Add another name to accused animal hoarder "Anita Gilbert's" list.

Cynthia Gudger.

Kern County Deputy District Attorney Ron Taylor said Wednesday morning that Anita Gilbert may once have been Cynthia Gudger.

And Gudger has a history of threatening court officials.

Gudger was covicted of threatening the life of a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge in 1993.

On Wednesday Gilbert is being arraigned on charges of threatening the public defender assigned to her in her animal abuse case in Kern County Superior Court.

Taylor said he isn't completely sure that Gilbert and Gudger are the same person — or that Gudger is Gilbert's real, legal name.

"I’m not positive about anything about this woman," Taylor said. "Every time you turn a page you find something that doesn’t make sense."

Kern County is still prosecuting the woman under the name Anita Gilbert, Taylor said, even though the driver's license number Gilbert has been using for identification is that of a Florida woman whose brother said died of cancer last year.

Anita Gilbert is back in Kern County.

She's in the Mojave jail according to the Kern County Sheriff's inmate website and has an arraignment on felony charges of threatening a public official (her former public defender) in Mojave tomorrow morning.

She was booked into Mojave on the two outstanding warrants against her just before 4 p.m. Tuesday. One warrant is for $500,000 and the other is a no bail warrant.

She's also due in court  in Bakersfield Thursday to answer for skipping bail on 10 charges of animal cruelty.

Gilbert was caputured by a Lancaster bail bondsman in Reseda last week.

larger view

Bail Bondsman Bob Herman of Lancaster chased down the woman Kern County knows as Anita Gilbert on Thursday in Reseda.

Gilbert — the name has been reported as an alias but we do not have the woman's real name — had been living in Fillmore and Oxnard.

Herman caught her visiting a friend in Reseda.

Both the manager  of the hotel she was staying at in Oxnard and an apartment complex in Fillmore said Gilbert and the 14 cats she had with her had thrashed the rented rooms.

Names Gilbert has used:

Barbara Ryan — the name of a character on As the World Turns

Anita Gilbert — the name of a animal friendly Florida woman whose brother said died of cancer in Florida in 2007.

Elizabeth Neuffer — a Boston Globe journalist who died in a car accident in Iraq in 2003

Gretchen Becker — ???, maybe a minor movie actress.

Go here for photos of the arrest and the seizure of 14 cats from Gilbert's hotel room.

Supervisor Mike Maggard said he's having trouble trusting officials with Big West refiunery after it was revealed they have been using, through a contractor, a diluted form of controversial toxic chemical hydrofluoric acid to clean steam injection wells on the property.

Planners said the refinery repeatedly told the county they didn't use the chemical, then reversed their story when the county tried to ban its use.

Refinery official Bill Chadick said he's sure they told the county about the use of HF in wells and that the use is in the environmental report on the refinery's proposed expansion.

Both Chadick and the county's environmental health boss say the diluted chemical isn't likely to turn into a cloud of deadly vapor — as it would in an undiluted form.

But Maggard said the issue is trust. If he can't trust Big West, how can he approve their expansion on Tuesday?

What do you think. Can you trust Big West?

A Kern County firefighter made some serious accusations against Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall Monday on television news.

Get the whole story here.

Jason Arvizu said Hall has a conflict of interest between his city position and his business — Hall Ambulance.

The ambulance company, Kern County's largest, has long disagreed with city and county firefighters over who should provide paramedic services.

Kern County Fire Chief Dennis Thompson apologized to Kern County Supervisors and Hall for Arvizu's comments Tuesday during a board meeting.

Thursday's debate on Prop. 8 was an engaging interaction on two sides of the hottest issue on the California ballot in November — aside from the Obama/McCain thing.

Here's some (ok a whole lot) of the stuff I was able to catch in my notebook (ok, on my laptop) during last night's event at Cal State Bakersfield.

Most of this is what people said. But, since I didn't get a chance to ask questions last night, I did try to get some of my questions answered.

The Debaters
Marylee Shrider — contributing columnist for The Bakersfield Californian. Prop. 8 supporter.
Dr. Anne Duran — Professor of psycology at Cal State Bakersfield. Prop. 8 opponent.
Ken Mettler — Businessman, Kern High School District trustee. Prop. 8 supporter.
Whitney Weddell — Gay, Lesbian transgender and questioning activist. Prop. 8 opponents.

