Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed the closure of 220 parks in California to help balance the budget.

Going through the list I kept getting small punches to the gut as I saw some emotional friends on the list.

Last year, before our son was born in November, my love and I made a trip up the California coast. We camped our way through five state parks and had an amazing adventure.

All of those parks were on the proposed closure list:

San Simeon State Park

Big Basin Redwoods

Samuel P. Taylor State Park

MacKerricher State Park

Patrick's Point State Park

It brought home to me just how troubled this state's future is. Check out the full list here. (Thanks to the Sacramento Bee)

Any favorites on this list for others?

Reports released today by the Kern County Administrative Office paint a bleak picture of the cost of the declining economy and the cuts at the state level on local government.

A 15 percent cut to most county departments would cost 253 jobs, including 88 deputy sheriffs and 20 District Attorney positions.

If the state's plan to pull property taxes from Kern County hits as well, blowing another $30 million-plus hole in the budget, the layoffs could jump to 629.

And, in both scenarios, the county would still be $13.6 million in the red.

Hit the link above and go to Item 58 on the pm agenda to get a look at the report yourself. Then share your thoughts here.

Last Chance for Animals, a rescue out of Los Angeles, has posted video on YouTube of the organization rescuing animals from Cindy Bemis' home on East Trotter Avenue.

Bemis, and supporter Cynthia Trapani, were convicted of animal cruelty in Kern County Superior Court on Monday.

I noticed this fact when I looked at election results from Tuesday's propositions on Wednesday morning:

In San Francisco county 5,029 voters voted for 1B and against 1A. 5.2 percent of 1B voters.

In Sacramento County — 2,988 split voters. 2.1 percent of 1B voters

Supes are back on. Developer Matt Towery, who I talked to for my weekend story, brought a whole crew of folks in to talk about the propsed traffic impact fees. Roger McIntosh is in the room. City of Bakersfield folks are here. Even Ken Mettler's in the house.

Pat Cheadle is at the podium talking about the process Child Protective Services goes through when cases like the blinding of the four year old boy happen.

But the law, she said, doesn't allow her to speak about the specifics of the case unless there was a near fatality....which the attack against the boy.

"It was a horrible case of physical abuse," Cheadle said.

She said criticism of the CPS department several years ago brought on a serious improvement in the process.

Workers have more training and there are more of them. Supervisors are more involved and do more review of work. And an ombudsman who doesn't work in the department reviews all cases.

Review of the case is nearly finished, Cheadle said. It appears that there were no break downs in CPS's treatment of the case.

"This is an example of one of those horrible, horrible, tragic situations that happen," Cheadle said.

She also threw in a pitch not to cut her staffing levels in the tough budget times.

Mojave animal rescuer Cindy Bemis, and assistant Cynthia Trapani, were convicted Monday on multiple counts of animal abuse.

Bemis popped into the public eye in 2003 after a trailer fire on the East Trotter Avenue property where she houses her rescue burned down and killed a number of her dogs.

That launched a long series of battles with local animal control officers that ended in animal abuse charges against her. The long delayed court case ended in victory for Kern County Animal Control when a jury convicted Bemis on 14 felony counts of animal cruelty.

Trapani, who pushed an animal control officer during an inspection of the East Trotter Avenue property and was tazered by Sheriff's officials, was convicted of six felony counts of animal cruelty. A felony assault charge, tied to the pushing incident, was reduced to a misdemeanor conviction by the jury.

Bemis and Trapani are currently in jail pending a June 17 sentencing hearing.

So yet another city-county battle with the development industry is raging and the stakes are high for Bakersfield.

The fee increase must be on the books so the city of Bakersfield can bond for some of the major road and freeway projects the city has been waiting on for years.

But the fee increase would add cost (around $6,000) to every new home built. Builders said that's enough to take them out of competition with an existing home market flooded with cheap foreclosures.

Should city and county policy makers — members of the city council and the board of supervisors — give development a break because of the bad market?

If Arnold's budget happens Kern takes a $29 million hit — $24 million of it discretionary (i.e. what we use to pay for basic government services that aren't supported by fees or mandated by the state)

For years I've watched local government freak out about the governor's annual January state budget and May revise — only to be spared major hits when the final budget is adopted. (usually in the fall)

I'm starting to think, though, that  local government might be going to take the hit this time — whether or not the May 19 props pass.

What do other folks think?

Kern County has a new fire chief...

And from the looks of the uniform he's wearing and all the people shaking his hands it's Nick Dunn.

Here are the current stats on the Swine Flu as of Tuesday morning from Public Health Director John Nilon:

In the U.S. there have been 2,600 cases and three deaths.

In California there are 191 confirmed cases in 23 counties.

In Kern County there are zero confirmed cases, Nilon said. 133 samples have been sent to be tested for swine flu. The county has recieved 110 results back with zero positive reports for swine flu.

There were three confirmed cases of the regular flu.

Supes are into their 2 p.m. meeting.

We'll be talking about that 3.5 percent trash increase a little bit later.

The agenda for today's meeting seems a little light.

Only big thing could be a trash fee increase of 3.5 percent.

Some things to talk about, but nothing earth-shattering from the paper version of the agenda.

Of course things could suprise me....it's happened before.