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Voters shunned the June ballot NASA to the rescue! Governor, it’s time to kick some legislative booty Slowing down makes sense Kudos to our K-9 teams We should honor our leaders Good, bad in valley college trend Help nurses teach Chad Vegas didn’t really mean the oath he swore Facts tortured to justify decision June 06 July 06 August 06 September 06 October 06 November 06 December 06 January 07 February 07 March 07 April 07 May 07 June 07 July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 June 06 May 06 April 06 March 06 February 06 January 06 December 05 November 05 October 05 September 05 August 05 July 05 June 05 May 05 April 05 March 05 February 05 Blog RollAsk The Californian Editorials Entertainment Eye of Bakersfield Faith Forum Fired Up! Inside Sports Neighbors Right Thinking Sound Off Talk of the Town 
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PUBLISHED 9-1-2006
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger shouldn’t hang up on a bill that would require drivers to use a hand-free device if they want to use a cell phone in a car.
He should sign SB1613 by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto.
The governor has said in the past that something needs to be done about the problem of drivers being distracted while talking on the phone, but has not endorsed a legislative solution.
But the time to equivocate on the issue has long since passed....
PUBLISHED 8-31-2006
Two children have paid the ultimate price for the ignorance and irresponsibility of adults. Six more children will carry the scars throughout their lives.
Tuesday’s tragic accident on Maple Avenue in Bakersfield’s Oleander neighborhood must cause all of us to watch over our children.
Police and emergency response agencies are still piecing together the details of the blast that killed Andrew Etcheverry, 8, and Jeni Marie Klawitter, 7. Six other...
PUBLISHED 8-31-2006
Don’t just sit there. If you see something dangerous, act.
Call the Bakersfield Fire Department’s hotline 326-FIRE to report toxic chemicals, illegal fireworks, old ammunition or other dangerous objects being stored or improperly handled.
Tuesday’s tragic accident involved children playing with a “trophy” military round that was thought to be harmless. Hidden behind the metal tip was gunpowder that exploded, killing two children...
PUBLISHED 8-30-06
A significant and valuable new step in controlling the AIDS epidemic may begin soon.
CDC is expected to recommend next month that testing for HIV infection — the virus that causes AIDS — become part of routine health exams at least once as a teens and as an adult.
CDC has long recommended routine HIV testing for pregnant women, regardless of risk for HIV. Quick medical treatment of HIV-positive pregnant women has been highly effective at...
PUBLISHED 8-30-06
Dan Walters eat your heart out: UC Merced’s future is looking up.
Sacramento Bee columnist Walters has been a consistent critic of founding the new UC campus.
This year the burgeoning institution has raised $19.6 million in donations. This is not only a staggering amount, but is quadruple last year’s total. Including this year’s donations, UC Merced now has received more than $60 million in gifts. Also impressive is that 462 private donors have...
PUBLISHED 8-29-06
The Kern County Board of Supervisors approved a pair of big-ticket contracts that could pay rich dividends for residents — but only if all goes quickly and precisely as needed with both.
The board approved a $739,400 contract with the Camden Group of El Segundo to provide interim management of Kern Medical Center. The amount includes the salary for David K. Culberson as interim chief executive officer of the financially ailing hospital. Current CEO Peter Bryan...
PUBLISHED 8-29-06
A criminal suspect’s confession makes cops’ and prosecutors’ hearts beat faster — for good reason, up to a point. Confessions can expeditiously wrap up sometimes lengthy and expensive investigations, leading to speedier trials and guilty verdicts.
But a surprisingly high number of confessions are false — studies say as many as 25 percent. The JonBenet Ramsey murder may be a case in point.
One result, aside from the injustice of a...
PUBLISHED 8/28/2006
Priority must be given next year to resuscitating Senate Constitutional Amendment 32 by Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria. It was a casualty in this legislative session from misguided opposition.
SCA 32 would allow public funds to be used under strict guidelines to help restore California’s 21 historic missions. The measure would bring California’s provisions on separation of church and state into closer conformity to the vast majority of other...
PUBLISHED 8/28/2006
Legislators and the governor have only a few days to end their squabbling and help end elder abuse.
They agree that professional conservators need closer oversight. The standoff is over the means.
Professional conservators are appointed by probate courts to manage affairs of 4,000 incapacitated Californians.
Measures to end rampant abuse would:
• Allow probate courts to investigate complaints informally rather than require time-consuming legal...
PUBLISHED 8/27/2006
It’s a shame that there always has to be a law. You would think parents would want to protect their children. You would think parents would want to set good examples. Sadly, it doesn’t always work out that way.
