The Calabasas-based Regency Theatres chain acquired Sterling 6 before the renovations, Regency's Lyndon Golin said.

Golin declined to say how much the company spent on renovations, but Regency's announcement reports the project included new carpets, screens, paint and digital sound.

Friday's first scheduled flick is "Planet 51," which has a starting time of 12:10 p.m. The cinema is near the crossing of Highland and Sterling avenues.

Golin said Sterling 6 will mark its first day back in business with free popcorn and $1 sodas.

There was no clear picture late Wednesday as to what effects San Bernardino's latest financial problems may have on city services. At this point, however, city leaders do not expect to begin a new round of layoffs.

City Manager Charles McNeely was quoted in the official announcement as saying the bulk of the shortfall is the result of property values falling below what was expected.

Assessed valuations within San Bernardino underwent a year-over-year drop of 17 percent, according to McNeely's office.

"The city had only projected a 6 percent drop and changes like this cause us to have to reevaluate our entire strategy," McNeely said in a press release.

City Councilwoman Wendy McCammack said late Wednesday that news did not surprise her.

"It doesn't surprise me. I think since March we've been spending beyond our means," she said.

"Nobody reads The Sun. I don't read The Sun. I'm sorry for The Sun, but it's a fact."

Tuesday's public hearings dealt with San Bernardino's applications to annex the Arrowhead Springs area and six county islands. The commission approved all of the annexations, but some residents living in unincorporated areas objected to the decision.

Some who spoke up said it was their opinion that local officials did not provide enough outreach on the project. Nuami posited The Sun has zero readership after noting that the only legal requirement to notify the public was to print legal notices in the local newspaper.

This reporter has to acknowledge some bias in this matter, but it may interest Nuaimi that our latest circulation figures from September show that we had 47,015 readers that month.

It's no secret that circulation figures for U.S. newspapers have generally been on the decline this decade, but 47,015 people are a lot more than zero.

Besides, it's not like the past year or so has been easy for local government either.

Mayor Pat Morris and other San Bernardino officials anticipate the hotel, which is owned by Campus Crusade for Christ and has not welcomed guests since 1999, can be the centerpiece for future development.

The city has already approved a specific plan that outlines where future homes, businesses and golf courses could be built.

The commission also approved San Bernardino's annexation of six county islands in the northern and eastern parts of the city. This move drew opposition from residents who contended that they did not want to be part of San Bernardino.

State law allows city's to annex islands of less than 150 acres without a vote of residents. The intention of the law is to reduce areas where there is a patchwork of city and county jurisdictions.

Residents who spoke against two of the annexations argued the law was being subverted since two islands actually touch each other. If taken together, the land would exceed the 150 acre threshold.

San Bernardino became the latest California city to restrict tobacco use Monday when the City Council voted unanimously to ban smoking in city parks. The law is scheduled to go into effect in 30 days.

Lighting up can earn smokers a $100 fine after the first offense. Those who get caught smoking again in the same year can expect to see the penalty to escalate to $200, then $500.

A fourth offense in one year makes smoking a misdemeanor, which means the unlawful use of a cigarette, cigar or pipe can be punishable by one year in jail or a $1,000 fine.

The council passed the law on its consent calendar, which is generally reserved for routine items. Jay Lindberg, a member of the public whose voice is often heard during council meetings, maintained the council was enacting an arbitrary prohibition.

"You don't need this law. It's just one more law to tie up some police work," Lindberg said.

Councilman Dennis Baxter, who pushed for the new ban, was not present Tuesday to vote for the item but advocated its passage during the previous council meeting. His request for council action included a petition with 87 signatures supporting the ban.

A UC Riverside-based group called Young Empowered Advocates for Health collected the signatures and more than 3,500 cigarette butts in advance of the council's action.

Councilwoman Wendy McCammack said the new ban is needed to protect children from secondhand smoke.

"The smoking needs to be done outside the park," she said.

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO -- A developer's plans for the Verdemont area have some neighbors upset over a planned retaining wall that could be as high as 26 feet at its tallest point.

"We want the developer to take it back and replan it. We don't the wall," San Bernardino resident Becky Wilson said.

