In Southern California, the disease has hit Orange and Los Angeles counties the hardest, but infections have also been found in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. 

The higher number of cases in Orange and Los Angeles counties may result, in part, from the presence of ports, where insects may arrive with shipments, said David Morgan, environmental program manager for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Other factors include the higher density of people and backyard citrus trees and the climate.

Portions of all five counties are under quarantine and the boundaries are expanded as new infections are found outside those areas. Citrus plants can’t be moved off properties inside quarantine areas, though washed fruit without stems and leaves can be shared in small amounts within the quarantine area.

Roughly half of Orange County and smaller regions of the other four are under quarantine, a California Department of Agriculture map shows.

Huanglongbing, or citrus greening disease, is caused by a bacterium transmitted between citrus trees by a tiny insect called the Asian citrus psyllid. Symptoms of the disease include yellow-mottled leaves, stunted growth and fruit production, and deformed, bitter fruit. Most infected trees die within a few years.

The disease was discovered in the U.S. in Florida in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since then, it has reduced the state’s citrus production by 75%.

Asian citrus psyllids were found in California in 2008. Four years later, the disease was found on a tree in Hacienda Heights in Los Angeles County.

The disease’s spread in California has not risen to levels seen in Florida, and so far there have been no infections in commercial groves, according to the California Department of Agriculture’s Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Division — only in residential citrus trees. 

The infection numbers are increasing, though.

As of Monday, May 8, there were 5,007 confirmed cases of the disease statewide, department data shows.

In 2022, 1,342 infections were confirmed across California — hundreds more than in any previous year — and 825 infections have been confirmed in approximately the first third of 2023.

“Fortunately, it’s not spreading as fast as we thought it might when it first appeared, but it’s still spreading, which is a negative,” Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner spokesperson Ken Pellman said.

“We were very lucky that we’d seen what had happened over in Florida, and we were able to start a really good control strategy in California before it got away form us,” said Morgan, who is based in Riverside and runs three biological control facilities, in Riverside, at Cal Poly Pomona and in Arvin.

Florida had additional factors helping spread the disease, including hurricanes that “blow insects everywhere” and the presence of a landscaping plant that carries the disease, Morgan said.

Victoria Hornbaker, director of the department’s Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Division, also credits the community with helping slow the disease.

“If we weren’t getting the cooperation that we are from residents — we really do get overwhelming cooperation from residents — we wouldn’t be in such a good spot as we are today,” Hornbaker said.

Greening is worst in Orange County

Of the 5,007 Huanglongbing cases in the state, about 69% of them, 3,457, have been in Orange County.

Jose Arriaga, Orange County agricultural commissioner/sealer of weights and measures, said in an email that the office assists the California Department of Food and Agriculture with maintaining regulations inside quarantine boundaries, which currently include about 470 square miles of the county.

Arriaga wrote that the office’s efforts include taking part in monthly outreach events, providing translation services for the public and industry, and offering guidance to nurseries and growers on the regulations.

Los Angeles County has had 1,106 infected citrus plants.

Pellman said that, for three years after the first LA County infection was discovered in 2012, “things were blissfully quiet — and then it started popping up everywhere.”

The disease has maintained a “steady march” since then, Pellman said.

Of the remaining infections, San Bernardino County has had 246; Riverside County 168; and San Diego County has logged 30.

At the state’s Mount Rubidoux Field Station in Riverside, Morgan and other researchers work to control the number of Asian citrus psyllids in California. 

They do that by raising and releasing tamarixia radiata, a type of wasp that attacks Asian citrus psyllids.

“What we really have here is a wasp factory,” Morgan said. 

People don’t notice the tiny insects, over 28 million of which have now been released, Morgan said.

“They’re about the size of a period on the end of a sentence,” he said.

The wasps, he said, lay their eggs in or on the Asian citrus psyllids. When the eggs develop, they eat the psyllid.

The process was initially developed by UC Riverside, which first released the wasps in 2011 — before the first confirmed case of the disease in California. Later, the project was transferred to state officials.

“We do the research, we do the groundwork, we prove the concept works, and then we do what’s called a technology transfer,” said Georgios Vidalakis, a UCR professor and UC extension specialist in plant pathology who also directs the Citrus Clonal Protection Program.

In order to raise the wasps, they must also raise Asian citrus psyllids, and plants to host them.

The field station grows curry leaf plants rather than citrus trees, which Morgan said are related to citrus but grow more quickly and don’t carry the disease. The plant is used in South Asian cuisine. 

The psyllids are placed on a curry leaf plant in a cage, and left to mature and lay eggs, which hatch into nymphs. Wasps are then added to the enclosure and lay eggs on the nymphs. The new wasps are then collected, and strategically released in urban areas to seek out the Asian citrus psyllid.

“We’re reaching a point where the number of diseased plants is getting difficult to handle,” Morgan said.

Scientists battling the disease

At UCR, research into citrus greening disease continues.

Scientists are working on all three elements involved: the bacterium, the insect and the citrus tree, Vidalakis said.

“If we manage to disrupt any of those three elements, then what we call the ‘disease triangle’ doesn’t come together,” Vidalakis said.

A collaboration between UCR and UC Davis is using computer modeling to simulate the disease’s bacterium, which Vidalakis said cannot be cultured in a lab.

“We can train computers to think they’re the bacteria,” he said, and researchers can then see how the bacteria reacts to different conditions.

