Avery Middle School has won the “California Distinguished School Award” from the state Department of Education.

Watch this behind-the-scenes video of just how modern and technically savvy the school is. All 220 students are issued iPads.

Staff Administrators and select students will go to Sacramento on May 10th to meet state Superintendent of Education Tom Torlakson and receive the Distinguished School Award.

Congratulations to the Avery Hawks and the Vallecito School District from all of us at AM 1450 KVML!!!

A single-engine biplane with two people aboard flipped on landing at Rialto Airport on Friday, April 26, but its two occupants were not seriously injured.

Rialto police Sgt. Richard Royce said pilot error appeared to be the cause, based on the unidentified pilot’s statement.

“The plane was in good operating order,” Royce said. “He basically stated he was coming in for a landing and he overcorrected for a cross wind.”

The plane, a 1937 Waco that had been restored in 2012, fell forward when the pilot hit the brakes, Royce said. He said the plane is registered to the pilot.

The accident happened about 12:20 p.m. and will be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies, said Rialto Fire Department Acting Battalion Chief Art Poduska by phone from the scene.

He said the two people in the plane walked away from the overturned craft and were treated at the scene, but did not need to be taken to a hospital. Royce said they had bumps and bruises. The upside-down plane remained on the runway for inspection by various investigators.

The airport was shut for two hours.

Oscar-winning director Quinten Tarantino’s cherry red Chevelle Malibu has resurfaced after nearly two decades, thanks to a vigilant sheriff’s deputy here, officials said.

“Deputy (Carlos) Arrieta did a really good job with this case,” said Sgt. Albert Anolin of the sheriff’s Victorville station. “He took what many would’ve seen as a minor case and followed it through until it broke this much larger case. ”

Tarantino’s 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu, stolen in 1994 during the production of “Pulp Fiction,” was recovered in the Oakland area this past week, according to law enforcement officials investigating the case.

The iconic Malibu was driven in the film by John Travolta’s character, Vince Vega.

On April 18, Arrieta spotted two men near Mojave Vista Elementary School at Seventh and Burwood avenues around 7:45 p.m., Anolin said.

It appeared the men were stripping an older Chevrolet Malibu, so Arrieta approached them. Arrieta ran the vehicle identification number and learned it was registered for a Malibu in the Oakland area, according to reports.

One of the men insisted the Malibu had been his since the 1970s.

Arrieta called in the San Bernardino County Auto Theft Task Force and handed over the investigation to district attorney’s Senior Investigator Carlos Flores and California Highway Patrol Officer Brian Leyva.

According to sheriff’s reports, investigators learned the VIN number for the Chevrolet found in Victorville legitimately belonged to that car, but it hadn’t been registered with the state Department of Motor Vehicles for several decades.

Detectives contacted authorities in the Bay Area to alert them to the VIN match for a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu in their area.

Bay Area investigators contacted the owner of that Malibu and learned that that vehicle had a cloned VIN number on it. Further investigation revealed the Malibu found in the Bay Area was in fact Tarantino’s vehicle stolen in 1994, authorities said.

The man in possession of Tarantino’s stolen Malibu is not believed to be involved in the theft and is considered to be a victim of a fraud, authorities said.

The vehicle was recovered only a few weeks after the filmmaker’s 50th birthday on March 27. It was unclear if the vehicle has been returned to him as of Friday.

The man Arrieta initially contacted last week was arrested on suspicion of an unrelated crime, sheriff’s officials said, though his name has not been released.

“Arrieta used the resources available to him and was able to help crack this case,” Anolin said of the deputy who’s been at the Victorville station for about two years. “He’s a good deputy. ”

The case is still under investigation.

There’s outcry at UC Irvine over a student-produced video that some say is offensive and racist.

The video shows members of Lambda Theta Delta doing a parody the Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z song “Suit and Tie.”

In the video, one of the fraternity members appears in “blackface.”

Many students at the university have complained about the video.

The fraternity took down the video and apologized on its Facebook page, saying the students involved were reprimanded prior to the controversy.

But many other students say that’s not enough. They’re calling on university administrators to take action against the fraternity.

A UC official says the school is trying to determine if the fraternity or individual students are responsible for the video and what kind of punishment, if any, should be dealt.

Bob Weir was helped offstage Thursday night after he was unable to finish his performance with Furthur at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. The Grateful Dead offshoot was closing out a nine show residency at the venue with their final set, but according to Jambase, Weir was struggling throughout the night on both guitar and vocals.