And that is why a City Council committee is recommending Bakersfield’s existing noise and nuisance laws be changed to punish “cool parents.”
The change, which still must be approved by the entire City Council, will bring...
PUBLISHED 8-25-06
After a decade of experience, welfare reform has been neither the stunning success its conservative authors had hoped for, nor the human disaster its liberal critics had predicted.
A national study by the slightly liberal Urban Institute of Washington, D.C., shows that many of the goals of welfare reform were met at least halfway, and in some aspects more often.
Especially important was the goal of ending generational dependency — when a family...
PUBLISHED 8/23/2006
It is incumbent on rural residents’ legislators to hold the state Department of Insurance and consumer advocates accountable for the impact of forced changes on how auto insurance premiums are calculated.
Last week, most of the state’s major auto insurance companies knuckled under to years of pressure from state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. He ordered companies to reduce the weight they give to a driver’s place of residence in determining...
PUBLISHED 8/23/2006
A staple of television crime shows is the release of a person wrongly imprisoned, often as a result of a conviction involving eyewitness testimony.
It’s not all fiction. Because such miscarriages of justice are a reality of criminal trials nationally and in California, changes must be made in how such testimony is handled.
One way is the adoption of SB1544 by Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco.
Although badly watered down, the bill should be enacted. It...
PUBLISHED 8-23-06
Putting political and ideological considerations ahead of scientific ones at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is wrong. The raging controversy over the morning-after pill, or Plan B, demonstrates this.
The FDA’s acting director, Andrew C. von Eschenbach, has been doing the bidding of anti-abortion groups by dragging his agency’s feet in approving the over-the-counter sale of Plan B.
A three-year debate has raged over whether at least some...
PUBLISHED 8-23-06
There’s good news and bad news in a recent flap over a fundraiser for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The good news: The governor and his campaign staff pulled the plug on the Santa Monica event after an e-mail went out urging members of the California Society of Facial Plastic Surgery to attend and urge the governor to veto a bill that would allow oral surgeons to perform some kinds of elective cosmetic surgery.
The Aug. 4 cocktail reception, which was expected...
PUBLISHED 8-22-2006
You can’t blame Mike Polyniak for howling about the stray cats stalking his southwest Bakersfield neighborhood. And he is not alone.
The Californian has received many letters from similarly enraged residents complaining that roaming cats are defecating in their yards and flower beds, tearing up their lawn furniture, getting into their open cars and garages.
Roaming cats are damaging property, raising a stink and making life downright unpleasant for many...
PUBLISHED 8-22-2006
Geezers of the world unite — you have nothing to lose but your stupidity. Yeah, right — if you believe a bunch of psychologists.
Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Michael Johnson reports that research at Morgan State University showed among older participants in a study “agreeableness appears to be negatively related to intelligence. ... being older and unfriendly might actually equate with being smarter.”
Of course,...
PUBLISHED 8-20-2006
The Rev. Curtis Jenkins’ warned: “The time is coming when no one is safe.”
Mourners, city officials and the news media stood Thursday afternoon in the very yard where Lawren Edwards’ blood drained from his young body.
The promising 17-year-old Long Beach high school graduate was in Bakersfield last week to visit his grandmother and ailing great-grandfather.
He was standing in the front yard of his grandmother’s home on U...
PUBLISHED 8-21-2006
Mobile phone companies must put their money where their marketing mouths are by dropping opposition to a bill that restores a key part of what was once the Telecommunication Consumers Bill of Rights.
AB1010, by Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City, has a simple goal: To provide a 30-day grace period during which cell phone users could cancel new or renewed service contracts without penalty if the service did not work satisfactorily or as advertised.
The message...
PUBLISHED 8-21-2008
If high schoolers can do it, so should college students — at least, that’s the reasoning behind a bill the state Senate recently sent to the governor.
Currently, high school newspapers in California have the same free press rights as professional news agencies. But college papers do not. Their content can be censored by school administrators.
If the bill passes, it would make California the first state to prohibit college and university administrators...
PUBLISHED 8-18-2006
Despite this week’s game-playing and behind-the-scenes political tricks, the Legislature still can give Californians the right to vote on much-needed election reform.
While Democrat legislative leaders claim their hands are tied and it is too late for the November ballot, the Legislature can suspend rules to allow the Assembly to vote on a Senate-approved reform proposal. They have worked such “miracles” when it has suited their purposes in the...
PUBLISHED 8/17/2006
A nearly two-year-old dispute between Shafter and Bakersfield over water usage is not a cut-and-dried matter.
But it is a gross disservice to the people of Bakersfield — and even to Shafter interests — to have the issue trickle on much longer.
