False excitement about the Ontario Wal-Mart Supercenter

The press release title was certainly promising.

Ontario Wal-Mart Supercenter Celebrates Grand Opening

Store’s impact seen in 255 new jobs, benefits and $19,000 in charitable donations

And the first paragraph also included some promising words:

Creating 255 new jobs and focusing on charitable support and every day low prices, the ... Wal-Mart Supercenter in Ontario will celebrate its grand opening at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 20. Doors will open at 8 a.m.

But there are two problems.

First, this is a 2005 press release.

Second, this is not for Ontario, California. It's for Ontario, Ohio.

But there's encouraging words for those of us out here also. I had thought that the Wal-Mart was a done deal, but Liset Marquez set me straight with her March 5 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin article:

After years of litigation and more than $1 million spent in attorney fees, a dispute over an environmental report related to the building of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in this city has finally drawn to a close.
The seven-year battle ended when an attorney for Ontario Mountain Village Association - a group of residents who have opposed the building of the facility at the northwest corner of Mountain Avenue and Fifth Street - dropped the last appeal involving the case.

Attorney Cory Briggs said he decided against appealing an October court decision that only rewarded him $54,000 for court fees.

Read the rest here.

Do you want to know how long this story has gone on? When I initially started talking about my parody "Ontario Vineyard Village Association" several years ago, I joked that the OVVA was located in a high-rise building in Guasti.

Today, there actually ARE high-rise buildings in Guasti. OK, maybe none of them has a 25th floor - yet - but as long as the planes don't hit them, a 25-story Guasti building could be in our future.

Organizational chaos

I like organizations.

Throughout my life, I've been involved in a number of organizations.

There was the Fairlington Fun Group (FFG), who entertained other kids in the neighborhood.

There was the Independent Republic of New Concord, which was unsuccessful in its attempt to liberate Theodore Roosevelt Island from American rule.

There was the Campus Planning Commission (of Reed College), which was unsuccessful in building a subway system at the small college.

And there was the Ontario Vineyard Village Association (OVVA), which was unsuccessful at a lot of things.

As locals may realize, the latter non-existent entity was a parody of the Ontario Mountain Village Assocation (OMVA), which was extremely successful for years in preserving a dangerous eyesore near some residential areas. Oh, and it got fifty thousand bucks - not quite the $487,000 it wanted.

Of course, while the Ontario Mountain Village Association (which used to have a website - I quoted from it - but the website is long gone) was doing its thing, there were a number of other organizations that were fighting the good fight against evil non-union corporations.

There were the various "smart growth" associations in Blythe, Menifee, and Murrieta. After some delays, two members of Murrietans for Smart Growth were produced - the president of the organization, from San Diego, and one of the founders of the organization, from Murrieta - and the founder had never heard of the president.

What links the Ontario Mountain Village Association, the Blythe Citizens for Smart Growth, the Menifee Citizens for Smart Growth, and the Murrietans for Smart Growth - other than their concern with large non-union stores with no parallel concern of union stores?

All of them are associated with the same lawyer, Cory Briggs.

But Briggs is branching out. His new organization - whoops, I mean a new organization which he just happens to represent - is the Inland Oversight Committee. Liset Marquez of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reports that the committee seeks an injunction to prohibit the city of Ontario from promoting Christianity via City Council meeting invocations.

And if you want the Inland Oversight Committee members identified to see if they're really the Murrietans for Smart Growth, don't hold your breath.

Members of the Inland Oversight Committee have asked to remain anonymous, Briggs said.

"They are very concerned about retaliation and incrimination because they are taking on institution of government," he said.

This differs from Patrick Greene, another past opponent of the establishment of Christianity in Ontario. When Greene takes action, his name is prominently displayed.

However, the Inland Oversight Committee is not only concerned with the First Amendment.

Earlier this month, with Briggs acting as its lawyer, IOC filed a lawsuit asking for a refund for taxpayers of the $102 million settlement made by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in 2006 with Rancho Cucamonga-based developers Colonies Partners LP.

The Daily Bulletin has posted the IOC's lawsuit against Ontario (see the link at the top of the article). The lawsuit seeks injunctions preventing the city from (in its words) violating the U.S. and California Constitutions. It also seeks attorneys' fees and "[c]osts as authorized by law."

