More Inland Students Using Free Tutoring From No Child Left Behind Act. (Press Enterprise Tues. Sept. 18, 2007)

More Inland students using free tutoring from No Child Left Behind

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10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, September 18, 2007

By SHIRIN PARSAVAND
The Press-Enterprise

More students are taking advantage of free tutoring provided under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, but they still make up only a fraction of those eligible for the help, according to a report on the state's 20 largest school districts.

The number of students switching out of low-performing schools to go to higher-performing schools has gone up too, according to the report provided to the state Board of Education for its meeting Tuesday.

The state Department of Education compiled the report in July in response to the U.S. Education Department, which said the state wasn't doing enough to implement the choice and tutoring provisions of No Child Left Behind. The state continues to monitor the 20 districts and to update federal officials, said Jerry Cummings, a program consultant for the state Department of Education.

All four of the Inland school districts reviewed -- Corona-Norco, Fontana, Riverside and San Bernardino -- had an increase last year in the number of students receiving tutoring or switching schools under No Child Left Behind.

Under the federal law, schools that receive federal aid and don't meet performance targets for two consecutive years are put in "program improvement." These schools must give students the option of attending another school in the district. If they remain in the program for more than one year, they must offer free tutoring to low-income students.

Fontana Unified had the largest increase in students enrolled in tutoring of any district in the report. Fontana officials stepped up publicity about the tutoring by including articles in newsletters and making repeated phone calls to families, Deputy Superintendent Cali Olsen-Binks said.

The district also hosts sessions where parents can meet representatives of the 22 companies that provide free tutoring, she said. Riverside Unified and San Bernardino City Unified school districts also host sessions for parents to find out about tutoring.

Despite the increase in Fontana Unified, the 1,276 students receiving tutoring represent only 17 percent of those eligible, according to the district. Nationwide, only 10 percent to 15 percent of eligible children receive the free tutoring, while around 1 percent of children eligible to switch schools take advantage of that option, Cummings said.

For many low-income families, getting children to tutoring sites is difficult. After-school tutoring also competes with other activities, particularly for high school students, according to the report.

Families that might consider switching schools can face even more hurdles. Districts must pay for transportation, but going to another school can mean a long bus ride.

That is the case for the daughter of Rhonda Early, of San Bernardino, who spends an hour each way on city buses to get to Cajon High School rather than attend her assigned school, which is in program improvement.

"It becomes a tradeoff between what's convenient and what we have to do just to expose children to quality academic programs," said Early, a member of the Personnel Commission for the San Bernardino City Unified School District.

Many parents have said they don't want to send their children long distances on buses, said Maria Garcia, a spokeswoman for the district.

In Fontana, some parents simply are more comfortable with their neighborhood school, even if it is in program improvement, Olsen-Binks said.

"They would rather have their child close to home," she said.

Reach Shirin Parsavand at 951-368-9645 or sparsavand@PE.com

No Child

Left Behind

The number of students in the Inland area's largest school districts who took advantage of free tutoring or exercised school choice by transferring to a higher performing school rose in the past year.

Tutoring	2005-06	2006-07
Corona-Norco	176	209
Fontana	463	1,276
Riverside	618	794
San Bernardino	1,744	2,527
Choice	2005-06	2006-07
Corona-Norco	38	75
Fontana	12	25
Riverside	20	48
San Bernardino	17	137

Source: California Department of Education

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BS Ranch Perspective:

I don't know what is better the cost of all the tutoring that the student gets or the switching of their schools. The example that was given in the story was that there was a student that switched schools and rides a bus over an hour two and from school each way, I don't know if that is a great benefit trade off when they are not getting enough rest in order to accomplish the studies needed to make the grades that they are required to even have an average score in the class. Then you have to wonder is that the Child's Fault or is that the Teachers fault for the way that they deliver the Class Curriculum, because if the teacher is one that delivers the  Curriculum without any entertainment to keep the child or anyone interested in what they are teaching then they will end up with a classroom full of people that are ready for bed!! If the people that they are attempting to teach are all in a state of mind to take a nap or go back to bed after arriving at school from waking up after a night of weeknight partying anyway, then the student will fail, and worst of all I believe that this is the type of Teacher that is there whom is just there to collect a pension, and they are really not there so much for the children anymore. OH, They say that they are there for the Children, but no one is really there for the children.  

Teachers claim that their pay isn't all that much, for the job that they have! But, I have to say that they make better then middle class on a single check or single earner for a family! Two Teachers can make about $80,000 a year up to $150,000 a year. I know that in some districts don't pay very much, in fact some only pay a little over $30,000 a year, and some are even less depending on the smaller districts in the small very rural area's, But my point on this is this, that Teachers all get the same Retirement paid into the PERS when the work for a California Based School, that is. Look I don't want to get into an argument with people on how poor teachers are paid, Because in Kentucky in the Blue Ridge mountains there are some really low paid Teachers, Maybe Lower then what I have stated here. I am referring only to that of a California Teacher! That is all just a California Teacher!!

Other then that I can say this, that the Teacher Business and the "No Kid Left Behind Act" should be thought through, to a more Republican way of spening on the plan. I don't care about the Free Tutoring, But what I am tired of hearing about is the Students that are bussed over an hour out of their School District's to Another School district to do the same thing that they would be doiing in their old school, so that doesn't make sence, to me. I guess they are shopping for the more Entertaining Teacher so that they will learn better, in that sense it is well worth it, and it is too bad that there are not more teachers that are not working to put more entertainment into their lessen plan to keep the children Attention and keep them wanting to learn the lessen plan.

BS Ranch

Renovation of S.B. County Registrar of Voters' Office Begines! (Press Enterprise Sept 19, 2007)

Renovation of S. B. County registrar of voters' office begins

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08:26 AM PDT on Wednesday, September 19, 2007

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

Survey: Do you think the move from electronic voting to paper ballots is a good idea?

A tangle of wires, exposed pipe and bare, torn walls greet visitors to the San Bernardino County registrar of voters' office.

The county has begun a $3.4 million renovation of the offices on East Rialto Avenue in San Bernardino even as the registrar's staff is preparing for four elections over the next year and a change in voting systems.

The project, which will add 5,145 square feet of space to the complex, is the first expansion since the registrar's office moved into the building in 1979.

Story continues below

Greg Vojtko / The Press-Enterprise

The renovated San Bernardino County registrar of voters' office will include a 4,300-square-foot room for handling absentee ballots, which numbered about 200,000 in 2006 -- up from 13,901 in 1976.

Registrar Kari Verjil said the improvements have been on the top of her list since she took over two years ago.

"We're running out of space," she said.

The staff has grown along with the number of voters over the years, but the workers have continued to operate in the same space, Verjil said. Training for poll workers sometimes spills into the hallway when they form groups because of tight space.

The number of absentee voters has increased from 13,901 in 1976 to about 200,000 in 2006, but staff still has had to use the same 900-square-foot room for counting ballots.

The renovated office will include a 2,000-square-foot room dedicated to poll worker training with a more user-friendly classroomlike setup. Verjil expects to train about 3,000 poll workers for the Nov. 6 election. The room, a former cafeteria that sat vacant for five years, can double as a media center on election nights, she said.

The absentee-ballot room is being expanded to 4,300 square feet. The layout will allow for the painstaking tasks involved in sorting and counting ballots to be separated into a logical flow, starting with the delivery of the ballots, their verification and sorting, counting by computer and then storage.

"You're not going to be bouncing around like a pingpong ball," Verjil said, describing what the process was like under the current setup.

The counting process will be visible to observers through a glass wall, an improvement over the current observation room that has a few windows, she said.

"The plan is to present an open environment for our voters," Verjil said.

The front area is being redesigned with a larger counter space and employees who deal with the public most often -- candidate and voter registration services -- situated nearby.

The renovations had been planned for early next year, with completion by April, but were moved up after the primary was split into a February presidential primary and a June state primary.

The work is expected to be complete by Dec. 1, just in time for the office to start preparing for the February primary, Verjil said.

