Public Safety | rialtonow

Listen to Our Interview with Rialto USD Superintendent Dr. Avila

26 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

Last week we had the opportunity to sit down and have a one on one interview with Rialto Unified School Superintendent Dr. Avila. The interview for our radio show Let’s Talk Community that aired last weekend.

Did you miss it? Well not to worry we have you covered with the video below:

After this interview we feel very confident about the future of Rialto Unified if Dr. Avila is able to complete all of what he spoke about in our interview.

Some of the things that we spoke about off camera were Dr. Avila’s wishes for the administrators of the schools in Rialto. He has an expectation that the administrators welcome the students into school and be outside as the children dismiss for the day. Dr. Avila spoke about the benefits he saw from his time as a school principal being outside and visible during the beginning and end of the day. He was able to connect with the students that didn’t find themselves in his office and he could survey the schools surroundings. Dr. Avila also doesn’t agree with administrators having labeled parking spots. He wants every aspect of the school setting to be welcome and inviting. He has gone as far as to remove all the assigned parking spots from district office including his!

The last thing we did is he walked me out into the lobby and asked me what do you see? As I called out items I saw he said now what is missing? I was puzzled I don’t know what is missing? He said where are the children? Why are the students not represented in this lobby? He was right there were lots of adults represented but no children. He said that he would be changing that as well.

We ran into Dr. Avila at the Puttin on a Ritz Gala Saturday Night and he said that he would like to sit down with us again and give an how are we doing now update on the progress of his desires for the District.

Video by rialto-now

Eisenhower High Invites You To The 1st Luau Collaboration

14 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

The Pacific Islander Club would like to invite you ALL to the 1st Luau collaboration between the Pacific Islanders Club and the Eisenhower Football Team. It is an authentic Hawaiian dinner and yummy dessert served by our football players then followed by an authentic show from six different islands featuring the Pacific Islanders! The Pacific Islander Club has worked really hard to bring this club back to life and we are proud to say it is has begun to thrive. The Pacific Islander Club would love for you to witness how amazing these kids are and all of the hard work they have committed to this event. Club adviser Samy Rodriguez is also dancing a solo. If you are interested in attending please see the attachment above and email me at srodrigu4@rialto.k12.ca.us or samyrdz@yahoo.com;

Here at Rialto Now Media have been supporting these awesome kids and the program for that last few years. It is VITAL that we grow and foster our young people and help make sure that positive clubs and sports can go on. If you can’t make the event please send a check to the school to purchase a ticket for someone else or just make a donation. Go Ike MOB

See below the Pacific Islander Club hosted a dancing with the stars event where club adviser and English teacher (seen in the black glasses) dances out the event with her kids. It is staff like this that need our finacial support while they support our developing kids.

Video by rialto-now

NFL Hall Of Fame Football Player Ronnie Lott Comes Home

14 Apr 2016 1 Comment

by rialto-now in Ca, City of Rialto, davidsMarketing, Ed palmer, Flores Park, Inland Empire, local homes 4u, Rialto, rialto unified school district, youth Tags: eisenhower high school

On May 9th Hall of Fame Football Player Ronnie Lott will be coming back to Eisenhower High School for a special Hall of fame assembly and to talk about Football and his storied career in professional sports. Ronnie Lott can also offer Eisenhower students another thing, he can inspire them to be great.

You don’t have to come from an expensive private school or come from a wealthy family to be great or successful. Greatness comes from within, with hard work and dedication every student can be great.

Ronnie Lott was one of three former NFL players to come from Eisenhower High School and play in at least one Superbowl.

Eisenhower High School principal Scott Sparks said this about the Ronnie Lott assembly “Yes, Mr. Lott coming out to honor Eisenhower with the Hall of Fame Plaque will inspire our students. They can believe that coming from Rialto and going to school at Eisenhower is about having hope and dreams that can come true with hard work and grit.”

Rialto City Council Approves Plans To Destroy A Majority Of The Last Standing Historic Orange Grove

12 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

On an early Tuesday morning our staff decided to take a look at the agenda for today’s city council meeting. Once we opened the agenda packet we were both glad and sad at the same time. The agenda includes nine proclomations, fifteen consent calander items and eleven tab items. The highlight of the agenda is the Proclamation-Mary McCombs 100th Year Birthday. You may not know Mrs McCombs but she is one of the last living Woman Veterans from World War II (you can see her in a video below).

