The Catch-22 of mass transit (Metrolink, SanBAG, and San Bernardino line service)

When I moved from Portland, Oregon to Upland, California in 1983, one thing that I clearly lost was an excellent mass transportation system.

When I lived in Portland, I was able to use Tri-Met's bus service (this was when Tri-Met only had buses) to get from my apartment (and previously my college) to downtown, and from there to anywhere in Portland that I needed to go. The buses ran frequently, people used them, and the Portland metropolitan area was (relatively) compact enough to support a unified mass transit service.

By the time I arrived in Upland, I found myself on the fringes of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Omnitrans bus service covered southwestern San Bernardino County, but in car-loving El-Lay it wasn't used all that frequently, and you had to figure out a maze of other services if you wanted to get to downtown Los Angeles.

Metrolink has emerged as a way to get from the outer suburbs to downtown, but it covers six counties and is governed by five of them. (I had thought that Metrolink was governed by six counties, but David Allen is not one to get his facts wrong; it turns out that San Diego County is an ex-officio member - see PDF.)

Regardless of how many counties govern the system, Metrolink serves a lot of counties, as the aforementioned Allen notes:

Metrolink sent bills for the fiscal year that began this month to those five counties’ transportation agencies. Four counties agreed to their share, paying 7.3 to 14 percent more than last year, but San Bernardino refused.

SanBAG, the San Bernardino County agency in charge of mass transit, rejected the 8.8 percent increase and provided a 3 percent increase instead. As a result, Metrolink has removed from trains from the San Bernardino line (the one I talked about recently), including midday and late evening weekday trains. (Late evening weekend trains are unaffected.)

While some may wish that mass transit agencies were solely driven by market conditions, the truth is that money spent on mass transit is money that does not have to be spent on other things, such as road repair. Therefore, there is some incentive for local governments to subsidize mass transit.

But by how much? Allen discussed this with Larry McCallon, Highland councilman, SanBAG board member, and Metrolink board member.

“I do believe we’ve reached a tipping point on fares,” McCallon said, “and we should look at reducing them.” He added with a chuckle: “But that would take a greater subsidy from member agencies. It’s a Catch-22.”

Now perhaps we'll have a complete and total world war in the Middle East AND South America, driving oil prices sky high. Then I KNOW that Metrolink will be able to get funding.

Forbes, Crumbs...and My Delight Cupcakery?

Yesterday, Forbes ran a piece discussing the demise of a cupcake chain known as Crumbs - and the claim that Crumbs' problem was that it had an expensive product of limited interest.

In 2013, when we wrote of the cupcake’s imminent death, Crumbs’ stock had sunk to $1.27 from a 2011 peak of $13. The day the company gave notice of its delisting, shares closed at 23 cents.

At the time, Wedbush Securities restaurant analyst Nick Setyan notes that that Crumbs’ $3.50-plus-per-cupcake price tag made it an unappetizing prospect versus some of its cheaper regional counterparts — not to mention Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts.

So, does that mean that all stores that sell gourmet cupcakes will shutter their doors?

Or, more specifically for me, does it mean that Ontario's My Delight Cupcakery may disappear one day?

Well, My Delight has one thing going for it that Crumbs doesn't have. Let's return to Nick Setyan's analysis.

On Tuesday, Setyan said he wasn’t surprised to see Crumbs close up shop. “They expanded too quickly with a product that simply was not differentiated or compelling enough,” he said. “When the returns are not there, it’s impossible to continue to operate.”

According to Forbes, Crumbs had expanded to 50 locations. My Delight has obviously not expanded that much.

In addition, My Delight aggressively maintains a local presence in their market.

Now perhaps My Delight may choose to expand its product offerings at some point, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee success. I used to work for Motorola, and during my time at the company, it sold everything from automated fingerprint identification systems to police radios to cellular telephones to cable set-top boxes. Motorola was not especially helped by this diversification.

So, rather than the demise of an industry, Forbes may instead be looking at a shakeout of the bad companies in the industry, leaving the good ones to prosper.

Or so I hope.

The taxis in Ontario are more expensive than I thought

I tend to use shuttles when I travel to and from airports, but after some less-than-stellar experiences with shuttle companies, I'm starting to think about using taxis instead.

So I asked myself the question - how much would it cost to take a taxi from my Ontario home to Ontario International Airport?

To answer this question, I consulted a website called taxifarefinder.com. For Ontario, the site helpfully provided a list of popular destinations. I selected "Ontario International Airport" as my starting destination, entered an address in my neighborhood as my ending address, and waited for the estimated taxi fare.

The estimate? $5,986.50.

This seems kind of high, but if you've lived in Ontario for a while, the results are not surprising. Here's what happened.

Yup, it's another example (here's a previous one) of a web search engine using the wrong Ontario as a starting point. (When I input the actual address for Terminal 4, the fare was around $20.)

Incidentally, that $5,986.50 doesn't include the tip, which brings the total above $6,800. But it beats walking, which would take about 952 hours, 31 minutes and cost around 238131 calories. While walking is healthy, that might be a little too much health.

Businesses who have outlived their names - 3 Day Suit Broker

You've probably heard of 3 Day Suit Broker, the southern California suit chain that advertises low prices.

How do they keep their prices so low? According to the company web page, this is achieved via a non-standard business model.

Because we're open only 3 days a week, our overhead stays very low. This allows us to sell quality suits from top brands for about half of what others charge. It's why for over 15 years Southern Californians have counted on us for great values, not cheap suits.

Sounds like a great concept, although you obviously have to time the visit just right.

Last week I was talking to someone who was looking for an inexpensive suit, and I was wondering if the 3 Day Suit Broker in Ontario was open on that particular day. So I checked its hours:

Store Hours

Monday
11:00am–8:00pm

Tuesday
11:00am–8:00pm

Wednesday
11:00am–8:00pm

Thursday
11:00am–8:00pm

Friday
10:00am–8:00pm

Saturday
10:00am–7:00pm

Sunday
11:00am–6:00pm

Huh? Does this mean that 3 Day Suit Broker has been forced to double its prices?

Of course, 3 Day Suit Broker isn't the only Inland Empire company with an outdated name. Back in 1946, a chain of convenience stores in Texas called Tote'm changed its name to 7-Eleven. Why?

[T]o reflect the stores' new, extended hours - 7 a.m. until 11 p.m., seven days a week.

Less than 20 years later, in 1963, the 7-Eleven near the University of Texas in Austin began to stay open 24 hours a day on weekends to cater to the football crowd. But the store name has been preserved to the present day.

OK, I feel old now.

I was thinking about writing about Liset Marquez's adventures at Coachella, so I was doing some background reading on Alexa's Wish. No, Alexa's Wish didn't play Coachella - they broke up years ago.

So I was surprised to find a 2010 YouTube video with an Alexa's Wish song. Then I read what uploader Ryan Smith said:

An old band my Dad used to be in.

I feel old now.

Incidentally, one former member of Alexa's Wish (Eggers???) subsequently joined Rebel Death Squad. And Ralph played in Gorilla Cookies and the Griffins, but I'm not sure what he's doing musically now.

When the waitress complements the restaurant's technology (another Chili's Montclair Ziosk post)

Last week, I posted something in my Empoprise-NTN NTN Buzztime blog that had a local connection, so I figured that I'd go into more detail about it here.

The original post described a Thursday night visit to Chili's Montclair, on the southwest corner of Montclair Plaza. This particular restaurant is one of over 1,000 restaurants that has installed a Ziosk tablet on every table.

In case you haven't figured it out, the purpose of the Ziosk device is to provide more revenue to the Montclair Chili's. The device makes it really easy to order appetizers (high profit margin), and it makes it really easy to order desserts (really high profit margin). In fact, it even lets you play games on the device - if you pay 99 cents for the privilege.

However, we didn't really exercise the features of the Ziosk, for two reasons. One, some of the options weren't of much interest to us that evening - we skipped the dessert, we didn't want to play games, and since we paid for our meal in cash there was no reason to use the credit card reading feature (note that I didn't say the secure credit card reading feature).

The other reason that we didn't use the Ziosk all that much is because our waitress, Maggie, took care of our needs before we could program the Ziosk to do so. Order appetizers from the Ziosk? Maggie took our order quickly. Order free drink refills from the Ziosk? Maggie got my drink order just before I was ready to request a refill.

As an aside, it doesn't appear that this particular technology is geared toward labor displacement. Rather than doing away with the waiter/waitress, the Ziosk served as an electronic assistant to our waitress. When it was time for our bill, she just displayed it on the device - and as I noted, we could have used a card to pay our bill, and saved her the trouble of running back and forth to another machine.

