Mira Loma

Turns out Shawn Langdon's win at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona was just the start of a breakout year for the drag racer from Mira Loma. Langdon, 30, drives in the premier top-fuel class of the National Hot Rod Assn.'s Mello Yello Series, and he's won the last two races: In Topeka, Kan., and last weekend in Englishtown, N.J. That's vaulted Langdon into the lead of the championship standings by a slim four points over seven-time champion Tony Schumacher as the series heads to Bristol, Tenn., this weekend for the Ford Thunder Valley Nationals.

It's been a challenging, rewarding and revealing year for America's first family of drag racing, the Forces of Yorba Linda. John Force, the 64-year-old patriarch, was in fifth place in the Mello Yello Series funny-car standings in July before a switch to a new chassis on his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang vaulted him toward his 16th title, which he clinched in Las Vegas two weeks ago. He followed that up Friday by leading the funny-car qualifying at...

Playing in baseball stadiums like Boston's Fenway Park will soon become a dream come true for amateur athletes in Riverside County. HNTB Design/Build Inc., an Irvine-based designer of major league baseball diamonds, is building several new sports parks in Mira Loma that replicate historic major-league fields--New York's Polo Grounds, Pittsburgh's Forbes Field and Boston's Fenway. The parks will be part of the county's new Big League Dreams Jurupa Valley Sports Park, a $6.

Months of eavesdropping on two drug trafficking organizations that smuggled methamphetamine and cocaine across the border from Mexico culminated in the federal indictment of 30 suspects in a drug trafficking conspiracy. During early mornings raids Wednesday, seven of the named defendants were arrested at homes across Southern California as part of the 12-count indictment involving the transportation, distribution and delivery of drugs throughout Los Angeles and surrounding counties.

Chained together in clusters, 159 inmates stepped off three Sheriff's Department buses and returned Friday to the Mira Loma Detention Facility in the Antelope Valley, three days after budgetary brinkmanship had sent them packing for other jails. The inmates were stripped and searched, as always, but this time the scene at the former airfield west of Lancaster was more like a homecoming.

Firefighters on Sunday were mopping up hotspots from a wildfire that charred 158 acres of dense brush near Mira Loma in Riverside County, authorities said. The blaze was contained early Sunday, but 80 firefighters were still at work. The fire was not expected to be extinguished until late today, said California Department of Forestry spokeswoman Rebekah Luther. The fire started at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday near the Santa Ana River and continued east into heavy brush, authorities said.

An Iraqi refugee detained by the federal government at the Mira Loma jail attempted to kill himself by taking an unknown number of over-the-counter painkiller pills, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Monday. Mohammed Jassin Tuma, 28, was rushed to the Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center on Sunday night and returned to the facility later that night, Deputy Jim Hellmold said. "He is out of danger but is on a 72-hour observation," Hellmold said Monday.

A six-hour demonstration by hundreds of detainees imprisoned in Lancaster ended Monday after negotiators pledged to accelerate bogged-down deportation proceedings. Up to 650 inmates participated in the largest protest ever staged at the Mira Loma Detention Center. Many flung bright orange prison clothing and trash onto razor-wire fences while others unfurled banners made from bedsheets and yelled to spectators, demanding that they be deported or released on bond.

The first busload of federal detainees was transferred to the long-closed Mira Loma jail on Monday as part of Los Angeles County's new deal with the federal government, an agreement that will provide badly needed funds for the languishing Twin Towers Jail. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service is paying the county $7.2 million a year to use Mira Loma to house 500 detainees.

Ingram Micro Inc. in Santa Ana, the largest computer products distributor, has agreed to a $31-million, 10-year lease in Riverside County for what will be its largest distribution center. The deal for an 800,000-square-foot facility, to be built in Mira Loma and leased from Pacific Newport Properties in Irvine, is believed to be one of the largest ever completed in Riverside County.

