San Bernardino Press_11/04/2024

Riverside County Animal Services sweep results in 38 impounded dogs

NOVEMBER 04- NOVEMBER 10, 2024

$1B bond sales sought in 5 Riverside County school districts

By City News Service

Voters in five cities scattered throughout Riverside County on Tuesday will decide whether to approve proposed bond sales for school infrastructure upgrades and improvements totaling $1.12 billion, which would translate to higher property tax rates in the municipalities while the IOUs are paid off.

Measure O in Banning seeks a $74 million bond sale for the benefit of the Banning Unified School District. The cumulative debt service, or payoff, period would run 30 years and translate to a total $135 million in principal and interest before all the obligations are satisfied, according to campaign literature.

The amortization would require, at minimum, an additional $51 per $100,000 of assessed valuations for single-family homes, condominiums, businesses and other properties, according to literature.

Supporters said the funds are needed for modernization of the district’s communications network, seismic reinforcements, new dining facilities at all grade levels, landscaping and irrigation improvements. There was no listed opposition to the proposal, which requires 55% voter approval.

In the Beaumont Unified School District, Measure E would authorize the sale of up to $148 million in general obligations bonds benefiting the district. The cumulative debt service period would run 30 years and translate to a total $303.12 million in principal and interest before all the obligations are satisfied, according to campaign literature.

The amortization would require an additional $28 per $100,000 of assessed

valuations for houses, condominiums, businesses and other properties, according to documents.

Along with infrastructure improvements, the funding would enable the district to move forward with construction of new school buildings, supporters said.

“Crowded schools are unsafe and limit one-on-one time with teachers,” proponents wrote. “With so many students crammed into one school, it is difficult for students to get into classes, sports or other activities. That is why we need Measure E. It provides a dedicated, locally controlled source of funding that can only be spent here in our schools.”

There was no listed opposition. The proposal

requires 55% approval.

Measure T in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District would authorize the sale of up to $198 million in bonds. The cumulative debt service period would run close to 40 years and translate to an estimated total $396 million in principal and interest before the obligations are satisfied — provided there’s a market for all of them — according to campaign literature.

As in Beaumont, the LEUSD debt amortization would require an additional $28 in taxes per $100,000 of assessed valuations for property owners, according to documents.

The school board would have discretion over what to fund under the

“District-Wide 21st Century Instructional Technology Program,” supporters wrote. Examples include renovations of computer labs, new lighting and electrical systems, new furnishings, windows and doors.

“For our students to succeed in college and careers, they must be skilled in the use of today’s technologies and have a solid background in science, math, engineering and technology,” proponents wrote. “Measure T will continue to make this possible.”

There was no listed opposition. The proposal has a 55% approval requirement.

Assemblyman seeking 2nd term faces challenger with deep union support

One-term Assemblyman

Bill Essayli, R-Norco, will be trying to retain his 63rd District seat in Tuesday’s general election up against a Democrat challenger with wide-ranging support from union interests.

Essayli, a former federal and state prosecutor, was first elected in 2022 and has established himself since then as a firebrand on the conservative side. His opponent Christopher Shoults of Menifee has cast himself as a moderate Democrat willing to “work with anyone in either party to get things done.”

Essayli has stood firm against tax hikes and

has been an outspoken advocate for cuts in gasoline taxes, tougher anti-crime measures, controls on illegal immigration and proposals to make lawmakers more accountable, especially when they’re caught breaking the law, as in cases of drunken driving.

“Democrats also want to strip away parental rights,” he said in a campaign statement. “A high school student under 18 needs their parent’s permission to get their ear pierced, but Democrats want them to be able to change their gender without even notifying parents. That is dangerous and wrong. I have

Schiff, Garvey square off in race for Feinstein’s Senate seat

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican former Dodger Steve Garvey will square off Tuesday in the battle to claim the U.S. Senate seat previously held by the late Dianne Feinstein.

Schiff is considered a heavy favorite to win the seat in Democrat- heavy California, although both he and Garvey each earned about one-third of the vote during the March primary election.

Both candidates actually appear twice on the ballot — once in the race to fill out the remainder of Feinstein’s

term, which ends in January, and again in the race for another six-year term.

When Feinstein died in September 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed former Emily’s List President Laphonza Butler to serve out most of the remainder of her term in the Senate, until someone else is elected. Butler decided not to run for the seat.

Schiff, 64, has run his campaign on a platform of protecting democracy. He has been ridiculed by Donald Trump for his criticism of the former president from various posts: as Trump

| Photo courtesy of the city of Murrieta

Felon admits hitting, injuring child crossing street in front of church

By City News Service

Afelon who ran over and seriously injured a 6-year-old boy while fleeing the scene of an accident outside a Perris church pleaded guilty Tuesday to reckless driving resulting in great bodily injury.

Louie Ahmad Qutami, 30, of Menifee, admitted the felony count under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for his admission, prosecutors agreed to drop a hit-and-run charge against Qutami.

Superior Court Judge Jeff Zimel scheduled a sentencing hearing for Dec. 2 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta. A potential term of imprisonment was not disclosed.

The defendant is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center.

The hit-and-run occurred at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 14 at a

crosswalk fronting St. James Catholic Church in the 300 block of West Third Street, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Jeremy Bracey. He said the victim, whose identity was not released, was walking with his family when they started across Third Street at C Street, roughly the same time that Qutami, going southbound in a 2023 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup, clipped a parked vehicle.

“As the truck began fleeing the collision scene, it struck the juvenile,” Bracey said, adding that the defendant sped away.

Paramedics reached the location minutes later and found the victim with major life-threatening injuries. He was taken to Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley for treatment and has since recovered.

His family members weren’t hurt.

Deputy Freider Rodriguez said in a bail-setting declaration that over the ensuing days, he was able to confirm to whom the pickup belonged — Qutami — and that the probationer was at the wheel at the time of the hit-andrun.

“Louie has a history of drug use DUIs and hit-andruns,” Rodriguez wrote. “He had not checked in with his probation officer since 2022, blatantly disregarding the terms of his probation.”

The deputy said he discovered Qutami had been in Mexico, undergoing drug rehabilitation, for two years, returning to the United States on Feb. 9, just five days prior to the hit-and-run.

When the lawman tracked down the defendant and his pickup on Hospitality Place in Murrieta, “there was a heavy odor of alcohol (permeating) the truck, days after the collision,” he said.

“There was also a heavy odor of alcohol coming from (Qutami’s) breath,” Rodriguez wrote.

He requested that Superior Court Judge Michael Rushton order the defendant held without bail because Qutami’s family has properties that might enable them to post a seven-figure bond, and “they will lie and cover for him, not holding him accountable for his actions,” the deputy said.

Senate

impeachment manager in 2020, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“We’re in the fight of our lives for the future of our country,” Schiff said in a statement when he launched his campaign. “Our democracy is under assault from MAGA extremists, who care only about gaining power and keeping it. And our economy is simply not working for millions of Americans, who are working harder than ever just to get by.”

In June of last year, Schiff was censured by the Republican-led House on a party-line vote for comments he made during the investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia. Schiff took the censure by Republicans as a badge of honor.

“For the first time in generations, our country and its citizens are seeing their rights and freedoms recede, not expand,” Schiff said on his campaign’s website.

“From abortion and reproductive care to LGBTQ equality and the ability to vote — all of these inherent rights are under assault. We need to preserve and protect our rights and freedoms — and yes, expand them — not take them away, as reactionary MAGA Republicans and a partisan Supreme Court have

successfully done over the last few years.”

Schiff said he will also tackle the twin crises of housing affordability and homelessness.

“We simply do not have enough housing that’s affordable, and because of that, we have seen a dramatic rise in people experiencing homelessness,” Schiff said. “We need to build hundreds of thousands of units of affordable housing each year in California alone, and help those struggling to pay for housing every day.”

He added that the government needs to dramatically change how it approaches homelessness, not only to prevent people from ending up on the streets but also to find effective methods of housing them.

One of the main components of Schiff’s campaign is his affordability agenda.

“California working families are facing an affordability crisis. And we can do something about it,” Schiff said.

“Corporations are raising the prices of goods with little oversight and swallowing up their competition. We need federal price gouging rules, better antitrust enforcement, and to drive down the costs of prescription drugs and gas — all while protecting and empowering workers.”

Schiff was first elected to Congress in 2000, repre-

The judge granted the request.

Court records show Qutami’s prior convictions include reckless driving, hitand-run resulting in property damage, burglary and auto theft.

senting a large swath of the greater Los Angeles area. Previously he served as a California state senator and as an assistant U.S. Attorney.

Garvey, 75, faces an uphill battle, as a Republican hasn’t won a Senate race in the state since 1988.

However, Republicans have a history of conveying star quality into statewide victories. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his star power to become California’s governor from 2003 to 2011.

Throughout the campaign, Garvey has leaned into his baseball career.

“I never played for Democrats or Republicans or independents. I played for all of you,” Garvey said in a video launching his

campaign last year. “It’s time to get off the bench. It’s time to get back in the game.”

Garvey’s entrance into the race gave Republicans a name recognized by many Californians.

“Our campaign is focused on quality-of-life issues, public safety and education,” Garvey said, adding that solving the homelessness crisis is one of his top priorities.

“We can’t just offer temporary fixes; we need to dig deep and provide comprehensive care that includes mental health, addiction treatment, and affordable housing,” Garvey said on his campaign’s website. “This issue is about restoring hope,

dignity, and humanity to our fellow Californians that are struggling on our streets.”

The former baseball player said his focus will also be on public safety.

“I fully back our law enforcement and believe in the power of community policing and innovative crime prevention,” Garvey said. “I’ll work towards building strong partnerships between law enforcement and communities.”

Garvey insisted he will improve the quality of life for Californians.

“It’s about creating opportunities for every Californian to live a fulfilling life. From boosting our economy in these tough times, ensuring everyone has

access to quality healthcare, to investing in our communities,” he said. Garvey stated he would also tackle the issue of immigration.

“We need a balanced approach to immigration. This means we must secure borders, while also respecting the dignity and aspirations of those who come here seeking a better life,” Garvey said. Other issues Garvey has focused on include improving the education system, supporting “practical climate action that balances our ecological needs with economic growth,” and supporting sustainable agriculture that’s “both environmentally friendly, economically viable.”

| Photo by garloon/Envato Elements

Steve Garvey, left, and Adam Schiff. | Photos courtesy of Steve Garvey for U.S. Senate and Adam Schiff/Facebook

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OBreast cancer rates rising in women younger than 40, Asian women

By Suzanne Potter, Producer, Public News Service

ctoberwasBreast CancerAwareness Month - and experts say in recent years, they’ve seen a rise in diagnoses among women younger than age 40, as well as Asian American women.

Patients should discuss their risk factors, such as family medical history, breast density, age and lifestyle with a doctor. Dr. Tran Ho, a breast surgical oncologist at El Camino Health in Mountain View, sees the issue firsthand.

“If we’re thinking about early-stage breast cancers, for example, if it is caught at a very early stage, the fiveyear survival rates are near 99% for these women, and so patients do enormously well if we can catch these cancers early,” she explained.

According to the California Cancer Registry, 25,000 women are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, making it the second most common type of cancer among women in

Eof breast cancer are seen in women age 40 and younger - but they respond well with early detection.

“Triple-negative breast cancers or HER-2 positive breast cancers are very treatable. It’s just that these types of cancers can grow at a quicker rate, and so they’re more likely to recur,” she continued.

ing; surgeries are becoming less invasive, and radiation is now more targeted, which reduces long-term side effects.

