding in August after it wasaccused of being a front for the gas company. The renewable gas coalition’s chiefexecutive, Johannes Escudero, said in an email that SoCalGas is one of more than 200member companies “who are committed to the sustainable development, deployment andutilization of renewable natural gas produced from methane that would otherwise beflared and wasted or, worse, vented fugitively into the atmosphere as a short-lived climatepollutant many times more potent than carbon.”

The group’s work helps ensure “that present and future generations, including SoCalGas’ratepayers, have access to domestic, renewable, clean fuel and energy,” Escudero said.

Growing the market for natural gasThe American Gas Assn. has received more money from SoCalGas than any of the othergroups the Public Advocates Office asked about. The gas company’s chief executive, BretLane, sits on AGA’s board of directors.

SoCalGas has given more than $2.1 million in ratepayer funds to AGA over the last three

11/24/19, 4:55 PM


years and anticipates contributing an additional $191,000 in customer money and$31,000 in shareholder money this year, the company told the consumer watchdog.

The gas company is a member of AGA’s Sustainable Growth Committee, which works toidentify “opportunities for natural gas utility growth,” according to documents obtainedby the Center for Climate Investigations. A 2018 memo discusses the committee’s effortsto build a case against gas alternatives, and describes renewable gas “as a conduit toenvironmental organizations” that might “mitigate the opposition’s fervor” against newgas pipelines. The gas company is also a member of AGA’s committee on building energycodes, whose “guiding principles” say AGA “will continue to assert the value of natural gasoptions and oppose ‘electrification’ efforts that would prohibit, negatively impact, or limitconsumer choice for the direct use of natural gas.”

In a statement to The Times, AGA described gas as “an essential part of plans to reduce”climate emissions. Replacing gas appliances with electric versions, the association said, is“a costly approach for a small amount of emissions reduction” that could “be burdensometo consumers, the economy and have profound impacts and costs on the electric sector,which is not currently built to handle the energy load” of the natural gas delivery system.

SoCalGas says AGA, APGA, the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas and the Natural GasVehicle Coalition all do work that benefits the utility’s customers. SoCalGas pointed to thepotential air-quality benefits of natural gas vehicles, as well as state policies aimed atreducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants. The company says it can helpachieve those policies by capturing renewable gas from industrial facilities before it entersthe atmosphere.

The battle over residential furnacesThe Public Advocates Office has been sparring with SoCalGas over its use of ratepayerfunds for several years.

In 2017, the consumer watchdog accused the company of working alongside APGA andAGA to try to block a new efficiency standard for residential gas furnaces. SoCalGasinsisted it had done nothing wrong, arguing the proposed federal rule would harmconsumers by raising the cost of furnaces.

But a SoCalGas program manager suggested an additional motive, writing in an emailobtained by the Public Advocates Office that the rule “will increase the cost of a furnace ifadopted and as such could create fuel switching away from gas.... The gas industry needsto be actively involved with this issue.”

Citing the furnace rule and several other actions, the Public Advocates Office accused thecompany of spending ratepayer dollars in a “concerted effort to undermine the state’senergy efficiency goals.” The PUC ultimately ordered SoCalGas to stop conducting energy

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efficiency advocacy funded by ratepayers.

But the consumer watchdog now says the company initially violated that order, chargingratepayers at least $6,000 for additional advocacy, and later tried to hide the extent of itsviolations. Last month, the PUC directed SoCalGas to explain why it shouldn’t besanctioned.

“My concern is that it’s endemic of a larger cultural problem, a willingness to do as youplease and not be concerned with what the regulator is going to think if you get caught,”said Mike Campbell, a program manager at the Public Advocates Office. The consumerwatchdog has also asked the PUC to deny shareholders their customary incentivepayments for the gas company’s energy efficiency advocacy in 2016 and 2017, arguing thepayments are supposed to reward good behavior. There’s not much money at stake —$180,000 in total incentives, which comes out to a fraction of a penny per Sempra Energyshare — but the Public Advocates Office says ratepayers should get to keep the money.