Of course, a lot of restaurants are installing various electronic devices - I know that Coco's has gone back and forth with the tablets that it gives to its wait staff. Perhaps in a few years there will be a lot of buzz about a retro restaurant in which waitresses take orders with pen and paper.

Inland Empress on the secrets to a happy marriage

Remember Inland Empress? (Here's a previous mention in this very blog.) Well, she left her empire several years ago and is now...um, across the border in Arizona. Disguising her imperial character under the name Anne Boles Levy, she was recently quoted in a piece in Raising Arizona Kids entitled Voices from the Village: Domestic responsibilities. Alexandra Muller Arboleda introduces the article with the following:

Should you let your spouse do the laundry even if your favorite yoga pants might be ruined?

Sometimes the key to balancing domestic and childcare responsibilities is as much about giving up control over how you want things done as it is about equality. Perhaps balance falls somewhere in between holding on and letting go. Six local couples share what works for them.

Levy's portion begins as follows:

Ever since Henry Ford powered up the first assembly line, Americans have embraced the idea of dividing labor into bite-sized pieces. Sadly, anyone who lives in a house of any size—particularly one with children—quickly realizes the unlikelihood of keeping it functioning in any systematic way.

My husband and I have worked out a plan for keeping the house somewhat habitable. He does the dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, dusting, mopping and general repair. My job in all this is to apologize profusely.

Read the rest here.

The EPA welcomes American Lifan to California

According to a press release from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, American Lifan Industry is a former Texas company that has relocated to California.

Now since most of the talk is of companies (and people) moving the other way - from California to Texas - one would expect that this company would come in for a bit of culture shock. I mean, going from a place where the government kills people for sport to a place where you can get life imprisonment for looking at a snail darter the wrong way can be a shock for a company. But in this case, the California state government didn't make life miserable for American Lifan - it was a Federal agency, the EPA, that did so.

WASHINGTON -- American Lifan Industry, Inc., an Ontario, California-based vehicle and engine importer, has agreed to ensure that future imports meet federal emission standards after illegally importing and selling nearly 28,000 highway motorcycles, recreational vehicles, and engines manufactured in China that did not comply with Clean Air Act standards to limit harmful pollution.

The company will pay $630,000 in civil penalties and will also post a $300,000-$500,000 bond to satisfy any future potential penalties related to importation of model year 2014, 2015, and 2016 vehicles manufactured by China Lifan Industry (Group) Co., Ltd or affiliated companies. This is the first time that the EPA has secured such a bond in a Clean Air Act settlement.

More here. H/T the Highland Community News.

Another view of the agricultural district

As time passes, the agricultural district between Ontario and Corona is slowly disappearing. But I recently read a different perspective on it. The story was written by Imranulhaq Khan, a devout Muslim, and concerns events that occurred before and after the death of his father.

One week before his father's death, they went on a drive.

Only a week ago I had taken my father on a drive to purchase birds from the Sunday market near the junction of Highway 15 and highway 60. I could see his eyes sinking. This particular sign was never taught to me as a doctor. Somehow I knew this was his last drive. So instead of the freeway I drove thought the farms and fields. My fathers eyes were fixed on farms and cows in pastures such a magnetic way that is hard to describe. I started to drive the car even slower unusual for me to drive slowly.

I encourage you to read the entire post, including the account of what happend when Imran and his uncle drove to a Riverside mortuary.

My Yelp review of Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX

And yes, this review is relevant to the Inland Empire, as you will see. I only awarded two stars. The original review is at http://www.yelp.com/biz/tom-bradley-international-terminal-los-angeles?hrid=sonfvoo4TOhYN8zauq4w4A.

DISCLOSURE: I live near Ontario, California, and its airport that is also managed by LAWA, so read into that what you will. Ontario's Terminals 2 and 4 were designed before 9/11, and all of the restaurants and services were placed on the second floor...which meant that after 9/11 took place, they were all behind the security line. Therefore if you're dropping off or picking up someone at Ontario Airport, there is literally nothing to do.

Why is this relevant? Because I wouldn't think that someone would do this intentionally - but that's just what they've done at the Tom Bradley International Terminal.

The last time that I visited the terminal a few years ago, they were starting the renovation process. When I was there yesterday evening, the departure level renovations were nearly completed. Unfortunately, these renovations wiped out all of the restaurants that were on the departure level, so when we wanted to spend some time with our friend before her flight left, we ended up at a dinky place at the arrival leve, eating pre-packaged muffins and bagels.

Perhaps this is a security measure, designed to keep as many people away from LAX as possible and to only have actual passengers at the airport. But it's supremely disappointing. (And for what it's worth, it reinforces my resolve that my local airport should be removed from LAWA control.)

Positive Train Control

Orange County and the Inland Empire share a regional train system, Metrolink. So although I initially learned about this from the Orange County Transportation Authority, it is equally applicable here in the Inland Empire.

Positive Train Control is an innovation that is being implemented on Metrolink trains, as detailed here.

Positive Train Control (PTC) is GPS-based safety technology capable of preventing train-to-train collisions, over-speed derailments, unauthorized incursion into work zones and train movement through switches left in the wrong position*. PTC monitors and, if necessary, controls train movement in the event of human error. PTC may also bring trains to a safe stop in the event of a natural disaster.

The actual implementation is just beginning.

[I]n February 2014, Metrolink received authorization from the Federal Railroad Administration that it could begin operating PTC in Revenue Demonstration Service (RSD) under the authority of the BNSF Railway. On February 17, Metrolink ran the first successful RSD on the 91 Line, and on February 20, the PTC RSD was publically unveiled, with multiple VIPs and news media in attendance.

It is currently anticipated that Metrolink will conduct RSD on the San Bernardino Line in the fall of 2014, and that the entire system will be PTC operational by early to mid-2015, well before the current federal deadline of December 31, 2015.

Sadly, there is a reason why Metrolink has an incentive to implement this before the national deadline.

On Sept. 12, 2008, a Connex engineer operating a Metrolink train failed to stop at a red signal, causing a collision with a Union Pacific freight train. In this tragic incident, 25 lives were lost and another 135 people were injured. California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein led Congress in adopting the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which mandated the installation of PTC by the end of 2015. The Metrolink Board of Directors committed to implementing PTC in advance of the federal deadline to ensure Southern Californians are among the first in the nation to benefit from this life-saving technology.

Stay classy, Joe

When Gloria Negrete McLeod announced that she would not run for a second term in the U.S. Congress, Joe Baca - a fellow Democrat who was defeated by McLeod in a 2012 "top two" runoff - had some choice words.

Look at what we wound up with: Some bimbo who decided not to run again.

Baca subsequently apologized, but I wouldn't count on a speaking invitation to the 2016 Democratic National Convention if I were him.

Weekday gambling at San Manuel, with an assist from Metrolink

With the exception of every 7-Eleven in my area, there are no gambling destinations within walking distance of my home. If I want to lose money, I have to get in the car and drive for a while.

Well, actually I don't, as Metrolink notes.

Before I watched the video, I was a little leery of the whole thing. I've been to the San Bernardino Metrolink Station. And perhaps I'm in danger of sounding like Joe Biden here, but this is not a place that you want to hang around at for an extended period. Plus, I knew that only one Omnitrans bus serviced the station, and that only got you as far as downtown San Bernardino - meaning that you'd have to wait and transfer.

But when I watched the video, I discovered that during weekdays, San Manuel Casino provides shuttles five minutes after the scheduled arrivals of selected trains. Train 302 Arrives 9:30am

Shuttle Pick up 9:35am

Train 304 Arrives 10:35am

Shuttle Pick up 10:50am

The shuttles leave the casino at 1:30 and 3:30, allowing you to board the 2:00 and 4:00 trains from San Bernardino and head back to Union Station, or Upland, or whatever your destination is.

And it sure beats driving.

View Larger Map

Cybersecurity? Not here.

I got excited when I read a Homeland Security News Wire item that began as follows:

Cal Poly, with a grant from the Northrop Grumman Foundation, has established a Cybersecurity Center, opened a new cyber lab, and is developing a cybersecurity curriculum with an ambitious set of goals in mind: educating thousands of students in cybersecurity awareness and readiness; producing experts in cyber technologies and systems, including many professionals who will serve the military and defense industry; and graduating cyber innovators who are prepared for advanced study and applied research in emerging cyber issues.

Finally, I thought to myself, the Inland Empire (well, the surrounding area) is going to become known as an important tech location, and people will think of Pomona as a cybersecurity center.

