San Bernardino Ca

The mother of a kidnapped 3-year-old boy made a desperate plea for his release Tuesday before draping herself over his picture and sobbing. "Please, I am asking them to release my son and give him back to me," a distraught Maria Rosalina Millan implored in Spanish during a news conference at the San Bernardino County sheriff's station. "He doesn't owe anything. I don't owe anything. He's a good boy."

Two San Bernardino teenagers were charged with murder Tuesday in the death of an 87-year-old woman who was beaten into a coma with hammers while her mobile home was being robbed. Investigators say Cesar Pulido and Mike Garcia, both 16, crawled through Storma Del' Andrae's window Feb. 11 and used hammers to pummel her in the head. Del' Andrae was left bloody and unconscious while the suspects stuffed a suitcase with jewelry and other valuables, officials said.

The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a new trial be held to determine if the city of San Bernardino intentionally misled a judge during its battle to close down a notorious strip club that officials said was actually a brothel. The Flesh Club closed in 1995 for nearly five years, after a judge issued an injunction banning nude dancing in the establishment. The judge used information from the city that later turned out to be wrong. The ruling put on hold the nude cabaret's demand for $1.

On the West Side of San Bernardino, most everyone knew Johnny and Gilbert Agudo. They'd grown up in the tight-knit barrio. Handsome and charismatic, they were the presidents of two cliques of the West Side Verdugo street gang: Johnny, 31, of 7th Street Locos and Gilbert, 27, of the Little Counts. United, they led their gangs in feuds with rivals from other parts of town. But then things took an unexpected turn.

In case anyone is confused, Ryan Welty likes to point out that the Flesh Club is not a Christian Science Reading Room, nor is it a church or high-minded civic organization. "We are not a sympathetic member of society," the club owner concedes. "There are naked ladies in there. It's a very sexually charged atmosphere." That's putting it mildly, San Bernardino officials say. They allege the strip club is little more than a front for a brothel. Patrons go there for sex, they say, not to see a show.

A Rialto man wanted for questioning in a Moreno Valley slaying was shot and wounded while trying to flee, officials said Monday. David Molina, 28, had been tracked to a motel in the 1100 block of E Street about 11:15 p.m. Friday, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said. He ran off, pursued by deputies who shot him when he appeared to reach for a weapon in his waistband, the spokeswoman said. She said Molina was arrested on suspicion of violating his parole.

An assistant administrator with San Bernardino's school district was arrested Thursday after being accused of having a yearlong relationship with a 14-year-old female student nine years ago when she was a teacher at a San Bernardino middle school. Michelle Rossi, 36, was taken into custody Thursday morning at her home in Aliso Viejo.

How much does free speech cost? Exactly $17,674.06, according to Latino activist Armando Navarro, who received a bill from the city of San Bernardino. The tab stems from a March 17 pro-immigrant rally that attracted about 1,000 people. Navarro, coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights and a UC Riverside ethnic studies professor, said his group meticulously planned the peaceful rally beforehand, meeting with city officials and police, and paying for permits and liability insurance.

The Justice Department said Friday that San Bernardino is one of the cities where teams of federal agents are being dispatched to combat violent crime. The others are Mesa, Ariz.; Orlando, Fla.; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The announcement comes as the FBI prepares to release new numbers next week showing that violent crime continues to rise nationally.

The bystander who filmed a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy shooting an unarmed airman after a high-speed chase last year testified Tuesday that he clearly heard the officer order the man to get up from the ground "several times" just before the officer fired and that he never saw the airman threaten or rush the deputy. But the lead attorney for former Deputy Ivory John Webb Jr.