In another case, scientists are crossing citrus species in hopes of producing hybrids more tolerant to disease, which Vidalakis said appears to be working, though the fruit produced by the current hybrids is “more of a lemon type.”

Several years ago, Hailing Jin, a UCR professor, discovered an antimicrobial peptide — a molecule involved in the plant’s immune response — in Australian finger limes that kills the Huanglongbing bacterium.

Jin said that the peptide can both make trees resistant to infections, like a vaccine, as well as control the disease in trees that are already positive for the disease.

The peptide is also more resistant to California’s heat than antibiotic treatments currently in use, which Jin said can lose their activity within hours due to high temperatures.

“It would be nice to use an eco-friendly method or natural product,” Jin said.

“People have been eating the peptide from the finger lime fruit for years.”

The peptide is currently being developed for commercial use by Invaio Sciences, which Jin said UCR agreed to give exclusive license to.

Residents’ cooperation is helping

As research continues, experts ask that everyone continue doing their part to prevent the disease from spreading. 

“We ask this with all our heart, and all the scientific information we have,” Vidalakis said.

He asks that people avoid moving citrus plants around the state, and don’t bring plants into California from another state, which is prohibited for citrus plants.

Residents with citrus plants may share the fruit in small quantities, once it’s washed and free of any other plant material, inside quarantine areas.

Vidalakis suggested that anyone looking for a specific kind of citrus tree first check UCR’s Citrus Variety Collection, where it may be available.

Anyone who suspects a tree is infected with the disease can contact the California Department of Food and Agriculture Pest Hotline: 800-491-1899.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct several photo captions. Scientists at the California Department of Food and Agriculture in Riverside are displaying Tamarixia radiata, tiny wasps that kill Asian citrus psyllid insects that spread citrus greening disease. 

Bender, a longtime Moreno Valley resident, died Tuesday, May 9. He had retired in May 2019.

RELATED: Orlando Ramirez, former editor and publisher in Inland Empire, dies at 67

Bender was not only an editor and journalist, but also a poet, a bass-playing jazz musician, a motorcyclist, husband, father and friend. He attended Moreno Valley United Methodist Church and belonged to the Moreno Valley Amateur Radio Association, family members said.

Bender began professional writing in 1981 as a sports freelancer for the Pomona Progress Bulletin, earning $12 per game story. He spent 19 years as an editor, working at newspapers in the San Gabriel Valley and Pasadena before moving in 2000 to The Press-Enterprise, where he led its Moreno Valley news bureau. Bender later shifted to the paper’s Riverside office, where he oversaw reporting across the Inland Empire as a local editor, politics editor, metro editor and the head of a topics reporting team. He oversaw politics and election coverage, encountering elected leaders from city councils to Congress and their staffs along the way.

In the newsroom, Bender was known for his humor, wit and zany antics. He would ask coworkers to join him in “shoes-optional hours,” during which journalists worked in their socks. He once showed up to the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands — dressed as George Washington. He donned a unitard on several occasions.

“If the newsroom is a palace court, John Bender was the jester,” said Jeff Horseman, who covers Riverside County for The Press-Enterprise and worked several years for Bender.

Bender’s humor offset the intense environment of the newsroom, Horseman said, and “you ended up not taking yourself so seriously.”

“That being said, there was a serious side to him: his job,” Horseman said, adding that Bender was a sharp politics editor who had high journalistic standards.

Suzanne Hurt, a former Press-Enterprise reporter, considered Bender a mentor.

“John was an excellent editor with superb news judgment, a kind heart, and a great wit,” she said. “He was multitalented, and he will be very missed.”

Another of his former reporters, Michelle DeArmond, said he pushed her to dig deeper and ask better questions.

“He had blunt and effective ways of capturing his reporters’ attention, and he cared deeply about his reporters and the quality of the work they produced,” she said in an email.

DeArmond also recalled another antic — the time Bender launched what she called an “ill-fated Bender-for-Publisher campaign at The Press-Enterprise somewhere around 2003” when the paper was between publishers.

“I served as his campaign manager, and we issued a press release with a smorgasbord of campaign promises — including a pledge to annex Canada,” she wrote. “Why, I’m not exactly sure.”

Bender’s wife, René, recalled his second career in jazz. He was a member of his church worship band, and after retiring, joined the band The Golden Eagles, formed the jazz quartet Parish Lantern and helped form a group called Crosstown Cats.

Bender wrote several poetry collections, sometimes using his pen name, Brutus Chieftain, and founded a poetry troupe dubbed Poets in Distress.

On Sunday, May 7, Bender co-hosted an event in Riverside marking the 10th anniversary of the Inlandia Literary Journeys column in the four Inland Empire newspapers, alongside Inlandia Institute Executive Director Cati Porter.

The night before his death, Bender took part in a poetry reading in Idyllwild.

“He was just on fire,” René Bender said.

Porter recalled a “guerilla poetry event” in 2013 at which she, Bender, and poets Juan Felipe Herrera and Gayle Brandeis took to Riverside’s downtown pedestrian mall, towing a wagon with a car battery that Bender rigged to power the microphone and amps.

Steve Lossing, whose illustrations accompanied Bender’s poems, said they were working on a page-a-day calendar.

“That was gonna be our big breakthrough,” Lossing said, adding that Bender cracked the same joke about all their projects.

Bender was just as crazy with his family, which also consists of two adult sons, John and Michael.

Michael Bender fondly recalled a trip to the dog park. His dad began to play in the sprinklers with a child, and eventually convinced his son to join.