So then I clicked through to the source press release...

...and discovered that it was issued by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

This is kinda like arranging for Clinton to speak at your event and then finding out that you didn't get Bill, or Hillary, but Roger.

What Goes Around Comes Around, the January 2014 edition

Before I launch into my unintentional follow-up to my J.C. Penney store closure post, I want to make one thing clear.

The supermarket business was having trouble long before Walmart set foot in southern California.

Remember Lucky, Alpha Beta, Hughes, the original Safeways, and other long-departed supermarkets in southern California? Most of those chains no longer exist, having merged with other supermarket chains or having closed entirely.

But the attrition, partially caused by increased competition from stores as varied as Walmart and Trader Joe's (we'll get to Trader Joe's later), has resulted in a slow attrition of the remaining supermarkets in southern California.

Not too long ago, I had to get something at Ralph's. Since the Ralph's in Upland at Foothill and San Antonio closed long ago, I figured I'd go to the Ralph's at 4th and Vineyard - only to discover that there was no longer a Ralph's there. I ended up at Haven and Baseline.

When the Albertsons at Foothill and Mountain in Upland closed, it wasn't that big a concern to me. I rarely shop at Albertsons anyway, and when I do, I usually shop at the one in northwest Ontario.

Ah, Albertsons.

Back in 2008, Albertsons was part of SuperValu. In a March 2008 post, I quoted from a second-generation owner of a SuperValu. While he wasn't necessarily happy about the small markets that had closed when the SuperValu opened, he chalked it all up to business.

"I'm a small-town person at heart, and I hate to see that, but it's a matter of economics. The fact is you need volume to survive."

Little did he know.

By November 2013, when the Walmart opened, I noted that SuperValu had sold the Albertsons chain, and that some stores had been closed. Well, those store closures continued with the Foothill and Mountain closure.

And now, Gregory J. Wilcox of the Los Angeles Daily News has announced that the Albertsons in northwest Ontario - just down the street from Walmart - is closing next month, as part of a closure of 11 stores ranging from Santa Clarita to San Diego.

Of course, there's the Walmart down the street, Stater Brothers all over the place, and various specialty stores such as Trader Joe's...whoops, strike that. The Trader Joe's in Upland is closing also.

Change is constant.

Only one J C Penney store in California is being closed. Guess where it is?

As part of J.C. Penney's latest cost-cutting initiatives, the company has announced the closure of 33 stores. The Huffington Post has printed the list of stores, and one is in California:

Rancho Cucamonga - Arrow Plaza

This is the outlet store at Arrow and Haven, not the store at Victoria Gardens.

The location of that store has a checkered history. Before J.C. Penney moved in, this was a K Mart that was closed.

I'm not sure that I'd want to be the next retailer to move into that building...

The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes - steeped in tradition?

I still think of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes as a relatively new team, but as Paul Caputo notes, the team has not undergone the changes that happen at other minor league teams:

The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes have had the same team name and, conceptually, the same logo since their inception in 1993. In minor league baseball terms, this puts the team’s identity roughly on par with prehistoric cave paintings and Betty White—attractive, but really old. In a logo landscape littered with increasingly bizarre (and, I have to admit, awesome) new nicknames, it’s refreshing to see a team that has stood by its identity and been embraced by the community.

For more of Caputo's thoughts on the Quakes, including quotations from Mike Lindskog and a disucussion of Tremor (but what about Aftershock?), read the rest of his post.

The distrustful woman at a crowded pharmacy

Because a prescription wasn't available at my regular pharmacy, I found myself at the pharmacy for the CVS at Euclid and Foothill in Upland. I've been to this CVS many times, but have never used its pharmacy. It turns out that a lot of people use that pharmacy - and that you therefore have to wait.

So I waited - not as long as various Yelp reviewers, but I did have to wait for a half hour.

While waiting, I was sitting near a man who was trying to pick up a prescription for his wife, who had recently been released from the hospital.

A few minutes later, the wife appeared. She was tired of waiting in the car, and wanted to leave.

Her husband told her that she had to get a prescription.

She asked how long it would take to get the prescription - as I previously noted, this appears to be a common question at this CVS pharmacy.

The husband told the wife to ask the (male) pharmacist - but the pharmacist was running around filling all of our prescriptions.

The wife turned to someone else who was waiting for a prescription. "Don't trust men," the wife told the person.

Personally, it's risky enough to say bad things to a waiter or a waitress, since a bad restaurant worker may choose to spit in your food. Imagine what a bad pharmacist could do. (Luckily, this pharmacist appears to be a good one, if an overworked one.)

(empo-jooryst) Happy new year?

It occurred to me that I had not recently provided an update on the results of my jury alternate service, although I've briefly discussed it elsewhere.

When I last discussed the matter in August, the defendant was scheduled to be in court for sentencing on October 18.

Well, on October 18, sentencing was rescheduled to November 8.

On November 8, sentencing was rescheduled for next year, to January 24.

As I said elsewhere: "If all goes well, the defendant will be sentenced before he dies of old age."

Positive examples of fiduciary duty - Jeannette Ewing and Garner Powell

I recently posted something in my business blog about two real estate agents who are alleged to have violated their fiduciary duties. Note to aspiring real estate agents: if you are selling a home, you should not have sex with someone in the home that you are selling if the owners are not present. (Or, frankly, even if the owners ARE present.)

I began the post by talking about the real estate agents that I have known, all of whom have been thoroughly professional. I mentioned that I had personally worked with two real estate agents - and their example shows the fiduciary duty to which real estate agents should aspire.

Many years ago, I was buying a home, and Jeannette Ewing was my real estate agent. The seller's agent was Garner Powell. During the final weeks before the home closed, Ewing had to be out of town for a brief period. She told me that during that time, if there were any issues, I should feel free to go directly to Garner Powell with them.

Think about that for a moment. Technically, Ewing and Powell were on competing "sides" of a transaction. Yet, their duties dictated that they not only be able to represent their clients, but also the clients on the other "side."

In the best of...um, cases, this type of behavior should be seen in many industries. For example, if you are in court, both the prosecutor and the defense attorney have a mutual duty to uphold the law; for example, if a prosecutor finds out something that exonerates the defendant, it is the prosecutor's duty to reveal that.

In the end, no crises occurred during Ewing's absence, so I didn't need to call upon Powell.

I last saw Garner Powell in 2007, when he was one of the speakers at an Ontario City Council hearing on the proposed Walmart. Powell opposed the Walmart.

Sadly, in the course of writing this post, I learned that Powell did not live to see the final result of the Walmart battle. Powell passed away in 2010. Incidentally, that's when I learned that real estate was his second career - his 20 years in real estate were preceded by a 30 year career with the Continental Baking Company.

Jeannette Ewing, however, is still available to meet your residential real estate needs.

Jeff Pope a/k/a .@JeffPopeRadio will be broadcasting from San Jose as part of #PopeAndMarla - but there is the Internet

You will recall that a few days ago, I noted that Jeff Pope was about to start a new radio job, location unknown.

Now, he has announced where that job will be.

Dear FRIENDS!! After being heard on IE radios for (counting my fingers) 24 years - including 99.1 KGGI, X103.9 and even Cal State San Bernardino - I have accepted a major opportunity to do mornings in SAN JOSE, the 10th biggest city in America! Thanks SO much for all the love and support, and I truly appreciated being part of your morning routine! But, mostly, thanks to Jesse Duran for taking a chance on me 13 years ago; and to Evelyn Erives Laudenslager for being an awesome radio wife for 11 of those years. And to my REAL wife Sarah Turnbull for being my biggest fan! (And don't worry REIGN/FURY fans - I will be flying in for most games. Gotta love 65-minute flights!) #Mix1065 #PopeAndMarla #KingsFanInSharksCountry www.mymix1065.com

The "Marla" in the hashtag is Marla Davies, current morning DJ at Mix 106.5. Pope will be stepping into a very emotional...um, mix. Marla Davies' former co-host, Bill Kelly, passed away last summer. But Pope certainly has the capability to navigate this situation.

And if you have doubts about Pope's ability to navigate tricky situations, bear in mind that in the more formal press announcement of Pope's hire, he managed to praise the sport of hockey without mentioning the names of any teams whatsoever (cough - Kings - cough).

And yes, http://www.mymix1065.com/ has a "Listen Live" button if you want to hear Dumbass of the Day in its Northern California glory. And the station is also available on TuneIn.