Oddly enough - probably due to some legal tradition - the items sought by the plaintiffs are in a section of the document entitled "Prayer," which includes the words "Plaintiff respectfully prays for the following relief." I'm sure that the IOC meeting got really heated when Briggs explained to the IOC members that such language was necessary.

Incidentally, the prayer includes items A, B, C, E, and F. Don't know what happened to item D - I guess point D asked to remain anonymous.

Indoor football in Ontario - the Ontario Warriors

While reading Bill Cortus' Facebook page, I discovered that a new indoor football team is coming to Ontario - the Ontario Warriors.

The Warriors are part of American Indoor Football, a league that has existed in some form or another since 2005. It's not quite at the level of the Arena Football League, but it presumably offers the same football experience that the AFL (or to some old-timers, the "new" AFL) offers. (As of today, nine indoor football leagues exist.)

The first Ontario Warriors home game is on Sunday, March 4 at Citizens Business Bank Arena.

Montclair then? (I guess "Montclair Now" is me)

I like to read several of the city blogs associated with the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, including Ontario Now (I live in Ontario), Upland Now (I used to live in Upland), and RC Now (I used to work in Rancho Cucamonga).

So when Jimmy and Julio moved J&J Auto Service to its new location on Holt Boulevard in Montclair, I began wondering if there is a Montclair Now.

The answer? Yes - and no.

Yes, there is a Montclair Now blog at http://www.insidesocal.com/montclairnow/.

Unfortunately, the blog hasn't been updated since last July.

So, for what it's worth, I'll announce that J&J Auto Service has moved to 5533 Holt Boulevard in Montclair.


View Larger Map

Their Facebook page is here.

Commerce is based upon your customer's location, not the location of the business

Wendy Leung was recently musing about city borders, and noted that the Upland Chamber of Commerce was hosting a meeting in Rancho Cucamonga. She then noted:

But I guess the Upland Chamber of Commerce is a bit of a misnomer. Its members spread across the Inland Valley making it more like a regional chamber.

The Upland Chamber of Commerce isn't the only one. I live in Ontario, and I checked the membership list for the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. The list, in alphabetical order, begins with companies based in Upland, Redlands, and Belmont Shore before it gets to its first business that is actually located within Ontario's city limits (Aaren Scientific).

But there's a reason for this inter-city membership.

While we like to think that a chamber of commerce's sole purpose is to promote the businesses within a city, it can also be used to promote BUSINESS within a city. There's a difference - in the latter case, you're looking for customers.

So when KSGN radio wants to get listeners in Ontario, it joins the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

I wonder how many chambers of commerce the average small-to-medium sized business actually joins. Even if the business only has a single location, I bet some of them join a half dozen chambers or more.

Go fly a kite

Liset Marquez reports that there will be a kite-flying event on February 23 at the Dorothy Quesada Center, 1010 S. Bon View Ave, from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

And you don't even need a kite - you can buy one at the event.

More details here.

How will you split up the airports?

If Ontario International Airport is "set free" from the control of Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), a lot of details will have to be worked out. For decades, the airport has been run as an integral part of the entire set of airports managed by LAWA. Take this recent example (disclosure: ImageWare is a competitor of my employer):

ImageWare Systems, Inc., a leader in multimodal biometric security solutions, today announced that Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), a City of Los Angeles department that owns and operates Los Angeles International (LAX), LA/Ontario International (ONT) and Van Nuys (VNY) airports, has placed an order for a number of biometric identity management and credentialing software products developed by ImageWare Systems, Inc. These software products will provide the foundation for a new biometrically enabled identity management and credentialing system used to identify airport employees, contractors, and police at LAX and Ontario airports.

So if the two entities split up, they'll have to work out new contracts with ImageWare so that Ontario International Airport has its contract, and Los Angeles International Airport has its separate contract.

And there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of these contracts that will have to be worked out.

Obviously these deals aren't insurmountable - Motorola, Safran, and their suppliers were able to work out a transition when my business unit was sold by Motorola to Safran - but it's something to take into consideration. Even if Ontario were to give LAWA umpty dumpty dillion dollars for Ontario Airport, it still would take time to work out the kinks.

Medical company with local presence acquires a chunk of NCR

While Quadramed is not headquartered in the Inland Empire - its headquarters are in Reston, Virginia - it does have an Ontario office, so this press release is of local interest.