The good news is that survival rates are improv-

References: Every Woman Counts HCS 2024

Election skeptics are targeting voting officials with ads that suggest they don’t have to certify results

By Phoebe Petrovic, Wisconsin Watch, and Doug Bock Clark, ProPublica

arlierlastmonth, subscriberstothe Wisconsin Law Journal received an email with an urgent subject: “Upholding Election Integrity — A Call to Action for Attorneys.”

The letter began by talking about fairness and following the law in elections. But it then suggested that election officials do something that courts have found to be illegal for over a century: treat the certification of election results as an option, not an obligation.

The large logo at the top of the email gave the impression that it was an official correspondence from the respected legal newspaper, though smaller print said it was sent on behalf of a public relations company. The missive was an advertisement from a new group with deep ties to activists who have challenged the legitimacy of

recent American elections.

The group, Follow the Law, has placed ads in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin news outlets serving attorneys, judges and election administrators — individuals who could be involved in election disputes. In Georgia, it ran ads supporting the State Election Board as its majority, backed by former President Donald Trump, passed a rule that experts warned could have allowed county board members to exclude enough Democratic votes to impact the presidential election. (A judge later struck down the rule as “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”)

In making its arguments about certification, Follow the Law has mischaracterized election rules and directed readers to a website providing an incomplete and inaccurate description of how certification works

and what the laws and rules are in various states, election experts and state officials said.

“Anyone relying on that website is being deceived, and whoever is responsible for its content is being dishonest,” said Mike Hassinger, public information officer for Georgia’s secretary of state.

Certification is the mandatory administrative process that officials undertake after they finish counting and adjudicating ballots. Official results need to be certified by tight deadlines, so they can be aggregated and certified at the state and federal levels. Other procedures like lawsuits and recounts exist to check or challenge election outcomes, but those typically cannot commence until certification occurs. If officials fail to meet those deadlines or exclude a subset of votes, courts could order them to certify, as they have done in the past. But experts have warned that, in a worst-case scenario, the transition of power could be thrown into chaos.

“These ads make it seem as if there’s only one way for election officials to show that they’re on the ball, and that is to delay or refuse to certify an election. And just simply put, that is not their role,” said Sarah Gonski, an Arizona elections attorney and senior policy adviser for the Institute for Responsive Government, a think tank working on election issues. “What this is, is political propaganda that’s dressed up in a fancy legal costume.” The activities of Follow the Law, which have not been previously reported, represent a broader push by

the Golden State. Ho said certain aggressive types

Photo by Susan G. Komen 3-Day on Unsplash

This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

those aligned with Trump to leverage the mechanics of elections to their advantage. The combination of those strategies, including recruiting poll workers and removing people from voting rolls, could matter in an election that might be determined by a small number of votes.

Since Trump lost the 2020 election, at least 35 election board members in various states, who have been overwhelmingly Republican, have unsuccessfully tried to refuse to certify election results before being compelled to certify by courts or being outvoted by Democratic members. Last month, a county supervisor in Arizona pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for failing to perform election duties when she voted to delay certifying the 2022 election. And in September, the American Civil Liberties Union sued an election board member in Michigan after he said he might not certify the 2024 results. He ultimately signed an affidavit acknowledging his legal obligation to certify, and the ACLU dismissed its case. Experts have warned that more could refuse to certify the 2024 election if Trump loses.

Follow the Law bills itself as a “group of lawyers committed to ensuring elections are free, fair and represent the true votes of all American citizens.”

It’s led by Melody Clarke, a longtime conservative activist with stints at Heritage Action, a conservative advocacy organization, and the Election Integrity Network, headed by a lawyer who helped Trump try to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

This summer, Clarke left a leadership position at EIN to join the Election Trans-

parency Initiative, a group headed by Ken Cuccinelli, a former Trump administration official. The two groups work together, according to Cuccinelli and EIN’s 2024 handbook.

The banner ads that appeared in Georgia and Wisconsin outlets disclosed they were paid for by the American Principles Project Foundation. ETI is a subsidiary of a related nonprofit, the American Principles Project. Financial reports show that packaging magnate Richard Uihlein has contributed millions of dollars to the American Principles Project this year through a political action committee. Uihlein has funneled his fortune into supporting far-right candidates and election deniers, as ProPublica has reported.

Cuccinelli, Clarke and a lawyer for Uihlein did not respond to requests for comment or detailed lists of questions. Cuccinelli previously defended to ProPublica the legality of election officials exercising their discretion in certifying results. “The proposed rule will protect the foundational, one person-one vote principle underpinning our democratic elections and guard against certification of inaccurate or erroneous results,” Cuccinelli wrote in a letter to Georgia’s State Election Board.

The most recent ads appear to be an extension of a monthslong effort that started in Georgia to expand the discretion of county election officials ahead of the November contest.

In August and September, Follow the Law bought ads as Georgia’s election board passed controversial rules, including one that empowered county election board members to not certify votes they found suspicious. As ProPublica

Election

has reported, the rule was secretly pushed by the EIN, where Clarke worked as deputy director.

Certification “is not a ministerial function,” Cuccinelli said at the election board’s August meeting. The law, he argued, “clearly implies that that board is intended and expected to use its judgment to determine, on very short time frames, what is the most proper outcome of the vote count.”

However, a state judge made clear in an October ruling the dangers of giving county board members the power to conduct investigations and decide which votes are valid. If board members, who are often political appointees, were “free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge” and refuse to certify election results, “Georgia voters would be silenced,” he wrote, finding that this would be unconstitutional. The case is on appeal and will be heard after the election.

Despite that ruling, and another from a different judge also finding both certification rules unconstitutional, Follow the Law’s website section for Georgia still asserts that a State Election Board rule “makes crystal clear” that county board members’ duty is “more than a simple ministerial task” without mentioning either ruling. The state Republican party has appealed the second ruling.

In a Telegram channel created by a Fulton County, Georgia, commissioner, someone shared what they called a “dream checklist” for election officials last week that contains extensive “suggestions” for how they should fulfill their statutory duties. The unsigned 15-page document, which

bears the same three icons that appear on Follow the Law’s website, concludes, “Resolve all discrepancies prior to certification.”

On the same day the Georgia judge ruled that county board members can’t refuse to certify votes, Follow the Law began running ads in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin legal publications. The communications argued that certification is a discretionary step officials should take only after performing an investigation to ensure an election’s accuracy, largely continuing the line of argument that Cuccinelli pushed to Georgia’s election board and that the lawyers took before the judge. “Uphold your oath to only certify an accurate election,” said banner ads that ran in WisPolitics, a political news outlet. Another read: “No rubber stamps!” WisPolitics did not respond to requests for comment.

In Pennsylvania, the ad claimed that “simply put, the role of election officials is not ‘ministerial’” and that election officials are by law “required to ensure (and investigate if necessary) that elections are free from ‘fraud, deceit, or abuse’ and that the results are accurate prior to certification.”

Follow the Law has also directly contacted at least one county official in Eureka County, Nevada, pointing him to the group’s website, according to a letter obtained by ProPublica and Wisconsin Watch.

Follow the Law’s ads and

website overstate officials’ roles beyond what statutes allow, state officials in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin said.

The group’s Wisconsin page reads: “Canvassers must first ensure that all votes are legally cast and can only certify results after verifying this.” But officials tasked with certifying elections are scorekeepers, not referees, said Edgar Lin, Wisconsin policy strategist and attorney for Protect Democracy, a nonprofit that works to protect the integrity of American elections. Lin and other experts said officials ensure the accuracy of an election’s basic arithmetic, for example, by checking that the number of ballots matches the number of voters, but they are not empowered to undertake deeper investigations.

Gonski said that in addition to overstating certifiers’ responsibilities, Follow the Law’s messaging underplays the protections that already exist. “Our election system is chockfull of checks and balances,” Gonski said. “Thousands of individuals have roles to play, and all of them seamlessly work together using well-established procedures to ensure a safe, accurate and secure election. No single individual has unchecked power over any piece of the process.”

Ads in the Wisconsin Law Journal and the Legal Intelligencer in Pennsylvania also presented the findings of a poll that Follow the Law said was conducted by Rasmussen Reports, a company whose credibil-

ity the ad emphasizes. But Rasmussen Reports did not conduct the poll. It was conducted by Scott Rasmussen, who founded the polling company but has not worked there in over a decade. Both the company and pollster confirmed the misattribution but did not comment further. The Wisconsin Law Journal and ALM, which owns the Legal Intelligencer, declined to comment.

Sam Liebert, a former election clerk and the Wisconsin director for All Voting is Local, said he wants the state’s attorney general to issue an unequivocal directive reminding election officials of their legal duty to certify.

“Certifying elections is a mandatory, democratic duty of our election officials,” he said. “Each refusal to certify threatens to validate the broader election denier movement, while sowing disorder in our election administration processes.”

Do you have any information about Follow the Law or other groups’ efforts to challenge election certification that we should know? Have you seen Follow the Law ads or outreach elsewhere? If so, please make a record of the ad and reach out to us. Phoebe Petrovic can be reached by email at ppetrovic@wisconsinwatch.org and by Signal at 608-571-3748. Doug Bock Clark can be reached at 678-243-0784 and doug. clark@propublica.org. Republished with Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Voting booths. | Photo by Mel Green CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Jessica Celi has lived in the Bay Area for almost her entire life. She spent most of her 20s jumping from industry to industry, trying to find her place in the professional world. She returned to school to specialize in human resources and graduated last year. Then, she was laid off from her first job. That’s when she entered the clean energy job market.

Celi, 30, is just finishing up her 11-month program as a SolarCorps fellow in the Bay Area with GRID Alternatives, a national nonprofit that provides no-cost residential solar installations for eligible low-income households in various regions and also trains locals to provide the service. This year, the organization is expanding its yearslong partnership with the U.S.-run public service agency AmeriCorps to help launch the American Climate Corps, President Joe Biden’s initiative to train and deploy a diverse workforce to, among other things, work in sectors contributing to the clean energy transition. It’s an alternative to the promised Civilian Climate Corps that Democrats axed from his landmark climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law two years ago, and Celi is part of the inaugural class.

“I am part of something bigger, and I do look forward to moving into a career throughout the long term in the renewable industry,” she said.

Two years after the Civilian Climate Corps died in Congress, groups like GRID Alternatives and the AmeriCorps are picking up the mantle to make the president’s vision of a new green workforce a reality. Corps members do all kinds of work—from restoring wetlands to managing forests—but the SolarCorps focuses on deploying solar panel technology in California, Colorado, and Washington D.C. to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions driving the planet’s warming. This year’s SolarCorps cohort at GRID Alternatives has installed solar for over 1,170 families. Since October 2023, the organization has orchestrated some 130 job placements. As the Inflation Reduction Act injects $370 billion toward the clean energy sector through tax credits, grants, and loans, the sector sees a rare opportunity for growth.

Climate Corps workers: California here we come

Broadcast version by

By Yessenia Funes for Atmos.

Suzanne Potter

for California News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

The American Climate Corps includes private and public partners from across the country, from the U.S. Forest Service to Operation Fresh Start, a Wisconsinbased organization that helps young people find career pathways. While the Biden administration didn’t provide the American Climate Corps with its own budget to build this new workforce, the White House is directing agency dollars and grants to invest in AmeriCorps programs already molding the green jobs of tomorrow.

Some organizations— like GRID Alternatives—are bringing renewable energy to communities of color, lowincome communities, and other communities that have historically been excluded or disinvested. President Biden committed to distributing at least 40% of his federal investment benefits to these neighborhoods that need them the most. Programs like the SolarCorps are attempting to realize that goal.

SolarCorps has been working with AmeriCorps since 2006 long before climate became a national priority. Now, the program plans to expand to more states thanks to an infusion of new grant dollars GRID Alternatives secured from the Inflation Reduction Act. The organization has provided paid fellowships to over 300 individuals like Celi to learn how to install solar panels, as well as how to engage with the community.

