Rialto Ca

Federal authorities on Thursday took legal action against a Rialto tax preparation business accused of submitting fraudulent returns that cost the federal treasury $20 million. The federal lawsuit was filed by the tax division of the U.S. Justice Department. The suit claims that from 1999 to 2003 Carla D. Berry, Karen D. Berry, Valerie Dixon and Ivan T. Johnson, or NCK Services Inc.

More Rialto homeowners living along busy streets can get up to $7,000 to spruce up their houses. The Exterior Home Beautification Program, designed to enhance the city's image, has been expanded to a neighborhood bounded by Riverside, Merrill and Pepper avenues and Base Line Road. Homeowners must live along a major thoroughfare. The 2-year-old Redevelopment Agency program provides grants of up to $7,000, said John Dutrey, city housing specialist.

Rialto is developing a taste for grease. A Rialto wastewater treatment plant will be powered in the future by used kitchen grease, waste sludge and a hydrogen fuel cell under a $15.1-million project to be announced today. The city of Rialto, which teamed with Chevron Energy Solutions and FuelCell Energy, said the endeavor would cut landfill wastes and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as bring in new revenue and save the city $800,000 a year in energy costs.

A Los Angeles-bound Metrolink commuter train collided with a car stuck in traffic at a railroad crossing in Rialto on Wednesday, killing the driver and disrupting train traffic throughout the afternoon, authorities said. The train hit the car at the Riverside Avenue crossing about 2:15 p.m., pushing it more than 400 feet down the tracks. The mangled car came to rest on the platform of the Rialto Metrolink station, said Lt. Tony Farrar of the Rialto Police Department.

Rialto city officials have declared a state of emergency, citing concerns about a shrinking water supply in danger of further contamination by dangerous chemicals. The City Council voted on the declaration Tuesday in an attempt to secure state funding to halt the spread of industrial perchlorate in city groundwater. The growing, six-mile-long chemical plume in the north end of the San Bernardino County city contaminates 360 million gallons of groundwater each month.

Beginning this week, Rialto residents will be asked to reduce their water use by a third because of perchlorate contamination, high temperatures and demands placed on the city's wells by other users, said Public Works Director Brad Baxter. "Our backup water supply is gone," said Baxter. The biggest culprit: ground water contamination by perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient that had been handled by military users and defense contractors since World War II.

Although the opening of the final leg of the 210 Freeway through Rialto and San Bernardino is still several months away, merchants and city officials are gleeful at the thought of new businesses already being planned along the roadway and for another route to the Los Angeles area.

After more than three decades with the city's police department, Capt. David Hinig is vying to become police chief of the Inland Empire city of Rialto. Rialto's city administrator is expected to make a final selection between Hinig and a deputy chief from Oakland by the end of the month. The two are currently undergoing background checks, officials said. Rialto is a growing San Bernardino County city with a population of 86,000, compared with a population of 52,000 in Arcadia.

A 19-year-old woman shot her ex-boyfriend, a Fontana police officer, to death at his home and then killed herself early Saturday, authorities said. Sheriff's deputies found the bodies of Mario Nelson, 31, and ex-girlfriend Antoinette Marie Smith just beyond the garage door of the officer's home in unincorporated Rialto, said Robin Haynal of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. A neighbor on Geremander Avenue called authorities about 7:15 a.m.

The Federal Elections Commission has levied a $3,200 fine against Rep. Joe Baca (D-Rialto) for a variety of campaign finance violations in the 1999 special election that first sent him to Congress and in the 2000 primary election. According to the agreement, Baca: * Accepted corporate contributions, which are prohibited, from Coors Distributing Co. ($500) and Saturn of Chino Valley ($1,000). He later returned the money.