One very sad side of tonight’s agenda is the approval of destroying 7.5 acres of historic orange grove to build high end condos with no private yards in an area already struggling with crime issues. The area has had 92 different crimes in the first four months of this year and most of them were drug or property crimes. Adams Acres owner John Adams told us that the Orange grove and farm has been operating at a loss since 1960 but his family kept running it to keep the historical monument and orange trees part of the Rialto landscape. The property in total is ruffly 9.5 acres and Mr. Adams is selling off 7.5 of those acres and keeping 2 acres of fruit trees and vegetable gardening land. The main portion of the trees on the land that is being sold to the developer of Crestwood Communities is Valencia Oranges that are mainly used for juice and don’t carry a high price in the market. There will be over 600 fruit tress on the remaining 2 acres containing 200 varieties of fruit. Mr. Adams has other off site gardens where they grow vegtables at other locations in the city of Rialto, but nothing with so much historical importance.

I bet you said to your self recently we don’t have enough tire shops in Rialto, right? No your probalby tired of Rialto holding the record for having the most indoor swapmeets, Mc Donalds and Tire Shops. Well if you liked to hand car-wash on Foothill near Eucalytus because the city in all it infinite wisdom has approved yet another tire shop that will run from the corner of Eucalytus all the way to the Exudoz Car Dealership.

Video by rialto-now

San Bernardino Schools Student Discipline & Citations Discussion

11 Apr 2016 1 Comment

by rialto-now in 100 Black Men, AFL-CIO, Assemblymember-Elect Cheryl Brown, Ca, Congressman Pete Aguilar, Crime, Currupt, Inland Empire, Marijuana, Medical Marijuana, pete aguilar, Public Safety, San Bernardino, San Bernardino PD, San Bernardino Police, SB Sun, youth

About 120 people from San Bernardino Unified School District, School Police, School Board members and various ethnic based organizations from throughout the San Bernardino area met at the San Bernardino Club and Events center to go over sweeping changes to student discipline that many in the community see as adding to the dangers that exist within the city of San Bernardino. Out of the 120 plus people in attendance we only count nine parents. Most of the people in attendance are people that are advocating and receiving funding for the sweeping changes in student citations.

Both Pete Aguilar and Cheryl Brown had people from their office here in attendance. On top of that we had four San Bernardino School District Board Members a clear violation of the Brown act. The violation is that out of the seven members that sit on the board Scott Wyatt, Barbara Flores, Abigail Medina and Mike Gallo are here creating a quorum. Apparently this isn’t the first time San Bernardino School Board has had a quorum without putting out the public notice of the meeting. School Board Sup Dale Mardsen said that since they have four board members at the meeting they now have to fly this as a public meeting after the fact. We asked board member Barbara Flores about this and she said “who cares this is important what are they (DA Ramos and his public integrity unit) going to do slap our hands? I’m ok with that!” To make matters worse later on into the meeting another Board Member (that makes five) came into the meeting Board Member Rogers. It was clear that these board members have no respect for the laws that govern them.

Dr. Harold Vollkommer and Superintendent Marsden worked hand in hand to control the conversation of the meeting leaving ZERO room for real questions or allowing people to speak their minds. It was so bad that Student Parent advocate Steven Figueroa said so in his comments publicly. The only people for this failed plan to remove consequences for the very things most parents work so hard to protect their children from were the people who stood to make money off of implementing the programs. From the mess of switching from different colored paper that was all out of order, poor time management and having the wrong information in the packets this meeting was a mess.

Another key person that stood out to us here is that Rialto School Board Member Dina Walker who was in favor of these horrible ideas making us wonder if Rialto Schools safety is now in jeopardy? Why would a Rialto School Board member attend a meeting like this, speak favorably of it and not have plans for using it in Rialto? Also Mrs. Walker was not there in another capacity alone she self identified as a Rialto School Baord Member and Dale Marsden also introduced her solely in her title as Rialto School Board Member.

Parents spoke about how the district is making parent involvement extremely difficult in this process and in attending this meeting. They are right this whole process has been made out to be as secret and behind closed doors as possible. San Bernardino School District is paying 1,500 a day for an upland based attorney to oversee this process. When this plan was launched it was done in a district employee eyes only email and employees were told they would find trouble with the district if they shared the information that is within.

Dale Marsden told us that no decision has been made and that this DRAFT proposal and that the School Board still has to approve it. The only problem is that Five board members are there all speaking privately about the Draft Proposal and they all are in favor of the proposal.

12th Annual Puttin’ on the Ritz Fine Arts Gala

07 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

The highly anticipated Youth Talent Showcase for the Students of Rialto Unified School District is upon us once again. This event is not only a showcase of Rialtos awesome young talent but a fundraiser for Fine Arts in the District. It also serves as one of the largest collections of the Who’s Who of Rialto. One of this years talent is Sarah Urbieta the Current Youth Chair of the Rialto Community Coalition and an all around awesome young lady. See her preform last year at the Positive Images Conference held at Bob Murphy High School.