Another neighbor, Kimberly McNair, said she has collected some 500 signatures in opposition to the project, which would be built northwest of the crossing of Verdemont Drive and Palm Avenue.

The counter-argument holds that the wall will be covered with plants, barely visible and but one part of a 43-home development that will include a new storm basin and street lighting.

Developer Eric Borstein and Councilman Chas Kelley share that point of view.

Borstein said the wall's maximum allowable height is 26 feet but he only plans to build the wall as high as 22 feet. He said the wall's average height will be 8 feet.

"Unfortunately, there's been all this attention drawn to the project because of misinformation from a select few people in the community," Borstein said.

The developer said he has heard second- and third- hand rumors that the wall could be tower as high as 80 feet into the air.

Borstein and Kelley also said the wall will be covered with irrigation and have its own irrigation system. Opponents, however, have expressed doubt that the vegetation will be able to take root in a dry area exposed to Santa Ana winds.

Another concern of opponents' is the potential for a "void" that may exist between the Borstein development and existing homes. Kelley responded that the land between existing homes and planned homes is zoned for future residential development and the city's general plan calls for the extension of Verdemont Drive through the "void" area.

Kelley also said there are some 300 homes approved for future development north of Verdemont Drive and he predicted the Borstein development would prove a financial boon for current residents.

"We've got somebody in a down economy who wants to invest in San Bernardino ... that project is going to increase property values," he said.

McNair also brought up the issue of property values, and opined that houses built higher up the foothills than hers should be statelier than her own home.

"This is the place to build million-dollar homes," she said.

An appeal to the Planning Commission's approval of the project's tentative tract map was initially scheduled to go before the City Council on Monday.

Kelley said a procedural glitch means the item is set to be heard at the council's Dec. 7 meeting.

SAN BERNARDINO -- The scheduled opening of a new Forever 21 store will enable Inland Center Mall to fill a major vacancy before the start of the holiday shopping season.

The new Forever 21 store is scheduled to hold a grand opening Saturday. The 94,000 square foot store is 20 times larger than the clothing retailer's previous store at Inland Center.

"The timing is ideal," mall property manager Arun Parmar said.

The new store is scheduled to be the mall's third anchor store, joining Sears and Macy's. Inland Center's fourth anchor store space, formerly occupied by Gottschalks prior to that chain's liquidation, is unoccupied.

The former Gottschalks space, like many other retail vacancies, was the temporary home of a Halloween store in October.

"We're really just evaluating the best fir for the shopping center and the community," Parmar said.

The new Forever 21 store is slated to open in space that became vacant as a result of Federated Department Stores' 2005 purchase of May Department Stores. The store's impending arrival is the newest development in a nearly five-year shuffling of anchor tenants at the mall.
Prior to the department store chains' merger, Inland Center and several other U.S. malls were home to both Macy's and Robinsons's-May department stores.

Federated chose to phase out the Robinson's-May brand. The Robinsons-May store at Inland Center closed in March 2006 and the mall's Macy's moved into its former competitor's spot.
Inland Center announced in early 2008 that a Mervyn's would occupy the previous Macy's location, but Mervyn's vanished from the retail map later that year.

Forever 21 is filling the gaps left by vanishing department stores. The chain has replaced Mervyn's at the Mall of Victor Valley in the High Desert and other locations.

The event is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. and a salute to vets and the USA is scheduled for 1 p.m. Plaza Park is near the corner of Seventh Street and Mount Vernon Avenue.

The race to represent the 4th Ward pitted Arnett against incumbent Fred Shorett, a local businessman.

Arnett was a virtual unknown when he entered the fray for March's Special Election, which Shorett won by a large margin.

He snagged support from the firefighters' union and council members Chas Kelley and Wendy McCammack - all Shorett supporters in the springtime contest - but the political shift was only enough to narrow the gap between the two candidates.

Arnett made firefighting a central issue of his campaign, arguing that Shorett reneged on his promise to support public safety when he chose not to support Kelley's efforts to reverse Fire Department budget cuts. Kelley sought to restore funding that allowed some engine companies to have four-person crews.

