It’s two, two, two events in one as the Taste of the Pomona Valley and Pomona Mayor Elliott Rothman’s State of the City address have been combined into one event.

The combined event is set for Monday, April 9, with the State of the City address beginning at 4:30 p.m., followed by the Taste of the Pomona Valley from 5 to 8 p.m., at the Sheraton Fairplex Conference Center, 601 W. McKinley Ave.

The Taste offers a variety of food and wines from local restaurants, exhibitors from around the Inland Valley, live entertainment, and opportunity drawings for gift packages. Tickets for the drawings will be $5 each, or $20 for an arm’s length of tickets.

Tickets for the event are $40 in advance (or $45 at the door) and available from the Pomona Chamber of Commerce.

For more information about tickets, booth opportunities or sponsorships, contact the Chamber office at 909-622-1256, or any Chamber of Commerce board member or Ambassador.

Update: If you’re interested in attending, you might want to check out the current Groupon deal. You can purchase up to two tickets at only $25 each, and each ticket includes $10 in raffle tickets, which means you’re getting a $50 deal for half price. It looks like the deal’s expired but still available, so it could end at any moment. Click here for the deal.

It’s been reported that “pink slime” is in an estimated 70% of grocery store ground beef.

But the ammonia-treated meat trimming filler has never been in the ground beef from fresh & easy.

While other grocers are quickly changing their ways and attempting to rid their shelves of the stuff, you can easily get rid of it from your refrigerator shelves.

Today (March 28), while supplies last, you can exchange up to two pounds of a competitor’s ground beef for some fresh, never frozen, “pink slime”-free fresh & easy 80% lean ground beef during the neighborhood market’s “Pink Slime Swap Meat.”

For more information, click here.

You can find fresh & easy markets throughout the Inland Empire, except, notably, Loma Linda.