Little more than a fortnight after Big Bear Lake officials blindsided those living within one of the city’s residential districts by undertaking the construction of a garbage dump in their neighborhood, residents have struck back, hitting the city manager and senior city administrators with a series of moves they did not anticipate.
Over the weekend of October 11/12, word was spreading among a handful of residents in Big Bear Lake that the city was closing out its Clean Bear Site #2, located at 39690 Big Bear Boulevard, and was going to replace it with one to be sited on two lots owned by the city near the corner of Lark and Cienega roads, adjacent to an existing residential neighborhood.
The Clean Bear program in the City of Big Bear Lake provides drop-off locations for residents and tourists – that is tenants and guests of owners of residential properties within the city – who cannot use curbside trash service. The sites accept household refuse, recycling, green/yard waste, pine needles, E-waste and ashes.
That the city properties adjoining Lark and Cienega roads was jarring to those who lived in the neighborhood, which included the aforementioned Lark Road and Cienega Road, as well as Cienega Court, Moab Lane and the area around the Sacred Heart Camp and Retreat. Residents of the area had not been alerted to any items on the city’s planning commission and city council agendas referencing development projects in the area or mention of an alteration of the city’s zoning maps or codes that would have presaged development in the general or specific area. As their had been no hint of any development proposal, including those in compliance with the area’s residential zoning or proposals of any other type, dismay and panic ensued. Continue reading →

San Bernardino County and its 24 municipal jurisdictions are on the brink of suffering a second heavy blow as the result of Jashanpreet Singh’s irresponsible wielding of the Freightliner tractor and trailer he was hauling on October 21.
That day, as the 21-year-old Singh was at the wheel of the semi-truck barreling westbound on the 10 Freeway in the number four lane west of the 15 Freeway, he did not brake at all and ran into the back of and obliterated a white Kia Sorento that had been at a full stop for several seconds before the impact and continued with considerable force into the back of a white pickup truck, which careened to the left as the Freightliner continued unabated into the back of another semi-tractor-pulled trailer, the rear of which momentarily lifted into the air upon impact. The only somewhat-diminished momentum of the Freightliner carried it forward as it careened to the right across two lanes of traffic where it ran into the front of a disabled tractor connected to a long flatbed trailer and the back of the service truck in front of the disabled tractor that were in place on the shoulder of the freeway. The disabled tractor’s front hood was draped open forward and appeared to have been clipped and destroyed along with major elements of the truck’s engine in the collision. A man engaged in repairing the disabled truck was severely injured as a result. Both passengers in the Sorrento were killed and pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of a Toyota Tacoma severely injured in the crash was transported to a hospital, where he died.
A 43-year-old driver of a Dodge Avenger sustained major injuries, while a 57-year-old passenger in a Chevrolet 2500 had a minor injury, according to the California Highway Patrol. Continue reading →

A man engaged in an intense argument with his wife that escalated into gunfire used one of the guns in his possession to fatally shoot with a single shot one of the first deputies to arrive on scene during the noon hour on Monday, October 27.
The man, identified as Angelo Jose Saldivar, 47, was captured less than an hour later, after he fled on a motorcycle in a mad dash on the 210 Freeway westward into Los Angeles County and then reversed course in what was an apparent effort to ditch pursuing authorities, only to have an unanticipated run-in with the side of a vehicle driven by an off-duty deputy, a colleague of the many he had just killed.
Saldivar survived the collision, despite having been launched forward over the hood of the car he had collided with and then impacting the ground on his back while being carried forward by his momentum at a speed nearing or exceeding 60 miles per hour and then being hammered by his tumbling motorcycle. It is anticipated that the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office will charge him with first degree murder and seek the application of the death penalty pursuant to a sentencing enhancement relating to having killed an on-duty police officer once Saldivar is released from the hospital where he remains in stable condition.
The sheriff’s department dispatch center received multiple calls from the neighbors of Veronica Garcia Saldivar, also known as Veronica Garcia Zaragosa, a resident of the condominium complex at 12346 Hollyhock Drive in Rancho Cucamonga, which is part of the residential component at the north end of Victoria Gardens, at around 12:30 pm on Monday, October 27. Those calling reported hearing loud yelling and intense arguing, with two caller’s relaying that they believed they heard gunshots. Continue reading →