QuadraMed Acquires NCR Healthcare Solutions
Self-Service Solutions Streamline Patient Access and Improve Patient Satisfaction

January 04, 2012 10:03 AM Eastern Time

RESTON, Va.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--QuadraMed® Corporation, a leading provider of healthcare technologies and services that improve the quality, safety and efficiency of patient care, today announced it has closed a definitive agreement with NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR) to acquire NCR healthcare solutions, including its market-leading MediKiosk™ patient access software, NCR Payment Manager, Patient Portal, Patient Tracking, Physician Referral Portal and eForms software solutions. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The healthcare solutions acquired by QuadraMed automate and streamline routine patient interactions, resulting in improved workflow, increased revenue and an increase in patient satisfaction.

“This addition to QuadraMed’s portfolio is a logical extension of our existing Access and Identity Management offerings,” said Duncan W. James, QuadraMed CEO. “NCR’s healthcare solutions will improve our clients’ ability to meet the increasing demand for patients to control and self-direct their healthcare experience at hospitals, clinics and physician practices. When combined with our #1 in KLAS Identity Management solutions and our proven enterprise scheduling capabilities, QuadraMed will advance its mission of improving the quality and efficiency of care for healthcare providers.”

Under the terms of the agreement, NCR Corporation has entered into a reseller agreement with QuadraMed to provide hardware and self-service devices for its check-in and identification management solutions.

“In this rapidly changing and complex healthcare environment, our clients will gain the advantage of QuadraMed’s broader healthcare portfolio and dedicated industry focus,” said John Bruno, NCR Chief Technology Officer and executive vice president, Corporate Development. “Transitioning this business to QuadraMed is great for our customers, healthcare division employees, and shareholders as NCR continues our efforts to focus on growing our core industries and global services and support business.”

NCR’s healthcare employees who sell, develop, and service these solutions will join QuadraMed on January 5, 2012 and will remain in Lake Mary, Florida, and Hyderabad, India.

About NCR Corporation

NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a global technology company leading how the world connects, interacts and transacts with business. NCR’s assisted- and self-service solutions and comprehensive support services address the needs of retail, financial, travel, healthcare, hospitality, entertainment, gaming, public sector, telecom carrier and equipment organizations in more than 100 countries. NCR (http://www.ncr.com/) is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia.

About QuadraMed Corporation

QuadraMed® is a leading provider of award-winning healthcare technologies and services that improve the safety and quality of patient care and enable financial health. Founded in 1993, QuadraMed provides proven, flexible solutions that help make our clients successful by streamlining processes, increasing productivity and driving positive clinical outcomes. Behind the Company's products and services is a staff of 600 professionals who support clients at over 2,000 healthcare provider facilities. For more information about QuadraMed, visit http://www.quadramed.com.

QuadraMed is a registered trademark of QuadraMed Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders. NCR is a trademark of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries.


Contacts
QuadraMed Corporation
Public Relations
Laura Adams
Director of Marketing
703-742-5311

YISEBY (Yes in someone else's backyard)

David Allen recently wrote a column that talked about business signs at the Claremont Promenade.

If the name "Claremeont Promenade" doesn't ring a bell, think of the businesses that are off of Indian Hill and south of Interstate 10.

Yes, that strip of land is officially part of the city of Claremont - but it bears no relation to the rest of the city.

As some of the commenters to David Allen's blog post noted, different rules apply to different portions of Claremont. Imagine, if you will, a 90 foot tall sign in downtown Claremont. Now, imagine further that this 90 foot tall sign in downtown Claremont advertised a McDonalds with a drive thru. If such a business were established in downtown, residents would have a huge hissy fit.

But it's OK if it's on the other side of the freeway. Why? Because the restaurants and the auto dealer bring in a whole bunch of revenue to the city of Claremont - but because of their remote location to the rest of Claremont, they don't have any real impact on the residents of Claremont.

The residents of Pomona, of course, are another matter. But the people of Pomona don't vote in Claremont.

And before you get all huffy about the evil things that are done to the city of Pomona, consider the location of the Los Angeles County Fair - right on the periphery of the city of Pomona itself. Which doesn't necessarily make the residents of the city of La Verne all that happy.

