Tomorrow I will do my best to post the second article in the Abernathie sex scandal series and “Behind the Scenes – Part Two.” The latter is written but I need to verify a few things first.
If you have submitted stories to me and they have not appeared, please send me a reminder as to what they are. I’m trying to get caught up but I literally receive hundreds of emails a day and I know some stories are getting buried.
I received an email from a former employee of Jeff Burum tonight and that reminded me that I have posted contact information in a while. If you have tips that you do not want to put on the blog directly, you can email me at iepolitics2010@gmail.com. Or if you have documents you want to share, you can send them to PO Box 2722, Apple Valley, CA 92307.
I am so frustrated with the county. So what else is new you ask? Yeah, I know . . . but I have made several requests that the county stop communicating with me using sharon@iepolitics.com. I send emails to them from iepolitics2010@gmail.com and they continue to respond to me at sharon@iepolitics.com. It’s very frustrating because that account has javascript errors. Can someone explain why no matter what email I use, the county computers apparently default to a different one? And how do I get the county to change it?
Apparently I hit one button too few. I had no idea the blog was going down, and by the time I found out, there wasn’t much I could do.
Life has been a bit busy the past few days, but we should be back with new stories tomorrow.
Tonight I received a email from Janet. She was concerned because I had not posted in a few days. When I don’t post regularly I get phone calls and emails from bloggers, many of them like Janet who I have never met, but at some level have become friends.
The blog has been amazing that way. I have met a lot of people because of it—sometimes that has been a real blessing and other times not so much so, like ET. But overall it has been a great experience, especially when I finally get to meet someone who I have corresponded with for a couple of years and probably talked with on the phone. That happened the other week with the person responsible for bringing the whole Doreen Boxer situation to light.
Then sometimes I hear about someone who reads the blog and it makes me cringe. That also happened a couple of days ago.
My old timers know my father was a minister and I was raised Pentecostal. I have really struggled with my faith for the past few years. And it has showed in some very dramatic ways on the blog. So imagine my dismay when a friend told me he was meeting with his pastor, who happens to pastor the largest church in the high desert, and the subject of iePolitics came up. Seems the pastor reads the blog on occasion. Oops. I would like to say I cringed just a little, but in reality, I cringed a whole heck of a lot.
So, I’m thinking to myself I should spend more time listening to my Casting Crowns or Third Day CDs and less time to John and Ken! 
I always used to write a Sunday post and took some criticism for it but decided to get back to it just a bit. So, for this Sunday, I came across this video that could be said to be political and religious at the same time:
I honestly never thought it was possible, but we just crashed through our former hits records of November 17, 2009. I guess Mark Uffer will be relieved to know that his termination is no longer the most popular story on the blog. Then again, with his ego, he might be quite disappointed.
Thank you all for your support. We didn’t get everything we wanted today, but we did make some good things happen. Let’s see where this story goes.
Today for the first time in the blog’s history (remembering Coffeerockets.com, crittercollectibles.com and sharongilbert.com), we broke the 10,000 comment level.
iePolitics.com is the first of my blogs that consists of almost entirely original content. The current version has been live almost 14 months. In that time I have posted 1881 articles. Our ratio of comments to articles is 5.3 to 1, the highest ratio we have ever had.
February 25 represents two anniversaries for me. One, it is my 31st year as a county employee. But these days it represents a much more important anniversary. Some of you have no idea what I’m writing about, but for those who do and have been the source of inspiration and encouragement, I thank you.
Imagine our surprise today with Jim Erwin announced he received over 78,000 hits yesterday, especially when we knew exactly how many hits he really received, which was 2,720. Yes you read that right.
To: Sharon Gilbert, owner of iepolitics.com
Fr: Traci Dean, tdean485@gmail.com
Date: February 22, 2011
RE: Retraction and public apology
Dear Sharon Gilbert,
You are hereby given twenty four hours to do a complete retraction and public apology for the defamation and slander that you committed against me.
You have twenty four hours to post a full retraction of every negative comment and/or story about me including a public apology. If you fail to comply with this, I will file criminal charges against you for each act, ”California Penal code §258, as for slander is a malicious defamation of character. Each individual item that you posted is punishable by one year in prison and a $10,000.00 fine. It can also result in your Blog being dismantled as you are attacking not a public official, but a private citizen.
The blog is good for another month, much to the chagrin of a few people.
Does anyone know of a cash card that can be used to transfer money to PayPal? I tried one but it couldn’t be used for that purpose. I don’t know what else to try to keep this from happening although with some of the other projects I’m working on, this should be a problem of the past very soon.