If this is "futuristic," then we in the Inland Empire live in the future

I previously read this:

Two small Northeast airports, Syracuse and Atlantic City, have installed futuristic unmanned portals to replace security officers at the airports’ exit points. The move, which will add a few seconds to the end of passengers’ trips as they exit the airports, is estimated to save airports millions of dollars in wages over time....

Travelers are directed to step into the cylinder pods and wait as the door slides shut. After a few seconds, a second door slides open with a voice instructing passengers to “Please exit.”

By the way, I've flown into the Atlantic City airport, but I don't recall going through such a portal; perhaps they hadn't been installed yet.

But I have been through such a portal...when visiting a bank here in the Inland Empire. I don't think the portal employed voice commands, but I do recall entering the portal, having the door close behind me, and then being able to go through the second door.

Such technology makes sense for banks, who always have to deal with the possibility of someone entering the bank, making an unauthorized withdrawal, and then departing. I would presume that any bank robber with smart would avoid a bank with such portals.

But I wouldn't call the portals "futuristic."

Good news - maybe - for Jeff Pope fans

I've been listening to Jeff Pope on and off since BEFORE he was on KGGI. (Those with long memories will recall that he used to do traffic for X103.9.)

Well, Pope lost his job at KGGI several months ago, and his fans have not been happy since (unless they attend a lot of minor league hockey games).

Fans, have heart. Pope just posted this comment on his Facebook page (as a comment to a post about his niece finding Pope in Google auto-complete):

Back on the radio in the New Year.

But will his new station be one that you can pick up in the IE?

No new news regarding the 2008 murder of Santiago Contreras

As I caught up on all of the McStay news this morning, I began wondering about another unsolved murder - one that I blogged about way back in 2008, when I wrote an "mrontario" blog devoted solely to the city of Ontario.

In that blog, I wrote a post on Monday, February 18 about one Santiago Contreras.

Santiago Contreras was kidnapped in front of his family Monday afternoon at 2:20 pm. The family itself had been held hostage for several hours, awaiting Contreras' arrival.

A few days later, his body was found, amid reports of drug trafficking involvement by a brother-in-law.

However, I have found no mention of Contreras since February 2008, and even the 2008 mentions at the San Bernardino Sun and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin web pages no longer exist.

It turns out that over 30 percent of all murders go unsolved. Will the McStay murders also fall into that category?

After dark door-to-door fundraising?

It happened again.

Well after dark, two people showed up at our door, selling something or another (in this case coupons) to promote something wonderful (in this case tuition for a four-year college).

I had never heard of the organization that they said that they represented.

I told them that I wasn't interested.

Now I have given to door-to-door people in the past. When Howard Snider (former mayor of Ontario) sold Kiwanis tickets, I bought them. When the kid that I knew from down the street stopped by, I bought from him. If I actually recognize the institution, and if the person is appropriately dressed to represent that institution (Snider always wore official Kiwanis insignia), I may give.

But otherwise, I don't. And with good reason, since the door-to-door fundraisers - especially the ones that show up after dark - are probably fake:

We've all experienced those door-to-door fundraisers. Elementary school kids sell candy, wrapping paper, or magazine subscriptions. Shadier, pushier teens and adults sell candy bars for $5 apiece to supposedly raise money for leadership training, summer camp, and what have you. Not surprisingly, these aren't always legitimate. While you shouldn't necessarily call the cops on your neighbor's 4th grader, exercise caution. If you're suspicious, it's probably for good reason.

As of May 2011 "students" going door-to-door are asking for money for music programs. An article in The Enterprise reports that UC Davis and Sacramento State are warning people that no university-affiliated music program is doing anything of the sort. Chances are the con artists will be happy to switch their story up, so just because they're not claiming to be collecting for a music program doesn't mean you should let your guard down.

And it's not just in Davis.

There goes the judge...to San Bernardino

Attorney David Ricks is not happy:

The attorneys of the West Valley of the Inland Empire are fighting hard to protect the rights of the citizens of the Inland Empire. It was announced by the San Bernardino County Presiding Judge that the Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga will no longer provide civil and family law services as of May 2014. This move will deprive so many people of their access to local courts, protections from domestic abuse through easy access to the courts, lower cost legal services, etc.

More here, including a link to an Inland Valley Daily Bulletin article that details the specific changes:

The reorganization looks like this:

San Bernardino district criminal cases, both felonies and misdemeanors, will be heard in the new San Bernardino Justice Center.

Countywide civil cases, including those from Rancho Cucamonga, will be moved to the new San Bernardino Justice Center.

West Valley Superior Courthouse in Rancho Cucamonga will only hear West End criminal cases. Felony and misdemeanor cases in Fontana will be reviewed to determine which courthouse - San Bernardino or Rancho Cucamonga - is better equipped to hear them.

The Rancho Cucamonga courthouse will also have temporary hearings on both civil and domestic violence restraining order matters.

San Bernardino family law cases will stay in the historic San Bernardino building. Rancho Cucamonga family law cases will move to the historic courthouse in San Bernardino.

Family law cases in Victorville will stay where they are.

Cases of small claims, landlord tenants and traffic/non-traffic infractions from the San Bernardino, Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga districts will be heard in Fontana.

I live in the West End and am therefore affected by this, but it could be worse.

Slough said within the county court system, 86 judges are doing the work of 156, and 866 employees are doing the work of about 1,500.

And in the last year and a half, courthouses in Chino, Needles and Big Bear have closed due to budget cuts. And there is only one courtroom currently open in Barstow, which is scheduled to close July 1.

There are Omnitrans buses that run between the West End cities and San Bernardino. But what if you live in Needles?

If you doubt my claim that Walmart could close its new Ontario store in a few years...

...how many of you remember the Sam's Club in Montclair? If you don't, then don't look for it; the building has long since been torn down.

If you missed my previous post that stated that the newly opened Ontario Walmart could conceivably close as soon as ten years from now, it's here.

After many delays,the Ontario Walmart is open - but for how long?

A follow-up to my October 14 post - the Ontario Walmart at 1333 North Mountain is now open.

Finally.

The opening took a couple of weeks longer than expected - the first two Yelp reviews were from people who had been told that the Walmart was open when it wasn't.

But it was definitely open by October 31, when I made two visits to the store - one in the morning to get a Subway breakfast sandwich, and one in the evening to get last-minute Halloween candy. I haven't ventured far into the store yet, but so far things look good.

And it's definitely better than the abandoned eyesore that some people seemed to prefer over the past few years. Even the co-owners of Ontario Bakery agree about that, something that David Allen (no fan of Walmart) noted.

By the way, regarding Allen's concern about Walmart wiping out local businesses - as I've noted before (for example, here), the businesses that may be wiped out by Walmart have themselves wiped out businesses back in their day. My March 2008 post quoted from an article that is no longer online, but which stated the following:

Today's supermarket offers everything from fresh mangoes to muffin tins, from carnations to wedding cakes. Its configuration is based on people's demands; one-stop shopping for the time-starved consumer.

But the supermarket phenomenon has caused its share of casualties, including the neighborhood grocery stores where pantry staples were just a short bike ride away and you called the grocer by his first name. In retrospect, the independent store's decline seemed inevitable as society grew more mobile, fickle and deal-conscious, and less loyal to neighborhood businesses.

"The fittest is going to survive," says Roger Larson, second-generation owner of Larson's SuperValu in West Fargo. "I'm a small-town person at heart, and I hate to see that, but it's a matter of economics. The fact is you need volume to survive."

Five years after I wrote that post, SuperValu sold its Albertsons grocery stores after closing some of them. This proves the accuracy of Roger Larson's words - SuperValu and other supermarkets wiped out smaller markets in their day, and now SuperValu and these same supermarkets may be wiped out by Walmart.

And Walmart may be wiped out by Amazon. Yes, the Ontario Walmart itself will probably close down one day. That day may be 40 years from now, or perhaps that day may only be 10 years from now. I've only lived in this area for 30 years, but I've seen several stores come and go on Mountain Avenue between 5th and 6th. And it's quite possible that we may witness the closure of the Ontario Walmart as early as 2023, and people will lament the closure of their friendly neighborhood store.

The merry-go-round continues.

Why it is a matter of civic pride to NOT visit airport-ontario.com

I haven't written about Ontario International Airport (the airport referred to by some as "LA/Ontario International Airport") in almost two years, so I figured I'd better catch up on all of the latest news. To do so, I needed to find the airport website, so I conducted a Bing search to find it.

(Yes, a Bing search. If this Blogspot blog suddenly disappears, I guess you'll be able to figure out why.)

So I conducted my search, and found SEVERAL websites, several of which started with the letter "L" instead of the letter "O."