Let's face it, every city is doing this. A city will tolerate certain things on the borders of the city that wouldn't be tolerated in the city center.

Imagine the Ontario Auto Center at the corner of Euclid and Holt. Now there used to be, and still are, auto dealers within a mile of Euclid and Holt, but they're nowhere as big as the ones several miles east. The prime example is Citrus Ford, which used to be located roughly where the Superior market is today. Now Citrus Ford is out by Interstate 15, and I'm pretty sure the new location is bigger than the old one.

Of course, decisions by cities often have adverse impacts on other cities. La Verne has to put up with traffic jams during the Los Angeles County Fair, but gets very litle of the resulting revenue. Pomona deals with traffic from the Claremont Promenade, but all the tax revenue from the businesses goes to Claremont.

So you end up having a lot of inter-city and intra-city wars. Target's relocation from northwest Ontario to Montclair was one of the catalysts for Wal-Mart's proposed move to northwest Ontario - a move that was blocked for years by a lawyer and a small group of residents who wanted Wal-Mart to choose a different location - say, several miles away, out by the auto center. And there's always the possibility that a thriving Super Wal-Mart in Ontario could lead to the closure of the not-so-super Wal-Mart in Upland, which would then lead Upland to try to poach a business from a neighboring city to fill the empty space.

And so it goes.

The power of parody (and the IE's the target)

As you may have heard, the city of Ontario is mounting a public relations campaign to get "our" airport back from the City of Los Angeles, to whom the City of Ontario sold the airport several decades ago.

Needless to say, some of the residents of the city of Los Angeles don't think that this is such a good idea.

David Allen notes that Venice resident Len Talan has created a parody of my city's "Set ONTario Free" logo. Talan's version uses the slogan "Get ONTario 4 free?"

You can see Talan's logo on David Allen's blog post.

In which I belatedly announce PlantCML's name change to Cassidian Communications

As some of my readers may know, I work in the biometric industry. For most of the last two decades, I've worked out of an office in Orange County, California for a company that has gone through several different owners (and thus several different names).

People have left this company at various times to join other firms. In a few cases, several ex-employees have ended up at the same firm. One example was an Orange County company called Viacore, which was the destination for a number of former co-workers of mine - technical people, financial people, human resources people. Viacore was eventually acquired by IBM.

Some of my former co-workers ended up across the country, in North Carolina, at a company called VisionAIR. This company is still going strong today.

Another popular destination, also on the East Coast, is a company called DataWorks Plus. (Long story.)

What does all of this have to do with an Inland Empire business blog? Well, another population destination for former co-workers was a company called Plant Equipment, right here in the Inland Empire. Well, it's on the opposite end of the Inland Empire, based in Temecula. Plant Equipment wasn't a biometric firm, but a 9-1-1 firm (as it turns out, my employer was involved in 9-1-1 systems also - another long story). At one point I knew of at least four people who worked for Plant Equipment or an associated company.

As time passes, people continue to change jobs, and when I discovered the Twitter account of one of my former co-workers - actually, a former boss of mine - I discovered that he was now working for a company called Cassidian Communications. I checked into my former boss' new company...and discovered that it was actually his old company.

You see, Plant Equipment (which actually went by the business name PlantCML) changed its name to Cassidian Communications.

Back in March of 2011.

I really need to follow up on these things a little more closely.

So if you missed the news also, here's the press release:

PlantCML® changes name to Cassidian Communications, Inc., an EADS North America Company

PlantCML conducts complete rebrand: name and logo
A clear signal of the business unit’s ambition to further expand globally
New brand reflects the CASSIDIAN mission to support those who protect the world

Temecula, Calif., March 1, 2011 – Plant Equipment Inc., dba PlantCML®, an industry leader in mission critical communications, today announced its official name change to Cassidian Communications, Inc., an EADS North America company. As the largest and most trusted source of mission critical communications in North America, Cassidian Communications is leading the way in standards-based 9-1-1 call center applications, notification solutions and services and P25 land mobile radio networks.

Over the last several years, the company has gone through a series of acquisitions and was most recently acquired by EADS North America in the spring of 2008. Consolidating the company and portfolio of brands under that of the Defense & Security division of EADS, Cassidian, adheres to the strategic goals of enabling public and private operations to improve situational awareness, expedite response, promote collaboration and increase response efficiency.