A second phase of the expansion, in which a mezzanine will be added to the warehouse area, will take place next year after the primary.

Since Aug. 20, when work began, the registrar's staff has been housed in a smaller office in the same building down a series of hallways. Employees made the transition to their temporary office over a weekend without any difficulties, Verjil said.

In addition to the renovations, the office is switching from electronic voting to paper ballots for this November's election, when some city, college and school district races are being held. Voter turnout typically is lower in such off-year elections and Verjil said the smaller election will allow her staff time to be ready for the transition.

Last month, Secretary of State Debra Bowen decertified electronic voting machines used by San Bernardino, Riverside and other counties, citing security concerns. Counties were ordered to switch to different systems by February.

San Bernardino County will use optical-scan ballots, the same it uses for absentee ballots. At least one touch-screen machine still will be available at each polling place under Bowen's order. The rest of the machines will sit stacked in the registrar's warehouse.

Riverside County also is planning to use optical-scan ballots but has asked Sequoia Voting Systems, the vendor for its voting equipment, to lend ballot counting equipment for the February primary.

Reach Imran Ghori at 909-806-3061 or ighori@PE.com

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BS Ranch Perspective

It is totally unusual to me that they would request to have the Electronic Voter Machines Deactivated even if the Volume of Voters is down when there is an off year to the voting year! I have to say that if they kept the Electronic Machines in use at this time that the Voting Public would have been up rather then down for this time of year! As the Voters have been up over all because of the Electronic Machines.

It is my belief that the Democratic Controlled San Bernardino Offices of the Registrar of Voter's Knows that the Electronic Voting Machines have brought New Voters to VOTE!!   The Democratic Registrar of Voters has requested and won to go back to the Optical Voting Machines, because the Democrats of California Found that they were more Successful when they used the Optical counting Machines, They found that they were more successful when they used that method of voting and so they want to go back to that method of counting votes, since The Computer, Electronic Counting machine counts the Votes right then and there, it draws more voters to Vote, however in my area the more voters are Republican Voters!! That is not good for them, so they want to go back to the old way of voting and make it so that there are less voters to come in and vote, and that way there might be more control on the count, as everyone knows that there are so much more ways to Modify the count on a Optical Eye Paper count, Every time that they did a recount of the presidential Campaign regarding President Bush, and Presidential Candidate Gore, in 2004, the count was different every time, especially in Florida, let alone in California.

Yet this is the system that they the Democrats want to go to, especially since the Democrats are in charge of the Federal Government for the Election!!! Very Interesting.....as the Detective Would Say with the Very Thick German Accent!! Very Interesting...Indeed!!

BS Ranch

Rialto Eyes Toxin Money? (San Bernardino County Sun Sept. 11, 2007) City Pursuing $23Million from State!

Rialto eyes toxin money

City pursuing $23M from state

Jason Pesick, Staff Writer San Bernardino County Sun

Article Launched:09/11/2007 11:26:20 PM PDT

Download: Letter to Cindy Tuck RIALTO - City officials are seeking $23 million in emergency funds from the state because of perchlorate contamination in the drinking water. The contamination is not new nor has an emergency been officially declared, but Rialto has been battling the perchlorate for years. It found its way into the groundwater from the past manufacturing at industrial facilities of military rockets, fireworks and other explosives. On Aug. 29, members of the City Council met in Sacramento with a number of state officials, including Dan Dunmoyer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's deputy chief of staff. Dunmoyer suggested that Rialto look into declaring a state of emergency. "It's the only way we can get emergency funds from the governor. We have to do it," said City Councilman Ed Scott, concerning the possible declaration of a state of emergency. Scott is a member of the council's perchlorate subcommittee. The council will likely vote at its next meeting on whether to declare the emergency, he said. Perchlorate, which could cause a number of health effects by interfering with the thyroid, has been flowing through Rialto from industrial sites on the city's north end. It could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up. The contamination has generated more attention in Sacramento since last month, when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge halted state hearings to determine if three companies - Pyro Spectaculars, Goodrich and Black & Decker - should have to clean some of the contamination. The city laid out its funding request in a letter to Cindy Tuck, undersecretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. The city would use the money to stop the perchlorate from continuing to move through the Rialto Basin and contaminating more clean water. Much of the money Rialto requested would also help the city better understand the extent of the contamination. Rialto has developed plans that spell out what needs to be done in order to better understand the total cleanup cost and the extent of the contamination. The city wants to use the state money to gather that information, Scott said. Then Rialto could take out an insurance policy, and parties such as the suspected polluters, would pay into the policy, to guarantee that the cleanup would be paid for. "We are seeking an emergency cleanup while we urge the state to toughen its enforcement effort against the (potentially responsible parties)," reads the letter, signed by Scott and Councilwoman Winnie Hanson, the other member of the perchlorate subcommittee. In another move that could provide Rialto with millions of dollars in cleanup money, the state Assembly last week amended legislation, which had already passed in the Senate, to provide about $50 million in remaining Proposition 84 money for drinking water cleanup. The money set aside by the Assembly amendment should go to the poorest, most populated and most contaminated areas, said Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland. Perata wrote the original bill. "So Rialto of course is included in that group," Trost said. Scott said he hopes Rialto can get $15 million to $20 million of that money. Both Assembly chambers were expected to vote on the legislation during an all-night session on Tuesday. __________________________________________________ BS Ranch Perspective: When is The Rialto City Administrator going to Wake up, and go to the City Council and ask for the City's Council's Resignation. After all Owen's handling of the Perchlorate Contamination in the water was Very Flawed from the Beginning. He Started off with a massive Law Suit, Opening huge billable hours for him and his Law Firm, from which he knows that the city cannot afford. The Gamble was that the money that was generated by the Law Suit would be paid not by the City but by the private business that was named in the law suit, however the Businesses have been winning their portion of the law suits and it has made it hard for the city now to make a simple request to the Federal Government, (namely the Environment Protection Agency), to come in and assist in the clean up of the Perchlorate. Now that there is an Active Law Suit the EPA will not just step in and clean up the mess, they must wait to allow the law suit to go the full suit, now that the City of Rialto has spent over $23Million on the clean up and they have not gotten anything done to clean up the perchlorate, other then shutting down the wells that had tested beyond the measurable amount that is considered to be toxic, well the wells that are getting small amounts of Perchlorate contamination could be getting more toxic, however they might only do spot checking, but that is not information that is given to the public. Now the city's counselor has to go to the state to bail himself out of the trouble that he has dug himself into! The Rialto City Administrator Garcia still sits in his office while all this goes on, $23 Million of the city's money has been spent and is gone, if this was the Police Department and this kind of money was mishandled, I can say with 100% honesty that the City's Administrator would fire the Police Chief and accuse him of being a thief! Then the Police Department would be torn to bits in the news and the whole Police Department would be called Corrupt!! Wait, we have been down this road, only with a real Corrupt Police Chief, Just like the Cities Attorney seems to be more and more corrupt, with billing more and more money to the city when he gets the second largest check, if not the largest check second only to the City Administrator. Wait, that City Administrator is the one that sits on his hands when it seems to be the time to look into getting a new City Counsel. But who am I? I am just a Concerned Citizen that they are supposed to represent! A Citizen that they are supposed to represent without profit to self!! BS Ranch

Police Fatalities on the rise in 2007 (Christian Science Monitor September 17, 2007)

from the September 17, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0917/p03s03-ussc.html

Police fatalities on the rise in '07

Two shootouts last week are part of a troubling phenomenon in which officer deaths have jumped to a level not seen in 29 years.

By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

 

ATLANTA

The shooting of four police officers, one of them fatally, near Miami on Thursday became another dark day in what is already a tough year for America's 800,000 police officers.

Coming only a few days after a shootout in Odessa, Texas, that killed three officers, the Miami incident became part of a troubling phenomenon for 2007: a spike in the number of police officers who died in the line of duty to a level not seen since 1978.

Of the 132 officers to die so far this year, 54 were shot. The number of shootings represents a 59 percent increase over the same period in 2006, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund in Washington.

