Category Archives: SGV-IE Community News

Sex Offender Living With 5 Kids Arrested

Photo courtesy of San Bernardino Sheriff’s Dept. Keith Dewayne Lavinge arrested in San Bernardino

Photo courtesy of San Bernardino Sheriff’s Dept.
Keith Dewayne Lavinge arrested in San Bernardino

Staff Reports

SAN BERNARDINO-  A convicted sex offender who had five children living in his home in San Bernardino has been arrested.

Keith Lavinge has been convicted twice for the sexual assault of a child under the age of 14, and he is required to register his home address with authorities.  Investigators found that Lavinge has been registering as a “transient” in the City of San Bernardino, and has not been honest with law enforcement about his residency.
Sheriff’s detectives were contacted by social workers from the Department of Children and Family Services, who are mandated reporters. During the course of the social worker’s investigation, it was determined that the children’s biological mother & biological father are incarcerated, and all 5 children were living with the mother’s boyfriend, Keith Lavinge.
On Wednesday, March 16, 2016, members from the Sheriff’s Specialized Enforcement Division assisted detectives in serving a search warrant at Lavinge’s residence in the 200 block of East 2nd Street in San Bernardino.  Lavinge was contacted at that location, along with the five children. Evidence was located at the residence to prove that Lavinge had been living at the location with the children for over a year. Lavinge was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender. He was transported and booked into the West Valley Detention Center, where he is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
All five children were placed into protective custody. Further investigation is being conducted into the welfare of the children during the time they were living with Lavinge.
Anyone with information about this case is urged to contact Detective Donald Patton or Sergeant Dana Foster in the Specialized Investigations-Crimes Against Children Detail at (909) 387-3615.  If you choose to remain anonymous, call WeTip at 1-800-78-CRIME or www.wetip.com

Straight Talk with Danice

Danice Akiyoshi

Danice Akiyoshi

“Angry at my dead friend”

By Danice Akiyoshi, N.D.

 

Dear Dr. Akiyoshi:

I just came home from my dear friend’s funeral. I was devastated because I thought he died suddenly from a mysterious illness.  Another friend found him unconscious in his home after none of us had heard from him for a couple of days.  We were all close and spoke almost daily.  At the funeral luncheon his sister told me that he had been diagnosed with cancer six months ago, and that was the real cause of his death.  I could not believe what I was hearing.  I didn’t say anything, because I don’t know his sister, but I am mad as hell at my friend!  Why didn’t he tell me the truth?  He was at my house for dinner a couple of times a week.  He and my husband were pretty close, too. I don’t understand why he wouldn’t let me help him.  Why didn’t he fight for his life?  He was only 60-years old. I don’t exaggerate when I tell you that nobody suspected he was this sick.  I feel deceived.  A real friend wouldn’t have lied to me this way.  My feelings are very hurt.  My husband won’t share his opinion with me.  Do you have any idea why someone would treat a true friend this way?  I am sick at heart to think I never knew this man at all.

-Gloria.

 

Dear Gloria:

I am sick about the way you’ve turned your friend’s death around to make it all about you.  I don’t know you, but your emotional maturity needs a lot of work.  Has it ever occurred to you that your friend was trying to spare you from grief and sadness?  Has it ever occurred to you that maybe your friend wanted his relationships with his friends to be normal and not filled with pity or tears?  Not everyone wants to undergo Chemotherapy and traditional therapies that are difficult to tolerate when their days are numbered anyway.  Why can’t you find a way to respect that?  You are a woman.  Let’s pretend you are about to give birth.  Do your friends have the right to force their opinions on you about what style of child birth you choose, or whether or not you are going to nurse your baby? Can they insist that you have an epidural when you really prefer to try natural childbirth?  Grow up, Gloria.  You are choosing to suffer.  This stems from your inability to accept that you can’t always control things.  People do not owe their friends and family all of their private information.  If you’d like assistance for anger, grief, or in improving your emotional maturity, I would love to meet with you.  I wish you well, Gloria, and sincerely hope you will feel better soon.

-Danice Akiyoshi, ND

Armed Forces Banners

Courtesy of the City of Diamond Bar

DIAMOND BAR– The first of two annual deadlines for Diamond Bar residents to honor an immediate family member serving on active duty in the United States military through the City of Diamond Bar’s Armed Forces Banner Program is coming up.

Friday, April 8 is the first cutoff date to submit a request to have a banner personalized with a loved one’s name and military branch. Banner installations will occur in the month of May. Applications received after April 8 will be part of the second round of requests, with banners going up in November.