The name Cassidian is derived from the Latin term cassida (helmet) and meridian (imaginary line running north and south). It symbolizes worldwide protection and security. The name is accompanied by a logo that represents a globe encompassed by two hands – hands that are protecting the world.

“The challenges of today’s mission critical communications require innovative solutions,” said Dave Rutan, chief executive officer. “Our customers expect our solutions and services to make everyday operations easier and more efficient. Now, these same solutions must easily scale to support larger incidents, geographic areas and security initiatives throughout the world, ultimately saving more lives. Becoming a fundamental part of the Cassidian master brand will allow us to leverage established market leadership and the global assets of EADS, and better deliver on these expectations.”

While the PlantCML brand has changed, its offices and employees, located in Temecula, California; Frisco, Texas; Franklin, Tennessee and Gatineau, Quebec, remain the same, serving clients ranging from public safety operations to Fortune 1000 corporations to federal agencies. Its solutions are resident in two out of three U.S. Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and more than 50 U.S. military operations. Cassidian Communications provides notifications to people in more than 100 countries, as well as to organizations in over 20 different industries.

Collectively, the company has more than 40 years of experience deploying 9-1-1 solutions, notification solutions and first responder radio networks.

About Cassidian Communications (www.CassidianCommunications.com)
As the largest and most trusted source of mission critical communications solutions, Cassidian Communications, an EADS North America company, is leading the way in standards-based E9-1-1 call center applications, notification solutions and services and P25 land mobile radio systems. Headquartered in Temecula, California.

About CASSIDIAN (www.cassidian.com)
Cassidian, an EADS company, is a worldwide leader in global security solutions and systems, providing Lead Systems Integration and value-added products and services to civil and military customers around the globe: air systems (aircraft and unmanned aerial systems), land, naval and joint systems, intelligence and surveillance, cyber security, secure communications, test systems, missiles, services and support solutions. In 2009, Cassidian – with around 28,000 employees – achieved revenues of € 5.4 billion. EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2009, the Group – comprising the Divisions Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter – generated revenues of € 42.8 billion and employed a workforce of more than 119,000.

About EADS North America (www.eadsnorthamerica.com)
EADS North America is the North American operation of EADS, a global leader in aerospace, defense and related services. As a leader in all sectors of defense and homeland security, EADS North America and its parent company, EADS, contribute over $11 billion to the U.S. economy annually and support more than 200,000 American jobs through its network of suppliers and services. Operating in 17 states, EADS North America offers a broad array of advanced solutions to its customers in the commercial, homeland security, aerospace and defense markets.

# # #

Note to students - economics laws apply, even in the Inland Empire

College is the time when many people transition into what is known as "the real world" - one in which you have to pay bills, and in which bad things happen if you don't.

But the college experience itself is giving many students a hard lesson in the intricacies of economics.

The Huffington Post recently ran a report on for-profit colleges and the nursing profession, and focused some of its story on two Inland Empire educational institutions - Riverside Community College, a public institution, and Ontario's Everest College, a private one.

The opening of the article sets the stage:

ONTARIO, Calif. -- Just after she started working for an ambulance company in this suburban enclave east of Los Angeles, Cierra Nelson came to admire the quick decision making and street smarts of the nurses she met on runs to local hospitals. She soon opted to pursue a nursing degree, settling on a low-cost, two-year program at a nearby community college that has an excellent job placement record.

But despite her efforts to complete the coursework in the ensuing four years, Nelson is still not a nurse. California's budget cuts have forced the state's community college system to scale back the availability of crucial science classes. Nelson found herself repeatedly turned away from the oversubscribed courses required for her degree.

Frustrated and seeking an alternative, she took out more than $50,000 in student loans to enroll last winter in a nursing program at Everest College, one of many for-profit institutions that have sprung up in the area amid massive cutbacks in public funding for higher education.

Nelson's experience is not unique. I know of a college student who spent last year at an out-of-state university. The student decided to come home and take courses at Rancho Cucamonga's Chaffey College - but couldn't get any courses. Next year, he's heading back out of state.

Many local students are facing this decision - pay more money by going somewhere where you can get courses, or staying in California's community college system and not getting the courses for years, if ever?

Some condemn the private institutions (Everest, University of Phoenix, DeVry, etc.) for several reasons. First, their students do not pass tests such as the nursing tests as much as public college students.