“Didn’t even know the kid’s name or anything,” Michael Bender said.

In 2020, Bender and Porter wrote a chapbook, “Slow Unraveling of Living Ghosts.” The beginning of one of his poems, “Letter To Self,” reads:

“Dear Johnny: / Life is a slow unraveling of shocks and surprises. / Cherish yourself. Smile again. / Stop worrying about more friends dying. / Joys bloom boldly but wither at the end.”

The family is arranging memorial service plans.

Editor’s note: A photo caption has been updated to correct an error. Nelsy Rodriguez shot the photo of John Bender on election night of 2012.

The funding is part of $30 million announced by Rep. Pete Aguilar for 15 community projects across the Inland Empire and comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“Cucamonga Canyon is an amazing outdoor space that people from all over Southern California seek out,” said Aguilar. “We need to make sure it is preserved and protected and, most importantly, that it’s safe for our community. This funding and this project will help enhance safety for everyone who uses these trails.”

San Bernardino National Forest closed the canyon in August 2013 due to high fire danger which was exacerbated by severe drought.

According to the Rancho Cucamonga website, officials decided on a full closure of the area, which includes Sapphire Falls, until a management plan could be adopted for the trail to maintain safety and allow for first responders to answer calls.

According to AllTrails, an online trail guide, with public access closed, hikers make their way into the canyon via private property. The in-and-out trail stretches over 9 miles.

Ty Harris, Rancho Cucamonga Fire District’s deputy chief, said the canyon has steep cliffs and the hike to Sapphire Falls is long and difficult.

“I have been on critical and traumatic calls in that area for people trying to get to the falls in an unsafe manner,” Harris said. “Because it is such a long hike through private property … they would cut through the forest in an unsafe manner and it resulted in very tragic situations.”

In an email, Aguilar said there have been 68 calls for service in the canyon since 2018.

The planned trailhead will be built off of Skyline Road and Almond Street on Morgan Ranch property, according to the city. The project will include the trailhead, trail into the canyon, and a parking lot specifically for trail users.

The city is looking for land near the trailhead to create a parking lot open during trailhead hours to mitigate parking in the nearby neighborhood. Currently, there are signs in the neighborhood warning hikers they could be ticketed.

“That was part of the problem we experienced in the past. There was nowhere for people to park and no access,” said Harris. “So they were parking in the neighborhood and dumping their trash and it was just a mess.”

Mike Parmer, assistant to the city manager, said Rancho Cucamonga is working on an environmental review of the project before moving to the design and construction phases.

“So we anticipate this happening within the next couple of years,” Parmer said, “but there are a couple of steps we have to take in order to move this project forward.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct an error. Mike Parmer is assistant to the city manager in Rancho Cucamonga.

A fan sprinted onto the outfield grass during a break in the game to propose to his girlfriend — then endured a jaw-rattling tackle by a security guard.

Clad in a Mookie Betts jersey and a Dodgers cap that was about to fly off his head, Ricardo Juarez dropped to one knee and held a box with a ring towards his girlfriend, Stephani Ramona Gutierrez, who stood in the stands, videos posted to social media show.

Juarez held the ring high in the air when a security guard tackled him, sending him to the ground with a thud.

Two other security guards held Juarez’s hands behind his back as he laid face down, videos show. After being handcuffed, Juarez was walked off the field and into police custody.

Proposal gone wrong at Dodger Stadium pic.twitter.com/qankLwE5sW

— maze (@Mazeaveli) March 31, 2023

All the while, the crowd went crazy, cheering him on.

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, March 31, declined to comment.

According to Debra Craig, an administrator for Moreno Valley Matters, a Facebook group for city residents, Juarez is head chef at a Moreno Valley restaurant, Oishii Sushi & Teriyaki.

Gutierrez listed Moreno Valley as her place of residency on her Facebook page. She and Juarez could not be reached Friday.

Later Thursday, Juarez took to Instagram to share videos from the stands and a photo announcing the couple’s successful engagement.

On Instagram, Gutierrez posted video of Juarez being escorted off the field.

She also shared a photo with her fiance from later that night that showed Gutierrez displaying the engagement ring. She noted that the proposal was a “tad bit extreme,” but “of course I said YES!”

Juarez posted photos and video with a simple caption: “She said YES.”

City News Service contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct an error. Ricardo Juarez’ fiancé’s name is Stephani Ramona Gutierrez. 

Since January, The Rave Box, located at 141 Harvard Ave., has been stuck in limbo waiting for final approval from the city to open its doors.

After moving from Upland last year, owners Janelle Huerta, 33, and Steve Morales, 28, were ready to bring their unique stock of rave attire, including neon spandex, fishnet stockings and bedazzled cowboy hats, to Claremont Village, known for its boutiques and eateries.

Huerta and Morales opened The Rave Box in March 2020, initially selling rave attire and gear from their own home.

“We were excited after being nearby in Upland and we knew this area already had a lot of young people into the rave scene,” Huerta said by phone last month. “Then the backlash came right away.”

Huerta said she received negative online comments from multiple businesses about the store’s potential opening. There were lots of rumors about the types of products The Rave Box sells, she said, including false claims the store stocks sex toys. In February, the couple started an online petition in support of their business, quickly garnering over 2,000 signatures.