Shorett has said the city cannot afford higher staffing levels and that his position is based on fiscal prudence and that his support for the Fire Department never included any specific pledge to support a given staffing level.

The Nov. 3 vote was close enough to make Shorett nervous until updated totals came in on Nov. 6. Shorett, who has decades of business experience in the city, emerged as the victor.

Arnett posted the following post-election message on his campaign Web site.

"A sincere and heartfelt thank you goes out to all of my family, friends, volunteers' supporters and voters! The efforts you made to close an almost insurmountable deficit from the special election, a margin some would say, "Isn't worth trying." - to come so close is very disappointing yet, very much worth trying and we finished much closer than the opposition expected.

"When you consider how far the "Go With JOE" campaign has come, netting 19.8% of the vote last March in the special election to 47.5% now - and that we came within 5% of the Mayor's chosen candidate with congressional support, we simply had time expire.

"I feel confident we would have won based on momentum had there been a few more weeks.

"The political status quo managed to dodge a bullet and got a bit lucky libeling me the weekend before election with last minute mailers and an early endorsement from fire management all worked to confuse just enough voters. That I suppose is the game of politics and the will of the people.

"I'll continue in some manner to represent issues important to us 4th warders and the city and I will continue to work for transparent, honest and accountable public service representation focused on fixing the problems facing our community.

"Again, thank you to everyone.

"Best Regards,
Joe Arnett"

SAN BERNARDINO - Movie fans will almost certainly have to go somewhere other than downtown to watch this year's slate of holiday films and Oscar bait.

The chief executive of Maya Cinemas, Moctesuma Esparza, said Monday that he's not ready to say when projectors may start rolling at the downtown cinema building where his Los Angeles-based theater company wants to do business.

"I'm reluctant to give you a date because I'm disappointed with how the government processing has gone," Esparza said.

The City Council has chosen Maya Cinemas as the likely successor to CinemaStar. The latter company bailed from the downtown cinema, located near the crossing of Fourth and E Streets, in September 2008.

The San Bernardino Economic Development Agency has applied for a federal loan to help finance Maya Cinemas' project.

Esparza and EDA chief Emil Marzullo have said the government has approved the financing plans, but Uncle Sam has not yet dispatched the necessary paperwork for the council to move forward.

In April, a council majority agreed to borrow $9 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Maya later agreed to take on half of the debt, but the deal has yet to be formally approved.

Esparza said that if the feds relay their approval by the end of the year, it would be conceivable to start showing movies in March.

Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell
Staff Writer

Staff Sgt. Stephen Cook signed off every e-mail sent home from Iraq during his last tour of duty the same way: "I do what I do, so others won't have to."

No matter what myriad horrors the young soldier experienced during three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, he never once forgot he was there to serve his country.

"A lot of people do it to get the GI Bill and then get a rude awakening when they are deployed," he said on the eve of Veterans Day. "Honestly, once I became a teenager and realized how great our country is, I knew I had to serve."

The 30-year-old Cook, of San Bernardino, spent most of his youth going beyond the call of duty, from his first tour soon after the initial invasion of Iraq to his last, when he and fellow soldiers began to question what they were doing there.

Cook was introduced to military life early. As a boy, he lived all over the world with his parents, who were in the U.S. Air Force. Home included bases in Holland, Texas and California. When the family settled in Southern California, he graduated from Bonita High School in La Verne.

"It was interesting, an adventure. Some people say they have known their best friend since kindergarten," he said. "As for me, I didn't meet mine until sophomore year in high school."

He enlisted in the Army during his senior year. After a two-week vacation on the East Coast, he went into basic training.

He has been with the 315th Psychological Operations Company, based in Upland, since 1997.

Initially, he was in the motor pool before switching jobs to become a psychological operations specialist, which he remains to this day.

His first deployment was to Iraq in the spring of 2003. It was a heady, exciting time for the American troops.

Although there were signs of war everywhere, from the smell of death in buildings to blood-stained streets, the Iraqi people were in a celebratory mood following the fall of Saddam Hussein and happy to see the troops.

"Everyone was so friendly, they would chant, `good good Bush' and `good, good mister,"' he said. "I was a turret gunner and they treated me like a movie star."