After years of watching these figures decline or hold steady, experts are not prepared to say whether this year's increase is a trend or an aberration.

Still, "the figures this year are nothing short of alarming," says Craig Floyd, chairman of the officers memorial fund.

Police offer several possible explanations for the high losses, including an uptick in violent crime around the country. Some experts suggest that community empathy for police, which rose after 9/11, may be waning now, especially in places where tensions exist between poor minority residents and police forces, or where transiency is relatively high, as in Miami or New Orleans.

The '07 trend line, while distressing, does not signal a danger level akin to that of the social upheaval of the 1960s and '70s, or of the "crack wars" of the late 1980s, experts say.

"It is a different time today and [there is] less of a generalized adversarial relationship between the citizenry and the cops," says Laurence Miller, a psychologist who works with the West Palm Beach Police Department in Florida. "The hard cases [in the 1960s and '70s] were a large group of criminals who politicized their criminality as rebellion. Some were sincere rebels with or without a cause, and some were petty criminals who said it was OK to take their anger out on cops."

Between the afterglow of 9/11 and TV shows such as "Cops," which usually depict police officers as tough-guy professionals who exude gritty determination in the face of criminality, law-enforcement officers today enjoy relatively high standing in society at large.

Police losses much higher in early '70s

Those attitudes can affect the police fatality rate. Back in 1973, when there were about 210 officers for every 100,000 Americans, 134 police were feloniously killed, according to statistics from the US Department of Justice. In 2005, the last year for which the DOJ has figures, 55 police officers were feloniously killed and there were about 250 police officers for every 100,000 residents.

(On the other side of the coin, the Justice Department counts an average of 350 "felons justifiably killed by police" in recent years, down from a peak of about 400 in 1994.)

The recent officer deaths from shootings have raised awareness and tension in station houses across the US.

In Florida, 10 police officers have been killed this year. But big metro areas and sprawling, transient suburbs are not the only places affected. Veteran cop Bruce McKay was shot and killed in rural Franconia, N.H., in May.

In the Miami incident, police caught up with the suspect, Shawn Sherwin Labeet, Thursday night at an apartment complex, where he was shot and killed. Police say he was armed and armored, and they have arrested six others for helping him flee or for giving false information. Miami-Dade officer Jose Somohano died in the shootout earlier that day, one officer is hospitalized, and two were treated and released.

"It's gut-wrenching," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez on Thursday before the suspect was found. "It's a sad day."

The suspect had used a powerful semiautomatic weapon to shoot the four officers, police say.

Dangers of police work remain high

Nationwide, six incidents this year resulted in multiple officer deaths, from Moncks Corner, S.C., to New York City.

The fact that cops are backed up by tough laws, improved armor, and better training should not lull anyone into complacency about the danger of police work, says Terry Lynn, a professor at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., and a former police officer who was wounded in action in Boston in 1993.

"When good intersects with the bad, we hope that good is always going to result, and that's not always the end result," says Mr. Lynn.

Despite tragic incidents, police work is safer than many people might think. Policing is ranked eighth – below convenience store clerks, construction workers, and Bering Sea crabbers – when it comes to dangerous jobs.

Mr. Floyd of the officers memorial fund allows, too, that recent events could be aberrations. Between 2005 and 2006, he says, North Carolina went from zero officer deaths to 10. A similar thing happened in Virginia the year before. "It's hard to explain that," he says.

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BS Ranch Perspective:

It's not just in Atlanta that the Police Population is being assaulted, it is also these 50 states as well! For some reason the Respect for Police is down and the people that are have that respect for the Police, simply don't any more! It is truly a sad life that we are in and have become!!

I hope for The sake of the United States of America that the feelings turn around, before the Law Enforcement Position becomes a position that is something that People hate have had grown to hate!!

BS Ranch

Rialto Seeks $23Million for Perchlorate Cleanup

Rialto seeks $23M for perchlorate cleanup

By Jason Pesick, Staff Writer Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

RIALTO - City officials are seeking $23 million in emergency funds from the state because of perchlorate contamination in the drinking water. The contamination is not new nor has an emergency been officially declared, but Rialto has been battling the perchlorate for years. It found its way into the groundwater from the past manufacturing at industrial facilities of military rockets, fireworks and other explosives. On Aug. 29, members of the City Council met in Sacramento with a number of state officials, including Dan Dunmoyer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's deputy chief of staff. Dunmoyer suggested that Rialto look into declaring a state of emergency. "It's the only way we can get emergency funds from the governor. We have to do it," said Councilman Ed Scott, concerning the possible declaration of a state of emergency. Scott is a member of the council's perchlorate subcommittee. The council will likely vote at its next meeting on whether to declare the emergency, he said. Perchlorate, which could cause a number of health effects by interfering with the thyroid, has been flowing through Rialto from industrial sites on the city's north end. It could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up. The contamination has generated more attention in Sacramento since last month, when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge halted state hearings to determine if three companies - Pyro Spectaculars, Goodrich and Black & Decker - should have to clean some of the contamination. The city laid out its funding request in a letter to Cindy Tuck, undersecretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. The city would use the money to stop the perchlorate from continuing to move through the Rialto Basin and contaminating more clean water. Much of the money Rialto requested would also help the city better understand the extent of the contamination. Rialto has developed plans that spell out what needs to be done in order to better understand the total cleanup cost and the extent of the contamination. The city wants to use the state money to gather that information, Scott said. Then Rialto could take out an insurance policy, and parties, such as the suspected polluters, would pay into the policy, to guarantee that the cleanup would be paid for. "We are seeking an emergency cleanup while we urge the state to toughen its enforcement effort against the (potentially responsible parties)," reads the letter, signed by Scott and City Council member Winnie Hanson, the other member of the perchlorate subcommittee. In another move that could provide Rialto with millions of dollars in cleanup money, the state Assembly last week amended legislation, which had already passed in the Senate, to provide about $50 million in remaining Proposition 84 money for drinking water cleanup. The money set aside by the Assembly amendment should go to the poorest, most populated and most contaminated areas, said Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland. Perata wrote the original bill. "So Rialto of course is included in that group," Trost said. Scott said he hopes Rialto can get $15 to $20 million of that money. Both Assembly chambers were expected to vote on the legislation during an all-night session on Tuesday. Contact writer Jason Pesick at (909) 386-3861 or via e-mail at jason.pesick@sbsun.com. _______________________________________________ BS Ranch Perspective: I am wondering why they are still finding ways to fix a problem that is a Health Risk to the Public, Yet according to this report the people of Rialto has been Drinking the Contaminated Water the whole time, yet they are just now getting to a point where they are coming up with a Figure where it will cost them to clean it up? So I am at a loss here, the people of Rialto either is not Informed on this subject and they don't really know what they are drinking or what they have been drinking, over this time that the city has been fighting for a bundle of cash to clean up the mess. The other part that is funny or fishy is that there is nobody named where the $23Million is coming from to help the people ? The other part that delivers some concern is that there might be a little bit of Conflict of Interest with the City Council Member being on the Board to make sure that the City Water Department gets a whole lot of money in his, I Mean, their pockets!! It is great that there is money that is Finally being named, for the city of Rialto. It is weird when all the County Water Agencies, Namely West Valley Water District, which also serves a great deal of the Northern Homes and businesses in Rialto didn't have much trouble getting funding for their filtration systems that were needed to clean out the Perchlorate from the water that they had from the North End of Rialto, where they Serve, North of Baseline Ave. Colton also was not mentioned in the Papers or their city council wasn't named in the news on Perchlorate, yet when the contamination was first mentioned Colton's water Wells were found to have Perchlorate in the wells! Perchlorate was funded and cleaned up, without any public needs regarding Colton's clean up of the Perchlorate. Fontana Water District also was fixed up and cleaned out as well! Fontana also had the Reverse Osmosis Filtration systems that were attached their wells, at the cost of approximately a $1 to $2Million a filtration system, and Fontana, has approximately six or seven lined up on Baseline alone. Yet they were not put in the News Papers, nor were they put in the News Papers with a huge story, I could be wrong and I might be, but I don't remember seeing one. So for Rialto to be still fighting for monies that should have been paid in filtration equipment, tells me one thing that they wanted the money for something other then what it might have been intended for? (I pray that I am way off on my feelings here) But here it is!! I am starting to question the leadership as I have done in the past, but I feel that the $23,000,000.00 million is needed to pay back the bill that has been aqumilated by Owen in the work that his office has done in this matter. The rest of the Money is needed to pay the people at the Airport with whom the city has a contract with to get them moved to San Bernardino Airport, and pay their rent for the next few years, (I am not sure on how many years that the city is requred to pay for their rent for their newly built hangers, paid for by the people that live in Rialto). Then they will use some of that money to also work with the Eviromental Protection Agency to get started on the clean up of the Perchlorate in the water supply on the closed down wells in the City of Rialto. They will also ask Target to get started on their portain of developing the area Linden ave @ Walnut Ave, Right where the Cellular Towers currently are and the main Hangers are, where Linden Meets Miro Way! Great huh, shopping at it greatest, not to mention that Rialto might even ask Target to assist them in building the roads connecting Linden Ave from the North end of through where the Airport used to be and then there will be some kind of Art Scholl Ave in Art's Honor, after all Art did an Awful lot to work on expanding Rialto Airport, he saw what it could bring to Rialto, But since there isn't a Visionary Like Art around anymore the Airport is not in the plans for Rialto. It's a shame that Art has past, becuase his vision was to have a larger airport, which many of the people of Rialto was following, but when Art Passed his idea's past with him, I am really sorry to say!! But then when Ed Scott was in there, he knew Art Schol's Dream with the expantion of the Airport, But they didn't put the right person in to run or espand the airport. Chino on the other hand is doing great, there expantion has turned a profit for their city!! Why not for the city of Rialto?? Has to do with Managment, nothing more!! Now I hope that they don't Mess up their New Venture, which in some ways it seems that they are off to very slow start, and now they are stalling, the start of the closure of hte airport, and the sale of the property, or the moving of the people that rent at Rialto Airport. I imagine that is becuse the City of Rialto is Broke!! BROKE BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN CHASING OWENS MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR VENTURE(for Owen's not the City of Rialto), REFERENCE THE PERCHACHORATE CONTAMINATION OF THE GROUND WATER IN RIALTO!! Now I really hope that I am wrong about Owen's and his Law Firm, and that the people that are on the City Council are really doing it to help the City of Rialto and they are not on the Council for any other. It has been in the past that there has been some underhanded deals that have come across that they are in their positions not for Rialto or the people that live in Rialto but the money that they can get their hands on in Rialto, and when a person talks to them they talk down and cut off and disrespectfully push away these people, sad to know that they do this. When it was the fight between the Chief of Police or the Sheriff of the County of San Bernardino, they held their ground, and it made me wonder what did the County of San Bernardino have for them waiting for them, Candy of some kind was on their back pourch if they were to get the Sheriff to be the New Crime Ambasidor for the City of Rialto, with the Sheriff Assigning a new Capt. as a Chief. to Rialto. and then they would go there. there would have been so much lost if the city council whould have allowed the county to have been the I might be wrong I pray that I am wrong, but I am starting to have questions!! Especially for the amount that they are asking for. It is a good amount to start the rebuilding and change of an Airport to a new place to live. BS Ranch!