Weir’s condition worsened during the band’s second set of the night. As Weir played through “Unbroken Chain,” he fell over and was helped back up by crew members. He was given a chair to sit in, and the band left the stage after the song. They returned after a few minutes without Weir, and Phil Lesh told the crowd that Weir was suffering from a strained shoulder and that the set would go on without him.

Further is set to play Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall Saturday, though there’s been no word yet on the status of that show, or whether Weir will appear. The band also celebrated a special occasion last night – before their set, it was announced that the Capitol Theatre’s lobby bar would be named Garcia’s in honor of Weir and Lesh’s Grateful Dead compadre Jerry Garcia, for whom the venue was a favorite.

Priceless is how Kent Pfrimmer describes the publicity he has received since surveillance video of a burglar trying, and failing, to break into his Redding store went viral last month.

Now the video of the bumbling, stumbling thief has been turned into a TV commercial for Pfrimmer’s business, Kent’s Meats and Groceries, and the 18-second clip is back in the national news.

The commercial was featured on “Good Morning America” on Tuesday. Later in the day, Pfrimmer was interviewed by CNN about the spot, which is a plug for Kent’s New York-style pastrami.

The commercial, played to music similar to the “Benny Hill theme,” shows the bulky burglar throwing the rock at the window. The sound of glass shattering can be heard before a giant pastrami sandwich crashes on camera, followed by the voice-over: “So good, some people will do just about anything to get more”

Rocky Slaughter of Sugar Pine Media, Kent’s advertising agency, created the spot. Slaughter played drums, bass and piano. He was accompanied by Kyle Stolz on saxophone. They shot the commercial in one day.

“It’s funny, but I don’t think it was that funny to me, but, hell, look at the exposure,” Pfrimmer said. “I have got for $500 (the price to replace the window) exposure you couldn’t buy for $500,000.”

The original video also has been featured on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” CNN and Tosh.O.

The surveillance footage went viral in late March after Redding police released it and Redding.com posted it on YouTube. The video had accumulated more than 6.5 million views on YouTube by Tuesday evening.

“He wanted to jump on something and make an advertisement out of it,” Pfrimmer said of Slaughter. “To a point that is OK, but you can also wear something like that out. I don’t want to get to the point where people are saying, ‘God, I have to look at that thing again and listen to that thing again.’ ”

Slaughter got the idea for the commercial soon after the video went viral. He was worried the hilarious clip would give the north state more infamous publicity, joining the online photos of three female Anderson KFC employees bathing in the restaurant’s industrial-sized sink, and a crook with the F-word tattooed across his forehead.

“I wanted to figure out a way to change the message in the video into something to help a local business,” Slaughter said. “I hope this spins it in a positive way.

“I don’t want Redding to appear like we are a bunch of stumbling burglars, so this was an opportunity to change the message a little bit.”

Slaughter is no stranger to publicity.

In 2006, he led a student crusade at Shasta High School against campus bans of soda vending machines that drew national attention. Slaughter’s fight was spotlighted when he appeared n MSNBC’s “The Situation with Tucker Carlson.”

Meanwhile, Pfrimmer plans to run the commercial for at least two weeks.

“Maybe a month if people are still enjoying it,” Pfrimmer said. “We are advertising our pastrami and we are very proud of it; we make it right here.”

The Stockton Unified School District confirmed Wednesday a fight between a teacher and a student that broke out inside a high school classroom.

A district official confirmed that the female teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave because of the fight.

The student was arrested and released.

(Caution: Student uses swear words with teacher)

The student was also suspended from school for five days and will meet with the school’s principal Thursday to discuss possible expulsion, a school official said.

Her suspension began Wednesday.

The fight broke at Chavez High School in Stockton.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — A video posted to the Internet shows police on the University of California, Santa Cruz campus confiscating what is described as a 2-pound marijuana joint Saturday.

According to various accounts on the Internet, the incident happened at an annual event that marks April 20, or 4/20, numbers which have become associated with smoking marijauna.

According to the website LiveLeak.com, the officers took the giant joint because it violated the weight limit set for carrying pot, which is one ounce.

A group of supporters committed to keeping the Sacramento Kings in California are taking their message to the massive monitors of Times Square, New York.