Celi, for instance, was an outreach fellow. Her fellowship is now ending, but her role involved building a relationship with her Bay Area community by doorknocking, calling, or emailing

families that already had their solar panels installed to help them monitor their systems and ensure they know how to use the panels.

On Earth Day this year, when Biden kicked off the American Climate Corps, Celi was at Richmond, California’s Unity Park with the rest of GRID’s outreach team, as well as other local community partners, to attract the public to their programs. As Celi saw local families engage with the event’s free bike repairs and free bicycle-powered smoothies, she realized the scope of her work—and how impactful that was.

“It really felt meaningful to see that we are directly connecting with the community and sharing these resources with one another,” she said.

After all, Richmond is home to a refinery from fossil fuel polluter Chevron. The industrial facility has been a source of air pollution for the predominantly Hispanic, Black, and Asian community. This is, in part, why GRID has been focused on communities of color, explained Adewale OgunBadejo, vice president of workforce development at the organization.

“How can we reduce the carbon footprint in the communities that we serve? How can we have less urban oil wells because they’re causing higher incidences and rates of cancer and asthma in these communities that we serve?” he said. “We’re helping our fellows make that environmental connection in a very real way so that as you’re installing and you’re looking at an urban drilling well across the street, you understand

that the more solar we can install, the more of those we can remove and create more healthy communities.”

Black, Indigenous, and other people of color bear the brunt of air pollution health impacts from dirty energy sources. In 2023, a group of researchers even coined the term “fossil fuel racism” to highlight the insidious ways the industry harms Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor populations. Communities of color are also less likely than their white peers to have installed solar panels onto their roofs. That’s where GRID comes in: The program’s solar panel installations from this year’s fellows alone have cut carbon dioxide emissions by over 78,000 tons—or nearly 15,000 cars taken off the road.

The SolarCorps program doesn’t only focus on bringing solar panels to people of color—it also prioritizes hiring this demographic as fellows, too. Among the past year’s 51 fellows, for instance, 80% identified as Black, Indigenous, or a person of color. Over half were women or nonbinary, 27% identified as LGBTQIA+, and some 26% have been affected by the justice system (mostly through incarceration). At the national level, the solar industry is dominated by white dudes: In 2022, 73% of the workforce was white and 69% male, according to an independent report. Celi, who is Filipino, experienced that diversity disparity firsthand when in January she attended her first industry conference, where, for the first time in her solar work, she was the minority.

“I’m very proud to have been able to attend and to create that change,” said Celi, who is also a member of Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy, or WRISE, which is dedicated to cultivating women leaders in the industry.

The SolarCorps fellowship is just a tiny piece of the U.S. government’s wider American Climate Corps. Sociologist Dana Fisher, who is also the author of the book Saving Ourselves, has been researching the existing Corps programs that have been expanding and shifting to include climate change. Many of these adjustments were already in the works before the Biden administration’s formalization of the American Climate Corps.

Despite the existence of the Climate Corps, there’s no central agency or database tracking the integration of climate change into programs across the U.S. or following the fellows themselves after they complete their service. How many wind up in clean energy jobs? Do they leave these programs with a deeper understanding of how the planet’s rapid warming disrupts society? Fisher’s research on AmeriCorps has so far illuminated the reality that “there is no consensus about how the agency is doing its climate work,” she wrote in a paper published last month. There’s no consistent language used across AmeriCorps programs and, thus, no unified understanding of the climate crisis among program participants and leadership.

Fisher emphasized the need for more federal dollars to go toward analyzing all the varied American Climate Corps programs to assess whether the funding is doing what it’s supposed to do: educating young people (especially young people of color) about the climate crisis and placing them in jobs dedicated to building a cleaner, healthier, more equitable world.

“The infusion of money is absolutely valuable, but it’s impossible for me not to think about this without putting on my social sciences hat,” Fisher said. “The problem is that we don’t know how they’re helping because nobody is actually measuring that, and nobody is there evaluating it.”

GRID’s SolarCorps doesn’t have its own evaluation system, either. The group is working to build that out now that it’s hired a data analyst, OgunBadejo said. They’re hoping to track fellows three to 12 months after they graduate. As the program looks to expand into tribal nations and nearly 30 states like Texas and Michigan over the next few years, OgunBadejo recognizes the need to partner with local groups that know those communities best and can cater the programs to their needs.

With the hundreds of millions of dollars in grants the group has collaboratively received from the Inflation Reduction Act, they plan to work with others and bring their SolarCorps model to even more communities across the country that need access to affordable solar energy and the training to find jobs in the industry, too.

“Our approach as an organization is very holistic,” OgunBadejo said. “We really look at clean energy as a way to address environmental and economic justice.”

For too long, Black and Brown folks have been left out of the clean energy boom. SolarCorps is building an ecosystem where community members have the skills they need to transform their communities for the better— and get paid to do it.

Now, Fisher is following the rollout of a handful of programs in Vermont, Maryland, Michigan, and California where she has developed a climate-centric curriculum all of their American Climate Corps members will be required to take when their fellowships begin in September. She will be adding more states to the list later this year.

Photo by Raze Solar on Unsplash

About 5 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, California,avast swath of giant kelp-Macrocystis pyriferia, which can grow nearly 3 feet per day-sways just below the surface of one of the world’s first open-ocean seaweed farms.

Still in its research phase, the 86-acre project is operated by Ocean Rainforest, a company that aims to fight climate change by growing seaweed at scale: 1 million tons a year by 2030. Although an 86-acre terrestrial farm would be considered boutique, the Ocean Rainforest plot, floating in sight of the Channel Islands, represents a significant leap in size from the average U.S. seaweed farm of 1 to 4 acres-and a new frontier for ocean farming.

Supported by $6.2 million in Series A funding, for a total of $22 million from U.S. and European governments, grants, and venture capital, Ocean Rainforest also operates seaweed farms in the Faroe Islands and Iceland that supply the animal-feed, fertilizer, and cosmetic industries. The company’s goal of substantially decarbonizing these industries-with seaweed, instead of petroleum feedstocks, as raw materialdepends on the success of this farm. Growing seaweed in the open ocean, with room to exponentially expand, means the Ocean Rainforest team is tackling how to anchor crops in hundreds of feet of water, withstand intense weather, and monitor a farm that lies many miles from shore.

As Ocean Rainforest continues its research, the wider U.S. seaweed industry, still in its infancy, faces significant challenges. Several years of steady investment and scientific breakthroughs have helped it advance, but since 2023, funding has dropped precipitously, and so have retail prices for seaweedbased foods. In the meantime, a lack of government guidance by means of regulation and legislation makes it difficult for farms to gain traction. Seaweed is an extraordinary crop, offering multiple benefits to planetary and human health along with an array of business applications. But it’s fair to say that right now, the industry is having growing pains.

The Investment Slowdown In 2023, according to Phyconomy, a database that tracks the seaweed economy, seaweed funding in the U.S. abruptly began to sink, dwin-

Seaweed farming works toward a greener future

By Alexandra Talty for Civil Eats.

Broadcast version by Suzanne

Potter

for California News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

dling from a peak of about $100 million in 2022 to just $8 million for 2024 so far.

“We are in what I call the ‘valley of disappointment,’” says Steven Hermans, who founded Phyconomy. American investors have become more sophisticated about startup investments, including in seaweed, he says. A few years ago, he adds, “They didn’t know anything, and they were like, ‘OK, we’ll toss a couple of million into this.’ Then, Everyone kept their money in their pockets during high inflation . . . [and] people realized . . . it will take a long time to build a market for American-grown kelp. Now they’re asking better questions, and that will ultimately lead to better investments.”

But for some companies, that won’t matter. Since Civil Eats began this reporting project nearly a year ago, two of the largest and most well-known American kelp businesses have gone under: Running Tide, a carbon capture company, and AKUA, maker of kelp burgers.

Founded in 2017 by Marty Odlin, the Maine-based Running Tide was one of the most well-funded kelp companies in the U.S. before it shut down abruptly in June 2024. As its website stated, Running Tide aimed to build “humanity’s operating system for the ocean,” drawing down carbon via seaweed-inoculated wood chips. Seaweed naturally absorbs carbon as it grows, but unless it is harvested, it decomposes and releases carbon back. The chips, on the other hand, would sink to the deep ocean to decay, storing the carbon there for thousands of years, according to Odlin. Running Tide’s revenue goal was to sell carbon removal credits to companies interested in decreasing their carbon footprint.

Running Tide garnered $54 million in Series B investments, including from Lowercarbon Capital, in 2022. In June of that year, an article in the MIT Technology Review questioned Running Tide’s farming and business practices. Meanwhile, the company prepared to relocate to Iceland, having persuaded the Icelandic government to approve its wood-chip sinking. In fall 2023, Running Tide sank 19,000 tons of wood chips into the ocean, selling the world’s first marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR) credits to Microsoft and Shopify as part of a voluntary carbon market not regulated by government. In less

than a year, the company shut down as criticism about its practices continued to swirl; Odlin cited a lack of American government support for the voluntary carbon market as the reason for the closure.

Although $54 million represented a fraction of the $380 million overall investment in the seaweed industry, some think the carbon-sink goal was too narrow, and overlooked all that seaweed could offer. “The long-term [carbon sink] potential attracted a swarm of speculators that took the industry in the wrong direction,” says Bren Smith, founder of GreenWave, a forerunner in the ocean farming movement. GreenWave received roughly $6 million in 2021.

Smith believes that the dip in carbon-fueled funding will encourage the industry to embrace seaweed’s many uses-as a good food for humans and animals, as a game-changing alternative to chemical- and carbonintensive industries like fertilizers or plastics, and for its proven ecosystem benefits. Also, seaweed doesn’t need arable terrestrial land, likely to diminish as wildfires and extreme weather events like drought increase. “I don’t know if it’s 100 years or five years, but we’re gonna be growing huge amounts of food underwater,” he predicts.

Lack of Federal Funding

The slump in private investment isn’t the only financial challenge for seaweed. Scant federal funding adds to the struggle. In Europe, many ocean startups receive government support, according to Ronald Tardiff, Ocean Innovation Lead at the World Economic Forum, whereas in the U.S., most government funding goes to research institutions rather than for-profit companies. (The Department of Energy, an important source of research funding dating back decades, contributed some $20 million to seaweed research in the 1970s through its MARINER program, and continues to support science; see “Seaweed Investments by Category” below.)

“The E.U. has spent . . . . hundreds of millions of euros on R & D related to seaweed, in a way that the U.S. has not. And many startups have benefited from those E.U. projects,” says Tardiff, pointing out that Ocean Rainforest, a for-profit entity, has received extensive E.U. funding. In China and Korea, where seaweed farming first developed into a

larger industry, governments provide kelp seed to farmers for free or at a subsidized cost. The lack of state support in the U.S., says Tardiff, also means the American seaweed market is more tied to market fluctuations than its Asian and European competitors.

The paucity of both private and government funding makes it harder for seaweed companies to handle the high cost of farming and processing. “The ocean is uniquely expensive to operate on,” says Tardiff, who also serves as the Lighthouse Lead of 1000 Ocean Startups, a global coalition of incubators, accelerators, competitions, matching platforms, and VCs that have pledged to back at least 1,000 “transformative” startups by 2030.

Basic seaweed farming equipment, like a boat, costs anywhere from $30,000 to $500,000; a single seaweedline anchor-and a farm needs multiple-can cost $1,000. Also, because kelp is unusually perishable, it requires million-dollar investments in infrastructure equipment, like specialized dehydrators and freezers, to render it shelf-stable. Much of it is custom-built for this new food business.

