San Bernardino County

The chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on Friday called for a special meeting next week to discuss ways to oust recently arrested county Assessor Bill Postmus from his job. "After [Thursday's] investigative raids by the district attorney's office and the arrest of Mr. Postmus, it is clear that this intolerable situation has to be remedied immediately," Chairman Gary Ovitt said.

The state attorney general's office will join an expanding probe of political corruption in San Bernardino County centered largely on the past activities of the assessor's office, officials said Monday. So far the investigation has led to the arrest of former Assessor Bill Postmus and four former employees in his office. Allegations include using the assessor's staff to do political work, forgery, grand theft, perjury and failure to report gifts from a developer. Postmus was arrested in January on drug charges.

San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus, who said publicly that he had battled but overcome drug addiction, was arrested Thursday on charges that include felony possession of methamphetamine. About 50 agents from the county district attorney's office, armed with 10 search warrants, raided locations in San Bernardino, Highland, Apple Valley, Victorville and Rancho Santa Margarita in Orange County.

An investigation into the slaying of a Placentia girl that baffled law enforcement officials for eight years came to an end this week when authorities charged a convicted rapist in connection with her death. Raymond J. Barthlett, 34, was arrested Friday after DNA evidence linked him to the slaying of 14-year-old Wendy Osborn. She was abducted Jan. 20, 1987, while walking to school and was later raped and killed.

Two small earthquakes struck San Bernardino County near here Sunday night. No one was hurt and no damage was reported. The larger quake, measuring 3.4, hit at 6:05 p.m. about 12 miles east-northeast of Barstow, said Steve Bryant, seismologist at Cal Tech in Pasadena. The smaller quake, which registered 3.3, occurred 23 minutes later at the same location, Bryant said. Both were aftershocks to a magnitude 5.1 quake that jarred the area March 18.

San Bernardino County officials said Thursday that they are making changes at the Department of Behavioral Health after three county therapists failed to report a bloodied knife and pair of jeans to law enforcement officials at the site of a fatal stabbing. The therapists arrived on the afternoon of Jan. 8 to look for evidence of drug use at an independent living home for seven mentally ill felons in the 300 block of South Bixby Way in Upland, according to the San Bernardino County district attorney's office.

L.A. County and Inland Empire Report Card In California, about 4.5 million public school students in grades 2 through 11 took tests last spring tied to the state's academic standards in English/language arts, math, science and history/social science. For the first time, students also took the California Achievement Test/Sixth Edition, known as the CAT/6. That compared students against a national sample in reading, language skills, math, spelling and science.

A 16-year-old boy seen riding a bike away from a brush fire near Yucaipa on Wednesday is suspected of starting a dozen fires that ravaged the area over the last three years, including two large blazes earlier this month. San Bernardino County prosecutors said they were still weighing what charges to bring against the high school student, who was not immediately identified because of his age. Authorities said he has been linked to recent blazes, including the 860-acre Pendleton Fire that destroyed two structures and the Oak Glen fire that charred more than 1,100 acres.