Complete participation requirements and a downloadable application form are available online at www.diamondbarca.gov/armedforces or by calling the City’s Community Services Department at 909.839.7060.

History 101

Photo courtesy of Biography.com Jonas Salk

Photo courtesy of Biography.com
Jonas Salk

Salk announces polio vaccine

Courtesy of History.com

On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announced on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. In 1952–an epidemic year for polio–there were 58,000 new cases reported in the United States, and more than 3,000 died from the disease. For promising eventually to eradicate the disease, which is known as “infant paralysis” because it mainly affects children, Dr. Salk was celebrated as the great doctor-benefactor of his time.

Polio, a disease that has affected humanity throughout recorded history, attacks the nervous system and can cause varying degrees of paralysis. Since the virus is easily transmitted, epidemics were commonplace in the first decades of the 20th century. The first major polio epidemic in the United States occurred in Vermont in the summer of 1894, and by the 20th century thousands were affected every year. In the first decades of the 20th century, treatments were limited to quarantines and the infamous “iron lung,” a metal coffin-like contraption that aided respiration. Although children, and especially infants, were among the worst affected, adults were also often afflicted, including future president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1921 was stricken with polio at the age of 39 and was left partially paralyzed. Roosevelt later transformed his estate in Warm Springs, Georgia, into a recovery retreat for polio victims and was instrumental in raising funds for polio-related research and the treatment of polio patients.

Salk’s procedure, first attempted unsuccessfully by American Maurice Brodie in the 1930s, was to kill several strains of the virus and then inject the benign viruses into a healthy person’s bloodstream. The person’s immune system would then create antibodies designed to resist future exposure to poliomyelitis. Salk conducted the first human trials on former polio patients and on himself and his family, and by 1953 was ready to announce his findings. This occurred on the CBS national radio network on the evening of March 25 and two days later in an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Salk became an immediate celebrity.

In 1954, clinical trials using the Salk vaccine and a placebo began on nearly two million American schoolchildren. In April 1955, it was announced that the vaccine was effective and safe, and a nationwide inoculation campaign began. New polio cases dropped to under 6,000 in 1957, the first year after the vaccine was widely available. In 1962, an oral vaccine developed by Polish-American researcher Albert Sabin became available, greatly facilitating distribution of the polio vaccine. Today, there are just a handful of polio cases in the United States every year, and most of these are “imported” from developing nations where polio is still a problem. Among other honors, Jonas Salk was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. He died in La Jolla, California, in 1995

Facing Grief Head On

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

Nancy Stoops M.A., M.F.T Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

By Nancy Stoops, M.A.M.F.T.

 

I know from personal experience that the loss of a loved one is devastating.  I know it can dump a person into a very severe depression.  It can make us feel like we just can’t go on and that life isn’t worth living without that loved one.  I have literally helped thousands of people heal from the death of their loved ones.  I know it’s important to understand that we must all leave this world when it is our time.  Death has not logic or fairness; it just is and it’s the hardest part of living.  I also know that we heal when we find a way to live that honors ourselves and our loved ones still here and our loved ones that have passed away.

The worst thing we can do is feel guilty because we are still alive but a very special loved one has passed away.  No matter what we do, say or feel, nothing can bring that loved one back to us.  All we can do is live our lives fully, live our lives for ourselves and for all of our loved ones that have passed away.  The truth is that our loved ones didn’t want to die and make us feel such unbearable pain because they are no longer here.  It’s very important to fully appreciate the life of a loved one when they are alive and with us.  One of the tricks of a successful life is to take nothing for granted, especially those closest to us.

So when you lose a loved one, grieve but don’t give up your life.  Remember we are all only here for a short time, so live well and love well and I promise you’ll have no regrets.  Don’t waste your life because we only get one time to do it all.  Tell people you love them, be affectionate and when they pass away, carry them in your heart forever!

This article was written by Nancy Stoops M.A., M.F.T.  Nancy is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.  Nancy runs free family support groups, a group on loss for seniors, and groups for teens.  For more information about any of these services feel free to contact her at (909) 229-0727.  You may e-mail Nancy at nancyjstoops@verizon.net. You may purchase Nancy’s books Live Heal and Grow and Midnight the Therapy Dog at Amazon.com.

Did You Know?

Photo courtesy: Google

Photo courtesy: Google

All about Easter

Courtesy of Wilstar

 

This Christian holiday of Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The date of celebration varies from March to April, and depends on the date of the March equinox. Christians worldwide gather for this major holiday for the religion to feast, attend church services, and hunt Easter eggs. Easter Sunday marks the end of Lent, which is a 40-day period of fasting and reflection. It follows Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

The story of Easter makes up a fundamental aspect of Christian theology. While Good Friday marks Jesus’ crucifixion, Easter Sunday is a day for Christians to celebrate his resurrection. Following Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, he was buried in a tomb. While the next part of the story varies according to different accounts, most follow the theme of female followers of Jesus going to visit the tomb and finding the stone rolled away from the opening with Jesus’s body missing. Jesus went on to appear to his followers several times before his ascension into heaven. The resurrection of Christ is an important part of Christian belief because of its association with salvation.