Retail Slump Meets Inflation

Declining investment has hit kelp food companies particularly hard, since they’re also dealing with shrinking grocery-store revenues, especially for consumer packaged goods (CPG)-which includes most seaweed foods. Also, high inflation rates mean a seaweed snack or seasoning won’t do as well; when food prices are up overall, consumers are less likely to spend on foods that aren’t familiar.

Describing the current CPG market as “brutal,” Courtney Boyd, founder of AKUA kelp burger company, closed her operation this August. Boyd founded her kelp company in 2016, supported by GreenWave, and for a while it was thriving: She raised $4.5 million in funding from 2020 to 2024, according to Phyconomy. Looking back, Boyd regrets not having invested in farming, instead buying kelp wholesale from middlemen. She eventually began working directly with farmers in 2023, but it was too little, too late.

“With an inflationary environment, if you are a consumer-package company and you don’t have a lot of oversight in terms of what’s happening with the supply chain, you’re in trouble when times are challenging,” says Julia Paino of Desert Bloom Foods, a food investing firm.

Boyd’s company will be taken over by the Maine Family Seafarm Coop, run by Ken Sparta, one of Boyd’s partner farmers. The co-op plans to focus on direct-to-restaurant sales and piggyback off their existing oyster-selling infrastructure, avoiding the cost and complication of grocerystore sales entirely.

A Patchwork of Regulations

While investment in seaweed is lagging, so is America’s regulatory framework. Each state has its own rules around seaweed farming. In Maine, for instance, farmers can only operate on leases after a period of public comment followed by approval, and only if the leases do not interfere with existing maritime operations. In Alaska, seaweed farmers can only cultivate seaweed varieties that grow

natively within 50 kilometers of their farm. In California, no regulatory pathway even exists for seaweed farming in state waters. All commercial seaweed farms are on land. Unlike terrestrial farming, no federal laws govern or guide ocean farming. Nor is there any federal tracking of seaweed landings, despite the edible seaweed business being worth nearly $2 billion in the U.S. This stands in stark contrast to terrestrial farming: At any given time, a citizen can look up exactly how much of a crop is grown, to the acre, on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) website, going back to the 1900s. This information is intimately tied to subsidies like the farm bill, which provides support to American farming industries like corn, soy, or pork. Without the clear picture that tracking provides, it’s harder for money to flow.

In the case of seaweed, four federal agencies touch seaweed, but only lightly: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whose regional offices are responsible for permitting every single seaweed farm in the U.S., but not for following up once those farms are established; the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which funds seaweed projects and education and tracks landings for fish and aquaculture, but not seaweed; USDA, which helps fund seaweed farms, on a limited basis, but doesn’t regulate them; and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates imported seaweed products and domestic seaweed-but only if

At Ocean Rainforest’s Santa Barbara research farm, giant kelp grows at different depths on horizontal lines strung between buoys. | Photo courtesy of Ocean Rainforest

it’s part of a pharmaceutical product. The U.S. Coast Guard, responsible for mapping fisheries and other structures in the water, does not yet map seaweed farms.

With no single federal agency having oversight, and few guidelines on either the state or federal level, seaweed companies and farmers are left in limbo.

Sunken Seaweed, one of California’s two commercial seaweed farms, has dealt with limbo for years now. Farmer Torre Polizzi raises dulse-a rich, meaty-tasting red seaweed favored by health-conscious consumers for its nutritional propertiesin tanks on Humboldt Bay, in Northern California. California has no permitting process for seaweed farms in state waters, which extend anywhere from 3 to 12 nautical miles from land-an unsurmountable distance for most farmers. So, Polizzi is unable to grow his seaweed in the ocean, although dulse is native to the nutrient-rich, cold Pacific.

“That is where 99.9 percent of companies hit a wall in this industry in California,” says Polizzi, the rush of pumped seawater humming in the tanks behind him. Each of his 10 tanks holds 1,200 gallons of constantly bubbling seawater, which tumbles the seaweed so it photosynthesizes more evenly.

Polizzi considers himself lucky to have found a home for his seaweed at all. He and his wife spent five years trying to find a location in California for their farm. They are able to pump saltwater from the ocean, crucial for a land-based seaweed company, through a relationship with Hog Island, the Northern California oyster restaurant and market, which already has a salt-water pumping permit for its oyster operation.

The California Coastal Commission, which oversees the permits, has not issued any new pumping permits in many years. In exchange for the seawater, Polizzi helps oversee a research bull kelp site for Hog Island, Greenwave, and The Nature Conservancy (permitted in the bay because it not commercial).

Even selling his fresh dulse and dried seaweed flakes at the local farmers’ market was a battle: It took Polizzi six months of petitioning California’s legislature to allow seaweed as a “cottage food,” saleable at farmers’ markets.

“We are here in California. We have some of the best marine science institutions in the world,” says Polizzi. “We have the ability and tech to create the cleanest [seaweed farms] in the world. But we can’t implement them.”

Seaweed at Scale

Most of America’s seaweed growers are small operations near the shore. Ocean Rainforest’s “seaweed island” is miles from land and dwarfs them by several degrees of magnitude. It does share a similar growing technique with smaller farms, setting out buoys that support horizontal lines, inoculated with kelp, that then sprout fronds and grow under the sunlight. Instead of a few lines, though, there are hundreds here, arranged in immense grids under the ocean surface.

As a research farm, Ocean Rainforest is testing various seeding methods, grow depths, and length and spacing of lines to create a model that’s efficient, economical, and replicable. They need to be able to monitor the site from shore and created an intricate buoy system so that they can see from the coast if anything disturbed their seaweed lines overnight or after bad weather. The company is also developing a harvesting machine that will reap the seaweed “using minimum cost and time.”

If this project, set in a federal Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)-a strip of water that can stretch from 3 to 200 miles offshore-is successful, other farms could begin putting buoys in EEZs as well. The U.S. boasts the most EEZs in the world, a whopping 3.4 million square miles. That’s a lot of ocean to potentially cultivate.

“There is no silver bullet when it comes to climate change, but seaweed can be part of that solution,” says Eliza Harrison, until recently the director of California operations at Ocean Rainforest. Proponents of openocean farming say large-scale operations in EEZs could fulfill sustainability goals that smaller farms closer to shore can’t: namely, substantial water bioremediation and enough raw material to supplant petroleum products in plastics and fuel. “Can you take this biomass that is naturally growing, can you cultivate it and then use it as a food and feed product, or use it as a way to improve people’s well-being?” says Harrison.

While smallholder seaweed farms can boost maritime economies and provide job alternatives to commercial fishing, the lower quantities they yield makes it difficult to justify millions of investment in infrastructure. Additionally, seaweed from smaller farms wholesales at around $1 to $2 a pound, according to industry experts, a price that’s not competitive in industries like plastics or textiles, where raw materials can start at $.70 (for PET polyethelene) or $.67 (for cotton) per pound. Large-scale farmed U.S. seaweed has yet

Seaweed

to be marketed, but experts say that larger, automatedharvest farms could price their raw kelp more competitively, hitting below the $1 mark.

Replacing fossil fuelderived plastics, a major contributor to global warming, with a climatepositive material like seaweed seems like a no-brainer. But some scientists have serious concerns about scaling up kelp farms. For one thing, huge kelp monocultures could threaten native kelp forests, responsible for drawing down a large portion of the world’s carbon-around 56 million tons annually, according to a new study by Plymouth Marine Laboratory. That’s equivalent to taking nearly 13 million cars off the road a year. Even more staggering, marine algae produces 50 percent of the world’s oxygen.

That threat has already surfaced in China, which farms most of the world’s kelp. In 2021, seaweed farming in the Northern Jiangsu Shoal, combined with warmer waters and human pollution, helped create green tides that sucked up oxygen and suffocated marine species for 81 days. Pests and bacteria infections are concerns, and so is the introduction of non-native seaweeds that could crowd out the native ones, or introduce new, disease-causing microorganisms. If the U.S. were to allow thousands of acres of farms in the EEZs, could that affect already suffering kelp forests in states like Maine and California?

These kinds of questions, and the fact that the industry is still new and evolving, say some experts, may explain why state and federal agencies and policymakers have been taking their time with guidelines. Rules laid down now could protect-or jeopardize-seaweed in U.S. waters. Those rules could also determine whether small seaweed farms will play an important and valued role in America’s future, or begin to vanish, replaced by ever larger farms, repeating the history of farming on land.

The Beginnings of a Roadmap for Kelp Slowly, some regulations are starting to take shape. A few states are beginning to safeguard against potential monoculture impact on wild kelp stocks. In Alaska, a “50-50 rule” protecting seaweed diversity requires every farm to collect its reproductive tissue for breeding kelp from at least 50 different plants, within 50 kilometers surrounding the farm. Maine mandates that farmers cultivate seaweed strains that are native to the state.

There’s action at the federal level, too. A bill proposed in Congress in 2023,

the Coastal Seaweed Farm Act, would direct the USDA and NOAA to establish an Indigenous seaweed farming fund to help Native Americans continue cultivating a food that has sustained them for thousands of years. The act would also create a joint study on how to responsibly scale seaweed in the U.S., and implement regulations based on those findings that would protect marine environments, measure the impacts and benefits of seaweed farming, and establish guidelines for monitoring farms.

Another bill, the Sustaining Healthy Ecosystems, Livelihoods, and Local Seafood Act-known as the SHELLS Act-proposes that the USDA create an office of aquaculture to promote funding, create regulations to guide the industry, and more. “The SHELLS Act is a crucial step toward enhancing U.S. food security and environmental sustainability through responsible aquaculture practices,” said co-sponsor Congressman Nicholas LaLota (R-NY) in an email. His district is home to the state’s first commercial seaweed farming operation and a thriving Indigenous seaweed farming co-op.

If passed, the SHELLS Act would create a federal

body that could help seaweed farming evolve responsibly; the Advisory Committee, according to language in the bill, would “acknowledge the history, use, and preservation of Indigenous and traditional aquaculture practices and ecological knowledge.”

Mapping of seaweed farmscritical for maritime navigation and, potentially, wildlife corridors if large swaths of the country’s EEZs are cultivated-could become a requirement.

The bill might incentivize a new round of investors, since seaweed harvest could be tracked just as simply as corn or soy. And it might give small farmers a boost.

“Shellfish harvesters and seaweed farmers play an essential role in our food supply, but historically they haven’t received the support they need to reach their full potential,” said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), the bill’s lead sponsor, in a press release.

The SHELLS act, she said, “will help shellfish harvesters and seaweed farmers grow their small businesses while expanding blue carbon ecosystems that help address the climate crisis.”

The past two years have been undeniably difficult for the seaweed industry, says

Julia Paino of food investor Desert Bloom Foods. However, she sees promise in this ocean crop; it reminds her of how tofu came to the U.S. in the 1980s. She would know-that’s when her father brought the unknown food to American shores with his company Nasoya, convincing thousands of Americans to try a very healthy, unfamiliar food that was immensely popular in Asia, and ultimately to build the platforms and infrastructure that enabled its success.

“There’s a lot of similarities . . . You have something that’s been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, right? This is not a novel ingredient source that was just created in the lab. This isn’t cultured meat. This is something that is steeped in significant cultural history, [with] a lot of tremendous health benefits, and now we know, also planetary benefits. It’s a matter of helping educate consumers, right?” says Paino. “So, there’s even more opportunity, I think, around what can be done with kelp. You’ll continue to see excitement across a lot of investors-hopefully coming from a more informed place of, ‘What is it? How is it grown? What’s the type of infrastructure you need for it to thrive and be successful?’”

California tribes call for national monuments at world biodiversity conference

By Suzanne Potter, Producer, Public News Service

Last week, more than 100 Californians were in Cali, Columbia, for the 16th United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity.

Tribes, policymakers and conservation groups promoted national monument status for three sites in the Golden State.