“The public should not be spending a dollar on efforts to undermine our climateobjectives,” said Matt Vespa, an attorney with the nonprofit law firm Earthjustice who hasrepresented the Sierra Club in regulatory battles with the gas company.

SoCalGas has argued shareholders are entitled to their $180,000 reward because thecompany did nothing wrong.

In response to allegations that the company violated the PUC’s order to stop conductingratepayer-funding advocacy, SoCalGas told the commission it ended its advocacy workwithin 40 days of the order, explaining that some of the continued work involved“wrapping up and transitioning off projects.”

The utility also promised to transfer the cost of that work from ratepayers to shareholders“in an abundance of caution and as a showing of good faith.”

More broadly, SoCalGas has objected to the Public Advocates Office’s characterization ofits energy efficiency advocacy. The watchdog’s negative portrayal of the gas company “isdirectly contradicted by SoCalGas’ track record in achieving gas energy efficiencysavings,” the utility wrote in a 2017 PUC filing.

11/24/19, 4:48 PM


Five states resist touting censusCongressional seats and billions in federal funding are atstake.ASSOCIATED PRESS

ORLANDO, Fla. — With billions in federal aid and seats in Congress at stake, some statesare dragging their feet in carrying out one of the Census Bureau’s chief recommendationsfor making sure everyone is counted during the 2020 census.

Five states — Florida, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas — have not set up“complete count committees” that would create public awareness campaigns to encouragepeople to fill out the questionnaires.

In some of those states, politicians argued that a statewide body would be unnecessary,since local committees, cities and nonprofit organizations are already working to publicizethe census. In others, state leaders didn’t see any urgency to act.

The once-a-decade count of the U.S. population starts in January in a remote area ofAlaska. The rest of the nation takes part starting in the spring.

“We are encouraging others to join in,” Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham saidthis month. “The clock is ticking, and the time to join is now.”

Six states — Iowa, Maine, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin — only goton board in the last several weeks.

Officials say the committees can separate census winners from losers.

“Complete count committees are extremely effective,” said Albert Fontenot, an associatedirector at the Census Bureau. “It’s in the states’ interests in that they get a funding flowand congressional seats.”

Of the holdout states, all but Louisiana have Republican governors. In Texas, a measure tocreate a committee died in the GOP-dominated Legislature earlier this year even though

11/24/19, 4:48 PM


the second most populous state has the most to gain from the census — up to threecongressional seats.

Some Texas lawmakers were worried about losing their seats during redistricting ifpopulation surges favoring Democrats were found in urban and suburban areas, said LuisFigueroa, legislative and policy director at the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin.

Also, at the time, the Trump administration was pushing to add a citizenship question tothe form, and some lawmakers didn’t want to take a stand on the issue by promoting thecensus, he said. The U.S. Supreme Court later blocked the question.

Twenty-six state governments are appropriating nearly $350 million to reach people andget them to respond to the census. The amounts range from California’s record $187million to Montana’s $100,000, according to the National Conference of StateLegislatures. New York City is committing $40 million.

States led by Democrats have spent more per capita. Of the 11 states spending at least $1per resident, all but North Dakota have Democratic governors, according to an AssociatedPress analysis.

California, which stands to lose a seat in Congress, is spending $4.73 per person, usingthe money to target certain ethnic communities, provide educational materials to schoolsand identify community leaders who can personally encourage participation in the mostpopulous state.

Spending on outreach offers a great return on investment, said Ditas Katague, director ofthe California Complete Count-Census 2020 Office.

“You have to look at how many programs will suffer and how much money we will lose,”Katague said.



O.C. sheriff attacks ruling onshackling of inmatesHe insists that binding all detainees at the waist incourthouses is necessary for safety.BY MARISA GERBER

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said he will appeal a judge’s recent ruling ordering hisdepartment to stop its blanket policy of shackling inmates at the waist inside countycourthouses, publicly attacking the move as a “significant judicial overreach.”