Carjacker Arrested: Gunfight Erupts at Rialto Party (Press Enterprise Aug 25, 2007)

Carjacker arrested; gunfight erupts at Rialto party

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10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, August 25, 2007

By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise

RIALTO - Police arrested a suspected carjacker Saturday morning after a chase from Rialto to Redlands, then returned to the original crime scene to find two groups shooting at each other at a large party.

One person was injured during the 20-minute span late Friday into early Saturday, suffering a graze wound to the arm in the shooting, Rialto police Sgt. James Gibbons said.

Officers first responded to the 900 block of West Valencia Avenue at 11:50 p.m. on reports of shots being fired near a party, Gibbons said.

They spotted a car matching the description of the shooter's vehicle, but it sped away when they attempted to stop it, Gibbons said.

Rialto and Fontana police and CHP officers chased the car nearly 20 miles on Highway 210, Gibbons said.

With the CHP closing in, the driver surrendered at Wabash Avenue and Interstate 10 in Redlands, he said. The 17-year-old was arrested, as well as his passenger, who is believed to have forced three females in the vehicle when it was carjacked, Gibbons said.

They were not injured.

The passenger, Trajun Davis, 19, of Desert Hot Springs, was arrested on suspicion of carjacking, kidnapping and making terrorist threats.

The juvenile driver was arrested on suspicion of carjacking.

Gibbons did not know whether the reported gunshots had been fired by the suspects.

Rialto police officers returned to West Valencia Avenue at 12:13 a.m., in time to see people in two cars shooting at each another.

The cars sped away before officers could make arrests, leaving behind the man with the minor graze wound to his arm, Gibbons said.

The party was dispersing and about 100 people were running from the area, Gibbons said.

Reach Paul LaRocco at 909-806-3064 or plarocco@PE.com

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BS Ranch Perspective:

Another Great Job Supervised by my Reserve J. Gibbons. Well, it has been a long time since Gibbons was one of the my Reserves when I was a Reserve Coordinator, Now he has worked and worked his way up to Sergent, He deserves it , he works very hard and really has put his name to the position, supervising his shift. Obviously they are doing a great job or they would not have cleaned up the mess of the whole party and shooting. I just want to be one of the people that say GREAT JOB!!

BS Ranch

LAPD Acquires New Anti-Terrorism Technology..(LA Times, Sept. 09, 2007)

LAPD acquires new anti-terrorism technology

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Among $3 million in purchases courtesy of Homeland Security are devices capable of detecting radiological weapons and 'dirty' bombs.

By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 9, 2007

As part of an anti-terrorism effort, the Los Angeles Police Department is now equipping a helicopter and officers on the ground with devices capable of detecting potential radiological weapons or materials used in so-called dirty bombs.

Police Chief William J. Bratton said a new suitcase-sized device for one of the LAPD's helicopters can detect "radiation signatures" from up to 800 feet above ground. In addition, the LAPD bought six hand-held units that officers on the ground can use.

"Terrorism is all about getting them before they get us," the chief said.

The devices are among several items the city acquired with $3 million in Homeland Security funds that will enable the LAPD to better respond to a terrorist attack or natural disaster, Bratton said.

Deputy Chief Mike Downing, head of the counter-terrorism bureau, said the equipment can read gamma rays given off by radiological weapons. Bratton on Friday said the threat from suicide bombers as demonstrated in Israel is real and that it's only a matter of time before an attempt is made on U.S. soil.

With that in mind, LAPD officials showed off a $900,000 Pierce bomb squad response truck equipped with a robot. The robot has been modified to address the threat of suicide bombers. Bomb squad officers can operate the robot from up to a mile away.

Since Bratton's appointment in 2002, the department has also acquired a firetruck-sized vehicle with a computer that will allow SWAT team officers to receive information about a suspect's criminal background within minutes and several B.E.A.R. and BearCat armored rescue vehicles.

The latest addition is a response truck for LAPD public information officers, which will serve as a mobile media hub.

"New York and Washington are still the biggest risks in the country," Bratton said. "We come right behind them because of the special assets we have: the port, the airport and just the symbolism of so much of what they hate. In their rush to get back into the 7th century again, 21st century Hollywood is not exactly where they want to be."

Bratton revealed Friday that Los Angeles may be on track to have fewer than 400 homicides this year for the first time since 1970.

