California cleared driverless trucks. The Inland Empire is where the reckoning lands.
Citrus Belt Review: In April, California finalized the rules that let heavy-duty autonomous trucks operate on state roads — lifting a ban that made it the only state to explicitly prohibit them. The first commercial driverless runs are headed for Texas, not the I-10. But no region in America has more riding on what happens next than the Inland Empire, where one in five jobs moves freight and the single largest occupation is the thing the technology is built to replace.
Redlands schools delay YMCA after-school vote, push first review to March
Community Forward Redlands: After awarding the Boys & Girls Club a three-year, $11.25 million contract to run after-school programs at seven schools, Redlands Unified isn't phasing the YMCA out — it's giving the longtime provider a parallel deal and more runway to prove a revamped program works.
Caltrans says Carbon Canyon Road truck ban is temporary, tied to plan to widen switchbacks
Champion Newspapers: Caltrans told about 100 Carbon Canyon residents the truck restriction they'd treated as permanent is temporary — and that the agency has long planned to widen the road's switchbacks to move goods through more efficiently.
Redlands adopts six-stage water shortage plan, can restrict ornamental fountains in a drought
Redlands Community News: The council adopted a stand-alone Water Shortage Contingency Plan after a June 2 public hearing, setting a six-stage framework for rationing water during droughts and supply disruptions.
San Bernardino County's gap between what people earn and what they need is the widest in Southern California
Citrus Belt Review: California has the nation's top-ranked economy and one of its worst inequality rankings — 49th of 50. The statewide numbers get the headlines. By the county's own measure, a San Bernardino County family needs about $128,000 a year to cover basic needs and earns a median of roughly $85,000 — a gap wider than Orange County's or Los Angeles County's, in the part of the state long sold as California's last affordable frontier.
Redlands council votes 5–0 to draft a citywide ban on new warehouses
Community Forward Redlands: A unanimous Redlands council told staff to write an ordinance banning new warehouse construction in every zoning district in the city.
Riverside picks LA housing attorney James Johnson as city attorney at $372,624, waives 12-day notice rule to do it
The Raincross Gazette: The council waived its own Sunshine Ordinance to push the hire through as an add-on item, ending a city attorney vacancy that had run since April 2025.
Riverside Council to appoint James Johnson city attorney at $372,624, waiving public-review rule
The Raincross Gazette: The Council plans to waive the Sunshine Ordinance — which requires items be posted for public review before a vote — to appoint James Johnson city attorney at $372,624 a year ahead of its June 23 meeting.
Chino Hills sales tax measure would raise $11.5M a year against a $4.3M deficit
Champion Newspapers: A one-cent sales tax headed for the Nov. 3 ballot would close a projected $4.3 million gap in a Chino Hills general fund the city expects to run $63.5 million in spending against $59.2 million in revenue.
San Bernardino County Fire deploys robot dog for High Desert rescue operations
Victorville Daily Press: The San Bernardino County Fire Department has debuted a robotic dog to assist with emergency and rescue operations across Victorville and the High Desert. Built by Irvine-based HawkRobo, the four-legged robot handles situational awareness and mapping inside collapsed, hazardous, or otherwise dangerous buildings — keeping firefighters out of the riskiest spaces while crews assess what's inside.
San Bernardino County puts $900,000 into Rancho Cucamonga's Family Resource Center
IE Business Daily: The county is funding a two-year overhaul of the Arrow Route social-services hub, with the work split between the county and the city.
San Bernardino County faces a fair-housing test over the Bloomington warehouse it already lost once
Citrus Belt Review: A San Bernardino judge already forced the county to redo its environmental review of the 213-acre Bloomington Business Park. The harder question is the one still open: whether approving a warehouse that demolished more than 100 homes in an 84% Latino community broke California's fair-housing law — a theory that, if it holds, gives warehouse opponents a tool CEQA doesn't offer.
Ontario airport starts environmental review for new Terminal 3
Ontario International Airport: The airport authority opened a 10-year buildout for public review on May 7, betting that passenger demand already brushing against its current terminals will keep climbing.
San Bernardino County approves $10.9B budget, down $26.1M from this year
IE Business Daily: The county's FY2026-27 budget lands $26.1 million below the current year — a 0.24% trim against a $10.9 billion base, the rare government budget that shrinks.
Affordable housing project would replace Chino strawberry stand with 210 units
Champion Newspapers: A 210-unit affordable complex is proposed for the eight-acre Mora's Berries site, putting housing density on one of the last working agricultural parcels at a major Chino intersection.
San Bernardino transportation authority approves record $1.4 billion budget
IE Business Daily: The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority's $1.4 billion spending plan for fiscal 2026–27 is the largest in its history — roughly $1.1 billion in new revenue against $364 million carried over, a measure of how much freeway, rail, and transit work the county has queued up.
State audit clears RUSD's Measure O spending, faults it on transparency
The Riverside Record: A state auditor reviewing the shelved STEM Academy expansion found Riverside Unified spent its $392 million bond legally but never clearly told voters the money could fund new construction — the gap between what a 2016 ballot measure promised and how a district spends it nearly a decade later.
Riverside utility board sends 5.7% electric and water fee increase to council
The Raincross Gazette: After the council rejected tying future fees automatically to inflation, staff brought the same 5.7% bump back as a one-time, standalone action — pegged to two years of regional CPI.
Redlands holds budget vote until June 16 over fire and police staffing
Community Forward Redlands: The council won't approve its two-year spending plan until staff comes back with a firefighter-staffing timeline — including a possible fifth fire station — and a clearer read on how nine open labor contracts will hit the General Fund.
Hernandez leads Riverside's Ward 6 race as the seat sits empty
The Raincross Gazette: Riverside's Ward 6 has no councilmember right now, and the special election to fill it won't be official until July — leaving a city council seat vacant for weeks while ballots are still being counted.