More than 90 percent of the nursing students at nearby community colleges last year passed state licensing exams, which are required to practice in California. Fewer than 70 percent of Everest students passed the exams, registering the lowest success rate of all nursing programs in the state.

Second, their more expensive tuition costs affect the use of Federal monies:

The Obama administration has significantly boosted funding for Pell Grants, which are available to low-income students. Over the last three years of the program, the federal government has more than doubled spending on Pell grants, budgeting $20 billion more this year than in the 2007-08 school year. For-profit colleges have captured an outsized share of this pool -- roughly 25 percent -- despite educating only 12 percent of college students nationwide, according to the most recent federal data.

Third, this translates into less money for public colleges:

Had the $7.5 billion that for-profit institutions received via Pell Grants during the 2009-2010 school year gone instead to fund community college systems nationwide, that money could have created capacity for an additional 629,000 community college students, The Huffington Post calculated, using available estimates for the average expenditure per student. That would represent a 20 percent increase in the number of full-time community college students currently enrolled nationwide.

Yet, anyone who has a basic understanding of economics would realize that this scenario is easily predictable. When a market good - in this case, a public community college education - is offered for less than the market rate, there will be scarcities of the good, and competitors will enter the market to meet the demand. And strange behaviors will result to provide economic benefit. One community college student uses various tactics to get registered for required courses:

Izaak Ramirez, a biochemistry major from Riverside, remembers stocking his first semester schedule with loads of unneeded electives, just to get courses under his belt. Having more credits means higher priority registration the next time....

As a science major, Ramirez has among the toughest times getting the courses he needs. For many of the classes, which require lab components, there are only about 40 seats for hundreds trying to get in. He eventually decided to join student government, partially to get involved, but also because it would move him up the chain for priority registration.

Even the community college administrators, such realize that the days of rock-bottom tuition may need to end:

Gray said that eliminating costs for students was an admirable goal decades ago, but no longer makes sense due to disinvestment in the system. He advocates raising fees to a level more in line with other states, or perhaps differentiating fees so that higher-cost programs, such as nursing, cost more than lecture classes like English or history.

However, Gray does not have the power to set tuition for Riverside Community College. That power rests several hundred miles away, in Sacramento. And any talk of a tuition increase results in hundreds of students protesting, so politicians are leery to raise fees - unintentionally resulting in the promotion of the cause of the private institutions.

Once you start analyzing the various players in the game and their economic interests, you can paint a pretty fascinating picture. The students who have classes. The students who don't have classes. The faculty members at public colleges. The faculty members at private colleges. The administrators at both types of institutions. The state politicians. The federal politicians. Other entities who are affected, such as the hospitals that want to hire nurses, the prison guards that want to keep their jobs, and the taxpayers.

So even when they can't get courses, California students are getting a real education.

Dreaming a non-existent David Allen column - fiction is sometimes stranger than the truth

On Wednesday night I had a bizarre dream, which included portions of a David Allen column that has, to my knowledge, never existed.

In my dream, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin columnist David Allen wrote about a scandal engulfing the city of Ontario. The article reported that "until last week," sportscaster Bob Trumpy had maintained a city office in Ontario.

Allen took great pains to note that the office was maintained in the city's Aviation Services Division.

Incidentally, Allen had learned of the scandal while attending an Ontario City Council meeting.

While trying to analyze the dream afterwards, I became more and more baffled. Yes, portions of the dream are rooted in reality, but those portions are very few.

You will recall that there was a recent scandal in which someone maintained an office to which the person was not entitled. However, Jerry Sandusky's office on the Penn State campus was the least of Sandusky's concerns, and none of the other Sandusky story elements made it into my dream. (Thankfully.)

I'm not sure why Bob Trumpy made the dream. I don't listen to him much; in fact, he may have been the broadcaster that we ridiculed in college for the startling observation "He's an athlete." To my knowledge Trumpy, long associated with the state of Ohio, has no connection to Ontario, California.

I can see how airports made it into my dream. In fact, David Allen's colleague Liset Marquez just wrote about the battle between Ontario and Los Angeles for the local airport (I have yet to read the article; it's starred in my Google Reader account). However, the city of Ontario does not have an "Aviation Services Division." After all, why WOULD it have one? It doesn't have an airport!