Lena Ortega, a Kw’tsán cultural committee member for the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, wants federal protection for the proposed Kw’tsán National Monument

in Imperial County. “The movement to save the environment isn’t a choice for us,” Ortega explained. “It’s a matter of survival and our past healings are intertwined with that of Mother Earth. We are the land. The land is us.”

California has already lost more than 20% of its native species and more than 600 species are considered threatened with extinction.

Asm. Matt Haney, D-San

Francisco, said California is working hard to achieve the goal to protect 30% of state and federal land and waters by the year 2030.

“California is home to more native plants, animals, and more invasive species, than any other state,” Haney pointed out.

Brandy McDaniels, Sáttítla National Monument Campaign lead for the Pit River Tribe, said time is running out for the administration to declare the

Sáttítla National Monument in northeastern California.

“With less than three months left in President Biden’s term, now is the time for the president to use his authority by designating Sattitla as a national monument for all future generations,” McDaniels urged.

Tribes are also calling for a new Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park.

Report: CA Latinos fishing for subsistence eat twice the legal limit of mercury

By Suzanne Potter, Producer, Public News Service

Hispanic families who fish to put food on the table are disproportionately affected by mercury, which accumulates in seafood in Southern California.

Surveys at 10 piers in Los Angeles and Orange counties found 60% of the anglers were Latino and native Spanish speakers, and 78% of them were fishing to feed their families.

Sofia Barboza, ocean manager for the Hispanic Access Foundation, said the families are exposed to toxins in fish from polluted waters.

“We found that Hispanic anglers in California are actually ingesting an average of 13.9 micrograms of mercury per day via fish consumption that they had caught in local waters,” Barboza reported. “This is double the amount of mercury that has been determined as safe by the EPA.”

Fish with high mercury levels have also been found in the Bay Area, the Central Coast near Humboldt and Deer Creek. A newlyreleased report from the foundation about Latinos in U.S. fisheries found 5% of Latinos in California, or about 785,000 people, work in the agricultural, forestry, fishing, hunting and mining

sectors. But no research yet exists to determine how many Latinos are in commercial fishing.

Barboza suggested the warning signs about pollution at the piers, as well as government websites, should be translated into Spanish.

“Even though 28% of the California population speaks Spanish, the California Fish and Wildlife Department fishing regulations are not provided in Spanish on their website,” Barboza pointed out. “Something we would like to see moving forward.”

The report also recom-

mends stronger oversight of commercial fishing companies hiring Hispanic migrant workers on H2B visas to ensure they receive fair wages, safe working conditions and access to safe housing.

Disclosure: The Hispanic Access Foundation contributes to Public News Service’s fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Environment, Human Rights/Racial Justice, and Livable Wages/ Working Families. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, visit https://www.publicnewsservice.org/dn1.php.

Consumer groups slam California Supreme Court ruling on lemon law

By Suzanne Potter, Producer, Public News Service

Millions of Californians buy used cars still under a manufacturer’s warranty - but consumer groups say those warranties are now essentially unenforceable. It’s the result of a ruling Thursday by the California State Supreme Court. The panel of judges agreed with car manufacturers that the state’s so-called “lemon law” only applies to new cars.

“You won’t be able to tell the manufacturer, ‘Hey, you have to fix my car or I want a refund.’ The manufacturer can just blow you off,” said Rosemary Shahan, president of the nonprofit Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety.

Owners of these used vehicles could be faced with big unanticipated repair bills if the manufacturer opts not to honor the remainder of the warranty. The court ruling means they will no longer have a right to a refund or replacement vehicle.

Shahan said she thinks that now the California

Legislature should step in. She said other states already have acted to better protect used-car buyers.

“A number of other states have used car ‘lemon laws,’ where they mandate warranties,” she said, “and they say if you pay a certain amount for a used car, that the warranty has to last for a certain period of

time, and you have the right to get a refund or replacement.”

The case, Rodriguez v. Fiat Chrysler of America Inc., has been in litigation for several years. Lemon-law experts say it is unclear whether this decision covers what are known as “certified” used vehicles - promoted by the manufacturers as “like new.”

Disclosure: Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety Foundation contributes to Public News Service’s fund for reporting on Consumer Issues, Environmental Justice, Social Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, visit https:// www.publicnewsservice.org/ dn1.php.

Chuckwalla National Monument. | Photo by benmacaskill CC BY 2.0

Latino anglers bait their hooks in Imperial Beach, California.

| Photo courtesy of Hispanic Access Foundation

Probate Notices

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF ROY GENE BALENTINE aka ROY BALENTINE

Case No. 24STPB11627

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of ROY GENE BALENTINE aka ROY BALENTINE

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Sonja Leigh Ellisor in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that Sonja Leigh Ellisor be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held on Nov. 13, 2024 at 8:30 AM in Dept. No. 2D located at 111 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: GRACE LIM-AYERS ESQ SBN321004 THE WERNER LAW FIRM 27433 TOURNEY RD STE 200 SANTA CLARITA CA 91355 CN111309 BALENTINE Oct 28,31, Nov 4, 2024 SAN GABRIEL SUN

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF Brian Hung Tsui aka Hung Quoc Tu CASE NO. 24STPB10885

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of: Brian Hung Tsui aka Hung Quoc Tu

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Kevin Khoanh Tu in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that Kevin Khoanh Tu be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act with full authority (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived

notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held on 12/06/2024 at 8:30AM in Dept. 4 located at 111 N. HILL ST. LOS ANGELES CA 90012 STANLEY MOSK COURTHOUSE.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner: Andrew Vo, SBN: 342598 8748 E. Valley Blvd, Suite M Rosemead, CA 91770

Telephone: (626) 288-1496 10/28, 10/31, 11/4/24 CNS-3865228# EL MONTE EXAMINER

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: CYNTHIA MAE THOMPSON CASE NO. 24STPB12081

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of CYNTHIA MAE THOMPSON.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by PATRIZIA RENATE THOMPSON in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that PATRIZIA RENATE THOMPSON be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 12/05/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 44 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

LEGALS

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for Petitioner

ERIN M. ANDERSON - SBN 225803

LAW OFFICE OF ERIN M. ANDERSON

5152 KATELLA AVENUE #104 LOS ALAMITOS CA 90720

Telephone (562) 546-2128

BSC 225974 10/31, 11/4, 11/7/24

CNS-3866000# AZUSA BEACON

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF LYDIA PORRAS

Case No. 24STPB11939

To all heirs, beneficiaries, cred-itors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of LYDIA PORRAS

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Stephani L. Bouvet in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that Stephani L. Bouvet be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administra-tion authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objec-tion to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held on Nov. 21, 2024 at 8:30 AM in Dept. No. 67 located at 111 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your ap-pearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowl-edgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner:

MOLLY B PITRUZZELLI ESQ SBN 271279

GIRARDI LAW 2425 MISSION STREET STE 1 SAN MARINO CA 91108

CN111340 PORRAS

Oct 31, Nov 4,7, 2024 SAN GABRIEL SUN

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF STACI LYNN McFARLAND

Case No. 24STPB212173

To all heirs, beneficiaries, cred-itors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of STACI LYNN McFARLAND

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Kimberly McFarland Skonos in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGE-

LES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that Kimberly McFarland Skonos be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administra-tion authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objec-tion to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held on Dec. 4, 2024 at 8:30 AM in Dept. No. 9 located at 111 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your ap-pearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowl-edgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: LEONARD M TAVERA ESQ SBN 127070 SEMPER LAW GROUP LLP 330 N BRAND BLVD STE 670 GLENDALE CA 91203 CN111351 MCFARLAND Nov 4,7,11, 2024 EL MONTE EXAMINER

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: VALENTIN RODRIGUEZ, JR. AKA VALENTIN RODRIGUEZ AKA VAL RODRIGUEZ CASE NO. 24STPB12020

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of VALENTIN RODRIGUEZ, JR. AKA VALENTIN RODRIGUEZ AKA VAL RODRIGUEZ. A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by VALARIE MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that VALARIE MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act with limited authority. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 12/02/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 99 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appear-

ance may be in person or by your attorney. IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for Petitioner

JAY OBERHOLTZER - SBN 72127

JAY OBERHOLTZER, APLC 15111 E. WHITTIER BLVD., #445 WHITTIER CA 90603

Telephone (562) 945-2838 10/31, 11/4, 11/7/24 CNS-3866879# EL MONTE EXAMINER

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF:

CONRAD VALDEZ ARGUIJO AKA CONRAD V. ARGUIJO CASE NO. 24STPB12221

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of CONRAD VALDEZ ARGUIJO AKA CONRAD V. ARGUIJO.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by CONRAD JOSEPH ARGUIJO in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that CONRAD JOSEPH ARGUIJO be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 12/05/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 62 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for Petitioner CORY A. OLIVER - SBN 325425 OLIVER LAW, A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION

730 N. NORMA, SUITE B

RIDGECREST CA 93555

Telephone (760) 977-3025 11/4, 11/7, 11/11/24 CNS-3867077#

ROSEMEAD READER

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: ELVIRA ANAYA GOMEZ CASE NO. 24STPB12206

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of ELVIRA ANAYA GOMEZ.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by ELOISE MEJIA REYES AND JEFF WILLIAM LEBLANC in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that ELOISE MEJIA REYES AND JEFF WILLIAM LEBLANC be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act with limited authority. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 12/09/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 62 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for Petitioner MARSHAL A OLDMAN - SBN 72149 OLDMAN, SALLUS & GOLD, LLP 16133 VENTURA BLVD., PENTHOUSE ENCINO CA 91436

Telephone (818) 986-8080 11/4, 11/7, 11/11/24 CNS-3867304# EL MONTE EXAMINER

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF JERRY DUANE DOONER

Case No. 24STPB11175

To all heirs, beneficiaries, cred-itors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of JERRY DUANE DOONER A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Rudolfo Zeledon in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that Rudolfo Zeledon be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very

LEGALS

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Glendale City Notices

NOTICE INVITING BIDS

NOTICE is hereby given that the City of Glendale (“City”) will receive sealed Bids, before the Bid Deadline established below for the following work of improvement: GLENDALE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT IMPROVEMENTS ON ARTSAKH AVENUE SPECIFICATION NO.3893R

Bid Deadline: Submit before 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 11, 2024 (“the Bid Deadline”)

Original Bid to be submitted to:

Office of City Clerk

613 E. Broadway, Room 110 Glendale, CA 91206

Bid Opening: 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 11, 2024 City Council Chambers

613 E. Broadway, 2nd Floor Glendale, CA 91206

NO LATE BIDS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

Bidding Documents Available: October 23, 2024, at the Public Works Engineering Department, 633 E. Broadway, Room 205, City of Glendale, CA 91206

Bidding documents are also available to view and download online at: https://www.glendaleca.gov/government/departments/finance/purchasing/rfp-rfq-bid-page

Mandatory Pre-Bid Conference: N/A

City of Glendale Contact Person: Huang Zheng, Project Manager Phone: 818-548-3945 Fax: 818-242-7087

E-mail: hzheng@glendaleca.gov

Mandatory Qualifications for Bidder and Designated Subcontractors:

A Bid may be rejected as non-responsive if the Bid fails to document that Bidder meets the essential requirements for qualification. As part of the Bidder’s Statement of Qualifications, each Bid must provide satisfactory evidence that: Bidder satisfactorily completed as a prime contractor or subcontractor at least (4) prevailing wage public contracts in California; each comparable in scope and scale to this Project, within { (5) years prior to the Bid Deadline and with a dollar value in excess of the Bid submitted for this Project. In addition, if the Bidder intends to self-perform the Signage Contractor, Bidder shall satisfy the mandatory qualifications described in the Specialty Contractor’s Statement of Qualifications (starting at page F-23) applicable to such Work and submit the completed forms with the Bid.