Case MVI027734 Defendant 902751 – DEAN, TRACI
| Custody | Citation | |||
| Filing Type | Citation | Filing Date | 10/19/2000 | |
| Ordered Bail | $0.00 | Posted Bail | $0.00 | |
| D.A. | Defense | |||
| Next Action: | Deputy Report #: | SH-VI 170005026 | ||
| Warrant | Type | Status | Issued | Affidavit |
| BEN | ISSUED | 11/21/2000 | N/A | |
| Probation | Type | Granted | Expiration | |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| Sentence | Convicted Date | County Jail | CTS | |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| State Prison | Max Sentence | |||
| N/A | N/A | |||
| Fine and Penalty | Restitution Fine | Restitution to Victim | ||
| 0 | N/A | |||
Sorry to ask once again, but the PayPal account is short $3 bucks this month for the blog. We’ve got stuff in the works that will take care of this once and for all, but my timeline for getting it done isn’t anyone else’s timeline, unfortunately. I keep thinking, I won’t have to ask again, but no promises. One of these days . . .
As I have noted in comments, I have not had a lot of time for the blog but our hits continue to climb. Today and yesterday broke records. We here at iePolitics appreciate all the support.
I want to thank those of you who are clicking on the stories, leaving comments and “like”ing them in Facebook. Writing those articles are really a struggle for me. I’m so used to being able to write totally informal, often times quirky, articles for the blog, that having to think about punctuation, grammar, style, etc., makes the process tedious. I don’t particularly enjoy it but it is gradually getting easier.
Why do you care? Seriously. Why do you care what I write on iePolitics?
First of all, I have been told that my blog is unprofessional and that you all prefer the consistency of PC Blog. That is the blog that is read by the “rich and powerful.” It is read by the “important” people and the “people who count.” Mine is read by low-level county employees and no one of importance. I only get comments because of the low-level cops that read it. Just ask its administrator. That is what he told me.
I’ve been told that none of you really read iePolitics. Devereaux denies reading it. Dan Richards denies reading it. Jeff Burum only notices if he gets something about himself in a Google Alert. Mark Davidson gave up not long ago. Mark Kirk gave up reading it over a year ago. All the defense attorneys in the corruption cases deny reading it. The entire Fifth Floor, with the exception of the Third District, denies reading it. Sheriff Hoops tells me he doesn’t read it. David Wert has told me he doesn’t care what it says. Dean Arabatzis has told me he doesn’t read it. I could go on and on. NO ONE of importance reads iePolitics.
So when is PC blog going to post the story about Rex? And since Jason Crebs is a good friend of PC blog, why don’t we have a blow-by-blow account of the charges that were not supposed to happen? Another lie?
First of all, I don’t think I said “thank you” after my last request for donations for the blog. Once again all of you came through and I appreciate it greatly.
I’m sure all of you have noticed the lack of articles this past week. It is due to several large projects I am working on that are taking every moment of my waking hours. A couple of them will likely be announced on the blog within the next 30 days.
If anyone can help out with a PayPal donation, it would be appreciated. I will be happy to send you cash if you let me know who you are (more often than not I don’t know where the donations come from). As always, nothing over $5. The account is only a few dollars short but since I don’t have a bank account I have no way to transfer money into it.
I am amazed every day when I see the stats for this sites. But now I’m even more amazed at the stats for the www.NoMoreBrad.com site. No, it isn’t receiving anywhere close to the hits of iePolitics, but for a new site with almost no content, its hits are high. We have averaged over 1,000 hits each of the past three days. Thank you. We will get ourselves a new First District supervisor!
Today I was asked to link to two new blogs and, drum roll please, NO MORE BRAD! is live.
The first is called High Desert Politics. It is written by David Mueller of Apple Valley.
The second is called mvgordie’s Blog. It has to do with politics in Moreno Valley.
The third is our very own No More Brad! Although it is live, there is no content. It just became live a few minutes ago, so I decided to add it to the list. I will be working on it over the next few days.
No More Brad! is starting out as a blog but will become a website as we get closer to the June 2012 primary. It is, of course, dedicated to the proposition of getting rid of Brad Mitzelfelt as the First District supervisor.
Our hits are increasing by leaps and bounds. I’m starting to take action to increase that even more. We really appreciate the support.
From iePolitics to all the little people, MERRY CHRISTMAS. Thank you for your support all year long.
Yesterday we had the highest hit day for this entire year and second only to the day Mark Uffer was fired. We appreciate your readership.
There will be a lot of articles today. I am now formally an Examiner for the Los Angeles County edition and my first article I hope to have done today will be called “San Bernardino County: A Transfer of Power” to commemorate our new ordinance taking effect and the the power grab and corruption behind it. Watch for it.
You may have noticed the two stories below and wonder why I posted them. There is a very good reason for it.