Lastly, I cannot see how all of this could be elevated into a "scandal." While public offices should not be given to people not entitled to use them, this does not rise to the level of real scandals that Allen has discussed in the past. Since Trumpy has (to my knowledge) no connection with Ontario, I'm not sure how the office could be seen as an example of undue influence.

Oh well. While the dream is mystifying, I guess it could have been even more bizarre. Perhaps Allen could have turned into a book and read himself during the month of December.

I missed My Delight's birthday party

Earlier this month, Liset Marquez noted that My Delight Cupcakery celebrated its second birthday. But the customers got the presents:

On Tuesday, My Delight CupCakery hosted its second birthday party by giving away 200 cupcakes to customers.

To...um...top it off, food trucks were also present.

For more information, see Marquez's Storify entry. (First time I had heard of Storify. Maybe David Allen will join this service in addition to the others he's joined.)

First, Seventh and Mountain. Second, the world.

David Allen recently wrote a blog post that began as follows:

Ice cream lovers who like the Handel's in Upland will be thrilled, and maybe chilled, to learn one is coming to Rancho Cucamonga.

For a picture and the location of the new Handel's, read Allen's post.

But Handel's isn't the only business at Seventh and Mountain in Upland that is expanding to new locations. You'll recall that San Biagio's Pizza, just a few doors down from Handel's, has expanded to the Upland Colonies.

I wonder if that shoe repair place is going to expand soon.

Advertising fail from a Medicare advisor

I recently received an unsolicited advertisement that read, in part, as follows:

xxxxxxx
Senior Health Care Advisor
xxxxxxx Victorville, CA 92395

You're Source for Medicare Health and Drug Plans
Medicare Choices Made Easy

Congratulations! On your upcoming 65 birthday.

Please allow me to introduce myself...

So, please call xxxxxxx @ 760-xxx-xxxx to make an appointment. I will come to your home or you can come to my office in Spring Valley Lake....

I'm sure that xxxxxxx paid a lot for the mailing list that was used, but there are two issues with the mailing list that was purchased.

First, I live in Ontario. The chances of my driving from Ontario all the way to Victorville to meet a Medicare advisor are pretty slim.

Second, no one in our family is even close to our 65th birthday. Will xxxxxxx still be providing Medicare advice a couple of decades from now? I'm probably not going to retain xxxxxxx's advertisement that long.

Oh, and by the way, xxxxxxx, "you're" advertisement has at least one glaring grammatical error. If the advertisement has to have a grammatical error, don't put it in the title.

I assume that Dana Cornalino likes the color pink

I probably know as much as you about Mary Kay Cosmetics. It's sold by individuals rather than stores. And if you do really well at it, you get a pink Cadillac.

But what I didn't know is that if you continue to do well, you get a SECOND pink Cadillac.

And so forth. According to Sandra Emerson, Upland's Dana Cornalino has earned her FIFTH pink Cadillac from Mary Kay.

Cornalino goes by the name "Dana in the pink."

If you'd like to her Dana earn her sixth car, her website is at http://www.marykay.com/danainthepink/default.aspx.

Incidentally, the story of why Mary Kay Ash actually started Mary Kay Cosmetics is interesting.

In 1939, Ash became as a salesperson for Stanley Home Products, hosting parties to encourage people to buy household items. She was so good at making the sale that she was hired away by another company, World Gifts, in 1952. Ash spent a little more than a decade at the company, but she quit in protest after watching yet another man that she had trained get promoted above her and earn a much higher salary than hers.

I couldn't determine whether World Gifts is still a going concern. Maybe they should have promoted Mary Kay.

Thankfulness - Operation Community Cupid

[DISCLOSURE: I HAVE A BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH BILL CORTUS.]

I remember my wedding day well, and I remember how everything came together on that day. My wife and I didn't have an extravagant wedding, but there certainly were some expenses. Luckily for us, we were both employed at the time, and our parents were able to help out to make our wedding day special.

This is not always the case for everyone. It's no secret that our military personnel do not necessarily receive the highest salaries, and it's tough for some of them to arrange for their wedding days.

Because of this, a number of volunteers in the Inland Empire recently banded together in something called "Operation Cupid" - a celebration of marriage for ten military people and their spouses.

