Column: Do the math: a 2021 weird news countdown

What were the nuttiest, most out-there Inland Empire news stories of 2021? Brace yourselves for my Top 10 countdown, which I present in my Wednesday column. Some of these stories made state or national news. This is my 24th year-end roundup, but only my second since my coverage area expanded to the full IE. If you want a refresher, here’s the 2020 version.

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Column: Season’s greetings as Concert Band returns after 2 years

For my Christmas Eve column, I write about the holiday concert by the Pomona Concert Band from Sunday, the one at which I emceed for the first time (tingle!). If I’m any judge, a pleasant time was had by all. Also: the LA 101 restaurant list goes back to snubbing the IE, I ask readers to tell me a hope they hold for 2022 and Redlands is buying an unusual building for its new police HQ: a vacant Kmart.

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Column: On vacation, Elvira’s bloody dad batwinged it out of Chino

Cassandra Peterson’s memoir has two mentions of Chino, one of them a childhood story about a road trip there that ended abruptly, not to mention humorously, the other about fan mail as an adult. Going from the profane to the sacred, other items are about a Redlands minister in 1907 who became a best-selling author and a screening in Claremont on Thursday of “Fiddler on the Roof.” All this in in my Wednesday column.

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Column: $1M donation, $143k salary, priceless entertainment

I attend my second San Bernardino council meeting and am amply rewarded. And so is the city, because a tribe is donating to Seccombe Lake Park after reading my Sunday column about how it lost out on a grant. How about that! I write about the unusual meeting, which saw the mayor leave twice and the council discuss how to cut his salary, in my Friday column.

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Column: Vicente Fernandez’s death hits home for fans in IE

The death of Vicente Fernandez, the Mexican singer, may have had a cultural impact on par with the demise of Sinatra, but as Fernandez sang in Spanish, you could be forgiven for being only tangentially aware of him. I talk to three of his admirers, and recount the scene at the Ontario concert in 2012 where he kicked off his farewell tour, in my Wednesday column. The topic is a slight stretch for me, but I’m glad I wrote this and hope his fans forgive any fumbles on my part.

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