Chris Heldreth News Today

Kody Tompkins, a longtime Barstow staffer whose duties have expanded from leading a city-run sewage plant, has been appointed assistant city manager.

An unplanned raid at a Barstow warehouse owned by a Chinese quartz-countertop company revealed a more than 80,000 square-foot weed-growing complex.

Barstow’s City Council opted in late-night talks to move dozens of public hearings to noon Wednesday for a proposed 29-acre “Cannabis Super Center.”

The City Council named three staffers to represent Barstow on emergency-grant deals with FEMA and Cal OES. First: $732,000 for “climate resilience.”

Said Barstow acting Fire Chief Nick DiNapoli of the stall in pay negotiations with the city: “Don’t let go of what we got. I’m ashamed of this town.”

The public can share its thoughts directly with Barstow lawmakers on March 23 at 5 p.m. in the Cora Harper Community Center.

Two more corporate drive-thru chains are about to open shop at the epicenter of fast food and drink on East Main Street in Barstow.

The private lawyer who rubber-stamped the first draft is proposing some major changes in a vie for compromise with civil-liberties activists.

A public meeting is set to bring revisions for a proposal that will subject every Barstow landlord and renter to a new system of mandatory inspections.

High-dollar decisions and flare-ups from the dais and public marked a three-and-a-half-hour City Council meeting Nov. 17.