On this Thanksgiving Day, Bill Cortus has posted a video of the parade that preceded the weddings. The parade took place on Haven Avenue, the major north-south street through the city of Rancho Cucamonga.



The actual ceremonies took place at the Ontario Airport Hilton, according to Jannise Johnson:

Couples and their bridesmaids and groomsmen arrived in a limo. Each wedding party walked down a rose petal-strewn white walkway where they ascended the stairs to a stage for the actual ceremony.

Johnson also listed the couples:

The 10 couples - with the military person listed first and the names of their fiance following:

Marine Corporal Victor Martinez and Erika Acevedo; Coast Guard pilot La'Shanda Holmes and Jamal Jones; Marine Lance Cpl. Emerson Alex Rodriguez and Melissa Moore; Marine Sgt. David Castillo and Maritza Alvarado; Marine Pfc. Kevius Tamagyow and Jayline Dugwem; Marine Lance Cpl. Anthony Stewart Roldan and Rosa Rivera; Coast Guard Marine Science Technician and Petty Officer 2nd Class Jennifer E. Donnely and Raymond Jennings; and Marine E-3 Thomas Wright and Rocel Basco. Navy E-8 Sean Bailey and his bride Alison Bailey and Marine Sgt. Jose G. Herrera and his bride Australia Herrera repeated their vows in the wedding. The two couples merely married in simple court ceremonies before the military men were deployed.

Read the rest of Johnson's article here.

P.S. As long as I'm doing all my good blogger disclosures, I should mention that when I went to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin website to read Jannise Johnson's article, this blogger received a 40% off coupon for the Hobby Lobby that is opening in Rancho Cucamonga. I don't know the value of this coupon yet - it depends on what my crafty bride may find.

Oh, and Bill Cortus' page is here, if you're interested in the services of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

Mike Sanders - a Harlan Koch in the Inland Empire

Some time ago, I wrote a post in my Empoprise-BI business blog about people who have a passion for their job (or are, in my words, "insane"), and created a character called "Harlan Koch" as a combination of Kentucky Fried Chicken's Harlan Sanders (yeah, Kentucky Fried Chicken - it certainly wasn't called "KFC" when Colonel Sanders was part of the company) and the Boston Beer Company's Jim Koch (the guy who drinks Samuel Adams beer and touts it at every opportunity).

It turns out that the Inland Empire chapter of the Society for Technical Communication has a Harlan Koch of its own. Here's the story of Mike Sanders and espresso:

After a business trip to Italy in 1993, Mike got hooked on espresso. Not even knowing how to brew a cup of coffee at the time, he worked after hours for several months to develop a college-level coffee and espresso course and even wrote a small book on the subject. His proposed course included coffee history, its spread through the millennia and the world, its trade significance during the early years of our country, and the invention and proliferation of espresso.

Mike proposed his course to four colleges and universities in Southern California. After an on-site demonstration at UCLA Extension, it picked up the program. Mike taught his espresso class for two years through UCLA's Culinary Arts Program. He became a national authority on espresso and, in 1994, addressed the trade's national coffee convention at the Long Beach Conference Center (Specialty Coffee Association of America). He has also appeared on television debunking espresso myths.

I love this story. If Sanders had run into an "expert" in 1993, the expert would probably have told him that he was wasting his time. However, within a year he's speaking on the topic.

The local effect on the NBA lockout on college basketball

In my Empoprise-BI business blog, I've recently been looking at the business of sports. Specifically, my November 11 post NBA Basketball Veterans, Your Absence is Now Irrelevant and my November 12 post Joe Gerrity has a different view on NCAA popularity during the NBA lockout looked at the relationship between the NCAA mens' basketball season and the NBA lockout. But what about the local effect? There are a number of men's basketball teams in the local area, including Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, U La Verne, Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona-Pitzer, U Redlands, UC Riverside, Cal State San Bernardino, and probably some others that I missed. Now none of these schools is a basketball powerhouse like North Carolina or UCLA, and few if any of their games will be covered on TV, lockout or no lockout. So people looking for their Lakers fix on TV are not going to be satiated by our local teams. In-person attendance is another thing, but frankly, the number of Lakers and Clippers season ticketholders who will instead go see Pomona-Pitzer or whatever is probably pretty small. What do you think? Will you pay more attention to our local basketball teams because of the NBA lockout?