At issue is whether all or some of the water Shafter proposes to use to support residential development north of 7th Standard Road comes from water Bakersfield holds rights to.
If it is, Bakersfield rightly...
PUBLISHED 8/17/2006
More than 100 congressmen are joining forces to give vehicle owners what they have long needed and wanted — the ability to have their cars repaired at independent shops.
Many new car manufacturers refuse to disclose diagnostic and repair codes for their engine, transmission, braking and emission management systems.
The codes are needed so that diagnostic computers can help repair technicians pinpoint problems and make repairs. That policy keeps vehicle...
8/16/2006
Kern County voters are looking at the business end of Southern California’s big gun.
The City of Los Angeles has joined with other Southern California counties and agencies to file a federal lawsuit to block the ban voters approved in June on hauling sludge to Kern County, where it is smeared on farm land.
They have brought in the fire power of national law firms that have represented sludge applicators and disposal companies in legal battles over similar bans in...
PUBLISHED 8-15-2006
After repeated controversies and scandals involving the California Highway Patrol, Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, has said: “Enough is enough.” And she turned to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to authorize a wide-ranging audit of the state’s police force.
Regrettably, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, says the Legislature is too busy to be bothered. The committee, which is headed by Assemblywoman Nicole Parra,...
PUBLISHED 8-14-2006
Don’t get us wrong. We’re not advocating tethering dogs. But is there no end to the amount of meddling the Legislature can do in our lives? Can’t our elected representatives find something better to do?
The latest fit of micromanaging comes in the form of a bill making its way through the Legislature. It would ban the tethering of dogs in California.
Animal rights advocates contend dogs that are consistently tethered will likely become more...
PUBLISHED 8-14-2006
What’s a mother to do? If you heeded the directions of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a mother would leave her children at home when she shopped, bring along other adults to help watch her children or shop online. She certainly would not pop her children into a grocery cart.
That’s easy for the academy to pontificate. And likely most mothers would love to leave their kids at home, have extra adult hands to help or the enough cash to buy groceries...
PUBLISHED 8-14-2006
Good for the governor. He has put his watchdog California Energy Commission on the alert.
Last week, BP announced it shut down a pipeline, halting crude oil shipments from its main Alaskan field. Gov. Schwarzenegger wants to make sure the oil industry doesn’t use the shutdown to artificially inflate California gas prices.
California drivers already pay the second highest gas prices in the nation — second only to Hawaii.
Only about 20 percent of the...
PUBLISHED 8-13-2006
There are times when the only thing you can say is: There ought to be a law! This is one of them.
The pathetic thing in this case is that there seems to be a law, but it was ignored.
The parking ticket Arlene Ramos-Aninion received a few days ago was just plain wrong, as was the treatment she and her father received.
Ramos-Aninion flew to Florida recently to fetch her 78-year-old father, who is in poor health, suffering the effects of emphysema and chronic...
PUBLISHED 8-11-2006
“It’s better alive than dead. ... It’s inconvenient, but we’ll make it.”
— Bob Chambers,
airline passenger in Baltimore, MD.
------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Go with the flow. That’s the best way for everyone to cope with the latest terrorist threat against the U.S.
Accept that check-in delays will be longer than normal, security will be overwhelming and...
PUBLISHED 8-10-2006
And until we wise up, it’s going to happen again and again.
A Republican-sponsored bill to reimburse California counties, including Kern, for the cost of conducting last fall’s special election is going nowhere fast.
No duh. The Democrats who control the Legislature are not interesting in cleaning up the mess Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his party created.
They owe Kern County $785,158 for conducting a special...
PUBLISHED 8-10-2006
A trashy-sounding idea could be an air quality and traffic reduction treasure for city and urban county residents.
The city of Bakersfield and the county of Kern are proposing to build a joint trash transfer facility in metropolitan Bakersfield. Its purpose is to reduce air pollution and truck traffic from refuse pick-up and disposal at the Bena landfill, which is 17 miles east of Bakersfield on Highway 58.
Today, 272 diesel refuse trucks haul garbage from...
PUBLISHED 8-9-2006
British Petroleum owes a lot more than the “deep regret” apology North American Chairman Bob Malone gave for the need to shut down significant portions of its North Slope oil pipelines.
There is increasing evidence of reprehensible mismanagement of pipeline maintenance. As a result, the nation will lose an estimated 400,000 barrels of crude production per day for as long as three months.
The 16 miles of pipelines affected by massive corrosion and...