But after cutting through initial red tape and receiving a conditional business permit, five nearby business owners filed an appeal March 1 that put a halt to Huerta’s and Morales’s plans. Owners from the Bunny Gunner Gallery, Claremont Village Eatery, Studio C Gallery, Square I Gallery and Bert and Rockys Ice Cream Shop filed the appeal.

Calls seeking comment from all five businesses were not returned as of Friday afternoon, March 10.

According to the appeal, the business owners’ concerns range from the “adult-oriented” clothing being sold to the clientele who may shop there to the location of the business in the downtown area. The proposed business is located in between a toy store and a pharmacy, which the appellants say isn’t a suitable place for the rave store.

At a City Council meeting on Feb. 28, some of the appellants let the city know about their frustrations.

“What type of element are we welcoming into the Claremont Village,” said Yvette Duchardin-Hart, owner of the Bunny Gunner Gallery, during public comment. “How can we believe they can be respectable neighbors?”

At the same meeting, another business owner, Marodeen Ebrahimzadeh, of Square I Gallery, said The Rave Box wouldn’t mesh with the culture of the Village.

“After 30 some odd years in the Village, allowing that type of business to (get) a license,” Ebrahimzadeh said. “We cannot believe the city is allowing this.”

Huerta said her shop is being targeted by those who don’t understand rave culture.

“Their whole idea is that we’re gonna scare people away” from the Village, Huerta said. “We want to be a part of this city but we have been stopped every step of the way.”

A private appeal hearing was held Wednesday, March 8, and a decision is expected early next week by Assistant City Manager Katie Wand, according to Community Development Director Brad Johnson.

As part of that hearing, both Huerta and Morales invited city personnel into the store to see the products and layout for themselves. Morales said Friday that he feels “good” about the responses and feedback he got from the city after the tour of the store.

In an emailed response Thursday, March 9, Johnson wrote the business appears “to be a retail clothing store the way they are set up currently with their merchandise.”

The store’s business license would be valid if the city rejects the appeal, but that doesn’t necessarily settle the matter.

Following Wand’s decision, either the appellants or Huerta and Morales have 10 days to appeal the ruling to the City Council. The council could decline or go ahead and hear the appeal, the latter of which would take some time.

While Huerta and Morales have already set up most of the interior of the shop, with dressed mannequins and sparkling tops already in the front window display, they are forced to wait until a final decision on their license is made before making any sales.

This worries both of them. They haven’t made any income since arriving in Claremont.

“It’s getting harder and harder as each day goes by,” Morales said Friday. “We have a family to support at the end of the day.”

The couple has three children, including a newborn, Morales said.

With the rave festival season underway, the couple have lost weeks’ worth sales. They’re hoping the back-and-forth struggle to get their license ends soon.

“We want to succeed in Claremont,” Huerta said. “Just give us a chance.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the name of Bunny Gunner Gallery.

That’s the takeaway from a data analysis that found the vast majority of Inland warehouse owners aren’t from Riverside or San Bernardino counties.

Instead, owners are more likely to be in other parts of California or other states, according to Mike McCarthy, a Riverside environmental consultant and a member of Riverside Neighbors Opposing Warehouses who did the analysis.

“I think it’s clear that the money (from logistics) is being pulled out of our region and that we are not benefiting from this, at least not enough,” McCarthy said.

Not all agree with McCarthy.

The idea that it’s better to have local warehouse owners is “a pretty dense argument,” said Paul Granillo, president and CEO of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership.

“I think (the focus on local ownership) ignores history,” Granillo said. “It ignores availability of capital and the technical know-how to build and run complex facilities.”

With sleek-walled, million-square-foot warehouses stretching to the horizon — and more on the way — the logistics industry has come to define the Inland Empire.

Proximity to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, an abundance of flat, undeveloped land, easy access to rail lines and freeways and a largely blue-collar workforce made the region ground zero for a warehouse boom that went into overdrive with a spike in e-commerce fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, logistics is a vital Inland employer in a region that lacks coastal California’s high-paying white-collar jobs. But critics, including environmental justice advocates, lament the traffic and air pollution linked to warehouse-bound diesel trucks and accuse the logistics industry of paying substandard wages and forcing workers to toil in unsafe conditions.

Last month, more than 60 Inland groups signed a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom urging him to declare a public health emergency and impose a moratorium on new Inland warehouses.

McCarthy, in partnership with the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College, has previously mapped out which Inland cities have the biggest logistics footprints.

That analysis, like the breakdown of who owns Inland warehouses, relied on publicly available property data from Riverside and San Bernardino counties’ assessors offices, said McCarthy, owner of Radical Research LLC.

McCarthy determined which warehouses are locally owned using the mailing addresses where the warehouses’ property tax bills are sent.

“I would say that we should have 40% or 50% (local) ownership,” McCarthy said. “We’re barely at 20%.”

According to the study, companies with Denver, Colorado addresses are the top owners of Inland warehouse space and control 118.7 million square feet. Newport Beach came in second with 107.2 million square feet, followed by Irvine with 69.3 million, Los Angeles with 68.6 million and Chicago with 61.4 million.

Of the top 15 Inland warehouse owners, the only local entry was Ontario, with 30.7 million square feet.

It’s hard to pinpoint who exactly owns warehouses, McCarthy said, because properties are tied to limited liability corporations or LLCs with opaque names. While LLCs have to publicly disclose some ownership information, it can be hard to connect a warehouse to a specific owner.

A number of warehouses linked to Denver include LLCs with “Prologis” in their name. Headquartered in San Francisco, Prologis, which has offices in Denver, bills itself on its website as “the leader in logistics real estate.”