Christians started celebrating the tradition of Easter with a feast soon after the time period of the resurrection, which is believed to have occurred around 33 AD. The time of year was chosen for the celebration since Jesus celebrated the Passover shortly before his crucifixion and so the time is believed to be around the time of Jesus’ actual crucifixion. In medieval celebrations, congregations would walk in a procession after mass, following a priest holding a crucifix or candle.

Many Christians begin the celebration with an Easter Vigil the night before, sometimes called Easter Eve or Holy Saturday. Church services on Sunday typically follow regular church service tradition with a sermon or songs concerning the Easter story. Some churches hold mass or other services at sunrise. Other common Easter traditions include the Easter Egg Hunt and floral decorations.

The Easter egg hunt is a tradition that originated with pagan spring festivals that celebrated fertility. Like many pagan traditions, Christians intertwined the practice with religious significance. Easter egg hunts feature eggs hidden by the mythical Easter bunny, which may contain candy or other prizes. Hard-boiled eggs may also be used. The children will go looking for eggs to put in their Easter egg basket. On the day before Easter, many families decorate hard-boiled eggs with paint to use for the hunt. Eggs are also part of the tradition because of the ban on eggs during Lent in Medieval Europe, meaning they were often included in the Sunday feast.

Churches are often decorated with flowers. A significant theme for Easter is rebirth, which flowers can emulate and symbolize. Traditional Easter flowers include Easter Lilies, which are believed to have grown in the Garden of Gethsemane, the site of Jesus’ arrest. Other Easter flowers include daffodils, narcissuses, and red tulips, which symbolize Jesus’ shed blood.

In pagan celebrations, Easter was typically a celebration of fertility, and many cultures associated the celebration with the Germanic goddess of fertility, Eostre, which is where the holiday’s name came from. Some cultures called the holiday Ishtar, which celebrates the resurrection of the Tammuz, another pagan god.

The Easter Bunny is a result of folkloric tradition. Their association with the holiday comes from their ability to procreate, making them symbols of fertility. German settlers brought the Easter Bunny tradition to America in the 1700s.

 

Walnut Looking for Historians

Staff Reports

WALNUT– The City of Walnut is now seeking candidates to serve on the Walnut Historical Preservation Ad Hoc Advisory Committee. The Committee will meet the first Wednesday of each month, as well as on an “as-needed basis” and will include appointed persons that are Walnut residents.

The primary responsibility of committee members is to provide recommendations to the City Council and/or Planning Commission relating to historical preservation in the City of Walnut. Some of the historical sites currently identified in Walnut include Suzanne Park, the Bob Quattlebaum Windmill, the Brookside Equestrian Center and the W. R. Rowland Adobe Ranch House.

Applications are due to the City Clerk’s Office by Monday, May 2, 2016. Interested individuals may obtain an application on the City website homepage or by contacting Teresa De Dios, City Clerk at 909-348-0710, or by email: tdedios@ci.walnut.ca.us.

For questions regarding the committee, please contact Justin Carlson, City Planner or Derrick Womble, Senior Management Analyst at (909) 595-7543.

Walnut City Hall is located at 21201 La Puente Road, Walnut, CA. For information about the City of Walnut, please visit our web site at www.ci.walnut.ca.us.

 

Deputies Looking for Chino Hills Robbery Suspect

Staff Reports
On Saturday, March 19, 2016, at approximately 5:35 a.m., the Circle K Store at 4200 Chino Hills Parkway in Chino Hills was robbed.  The suspect entered the store, placed a pack of gum on the counter and held out a one dollar bill. When the store clerk opened the cash drawer, the suspect reached over the counter, threatened the clerk, and removed the cash drawer. The suspect stole cash and an unknown amount of scratcher lottery tickets. After reviewing video footage, it was determined the suspect was also involved in a robbery in the city of Chino approximately 20 minutes earlier.
The suspect is described as a 25-30 year old Hispanic male adult, approximately 6’0” tall, 190 pounds, with black hair and a medium build.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Chino Hills Police Department at (909) 364-2000.  If you wish to remain anonymous you may call WeTip at (800) 78-CRIME.