Subcontractors listed for the Signage Contractor Work must satisfy the mandatory qualifications described in the Specialty Contractor’s Statement of Qualifications (staring on page F-23) applicable to the Work to be performed by each Subcontractor and Bidder must submit the completed forms with the Bid.

General Scope of Work:

Contractor shall furnish labor, materials, equipment, services, and specialized skills to perform work involved in the Project. The Work included in the Bid is defined in accordance with Specifications No. 3893R and Plan Nos. 1-3095, SSF-3095, PLA-3095, IRR-3095, PG-3095, WS-3095, 49-251, 50-685, 50-686, 50-687 and GWP00638AA. The work generally includes: the removal and disposal of asphalt and Portland cement concrete pavements, removal and salvage of existing pavers to be reused; the grading and preparation of subgrade; the construction of new concrete curbs, sidewalks, and curb ramps, removing and hauling away of grindings; the removal of existing trees; relocating existing trees, new shrub and tree plantings;: the reconstruction of irrigation mainline and lateral connections; the reconstruction of electrical lines for street lighting, the relocations of water meters and fire hydrants; the construction of sidewalk extension and accent shade structures, counters and benches; installation of site furnishings; as shown on the project plans and specifications, Standard Plans for Public Works Construction (SPPWC 2021 Edition), and the Standard Specifications for Public Works Construction (2021 Edition), including all supplements thereto issued prior to bid opening date.

Other Bidding Information: Number of Contract Working Days: 180 Working Days Amount of Liquidated Damages: $6,700 per Calendar Day Required Construction Staging: Six Phases, See Special Condition Section 6 Other Bidding Information:

1. Bidding Documents: Bids must be made on the Bidder’s Proposal form contained herein. Bidding Documents may be obtained in the Public Works Engineering Department, 633 E. Broadway, Room 205, Glendale, CA 91206 where they may be examined. Electronic copy of bidding documents can be obtained at no cost from: https://www.glendaleca.gov/ government/departments/finance/purchasing/rfp-rfq-bid-page. Future addendums, if any will be available for download on the same page as the bidding documents. The city will not mail/deliver the addendums to the prospective bidders. It is the bidders’ sole responsibility to check the website to obtain future addendums to this bid documents.

2. Engineer’s Estimate. The preliminary cost of construction of this Work has been prepared. The estimate is in the range of $ 7.25M to $7.5M

3. Completion: This Work must be completed within one-hundred-eighty Working days from the Date of Commencement as established by the City’s written Notice to Proceed.

4. Acceptance or Rejection of Bids. The City reserves the right to reject any and all Bids, to award all or any individual part/item of the Bid, and to waive any informalities, irregularities or technical defects in such Bids and determine the lowest responsible Bidder, whichever may be in the best interests of the City. No late Bids will be accepted, nor will any oral, facsimile or electronic Bids be accepted by the City.

5. Mandatory Pre-Bid Conference and Job Walk. A mandatory pre-bid conference and job walk is not required.

6. Contractor License At the time of the Bid Deadline and at all times during performance of the Work, including full completion of all corrective work during the Correction Period, the Contractor must possess a California contractor license or licenses, current and active, of the classification required for the Work, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 9, Division 3, Section 7000 et seq. of the Business and Professions Code. In compliance with Public Contract Code Section 3300, the City has determined that the Bidder must possess the following license(s):

• a. Pursuant to Section 3300, of the Public Contract Code, the classification of the bidder’s Contractor’s License shall be “Class A”. Failure of a bidder to obtain adequate licensing at the time the contract is awarded shall constitute a failure to execute the Contract and shall result in the forfeiture of the Bidder’s Bond. The successful Bidder will not receive a Contract award if

Bidder submits its Bid to the City, the Bidder must list each Subcontractor whom the Bidder must disclose under Public Contract Code Section 4104 (Subcontractor Listing Law), and the Bidder must provide all of the Subcontractor information that Section 4104 requires (name, the location (address) of the Subcontractor’s place of business, California Contractor license number, California Department of Industrial Relations contractor registration number, and portion of the Work). In addition, the City requires that the Bidder list the dollar value of each Subcontractor’s labor or services The City’s disqualification of a Subcontractor does not disqualify a Bidder. However, prior to and as a condition to award of the Contract, the successful Bidder shall substitute a properly licensed and qualified Subcontractor— without an adjustment of the Bid Amount.

8. Permits, Inspections, Plan Checks, Governmental Approvals, Utility Fees and Similar Authorizations: The City has applied and paid for the following Governmental Approvals and Utility Fees:

Artsakh Ave. Fire Modification (FMOD2110967)

Electrical Spot Service All other Governmental Approvals and Utility Fees shall be obtained and paid for by Contractor and will be reimbursed based on Contractor’s actual direct cost without markup.

See Instructions to Bidders Paragraph 14, and General Conditions Paragraph 1.01 for definitions and Paragraph 1.03 for Contractor responsibilities.

9. Bid Forms and Bid Security: Each Bid must be made on the Bid Forms obtainable from the City’s Bidding website listed in the paragraph 1 above. Each Bid shall be accompanied by a cashier’s check or certified check drawn on a solvent bank, payable to “City of Glendale,” for an amount equal to ten percent (10%) of the total maximum amount of the Bid. Alternatively, a satisfactory corporate surety Bid Bond for an amount equal to ten percent (10%) of the total maximum amount of the Bid may accompany the Bid. Said security shall serve as a guarantee that the successful Bidder, within fourteen (14) calendar days after the City’s Notice of Award of the Contract, will enter into a valid contract with the City for said Work in accordance with the Contract Documents.

10. Bid Irrevocability Bids shall remain open and valid for ninety (90) calendar days after the Bid Deadline.

11. Substitution of Securities. Pursuant to California Public Contract Code Section 22300, substitution of securities for withheld funds is permitted in accordance therewith.

12. Prevailing Wage Resolution. Bidders are hereby notified that in accordance with the provisions of the Labor Code of the State of California, the City Council of the City has ascertained and determined by Resolution No. 18,626 (as amended), the general prevailing rate of per diem wages of a similar character in the locality in which the Work is performed and the general prevailing rate for legal holiday and overtime Work for each craft or type of worker needed in the execution of agreements with the City. Said resolution is on file in the Office of the City Clerk and is hereby incorporated and made a part hereof by the same as though fully set forth herein. Copies of said resolution may be obtained at the Office of the City Clerk.

13. California Department of Industrial Relations ― Public Works Contractor Registration.

Beginning July 1, 2014, under the Public Works Contractor Registration Law (California Senate Bill No. 854 - See Labor Code Section 1725.5), contractors must register and meet requirements using the online application https://efiling.dir.ca.gov/PWCR/ActionServlet?ac tion=displayPWCRegistrationForm before bidding on public works contracts in California. The application also provides agencies that administer public works programs with a searchable database of qualified contractors. Application and renewal are completed online with a non-refundable fee of $300. More information is available at the following links: http://www.dir.ca.gov/DLSE/PublicWorks/SB854FactSheet_6.30.14.pdf http://www.dir.ca.gov/Public-Works/PublicWorks.html

Beginning April 1, 2015, the City must award public works projects only to contractors and subcontractors who comply with the Public Works Contractor Registration Law. Notice to Bidders and Subcontractors:

• No contractor or subcontractor may be listed on a Bid proposal for a public works project (submitted on or after March 1, 2015) unless registered with the Department of Industrial Relations pursuant to Labor Code Section 1725.5 [with limited exceptions from this requirement for bid purposes only under Labor Code Section 1771.1(a)].

• No contractor or subcontractor may be awarded a contract for public work on a public works project (awarded on or after April 1, 2015) unless registered with the Department of Industrial Relations pursuant to Labor Code Section 1725.5.

• This Project is subject to compliance monitoring and enforcement by the Department of Industrial Relations.

• The prime contractor must post job site notices prescribed by regulation. (See 8 Calif. Code Reg. Section 16451(d) for the notice that previously was required for projects monitored by the DIR Compliance Monitoring Unit.)

Furnishing of Electronic Certified Payroll Records to Labor Commissioner. For all new projects awarded on or after April 1, 2015 contractors and subcontractors must furnish electronic certified payroll records directly to the Labor Commissioner (aka Division of Labor Standards Enforcement).

Dated this 4, 7 day of November, 2024, City of Glendale, California.

Dr. Suzie Abajian, PhD, City Clerk of the City of Glendale

Published November 4, 7, 2024

GLENDALE INDEPENDENT

Probate Notices

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF DAVID G. SCHULENBERG Case No. 24STPB11595

To all heirs, beneficiaries, cred-itors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of DAVID G. SCHULENBERG

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Christopher G. Schu-lenberg and Gretchen Schulenberg in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that Christopher G. Schu-lenberg and Gretchen Schulenberg be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will

dent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issu-ance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for petitioner: WENDY E HARTMANN ESQ SBN204587

LAW OFFICES OF WENDY HARTMANN 400 N HOLLYWOOD WAY STE 206 BURBANK CA 91505 CN111318 SCHULENBERG Oct 28,31, Nov 4, 2024 GLENDALE INDEPENDENT

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF ANGEL MARIA VALDES Case No. 24STPB11596

To all heirs, beneficiaries, cred-itors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of ANGEL MARIA VALDES A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Angela De La Caridad Valdes in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that Angela De La Caridad Valdes be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administra-tion authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objec-tion to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held on Nov. 14, 2024 at 8:30 AM in Dept. No. 4 located at 111 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your ap-pearance may be in person or by your attorney.

allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administra-tion authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objec-tion to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held on Nov. 13, 2024 at 8:30 AM in Dept. No. 9 located at 111 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your ap-pearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the dece-

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issu-ance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for petitioner: WENDY E HARTMANN ESQ SBN204587

LAW OFFICES OF WENDY HART-

91505

CN111319 VALDES

Oct 28,31, Nov 4, 2024

GLENDALE INDEPENDENT

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: CYNTHIA TURNER CASE NO. 24STPB11951

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of CYNTHIA TURNER.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by JOHN TURNER in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that JOHN TURNER be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 11/22/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 2D located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner SONE A. TATIYANTS - SBN 239581 SVETLANA KALGANOVA - SBN 239590 LYNK LAW, INC. 1025 N. BRAND BLVD., SUITE 225 GLENDALE CA 91202 Telephone (818) 956-9200 10/28, 10/31, 11/4/24 CNS-3865178# BURBANK INDEPENDENT

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: ANTONIO HINOJOS CASE NO. 24STPB11816 To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of ANTONIO HINOJOS.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act with limited authority.