In an email, Prologis spokesperson Jennifer Nelson said the company, which was founded in California 40 years ago, owns 199 buildings totaling 77 million square feet in the Inland Empire.

“Prologis makes significant investments in our communities, including job training, renewable energy infrastructure, road safety improvements and more,” Nelson said.

“Our employees live and work in the region,” she added. “So we have a strong interest in the future of the Inland Empire and all of Southern California. We have been a long-time industry leader in sustainability and have committed to reaching net zero in our emissions by 2040.”

The lack of local Inland warehouse ownership is concerning, McCarthy said.

“They don’t have our air-quality problems. They don’t have our traffic problems,” he said. “They don’t have to drive alongside the trucks. So why would they care if (warehouses are) being put in bad places or if they’re causing health effects?”

McCarthy added: “There would be some economic benefit from having these negative impacts if it was a local business. But when the money is just taken out of our area, then we get nothing. It feels like we’re getting short changed.”

McCarthy said he’d like to see economic incentives “so that companies that are building and owning these warehouses put some of their white-collar jobs here too.”

Public policy should also make warehouses smaller, McCarthy said, noting that locally owned warehouses tend to be on the smaller side.

Granillo said the Inland Empire is home to a number of companies, such as UPS and Kaiser Permanente, that are headquartered elsewhere.

“They all have skin in the Inland Empire game,” he said.

It takes a lot of money and special expertise to make long-term investments in Inland warehouses, Granillo said.

“You’re talking (about) $100 million projects being invested in the Inland Empire economy, paying laborers and carpenters to create the facilities and that is economic upside (and) investment into the region,” he said.

“So you have to find companies and people that are willing to make that type of investment and have the ability … to carry that out.”

Granillo added: “How (are people going to) get their food and clothing if we don’t have warehouses? And fundamentally that is the question that needs to be answered. I don’t hear that coming from (warehouse opponents).”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct errors in photo captions. Ownership of the warehouses pictured in Moreno Valley is traced to Prologis, a San Francisco-based industrial real estate firm.

The elaborate plot was led by former head coach and current Poly teacher Yancy Dodson, alleges the report, which states Dodson admitted that since 2018 he joined with people in local basketball circles “to facilitate the submission of the false documents.”

An executive summary from the Riverside Unified School District report, obtained by this news organization, was sent to the CIF Southern Section in early December. On Feb. 1, CIF announced it had put Poly’s varsity basketball program on probation for violating its rules. It also made the school forfeit wins from the past four seasons and banned it from this year’s playoffs — for which the team otherwise would have qualified.

Dodson did not return calls seeking comment. The report states that the former coach “claimed he did not believe his actions violated CIF eligibility rules for student transfers to Poly or the district.”

The district’s investigation examined documents submitted by Poly boys basketball players who registered between 2018 and 2022.

During the majority of that time, the report states, Poly was at capacity and only admitting students who lived within its attendance boundaries. Public schools typically accept transfers from students outside a campus’ or district’s boundaries if there is space available.

The fake documents — including forged lease agreements and other papers meant to show proof of residency — were sent to the school district on behalf of multiple students, the report states. The goal was to make it appear that those living outside Poly’s boundaries resided in areas that made them eligible to attend the school and play on its basketball team, according to the report.

“There was no credible evidence” that Poly Principal Darel Hansen or Athletic Director Jim Vaughn participated in the “scheme to bring ineligible students to Poly,” according to the report.

Others involved, the report alleges, include then-Assistant Coach Joe Wrinkle — who the report states provided addresses for students to fraudulently use — and community members Lamont Butler Sr. and DeShaun Thomas. Benjamin Stephens and Jeff Oliver submitted phony documents for their sons, the report alleges.

At the time, Oliver was head men’s basketball coach at Cal State San Bernardino. Oliver, now the head basketball coach at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, declined to comment Thursday, Feb. 23.

Wrinkle, Stephens and Butler did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday, Feb. 22. 

Thomas, who founded and owns DTermined Athletics, an Inland Empire youth basketball program and travel team, on Wednesday denied knowledge of the scheme.

“I’ve never been involved in any false documents,” Thomas said, adding that no one from the school district or CIF had contacted him during the investigation.

Thomas said that, while he knew of Lamont Butler Sr. through Butler’s son’s participation in basketball, he’s never had a conversation with him.

According to the report, “Mr. Dodson stated that Poly and a few other schools were viewed as top schools for basketball players. Mr. Thomas and Mr. Butler contacted Mr. Dodson when players or their families expressed interest in attending Poly.” Dodson would then work with Thomas, Butler, and/or parents to create fake documents, the report alleges.

The documents included phony lease agreements to establish residency within Poly’s district — and all but one were identical, the report states. They even contained the same typo, according to the report.

Thomas said that, while he introduced players interested in attending Poly to Dodson, that was the extent of his involvement.

“What I was told is that they have a particular apartment, a home, for kids to live in while they attend Poly if they lived outside the district,” he said.

The report states that an anonymous witness provided the names of six students, who were all found to live in areas not normally allowed to attend Poly, but does not specify how many students were ultimately found to have used fake documents.

CIF’s action was a blow to what has been a successful Poly basketball program.

The Bears would have qualified for the Division 1 CIF Southern Section playoffs this year, had they not been put on probation. The team finished third in the Ivy League standings, earning an automatic spot.