I am now writing for Examiner.com. Initially I was going to write a political column for the Coachella Valley, however, I found that to be too narrow. I asked for a broader category. It looks like I will be a Los Angeles Examiner, which means I can cover news, government, and politics in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
For those not familiar with the Examiner, here is a link: Examiner
This comment appeared on the blog today in response to the most recent post regarding San Bernardino County Public Defender Doreen Boxer:
In reading all of the different articles and comments, here some of you get it and some of you don’t. Being very close to all of the players nothing is cut and dry. Greg D. is not the finally say in anything. A few members on the 5th floor run the show, but there is a process.
That process is never on the time frame that Sharon, Jim, ACU, or the regulars write about here. You guys do a great job spelling out what should happen. Well, it’s already happening well before you even start writing about it. You do a great job getting everyone on the sidelines ready for the kick. However, many of these issues need a little more time before you start second guessing what is being done. None of you speed things up and often slow the process down. I do not fault any of you for this, it’s just the truth.
Sharon’s followers have stepped up and made the difference and we take nothing away from you on that. It sounds like I praise the most of you and then take it away. I am not. I am just sharing with you about the process and how long these things take. Many of you should be proud of the end results and of your actions. The love hate relationship that most of you have with the 5th floor “offices” is questionable.
You give accolades in one article and then beat up Neil, Brad, Greg D., otheres on the very next blog. It’s like my mother telling me she loves what I did with cleaning her garage, and then smacks me in the back of the head for putting her dust pan in the wrong place. Please everyone, lets all get our meds leveled out and stick with one side or the other. I have! Wish I could tell you more. But for now, try having a love feast with some of the ones you have mentioned here. You have mentioned three or four departures that you are very happy with.(you left a few out) Give Greg, Brad, Neil, Janice and others some time and you will see many more positive changes sooner than later. Oh and “God Bless”, trust in that.
I thought it deserved a response that is not hidden under the article.
First, let’s address the “love hate relationship” with the Fifth Floor. I guess that can best be summed up as saying we are not politicians. In other words, we have zero interest in being politically correct, in brown nosing, or in doing what we do to make friends. If, for example, Supervisor Neil Derry does good, we are going to praise him. If he does something less than ethical, we are going to criticize him.
Now, that’s not to say that we don’t let some slide a little more than others, because we are human and we do appreciate a job well done. Neil is one of those, although at times I’m sure he doesn’t believe it. Brad is another and I know he doesn’t believe it. If Brad only knew some of the articles I have not printed in order to keep some semblance of a working relationship with the First District since I live there. But he does not believe that.
We always appreciate it when mainstream media admits they read our “insignificant” blog. It’s not that we don’t know you do, because we do know since we can see the hits. But when you actually mention us in an article, it lets our readers know too. And we usually pick up a few new readers.
So, thank you!
I thought I would take a moment to let everyone know what I’m doing to keep iePolitics up and running. There are two issues here.
First, as you all know, paying for it has been an issue as I have not worked in over a year and the county refuses to pay my disability or settle my worker’s compensation claim unless I agree to shut down the blog or resign. I refuse to do either.
I have really appreciated the financial support many of you have given to keep the blog alive. Even while I had no way to blog, some donations came in to keep the blog going another month.
Second, there is a serious issue of blog security. The county has attempted to hack the blog and my email. I have received numerous warnings from Sheriff’s Department personnel who are aware of what the county is doing, and based on what was done to my email accounts, I have no reason to doubt what I was told.
If everything goes right, I will be back on line. It’s been tough being away from the blog for eleven days! Thank you to those who helped keep it going in my absence.
I just checked hits, and seriously you guys, I couldn’t believe what I saw. We had only a few days where we fell below 30,000. Considering the lack of content, I was surprised.
I keep getting requests by those who want to know how to contact us. The most secure way is to send an anonymous envelope to P.O. Box 2722, Apple Valley, CA 92307. The current email address is iepolitics2010@gmail.com.
I wanted to take a second to say thank you to all who have supported iePolitics, but especially in the past two weeks. Despite the fact that my internet access has been spotty at best, you guys keep coming back. I think we only had one day out of the last fourteen when we fell below 50,000 hits for the day. We appreciate your support.
All the changes lately seem to have people confused. At this point, the ONLY email address for iePolitics is iePolitics2010@gmail.com.
Well just when I think all hope is lost, someone comes through. The blog and my electricity will be up and running for one more month. There will be a couple of changes. I cannot afford my computer connection so I will be blogging from the library, which only allows me 1.5 hours of computer time a day. So the blog will stay on full moderation since I no longer have a Blackberry.
I will be able to get to Starbucks a couple times a week and on those days you will likely to see a lot more posts. For now, I have a lot of catching up to do and it will take a few days.
I have to make this very quick as I only have a few minutes of computer time. As hard as I tried to not let this happen, I have no choice but to end iePolitics. It will stay up until November 23, 2010, at which time GoDaddy will shut it down. I hope to have computer access between now and then to add a couple of posts, but I don’t know if I will or not.
I will be making refunds to all of those who donated to keep it going. PayPal has not totally credited my account yet with those donations, so it will be a day or so or whenever I next have computer access.