Since Jan. 1, there have been 280 killings in the city, 53 fewer than at this time last year, down more than 15%, Bratton said

"Los Angeles stands a very good chance at the end of the year of having the lowest number of homicides since 1970 -- that's 37 years. This year we may end up with a total of about 400, down significantly from the over 600 that were occurring when I was appointed five years ago," Bratton said.

richard.winton@latimes.com

____________________________________________________________________________

BS Ranch Perspective

I am glad that the Los Angeles Police Department has taken it upon themselves to upgrade their Anti-Terrorism Unit, and Equipment!! That is wonderful news, I just hope that more Southern California Law Enforcement Police Agencies take it upon themselves to add this kind of equipment to their budget as well. It is important, Especially right now, when the Democrats are threatening to take over the White House, they will remove the people from the Middle East, and Iraq, We will hear about how Iraq, will have another Well, developed weapons to defend themselves and fight against our military, when the time comes for them to come over to the USA to fight, or they may just not even do anything but collect money from the oil that they have and send their Combat Ready spy Cells, to infiltrate the cities, in the southern California area, and they might look to the smaller suburbs of Southern California area due to the story above, then they will quietly take a bomb in a back pack and stash it in a restaurant booth, where the have booths, with table cloths, suddenly the bomb goes off at lunch rush, and the new Democrat leadership will wonder if they did the right thing by pulling out of Iraq?? I guess it is then that the Question of Iraq will be answered to the fullest!!

BS Ranch

San Bernardino Co. Consideres Return to Paper Ballots

San Bernardino Co. considers return to paper ballots

02:53 PM PDT on Friday, August 17, 2007

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

San Bernardino County will consider going back to paper ballots for the November election and next year's presidential elections after the Secretary of State's decision earlier this month to decertify touch-screen voting machines.

The recommendation from county Registrar of Voters Kari Verjil, which goes to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, calls for spending $1.5 million to make the switch to optical scan ballots, the same system the county now uses for absentee ballots.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen's Aug. 3 decision decertifying electronic voting systems requires counties using those systems to have new voting equipment ready for use in the February presidential primary.

Verjil said she is proposing to change for the November election, when some city, school board and special district seats will be on the ballot, so that poll workers will be trained and ready for 2008.

"It would be a tremendous effort for our poll workers, who have worked so hard, to go back and forth," she said.

San Bernardino County first started using touch-screen voting machines, made by Sequoia Voting Systems, in March 2004 under a court mandate to stop using punch card ballots.

The touch-screen voting machines were briefly decertified later that year by then-Secretary of State Kevin Shelley which led some counties, including Riverside and San Bernardino, to sue the state. The machines were recertified in time for the November 2004 election, after the counties agreed to some security measures, including offering voters a choice of using paper ballots.

In November 2005, San Bernardino County was one of the first counties to start using electronic voting machines with a paper trail receipt, another measure asked for by Shelley.

The county has spent $16 million on its electronic voting machines, county spokesman David Wert said.

Riverside County Registrar Barbara Dunmore said earlier this week she would recommend purchasing a $7 million paper ballot and optical scanning system from Sequoia without seeking a competitive proposal.

The move was met with criticism from some voting rights advocates and county supervisors who said they wanted more than one option.

On Friday, Dunmore said her office would continue to explore options so she could bring more information to the Board of Supervisors when they consider her recommendations Aug. 28.

Riverside County has spent about $25 million on its Sequoia touch screen system since 2000.

Staff Writer Kim Trone contributed to this report.

Reach Imran Ghori at 909-806-3061 or ighori@PE.com

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BS Ranch Perspective:

One Giant Step Forward, Two Steps back, if you were to ask me!! I realize that the Counties Registrars of Voters Wants to have a Uniform Voter Ballot, however that is impossible, if they want to stay with the paper ballot, the last few times that I have been to my Local Polling Place (since the implementing of the Electronic Voting Machines) There has always been a long line to wait in to vote. I think the shortest time that I have waited was Twenty Minutes since there was so many people in there to vote, and it didn't matter what time that I voted, each time that I went to stand in line it was a different time of the day. The last time being at 1700 hrs, and I didn't get out of there until just after 1800 hrs. I felt it was a little crazy that I had to wait over an hour just to get to the touch screen machine to get my vote in for the ballots and the other major things that were going on for our county.

Now They are talking of going back to the Paper ballot, I suppose it is because there has been in increase of a voter in one party that isn't to the liking of the majority party that is in the major control of the Voting block, in this case the Registrar of Voters for San Bernardino County is in control of the Democrat and I suppose that there has been in increase in a Republican Vote, so they feel that they should do something to reduce the voting that is going on.

I am guessing of this of coarse and I want you to know that it is a huge mistake that the County of San Bernardino is even thinking of by wanting to go backwards. I being a member of the Voting Public, Vote Against the change.

BS Ranch

Police to hold SWAT exercise at Rialto High School (Press Enterprise 081707)

Police to hold SWAT exercise at Rialto high school

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10:00 PM PDT on Friday, August 17, 2007

By JULIE FARREN
The Press-Enterprise

Rialto police and the Rialto Unified School District don't want people to panic if they think they see SWAT teams in action Monday around Carter High School on North Linden Avenue.

The activity is part of a regional training course for tactical SWAT officers, tactical dispatchers and hostage negotiators, presented by the Rialto Police Department Special Weapons and Tactics team.

Sgt. James Gibbons, a Rialto patrol officer and a hostage-negotiation team unit commander, said about 150 officers from local agencies and as far away as San Luis Obispo will participate in the course, which focuses on preparing officers to react should a gunman come onto a campus.

"We train ahead of time to see if there's any logistical problems we need to work on," Gibbons said.

Syeda Jafri, spokeswoman for the Rialto Unified School District, said Carter High School was chosen because of its size.

"The facility itself is so large," Jafri said.

The campus was an ideal site because several buildings have two floors, she said. Classes have not yet resumed at the campus, Jafri said.

But Monday morning will be registration day for Carter's students so the district is telephoning parents to let them know about the exercise. They are being asked to park in front of the gymnasium.

Gibbons said the training, which will begin at 8 a.m., will include a mixture of classroom instruction, scenarios and post-incident briefings.

For more information, call Sgt. Nick Borchard at 909-820-2526.

Reach Julie Farren at 909-806-3066 or jfarren@PE.com

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BS Ranch Perspective:

The time has finally come for my friends plans to come into full swing. I know that she has done a great job and that it will go great! The Training that the SWAT Members will get Hopefully will not have to use, but if they do, the practice that they get will be very useful to them to know what to do and how to respond to such a School Incident. I am proud of the Dispatcher that put the training on and I am really proud that she was able to keep the whole program in Rialto, and allow Rialto Police Host the event, I know that there was some problem with the School dedicating there the space for the training at first, however once they saw the importance of such a training they were more then happy to allow the space needed for the Training Event to Take Place!!

Congratulations Noretta, You Make this Author Proud!!

BS Ranch

Rialto Water Case in Stall (San Bernardino Sun 08132007) Legal Wrangling Holds City Back!!!.....

Rialto water case in stall

Legal wrangling holds city back

Jason Pesick, Staff Writer

Article Launched: 08/13/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

The long and winding road leading to cleanup of the drinking water around Rialto is getting more tortuous.

On July 31, Goodrich Corp. sued Rialto and other parties in San Bernardino Superior Court to try to force the city to require a local businessman to clean up perchlorate contamination.

Next week, Emhart Industries - a defunct company associated with Black & Decker - Goodrich and Rialto-based Pyro Spectaculars are expected to ask a Los Angeles Superior Court to stay state hearings on the perchlorate contamination.

The legal efforts are the latest action the three companies have taken to thwart the state regulatory bodies trying to get the perchlorate cleaned up.

Perchlorate, a substance used to produce rocket fuel, fireworks and other explosives, has been flowing from Rialto's north end through the city, and possibly into Colton and toward Fontana. Perchlorate can interfere with the thyroid gland, which is important in the development of unborn babies.

"What this is really about is Goodrich's attempt to deflect attention from its own responsibility for contaminating the groundwater," Cris Carrigan, one of Rialto's lawyers, said about the suit against the city.

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BS Ranch Perspective

When there is a huge price tag that is being assessed to this whole conflict there is bound to be a stall some time in the case just so that one side of the case can take the time to see what the heck that the other side is trying to or attempting to pull.