My Trip To A New York Airport When I Was Living In England … Last Night

By Michael Armijo 

Last night, during the day, I was driving to the airport to pick up my buddy Mike Mendez. I was driving my current car, and was concerned about how his luggage would fit into the tiny back seat. As I gazed upon the back seat I was convinced it would fit.

When I got to the airport, I was in New York and suddenly I was part of a group of young, excited students who had English accents and were amazed at being in such a place. Where we came from, there wasn’t a place like this. So we frolicked through the airport like kids in a candy store. We were amazed, surprised, and excited to be with such a hodgepodge of people.

One of the other students made gifts and placed phone numbers in a box. He skipped his way through and handed out the gifts: mostly chocolate bars and CDs of classic rock. He gave me a phone number and said “You’ll want this number, it’s hers,” and he pointed to one of the other students. I looked at her and she was only about 19 years old, and I thought: “That’s disgusting; she’s too young for me.” Then I gazed into a nearby mirror and saw something shocking: I wasn’t a middle aged man, nor did I look the same. I was a young 20 year old, my ethnicity was now different, but I had the wisdom and memories of my current self.

I was completely confused on what was transpiring.

I went to a turnstile and saw a young man who resembled, exactly, my childhood friend Todd Mestas. I was right next to him and stared in amazement. He was smiling and looked so happy.

What’s interesting was that when I woke from this vivid and realistic dream, I didn’t know where I was, nor did I know what to do with the memory of that dream. I can visualize, hear, and smell the airport and I could still taste the chocolate bars. It was so realistic I believed I was really there.

The stranger part was the friend, Mike, who I was supposed to pick up from the airport, had passed away a few years back. So had Todd. He died the following year. They are both gone. So what does that mean? Or what does that mean to me?  I drew some conclusions:

  1. When I pass, am I coming back as a new person, reincarnated into someone different who deep inside I’ve been yearning to be?
  2. Should I leave California, as I’ve been wanting to do these past 2 years, and begin a new life?
  3.  2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” Was God telling me that I am now a new man?

I’ve had many dreams, but don’t remember most of them. This one stuck in my head and I can remember so many details. I thought about my life and realized I eat fairly healthy, I don’t take any drugs, I don’t drink, I just had a CT scan and I have no tumors, nor is my heart in danger. So why has this message that came to me, while asleep, embedded itself into my mind, and now into my spirit?

I’m not sure why this dream disrupted my life, felt so real, and won’t leave my mind. But what I do know is that the way I felt during this episode in my life made me feel better than I’ve felt in a very long time. Made me feel different. Gave me some type of hope. I guess God knew that a trip to a New York airport when I was living in England would give me what I needed, which it did…last night.

 

19th Annual Taste of the Chino Valley

Enjoy the Chino Valley’s finest cuisine, wine, and spirits as local establishments dish up their very best at the impressive Chaffey College Chino Community Center.

Enjoy the Chino Valley’s finest cuisine, wine, and spirits as local establishments dish up their very best at the impressive Chaffey College Chino Community Center.

By Zeb Welborn

CHINO– It’s a food lover’s dream!  Enjoy great food from some of the area’s new restaurants as well as some long-standing favorites at the 19th Annual Taste of the Chino Valley.  We’ve put together a great team who is working hard to bring local restaurants together to give our community a taste of what Chino Valley restaurants have to offer.

The Taste of the Chino Valley will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, April 4, at the Chaffey College Community Center, located at 5890 College Park Ave.

Spots for the Taste of the Chino Valley are filling up fast.  We’ve already signed up Cannataro’s, The Pub, Oke Poke, Wara Bistro, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Pacifica Senior Living, Los Portales, Riverside Grill and Award Winning Wines by Fairplex.  We have verbal commitments from numerous others, and we’ll be sharing those through our website and Facebook page as they come in.

We’ve also secured sponsorships from Waste Management, the City of Chino, the City of Chino Hills, Champion Newspapers, Chaffey College, Insurance & Surety Services, Oke Poke, and Welborn Media.

Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to put this together, we have a great team of people securing restaurants, sponsors and donations for the event.

You can sign up online at www.eventbrite.com/e/taste-of-chino-valley-tickets-22749102177.  Hope to see you there.  Tell your friends!

Decorating For Easter

Pastor Mark Hopper

Pastor Mark Hopper

By Mark Hopper

 

One of my least favorite assignments is to “get the boxes down from the attic.”  I hear these words several times a year, when my wife wants to decorate our house for a new season.

 

The largest number of storage boxes contain Christmas decorations.  Most of these are stored on shelves in the garage.  There are fewer Fall decorations and these are stored in the attic space above the garage.  

