March 04, 2010 8:54 AM
Tomoya Shimura

VICTORVILLE • A judge who refused to grant a restraining order against a man who later killed his son then himself apologized on Wednesday to the mother for comments he made to her in court.

Judge Robert Lemkau had called Katie Tagle a liar when she tried to get a restraining order against her estranged boyfriend, Stephen Garcia, on January 21.

Read the rest of this entry »

We continue with coverage on the deterioration in management and service delivery at San Bernardino County-owned and operated Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) in Colton.

Sources tell InlandPolitics of serious mismanagement in the scheduling and use of operating rooms at the facility. Specifically, the full complement of 14 operating rooms is never utilized. Instead, no more than 8 are fully staffed at any given time.

Read the rest of this entry »

March 03, 2010 6:38 PM
By NATASHA LINDSTROM Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO • Amid allegations that former county Assessor Bill Postmus battled a methamphetamine addiction, condoned rampant timecard fraud and tapped unqualified cronies to run a political operation on county time, an independent state review has found that day-to-day operations under Postmus ran smoothly.

The Board of Equalization released an assessment practices survey into the Assessor’s office highlighting several electronic upgrades that improved efficiency and concluding that most operations ran effectively with Postmus in charge.

Read the rest of this entry »

10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, March 3, 2010

By JIM MILLER
Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO – Riverside County district attorney investigators showed up last week at the Northern California offices of a prominent Republican consulting firm and a bookkeeping business linked to a defendant in the campaign-finance prosecution of several Inland political and civic leaders.

Gilliard Blanning and Associates of Rocklin and the KAL Group of Willows have advised dozens of candidates and campaign groups in the Inland area and around the state over the years.

Read the rest of this entry »

County calls another probe ‘unnecessary, premature’
March 03, 2010 6:41 PM
By NATASHA LINDSTROM Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO • The San Bernardino County transportation planning agency SANBAG on Wednesday urged county supervisors to launch an independent investigation into themselves, with a current supervisor and chief of staff recently linked as possible co-conspirators in the largest bribery scandal in county history.

Read the rest of this entry »

Neil Derry

Michael J. Sorba, Staff Writer
Posted: 03/03/2010 08:39:38 PM PST

HIGHLAND – Combatting corruption and compensation reforms for high-level employees were just a few subjects Neil Derry, San Bernardino County’s 3rd District supervisor, addressed at a Wednesday night town hall meeting at the Sam J. Racadio Library and Environmental Learning Center.

Derry said he hopes to establish an ethics commission that would hold elected and appointed county officials accountable for bad behavior and spoke of his successful bid to eliminate an annual $26,000 medical benefits package the Board of Supervisors received.

Read the rest of this entry »

10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, March 3, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Supervisors approved a task force this week to develop possible reforms to Riverside County’s pension system and make the program more financially sound.

“State and local pensions as they are currently structured are unsustainable,” said Supervisor John Tavaglione.

The board voted 4-0 Tuesday to create the Pension Reform Advisory Committee.

Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 03/03/2010 06:07:46 PM PST

San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG), the county’s transportation planning agency, passed a resolution Wednesday demanding that the county commissionan independent investigation of its $102 million legal settlement with a Rancho Cucamonga developer in November 2006.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cassie MacDuff

10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Cassie MacDuff

What never made sense to me about San Bernardino County’s $102 million settlement with Colonies Partners — besides the price tag — was why county officials gave up a fight they seemed to have a fair chance of winning.

In 2003, a judge in Rancho Cucamonga ruled against the county in the dispute with Colonies over a flood-control basin on the company’s land in Upland.

But in 2005, the state Court of Appeal overturned it, ruling in favor of the county on some issues and sending others back to a local court.

In July 2006, a different local judge ruled against the county even more strongly than the Rancho Cucamonga judge had.

Read the rest of this entry »

CAPITOL JOURNAL

Brown opposed Prop. 13, but became a born-again tax-cutter.

By George Skelton Capitol Journal

March 4, 2010

From Sacramento

There’s an old Jerry Brown story that’s often recounted but deserves repeating now because it gets right to the core of the guy. It’s quintessential Jerry.

The story involves the two biggest California political players of the late 1970s: young rock-star-like Gov. Brown and crusty old anti-tax crusader Howard Jarvis. In spring 1978, they fought over the most important ballot initiative in the state’s history, Jarvis’ Proposition 13.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Jack Chang
jchang@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Mar. 4, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

OAKLAND – A day after announcing his candidacy for governor, Attorney General Jerry Brown said Wednesday that if elected he would consider overhauling public employee pension programs while opposing any move to privatize them.

The Democrat also expressed admiration for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and stuck with his pledge not to raise taxes to bridge budget deficits, saying he would focus like a laser on the budget.

Read the rest of this entry »

Roy Ashburn

By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Thursday, Mar. 4, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 4A
Last Modified: Thursday, Mar. 4, 2010 – 8:29 am

State Sen. Roy Ashburn was arrested early Wednesday morning on suspicion of drunken driving in downtown Sacramento, authorities said.

Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, was booked into the Sacramento County jail by the California Highway Patrol.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Juliet Williams,
Associated Press Writer – Wed Mar 3, 9:55 pm ET

OAKLAND, Calif. – California needs an elder statesman who can broker deals to lead it out of its current fiscal morass, not an autocratic CEO who is used to giving orders, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown said Wednesday.

A day after launching his campaign, Brown took aim at former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, the front-runner in the GOP race who is running on her corporate record.

Read the rest of this entry »