Last week, in response to several requests from defense attorneys, O.C. Superior CourtJudge Kathleen Roberts issued a ruling saying the Sheriff’s Department’s policy ofshackling inmates, often for hours, as they await court appearances “demeans the dignityof the court process.”

“It is impermissible,” the judge wrote, “to allow a policy of blanket shackling of inmates inholding cells.”

Roberts’ ruling, however, isn’t an absolute ban on the practice. Sheriff’s officials can stilluse waist restraints while transporting inmates from jail to the courthouse, Roberts wrote,and can make case-by-case requests to judges for certain inmates to be restrained even inthe courthouse.

In her written ruling barring the blanket practice of shackling all inmates, Robertshighlighted the case of an inmate who had submitted a court declaration saying that aftershe was put in shackles, she’d had a “mild panic attack” and struggled to breathe.

“I began to panic because the waist chain was tight,” the inmate wrote, according to aportion of the declaration included in the judge’s ruling.

The inmate said that her handcuffs were attached to the chain around her waist, limitingher movement, and that she’d been menstruating and had held in her urine for severalhours out of concern that she wouldn’t be able to use the bathroom without help, thedeclaration reads.

“I was both uncomfortable and self-conscious,” the inmate wrote. “It was degrading.”



Being shackled in a courthouse holding cell could affect an inmate’s ability to freelydiscuss the intricacies of a case with their lawyer, including discussions of plea bargains,Roberts wrote in her ruling. The judge added that she had not been convinced by countycounsel’s argument that shackling all detainees was the “least restrictive means toaccomplish security goals.”

On Wednesday, two days after the ruling, the sheriff tweeted a scathing response, sayingRoberts had committed “significant judicial overreach.”

The department’s across-the-board shackling policy, he argued, is necessary to keepinmates and staff safe.

“When inmates of different classification levels are mixed,” Barnes said, “it is necessary touse waist restraints as a means of preventing assaults and other nefarious activities.”

The sheriff argued that the ruling resulted from a “false narrative” pushed by defenseattorneys, who had “grossly distorted the restrictiveness of the waist restraints.” Barnescontends that video of shackled inmates indicates that they can eat, use the restroom andblow their nose while restrained.

In his statement, Barnes also seemed to question the judge’s impartiality, mentioningthat, in the past, she had been affiliated with the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Judge Roberts,” he wrote, “made a decision for the entire Orange County Superior Courtsystem that was very much consistent with the ACLU’s anti-incarceration agenda.”

Barnes said in his statement that he plans to appeal the judge’s order.

The legal back-and-forth marks the latest battle for a department — and a jail system —that in recent years has been mired by an informant scandal that jeopardized somecriminal cases and drew scrutiny from state and federal investigations.

In early 2016, three inmates accused of violent crimes escaped from Men’s Central Jail,the county’s largest lock-up, by cutting through a metal screen in their fourth-floor cell,crawling through a plumbing tunnel and rappelling from the roof of the maximum-security jail with a rope of knotted bed sheets.

11/24/19, 5:07 PMThe 210 Freeway’s name isn’t consistent, here’s why – Press Enterprise

Page 1 of 6https://www.pe.com/2019/11/24/the-210-freeways-name-isnt-consistent-heres-why/

By AMY BENTLEY | [email protected] | CorrespondentPUBLISHED: November 24, 2019 at 10:00 am | UPDATED: November 24, 2019 at 10:00am

A car takes the eastbound 210 Freeway on ramp from Base Line Street in Highland onThursday, Sept. 26, 2019. Construction could begin in early 2020 for a freeway wideningproject that includes improvements at this interchange. (Photo by Jennifer Iyer, RedlandsDaily Facts/SCNG)

NEWS

The 210 Freeway’s name isn’tconsistent, here’s why



Q: Joe Blackstock of Upland, who also writes a local history column for the Southern

California News Group, observed that when the 210 Freeway was !nally completed

between La Verne and Redlands some years ago, it was not called Interstate 210, the

way the highway is labeled west of La Verne to San Fernando. “Any idea why that

eastern portion has not become I-210 and still remains State Route 210?” Blackstock

asked.

