The Kern County District Attorney declined to pursue criminal charges against Kern High Trustee Ken Mettler or Rob Badewitz.

Mettler was involved in a fight with No on Proposition 8 protesters on October 24. Video catches Mettler throwing a punch at No on 8 demonstrator Rob Badewitz; less clear are the events immediately preceding and following the punch, during which Mettler says signs were ripped out of his hands. 

The DA's isn't pursuing charges because:  "statements.... vary wildly," and "precise facts... cannot be firmly established," according to its press release.

After Badewitz filed a criminal complaint, Mettler filed a complaint.

Watch the video.

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First off, I'd like to say thanks for the helpful discussion on CSU. There were some angles I hadn't thought about and will keep in mind when covering any budget cut stories. If there are any updates on what they decide, I'll let you know.

Second, we should hopefully (fingers crossed) know the results of the Kern County elections that are in limbo, including the KHSD race. James Geluso just got back from watching the 30,000 absentee ballots being counted by machine. Exciting, indeed! So hopefully, we will know who is going to win, although we will not have the official results for a while because there are still 10,000 provisional ballots that need to be counted.

And third, I need some help again. I'm working on a story about private schools and whether they have seen a decrease in enrollment or need to provide more financial aid to fill their seats. Do you know of any families struggling to pay for school while balancing their budgets? Have you had to do it yourself? Give me a call: 395-7564.

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Some CSU campuses are shutting down admission November 30! So if you were thinking about applying at one of the more exotic locales, including Channel Islands, Long Beach and San Luis Obipso, make sure you do it as quickly as possible.

Also, some of the more full campuses will give priority to local students, so you might want to make sure to have a back-up college this year.

To see the full list of the earlier deadline campuses and to read more about what has already changed and what the chancellor is proposing to change, check out my story.

The state's worsening budget crisis is forcing the California State University system to consider turning away some eligible students from all 23 campuses for the first time in its history.

CSU Chancellor Charles Reed blamed the proposed enrollment restrictions on Sacramento's underfunding of the university's budget, which was cut in September and now faces a midyear cut as the state's financial woes worsen.

The university's governing Board of Trustees is scheduled to discuss Reed's proposal Wednesday during a meeting at CSU headquarters in Long Beach. The trustees also will be asked to consider increasing tuition for business school graduate students.

While individual campuses have closed enrollment in the past, such a move has never been imposed across the entire system, which is the largest four-year university operation in the country. The proposal does not estimate how many students could be denied admission, but it could be thousands.

Read more...

HELP: I'm in the process of finding out what will happen at CSUB. Are any of you applying to CSU schools or have kids that are in the process? Any friends? If so, please call me at 661-3495-7564 or respond with your phone number. I'd like to hear from some real life people worried about this.

Here are the final unofficial results for the race (there are still absentee and provisional ballots to be counted): 

Also, here is my story for the paper. It is based on numbers that I got in between this post and the first post I did. I'll be here at least until midnight, so if we have any other news, I will let you know!

Hope everyone had a great election night and took satisfaction in participating in democracy, regardless of the outcome. As one of my friends put it, "If you don't vote, you can't complain, and I always have a lot of complaining to do." 

So thanks for reading, and stay tuned for a new batch of stories about what this all means in the coming days.

Bob Hampton in third. Resutls below.

Keep checking them yourself at http://elections.co.kern.ca...