A recently intensified crackdown on railroad cargo theft carried out by a multitude of agencies and entities, including the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Police has had significant success, while revealing a large international and familial component among the perpetrators.
Investigators have learned that the thieves have previously succeeded because they had inside information about railroad company operations.
According to the Association of American Railroads, “In recent years, organized criminal groups have increasingly targeted the nation’s railroads using sophisticated tactics and technology to commit cargo theft. While these attacks occur across every freight provider and in every region, collectively the result is rippling supply chain disruptions and costly delays that impact American families.”
A statistic quoted by the Association of American Railroads is that in 2024, total costs to the nation’s largest railroads from theft exceeded $100 million.”
Railroad industry sources and law enforcement professionals report that a substantial amount of railroad cargo theft takes place as a consequence so-called “inside jobs,” that is, with the assistance of those who work with the railroads themselves or as part of the rail infrastructure and support network. Those having specific knowledge of the placing and timing of the shipment by rail of high-value goods is a common vulnerability and a major factor in the success of organized rings who target rail cars for theft.
The Sentinel can report that a breakthrough in the effort to deter railroad theft has been made with investigators’ discovery that organized crime is employing individuals who assume relatively low-ranking and even temporary positions with rail companies or at rail terminals and rail yards to obtain information about what goods are being transported on which trains and in specific rail cars, together with information about when and where the trains are to remain stationary for an extended period.
Somewhat ironically, law enforcement has succeeded in obtaining inside information about how the galère of thieves were able to obtain internal information about the various railroad companies’ operations. Continue reading →

An Ontario man who confronted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as they were engaged in a field operation near his home was shot when one of the federal agents perceived him to have used his vehicle in an aggressive and potentially lethal maneuver to obstruct them.
Carlos Jimenez, 24, had left the trailer in which he resides within the Country Meadows Mobile Home Park, located at 1855 East Riverside Drive at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday October 30 in hid Lexus RX350. He was due to be at work in Baldwin Park at 8 a.m. Giving himself an hour-and-a-half to make the 26-mile commute in weekday morning rush hour traffic, as he routinely did, was a reasonable allotment he calculated, barring a disastrous accident and back-up on 60, 71, 57 or 10 freeways.
Country Meadows is situated on the northwest corner of Riverside Drive and Vineyard Avenue. After exiting the residential park and while traveling on Vineyard Avenue, Jimenez observed, less than two blocks north of Riverside Drive, a Department of Immigration vehicle had stopped a Honda Accord going south on Vineyard Avenue and a team of agents – consisting of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, an enforcement and removal operations deportation officer and two U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations officers – was engaging with the Honda’s three occupants.
The Customs Enforcement officer was was speaking with the driver of the Honda on the driver’s side of the stopped vehicle when Jimenez pulled up in his Lexus RX350.
There is a discrepancy between what Jimenez maintains was said during the ensuing exchange and what the Customs Enforcement officer says was said. Continue reading →

California’s elected Democratic leadership makes no bones about Proposition 50, acknowledging that it is intended to gerrymander the Golden State’s U.S. Congressional Map in a way that will be even more favorable to their party. In making that admission, they insist however that it was not they but the Republicans who cast the first stone with regard to loading the political dice.
Proposition 50 was drafted by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom with input from at least seven other Democratic officeholders and their advisors. No Republicans were involved in framing the proposition. It calls for a one-time suspension the authority of the state’s independent redistricting commission, which was established with the passage of Proposition 20 in 2010, to instead adopt a map drawn by the current state legislature. The California legislature, which meets at the statehouse in Sacramento, consists of the upper legislative house, the California Senate, and the lower legislative house, the California Assembly. A supermajority – more than two-thirds – of the California Senate, are Democrats, consisting of 30 of the body’s 40 members. Likewise, the Assembly is overwhelmingly dominated by the Democratic Party, with which 60 of its members are affiliated, while 20 of its 80 total seats are held by Republicans.
California, the most populous of the nation’s 50 states, is responsible for electing 52 of the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, who meet at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. At present, Democrats lopsidedly outnumber Republicans in California’s 52-member Congressional delegation 43-to-9. That is a reflection of the degree to which California leans leftward politically. Continue reading →