The squad has enjoyed varying degrees of success over the past 30 years, but many of its strongest seasons came during Dodson’s three stints as head coach, which amount to a total of 16 seasons. Poly had only two winning seasons in the seven years between Dodson’s second and third coaching stints.

Dodson returned to the program for the 2014-15 season, when the Bears went 11-15 and missed the playoffs. Poly averaged 19 wins over the next two seasons but lost in the first round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs each year.

The program went 24-9 during the 2017-18 season and reached a CIF Southern Section championship game for the second time in school history, finishing as the runner-up in Division 2A. Poly had a 27-7 record during the 2019-20 season and was the runner-up in the Division 1 playoffs. The Bears finished that season No. 23 in the Calhisports.com state rankings.

Throughout the 2021-22 season, Poly was among the state’s top-ranked teams and just missed being selected for the Open Division playoffs, which is reserved for the Top 8-ranked teams in the Southern Section. Instead, the Bears received the No. 1 seed for the Division 1 playoffs, but lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion St. Bernard of Playa del Rey. Poly finished the season No. 11 in the Calhisports.com state rankings.

Riverside Unified officials and board members have said little about the CIF discipline and the circumstances that led to it.

In a letter responding to the probation, Principal Darel Hansen said he would “recommit to running athletics programs that are compliant with all CIF rules and pursue victory with honor.”

District officials issued a statement Feb. 1 saying they “took proactive steps to notify CIF of the allegations” and pledged to “integrate lessons learned through this unfortunate situation into future training” so that coaches, student-athletes and parents act with sportsmanship and honesty.

Superintendent Renee Hill echoed the statement at a school board meeting the day after the CIF sanctions were announced, stating that “the district is committed to principles of victory with honor.”

The topic did not arise at the Thursday night session. Hill and Hansen were not available for interviews on the subject, district spokesperson Diana Meza said earlier this month.

Meza said in an email Wednesday, the district would not elaborate on its initial statement. She would not say whether Dodson currently teaches at Poly or provide his salary, citing ”privacy rights.”

However, Dodson is listed on Poly’s website as a teacher, and a list of the district’s certificated employees for 2022-23 lists him as a Poly teacher.

This news organization filed a California Public Records Act request seeking information from Riverside Unified on Dodson’s employment status. It also submitted previous requests seeking documents surrounding the Poly basketball team’s probation and events leading to the discipline. A request for documents related to the investigation also was filed with CIF.

Riverside school board Vice President Dale Kinnear said in an interview that trustees are “taking the situation seriously.”

New board member Noemi Hernandez Alexander said the board was “having conversations” about whether or not to create new policy as a result of the probation, but said she couldn’t discuss specifics.

The three other school board members have not returned calls seeking comment. 

Staff Writer Eric-Paul Johnson contributed to this report. 

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct an error. At the Feb. 2 school board meeting, Riverside Unified School District Superintendent Renee Hill said “the district is committed to principles of victory with honor.”

Pete Renteria, 29, is a fugitive, the Sheriff’s Department said.

At about 9 p.m. on Jan. 30, someone entered a home in the 4800 block of Ramona Place, in unincorporated county territory, and discovered the bodies of Sonia Ramirez, 68, husband George Ramirez, 66, and their son David Ramirez, 43. A gun was found in a neighbor’s yard.

Renteria is the grandson of the Ramirezes and the nephew of David Ramirez, said Gloria Huerta, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Investigators are not releasing the motive for the crime. But a relative of Pete Renteria said the suspect, who he believed had a good relationship with those in the home, acted differently when he was not taking medication.

“He was feeling the family was trying to hurt him,” said the relative, who asked that his name not be published. He said he feared for his safety because he was afraid of any others who might be involved in the slayings.

The relative said as he was cleaning the house, he found Renteria’s medication bottles full, the pills apparently unused. Renteria had also been drinking alcohol that day, the relative said.

The relative said investigators asked about Renteria’s whereabouts the day the bodies were discovered. He said Friday he didn’t know Renteria’s location and added that Renteria didn’t have connections to anybody out of the state or country.

“He just disappeared,” the relative said.

The Sheriff’s Department declined to release a photograph of Renteria or a physical description. Investigators also declined to describe any previous contacts with Renteria.

The relative said Renteria had recently served five to seven years in prison after a gun-related conviction.

A man with the same name and age as Renteria has firearms and drug convictions, according to San Bernardino County Superior Court records.

Pete Anthony Renteria was sentenced to 1 year and four months in jail in July 2012 after he pleaded no contest to discharging a firearm with gross negligence.

One year later, in December 2013, Renteria was charged with shooting at an inhabited dwelling. He pleaded guilty and in January 2014 he was sentenced to 3 years in state prison. He was also ordered to serve another 1 year and 4 months in prison for violating probation, a sentence that ran concurrently.

In 2016, the court ordered Renteria to enroll in a domestic violence violators program.

In 2020, Renteria pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced to 1 year and 4 months in state prison. And in March 2022, he was sentenced to 10 days in jail for being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Another relative of the deceased established a GoFundMe page to assist with expenses.

He was among the first batch of customers sitting in their idling cars at 8 a.m. on a recent chilly January morning. Being there early is important as eggs — which start at $5 a dozen at Billy’s — run out by noon most days, Kamps said.

The lengths people are willing to go for affordable eggs is a reflection of soaring prices nationwide — with a dozen large eggs retailing for $5.62 on Feb. 1, up from $4.83 at the beginning of December, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows.