 

Each of these seasonal decorations contribute to the festive atmosphere in our house for a few weeks.   My job is to get them down and put them away again.

 

Now that Spring is coming, I heard those familiar words again recently.  My wife asked me if I would “get the Easter boxes down from the attic”.  There was a sense of urgency in her voice because two of our granddaughters were coming to our house and she wanted to let them help decorate.

 

 I’m not sure who had more fun, the grandchildren or my wife.  These two young girls had a wonderful time discovering the variety of decorations in those boxes.  They couldn’t believe all the neat stuff that Grammy had collected.  They loved finding places to put the decorations all over our house.

 

I noticed the sparkle in my wife’s eye and the smile on her face as she watched the enthusiasm of her young assistants.  It was enjoyable to watch Grammy and her girls decorate our house for Easter.

 

I don’t know how the seasonal decorating goes on in your house, but I know it is important at our house.   My wife enjoyed it very much and so did her young helpers!

 

This year Easter will be on Sunday, March 27th.  Our church will be having three Easter Sunday services at 8:30, 10:00, and 11:30 a.m.  We will also have one service on Good Friday, March 25th, at 7:00 p.m.

 

Easter is the day when Christians around the world celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus.  The Bible says that Jesus died on the Cross and rose from the dead to pay for our sins and to purchase a place for us in heaven.  I hope you will take time to celebrate Easter this year.  Get out those decorations.  Get up and go to church to celebrate that Jesus is alive!

 

If you don’t have a church home, we would be delighted to have you worship with us on Easter Sunday.   You will be glad you did and we will be too!

Pastor Mark Hopper is from the Evangelical Free Church of Diamond Bar, 3255 South Diamond Bar Blvd. Sunday services are 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. For more information, call (909) 594-7604 or visithttp://www.efreedb.org

Ramona Students Going To Race Track To Learn STEM

Courtesy of CVUSD

CHINO– Ramona Junior High students will be among 500 eighth graders from 17 middle schools in San Bernardino and Riverside counties to attend the seventh annual Auto Club Speedway STEM Day on March 18 as part of the Auto Club 400 Weekend in Fontana.
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are foundations of the motorsports industry.
The students will have an opportunity to do hands-on math and engineering exercises with student volunteers from local colleges and universities, as well as interact with exhibitors.
Students will be introduced to several speakers, including Sprint Cup driver Aric Almirola of Richard Petty Motorsports.
The students will also receive a pair of reserved grandstand tickets to the Auto Club 400 race that will take place March 20 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

How To Knock Out Sugar For National Nutrition Month

By Brittany Thomas

Type “sugar” and “culprit” into your favorite search engine and you’ll find no shortage of health reasons to knock sugar out of your diet.

For example, three authors argue in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that, despite ample exercise, too much sugar consumption can still leave you fat. That’s in addition to new studies published earlier this year that indicate too much sugar triggers brain defects, liver disease and breast cancer.

“The toxicity of excessive sugar consumption is well-documented, yet it’s so prevalent in our packaged foods that we may be digesting it without knowing it,” says nutritionist and juicing pioneer Cherie Calbom, who is known as “The Juice Lady.”

But with vigilance you can ditch the sugar in your diet, says Calbom, who tackles the subject in her newest book, “The Juice Lady’s Sugar Knockout,” and she offers her Sugar Addiction Quiz atwww.juiceladycherie.com/Juice/the-sugar-knockout. She says March, which is National Nutrition Month, is the perfect time to start. A few ways to begin include.

  • Pick the right day to start.A birthday or celebration dinner is not the best time to commit to a new diet. You’ll eventually develop the willpower to navigate through special events, but it’s not a good idea to start with an unusual challenge.
    • Go cold turkey.Studies show sugar is as addictive as cocaine and heroin, so it’s not something you can ease into or pursue in half measures. If you eat a little less to gradually eliminate it from your diet, you’ll keep getting triggered into wanting more sweets. You have to completely let it go.
    • Scrutinize every label. We are naturally inclined to crave sugar, which is why manufacturers try to smuggle it into their products. The only way to root out sugar in all its forms – soups, condiments, breads, etc. – is to read grocery labels carefully. The sooner sugar is mentioned, the more that’s in there.
    • Make emergency snack packs. Whether shopping, traveling or at work, you don’t want to be caught hungry without a healthy option. Plummeting blood-sugar levels will make it that much harder to resist sugar-laden treats. Nuts and seeds, veggie sticks, turkey jerky and apples are among the healthy options.
    • Take time to de-stress. Stress causes spikes in cortisol, a hormone that makes you irrationally hungry, leaving you susceptible to sugar-laden snacks. When stressed, take a long, deep breath in for five seconds, hold, and then let it out to a count of five. Deep breathing is said to activate your vagus nerve, which properly regulates metabolism.