12th Annual Puttin’ on the Ritz Fine Arts Gala are now open! This year’s impressive lineup of talented student performers is sure to leave attendees in awe:

2016 Ritz Talent

Owen Knapper, Jr., 6th Grade – Kucera Middle School

Aimee Monge, 5th Grade – Simpson Elementary School

Aubrey Stevenson, 3rd Grade – Fitzgerald Elementary School

Angelica Gonzales, 6th Grade – Rialto Middle School

Jalen Adams, 7th Grade – Kucera Middle School

Chiana Hedgeman, 12th Grade – Eisenhower High School

Kiarissa Ortega, 11th Grade – Eisenhower High School

Luis Vidana, 5th Grade – Casey Elementary School

Alyssa Edwards, 8th Grade – Kolb Middle School

Jocelyn Vega, 10th Grade – Carter High School

Sarah Urbieta, 6th Grade – Kucera Middle School

Casey Ballet Folklorico, 3^rd and 4^th Grade – Casey Elementary School

Rialto Royalz (Dance Team), 8th Grade – Rialto Middle School

Noted as the largest fine arts, student based Gala in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the Ritz has raised over $420,000, benefiting RUSD classroom students and teachers. Since the Ritz’ inception, over 300 students have shared their incredible talents on stage with more than 7,000 audience members throughout the event’s lifetime.

This year, we are proud to welcome esteemed guest emcee, Frank Pine, Executive Editor of the Los Angeles News Group (LANG), which encompasses The San Bernardino Sun and Daily Bulletin. We are also excited to welcome back, as co-emcee, the talented and entertaining 96.7 KCAL Rocks Radio Personality, Jimbo.

Tickets can be purchased by contacting Lana Kosh at (909) 820-7700 ext. 2140 or online by clicking the link HERE

Video by rialto-now

Rialto High School Finishes 1st Place at Nationals

26 Mar 2016 1 Comment

The photo above is from the Rialto Knights Twitter account. The picture shows the waiting moments of waiting for the results on their first place finish at Nationals In Anahiem on Sunday. Well a picture is worth a thousand words and this picture tells it all.

Well if the 1st place finish at the USA Spirit State Championships wasn’t enough your Rialto High School Cheer Team has now finished 1st at the USA Spirit Nationals. The Rialto Cheer team division had nine teams for preliminaries on March 19th and three teams for finals on March 20th. Thousand Oaks placed third and Temple City placed second behind your Rialto Knights!!!!!! See the video of the winning cheer Below:

The AWESOME team of girls took over the stage at the Anaheim Convention Center and owned their performance. The Inland Empire was well represented with teams from Fontana, Rialto, Chino Hills and Beaumont all competing for a win on the National Stage. Were super excited to see this team representing not only the Inland Empire but Rialto in a big way. It’s awesome to see that they were sent off by their classmates in the best way possible to get they big win.

Video by rialto-now

Rialto City Council Meeting Tonight

22 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

Well after a month between meetings we are back from Washington and ready to get back to the business of spending your money. This agenda is super top heavy with lots of Proclamations and Awards for all types of things. One that stands out to us is:

5 16-180 Proclamation-National Public Safety Telecommunications Week Mayor Deborah Robertson

What are we Proclaiming here? With wait times on the phone being as much as 30 minutes and residents reporting that they have called dispatch only to get a recorded message. Yes we know their job isn’t easy but when do we get off that excuse and ask the Police Department to get dispatch under control?

Vice President Gonzalez said something about the West Valley Water Board agendas that makes sense all over especially in Rialto. Millions of dollars is hidden and spent in the Consent Calendar. As you can see below the three we highlighted below are all things that should be examined individually not all at once hidden is a blanket motion. Here is how we break each one down:

E.6 – Request City Council to Approve Amendment No. 1 to the Exclusive Right to Negotiate Agreement with Fernando Acosta for the Development of Approximately 8 Acres of Property Located at the Northeast Corner of Ayala Drive and Renaissance Parkway.

Fernando Acosta is being given exclusive right to negotiate on the cities behalf on a portion of land that has 3 major owners and one that fell under our scrutiny when Cal Trans was using it as a construction storage facility and was full of blight and graffiti. Why is Fernando being given Exclusive Right to Negotiate? Is it because Ed Scott has majority power on the council right now and he is a donor to Ed Scott’s Campaign? Fernando live in the Flores Park Community but is never seen participating in the community efforts and his businesses only help organizations that are close to the Baca Foundation. Even local schools that are struggling to provide for low income kids cant get Fernando’s support. But were giving him access to what would be a multi million dollar deal?