The first one, operated by Los Angeles World Airports, can be found at http://www.lawa.org/welcomeONT.aspx. Obviously, this is one of the sites that refers to the airport as "LA/Ontario International Airport." It has all sorts of local information, including the local weather, and a link to various news items. When I visited the site, the news item that displayed was the one about airport volunteers working at Dockweiler State Beach - which, for the record, is over 57 miles away from the airport, but really really really close to some other "LA" airport.

I found a second website at http://ontarioairport.org/. A website whose URL does not have the letters "LA," the site is...well, it's the exact same site as the one I previously mentioned, just with another URL. Ontario weather, Dockweiler State Beach, the whole bit.

And I found a third website, http://www.flyontario.com/. This website is also owned by Los Angeles World Airports, but displays some different content before redirecting you to the main LAWA web site.

And, of course, my Bing search also turned up http://setontariofree.com/ - which naturally does not use the "LA" designation for the airport (although "LA" is used on the site, mostly in anger).

Oh, and I found one other website at http://airport-ontario.com/.

It turns out that this website is NOT operated by any of the parties competing for the airport. If you perform a WHOIS search, you will find out that airport-ontario.com is operated by an anonymous private entity, who can be reached via AIRPORT-ONTARIO.COM [at] domainsbyproxy.com.

Well, it's obvious that the person or people operating airport-ontario.com are not local people, since the website prominently uses "LA" to refer to the airport. That cultural faux pas is, to some, the moral equivalent of serving a pork roast at a Jewish-Islamic intercultural event, or naming an ex-Burger King employee to head up a major McDonald's supplier.

Well, perhaps the operators of the website will hear that their website is only popular with people that live west of Interstate 710, and isn't really liked by people in Ontario itself.

Of course, this may not be true. Most people who end up at the website probably don't care about the letters "LA" that are all over the page. (And a few will question whether the airport is in Louisiana, or in Canada.) But, as the recent Federal budget showdown demonstrates, a few people are very capable of raising a really big stink.

Something that I was blogging about nearly ten years ago is finally about to happen

I'm spending the day marking my ten-year blogging anniversary by looking at some old posts that I've written over the past ten years.

And one of those old posts is rather timely.

If you've been in northwest Ontario lately, you've noticed that the construction of the area Walmart is nearly complete. I'm not certain of the opening date, but it's pretty clear that the store will be open in time for the shopping season.

Which, in a sense, is a miracle. If some people had had their way, that Walmart would never have been built. As it was, the project was delayed.

Why was the project delayed? Well, an organization called the "Ontario Mountain Village Association" mounted a fight against the Walmart, and the OMVA's website (which no longer exists) listed a number of arguments against the Walmart. Here are some of them:

Development of the Wal-Mart Supercenter must be stopped because:

It will draw additional traffic, noise and trash into our neighborhood.

The City does not need the revenue.

The Mom and Pop businesses do not need the "made in China" competition.

A 24-hour Super Center will act as a magnet to attract a dangerous criminal element into our neighborhood, especially from midnight until daybreak, seven days a week.

We, the voters and property owners, don't need 1,400 additional cars and trucks clogging the streets of our community every hour.

Back when the OMVA's website still existed and these arguments were still prominently displayed, I wrote a rebuttal to all of them (especially "The City does not need the revenue") in a blog post.

That blog post appeared in my Ontario Empoblog, an old blog that I used to write.

And just to show you how long this fight has been going on, that post was written on October 23, 2005.

I'm glad that Mr. and Mrs. Dave Taylor are still around to finally see the Walmart. I'm not sure what Anita Logue will do. Maybe she's helping the chairman of the Inland Oversight Committee.

The Inland Empire Bloggers Court is not dreamy

I know that it was just a dream, but it still gives me chills, even a couple of days later.

I received an official-looking summons to appear in front of the Inland Empire Bloggers Court. Frankly I had never heard of any such court before, but I researched it on the Internet and it appeared to be legitimate.

Clutching my summons, I arrived at the court and was motioned to sit at one of the two tables at the far end of the courtroom, near an imposing-looking raised bench. I noticed the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin's Liset Marquez at the other table, so I smiled and waved at her. She did not smile in return, and purposely turned her back to me. I couldn't think of any reason that I had offended her, so I just waited to see what would happen next.

Next to the bench, I overheard a conversation.

"Isn't the Goddess of Pomona supposed to be representing Mr. Bredehoft?"

"Yes, but no one can find her."

One of the two people walked up to my table.

"Mr. Bredehoft, do you have alternative representation?"

"Representation?" I asked. "What representation?"

"To help you respond to the charges against you."

"Charges?" I was perplexed. I scanned the summons again; the summons didn't say anything about any charges. It was at that point that my slow brain figured out that I was a defendant before the court, and Liset Marquez was apparently the prosecutor.

I then spotted Matt Munson in the back of the court. "Matt," I called out to him, "would you represent me?"

"With what you're charged with," Matt replied, "I don't want to have anything to do with you!"

"Charges? How come everyone knows the charges except for me, the accused?" I exclaimed.

My outburst was interrupted. "All rise for Judge Allen!"

At this point David Allen, resplendent in judicial robes, entered the courtroom and climbed up to the judge's bench. I didn't bother to smile at him; he was definitely not in a "show me the funny" mood. He looked like he had just suffered a 24 hour Metrolink delay, and all the good restaurants next to the Metrolink station had been closed for health violations.

Judge Allen turned to me. "How do you respond to the charges against you, Mr. Bredehoft?"

"I don't even know what the charges are against me!"

"Mr. Bredehoft, your crime is so heinous that the charges against you have been sealed. Prosecution, please begin your presentation."

Marquez stood up and addressed the jury, a group of 14 people all wearing winter clothing. (It's odd to be wearing winter clothing in the summer, I thought.) Because of my recent experiences, I took a close look at the two juror alternates, seated slightly apart from the rest of the jury. To my surprise, one of the alternates was Johnny Worthington, a well-known (in FriendFeed circles, anyway) former podcaster. He did not look happy.

Marquez began. "On or about Monday, August 12, 2013 California time, the defendant did write a post in his Empoprise-MU music blog. This post was entitled Why I will never be a roadie for .@avaberee (watch out for the roos???). I obviously remembered the post, having just written it last week. It was about the Australian vocal trio Avaberee, from the town of Brisbane (coincidentally, the hometown of juror alternate Worthington). The post concerned the tour that the band was undertaking at that time.

Marquez continued. "In this post, the defendant mentioned a number of Australian cities, including Brisbane, Perth, Sydney, Canberra, and one city in the state of Victoria." She paused. "Melbourne."

The court gasped. From what I could tell, the mention of Melbourne seemed to be shocking to them for some reason.

"Yes, the defendant, a resident of Ontario and a former resident of Upland, wrote an entire blog post about the country of Australia" - here Marquez's voice rose in anger - "and failed to mention the city of Mildura!"

The court broke out into pandemonium. In the back of the courtroom, Matt Munson was clearly yelling, "Off with his head!" It was disconcerting to notice that the entire jury and the judge had joined in the condemnation.

I am usually slow at such things, but I was grasping the enormity of my predicament. My hometown of Ontario, which originally included the area that became Upland, was founded by two brothers from Canada, George and William Chaffey. (This explains the name of my hometown.) After a few years in California, both brothers relocated to Australia and went to the city of Mildura. The Australian city is similar to my hometown in several respects, including the presence of a wide thoroughfare bisecting the town (except that in Mildura, it's not called Euclid Avenue). Because of the common heritage, the two areas have been linked ever since, and Upland (my former residence) even maintains a sister city relationship with Mildura (although at times it seems that Upland is the wild party sister, while Mildura is the respectable one). Obviously, it would be a most serious offense for an Inland Empire blogger to write about Australia and to fail to mention this relationship with Mildura. Well, obvious to everyone except me.

Judge Allen slammed his gavel, quieting the courtoom. "Mr. Riley," barked the judge, "execute the defendant!" At this point Duncan Riley (an Australian who has founded many blogs) strode into the courtoom, carrying a large, blood-stained axe. The jury - all Australians, I suddenly realized - yelled incomprehensible Australian terms to the grimacing executioner. Riley began walking toward my table...

...and I woke up, drenched in sweat, breathing heavily. It took me a few moments to realize that I had only been dreaming, but the unusually vivid dream was still frightening me - so much so that I couldn't get back to sleep. I went to the living room, then wandered outside to my front yard, muttering to myself, "Mildura...Mildura...Mildura...Mildura..."

