The Sun (San Bernardino, CA)

Sb Woman Cooked, Sang for Church

SAN BERNARDINO - She made everything from scratch. Lemon cake, sweet potato pie, pineapple cake or fried chicken.

Coroner Staffing Shortage Quelled

San Bernardino County's new budget should show residents that government leaders care for them not only when they are alive - but also after they die, said Supervisor Josie Gonzales. Six months ago, Gonzales feared people couldn't be sure of that.

Health Fair to Offer Free Services

A community health fair hosted by Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton on Saturday, Sept. 23, will combine fun, education and health care for all. The fair, the fourth such event put on by the county hospital, is aimed at providing services to the uninsured or underinsured, many of whom have no other access to health care. All are welcome to the fair, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the hospital grounds.

Finding Solace at the Library

SAN BERNARDINO - She is 34, a mother of four with bright eyes and flashing wit. Dodie Velarde does not fit the mold. Velarde is quick to gab and quick with a quip. She sports an obvious intelligence befitting a woman who claims, albeit with a crooked smile - half proud, half sad - that she was accepted into UCLA when she graduated high school in East Los Angeles 16 years ago. She didn't get a degree. Instead, she became a mother.

2 Sides All Set for Sales-Tax Debate

If politics makes for strange bedfellows, tax policy can forge awkward alliances. Incongruous combinations will likely play themselves out over the next 2.5 months as political players of divergent persuasions choose sides on a proposed sales-tax hike on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Two Teens Stabbed in Fight at Redlands Party

REDLANDS - Two teenagers were hospitalized with stab wounds and others were injured after a fight involving knives and rocks erupted at a party early Saturday. About 1:45 a.m., a heated argument broke out among party-goers at a home in the 200 block of East Sunset Drive when a group of young people who were not invited attempted to crash the event, said Sgt. Brian Bilyeu of the Redlands police Multiple- Enforcement Team, which targets gangs.

Train Crash Causes Derailment Near Redlands

Two Union Pacific employees were injured late Saturday when a pair of Union Pacific trains collided, causing one to derail in San Timoteo Canyon just outside of Redlands. Nine train cars derailed east of Live Oak Canyon around 10 p.m., officials said.

Life Lessons From the Kitchen

Chef David Bowser teaches his students a lot more than how to create the perfect creme brulee. The award-winning chef teaches culinary skills to at-risk youths and young adults, ages 16 to 24.

Speeding Train Derails

A weekend derailment of nine locomotives in San Timoteo Canyon on tracks owned by the nation's largest railroad means the heavily- traveled commuter shortcut between Redlands and Moreno Valley may remain closed for today's morning rush hour. It could take longer to fully restore the busy Union Pacific freight route that was damaged late Saturday when the string of engines came apart in curves between Redlands Boulevard and Live Oak Canyon Road, just across the Riversi...

Crime and Public Safety 8-28-06

RIALTO Firefighters battle blaze at pawn shop

Three Tribes Deadlocked

The high-profile hunger strike being conducted in Sacramento by members of a tribe seeking to build twin casinos in Barstow is the latest salvo in a modern Indian war of words. Two out-of-county tribes, the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians from north San Diego County and the Big Lagoon Rancheria tribe of Humboldt County, are locked in a public relations and policy battle with a third tribe, the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe based in San Bernardino County, over compet...

Driving Legends Unfold

Can your lungs collapse if you crank up the bass on your car stereo? Did the wife of singer James Brown really try to get out of a traffic citation by claiming she had diplomatic immunity because her husband had been given the honorary title "Ambassador of Soul"? Can putting a banana in a vehicle's tailpipe cause it to stall? These are just a few of the titillating urban driving legends that have been repeated so many times and appear to be so outrageous that you can't help but wonder whether...

Church Sends School Supplies

SAN BERNARDINO - What started out as an idea to help a New Orleans Presbyterian school devastated by Hurricane Katrina flowered into an effort that brought a church and its community closer together. Around 9 a.m. Sunday, Lynnette DuClos Adelson and Suzie Earp, members of the First Presbyterian Church of San Bernardino, set off from the church in a car bound for what remains of Lakeview Presbyterian Church Day School in New Orleans.

Festival Rustles Up Memories of Old West

A new mountain festival is set to begin next week as a tribute to the 19th Century miners, loggers and ranchers who made their home in the Big Bear area of the San Bernardino Mountains. The inaugural Bear Valley Heritage Days festival is scheduled to begin on Wednesday. Harkening back to the time when the Big Bear Valley was a rowdy boom town filled with ranchers, prospectors and some of the more low-down characters of the Old West, Heritage Days has been planned as a new event with a strong ...

Osha Complaint Only Latest Concern Over Cim's Mental Health

CHINO - Psychologist Stacy McLain was not surprised that the air conditioning didn't work in her office during last month's record- breaking heat wave. Even though McLain works with mentally ill prisoners - most of whom take prescription drugs that make them susceptible to heat- related illnesses - she was never able to get a straight answer about why the air conditioner wasn't turned on.