NEEDLES—The arrangement to have Needles Hospital, Inc. purchase and operate the Colorado River Medical Center has fallen through and the city is now seeking to sell the facility to a non-profit division of AM Pharmacy, Inc., a for-profit enterprise. The non-profit Needles Hospital, Inc. lost its opportunity after it failed to meet an April 26 … Read the Rest ->

Jermaine Wright said that as a candidate for First District supervisor, he represents the true antithesis to the entrenched political establishment that has held the county and the High Desert in its grip for too long. The proof of that, Wright pointed out, is that he is the lone candidate in the field of 8 … Read the Rest ->

Ontario International Airport is on the brink of failure because it lacks brand identity and because of the downturns in the national, state and local economies, according to an airline industry consultant to the division of the city of Los Angeles which operates its airports. The city of Los Angeles has had responsibility for running … Read the Rest ->

Michael Dickinson, whose efforts at bringing the Public Safety Charter Academy into existence was widely lauded until he was ignominiously sacked as chief executive officer of that school last year amid charges he was exploiting it for personal financial profit, is attempting to start another charter school in Apple Valley under the aegis of the … Read the Rest ->

The state Assembly has approved legislation that will allow the Calico Solar plant to proceed toward completion without having to  obtain approval from the county and other local regulatory agencies. Environmentalists, concerned about the possible impact the proposed 663.5-megawatt plant will have on desert tortoises, golden eagles,  bighorn sheep and other fauna and flora that … Read the Rest ->

RIALTO—The final chapter in the effort to outsource the city of Rialto’s water department operations to a New Jersey-based company has yet to be written as a coalition of city residents and the union for the city workers who would have been displaced in the takeover have qualified a referendum on the matter for the … Read the Rest ->

The San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission has recommended that the Twentynine Palms Water District relinquish control of the area’s fire department. Twenty-nine years before the city of Twentynine Palms incorporated in 1987, the water district extended its responsibilities to include fire protection in 1958 after the California Department of Forestry ceased providing local … Read the Rest ->

SAN BERNARDINO – Gigi Hanna will remain as San Bernardino city clerk, Superior Court Judge Donna Gunnell Garza has ruled. Gunnell Garza dismissed a claim by 15 voters that the registrar of voters’ decision to discount their  ballots because of signature mismatches should have invalidated the narrow February 7 election results. For the special run-off … Read the Rest ->

ADELANTO—In an ironic twist, the “Parent Trigger” effort at Desert Trails Elementary School achieved precisely the opposite end that its participants intended. The Parent Empowerment Act, authored by former state senator Gloria Romero and passed by the legislature in 2010, enables a majority of parents at a school at which students test out as low-performers … Read the Rest ->

The California Public Utilities Commission’s agreement to enter into negotiations with the city of Chino Hills and Southern California Edison for the undergrounding of power lines Edison intends to span across the city elicited a protest from a coalition of environmentalists and companies devoted to producing non-polluting renewable energy. In its effort to meet state-mandated … Read the Rest ->