Thirty workers didn't report for their jobs Wednesday at a warehouse supplying Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other retailers, protesting alleged retaliation from managers after employees complained about poor working conditions, organizers said. The action in Mira Loma is the latest in a string of protests against warehouses and logistics companies in the Inland Empire by Warehouse Workers United, a union-backed advocacy group pushing for better working conditions. The workers, who aren't represented by a union, staged a rally at a warehouse operated by Olivet International Inc., which sells apparel and luggage to various retailers, including Wal-Mart, Target Corp.

Turns out Shawn Langdon's win at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona was just the start of a breakout year for the drag racer from Mira Loma. Langdon, 30, drives in the premier top-fuel class of the National Hot Rod Assn.'s Mello Yello Series, and he's won the last two races: In Topeka, Kan., and last weekend in Englishtown, N.J. That's vaulted Langdon into the lead of the championship standings by a slim four points over seven-time champion Tony Schumacher as the series heads to Bristol, Tenn., this weekend for the Ford Thunder Valley Nationals.

The last wish of a sky diver who died over the weekend was to be cremated and have his ashes spread across the sky, his family said. Ken Oka, 62, was performing a maneuver with a group of sky divers shortly after 3 p.m. when he got ensnared in the chute and couldn't free himself, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. The Mira Loma man landed in a backyard in the 19000 block of Sweetwood Lane and was pronounced dead at the hospital, the department said. His last wish was to have his ashes spread during a final jump, KTLA reported.

A 62-year-old skydiver was killed Saturday after he became entangled in a parachute and plummeted into a Lake Elsinore backyard, authorities said. Ken Oka, of Mira Loma, was performing a maneuver with a group of skydivers shortly after 3 p.m. when he got ensnared in the chute and couldn't free himself, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.  Oka landed in the 19000 block of Sweetwood Lane and was pronounced dead at a hospital, the department said. A sheriff's investigation is underway.

The day after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. named a former advisor to President George W. Bush to head its corporate and government affairs division, two activist groups filed complaints accusing the retail behemoth and its suppliers of poor labor practices. In more than 30 allegations of unfair labor practices filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday and Thursday, the Our Walmart advocacy organization accused the chain of trying to silence protesting workers. The complaints claim that the company retaliated against, disciplined, intimidated, surveilled and sometimes terminated employees in six states, including California, after the workers voiced opposition to various Wal-Mart activities.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has run the Mira Loma Detention Center, one of the largest immigration jails in the state, for more than a decade. But next month, the center is scheduled to close because Sheriff Lee Baca and federal authorities can't agree on the basic rules governing how the jail should operate. There are several areas of disagreement between the two sides. But in general, the Department of Homeland Security deserves praise for fulfilling its pledge to hold immigration jailers like Baca accountable and for imposing standards to ensure that the tens of thousands of immigrants across the country, including asylum seekers, are being treated fairly and humanely.

Two western Riverside County pedestrians died this week after being hit by cars while out walking. Larry F. Pierce, 42, of Mira Loma died Wednesday night when a hit-and-run driver struck him on Jurupa Road, west of Martin Street in Mira Loma, a coroner's spokeswoman said. Michael Cavanaugh, 28, of Norco died Tuesday at Riverside General Hospital two days after being hit by a car on Sierra Avenue between 6th and Detroit streets in Norco.

Students expelled from local high schools will be allowed to take classes at the abandoned Mira Loma Jail under a plan approved Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Antelope Valley Union High School District officials had pushed for the use of the old jail, hoping that the facility's grim surroundings would scare wayward kids straight. "This will have a tremendous visual impact on the kids there," said district Trustee Bill Olenick.

The thermometer hit 108 degrees at one point during an ongoing six-day, 50-mile protest march from the Inland Empire to Los Angeles by warehouse employees. No matter. Temperatures inside the metal containers the workers load and unload on a daily basis are usually much higher, hitting 120 degrees on hot days. "They become like little ovens in there," said Ruben Valadez, 61, who works as a "lumper" loading cargo at a Mira Loma warehouse. About 50 workers and supporters started their protest march Thursday.