But by the end of the tour, the people's elation had turned to anger. There were small-arms attacks and more suicide bombers. People went from "happy to see you" to "we want you out of here."

Cook came home, working as a bank teller and substitute teacher for the Fontana Unified School District before leaving for his second deployment to Afghanistan in February 2006.

Because the mission was classified, all he can say is he found Afghanistan to be more intense and violent than Iraq.

Life returned to normal after his second deployment. He studied Spanish for a time in Mexico, bought a home with his fiancee in San Bernardino and had a baby boy.

So when he leaned he was to be deployed for a third time, he was reluctant to go.

"I tried to fight it, even contacted my congressman," he said. "Because I wanted to be with my family, my son and I felt like I had done my duty."

It was to no avail. He was deployed to Iraq in August, 2008.

This time, he saw more suffering.

There was more sectarian violence, and two of the convoys he was in were hit by improvised explosive devices.

"It made you get focused, seeing soldiers crying for help," he said. "At the same time it was difficult working with Iraqi security forces and my fellow soldiers were themselves tired of serving in Iraq."

Now that Cook, who earned a Bronze Star on his third tour, is home, all he wants is to get on with his life and find stability.

Today, Veterans Day, he and his fiancee hope to visit Knott's Berry Farm and get a free meal at an Applebee's restaurant.

"The ultimate goal of any American soldier is to go to war and serve his country, and I did it three times," he said. "So I will be celebrating."

The updated numbers include late-arriving mail-in ballots that were not counted Tuesday, the day San Bernardino's voters went to the polls.

New numbers from the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters show that Marquez now has 34 vote lead over incumbent Esther Estrada in the race to represent the city's 1st Ward. Marquez has 637 votes (51.37 percent) to Estrada's 603 (48.63 percent).

In the 2nd Ward Race, Desjardins' count is now 628 votes (52.95 percent) to incumbent Dennis Baxter's 558 votes (47.05 percent).

In the 4th Ward Race, incumbent Fred Shorett has 1958 votes (52.45 percent) to challenger Joe Arnett's 1775 votes (47.55 percent).

"I hope it changes. I've extended the olive branch to the mayor several times," Penman said Wednesday.

Semi-official election results credited Penman with 37 percent of the vote. Mayor Pat Morris was reelected with about 55 percent of votes cast.

Whatever the number of olive branches that have been extended between Penman and Morris, there have also been repeated flare-ups between the two officials within City Hall and on the campaign trail.

The most recent tensions grew out of a memo that was leaked during the Sept. 21 City Council meeting. The document reported circumstances of a sex offender who performed work at a church that hosts a city youth center.

The council voted that day to demand the church ban sex offenders or lose money that pays for the youth center. Penman accused Morris of trying to cover up a danger to children and sent investigators to pass out notification flyers around the church.

Local clergy viewed the ultimatum as a threat to their First Amendment rights and crowded an October council meeting to protest Penman's and the council's actions. A council majority rescinded its demand.

At the time, Penman called protest a campaign stunt organized by pro-Morris clergy. Wednesday, he said he didn't think the episode was a decisive moment in the campaign.
"I think the mayor has a strong following. He's very charismatic and I think a lot of people like him," Penman said.

Penman said on election night that Morris' support probably includes a contingent of ex-convicts. He did not press that line of argument in an interview Wednesday.

Penman's signature campaign issue was an eastside redevelopment project that is intended to transform a cluster of apartments along 19th Street and Sunrise Lane.

Morris viewed the project, which would include the demolition of 144 apartment units, as means to transform the area and provide housing to people who are poor, but law abiding.

Penman maintained that federal requirements to lease 100 units to low-income tenants would eventually result in parolees living in apartments improved at taxpayer expense.

"I did the best I could to stop it by running for mayor," Penman said.

SAN BERNARDINO -- The vast majority of registered voters here chose not to participate in the city election.

San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Kari Verjil said there are 69,202 people listed on San Bernardino's voting rolls, and 12,295 of them voted on Tuesday.