(empo-jooryst) Speedy justice, August 2013 edition

You'll recall where we left off on July 11.

A crime occurred in November 2008.

The defendant was arrested in December 2008.

The trial was held in March 2013, and the defendant was convicted of a lesser crime. Sentencing was scheduled for May 3.

Then for June 28.

Then for August 2.

So, would you like to hear what finally happened? Here it is, in court speak.

Action: SENTENCING Date: 08/02/2013 Time: 8:30 AM Division: R4 Hearing Status: DISPOSED

STEPHAN G SALESON, J-JUDGE

CLERK: TIFFANY LEMUS

CERTIFIED COURT REPORTER: LH2-LONI HUNLEY CSR# LH2-11489

BAILIFF M SHAW

-

APPEARANCES

DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY DAN ROSS PRESENT.

ATTORNEY KT TRAN BY MICHAEL BECKER PRESENT.

DEFENDANT PRESENT IN CUSTODY.

-

PROCEEDINGS

ACTION CAME ON FOR SENTENCING

-

OFF THE RECORD, COURT AND COUNSEL CONFER IN CHAMBERS

Obviously, these conferences occur all the time, and obviously, there is often no way to figure out exactly what was being discussed. But after the conference, the following significant event occurred:

HEARINGS

HEARING CONTINUED TO 10/18/2013 AT 8:30 IN DEPARTMENT R4.

(ALSO SET FOR ROMERO MOTION)

DEFENDANT ORDERED TO APPEAR ON HEARING DATE.

As I've previously noted, the defendant is currently in custody, so the court can make sure that the defendant appears on the hearing date (although I guess he could refuse to appear, the court would at least know where he is).

But what is a "Romero motion"? For the answer to that question, I turned to attorney William Holzer:

A good criminal defense attorney can help a client facing a strike allegation by filing a “Romero motion” with the court. Attorneys are often successful in convincing the court to dismiss a strike under 1385 of the Penal Code. This is because it is not uncommon for prosecutors to overcharge cases by alleging old strikes on minor new offenses.

During the trial, the jurors (and juror alternates) were informed that the defendant was a convicted felon. Obviously this fact has an impact on his sentencing, which is why this is being dragged out to October - or beyond.

(empo-jooryst) Speedy justice?

Remember way back on March 27, when I first discussed this case on this blog? This was one day after the jury had reached its verdict - for a crime that had been committed way back in November 2008.

Obviously it took years for this case to get to trial. But now that the defendant has been found guilty, how long will it take to sentence him?

As I mentioned in that first post, I have now been able to access the material on San Bernardino County's website - and that's where I'm now following the trial, since this case - even though it involved the shooting of a person - is not necessarily newsworthy enough to require day-to-day coverage in the Daily Bulletin or any other local paper.

So when I first accessed the online information on late March, the minutes said that sentencing would take place on May 3.

And if you go to the minutes for the May 3 sentencing, you find this:

HEARING CONTINUED TO 06/28/2013 AT 8:30 IN DEPARTMENT R4.

Actually, in a way that was kind of nice for me, since I already knew that this series of posts would begin running on July 1. So, right before the series actually started to appear, I'd have all of the knowledge about the final sentence.

You can guess what happened on June 28:

SENTENCING SET FOR 08/02/2013 AT 8:30 IN DEPARTMENT R4.

Obviously, whenever sentencing actually takes place, "credit for time served" will enter into the conversation.

(empo-jooryst) The players

In theory, those people who are charged with working for the court are united in their pursuit of justice.

Yeah, right.

While prosecutors and defense attorneys are expected to behave honorably, they still have an incentive to best represent their "side." After all, their jobs are to convince a jury of guilt or innocence, and they want to marshal their best arguments in support of their case.

In my particular case, there was one prosecutor, Dan Ross, and two defense attorneys, Michael Becker and K.T. Tran. But before we look at them, let's look at the judge in this particular case.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of Stephan G. Saleson to a judgeship in the San Bernardino County Superior Court. Saleson, 56, of Riverside, has been a partner with Varner, Saleson & Brandt since 1997. Previously, he was an associate and then a partner with Gresham, Varner, Savage, Nolan & Tilden from 1980 to 1997 and served as deputy district attorney for San Bernardino County from 1977 to 1980. Saleson earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Dennis G. Cole. Saleson is a Republican. The compensation for this position is $149,160.

During the trial, Judge Saleson did not discuss his previous experience as a deputy district attorney, nor did he express his political affiliations or his salary.

Moving on to Dan Ross, I only found a single news account about him, regarding a 2007 incident in which Ross, as deputy district attorney, had some harsh words for a defense attorney who tasered a client to try to prove a point about alleged police brutaility. I did find an avvo.com record that says that Ross has been licensed to practice law since 2005. As noted in the Daily Bulletin article, he was already with the San Bernardino County district attorney's office in 2007.

When researching Michael Becker, I discovered something interesting. At the time of the trial, I had no idea whether Becker was a public defender, or if he had been hired by someone to represent the defendant. Once I found out that Becker practiced law in Las Vegas, Nevada, it became apparent that the latter was probably the case. Interestingly enough, Becker was endorsed by a prosecutor:

Micheal and I faced each other on several matters when I was a Chief Deputy DA. He was always prepared, adept at spotting the issues, and committed to getting the best results for his client. In virtually every case his commitment paid off. I have seen Michael obtain Not Guilty verdicts and outright dismissals of major felony charges on more than one occasion. I have zero reservations in endorsing this lawyer.

Becker has more experience than Ross, having practiced in Nevada since 2004 and in California since 1993. His website is here. And here's a video:

Because Tran is a common name, I was unable to conclusively find the K.T. Tran that appeared in this case. While Becker was the lead defense attorney, Tran took the lead with certain witnesses.

Both the prosecutor and the defense lawyers took care to advocate their positions on the case. And since at the end of the day, the defendant was convicted of a lesser charge, I guess that you could claim that both did their jobs well.

(empo-jooryst) Another view of the analogy mashup

Several years ago, I read a book about the O.J. Simpson trial. That trial was a little different from my trial - in Simpson's case, the jurors were physically sequestered - but there were some parallels. The Simpson jury, like my own, was ordered to only consider evidence that was presented in court. Certain things were not revealed to the Simpson jury, or to my own. In my case, the attorneys and the judge would engage in whispered conversations at times, and at times the judge would ask the jury to leave the room.

So naturally, my view of what was going on was somewhat limited.

However, unbeknownst to me, a complete public record was being published of the proceedings in my jury room. Certain things were confidential at the time, but anyone who was interested in the trial could follow all of the proceedings online.

Take Tuesday, March 12. This was the day that they finally got around to interviewing me, and when I formally became an alternate juror. I've already told you my version of the story, but this is the official record that the court published of that day - something that I was unable to see until after the trial was over.

STEPHAN G SALESON, J-JUDGE

CLERK: RONNA HICKS

CERTIFIED COURT REPORTER: JQ-JULIE QUINTANILLA CSR# JQ-11309

BAILIFF M SHAW

-

APPEARANCES

DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY DAN ROSS PRESENT.

ATTORNEY MICHAEL BECKER PRESENT.

ATTORNEY KT TRAN PRESENT.

DEFENDANT PRESENT IN CUSTODY.

-

PROCEEDINGS

ACTION CAME ON FOR JURY TRIAL-IN PROGRESS

-

4TH DAY OF TRIAL.

Let me interject something here. As far as I knew at the time, it was only the third day of trial. However, the jury wasn't even called into the room until the second day.

-

10:45

COURT CONVENES ALL PARTIES PRESENT. ALL PROSPECTIVE JURORS ARE.

PRESENT AND IN THEIR PROPER PLACES

- VOIR DIRE CONTINUES.

-

PROSPECTIVE JUROR NUMBER #41 EXCUSED BY PEOPLE'S PEREMPTORY CHALLENGE.

PROSPECTIVE JUROR NUMBER #32 EXCUSED BY DEFENSE PEREMPTORY CHALLENGE.

PROSPECTIVE JUROR NUMBER #36 EXCUSED BY DEFENSE PEREMPTORY CHALLENGE.

-

11:16

OFF THE RECORD, COURT AND COUNSEL AT BENCH.

I'm actually going to cut out a lot of the proceedings here. There were more off the record discussions, more jurors excused, a lunch break, and so forth. As Judge Saleson remarked, real court cases are not like TV.

Oh, and one other thing happened - noted in the record as "JURORS ADMONISHED." We were admonished a lot - basically reminding us not to research the case or discuss the case with anyone, including our fellow jurors. The last admonishment applied until (and, in my case, unless) we were in deliberations.