A: This can be confusing, but yes, the 210 is not an interstate the entire way. What was

formerly State Route 30 through San Bernardino County in Caltrans District 8, from

the 10 Freeway to the Los Angeles County line, became Interstate 210 west of the 215

Freeway with recent construction, said Caltrans Spokeswoman Joy M. Schneider. She

said the signs along the 30 east of the 215, having not been a part of this particular

construction project, were revised to be called State Route 210 to re"ect continuity in

route numbering; the state route designation remained, but the route number

changed to 210. Formal “interstate” status on the eastern portion is tied to future 210

construction projects. Future plans to upgrade the non-interstate portion of the 210

(the SR 210 portion) will include changes to its route designation and new signs once

this is complete, she said.

We don’t know when this will happen, though. There are no set dates yet for this work

on the 210 in the eastern Inland Empire. In other words, once future highway work is

!nished on the eastern portion of State Route 210, it will be changed to Interstate 210.

Q: Charles Hastings asked why the 15 Freeway in Corona backs up all the time for

miles in each direction in the area of the Dos Lagos shopping center.

A: This area of the 15 could be the poster child freeway for awful Southern California

traf!c. First, we asked a couple of California Highway Patrol of!cers why they thought

this particular area is such a choke point every day. For one thing, observed CHP

Of!cer Dan Olivas, the area is saturated with development and commuters. “There are

just more people than the roads can handle,” he said, and we concur.

Part of the area also lacks a freeway shoulder, he noted, so if a vehicle breaks down or

there’s an accident, affected vehicles have to stop in the freeway lanes and this blocks

traf!c.



Another major factor Caltrans of!cials pointed to is the road and freeway construction

that’s been going on in the area, o#en causing on-ramp, off-ramp and lane closures,

undoubtedly worsening traf!c.

A major project underway is the Cajalco Road-15 Freeway Interchange Improvement

Project, which should be fully completed by December or January 2020. The city of

Corona and Caltrans are overhauling the 15/Cajalco Road interchange from Temescal

Canyon Road to Bedford Canyon Road. (The project website gives a full description:

http://i15cajalco.com/overview/). The $45 million dollar project includes widening

Cajalco from a two-lane bridge to a six-lane bridge with a new alignment north of the

existing bridge. The bridge will include a striped median, outside shoulders and a

sidewalk on the south side; the existing northbound and southbound ramp

intersections will be recon!gured and all existing ramps will be realigned. This new

bridge interchange will have two northbound on-ramps to allow local residents easier

access to the 15. Readers can visit the website, email [email protected] or call the

toll-free helpline at 888-600-0277 for more details. You can also sign up online for

construction alerts via email from the website.

Another major, ongoing construction project that will continue at least halfway into

2020 is the Riverside Transportation Commission’s 15 Freeway Express lanes project

which is adding two express lanes in each direction of the 15 from the 60, down to

Cajalco Road. This $472 million project includes widening 11 bridges. The expectation

is eventually it will relieve traf!c backups and make the freeway move better, but in

the meantime, construction may cause more backups. Visit this project website for

details: https://www.15project.info.

We hate to say it, but if you’re a local resident or commuter in Corona and have what is

commonly called “construction fatigue,” you might need to get used to it for a while.

Q: Tom Ranney, a resident of Alta Loma, reported a few weeks ago that all the lane

striping on the Riverside Avenue bridge over the 210 had been removed. Ranney asked

why Caltrans or the city of Rialto would do this without installing temporary markings

until the lines are repainted. He felt it created a dangerous situation.



A: We asked Caltrans, which is working on a paving project there, about this. To

Caltrans’ credit, Spokeswoman Terri Kasinga jumped right on it and immediately

reached out to their resident engineer with our reader’s concerns and to let the site

engineers know they needed to install a temporary stripe or markers. Kasinga said the

engineers were set to install temporary markers that same night to !x the problem.

