Did I miss it? What happened to the planned federal courthouse downtown?
— Don Kurtz

Answered by reporter James Geluso in a story Monday:

The federal courthouse is still coming. Eventually.
“This is just an ongoing saga,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, on Friday.
Bakersfield has met the requirements of the General Services Agency, the federal agency that handles civilian buildings. The city is willing to dedicate the land, and City Manager Alan Tandy convinced the agency to cut back on how much land it needed on the west side of the building, because the canal will provide a security barrier.
But now, the U.S. Marshals Service needs to find $3.3 million for security measures at the building. And until that happens, the building won’t get built, said James Kane, the GSA’s public buildings service director in San Francisco.
To McCarthy, it’s just the latest in a long series of hurdles that have been thrown up in the way of a needed courthouse.
“This one’s a little taller, so we need to jump a little higher,” he said.
McCarthy said he’s skeptical that the requirement of upfront funding is a good idea.
“If they stick to this model, it affects all courthouses across the country,” he said.
By all the objective standards, Bakersfield should be first in line for a new courthouse, McCarthy said.
The May 19 letter from Kane to Tandy was the last the city has heard on the courthouse. Tandy sent another letter back, pledging cooperation.
McCarthy had been hoping for construction to start in spring 2009, but that depends on jumping the hurdles, he said.
The proposed courthouse would be at the east end of Central Park. Its boundaries are 21st Street to the north, the property line of Central Park to the east, 19th Street to the south and the Mill Creek project to the west.