Those numbers calculate to a voter turnout of just under 18 percent. In other words, less than one-fifth of San Bernardino's registered voters chose to exercise their right to help decide who will lead the city as mayor.

In case anyone cares, incumbent Mayor Pat Morris won another four-year term. He defeated two challengers, City Attorney James F. Penman and contractor Rick Avila.

"We deal with the reality of we have. This (low turnout) is not unique to our city," Morris said. "For reasons that are not readily apparent, the level of interest, the level of involvement is modest."

Turnout for Tuesday's election continues the decline in voter participation in recent city elections.

In 2007, when Penman's office and four council seats were up for a vote, about 21 percent of registered voters actually cast ballots.

About 23 percent of San Bernardino's voters participated in the February 2006 run-off between Morris and Penman.

In the November 2005 mayoral election, representative democracy was worth the time of nearly 26 percent of the city's registered voters.

Morris suggested that San Bernardino may increase voter turnout in the future by following the example of Riverside and shifting its elections to even-numbered years, when state and federal offices are also on the ballot.

Riverside also had an mayoral election Tuesday. That city's incumbent, Ron Loveridge, cq won an abbreviated three-year term.

Riverside's next mayoral election is set for June 2012, which is also the year of the next presidential primary.

Three of San Bernardino's City Council seats, those representing the city's 1st, 2nd and 4th wards, were also up for a vote on Tuesday.

A handful of votes could make a big difference in the 1st Ward contest. Challenger Virginia Marquez enjoyed a nine-vote lead over incumbent Esther Estrada when semi-official results came out late Tuesday.

Elections officials are scheduled to announce their next updated vote count at 5 p.m. Friday.
Verjil said there are roughly 6,000 late-arriving mail-in ballots from races across the county that have yet to be counted.

SAN BERNARDINO -- The county's top election official said Wednesday that her office is likely to perform a hand count before certifying results in the race to represent the city's 1st Ward.

"I might do that because this is such a close race," said Kari Verjil, registrar of voters for San Bernardino County.

Semi-official election results show challenger Virginia Marquez with a nine-vote lead over incumbent Esther Estrada, the City Council's longest serving member. The 1st Ward includes downtown, part of the Westside and the area around San Bernardino International Airport.
Verjil said she plans to record final election results by Nov. 23.

A hand count would be technically different from a recount. A candidate or citizen would be able to request a recount after the Registrar of Voters office completes its canvassing of votes cast in Tuesday's election.

Even if a hand count shows that semi-official results in the 1st Ward race were completely accurate, there is still a chance that Estrada could emerge as the ultimate winner.

"Like anything else, if it's not documented, it doesn't exist, so I'm waiting for the official numbers," said Marquez, who on Wednesday was nonetheless excited by the possibility that she was the victorious candidate.

Verjil said there are some 6,000 mail-in ballots from across San Bernardino County that have yet to be counted. An estimated 175 of those ballots are from 1st Ward voters.

"The 1st Ward's decision hasn't been made," Estrada said.

The uncounted ballots could have been hand-delivered to elections officials on Tuesday or arrived in the mail prior to the Election Day deadline.

The Registrar of Voters next scheduled update on election results is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday.
Tuesday's election also included contests for the Mayor's Office and the 2nd and 4th council wards.

The results of the 1st Ward election could determine whether reelected Mayor Pat Morris cq can continue to govern with a council majority on his side.

The council frequently votes 4-3 on controversial issues. The majority supports Morris and Estrada joined council members Chas Kelley and Wendy McCammack on the dissenting bloc.
Morris supported Marquez's campaign, and his favored candidate in the 4th Ward contest, Fred Shorett, stands to win reelection.

In the 2nd Ward, however, challenger Jason Desjardins is the likely winner over Morris-friendly incumbent Dennis Baxter.

Desjardins had the same campaign consultant as City Attorney James F. Penman, Morris' leading opponent in the mayoral race. Desjardins said Wednesday that he doesn't want to be considered tied to any political cliques.

"Until you see me vote, it would be kind of hard to paint me into that corner," Desjardins said.
All three council elections were close. Desjardins had a 50 vote advantage over Baxter in the most recent vote count. Shorett won 98 votes more than Arnett.