Kuddos to Caltrans for being so responsive about a possible safety issue reported by

our reader in Alta Loma.

Do you commute to work in the Inland Empire? Spend a lot of time in your vehicle?Have questions about driving, freeways, toll roads or parking? If so, write or call Onthe Road and we’ll try to answer your questions. Please include your question or issue,name, city of residence, phone number and email address. Write [email protected] call 951-368-9670.


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Amy BentleyA newspaper, magazine andonline journalist in SouthernCalifornia for three decades,Amy Bentley has written aboutnearly every topic imaginable,

Tags: driving,On the Road,Top Stories IVDB,Top Stories PE,Top Stories RDF,Top Stories Sun,Traffic, Transportation

11/24/19, 4:52 PM


Making waves in a sea of povertyPlans for luxury surf resort stir concern of even starkerinequity

THE MEMBERS-ONLY club wants to build a resort with an artificial wave system, thekind championed by surfer Kelly Slater. Activists in Thermal want to ensure thatofficials plan for the community at large. (Allen J. Schaben Los Angeles Times)

11/24/19, 4:52 PM


JULIA WICK

In the driest reaches of the California desert, a fight is brewing over a proposed luxurysurf resort that would rise in a deeply impoverished part of the eastern Coachella Valley.

The proposed Thermal Beach Club is being billed as a first-of-its-kind destination, wherea 22-acre surf lagoon with ocean-simulating waves would anchor a development withhundreds of high-end private residences and fancy clubhouse amenities. It would be thekind of place where, according to environmental planning documents, residents would bepicked up by staff-driven golf carts and dropped off at the amenity of their choosing.

The development would take shape on what is now vacant land in Thermal, anunincorporated community in Riverside County about a dozen miles from the edge of theSalton Sea.

But to call the proposed Thermal oasis incongruous with the existing surroundings wouldbe an understatement of comic proportions, and the plans have drawn fierce oppositionfrom community activists.

Thermal is a predominantly Latino community where more than a third of residents live

THE THERMAL Club, which occupies 426 acres in a mostly poor and Latino area, hasbeen described in these pages as an “alternative playground for the ultra-rich.”(Thermal Club)

11/24/19, 4:52 PM


below the poverty line, according to census data. The median household income is about$27,455.

It’s also an area of the desert that, according to the Desert Sun of Palm Springs, is“increasingly being eyed by developers as a place for profit-driven projects instead of theaffordable housing and environmental justice measures that residents say are needed.”

The area is already home to the members-only Thermal Club, a recently completedmotorsports development where multimillion-dollar villas surround four racetracks, witha staff of racing professionals on hand. The Times has described the Thermal Club

as “an alternative playground for the ultra-rich,” where one member, for example, keeps87 cars on site.

Lesly Figueroa, a policy advocate with Leadership Council for Justice and Accountabilitywho organizes with communities in the eastern Coachella Valley, described “the big walls”that surround the ultra-exclusive motorsports club. She said some folks don’t even knowwhat’s inside. They just hear the noise, and see the walls “that are meant to separate thatcommunity from the rest of the eastern Coachella Valley.”

“Yes, development does need to happen. But it also needs to be equitable,” Figueroa said.

She and other activists want to ensure that the powers that be are planning for thecommunity that already lives here, rather than just future vacationers and second-homeowners.

In her view, the biggest message that residents have for local officials is simple: Don’trush the Thermal Beach Club, and take our voices into account.

Of course, one has to understand the eastern Coachella Valley — and the starkcontradictions of the broader valley in which it resides — in order to really understand thecontroversy over Thermal Beach Club.

To outsiders, the name Coachella is often synonymous with big-name musical acts and aflower crown-clad crowd of lithe young things — the trappings of the music festival thatdraws hundreds of thousands to the Indio polo grounds every year. The western part ofthe valley is home to large pockets of concentrated wealth, like the resort towns of RanchoMirage and Indian Wells.

“For folks who live in the eastern part of the valley, there’s just a lot less resources, a lotless investment — a lot less of everything,” Figueroa explains. Thermal is one in a clusterof several small unincorporated communities nearby.