Down the road we discover that there is a possible price of $23,000,000.00 so now that the price tag is possibly that high they thought that they had better take a long recess and have a look at this whole mess!! I just hope that it is recessed for a great long time, because there is something crooked here and it isn't straight, so We had better have a look and see what they are doing. So I hope that they get a chance to have a good long look.

BS Ranch

The StateWater Resources Control Board is scheduled to hold hearings on the contamination - which was discovered in 1997 - later this month. The hearings have been delayed numerous times because of procedural objections raised by the three parties.

In the lawsuit against Rialto, Goodrich claims Rialto is obligated to order Ken Thompson, who owns land where perchlorate has been discovered, to clean up the contamination. It also says Rialto needs to enforce its own 1987 declaration requiring Thompson to clean up the area known as the McLaughlin Pit.

Goodrich has also claimed that the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, whose staff will be arguing against the three companies at the hearings, has not lived up to its responsibility to close the pit properly.

Patrick Palmer, a Goodrich spokesman, said the parties responsible for the contamination should clean it up and that if the proper procedures had been followed in 1987, the perchlorate would have been discovered years earlier. By not pursuing Thompson at the state hearings, Rialto and the Santa Ana board staff are failing to go after one of the responsible parties, Goodrich claims.

"We're very disappointed in this matter, where only select responsible parties and very key facts are being ignored," Palmer said.

Carrigan and Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer of the Santa Ana water board, both said their agencies have done nothing wrong and that Thompson might still be pursued in the future.

Thompson hasn't been a focus of the cleanup investigations thus far because he did not discharge perchlorate into the ground; he merely bought property from a party that did, said Scott Sommer, Rialto's lead attorney in the perchlorate matters. So far, the state regulatory agencies have focused on pursuing the parties suspected of actually discharging perchlorate. Any perchlorate he did spread by operating on the site was spread unknowingly because the perchlorate hadn't even been discovered there yet, Sommer said.

Carrigan said it's not even clear what Goodrich wants the city to do and that the suit is just another attempt to outspend state agencies and Rialto by using clever legal tactics.

At last count, Rialto has spent about $15 million on its efforts to investigate the perchlorate and take legal action. As that number has risen, dissatisfaction with the city's legal strategy has mounted.

The three parties being pursued in the state hearings have been criticized for using a number of aggressive legal strategies. One of the environmental groups involved in the hearings, the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, dropped out after being overwhelmed by how difficult the process had become.

In a letter to one of Goodrich's lawyers, Jeffrey Dintzer, the executive officer of the Santa Ana board, Gerard Thibeault, said the parties' legal efforts cost the state $954,000 and 9,430 hours in staff and attorney time in the 2006-07 fiscal year, and the costs are still growing.

At a Rialto City Council meeting on Wednesday, a woman - who identified herself as Donna Worley and claimed to be a concerned citizen - caused quite a stir when she went before the council to complain about the same matters contained in the Goodrich lawsuit. Earlier, she had provided The Sun with information about Thompson, in a letter calling the situation "just another case of the city helping the rich." At the meeting, she mentioned a potential recall of members of the council, prompting a vigorous response from the dais, especially from Councilman Ed Scott, who noted she lives in Burbank and accused her of working for Goodrich.

In the other matter regarding potential court action in Los Angeles, on Tuesday, James Meeder, an attorney for Emhart, wrote a letter on behalf of all three companies saying that if the hearing officer of the state proceedings did not disqualify the state board and the regional board from the process, he would go to court to ask for a stay in the hearings.

The companies claim the Santa Ana board's staff and the state board have taken part in improper communications or are biased against them because the state board handed out grants to local agencies to treat perchlorate. They have also claimed bias on the grounds that the Santa Ana board's staff erred in its handling of the closing of the McLaughlin Pit and is itself therefore partially responsible. Palmer also said the state board has no right to try the matter at this point.

Hearing officer Tam Doduc ruled Saturday against the companies.

"I think their disqualification argument lacks merit, and it would be sad if the proceedings are stayed," Carrigan said.

Berchtold said allegations of bias or that the Santa Ana board tried to cover up its own actions are "just not the case."

If all else fails, a federal trial on the contamination is tentatively scheduled for October 2008.

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BS Ranch Perspective

After reading this it seems that The City of Rialto, and The City Council is being Treated as I was treated when it came to my workers compensation case, It took me 10 years to settle my case, and it was only settled because my lawyer made an offer to settle out of court, well Rialto accepted that offer and that was the only reason that my case was well handled. I even Died On Duty, in a Motorcycle Accident. But that didn't matter.

This case will not be settled and all of the J&K Utility Tax money is going to the lawyer, Owen's so that he can take this case to Court. I don't think that this will go very far in October 88 either...

BS Ranch

Two Die in Gun Battle Outside Rialto Night Club. (Press Enterprise 08052007)

BS Ranch Perspective

It is the case of the Security Guard to do his job and protect the people that are going to that Night Club, One Which is a magnet at times for Hispanic Gangsters that seem to want to bring harm with them as they often do! Funny how the trouble that comes is when you least expect it, I just hope that the job that was done will be seen as a job well done by the District Attorney, after all it Seems That the Men and Woman at the Rialto Police Department have Felt that the Shoot was a good one As they have allowed the Suspect to go Without Booking and the Review of the Case boils down to the District Attorneys Office.

BS Ranch

Two die in gun battle outside Rialto club

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11:43 PM PDT on Sunday, August 5, 2007

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Two people were killed and a third was critically wounded after an early morning gunbattle Sunday outside a Rialto nightclub, police said.

About 1:45 a.m., a crowd had gathered outside the El Patio Nightclub at 333 E. Foothill Blvd. when a confrontation broke out and a man pulled a handgun and opened fire, police said.

The man fatally shot Adrian Alvarado, 17, of Rialto, in the head and wounded Eduardo Marin, 25, in the torso before the club's armed security fatally shot the gunman, Rialto police Sgt. Tim Lane said Sunday.

Alvarado and Marin had been standing in the parking lot when they were hit by gunfire, police said. The club's private security then confronted the gunman, whose identity has not been released, and exchanged gunshots, police said.

The gunman at the scene and the private security guard, whose name was not released, was not injured, police said.

Alvarado and the suspect died at the scene, while Marin was taken to a local hospital where he was in critical condition on Sunday, Lane said.

Police interviewed and released the private security guard, and authorities will forward the case to the San Bernardino County district attorney's office for review, police said.

No one returned a message left at the nightclub on Sunday.

Reach Duane W. Gang at 909-806-3062 or dgang@PE.com

Renaissance Rialto Project DELAYED ?? (SB Sun 07312007) Economy a factor in plan's slowdown

BS Ranch Perspective

I don't understand why the City Council, City Planning, and the City Administration of Rialto would want to wait on the biggest Commercial planning Event that they have wanted for the past (5) Five years!

Ever since they met in the Cocoa's Restaurant in Diamond Bar, with Rep. Gary Miller (Whittier) and the city Planning Director, and cooked up a plan to close the Rialto Airport, Via a, Pork Measure, Attached to the Largest Transportation Bill that has ever been sent to the Presidents Oval Office to be signed. President Bush Signed the Transportation Bill, Which Meant the Following:

• The airport could close by a Vote of The City Council
• The City Council would be Relieved from the money  owed to Expand the Airport in the  1990's
  
• As Payment for the "Pork Bill" Rep. Gary Miller's Development Company (Lewis Homes) Would get the contract to Develop the Airport-Instead of the Development job going to a bid
• They would plan a Commercial Shopping area similar to that of Victoria Gardens, Called Rialto Renaissance @ the I-210

Now that all the paper work is done the airport needs to close, and the Real Estate Sales are in a Slump, by almost 50%, so they decide to take it at a snails Pace, Which means that they will not close the Airport when they had planned, Which was at the end of the Summer 2007, and move the Lease's To The San Bernardino International Airport, where they will be located from now on.

The Businesses that are tied to the Airport all will be moved at the City of Rialto's Expense and they're First Year's Lease will be also Paid by Rialto or the inconvenience of having to move.