A 30-second ad titled, “This is Our Team” will present Sacramento’s case for keeping the Kings every three minutes to millions of passers by.

The spot was developed by the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau and Sports Commission (SCVB) with the $10,000 required for funding provided by local hotels, according to Mike Testa of the visitor’s bureau.

As many as 4-million employees, commuters and visitors are expected to see the video, but the primary target audience will be those attending the NBA Board of Governor’s Meetings at which the fate of the Kings is expected to be decided.

“We’ve long-maintained that keeping the Kings in Sacramento is bigger than basketball,” said SCVB President & CEO Steve Hammond on the video’s YouTube post. “It’s about programming our Central Business District with an arena and leveraging that investment as a catalyst for new development in our downtown. It’s about attracting new programming and visitors to grow the general funds of the City and County, which will improve the quality of life for our residents. This is bigger than basketball: It’s about the continued vitality and growth of our City for residents and the regional community at large.”

The Mojave Desert’s iconic Joshua trees are blooming like crazy and, although theories abound, there is little consensus about why it’s happening.

From Joshua Tree National Park and into Nevada and Arizona, millions of the trees bear foot-long conical bundles of tightly packed, greenish-white flowers at the ends of their spiky branches.

What’s remarkable this year, experts say, is that just about every tree has bloomed or is flowering now, with fragrant bundles at the tips of just about every branch. Biologists and others said they can’t recall a year when the Joshua trees had more abundant flowers. Typically not all plants bloom, and those that do produce far fewer flower heads.

At Cima Dome, an area southeast of Baker that has the largest concentration of Joshua trees anywhere, the trees are resplendent.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon,” said Cameron Barrows, a UC Riverside researched ecologist who studies the species.
So why this spring? Speculation abounds.

One theory is that a series of late-summer thunderstorms in the desert last year gave the plants a vital infusion of water. Another is that the trees are responding to cool winters.

James Cornett, a desert biologist, rejected those theories.

He believes the trees are in a flowering frenzy to produce more seeds, giving the species a better chance of survival in a time of stress.

“Stress can be an inducement for reproduction,” Cornett said. “If it appears that they may not survive, one of the best strategies is to go out with an explosion of reproduction.”

Joshua trees are under stress because of two consecutive years of drought, he said. More stress comes from the slowly warming planet, which increases the rate of water evaporation from each tree, Cornett said.

In the western United States, temperatures on average are about 2 to 3 degrees warmer than they were a century ago, he said.
For about 25 years, Cornett has tracked Joshua tree growth, mortality, germination and flower production at locations in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

He said Joshua trees growing in places that received no late-summer rains have just as many blooms as those in spots that were hit by the storms. And other winters have been just as cool, he said. But flower and seed production is up more than 40 percent when compared with the previous best season in the 25 years of his study.

He added that he sees no coincidence in the equally spectacular blooms of yuccas in the Mojave. Joshua trees and yuccas are closely related.

David Lamfrom, the California desert manager the National Parks Conservation Association, visited the Mojave National Preserve on Saturday, April 6, to experience the unusual bloom in one of the densest Joshua tree forests in the entire Mojave.

He pointed out the pink hue the blossoms picked up as the sun set, and he noted the sweet, coconut-like fragrance that floated among the trees. Insects attracted by the nectar in the flowers buzzed from plant to plant.

The blooms now are like pale flames sweeping across the northern Mojave, starting east of Baker and extending east to the Colorado River and beyond, Lamfrom said.

Biologists he has spoken with attributed the phenomenon to the rains last year and the cool temperatures that followed, he said.
Regardless of the cause, the bloom of 2013 will give Mojave ecosystems a nutritional shot in the arm. Energy stored in the trees becomes edible nectar, fruits and seeds. Insects gorge on the nectar. Birds and lizards eat the insects. Rodents dine on the seeds and fruit. And coyotes and other predators will eat the rodents.

The bloom is expected to last for the next few weeks, although trees already are producing seed pods in some areas.
At Joshua Trees National Park, the flowering is still heavy in the Hidden Valley area, along the road to the Keys View lookout point, near Barker Dam and along the Pine City trail. The trees at west side of the park have gone to seed.

In the Mojave National Preserve, the Cima Dome area off Cima Road south of Interstate 15 is in full bloom. Lamfrom said Cima Dome has the largest Joshua tree forest in the world — well worth the detour for people driving to or from the Las Vegas area.