Fontana Ca

A substitute teacher was arrested on suspicion of having sex with a 16-year-old girl, authorities said Thursday. Joseph Scott Pine, 23, was taken into custody Wednesday at his Redlands home after one of the teenager's friends alerted Fontana police to their alleged relationship, officials said. The alleged victim attended classes taught by Pine while he worked for the Fontana Unified School District, Sgt. Douglas Wagner said.

There are two inviolate rules for politicians: Never wear silly hats. And never campaign at sporting events. People have gone there, after all, to escape reality, and candidates are often depressing reminders of what they wanted to leave behind. So the fact that two Republican candidates for governor will be on the track at NASCAR events in Fontana this weekend says something, and it is this: The Inland Empire, that dominion of swing voters, ranks as so potentially prominent this year that being there is worth suffering the boos of 100,000 rabid race fans.

Blaming Fontana for failing to construct sidewalks, a San Bernardino County jury has awarded $37.5 million to the parents of a 14-year-old girl killed when a car struck her as she walked along a busy roadway after school. Karen Medina, a student at A.B. Miller High School, was killed on Cypress Avenue in December 2001 when a car driven by a 15-year-old unlicensed driver veered out of control. In a verdict delivered Monday, the jury decided the city is 75% liable for the damages.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is curbing his enthusiasm. While relishing his near victory in last week's Daytona 500, the most popular driver in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series knows he's back at what has been -- for him -- the unfriendly confines of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Still, Earnhardt said Friday that he hopes to maintain momentum from his second-place finish behind winner Jamie McMurray in the Daytona 500 with another strong showing Sunday at the Fontana track. "I enjoy finishing up front; it had been a long time since we had finished [well]

More than a dozen alleged top members of a family-run Fontana drug trafficking gang have been arrested and guns, drugs, cars and cash seized after a six-month investigation, authorities said Tuesday. The investigation by Fontana police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was capped by the March 23 arrest of 14 alleged members of the Hard Times Gang on suspicion of possessing and distributing methamphetamine. Three other suspects remain at large.

Don't weep for Fontana. The former steel town that gave birth to the Hells Angels has long endured such derisive nicknames as Fontucky and Felony Flats. But as more than 100,000 NASCAR fans descend on Fontana for Sunday's race at the California Speedway, city leaders are holding their heads high. They see the three-day weekend of festivities as an opportunity to unveil the new-and-improved Fontana, a city revitalized by a smoking-hot real estate market and infusion of white-collar families.

A Fontana man facing 180 days in county jail for taking and then crashing a family car killed his father and 12-year-old nephew inside their home over the weekend before shooting himself to death, authorities said Monday. When police arrived at the home Sunday afternoon, they found a "pretty messy, very bloody" crime scene in several rooms and initially believed the incident was a triple homicide, Fontana police spokesman Mark Weissman said.

The son of Crips gang co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams is wanted on suspicion of sexually assaulting a minor and is considered armed and dangerous, police said Tuesday. Lafayette Jones, 36, allegedly picked up a 14-year-old girl in his vehicle Saturday and then sexually assaulted her at gunpoint, according to police Lt. Eric Wendt. Jones is described as 5 feet 6 and 143 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to contact Fontana police at (909) 350-7720.

San Bernardino County Fire Capt. Glen Bales and his crew were fighting to save a horse ranch from the Grand Prix fire in October 2003 when 200-foot flames exploded and "lay down" on top of them, Bales said, whipped sideways by Santa Ana winds. "I thought I was a dead man," he said. Bales often replays those harrowing moments in his head, analyzing every split-second decision in case he finds himself in that spot again. "I've just learned to be a lot more wary of my surroundings," Bales said.

Ten years ago Virginia Geil lost her heart -- to a garage. Not just any garage -- a corrugated metal monster of a garage. A garage so big it could swallow two other garages, an echoing steel cavern crammed with engines, pumps and a boxy, blue milk truck built like a tank. But the 94-year-old relic that dispensed gas, oil and comfort food to travelers heading to Palm Springs had a date with a bulldozer.

NASCAR is back in Fontana, which means Jimmie Johnson will toss and turn at night. "When I go to California, I know the night before I'm not going to sleep well," the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion said of this weekend's race at Auto Club Speedway. "I haven't for the last eight years." That's because Johnson and his rival drivers view Sunday's Auto Club 500, the second race after last weekend's season-opening Daytona 500, as the first true yardstick of how their cars stack up against each other.

Southern California Edison on Monday unveiled its newest power plant: 33,700 solar panels atop a warehouse in Fontana that will feed green energy directly into the grid. It's the first piece of what the utility says could become the largest rooftop solar installation in the world, a swath of photovoltaic panels spanning two square miles. The 600,000-square-foot warehouse rooftop, owned by logistics firm ProLogis Inc.

A 21-year-old Fontana woman died early Saturday after her sedan collided with a pickup truck on the 91 Freeway east of Coal Canyon Road. Kristina Nicole Taylor-Ibarra was pronounced dead at Riverside Community Hospital just hours after the accident, which occurred about 9:20 p.m. Friday. No further details were available.

A substitute teacher was arrested on suspicion of having sex with a 16-year-old girl, authorities said Thursday. Joseph Scott Pine, 23, was taken into custody Wednesday at his Redlands home after one of the teenager's friends alerted Fontana police to their alleged relationship, officials said. The alleged victim attended classes taught by Pine while he worked for the Fontana Unified School District, Sgt. Douglas Wagner said.

Just a week ago, Fontana was a big winner in the fight for a new bankroll of state highway dollars when the California transportation officials set aside $85.7 million to widen a leg of Interstate 10 that slices through the mushrooming city. But that was before Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, upset that L.A.

Ten years ago Virginia Geil lost her heart -- to a garage. Not just any garage -- a corrugated metal monster of a garage. A garage so big it could swallow two other garages, an echoing steel cavern crammed with engines, pumps and a boxy, blue milk truck built like a tank. But the 94-year-old relic that dispensed gas, oil and comfort food to travelers heading to Palm Springs had a date with a bulldozer.

A Fontana police officer was in stable condition Sunday as authorities continued to search for the men who shot him. The 27-year-old officer, whose name was not released, was shot after he stopped a car for a traffic violation Saturday night in north Fontana. The four-year veteran was shot several times in the torso, police said. The officer fired back, but police do not know if he hit the men.

Fontana police arrested a second suspect in a brutal carjacking that left a father of two shot to death shortly after he withdrew money from an ATM during the Labor Day weekend. Jessie Casillas, 18, of Fontana was arrested Monday night, and confessed to the shooting when questioned by detectives, said Fontana Police Sgt. Mark Weissman.

Sheriff's officials have arrested two Fontana residents in connection with the death of a 14-month-old child. The child stopped breathing Tuesday night at the Inland Center Mall and died Wednesday afternoon at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Authorities said the baby had several injuries in varied stages of healing. Sheriff's officials arrested Amy Bell, 21, and Joseph Simon, 23, on suspicion of causing the child's injuries.

The body of a baby was found near a construction area Saturday morning in Fontana, police said. The baby, which appeared to be a newborn, was found inside a plastic container on the side of the road by a passerby about 9 a.m. near Lime Avenue, between Foothill Boulevard and Miller Avenue, according to police and the San Bernardino County coroner's office. The cause of death was unknown pending an autopsy, said Jennifer Schlotterbeck, a police dispatch supervisor.