Now I agree that the City should pay for all this, but I also think that they made a Schedule and they should live by it. the Freeway is open and the sooner that they develop Rialto, the sooner that they will not have to be paying for Rent at the San Bernardino International Airport!!

City of Rialto Get off the POT, WIPE and GET TO WORK!!

BS Ranch

Renaissance Rialto project delayed

Economy a factor in plan's slowdown

Jason Pesick, Staff Writer San Bernardino County Sun

Article Launched:07/31/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

Photo Gallery: Renaissance Rialto RIALTO - Plans to turn Rialto Municipal Airport and the surrounding area into 1,500 acres of mixed-use development along the 210 Freeway are a little behind schedule, but construction could start sometime next year. Only a few months ago, it looked as if the City Council would take up a land-use plan for the project, dubbed, later this year and that the airport could be closed this year as well. But it looks as if the council won't get the proposal until next year, and it's not clear when the airport will close. Officials are even talking about breaking the project into two parts so the commercial zone along the 210 can get going as quickly as possible, said Robb Steel, the city's economic development director. "I think they're probably re-evaluating some of the things that they had planned with the economy changing," Councilwoman Winnie Hanson said of the developers. She doesn't mind the developers taking their time, she said, if it helps get the project right. The slowing housing market is a factor in the delay. Steel said the developers, a partnership between the Lewis Group of Companies and Texas-based Hillwood, are considering cutting the amount of housing to be included in the project - and that's why the council will be getting a plan later. Some city officials also weren't thrilled after a May workshop that discussed the retail options considered for the project. Until there's a workable plan for the project that the council is happy with, nothing can move forward, Steel said. The developers aren't going to want to pay an estimated $40 million required to relocate the tenants from the airport unless the project is moving forward, Steel said. Two or three of the airport's 250 tenants have already left, but most probably won't start leaving until the spring, said airport Director Rich Scanlan. The entire process could take nine or 10 months, he said. The retail zone can be built as long as the north-south runway is closed, meaning the east-west runway could remain open for a while if the project is split in two, Steel said. The project's environmental impact report is also taking longer than hoped. At the City Council meeting on July 17, the council approved tweaking the EIR. At the May workshop, consultants and representatives from the development team told council members and residents a Target store will anchor the retail center. It also will likely include an office-supplies store, an electronics store, like Best Buy, and some other large stores. At the outset, the project won't be able to attract high-end restaurants or shopping, the presenters said. Until the area grows, and wealthier residents move in, the restaurants would probably include places like Applebee's and Red Robin. Councilman Joe Baca Jr. said he would give the presentation a "C-" at best and that Lewis is going back to the drawing board. He said he's interested in creating a lake in the project and wants there to be community-oriented venues like a movie theater even if they don't generate a ton of sales-tax revenue. Aside from thinking about reducing the number of homes, Lewis is making small changes to the project, Steel said. "There is some retooling, but it's not radically different as far as the retail side goes," he said. He agreed the presentation about the types of tenants the area could attract did worry some of the council members, but he said he thought the presentation was also optimistic because the presenters pointed out that as the area grows, it will be able to attract higher-end tenants. Those could include The Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang's, California Pizza Kitchen or Claim Jumper, according to a report by Greg Stoffel, a retail consultant on the project. Some of the properties near the main retail area could host entertainment venues like a movie theater, Steel said. Hanson said developing the area will take time. "I do know that luring a higher quality store is not easy, but I think they will come."

IT's Time For Rialto to Call in the E.P.A.!!! A.S.A.P.!!

It's time for Rialto to call in the EPA
Article Launched:07/16/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

When is enough enough? When should Rialto throw in the towel and call in the big dogs?
The city has been fighting for a decade to get suspected polluters, including major corporations and the Pentagon, to pay the costs of cleaning up perchlorate that has contaminated Rialto's wells. But the lawsuits and extended legal battle have cost more than $18 million so far and could go much higher.
And while Rialto's city attorney seems content to play David to the suspected polluters' Goliath - albeit, with the help of a cadre of top-level lawyers - it's chiefly customers of the city's water utility that have had to bear the burden, and the brunt of the costs, with no quick end in sight. So far, the city has spent the equivalent of its Police Department's budget on the fight.
The city's water agency serves about half of Rialto, with Fontana Water Co. and West Valley Water serving the rest. And so, it is about half of Rialto residents who are footing the bill for the city's legal juggernaut. The surcharge on water bills starts at $6.85 a month and rises from there.
If Rialto eventually wins its case in court, resident ratepayers will be reimbursed. But that could be a long time in coming. And the total for actual cleanup of the contaminant could be $300 million.
Besides ratepayers' hefty chunk, the City Council also contributed $5 million from general fund reserves to escalate the fight last year. But even the council has become leery, without seeing much in the way of results.
Why won't Rialto call in the cavalry and ask the feds for help? We're sure city ratepayers would like to know.
Why is it that the city has insisted on going it alone, without bringing the resources of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to bear?
Commenting on Rialto's reluctance to do the logical thing, Penny Newman, executive director of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, said, "I think going with EPA and the Superfund program is probably the strongest mechanism a city or community has. I'm always amazed that people - communities - shy away from that."
Indeed, Rialto has become almost territorial in pursuing the fight on its own. It's almost as if time and money were no object. Let the ratepayers pay it - that seems to be the city's attitude.
But with the pricetag reaching into the millions, it's time to regroup. The city needs to take a more regional approach and spread out the costs.
Rialto initially considered going with EPA. But after looking at a variety of Superfund projects, and finding that each took 17 to 27 years to start cleanup, the city felt it would take too long, said City Attorney Bob Owen.
So, this is any better? How long does the city expect ratepayers to keep fronting litigation costs?
The state Water Resources Control Board, which has taken over from the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, plans hearings in August. At that time, it could order three suspected polluters - Goodrich, Pyro Spectaculars and Emhart Industries, parent company of Black and Decker - to remove the contamination.
Then again, those companies all have been fighting long and hard to delay any consequences.
The San Gabriel Valley Water Co., which owns Fontana Water Co., and the West Valley Water District have urged Rialto go with a regional coalition that works with the EPA.
Rialto has been fighting for cleanup of the Rialto-Colton Basin, without regard for pollution of West Valley and Fontana wells.
And while a fault separates the West Valley and Fontana wells from the Rialto-Colton Basin, such that the regional agency has said it can't prove the suspected Rialto-area polluters caused contamination of the other wells, it's all the more reason for a regional approach that takes all of the pollution into account.
Yet Rialto persists in its one-sided struggle.
Better to lean on the EPA - and save residents the aggravation.


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BS Ranch Perspective

I am wondering why, the County of San Bernardino is not mentioned in this fight for the water rights and the fight for the water, and the monies to pay for the filtration to clean out the Perchlorate from the filters. I did a vast Search across the State and found that there was over 200 Wells in California that was effected by Perchlorate, many wells had to be shut down and some had to be filtered with the Revers Osmosis Filtration system, Each filter, I am talking about one filter, costs $4 Million Dollars, and they are very expensive. Rialto needed to have many of these Expensive Filteration systems on their system to clean the water and make it safe from Perchlorate!

But The question that Remains is What or who paid for the cleaning of those other 190 wells in the State of California tha that I could not find any news on? Who paid for the Filtration systems, and why didn't I find any other City's or Counties taking the Privious Owners of the Businesses to court that was responsible for placing the Perchlorate in the Water Table in the first place? I guess I can tell you that one thing is for sure.

Back when they started and found out that they had Perchlorate in contamination in the water table in Rialto, Rialto's Council Immediatly said that he must start a law Suit against the Businesses that were found to be responcible for the contamnation of the Perchlorate in the Water Table. I have Written all along that this was a bad Move since the Companies all have said that they were going to pay for the filters and clean up what they could of the Perchlorate from the Water Table, but Owen said that even with the Company spoksman saying that they were going to pay for their clean up.