“There is much more you can do to break sugar addiction,” Calbom says. “It’s very doable, but you must commit to it!”

About Cherie Calbom, MSN (a.k.a. The Juice Lady)

Cherie Calbom holds a Master of Science degree in whole foods nutrition from Bastyr University. Known as “The Juice Lady” (www.juiceladycherie.com) for her work with juicing and health, she is author of 31 books, with millions of copies sold worldwide. No stranger to healthy diet trends, Cherie joined George Foreman as nutritional spokesperson in the Knockout the Fat phenomena that forever changed grilling in America.

March 2016 SGV News

March 2016 SGV NewsSGV News covers Diamond Bar, Walnut, La Puente, Rowland Heights and surrounding areas of the San Gabriel Valley; portions of the western Inland Empire; and northern Orange County. Click this link to access the complete issue in PDF format: March 2016 SGV Newspaper

Murder Suspect Found Guilty in 2013 Case

 

Photo courtesy: Chino Police Department

Photo courtesy: Chino Police Department

Courtesy of the City of Chino

CHINO– Nearly two and a-half years after the cold-blooded murder of a Check ‘n Go employee, the shooter, Jorge Cisneros, was found guilty of first-degree murder and second-degree robbery.

On November 15, 2013 at approximately 1:24 p.m., two suspects entered the Check ‘n Go located at 12083 Central Avenue and shot and killed 24-year-old Vanessa Martinez of Riverside. Within 24 hours, Chino Police Investigators and SWAT team members located and arrested two suspects in the cities of Ontario and Pomona.

Jorge Esteban Cisneros, a 43 year-old resident of Ontario, was identified as the shooter during the commission of the crime. He was found guilty Thursday, March 17, 2016 in a San Bernardino Court.

David Mendez, a 29-year-old Pomona resident was convicted in 2015 of first-degree murder and second-degree robbery. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Cisneros’ sentencing hearing is pending.

If you have information regarding this case please contact Detective Acuna at 909-334-3016 or facuna@chinopd.org.

 

Great Places to See Southern California in Bloom this Spring

Photo courtesy: sandiego.org Anza-Borrego State Park

Photo courtesy: sandiego.org
Anza-Borrego State Park

Courtesy of the State of California

 

This spring bloom promises to be one of the best in years. After weeks of drinking in fresh rainwater, California’s sunny landscapes are beginning to burst with colorful wildflowers.

Here are just six of the many places in California that will inspire you to get outdoors and smell the roses – not to mention the poppies, daffodils, tulips and more.

  1. Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve

The Antelope Valley is the ultimate place to spot the state flower, the California Poppy, in the wild. Located just 75 miles north of Los Angeles, this state-protected reserve boasts a carpet of bright orange blooms each spring, as well as owl’s clover, lupine, goldfields, cream cups and coreopsis. Visitors can typically enjoy the visual bounty from mid- February through late May along eight miles of trails overlooking rolling hills. Trail benches make great vantage points to spot other wildlife, such as singing meadowlarks, lizards zipping across the trail, gophers and maybe even a coyote.

  1. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Some of Mother Nature’s most spectacular floral shows in the West take place each spring at the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park – California’s largest state park, encompassing over 600,000 acres in San Diego’s East County. Following winter rains, the dry and rugged landscape is magically transformed into a kaleidoscope of wildflowers, from tiny bursts of color no larger than the head of a pin to towering ocotillos with fiery spines of scarlet blossoms. The displays promise to be especially vibrant sometime during March and April after Southern California’s recent winter rains. Visitors will also enjoy seeing the multitude of butterflies that are drawn to this spectacular floral pageant. Guests can call the Park’s 24-hour “Wildflower Hotline” for updates.

  1. Channel Islands National Park

This isolated national park off the coast of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties is known as the “Galapagos Islands of North America,” featuring unique animals, plants and archeological resources found nowhere else on Earth. The islands are home to an astonishing 775 species of plants, many of which blanket the fields with colors each spring. To help visitors make sense of the abundant blooms, the park publishes flower guide each year. One of the most popular, the brilliant yellow coreopsis flowers, usually peak between late January through March and are best seen on Santa Barbara, Anacapa and San Miguel Islands. Sometimes the colors are so vivid they can be seen from the shore! San Miguel also boasts lupine and poppies, while Anacapa features vibrant red paintbrush and island morning glory. Santa Barbara Island, home to a colony of elephant seals, also blossoms with lavender chicory and pale yellow cream cups. While taking in Mother Nature’s rainbow of flowers in the spring, park visitors can also enjoy spotting western gulls and other seabirds begin nesting on the islands, as well as newborn California sea lions and northern fur seals.

