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Jeans for Haiti Day — what are other local non-profits, businesses doing? Megan Balod plea deal Roundtable on jobs Monday night Judge removes obstacle to building Wal-Mart Supercenter in Delano Department of Justice press release on Slugas guilty pleas Crisp & Cole: Plea agreements here; daughter must also plead guilty Crisp & Cole-related criminal filings surface Free sandwiches abound Unemployment rate in Kern County is 15.1 percent Property tax scam is back...AGAIN January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 December 09 January 10 February 10 Contact us with your news and information: Christine Peterson, cpeterson@bakersfield.com, 395-7418 John Cox, jcox@bakersfield.com, 395- 7345 Courtenay Edelhart, cedelhart@bakersfield.com, 395-7372 E-mail & PrintGet e-mail updates from this blog, and download a PDF to print on the go with the Money Talks Printcast.
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The devastation in Haiti is propelling lots of people to do what they can to help. The following came to us from folks at Hoffmann Hospice. It made us wonder: What are other local non-profits or businesses, and their employees, doing to help? If you want to share, you can respond below!
Here's what Hoffmann sent:
Looking for a creative, but easy way to raise money for Haiti earthquake survivors? Hold a “Jeans for Haiti Day” at work. Hoffmann Hospice hosted an all-agency Jeans for Haiti Day on Friday, January 22. Blue jeans are generally not allowed at the non-profit agency, but Director of Operations Beth Hoffmann made an exception for a worthy cause. Hoffmann staffers at the agency’s Bakersfield and Palmdale offices who wanted to wear jeans donated $5 each for the privilege. Some donated even more, raising the day’s total to $638. The funds will go to the American Red Cross Kern Chapter.
Megan Balod — David Crisp's sister-in-law — has an arraignment in Fresno at 4 p.m. today.
We've attached her plea agreement and charging document. You can download them by clicking the blue boxes at left. The filings are 7-18 pages or so. As expected, the plea is conditioned on guilty pleas from her parents, Kevin and Leslie Sluga (they already pleaded guilty Jan. 8) We're sending a reporter to Fresno and will update Balod's expected guilty plea later today.
Location:
1115 Truxtun Ave.,
Bakersfield, CA
Here's a copy of a press release on a job roundtable — tonight! CENTRAL VALLEY HEATLH NETWORK, KERN COUNTY SUPERVISOR MICHAEL RUBIO AND THE USDA TO HOST ROUNDTABLE ON JOBS Central Valley Health Network and Kern County Supervisor Michael Rubio will hold a county-wide roundtable on job creation and economic growth on Monday, January 25th at 5:30 pm at the Kern County Administrative Building located at 1115 Truxtun Avenue, 3rd floor in Bakersfield. The event is being conducted in partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture.
These forums are organized by USDA Rural Development throughout the state. Co-hosting this effort is USDA’s Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service as well as a wide variety of local organizers: Economic Development Corporations, U.C. Cooperative Extension, Resource Conservation and Development Councils, California State Universities, Central Valley Health Network, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, Farm Bureaus, Tribal Governments, Self-Help Housing Groups, and many more. To find a location near you, visit www.rurdev.usda.gov/ca <http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/...> . About Central Valley Health Network The Central Valley Health Network (CVHN) is a consortium of 13 Federally Qualified Health Center corporations that provide comprehensive preventative primary care services to low-income and medically underserved families throughout the Central Valley of California. CVHN supports consortium members with technical assistance, advocacy, program development and administration and training. Currently, CVHN members serve more than 600,000 patients annually across 128 clinic sites in 21 counties for a total of 2.5 million patient visits yearly. For more information about CVHN, visit www.cvhnclinics.org <http://www.cvhnclinics.org> or call (916) 552-2846 An obstacle to building the Delano Marketplace, which includes a Wal-Mart-Supercenter, was removed Friday when a judge rejected a lawsuit against the project filed by the City of McFarland and Citizens for a Better Delano. The lawsuit challenged the project on the grounds that the environmental review of the project did not adequately consider urban decay that could result in McFarland and other nearby communities as a result of the proposed shopping center. Superior Court Judge Kenneth Twisselman rejected the challenges late Friday. He ruled that even if some stores close, that wouldn’t necessarily lead to urban decay. At stake is a 200-acre project site west of Highway 99 and more than 1.1 million square feet of commercial space that would include a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Delano Mayor Liz Morris has told KGET-TV that McFarland’s lawsuit against the project is a consideration in Delano’s reluctance to let the newly formed McFarland Police Department use Delano’s 911 call center. The McFarland Police Department began Jan. 1 but emergency calls now go through the Kern County Sheriff Department’s 911 call center and then to a dispatch center in McFarland. — Californian staff
United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner We've just gotten hold of the plea agreements for Kevin and Leslie Sluga, which showed up on Pacer tonight.