(This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 12/03/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 44 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner EMILY EBINER, ESQ. - SBN 348101

EBINER LAW OFFICE

100 N. CITRUS STREET, #520 WEST COVINA CA 91791

Telephone (626) 918-9000

10/28, 10/31, 11/4/24 CNS-3865294# WEST COVINA PRESS

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF:

JULIE GRIFFITH SELDERS

CASE NO. 24STPB10805

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of JULIE GRIFFITH SELDERS.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by KATHRYN KNIGHT in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that KATHRYN KNIGHT be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests the decedent’s WILL and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The WILL and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows:

01/13/25 at 8:30AM in Dept. 67 lo-

cated at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the

court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner

CHRISTOPHER JAMES MURTAGH - SBN 296908 K & M LAW GROUP 155 N. LAKE AVENUE, STE. 800 PASADENA CA 91101

Telephone (323) 531-8505 BSC 225968 10/31, 11/4, 11/7/24 CNS-3865688# PASADENA PRESS

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: CLAY JAMES LANDENBERGER, JR. AKA CLAY JAMES LANDENBERGER CASE NO. 30-2024-01434847-PR-LACMC

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of CLAY JAMES LANDENBERGER, JR. AKA CLAY JAMES LANDENBERGER.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by NIKKI LYNN LANDENBERGER in the Superior Court of California, County of ORANGE.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that NIKKI LYNN LANDENBERGER be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 12/19/24 at 1:30PM in Dept. CM07 located at 3390 HARBOR BLVD., COSTA MESA, CA 92626 NOTICE IN PROBATE CASES

The court is providing the convenience to appear for hearing by video using the court’s designated video platform. This is a no cost service to the public. Go to the Court’s website at The Superior Court of California - County of Orange (occourts.org) to appear remotely for Probate hearings and for remote hearing instructions. If you have difficulty connecting or are unable to connect to your remote hearing, call 657-622-8278 for assistance. If you prefer to appear in-person, you can appear in the department on the day/time set for your hearing.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California

LEGALS

Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner

ROBERT L. COHEN, ESQ. - SBN 150913

LAW OFFICES OF ROBERT L. COHEN, INC. 8081 ORANGETHORPE AVE. BUENA PARK CA 90621

Telephone (714) 522-8880 10/31, 11/4, 11/7/24 CNS-3866119# ANAHEIM PRESS

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: HENRY J. SUAREZ AKA HENRY JOSEPH SUAREZ AKA HENRY SUAREZ

CASE NO. 24STPB11933

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of HENRY J. SUAREZ AKA HENRY JOSEPH SUAREZ AKA HENRY SUAREZ.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by VIVIAN SUAREZ AKA VIVIAN VALDES SUAREZ in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that VIVIAN SUAREZ AKA VIVIAN VALDES SUAREZ be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests the decedent’s WILL and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The WILL and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 12/06/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 44 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner

RITA M. DIAZ, ESQ. - SBN 205538

HAHN & HAHN LLP

301 E COLORADO BLVD., 9TH FLR PASADENA CA 91101-1977

Telephone (626) 796-9123 10/31, 11/4, 11/7/24 CNS-3866783# PASADENA PRESS

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: BOBBY GLENN HENRY AKA BOBBY G. HENRY CASE NO. 30-2024-01434514-PR-CPCMC

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of BOBBY GLENN HENRY AKA BOBBY G. HENRY.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by PATRICIA HENRY in the Superior Court of California, County of ORANGE. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that PATRICIA HENRY be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 12/05/24 at 1:30PM in Dept. CM07 located at 3390 HARBOR BLVD., COSTA MESA, CA 92626

NOTICE IN PROBATE CASES

The court is providing the convenience to appear for hearing by video using the court’s designated video platform. This is a no cost service to the public. Go to the Court’s website at The Superior Court of California - County of Orange (occourts.org) to appear remotely for Probate hearings and for remote hearing instructions. If you have difficulty connecting or are unable to connect to your remote hearing, call 657-622-8278 for assistance. If you prefer to appear in-person, you can appear in the department on the day/time set for your hearing.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner

KRISTEN WONG - SBN 210627

SEASONS ESTATE PLANNING, APC

475 WASHINGTON BOULEVARD

MARINA DEL REY CA 90292

Telephone (310) 344-3015

11/4, 11/7, 11/11/24 CNS-3866492# ANAHEIM PRESS

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF

Harold R Solis

Case No. PRR12402729

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of Harold R Solis

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Manuel Octavio Barrios in the Superior Court of California, County of RIVERSIDE.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that Manuel Octavio Barrios be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held on December 2, 2024 at 8:30 AM in Dept. 12. located at 4050 Main Street, Riverside, Ca 92501.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner: Maryann Briseno The Briseno Law Firm 32395 Clinton Keith Rd Ste A-206 Wildomar, California 92525 951-384-0976

October 31, November 4, 7, 2024

RIVERSIDE INDEPENDENT

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF:

RAFAEL J. AGUIRRE CASE NO. 24STPB12346

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of RAFAEL J. AGUIRRE.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by MARIA AGUIRRE AKA MARIA RAMIREZ in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that MARIA AGUIRRE AKA MARIA RAMIREZ be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act with limited authority. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted

unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 12/06/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 9 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner

JUVENTINO B. CASAS JR. - SBN 44445 LAW OFFICE OF J.B. CASAS JR. 2520 WEST BEVERLY BLVD. MONTEBELLO CA 90640 Telephone (323) 726-3200 11/4, 11/7, 11/11/24 CNS-3867529# PASADENA PRESS

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF MARIANNE FRIEDMAN Case No. 24STPB12159

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of MARIANNE FRIEDMAN A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Nathan Donald Weinstein in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that Nathan Donald Weinstein be appointed as personal representa-tive to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court ap-proval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the per-sonal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held on Nov. 25, 2024 at 8:30 AM in Dept. No. 4 located at 111 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal rep-resentative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want

Fictitious Business Name Filings

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

NAME STATEMENT

File No. FBN20240007104

The following persons are doing business as: M4 Ontario. INC DBA Cheba Hut Ontario, 1900 East Inland Empire Blvd, Ste. A, Ontario, CA 91764. Mailing Address, 12223 Highland Avet. Ste. 525, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739. M4 Ontario, Inc. (CA, 12223 Highland Avenue. Ste. 525, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739; Tyrone Myles, President. County of Principal Place of Business: San Bernardino This business is conducted by: a corporation. Registrant has not yet begun to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein. By signing below, I declare that I have read and understand the reverse side of this form and that all information in this statement is true and correct. A registrant who declares as true any material matter pursuant to Section 17913 of the Business and Professions Code that the registrant knows to be false is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000). I am also aware that all information on this statement becomes Public Record upon filing pursuant to the California Public Records Act (Government Code Sections 62506277). /s/ Tyrone Myles, President. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on August 7, 2024 Notice- In accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 17920. A Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the County Clerk, except, as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new Fictitious Business Name Statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq., Business and Professions Code) File#: FBN20240007104 Pub: 09/12/2024, 09/19/2024, 09/26/2024, 10/03/2024 San Bernardino Press

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No. FBN20240009012

The following persons are doing business as: San Bernardino Eye Specialists, 1887 Business Center Dr Suite 2A, San Bernardino, CA 92408. Mailing Address, 1909 N. Waterman Ave. Ste 3, san bernardino, CA 92404. Gintien Huang, M.D. INC.., A California Medical Corporation (CA, 1909 N Waterman Ave Ste 3, San Bernardino, CA 92404; gintien huang, president. County of Principal Place of Business: San Bernardino This business is conducted by: a corporation. Registrant has not yet begun to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein. By signing below, I declare that I have read and understand the reverse side of this form and that all information in this statement is true and correct. A registrant who declares as true any material matter pursuant to Section 17913 of the Business and Professions Code that the registrant knows to be false is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000). I am also aware that all information on this statement becomes Public Record upon filing pursuant to the California Public Records Act (Government Code Sections 62506277). /s/ gintien huang, president. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on October 4, 2024 Notice- In accordance with subdivision (a) of Section 17920. A Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the County Clerk, except, as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new Fictitious Business Name Statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq., Business and Professions Code) File#: FBN20240009012 Pub: 10/14/2024, 10/21/2024, 10/28/2024, 11/04/2024 San Bernardino Press

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as LV Electric 760 Saint Helena Dr Corona, CA 92879 Riverside County LV Builders, Inc (CA, 760 Saint Helena Dr, Corona, CA 92879 Riverside County This business is conducted by: a corporation. Registrant has not yet begun to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein. I declare that all the information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true any material matter pursuant to Section 17913 of the Business and Professions Code, that the registrant knows to be false, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed one thousands dollars ($1000).) s. Raul Rudy Flores, President Statement filed with the County of Riverside on September 19, 2024 NOTICE: In accordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920, a fictitious name statement generally expires at the end of the five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except, as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any changes in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new Fictitious Business Name Statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 Et Seq., business and professions code). I hereby certify that this copy is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Peter Aldana, County, Clerk File# R-202411902 Pub. 10/14/2024, 10/21/2024, 10/28/2024, 11/04/2024 Riverside Independent

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT 20246699461. The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: Lopez & Son Trucking, 200 W Rosecrest Ave, La Habra, CA 90631. Full Name of Registrant(s) Oscar Manuel Lopez Jr, 200 W Rosecrest Ave, La Habra, CA 90631. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant has not yet begun to transact business

under the fictitious business name or names listed herein. /S/ Oscar Manuel Lopez Jr. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Orange County on September 23, 2024. Publish: Anaheim Press 10/14/2024, 10/21/2024, 10/28/2024, 11/04/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT 20246699460. The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: FP Window Tint, 822 W Wl Segundo Blvd Apt 3, Gardena, CA 90247. Full Name of Registrant(s) (1). Faustino Pancho Policarpo, 822 W Wl Segundo Blvd Apt 3, Gardena, CA 90247 (2). Erika Garcia, 822 W Wl Segundo Blvd Apt 3, Gardena, CA 90247 . This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant has not yet begun to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein. /S/ Faustino Pancho Policarpo, General Partner. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Orange County on September 23, 2024. Publish: Anaheim Press 10/14/2024, 10/21/2024, 10/28/2024, 11/04/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT 20246700882. The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: Skin Care by the Sea, 30200 Rancho Viejo Rd. Suite D., San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675. Full Name of Registrant(s) Tammi Banks, 30200 Rancho Viejo Rd. Suite D., San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on January 1, 2004. /S/ Tammi Banks. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Orange County on October 14, 2024. Publish: Anaheim Press 10/21/2024, 10/28/2024, 11/04/2024, 11/11/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT 20246701552. The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: AICARE ORTHODONTICS, 10990 Warner Ave # I, Fountain Valley, CA 92708. Full Name of Registrant(s) Ai Huang, D.M.D., Inc. (CA, 10990 Warner Ave # I, Fountain Valley, CA 92708. This business is conducted by a corporation. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name

or names listed herein on October 8, 2024. AICARE ORTHODONTICS. /S/ Ai Huang, President. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Orange County on October 22, 2024. Publish: Anaheim Press 10/28/2024, 11/04/2024, 11/11/2024, 11/18/2024

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as Estela Market 6104 Mission Blvd Riverside, CA 92509 Riverside County Mailing Address, 8628 6th st, downey, CA 90241. Riverside County yahir german caiceros galeno, 6104 Mission Blvd, Riverside, CA 92509 Riverside County This business is conducted by: a individual. Registrant has not yet begun to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein. I declare that all the information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true any material matter pursuant to Section 17913 of the Business and Professions Code, that the registrant knows to be false, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed one thousands dollars ($1000).) s. yahir german caiceros galeno Statement filed with the County of Riverside on October 8, 2024 NOTICE: In accordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920, a fictitious name statement generally expires at the end of the five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except, as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any changes in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new Fictitious Business Name Statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 Et Seq., business and professions code). I hereby certify that this copy is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Peter Aldana, County, Clerk File# R-202412741 Pub. 10/28/2024, 11/04/2024, 11/11/2024, 11/18/2024 Riverside Independent

Riverside County Animal Services sweep results in 38 impounded dogs

Riverside Transit Agency, city reach agreement on electric shuttles

The Riverside County Department of Animal Services performed a sweep operation in the eastern Coachella Valley, resulting in 38 dogs being impounded, officials announced Wednesday.

The operation, a routine effort during cooler weather, occurred across Mecca, North Shore, Oasis and Thermal, , with 21 officers and shelter support staff participating, the department said in a statement

The sweep began around 5 a.m. to prevent heat-related injuries to stray animals, according to the statement.

Many of the dogs impounded were small breeds and puppies, which were transported to the Coachella Valley Animal Campus in Thousand Palms, officials said.

Animal Services Lt. Luis Rosa said there also was a door-to-door educational component of the sweep, saying that “the number of dogs impounded could have doubled” without it.