Egg farms are reporting an influx of customers, but some are looking into quirkier solutions, such as their neighbors’ backyards, to purchase eggs at a time when finding them at local grocery stores is not guaranteed.

Billy’s Egg Farm owner Billy Mouw says he’s been selling 25,000 eggs a day lately at his family farm, which houses around 30,000 chickens. With his daughters’ help, he’s able to shell out eggs a dozen at a time to cars that stretch down the residential road surrounding the business.

The availability and price of eggs at the farm make it worth the wait for Kamps, who has a family of five at home.

“You go anywhere else right now and its upwards of $7 for a dozen eggs, that hurts my wallet,” the Chino resident said as the line of cars began to move.

“It’s saving money for my family, but it’s also supporting the small business,” Kamps continued. “I’d rather spend the money here than at Walmart and honestly, it’s more expensive at Walmart right now.”

Customers shared similar sentiments down the road at another egg farm, Maust’s California Poultry, which reports it’s also seen a huge influx in demand.

“I’m definitely cutting back, I can barely make omelets for my family anymore,” said Dee Forbes, who was first in line at Maust’s. “I can’t find eggs at the groceries somedays, so I come here. Yes, I have to wait, but it’s cheaper and local.”

While egg prices have leveled a bit, it’s still a drastic jump from an average of $2.89 at this time last year.

This has left people shuffling between grocery stores across Southern California only to find shelves almost completely empty, or with sticker shock when the only ones available are pricier options.

All of this has led to some grocery stores rationing egg supplies, limiting customers to one or two cartons apiece. And as eggs are a major ingredient in products, other food items such as baked goods and mayonnaise, have also seen a price hike.

That drastic change in the egg landscape matters for families like Forbes’ who say rising food costs the past three years have profoundly changed her grocery shopping habits.

“I’m always looking for ways to spend less at the market but with egg prices now, it just means more money on food,” Forbes said as she put her young daughter in the backseat of her car. “Everything is increasing right now in value but I did not expect eggs to be one of them. But what can you do?”

A case of the chicken flu

So what’s causing this drastic change in egg costs?

The answer is a combination of factors including inflation and rising costs of feed for chickens but the ongoing avian flu epidemic can be mostly pointed to as blame, according to the USDA.

Over 58 million birds have been infected with avian flu as of February 1, the agency said. The prior record was set in 2015, when 50.5 million birds died.

These infected birds must be slaughtered, causing egg supplies to fall and prices to surge.

This includes millions of cage-free hens California relies on to comply with Proposition 12, which voters approved in 2018 and phased out caged housing systems altogether. It also requires producers from other states to not use cages if they want to sell their eggs here.

Since its passage, six other states have enacted laws that ban cages for egg-laying hens,. Three of those bans are now in effect, including in Colorado and Washington, where conventional eggs were prohibited starting Jan. 1

But with a majority of U.S. eggs still produced in the conventional way, the demand for cage-free eggs far outstrips what farms can supply.

Paul Maust, assistant manager at Maust’s California Poultry, has seen this firsthand.

The state is the largest consumer of eggs in the nation because of the population size, he said, but “now there’s less and less farmers here because there are so many regulations and rules.”

There is also no straight answer to when or if prices will drop back to 2022 prices, said Maust, who thinks costs will fluctuate as long as the avian flu affects supply nationwide. Sellers have to replace chickens and that takes time to start producing eggs.

While California egg farms, like his, haven’t been affected by the avian flu, he said customer volume now is higher than any time he can remember.

“We have about 90,000 birds total and we’re constantly bringing eggs from each our three farms, selling quick every day basically,” Maust said as a line of customers stretched around out the door on a recent January morning. “We’re getting probably about 1,500 to 2,000 people daily but this time last year, it was max 800.”

Mouw, the other egg farm owner up the street, has seen the same. Operating the business for 31 years and Mouw has “never had it like this before,” he said.

“We still sell around the same but back then it would sell out at 5 p.m. and now, we’re rarely make it to 2 p.m,” Mouw said. “People are coming from across SoCal. We even had customers from Palm Springs last week.”

Raising eggs

The recent demand in eggs has also led some households in the region to look for alternative ways to get their yolk fix.

In El Sereno, a mostly working-class Latino neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles, Kit and Naoko McConell have had chickens for the past five years but only in the past two years, sold eggs from their small urban backyard farm. The couple has 34 chickens and sell eggs the same day they are laid.

Dubbed EggSereno, their small business is run through word of mouth and direct messages on Instagram. But interest in their small operation has picked up, evident by a waitlist that’s currently over 100 people long, Kit McConell said by phone last month.

“We just love people coming by and meeting the source of their eggs,” said Kit McConell, a local full-time teacher. “We teach kids about chickens and get to know our neighbors along the way.

The business “is not a profitable operation but it’s rewarding to provide quality eggs,” to the community, Kit said.

In the city of Riverside, Mark Sessa, 55, jumped in on the egg business more recently when neighbors began knocking on his door asking about his backyard chickens.

“It was just past 30 days when they started selling them,” Sessa said. “I didn’t even know there was a shortage.”

He’s had chickens for the past 14 years, averaging around 10 total hens and producing eight to 11 eggs a day.

“Upkeep isn’t bad and it’s nice having chickens knowing how crazy it is out there right now with prices,” Sessa said.