  1. Death Valley National Park

If you’re visiting Southern California soon, don’t miss a rare and epic “super bloom” of abundant wildflowers at Death Valley National Park. Only under perfect conditions do wildflowers paint the desert with hues of gold, purple, pink and white. Thanks to heavy rains this fall and early winter, the park’s stark and arid landscapes are giving birth to Desert Gold, Golden Evening Primrose, Gravel Ghost, Bigelow Monkeyflower and Desert Five-Spot along the lower elevations and foothills, and are likely to hang around until late March or early April.

  1. Figueroa Mountain Recreation Area

Nothing says “spring” like a field of wild sunflowers, and one of the best places to enjoy them and other fantastic flower displays is Figueroa Mountain in Santa Barbara County. Late March brings forth early blooming specimens such as purple shooting stars. Later arrivals on the mountain include chocolate lilies and the scarlet Indian paintbrush. The open grassland areas support a profusion of species, including goldfields, sky lupine, California poppies and more.

  1. Laguna Coast Wilderness Park

After the winter rains, flowers spring up in this beautiful coastal park in Orange County. The park features 40 miles of trails that wind through oak and sycamore woodlands and lead hikers up and down hills and canyons – some of which offer great views of the Pacific Ocean. At each elevation, visitors have the opportunity to view different varieties of native plants and flowers such as wild hyacinth, morning glories, popcorn flowers and southern sun cups. Coastal sage scrub provides a year-round home for the endangered California gnatcatcher.

Golf with Your Local Sheriffs in Chino Hills

By Walnut-Diamond Bar Sheriff’s Booster Club

 

CHINO HILLS – The Walnut-Diamond Bar Sheriff’s Booster Club will host a golf tournament in honor of the sheriff department’s 150 volunteers next month.
The tournament will begin at 11:30 a.m. April 4 at the Western Hills Country Club, 1800 Carbon Canyon Rd., in Chino Hills. A luncheon will immediately follow the tournament.

“Thousands of hours are donated annually by our department’s volunteers, explorers, reserves and disaster communication specialists,” Captain Jeff Scroggin said.  “From vacation checks and traffic control to color guard and keeping disaster communication equipment ready in case of emergency, these are a few of the many services they provide the community.”
Prizes for the longest drive, closest to the pin and hole-in-one will be awarded during the luncheon. The cost for a single player is $100. Sponsorship opportunities are available.
Platinum sponsor – $3,000- Includes 16 players/four teams, recognition during the awards luncheon, repeated advertising of your company in Our Weekly newspaper and during the tournament, name placement on event signage and a recognition certificate from the Walnut-Diamond Bar Sheriff’s Booster Club.
Gold sponsor – $2,000- Includes 8 players/two teams, recognition in Our Weekly newspaper, recognition during the awards luncheon, name placement on event signage and a recognition certificate from the Walnut-Diamond Bar Sheriff’s Booster Club.
Silver sponsor – $1,000-Includes one team of four players and a recognition certificate from the Walnut-Diamond Bar Sheriff’s Booster Club.
Other sponsorship opportunities include: beverage cart for $1,000, hole-in-one sponsor for $500, goodie bag sponsor for $500, closest-to-the-pin sponsor for $400, and tee sign sponsorship for $100.
Captain Scroggin encourages community members to join this fun and meaningful tournament to continue to help provide the needed uniforms and equipment to the people who volunteer their time to improve the service and security to the cities of Walnut and Diamond Bar, and the unincorporated communities of Rowland Heights, Covina Hills and West Covina.

For information and reservations, contact Sgt. Mark Saldecke, volunteer coordinator, at (909) 595-2264, mcsaldec@lasd.org or Gil Rivera, booster club member at (909) 967-4525, GRiveraEmail@gmail.com.

Chino Man Fires at Officers, Sets Home on Fire

Courtesy of the Chino Police Department

Courtesy of the Chino Police Department

Staff Reports

 

CHINO– A man who was about to be evicted from a rental property in Chino barricaded himself in his home after shooting at police officers and was later found dead.

Around 8:20 a.m. March 9, Chino Police officers approached the home in the 11400 block of Santa Anita with the landlord in order to serve an eviction notice, when the man inside the home began shooting at the officers.

“Upon our officers arrival … an unknown subject came to the front of the location and fired upon the officers,” Police Captain Wes Simmons said. “The officers did return fire, and they did deploy chemical agents on the house.”