The big shocker: The U.S. Attorney's "package offer" is conditioned on a guilty plea from one of their daughters, Megan Balod.
Their other daughter, Jennifer Crisp, is not mentioned in the package plea. She hasn't been charged with any crimes.
These PDFs are each about 18 pages. You can download them by clicking on the blue boxes.
The "factual basis" portion of each plea provides more detail than the charging documents.
Yes, we know who the intials refer to. But other than David Crisp and Carl Cole, who are obvious, if you know, can you keep it to yourself for now? No point in slandering folks if we happen to be wrong, ok? The wheels of justice are turning. Let them go. Thank you.
- Gretchen Wenner, staff writer
P.S. If you feel like reminiscing, here's a link to an industry rag feature on C&C back in the day....
Developing and we're on it...
Federal criminal charges against David Crisp's father-in-law and mother-in-law have been filed in Fresno.
Kevin and Leslie Sluga have both been charged with wire fraud and aiding and abetting. That's up to 20 years and $250,000 apiece.
Download PDFs of the court filings by clicking on the blue boxes at left. If you can't download PDFs, we've transcribed the charging documents here.
UPDATE: Download the plea documents here.
- Gretchen Wenner, staff writer Togo’s Sandwiches will celebrate National Pastrami Day by giving away a free Mini Classic Pastrami sandwich to the first 100 guests at each of its locations from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 14. Togo's has 242 franchised locations across the West Coast, including three in Bakersfield: 5450 Stockdale Highway, 9001 Stockdale Highway and 9000 Ming Ave. We have no idea who invented National Pastrami Day. In fact, we're not entirely certain it actually exists. Does it really matter? Chick-fil-A will give away a free chicken sandwich 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. each Wednesday in January. No purchase necessary. Limit one per customer per day. There is only one Chick-fil-A in Bakersfield, at 5260 Stockdale Highway. Why Chick-fil-A is doing this is a mystery, but they seem to enjoy this sort of thing. They gave away a year's worth of food to guests who camped out overnight to attend their grand opening in February. Ours is not to wonder why. Just eat a sandwich. The unemployment rate in Kern County stood at 15.1 percent in November, according to figures released by the state Employment Development Department. This November’s figures are slightly worse than October, when the rate stood at 14.5 percent. Figures of note • Kern lost 5,000 jobs from October to November of this year, and 6,700 year-over-year. We are as tired of writing these alerts as you are of reading them, but it bears repeating because every quarter, even sophisticated, well informed people fall for this scam. YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY ANYONE TO GET YOUR PROPERTY TAXES REDUCED OR HAVE YOUR PROPERTY REASSESSED FOR TAX PURPOSES. You can have it done for free. Got that? Zilch. Zip. Nada. An outfit out of Granada Hills called "Property Tax Adjusters" recently sent official looking "statements" to unsuspecting taxpayers inviting them to pay to have their property assessed. The mailing looks like it's from the government, and the language seems to imply this is a mandatory fee. This "2010 Property Tax Reduction Form" mailing is not from the government. The mailing is from a private company asking you to pay for something the county will do for free, so Kern County Assessor/Recorder James Fitch is reminding people not to waste their money. Just to clarify, most people have ALREADY had their property taxes reduced without even doing anything. The county does automatic readjustments periodically to reflect current market conditions. The taxable value of Kern County property for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009 has been assessed at $79 billion dollars. This total, for fiscal year 2009-2010, represents a decrease of about $5.3 billion dollars, or a 6.4 percent decrease in property values. If you have not had your property reassessed, or disagree with the amount at which it was assessed, call the county and ask for a review. You can reach them here: http://assessor.co.kern.ca....
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