While backyard chicken operations aren’t new, they’ve increasingly piqued interest since the start of the pandemic. People loaded up and in some cases hoarded supplies, including eggs, as the COVID-19 outbreak spread and orders to shelter in place were enacted.

Panic during the early days of the pandemic has waned, but Google search interest in “raising chickens” has jumped noticeably from a year ago.

That may be a reflection of the rapid inflation for eggs and people looking to save long term, Muast said.

Most recently, he’s a seen an influx of curious customers inquiring on buying chickens and how they can start their own farm at home. Muast’s sells chickens of all sizes and breeds, he said.

“They say the prices are too high, so they want to see what they can do with live chickens,” Maust said. “It’s been happening more often than not.”

‘Eggs are essential’

For Bernadette Casiano, 51, she was ahead of the curve when it came to backyard chicken farms. The full-time nurse has been running a backyard operation at her Hacienda Heights property since 2014 and selling eggs to friends the past four years.

Casiano calls her urban farm her “homestead,” that’s currently filled with 20 hens. She even has a YouTube page that gives tips on how to grow vegetables and take care of chickens.

“I remember I was a little girl and one of my earliest memories was that my grandma had a chicken coop in her backyard,” Casiano said by phone last month. “That’s where it all started.”

But recently, her love of chickens has translated to a booming side hustle, something she never expected.

Casiano’s phone and Facebook account has been overwhelmed with interested buyers looking for eggs, which have become a hot commodity. A dozen eggs for $8 is a deal that many will pay right now, she said.

“I looked at my chickens the other day and said ‘I knew you guys will pay off one day,’ ” Casiano said. “People know now me as the crazy homestead lady and that’s OK.”

The spike in egg prices has provided Casiano with a new perspective on being prepared for whenever the next shortage of food product comes around. It’s something she hopes others will also learn from.

“I think as the world changes, all of us have to look at where our food is coming from and how we can be more sustainable and prepared,” Casiano said. “Eggs are essential to a lot of people and I think many are just realizing that out now for the first time.”

The Pomona City Council this month unanimously passed new rules to address complaints about short-term rentals, such as excessive noise, parking problems and trash on surrounding properties.

Under the urgency ordinance adopted Jan. 23, the regulations take effect immediately and the council may extend them within the next 10 months.

For months, residents have complained about raucous, late-night parties, mainly on weekends, at short-term rental houses advertised on websites such as AirBnb and Vrbo for guests seeking a getaway or an event venue.

The parties disrupt neighbors’ sleep, gobble up parking and trash the neighborhood, residents told Councilmember Steve Lustro, who requested the item be placed before the council in October.

The issue became especially noticeable for residents in the Phillips Ranch neighborhood — located in Lustro’s District 5 — where multiple homes that sat empty weekdays become a hotbed for rowdy parties on weekends, according to the councilmember.

A quick online search of rental homes in Phillips Ranch showed overnight stays averaging $700 to 800 per night, Lustro said in an interview this month.

“There was increasing concerns from residents and they didn’t want to see this activity become a common theme here,” Lustro said. “At the very least, we’d like to know that people are actually living in these homes, they’re not just a place for parties.”

To combat the issue, city staff on Jan. 23 presented to the City Council a comprehensive ordinance that would address the concerns by prohibiting un-hosted stays, where the homeowner resides off-site during a guest’s stay.

Most notably, the ordinance establishes a short-term rental license and registration process with eligibility requirements.

This includes that the applicant must have lived in that home for a minimum of 60 days prior to applying for a permit and have received a clearance letter from the city verifying that the property is zoned for residential use.

Short-term rentals in the city will also now be confined to exclusively overnight stays, meaning rentals for weddings, receptions, parties and swimming pool-only rentals will be banned.

Other approved regulations for short-term renal owners include a requirement to provide a 24-hour emergency contact that will respond, on-site if requested, within 30 minutes to complaints about the condition, operation, or conduct of renters or their guests.

There are also specific guidelines for parking as guests will be able to utilize only designated, legal on-site parking spaces, according to the staff report.

Before adopting the new rules, the city required homeowners to apply for a business license and pay a fee based upon gross receipts. Additionally, short-term rental operators were required to pay a bed tax of 10%, as is done by hotels and motels. However, less than half of the short-term rentals advertised in Pomona had obtained a business license and paid their fees, according to the staff report.

In 2022, the city issued citations to 45 owners who were renting their properties without a business license, despite requests to obtain one, or were causing a nuisance. Almost all of the citations were for properties offering un-hosted short-term rentals, according to the city.

As of Thursday, Jan. 26, there were 43 homes with a business license and about 60 more with a business license advertising short-term rentals, Anita Gutierrez, development services director, wrote in an email.

To ensure compliance and capture of taxes, the city contracted with HdL Companies to track and capture any short-term rentals not in compliance with city code.

All homeowners with a current city-issued business license will be required to register and obtain a short-term rental permit within 60 days.

In California, the legality of short-term rentals varies across different cities and even by neighborhood, with the terms of regulations varying widely.

Pomona follows a trend toward short-term rental restrictions seen in other nearby cities, such as Upland and throughout San Bernardino County. Residents in other communities also complained that an increase in short-term rentals resulted in constant disturbances in their neighborhoods.

Lustro hopes the new regulations will put a stop to nuisance complaints in Pomona.

“We would like to have a sense of community and know who our neighbors are,” Lustro said. “Right now these are just ghost homes that sit empty.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct Councilmember Steve Lustro’s district.