Neighborhood residents were evacuated for several hours.  The house became fully engulfed in flames after officers deployed non-incendiary chemical agents into the home.  Officers do not believe that the chemicals started the fire.

Monica Gutierrez, spokeswoman for the city of Chino, said that police learned later that the man had planned to set the house on fire and commit suicide. His remains were retrieved from the home on Thursday.

The owner of the home had been trying to evict the man for several months.

Chino Valley Fire was able to knock down the flames, but the house is a complete loss.  The suspect remains unidentified.

No officers, fire personnel or citizens were injured during the incident.

 

CarMax Crash Fugitive Sought

Photo courtesy: San Bernardino County Sheriff Fugitive Alex Demetro sought

Photo courtesy: San Bernardino County Sheriff
Fugitive Alex Demetro sought

Staff Reports

SAN BERNARDINO-  A Union City, CA  man charged with killing a CarMax salesman has been declared a fugitive.

Alex Demetro, 28, allegedly crashed a Corvette into a tree during a test drive around 12:45 p.m., February 23, on Mercedes Lane in Ontario.  Witnesses told police that the driver was traveling at a high rate of speed, possibly as high as 70 mph, when he lost control of the car and crashed.

After the collision, 43-year-old Warren Smale of Montclair, a CarMax employee, was taken to a hospital in critical condition.  He was later pronounced dead as a result of his injuries. Smale had worked at the CarMax dealership since October 2013, and was the first CarMax employee to die during a test drive, according to the company.   He grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to California to find a good job.

Demetro was released from jail February 24 after posting $100,000 bail.

On March 7, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office charged Demetro with one count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, one count of driving while under the influence of a drug causing injury, and one count of driving when privilege suspended or revoked with priors.  When Demetro did not show up for his court hearing, a warrant for his arrest was issued.

The case is currently under investigation by the Ontario Police Department.  If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Alex Demetro, please contact Ontario Police Officer Brian Olivo at (909) 395-4646 or callers wishing to remain anonymous can dial WeTip at (800) 78-CRIME.

Sex Offender Compliance Check

Courtesy of San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department

SAN BERNARDINO– For the past 45 days, detectives from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Crimes Against Children detail have continued to verify the residency status of sex offenders within the county of San Bernardino. San Bernardino County currently has over 5,000 registered sex offenders residing throughout the various cities in San Bernardino County. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has a 98 % compliance rate of all sex offenders registered with the Sheriff’s Department.
As of February 2016, there are 192 active Failure to Register warrants for subjects who have not registered, and are out of compliance with their Sex Offender registration requirements. 133 of these warrants are Felony warrants; 59 of these are misdemeanor warrants. Detectives are currently working with the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office to ensure that all of the felony warrants in the system are approved for nationwide extradition. At this time, over 40 warrants have been approved for nationwide extradition, and additional approvals are pending.
Through investigation, detectives learned that 7 of those wanted subjects were deceased. An additional 9 were found to be living in other States.
In the past 45 days, Detectives from the Crimes Against Children Detail also conducted over 30 investigations into the compliance status of various sex offenders within the Inland Empire. As a result of those investigations, 13 sex offenders were arrested for various charges to include; possession of drugs, forgery, failing to register as a sex offender, and for violating the terms of their parole & probation.
Charlie Sanders (44) and John Mason (42) both of San Bernardino, were arrested for possession of a controlled substance and parole violation.
Anthony Jefferson (30) of San Bernardino, was arrested for Forgery, Possession of a fake CA driver’s license, and parole violation.
With the assistance of Deputies from the Sheriff’s Central Station, Travis Wright (64) of Devore, was arrested for a Felony Indecent Exposure Warrant; stemming from a case that occurred in Orange County.
John Arrey (59) of Yucaipa, Benny Goodman (46) and Robert White (53), both of Highland, Michael Murillo (27) and Ronnie Fernandez (42), both of Redlands, Edward Brodie (58) of Rialto, William Hoover (51) of Rancho Cucamonga, and Antonio Higareda (20) and Justin Lutton (28), both of San Bernardino, were all arrested for failing to register as sex offenders.
Additional investigations are in the process and more arrests are imminent. Detectives are also collaborating with officers from the San Bernardino County Probation Department and agents from the California Department of Corrections to ensure the subjects on parole & probation are following their sex offender registration requirements. Detectives will continue to monitor the registered sex offenders within the County of San Bernardino to ensure their compliance.
Anyone with information about sex offenders who may be out of compliance is urged to contact the Specialized Investigations – Crimes Against Children Detail at (909) 387-3615. If you choose to remain anonymous, call WeTip at 1-800-78-CRIME.