Breaking News, February 12, 2026:

Mayor Travis Endicott will NOT be the City’s representative at the upcoming Mediation, due to a “conflict of interest” with the Navy. Mayor Endicott and Councilman Kyle Blades are both employees of the Naval Air Warfare Station at China Lake.

A special, closed meeting was held on Monday, and it was unanimously decided that Councilman Solomon Rajaratnam will be the City’s representation at the Mediation table. The Mediation process is scheduled to begin on February 18th.

This is a developing story. More information will follow and please see the Post below for more context.

February 4th, 2026

The Ridgecrest City Council is still in closed session voting whether or not to hire former City Manager Ron Strand as a consultant to the City on matters related to the IWV Groundwater Authority and the Indian Wells Valley Water District.

Also, Searles Valley Minerals announced layoffs that will result in over half the workforce being laid off. Those jobs aren’t coming back any time soon.

Breaking News:

Ron Strand will not be the City’s representative during the Mediation effort between the Indian Wells Valley Water District and the Groundwater Authority. The City Attorney reported out of closed session that Mayor Travis Endicott will be the City’s representative at the Mediation table.

And yes, Councilman Kyle Blades is a thin-skinned drama queen. We’ll add timestamps to highlights after the city posts the video to their Youtube archive so check back here sometime tomorrow.

00:45 Discussion and Action on consulting agreement with Ron Strand.

25:00 Closed Session Action: Mayor Endicott will be the City’s representative at the Mediation. (Ron Strand in back room)

31:17 Public Comments, Flock, Searles Valley Minerals layoffs, Base headcount

56:55 Term Limits change, Measure to be placed on ballot. Be sure to listen to all public comments (It’s true, Blades is a Drama Queen)

Here’s an economics lesson for Kyle Blades (and others in the City of Ridgecrest)

Economic growth is impossible in the crony-green-communist State of California. Here’s an example where the crisis of green energy flies in the face of economic reality, and it’s just one reason why both the State of California/Ridgecrest and Germany are collapsing before our very eyes. It’s also why SVM is laying off over half its workforce.

The CEO of SVM didn’t say it, but the policies and economic damages caused by SGMA are another reason why Ridgecrest won’t grow and SVM can’t compete in the global economy. Besides, SGMA has nothing to do with “sustainability” other than to sustain the incomes of non-essential government bureaucrats and attorneys. Fatal errors indeed. We shouldn’t expect anything good to come from Sacramento’s ignorant politicians or Silicon Valley now or in the future.

President Trump is going to refill the National Petroleum Reserve near Bakersfield. (It was drained by Biden)

Irony of History – Excerpt from “Germany Faces Gas Shortage Crisis: Industry Demands Strategic Reserve”

By Thomas Kolbe (via Zerohedge.com)

To read the full article, click on the link below.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/germany-faces-gas-shortage-crisis-industry-demands-strategic-reserve

The emerging necessity of a national gas reserve carries two ironies.

First, it is a belated admission of the complete failure of the energy transition. Renewable energies, due to their volatility and to maintain grid stability and supply security, require storage and reserve capacities that cannot be economically provided without massively burdening or partially collapsing the economy.

Second, it is precisely the declared arch-enemy of German policy, US President Donald Trump, who these days is calling not only for an existing strategic oil reserve but also for the creation of further national reserves. Washington intends to invest around twelve billion dollars to stockpile metals such as lithium, rare earths, nickel, and cobalt, thereby strategically reducing dependence on China and other raw material suppliers.

The terms “national” and “reserve” in the energy policy context are particularly offensive to the left-green milieu. There, people are unaccustomed to yielding to reality and recognizing that conservative thinking in matters of supply security, preparedness, and societal resilience is superior in every respect—including as a socio-political concept.

In the USA, supply security and strategic resilience sit prominently on the political agenda alongside energy market deregulation. In Germany, however, remarkable consistency is applied to stabilizing a green crony economy, whose economic viability is increasingly eroding.

German households will experience the consequences of this fatal error very concretely in their accounts over the coming weeks and months.

Now you can see the sad consequences right there in Ridgecrest, California!