“There’s not a lot of water and wastewater infrastructure that goes into the communities.A lot of people are low-income, Latino, farmworkers,” Figueroa said, naming populations

11/24/19, 4:52 PM


that are historically marginalized and often likely to be underserved.

The eastern Coachella Valley is also a place where critics say environmental racismabounds,

Toxic fumes from a nearly monthlong mulch fire at a recycling center recently closed localschools for days and triggered respiratory illnesses, though few local farmworkersreceived a respite from their work in the fields.

The shrinking Salton Sea produces clouds of salty, alkaline toxic dust containing heavymetals, agricultural chemicals and powdery-fine particulates linked to asthma, respiratorydiseases and cancer, affecting the health of area residents. Nearby agricultural fields canalso bring pesticide exposure.

But the ground for this desert fight was actually laid in another rural California farmcommunity several hundred miles away.

A half-decade ago, the world’s greatest surfer bought a man-made lake specially built forwater skiing amid the alfalfa fields of Lemoore.

It was there, in the Central Valley town just south of Fresno, that Kelly Slater partneredwith a USC professor to construct an engineering marvel of an artificial wave pool thatcould alter the future of competitive surfing.

Artificial wave systems had long existed, but they were largely of the dinky, recreationalvariety, limited to the province of suburban water parks and screaming kids. All of thatchanged with Slater’s Surf Ranch, which brought wave pools cresting toward their ownbroader cultural moment.

The next year, Slater released the first video from his mystery-cloaked testing site. Itshowed the legend riding a perfect multifoot wave more than a hundred miles inland fromthe Pacific Ocean and shook the surfing world.

The release of that 2015 video “opened up this idea that wave pools could now beperformance-based, as opposed to a gimmick,” according to Will McFarland, a marketingmanager at American Wave Machines.

The Solana Beach-based company, which developed its own wave pool system calledPerfectSwell, already powers a surf resort in Waco, Texas, and would be the provider forthe proposed Thermal Beach Club.

“The demand for surf is beyond your wildest imagination,” McFarland said. “And I saythat without any hyperbole whatsoever.”

There is, in his view, a scarcity of waves in California. Even under the most favored of

11/24/19, 4:52 PM


circumstances, when the ocean gods shine down and bring sweet swell, there is still themass of other barrel-chasing bodies to contend with. Which means that the best surf spotsare often too crowded to even catch a wave.

That’s what makes the waves-on-demand market so alluring to a company like his. Andthe Thermal Beach Club, it should be noted, is just one of several surf pool attractions inthe works in the greater Palm Springs area. The upside is huge.

Planning documents say that the proposed surf lagoon would be capable of producing sixwaves per second with maximum heights of seven feet and the technology to ensure thatthe water will “remain crystal clear and blue at all times.”

That crystal-clear water would stand in stark contrast to what comes out of the taps at thenearby Oasis Mobile Home Park, where the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyhas found arsenic contamination at up to 10 times the allowable limit.

According to the Desert Sun, many of the trailer park’s 1,900 inhabitants areundocumented farmworkers, some of whom only speak the indigenous language ofPurepecha.

Figueroa and fellow advocates started doing door-to-door outreach when they first aboutthe Thermal Beach Club proposal in late September.

“Traditionally, how the planning process has worked [is that] it doesn’t include thecommunity,” she said. “It’s a developer-to-agency relationship.”

But Figueroa, who is a Coachella native herself, wanted to ensure that the communityplayed a role in this planning process.

The conflicts came to a head Tuesday when the Riverside County Board of Supervisors —which will need to grant rezoning and environmental approvals for the project — decidedto delay their vote on the matter amid angry testimony from community members.

The board will probably take the vote up again in December. For activists like Figueroa,the situation isn’t unique, just “the last straw” for “something that’s been brewing for awhile within the eastern Coachella Valley.”

“We can’t keep making land use decisions and housing decisions like this,” she said. “Thetraditional planning process needs to be different.”