So let's pick it up at 1:51 pm - or, because the court uses military time, 13:51.

13:51

12 JURORS SWORN

-

OFF THE RECORD, COURT AND COUNSEL AT BENCH.

-

13:52

COURT RECONVENES, ALL PARTIES PRESENT. ALL PROSPECTIVE JURORS ARE PRESENT AND IN THEIR PROPER PLACES

VOIR DIRE CONTINUES.

PROSPECTIVE JUROR NUMBER #45 EXCUSED BY PEOPLE'S PEREMPTORY CHALLENGE.

-

VOIR DIRE CONTINUES.

14:07

OFF THE RECORD, COURT AND COUNSEL AT BENCH.

-

14:08

COURT RECONVENES, ALL PARTIES PRESENT. ALL PROSPECTIVE JURORS ARE PRESENT AND IN THEIR PROPER PLACES

VOIR DIRE CONTINUES.

14:16

12 JURORS AND 2 ALTERNATES ARE SWORN TO TRY THE CAUSE. THE NAMES OF THE SWORN JURORS AND ALTERNATES ARE SEALED UPON THE RECORDING OF THE VERDICT.

And that, in the eyes of the court, was the official account of the selection of alternate juror number two, including his analogy mashup joke. Exciting, huh?

Because the court had no idea when a panel of jurors and alternates would be sworn in, there was no attempt to start opening arguments on that day. But the charges against the defendant were officially read to us - after a time.

-

RECESS DECLARED 14:18

-

14:26

COURT RECONVENES, ALL PARTIES PRESENT. ALL JURORS AND ALTERNATE JURORS ARE PRESENT AND IN THEIR PLACES.

COURT READS THE INFORMATION

-

COURT PRE-INSTRUCTS THE JURY.

-

14:48

COURT IS ADJOURNED. JURORS ADMONISHED.

-

HEARINGS

JURY TRIAL (IN PROGRESS) CONTINUED TO 03/13/2013 AT 10:30 IN DEPARTMENT R4.

DEFENDANT ORDERED TO APPEAR ON HEARING DATE.

And the defendant did appear. Although he probably didn't have a lot of choice in the matter.

Either cars.com was hacked, or Samy Bouzaglo owns a used car dealer in Ontario

Many rating services allow, and actually encourage, business owners to respond to customer reviews. Often these responses take the tone of "We are sorry you were disappointed with our service." At other times, it probably would have been better if the business had not responded at all. I found the review below on a cars.com page.

(empo-jooryst) In which I make a false assumption

Eventually, the testimony ended, the closing arguments were heard, and twelve of the fourteen people sitting in the jury box were dismissed to begin deliberations.

The two alternate jurors remained for a few minutes. The judge thanked us for our service, but reminded us that we were not fully released from service until the jury reached (or didn't reach) a verdict. The judge had no way to predict how long this could take, since every jury is different. The process could take a few hours, or it could take weeks. Either way, someone at the court would call us to tell us what the verdict was.

That was on a Thursday afternoon.

On Thursday evening, I checked to see if the case was still listed on the criminal calendar for Friday. It was, indicating that the jury was probably still going to be deliberating on Friday.

Similarly, I checked the criminal calendar again on Sunday evening. The case was still listed for Monday.

On Monday morning, I received a call from the court. But it wasn't the call that I expected. The court representative stated that there may be an issue with one of the jurors, and that I may need to join the jury. If I had to do so, how soon could I get to the court in Rancho Cucamonga?

After I told him, I figured that this probably wouldn't affect me, since I was the second alternate and presumably wouldn't be needed unless two jurors dropped out.

Wrong, John. The court representative explained that if a juror did drop out, they would draw lots between the two alternate jurors to see which one would be added to the jury.

At this point, I had to start telling co-workers and various family members that I may be back on jury duty again. I would find out within the hour.

Just a half hour later, the court called again. I was instructed to go about my daily business, and that I would not be summoned to the court - that day.

That was on Monday. On Tuesday, I received a second call from the court. But this time, they had reached a verdict.

Yeah, we replaced the dead guy...but the replacement's a secret

Just last Tuesday, I wrote about Cory Briggs' latest organization, the Inland Oversight Committee, and the fact that the listed chairman of the committee, Ian Trowbridge, actually passed away several months ago.

Well, Briggs has returned to the news again. When I read the title of a recent Liset Marquez article in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Lawsuit threatens formation of Ontario-Rancho Cucamonga tourism marketing district, I wondered if Briggs had something to do with it.

Turns out I was right. (Off-topic, this makes me feel better, because I was sure that Dwight Howard wouldn't make his free agency decision until after July 10. Turns out I was wrong about that. I think.)

The Ontario-based Inland Oversight Committee, in its suit, is asking that the district's formation be taken to the voters.

Cory Briggs, the group's attorney, filed the lawsuit in West Valley Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga on Monday....

So, considering that the Inland Oversight Committee web page currently lists three people in the organization - Briggs (no listed official role, but quoted in the press releases), Anthony Kim (legal adviser), and the aforementioned dead man (chairman), I wondered if Marquez was able to use her journalistic skills to figure out if anyone else was on the committee. But Marquez had no such luck:

Members of the group have asked to remain anonymous.

For a full account of the basis of Briggs' latest lawsuit, see the article.

Oh, and by the way, I found out more about Anthony Kim. According to LinkedIn, Kim is based in San Diego, and is an attorney with the Briggs Law Corporation. Presumably, as legal adviser to the Inland Oversight Committee, Kim is responsible for securing legal representation for the committee in its court cases. And so far, the lawyer that Kim has recommended is...Kim's own boss. And oddly enough, Kim does not appear on the list of attorneys for the Briggs Law Corporation, although his name does appear on this complaint, filed on behalf of the "Redlands Good Neighbor Coalition," and filed against Costco. No, I'm kidding, it's against Walmart.

So the Inland Oversight Committee site lists a dead man, and the Briggs Law Corporation website fails to list a current attorney - well, someone who was an attorney a few months ago. If you are a webmaster, please try to get a job with Briggs; he seems to be a little slow in updating his web sites.

P.S. The empo-jooryst series will resume on Monday.

(empo-jooryst) Some TMI about the hazards of jury duty

During a criminal trial, a jury is restricted to basing its decision on the evidence presented in court. Jury members cannot go and research the law on their own, research news accounts on their own, or consider anything outside of the courtroom.

In the case in March for which I was an alternate juror, the judge reminded us of this constantly. As far as I know, we all honored the judge's request - even when it caused us difficulties to do so.

One afternoon, after a nice lunch with two other jurors (followed by a post-lunch coffee), I arrived at the courtroom in time for the afternoon session. I wanted to stop by the restroom, but didn't have a chance before we were called into the courtroom.

After some testimony, the prosecution was asked to call its next witness. At this point the prosecution said, as delicately as possible, that the witness may be in the restroom. The judge then ordered a brief break in which the jurors were asked to exit the courtroom, and were (as usual) reminded not to discuss the case with anybody.

This may have been a wonderful opportunity to take care of my personal needs, but there was only a single restroom on the floor - and a witness may have been in there! So I decided to wait a while.

Eventually the witness was located, testimony continued, and eventually we got to another break. The jury filed out (after hearing the judge's usual admonition) - and the spectators filed out also. I did not know who the spectators were, but they appeared to have some interest in the case. Were they friends or family of the defendant? I didn't know. Were they friends or family of the alleged victim of the crime? I did not know.

What I did know was that several male spectators took the opportunity of the courtroom break to head to - you guessed it, the restroom.

The story has a happy ending - eventually I took care of my own needs, and was not a victim of jury tampering when I did so.

(empo-jooryst) Is my dog competent to stand trial?

When you spend several days at a trial, things start to rub off on you.

It was the Saturday after the trial began, or a little over a week after jury selection began. I was engaged in important duties that had nothing to do with my jury assignment, or with my regular job. Specifically, I was in my backyard, picking up dog poop.

Frankly, I would rather have been back in voir dire.

As I was picking up after my dog, I was talking to her. Or rather, we were talking to each other. This is what she was saying:

BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK

Meanwhile, I found myself saying this to her:

Your job is to keep cats out of the backyard. But here in my hand, I have evidence that shows that you have not done this! Allow me to introduce Exhibit 1, this piece of cat poop...

I wonder if our prosecuting attorney says things like that to his dog.