It has taken a while for a number of technical reasons, but we finally got a letter off to Judge Elwell. We will post it as soon aswe know he has received it for sure. We also have been promised a P-form to file against Deputy Wilkerson.
The latest edition is posted: www.iepolitics.com/sbc-sentinel
All emails and comments regarding this subject will be deleted because I’m tired of answering them. iePolitics has NOTHING to do with Blackbrier or SBCoGrapevine. We do not control what is sent out nor do we have access to the lists. If you don’t want to receive the mailings, tell them, not me.
I re-post items from the website www.SBGrapevine.com as a favor to a friend. The SBCoGrapevine mail list is a separate entity and we have NOTHING to do with it. If you don’t like what they have to say, don’t read them!
You may have noticed the new PayPal button at the top of the sidebar. It replaces an advertisement.
It has been over a year now since I have had a county paycheck. Although my doctors will allow me to go back to work, they will not allow me to work for TAD or WDD. Human Resources refuses to allow me to work anywhere else and have tried to force me to work in those two departments despite the fact the county’s own doctor at the Wellness Center at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center would not release me back to work there.
I’m tired of trying to keep this blog going with no real income. As far as I’m concerned, I would like to shut it down. However, every time I do so or start to do so, I get phone calls and emails telling me I can’t. Well, yes I can. But I do understand why many don’t want me to.
I have a new temporary email address until I can get the blog and my email moved from GoDaddy. It is iepolitics2010@gmail.com. From what I’m can tell, I am maybe getting 50 percent of the mail sent to me at my regular address, so please discontinue using it. I’ll let you know once everything is moved to a new host.
First off I want to say thank you to everyone for their continued readership. I know it has been hit and miss lately due to my health and computer issues. We continue to have a lot of really big days. We just surpassed 1300 original stories since the blog started back up earlier this year with almost 7000 comments approved.
We are on track for 50,000 hits today with the Andrew Lamberto and Adam Aleman stories leaps and bounds ahead of all others. There are a couple of surprises coming later in the day that should interest everyone.
One will be a Grand Terrace story that you will want to read whether you live there or not just for the humor in it. The other . . . well I’m sworn to secrecy about it . . . although you’ve already seen a couple of hints. It’s a big story, a very big story. I only hope the newspaper reporter who has it comprehends its significance and does it justice. We shall see. If not you can count on iePolitics to bring you the rest of the story.
I want to get my complaint letters sent today regarding what happen in the courtroom last Friday. Since I plan to post the letters to the blog today or tomorrow, I would like to know they were delivered today via email. If anyone can provide me with email addresses for the following it would be greatly appreciated:
Alvina J. Hollensbe, Secretary to the Presiding Judge (likely in the county’s email system)
California Senior Assistant Attorney General Gary Schons
FBI Public Integrity Unit
Nothing personal guys. EVERYONE has been blocked. We are going to be switching our hosting account soon and you will all get sign-in privileges again.
For Hesperia residents, check out Our Hesperia.
For Big Bear residents, check out Big Bear Observation Post.
For Morogo Valley residents, check out Cactus Thorns.
For Yucca Mesa residents, check out Stop Yucca Mesa Annexation.
Nothing received. Please listen to our mutual friends.
I know you sent me something on Facebook, but my account has been frozen for a few days. Please send via email.
sharon@iepolitics.com is no longer a valid email address. Please send email to iepolitics@hushmail.com.
I lost power for a couple of hours tonight so I’m still working on the stories. I’m already really sore from today so I’m going to bed early and will get the promised stories posted sometime tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.
Well because of my depression it is sometimes easy to knock me down. I’ve had a very rough 24 hours. But I always bounce back. You guys don’t want the gory details so let’s just say I’m starving because I don’t think it is possible for a stomach to be more empty. I going to get some soup and then I’m going to get started on a couple of long-awaited series tonight.
The first will be on elected officials who have committed major ethics/FPPC violations and District Attorney Mike Ramos has looked the other way. In some cases we have photographs along with copies of perjured documents.
Some times little things count. I’ve been on the verge of shutting down iePolitics for a couple of months now.
I have not been doing well health-wise for a while now, and that combined with the financial aspect and the logistics of it all, it was my intent to let the blog go when the grace period was over for paying the bill this past month. Love him or hate him, the person you all have to thank for talking me out of it was Bill Postmus. No, he has nothing to do with the content of the blog. Every so often he will make a suggestion or give me a hot tip, but that is it.
I get requests every day regarding which attorneys are handling my cases. Not to whine, but I’ve been so sick lately that I am having a hard time responding to all my email and voicemail. I have put the links up in the sidebar under calender.
If you contact them, please let them know you heard about it here. We do not get a dime for the referral. It simply gives me an idea if anyone pays attention to the blog.