E.10 – Request City Council to Approve an Increase to the Purchase Orders for Fritz Ford for Vehicle Parts in the Amount of $5,000, for a Total Not to Exceed Amount of $20,000.

Pay close attention to how staff spelled FRITTS FORD. We pay these people a lot of money and they can’t even spell the name of a business right especially a business that is Outside of the city of Rialto and is getting $20,000 of our tax money.

E.12 – Request City Council to Authorize an Increase to the Purchase Order with the Daily Journal for Advertising Services in the amount of $15,000 for a total amount of $30,000 in the 2015-2016 Fiscal Year

This one steams me how much are we paying for a subscription to a legal paper? This paper is just a news site for the legal world. Isn’t this something our well paid city attorney should be signing up for? The city claims it has no money for youth development and enrichment and the mayor is attacking groups like the Rotary and Chamber of Commerce all while wasting $30,000 a year on a digital newspaper subscription?

TAB 5 – Request City Council/Rialto Utility Authority to Approve a Third Amendment to the Agreement with West Valley Water District for Operation and Maintenance of Groundwater Contamination Treatment Systems for the 2015/16 Fiscal Year in the Amount of $68,381.69.

This final item is an TAB item (what the items above should be on) and what makes it stand out is the fact that the current President and Vice President of West Valley Water Board spent months telling us that their Groundwater Contamination Treatment Systems are not functioning properly in an effort to damage former General Manager Butch Ariza’s reputation. So the question is are we paying over $68,000 for treatment systems that are not functioning?

Image by rialto-now

Tying The Police Hands & Violence Towards Police Hits Close To Home

18 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Ca, Colton, Crime, Currupt, Inland Empire, Public Safety, San Bernardino, San Bernardino PD, San Bernardino Police

In the past a bad guy would think twice about shooting at a police officer but according to new national statistics, 42 police officers were shot and killed in 2015. Four percent more law enforcement officers at the federal state, territorial and local levels died in the line of duty in 2015 than in 2014, according to a preliminary report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Local Law Enforcement supporters have watched the violence towards the police take place outside of the Inland Empire. Outside of the occasional gun battle between gangs and San Bernardino Police the IE has yet to have a random shooting at Law Enforcement until March 9th that is. Last week an unamred San Bernardino City Community Service Officer was shot at while in his vehicle. According to the ABC 7 news report below the officer was looking to recover a stolen vehicle when shots rang out and struck has patrol car. This happened on the border of Rialto and San Bernardino in the area of Meridian and Foothill. This area is known for rampant drug and gang activity as well as one of the highest concentrations of prostitution in the city of Rialto. The question is how long will it take San Bernardino Police to stop living in the shadow of San Bernardino’s Bankruptcy and Terrorist Attack and get to work cleaning up the mountain of crime? Where is the collaborative efforts to have Rialto Police work with San Bernardino to get things on the border under control?

http://abc7.com/news/san-bernardino-police-searching-for-suspect-who-shot-at-officer/1238774/

The scarey part is there is going to come a point where San Bernardino’s crime will become Rialto’s problem. Another question is are the anti cop crowd now attacking Inland Empire Cop’s?

We reached out to San Bernardino PD about this shooting. We had not heard back from SBPD so we decided to attend a Coffee with a Cop event at Farmer Boys in North San Bernardino. Lt Walker of San Bernardino PD said that they did detain multiple persons of interest but due to the trama of the shooting the CSO was unable to identify the person. They are waiting on DNA and gun powder residue to identify if any of the persons of interest match the evidence that was located.

On another note Lt Walker said that they will be hitting that complex hard with their gang team over the next two days to deal with the issues going on in that complex. Lt Walker said that five homicides in one week.

We had yet to hear from newly elected Councilwoman Littlefeild. People close to her camp have attacked us for asking her for a simple statement on this issue. We will have more on that story later………

Unboxing the Rialto Water Services Water Saving Kit

14 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

As you saw in our un-boxing video there are a number of things you can do inside of your home to save water and most of those things came in this water saver kit. In the video below Joel Greene host of Curiosity Quest shows you how to use the things inside this box and why they work.

Now Rialto Water Services claims to have increased customer service and is working to make your experience with them as painless as possible. What is funny is if you spell the name Rialto Water Services right in google you get this:

Rialto Water Services has not registered their new address with Google. Well who cares right its not like were living in a digital age where use google to locate places. Rialto Water Services spends money where it counts, on the pet projects of our elected officials. Go ahead try and get them to donate money to keep kids off drugs or help people without jobs get training that will help them find work. Unless your connected to one of the elected officials you will find ZERO help here.

Now if your having a bad day you might just stumble over the correct search as long as you don’t click Googles correction of your spelling of the name RialtoWaterServices.