I just hope that this doesn't mean that poop will become a major part of this case. Heck, I already cut my hair and then discovered a few hours later that the alleged crime took place near a barbershop. I shudder to think of what might happen next.

A Cory Briggs interest group has a real person connected with it - well, sort of

Sorry to interrupt my coverage of my jury service three months ago, but I was checking my analytics and saw an uptick in people reading articles about Cory Briggs. Since the Ontario Walmart appears to be on schedule for a fall 2013 opening, I figured that perhaps Briggs was being active in some other city. I was correct; I found this article from early June:

CHINO -- A possible lawsuit has Mayor Dennis Yates concerned it will scare away potential developers from building in his city and the Inland Empire.

On Tuesday, the attorney for Inland Oversight Committee threatened to take the city to court if the council didn't reverse the Planning Commission's action approving a million-square-foot industrial development for Watson Land Co.

Attorney Cory Briggs filed an appeal with city alleging the project did not receive the proper environmental review and the city did not properly notify the public about the Planning Commission's approval a month and a half ago.

So this organization is called the "Inland Oversight Committee." We've been down this road before, with the Ontario Mountain Village Association, the Blythe Citizens for Smart Growth, the Menifee Citizens for Smart Growth, and the Murrietans for Smart Growth. So I suspected that the Inland Oversight Committee was just something that Briggs had completely dreamed up, and that the committee itself had one member, Briggs.

Well, in my typical Jim Bakker fashion, I was wrong. Not only does the Inland Oversight Committee have a website, it actually has real people associated with it. But first, let's see that the Inland Oversight Committee does that is different from the other organizations that I have named:

IOC's specific purpose is to educate members of the public about their rights to transparent, accountable, and responsible decision-making by the government, as well as their rights to the fair, equal, and lawful treatment by the government when they interact with government agencies and representatives. Pursuing this purpose, IOC's mission is (1) to identify, expose, and educate the public about non-compliance with local, state, and federal laws of every kind (including but not limited to taxpayer waste and circumvention of voter approval) by government bodies and by persons who conduct any form of business with those bodies; (2) to advocate for and pursue appropriate corrective measures for such non-compliance; and (3) to serve as a "watchdog" to ensure that unethical and illegal conduct by government bodies is exposed and appropriate remedies are pursued.

And if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can see the people named as part of this group, none of whom has the last name of Briggs (although he has represented the group in legal matters):

Chairman: Ian Trowbridge

Legal Advisor: Anthony Kim

Now I have not yet researched Anthony Kim - as you will see in a future post in my empo-jooryst series, it is difficult to research people who have very common names. But I figured that Ian Trowbridge would be a relatively easy name to find, so I began looking for an Ian Trowbridge in southern California - perhaps in the Inland Empire, or perhaps in the San Diego area.

Bingo. I found an article all about Trowbridge - about how he had been a "retired Salk Institute researcher who turned his attention to local politics and became a thorn in the side of many an elected official." The article included a quote from "East [San Diego] County activist Charlene Ayers, who worked with Trowbridge to hold government officials accountable to the people they serve." After he retired from the Salk Institute:

Trowbridge became a fixture at public meetings of the San Diego City Council, the county Board of Supervisors, the port commission and any other public agency that he thought might benefit from his civic interest. He advocated for clean-needle exchanges to fight the spread of AIDS. He sued to stop developments over environmental issues, or to avert generous severance packages for corrupt officials.

Oh, and there's one other thing about this article.

It's Trowbridge's obituary.

You see, Ian Trowbridge passed away in early February.

Yet his name is still on the Inland Oversight Committee website, where he is listed as Chairman.

Mayor Daley would have been proud.

(empo-jooryst) The strangest coincidence

This is another post about my experiences as an alternate juror back in March 2013.

As I noted in my previous post, I was questioned on a Tuesday afternoon regarding my fitness as an alternate juror. Neither the prosuection nor the defense objected to my inclusion, so I was sworn in as an alternate juror on that Tuesday afternoon.

Opening statements were scheduled for Wednesday morning, and since the judge had other cases to attend to early in the morning, we were instructed to report to court at 10:30 am on Wednesday morning. Since I am no longer constitutionally (heh) able to sleep in all morning, this gave me some free time before my jury service began.

Now remember what I was NOT allowed to do during this time. I was not allowed to discuss the case with anyone, nor was I allowed to research the particulars of the case. For example, I could not search the Internet to find any news articles that mentioned the defendant in the case. I was also not allowed to use the Internet to research anything about the specific charges that were filed in this case. Although opening statements had not been delivered, I already knew the name of the defendant and the four charges against him.

So I decided to do something that had nothing to do with the defendant and those charges.

I went and got a haircut.

After getting the haircut and taking care of other business, I reported to the courthouse. Since I live in Ontario, I was required to report to the courthouse in Rancho Cucamonga. This is a nice courthouse to report to; among other things, it is a building of recent construction that is reportedly able to withstand a major earthquake. (Not that I want to test this.)

I went through security. This is more comprehensive than TSA security, and is the second strictest security that I have been through. (The most secure place that I have entered is the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.)

After security, I went upstairs, met my fellow jurors and alternate, and proceeded into the courtroom to hear the opening statements.

As the prosecution attorney began his presentation, he described the scene of the crime.

A parking lot outside a barbershop.

Luckily, the barbershop that I had visited that morning was NOT the barbershop in question. Otherwise, I would have had a big problem.

(empo-jooryst) The analogy mashup

While I have been known to write blog posts in advance of their publication, I don't think I've ever written one three months in advance. As I write this, it is March 14; I am scheduling this post to appear some time in July.

Allow me to explain.

As I write this (back in March), I am an alternate on a jury that is hearing a criminal trial. While the trial is in session, I am prohibited from talking about the specific case with anyone (including my dog). I am also prohibited from researching the case on my own. While many of these prohibitions will be lifted once the case ends, I am also unable to talk about the case in exchange for money - at least for a period of 90 days after the case ends. (I'm reluctant to research the particulars of this prohibition at this time, due to the other restraints that the judge has placed upon me.)

Since this blog includes advertisements, the regulation could be construed to prohibit blogging about the case during that 90 day period.

Therefore, if the case ends by the end of March, then this prohibition will be lifted by the end of June. Hence, the delayed nature of this post (and any other posts, with the exception of my March 27 post).

Jury selection began on a Thursday afternoon, then continued all day on Monday, and then continued some more on Tuesday morning and into Tuesday afternoon. For those who have never been involved in jury selection, it consists of a brief interview of each potential juror followed by the judge, followed by questioning from both the prosecution attorney(s) and defense attorney(s). The attorneys are trying to determine if a potential juror would be favorable or unfavorable to their side of the case. After the interviews and questioning, each set of attorneys may choose to remove a potential juror from the panel. This continues for some time (in my case, over three separate working days).

In my particular case, the attorneys used a couple of analogies to determine how the jurors would make decisions regarding guilt or innocence. Again, I am prohibited from researching these analogies online at this time, so I'll reconstruct them from memory.

One analogy discusses a driver who is approaching a yellow traffic light. As the driver approaches, he or she can either go through the light, or stop at the light. The driver only has a split second to do this. The question that the attorneys posed - is this a conscious decision by the driver, or is it a reflex? At this point (March 14) I cannot surmise why this particular analogy was presented, although I have a sneaking suspicion that I know why the question was asked.

The second analogy discusses a hypothetical case in which walking on the beach at night is a crime. In this particular instance, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt (since this is a criminal trial, not a civil trial) that all of the elements of the crime are in place, namely (a) that it was night, and (b) that the person was in fact walking on the beach. It is not sufficient, for example, to say that the person was walking on the beach without noting the time that the person was walking on the beach.

These analogies were used in questioning the potential jurors.

Dozens of potential jurors.

Over the course of three working days.

Eventually, by Tuesday afternoon, both the prosecution and the defense had agreed on a set of twelve jurors. But now they had to pick two alternate jurors, so that in case one of the twelve jurors had to drop out for some reason, the court could just plug an alternate juror into the original juror's place and continue with the trial or deliberations or whatever.

I had been waiting for three working days, and had not yet been called. Finally, I was called as a potential juror to fill the second of two alternate juror slots.

The judge asked me if I had any concerns about anything said by the attorneys or by the dozens of potential jurors who had been interviewed previously.

My response: "Well, I don't know what I'd do if I ran into a traffic light on the beach."

The entire court burst into laughter, since this relieved some tension.

I will need to remain silent for the rest of the trial - unless two jurors drop out and I end up in deliberations - so this will probably be the only utterance of mine that will be heard in court. I guess it was worth three days of waiting.