“We issued some

By City News Service

warnings and provided education about how we can help, such as mending fences to prevent yard escapes,” Rosa said. “It shows we’re not just enforcing animal control laws, but providing assistance, too.”

Staff and officers visited about 40 properties in total, officials said.

According to Interim

Union support

Services Director Kim

residents often proactively contact Animal Services for assistance if they notice an increase in stray dogs.

“We have been conducting sweeps for many years, but we also need to continue to be a great partner to pet owners in these communities,” Youngberg said.

led the fight to put parents back in control.”

He said putting more Democrats in the state Legislature will only bolster the “one-party rule” that has led to the “tax-and-regulate policies” which have made California an increasingly expensive place to live.

Shoults is originally from Wyoming, where the father of three farmed and taught school before relocating with his family to Riverside County, where he has been an English teacher at the high school and college levels.

“Like many working families, (I’ve) gained firsthand experience with the issues that impact the most, from rising costs of living and an uncertain economy to health care and education,” he said in campaign literature.

He is a union activist and has a string of endorsements from collective bargaining units, among which are the California Teachers Association, the California Labor Federation, United Food & Commercial Workers International Union Local 1167 and Unite Here Local 11.

Riverside is a step closer to getting electric, autonomous shuttles.

The City Council on Oct. 22 approved an agreement that calls for the Riverside Transit Agency to operate, staff and maintain three of the self-driving electric vehicles manufactured by Ohmio Inc.

The RTA’s two-year pilot program will be the first deployment of all-electric, autonomous shuttles by a public transit agency in the United States, according to a statement from the city announcing the agreement. Electric shuttle service could start as soon as January, officials said.

Funding for the shuttles totals $500,000 from the RTA, along with $1 million from the South Coast Air Quality Management District that reduced the city’s initial $2.5 million contribution to $1 million, officials said.

“Ohmio is an innovative company at the forefront of this exciting transportation technology,” Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said in a statement. “This agreement with RTA means we will have a trusted local partner putting these vehicles on the street, helping the agency fill gaps in transit usage and contributing financially to the success of the effort.”

Officials estimated the city’s investment will

By Staff

be recouped in four years “because Riverside is the point of sale, meaning sales taxes from each vehicle will accrue in Riverside.”

Ohmio shuttles have a maximum speed of 31 mph and a 15 mph typical operating speed, officials said. The shuttles’ speed in Riverside will be determined by factors such as traffic intensity and route location.

Options for the first year of deployment include the area near the Riverside Municipal Airport, downtown and UC Riverside.

Ohmio moved its international headquarters from New Zealand to a facility near the airport to create a home base for the company in the United States. Riverside officials welcomed Ohmio as a fit with the city’s the ongoing development of the clean technology and advanced manufacturing sectors as well as with the California Air Resources

Board, which has its Southern California headquarters in Riverside.

“This agreement is a win for everyone,” Mayor Pro Tem Jim Perry said in a statement. “RTA gets a new tool in its transit toolbox, Ohmio gets to show off its vehicles on United States soil, and the City remains a leader in innovation while defraying a chunk of the initial costs.”

The two-year pilot program was developed over the last 18 months, and the City Council approved an initial agreement with Ohmio about a year ago, officials said. The next step is route approvals by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and California Department of Motor Vehicles.

Ohmio has committed to hire local residents and anticipates creating seven jobs in the first year and at least 25 jobs by year three, city officials said.

‘Emilia Pérez’ musical to receive Vanguard Award at Palm Springs film fest

O“I’ve spent my life either operating and fixing machinery on the farm — or teaching students how to prepare themselves for a bright future in an uncertain time,” he said. “That’s why I’m fed up with Sacramento politicians, who are more focused on extreme politics or partisan games, instead of results.”

The challenger vowed that, if elected, he would prioritize legislation that promotes “good-paying job opportunities, a lower cost of living” and affordable housing.

rganizers of the Palm SpringsInternational Film Festival announced Wednesday that the French musical “Emilia Pérez” will receive the Vanguard Award at the festival’s awards presentation next year.

The award will be given to director Jacques Audiard and actors Karla Sofia Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Edgar Ramírez — all of whom are expected to attend — at the Palm Springs Convention Center on Jan. 3.

Premiering in May at the Cannes Film Festival, “Emilia Pérez” earned the Jury Prize, and its four main actresses shared the Best Actress honor. The Netflix-distributed musical also placed as

runner-up for the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Audiard was given the Silver Medallion at this year’s Telluride Film Festival.

“Emilia Pérez is one of the greatest achievements in cinema this year,” said Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi in a statement. “This powerful film from visionary director Jacques Audiard, is led by outstanding performances from Karla Sofia Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Edgar Ramírez ... It’s our honor to celebrate the director and cast of Emilia Perez with the Vanguard Award for this achievement in filmmaking.”

The film’s official

synopsis describes an “audacious fever dream” centered on “four women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness.” Gascón stars as the titular figure, the head of a cartel who recruits unappreciated lawyer Rita (Saldaña) “to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self.”

Past recipients of the Vanguard Award include “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Green Book,” “The Shape of Water,” “Belfast,” “La La Land,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “The Fablemans” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” After the ceremony on the festival’s second day, the film festival will continue through Jan. 13.

By City News Service

Assemblyman Bill Essayli, left, and challenger Christopher Shoults. | Photos courtesy of Bill Essayli/ Facebook and Chris Shoults/Facebook

Animal

Youngberg,

Animal control officers prepare to impound one of 38 dogs found in Coachella Valley communities. | Photo courtesy of the Riverside County Department of Animal Services

Ohmio shuttles are all electric and self-driving. | Photo courtesy of the city of Riverside

Riverside Community College District seeks almost $1B bond for upgrades

By City News Service

Voters throughout the Riverside metropolitan area on Nov. 5 will decide whether to approve a bond sale of nearly $1 billion to cover costs associated with upgrades to facilities within the Riverside Community College District, meaning an increase in property taxes to pay off the debt.

Measure CC will be decided by voters in Riverside, Moreno Valley, Norco, Corona, Jurupa Valley and multiple unincorporated communities.

The measure seeks a $954 million sale of general obligation bonds with a duration, or payoff period, of just over three decades. By the time of full debt amortization, the total cost of principal and interest would come to about $1.9 billion, according to ballot materials distributed to the public.

The cost of paying that debt would fall on property

owners, whose annual property tax rates would rise an estimated $19 per $100,000 of assessed valuation on individual houses, condominiums and other dwellings, RCCD officials said. Supporters noted that older buildings are in need of repairs, with improve-

ments required for labs, water delivery systems, electrical outlets, plumbing, ventilation units, natural gas lines and parking lots. They also pointed to asbestos and lead paint removal plans, as well as the need to “improve emergency communications systems and accessibility for disabled

students.”

Only 55% voter approval is required for the bond sale.

“Yes on CC allows the district to continue providing low-cost, high-quality education and job training classes close to home,” supporters, including Corona Mayor Tom Richins and Riverside Mayor Patricia

ILock Dawson, wrote in campaign literature. “Yes on the measure will keep classrooms safe for learning, addressing urgent, basic and future needs.”

Opponents, including local fiscal watchdogs Vivian Moreno and Jason Hunter, complained the measure lacks specificity, leaving

open the possibility of the money being spent any number of ways, instead of exclusively on infrastructure and classroom upgrades.

“The only kind of ... details for (the supporters’) unknown projects deal with what seem like overdue maintenance projects,” the opponents wrote. “We question if the district has actually deferred maintenance to the point of putting its students in danger so as to justify these bonds? While the typical resident struggles to make ends meet as their cost-of-living continues to outpace their wages, the district may build free or subsidized housing for its staff that you will pay for either directly or indirectly.”

A similar RCCD bond proposal — Measure A — put before voters in 2020, then seeking $715 million, was rejected.

Imperial Irrigation District announces $18.3M electrical grid grant

mperial Irrigation District officials Wednesday are celebrating the awarding of an $18.3 million grant to modernize the electrical grid in the Imperial and Coachella Valleys.

With matching funds from the district, a combined $36.7 million will be allocated to establish an Advanced Distribution Management System, or ADMS, aimed at strengthening the power infrastructure for 165,000 customers across the Imperial Valley and part of the Coachella Valley, according to an IID statement.

Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Indio, joined IDD officials Tuesday to announce the awarding of the grant.

“As the Representative for California’s 25th Congressional district, I have seen firsthand the need to modernize and strengthen the electric grid, especially with the extreme heat our communities face,” Ruiz said in a statement. “Today’s press conference marks the beginning of a more modern and reliable electric grid that will directly benefit 48 disadvantaged communities and provide good paying local jobs.”

The grant money comes from the Department of Energy. The ADMS will “automate fault management and system optimization,” allowing staff to identify

The Moreno Valley Unified School District has Measure X on the ballot, seeking the sale of up to $240 million in bonds. The cumulative debt service period would last 30 years and translate to an estimated total $469.74 million in principal and interest before the obligations are satisfied, according to campaign literature. The debt amortization would necessitate $40 in taxes per $100,000 of assessed valuations for property taxpayers, according to documents.

The school district would be able to use the money for classroom and lab renovations and upgrades, rehabilitated playgrounds, solar panel acquisitions, electrical, fire alarm and athletic field repairs, as well as other needs.

“Many of our neighborhood schools were built 30-60 years ago and require priority repairs and updates to support high-quality instruction in science, technology, engineering, arts and math,” proponents said. “If we want

By City News Service

and repair grid issues more quickly to decrease outage lengths, according to officials. The project also “lays the foundation” for future technological advances, as IID officials look toward longterm energy breakthroughs, the statement said.

Across the five-year project period, the IID announced its intention to hire six full-time workers, 18 contract workers and summer interns in collaboration with local stakeholders and unions.

The district also said it plans to collaborate with Riverside County groups, including the Quechan Indian Tribe, Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians and local municipali-

ties, throughout the project.

“We are incredibly grateful to the (Department of Energy) and everyone who

Bonds

our students to succeed in their future careers, they must be skilled in the use of today’s technology.”

Opponents countered that saddling “retired residents, small business owners, families” and other property taxpayers with the higher bills that the bond issuance would impose “is irresponsible.”

“Ten years ago, the residents barely passed a $398 million bond that promised the same results,” they said.

“But instead of spending the money on the needs of our students ... they spent the funds on items that last only three years.”

The proposal has a 55% approval requirement.

The Palm Springs Unified School District would benefit from Measure S, which would enable the sale of up to $465 million in bonds. The cumulative debt service period would run 25 years and translate to an estimated total $722.5 million in prin-

supported our grant application,” IID Board Chairman Alex Cardenas said in a statement. “The ADMS project will significantly boost our ability to improve power restoration, integrate renewable energy and bolster grid reliability.”

cipal and interest before the obligations are satisfied, according to campaign literature.

The debt amortization would require $39 in taxes per $100,000 of assessed valuations for property taxpayers, according to documents.

Funds would pay for modernization projects, improvements to schools’ libraries and theaters, replacement of parking lots, serving areas, driveways and

walkways, as well as enhanced security systems.

“Our local schools are the backbone of our community,” proponents wrote. “They ensure the safety of our children, prepare them for successful futures and enhance the value of our homes and businesses. Maintaining and improving our schools must remain a top priority.”

There was no listed opposition. The proposal has a 55% voter approval requirement.

Riverside City College’s administration complex. | Photo courtesy of Riverside City College

From left, Paul Rodriguez, IID Power Department deputy manager; IID Director Karin Eugenio; IID Board Chairman Alex Cardenas; IID General Manager Jamie Asbury; Deyssi Partida, director of constituent services for Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Indio; and IID Power Department Manager Matt Smelser. | Photo courtesy of the Imperial Irrigation District