I beleive that Owens, with all the extra pay that he received from the city should be held responcible for paying for the clean up of the water table, and the Perchlorate! They cannot beleive that Owen's did this law suit for the City of Rialto's Benefit, because Clearly it was not for the City of Rialto's Benefit, since it didn't benefit the City of Rialto!

Rialto Lost in this whole thing, Clearly since Owen's Continued his Pursuit of the Law Suit against the Businesses that admitted to being responsible for the Perchlorate Contamination of the Water Table, Dating back to World War One, and Clearly they were not the owners of those businesses then, they were the purchaser's of the businesses, so they got the businesses, and with that they inherited the responciblity of the Wrong Doings of those companies form a long time ago. When Owen's Representing the City of Rialto Took the Responcible Businesses to Court they decided to pay for only the stuff that they were told topay for, that left a huge amount that was left unpaid and The City of Rialto's Water Department was left with these Bills for the Remaining Clean up.

You Clearly Cannot Blame the Businesses, but the Lawyer's that Represented the Law Suit that started it!!

THE LAW SUIT IS TO BLAIM FOR THE LIMITED CLEAN UP OF IT!! NOT THE BUSINESSES HERE! THE LAWYERS ARE TO BLAME!

When I say lawyer I mean the one that started the whole Law Suit, OWEN!

The City of Rialto, and The Rialto City Council should fire their council, Owen, simply has to go, he has been there long enough and has made his milliions off the city, and if left in the City Representation Positon, he will make himself a millionare over and over and over again. With Law Suits, JUST LIKE THE ONE THAT THEY JUST LOST!! 10 FOLD W/PERCHLORATE!!

BS Ranch

The Man Behind Rialto's Renaissance (SB Sun July 31st 2007) Rep. G. Miller & Robb Steel. Who doesn't even live in Rialto,

The man behind Rialto's renaissance

Jason Pesick, Staff Writer

Article Launched: 07/31/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

RIALTO - One of the most important meetings in city history actually took place outside the city - at the Coco's in Diamond Bar in fall 2004.

About a half dozen people met for a power breakfast that morning. The topic of conversation: getting Rep. Gary Miller's help to close Rialto's airport so it could be replaced with the indiscreetly named Renaissance Rialto, a master-planned community.

Set up by the project's developer, the Lewis Group of Companies, breakfast-goers included Miller, David Lewis, some advisers and Robb Steel, Rialto's economic development director.

"It was such a pipe dream," Steel said of closing the airport, which, with Miller's help, Congress approved in 2005. The breakfast was a success.

After chowing down on the weekday special of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and coffee, Steel, now 50, picked up the check, calling it a "small price" to pay.

It's been a week since the opening of the 210 Freeway extension between Rialto and San Bernardino. The completion of the freeway makes the coming months and years critical for Rialto, and Steel is the man in the center of it all.

"I feel really, really blessed to have him," said City Administrator Henry Garcia.

Garcia said he "begged" Steel to come to Rialto after the two worked in the same capacities in Colton.

An old baseball player with a dry wit and dark hair sprinkled with gray, Steel looks like a guy a developer can do business with. And he talks like someone you want managing projects. He has a tendency to answer questions by referencing complex economic models, footnotes in financial studies and in a bureaucrat-speak it takes a master's degree in public administration to have a chance at decoding.

Steel couldn't be at the city at a better time, said former Councilman Joe Sampson.

"From an economic development and redevelopment point of view, Robb has been one of the best things that has happened for the city," he said.

Earlier this year, Steel saved the city millions of dollars by negotiating an increase in the minimum amount of money the city would make off selling the airport to develop it.

When it became clear the city might get only $6 million because of a disagreement with other parties in the deal, Steel helped negotiate increasing the minimum the city would make to $26 million.

"I respect Robb Steel more than any redevelopment director we've ever had," said resident Greta Hodges, who doesn't shy away from criticizing city officials and decisions she doesn't like. She said she's a fan of Steel because he's honest - he answers even tough questions truthfully, she said - and because he's realistic about what should be built in Rialto.

Steel, who lives in San Clemente, said he's willing to make the drive because working as a redevelopment director in the Inland Empire is exciting. He likes the intellectual challenge of dealing with a region that is growing faster than its infrastructure can be built.

A project like Renaissance Rialto, with a price tag between $1 billion and $2 billion, is almost unheard of in a city the size of Rialto, he said.

"I'd like this to be the last city that I work for."

Steel's office is packed with binders about the projects moving forward in Rialto. He also has a Maxwell Smart bobblehead - "I'm bumbling like he was," he said - and an autographed photo of Barbara Feldon, who played Agent 99 in "Get Smart."

Steel thought the autograph was real, but learned it was a joke perpetrated by some of the staff in the office.

There's an air of levity in the Redevelopment Agency office downtown, which is down from City Hall a few blocks.

Steel's No. 2, Economic Development Manager Greg Lantz, said Steel makes the staff work long hours.

"He's a taskmaster," Lantz said of the boss, "but at least he's good to work for."

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BS Ranch Perspective

That very important meeting as it is quoted as saying took place, and I am actually surprised that the reporter finally!! FINALLY!! A Reporter got it right that there was something funny going on with the Congress, and the "Largest Transportation Bill" in the Congresses History!

Representative Gary Miller of Chino Hills, Whittier, and that area, Which had NOTHING TO DO WITH RIALTO at that time, placed a small piece of "pork" to the Transportation bill. If the president signed the bill, that little piece of added pork that Rep. G. Miller placed in the can was going to allow the City Council to Close the Rialto Airport with a small Popular Vote by them. Something that had NEVER BEEN DONE IN THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA BEFORE!! Rialto was about to make history, against the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). As we know the president signed the bill and the City of Rialto made that Historical Vote Against the advice of the F.A.A.

Rep. G. Miller's Payback for his contribution to this plan was simple, Rialto Council member's Ed Scott and Joe Sampson Promised by a hand shake no doubt, since this is kind of not so up above par, promised the Development of the Airport land to Rep. Gary Miller's Development Company, You know it makes you wonder? How the congressmen, and Representatives of this fine land go into Office and come out Richer then when they entered!!! Just something that makes you wonder?? Especially since this was such a cut and dry thing. However I hope that the properties were held above the standard again. It just makes me sick how this happens. Business is just sickening.

This whole meeting makes me sick, because the hard working development companies that worked hard to get to where they are today!!

I truly hope that the business practices that Rep. Gary Miller took to get the Bid for the development of Rialto's Airport Land ("The Rialto Renaissance) Because that sure puts a bad taste in my mouth about how the business is done for small cities and towns. Bloomington is attempting to become a City, however I feel that Fontana, and Rialto might be putting up some blockages up to keep that land from becoming a City all their own! Now it doesn't seem like it on the news and this report (My BLOG) is the first that you are hearing of it, but mark my words there will be some blockages in a way that you will least expect it, to keep Bloomington from becoming their own City!!

Rialto Renaissance is something that might or might not happen either, they keep closing and slowly closing the airport. but as for now the airport is still open!! The places that they were hoping to make large gatherings of Automobiles and travelers to get from their homes to the 210 Freeway are not happening.

In fact there are less cars on Ayala, Riverside, Baseline, and well most all the commuter streets in Rialto then there was before, with the exception of the ones that are around the commuter streets (Valley S.Riverside Ave, Riverside around the 210 on ramps, Ayala at 210 fwy, Ayala at 210, North Riverside Ave @ Sierra Ave, to get in I-15 fwy) Other then that the city streets have about the same amount of traffic on them and there is less or slower traffic.

There really isn't that much Traffic increase that would warrant any closure of any Airport for shopping and more traffic desire, the Rialto Renaissance should be placed on hold because the demand is slow for it right now. Also the way that the airport was closed should be looked into by the Federal Government for any Criminal Wrongdoing, on the part of Rep. Gary Miller, any and all of the Council members on Rialto City Council, Specifically Edward Scott, and Joseph Sampson, the rest of the council for possible wrong doing on this passing of the note & closure of the Airport Via their Vote!!

BS Ranch