The Debate
Sponsored by Cal State’s gay, lesbian and supportive straight community and the Kegley Institute of Ethics. Things started with 15 minute presentations by the debaters to a packed house. Questions from the audience followed. The debate, scheduled to end at 9 p.m., was extended until 9:30 p.m. in an effort to let the panel field as many audience questions as possible.

On procreation and marriage
“This is about not only altering the definition of marriage but the core purpose of marriage which, in case we’ve all forgotten, is children.” — Marylee Shrider
"If everyone was in a homosexual marriage we'd cease to exist.” — Ken Mettler
“Some of us decided not to have kids. Some of us can’t have kids, so, if marriage is for procreation, then what we should do logically is test people's fertility when they get the  marriage license." — Anne Duran, who is straight but does not share biological children with her “spousal unit.”

Activist judges
“What happens next time when these judges overstep their duty and their sworn oath and they do something you don’t agree with.” — Ken Mettler
Whitney Weddell countered by reminding Mettler of the principle of judicial review by which the courts are tasked with judging the constitutionality of laws passed by the legislative and executive branches of government — and the majority of voters.
“The majority over the years have opposed a lot of important things. They opposed womens’ right to vote. They opposed inter-racial marriage. Indeed they opposed ending segregation. If we’d put slavery to a vote, we’d still have it.” — Whitney Weddell.
Mettler responded on Friday morning that he feels the judges went beyond what is allowed under judicial review.
“I have no doubt that if the ruling had gone the way of my opponents they would have celebrated and said we should listen to those judges,” — Whitney Weddell.

Factoid — The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a statewide ban on same sex couples violates equality provisions of that state’s constitution, making gay marriage legal in Connecticut.

On impacts of same sex marriages on children
“Children of (same sex) people have no differences with respect to gender identification. No differences with respect to gender role behavior. In every way psychogists have measured these children they are as healthy, or not healthy, as children of hetero parents.” — Anne Duran
“When you don't have the men in the household these kids become juvenile delinquents. It’s a huge problem.” — Ken Mettler.

Dr. Anne Duran said most of her studies and analysis came the American Psychological Association.
 

Followup on Gay marriage in school

Whitney Weddell teaches high school and comments on the issue of same sex marriage being taught in schools.

"Practically speaking the state could mandate that this go in textbooks tomorrow. But if there's no money we're not going to buy them," she said.

Some of her students saw her marriage this summer and brought up the issue, which prompted tons of discussion in class. But Weddell said she doesn't bring up same sex families in her classes — only deals with questions from students.

Officials with the Bakersfield City School District said there are currently no state requirements that same sex marriage be added to the curriculum due to the legalization of gay marriage.

On loss of religious freedom
“Are we going to be able to keep our faith and practice our faith?” — Marylee Shrider.
Shrider noted that the California Supreme Court, in the ruling overturning the Prop. 22 ban on same sex marriage, insured religious freedom protections for churches and pastors.
But both Shrider and Mettler noted cases were Christian business owners were sued when they refused to offer services to same sex couples — and lost in court.
Follow-up interview
Marylee Shrider said Friday morning that, if the business owner had refused to serve an African-American couple, that case would have been discrimination.
But the same is not true with a same sex couple.
“You’re making it a civil rights issue. It isn’t,” Shrider said. “I just don’t see the evidence that homosexuals are discriminated against.”

On domestic partnerships
“This is not about gay couples having the same health benefits or the same hospital visitation rights, because they already have that.” — Marylee Shrider
Shrider was asked by an audience member if she would give up her marriage license for a domestic partnership.
“No,” she said.
The crowd groaned in protest.
“Marriage is between a man and a woman. I’m married to a man. Why should I do that,” she said.
“You say nothing will change. I lose my marriage. Mine means as much to me as (yours) does to you.” — Whitney Weddell

Follow up question — If Prop. 8 passes would you support an initiative to reduce rights under domestic partnerships in California?
“Absolutely not. This isn’t about attacking gays and taking away rights.” — Marylee Shrider
“I personally would not be supportive of that. They’re very emphatic that this not be characterized as a hate issue.” — Ken Mettler, speaking of the ProtectMarriage.com group for which is is the Kern County leader.
According to a 2005 San Francisco Chronicle article, ProtectMarriage.com circulated a proposed constitutional amendment which its attorney claimed would remove all marriage rights from domestic partnerships. That initative did not make the 2006 ballot.