PUBLISHED 8-9-2006
Maybe we should feel relieved that it was just two boneheaded teenage burglars who stole a Department of Veterans Affairs laptop computer on May 3, compromising the identities and financial security of 26.5 million veterans and active duty service members. But we don't.
We are still worried about the boneheads running the VA and their inability to protect the identities of millions of men and women who have risked their lives to protect us.
Just last month, the...
PUBLISHED 8-8-2006
The Assembly should move quickly to approve Sen. Dean Florez’s bill that would standardize regulation of genetically engineered nursery stock and seed. The bill passed the Senate on June 1 with a 31-8 vote.
Without SB 1056, stock distributors, seed outlets, growers and product retailers will face an unmanageable mishmash of conflicting local sale and use regulations.
SB 1056 would extend the existing California Seed Law to include genetically modified...
PUBLISHED 8-8-2006
Oh, yuck. Something else to worry about.
A television station took its investigative noses out to Lindbergh Field Airport in San Diego recently to check out the germs in the security area.
As they pass through the sensors and gauntlet of Transportation Security Administration inspectors, airline passengers are routinely instructed to take off their shoes.
...
PUBLISHED 8-6-2006
Enough is enough. Don’t just read those words, shout them. Better yet, scream them. That’s what many of The Californian’s readers are doing.
After reading last weekend’s story about the destruction taking place in North of the River parks, they are screaming their heads off. And they should.
Feces in the community swimming pool. Playground equipment torched. Graffiti everywhere. Not a pot to pee in at most public restrooms. The...
PUBLISHED 8-6-2006
Today is the first day that this city will no longer put up with the jerks who think it is fun to destroy it.
Send The Californian your stories and suggestions. Send us your photographs.
What is happening in your neighborhoods and parks? Are criminals tearing them apart?
We want to hear your stories. Tell us what law enforcement is doing to stop the destruction. Tell us who is doing the destruction. Tell us what should be done.
How are you helping stop...
PUBLISHED 8-7-2006
By “real lake” standards, Lake Ming is a pond. But the county park facility is a body of water near Bakersfield’s population center that accommodates motor boats and water sports.
For that reason, special interest groups — water skiers, motor boaters, sailors, anglers, etc. — have long competed for its use.
The conflicts seemed settled years ago, when the Kern County Board of Supervisors reserved days at the lake exclusively for...
PUBLISHED 8-7-2006
Sacramento politicians should butt out of our toilets. A bill by Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, embraces the admirable goal of conserving California’s scarce water. But it is an unnecessary, micromanaging, regulatory scheme that could waste more water than it saves.
Step aside, Sacramento. Let the federal Environmental Protection Agency pull the lever on the nation’s toilets.
Laird’s AB 2496, which passed the Assembly and is now being...
PUBLISHED 8-4-2006
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recently announced goal of expanding school-based health centers is a good idea.
The services such a program could provide are desperately needed in Kern County and most of the Central Valley.
Depending on local needs and the form a program takes, services for elementary schoolchildren could include physical and mental health exams, immunizations, screening and treatment for chronic conditions, development of longterm...
PUBLISHED 8-3-2006
Nothing must be allowed to compromise the integrity of lawmaking, including the mere appearance of corruption of California’s initiative process.
It is in the interest of both the Legislature and the public that legislation to help ensure the integrity of the initiative process — SB 1047 and AB 2946 — pass.
The ever-increasing use of lawmaking by initiative makes it one of the most powerful policymaking tools in the political arsenal.
...
PUBLISHED 8-3-2006
Kern County residents owe Rep. Bill Thomas a huge “thank you” for his latest service to the district — helping to make Isabella Dam and everybody downstream safer sooner.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dropped a bombshell earlier this year by putting Isabella Dam No. 1 on its troubled list.
The agency didn’t defuse public anxiety at all when it said preliminary preparations to design repairs couldn’t progress much immediately because...
PUBLISHED 8-2-2006
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to cut testing of the nation’s beef cattle for mad cow disease by 90 percent is wrong.
It is a bad food safety and public health policy that may also cause trade sanctions against U.S. beef exports, which could harm Kern County cattlemen.
Mad cow disease — bovine spongiform encephalopathy — is a destructive infection of the brain and nerve system in cattle. When transmitted to people...
PUBLISHED 8-2-2006
Give it up! San Diego Rep. Duncan Hunter has been using “disabled veterans” to further his plans to establish an exclusive hunting enclave on Santa Rosa Island.
Part of Channel Islands National Park, Santa Rosa Island allows private hunting trips. But the concessionaire’s permit ends in 2011.
Hunter’s plan would allow military officials, veterans and their guests to continue hunting on the island over the objection of National Park...
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