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Almost perfect presents Look around and be thankful Charities need a break in these tough times A unique way for government to fight blight Schools must cash tech check Adjust system, not just bosses’ salaries City must respect its own history Green jobs can rebuild economy Democrats in power must not overreach Needed: More election staff 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 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 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 12-31-2006
Over the past several weeks, Californian readers submitted the names of local people they determined were worthy of the title of Person of the Year.
Retiring Bakersfield Congressman Bill Thomas received the most number of reader nominations, followed by Bakersfield dermatologist Norman Levan, who donated a record $5.7 million to Bakersfield College.
Reader comments regarding Thomas and Levan appear on today’s Viewpoint page. Reader comments regarding other...
PUBLISHED 12-28-2006
If history has not yet vindicated Gerald Ford, it will. It must.
The nation’s oldest living president died peacefully Tuesday, in contrast to the controversy that continually marked his too-short term of only 29 months.
Today, the word “decent” falls from everyone’s lips about the 38th and...
PUBLISHED 12-29-2006
Despite spending nearly $2 billion on a high-tech surveillance system, federal officials now admit that keeping track of immigrants who overstay their visits in this country is impossible.
The system to keep track of foreign visitors, known as US-Visit, was touted as a critical component to national security and an important tool in curbing illegal immigration. It uses fingerprints and digital photographs to record visitors who enter and leave the U.S.
...
PUBLISHED 12-29-2006
The battle against the second leading cause of death in women, cervical cancer, will soon have a potent weapon in California. When they return next month, lawmakers will consider a bill that will require young girls to receive a vaccination that prevents human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer.
The bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, comes with some controversy. The bill will require girls to be vaccinated as a...
PUBLISHED 12-27-2006
Chalk one up for the good guys — the tax collectors, as strange as that sounds.
Outgoing state Controller Steve Westly and his incoming replacement, John Chiang, have saved a great, free service for low-income, single taxpayers called ReadyReturn.
Begun as a pilot program in 2005, ReadyReturn allows the Franchise Tax Board to automatically fill out personal income tax forms for low-income, single taxpayers with one employer using the standard...
PUBLISHED 12-27-2006
Is advanced math really needed to lift yourself out of poverty?
Sure, if you are going into a math-related field. And that includes many more professions than commonly recognized.
It’s not just mathematicians that need those advanced courses. Business, accounting, engineering or anything that deals with numbers or problem-solving require math skills.
Long ago, the state Legislature recognized the need for all students to take algebra...
PUBLISHED 12-24-2006
Tomorrow is Christmas. Many of us have shopped until we’ve dropped. Our days and nights have been filled with parties and preparation. Between work, family and wrapping presents, we haven’t had a minute to just stop and think.
Do that now. We are in the home stretch of an action-packed year. In just a few days, we get to make a fresh start. What do we hope for 2007?
The Californian asked its Opinion section’s Sounding Board members...
PUBLISHED 12-26-2006
Ho, ho, ho. Dean, this isn’t funny. And while it may be legal, it’s not right.
Money collected in the name of Keep Kern Clean — the campaign committee that pushed the Measure E sludge ban — was used this month to send out about 70,000 Christmas cards featuring Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, and his mother, Shafter Mayor Fran Florez, a potential candidate to replace Democrat Assemblywoman Nicole Parra when she is termed out in two years.
The...
PUBLISHED 12-26-2006
What a relief! We have been saved from the evil “winter break” title. Kern High School Trustees Chad Vegas and Ken Mettler have ridden to the rescue on their white horses.
Christmas Break! they proclaimed. That’s what it is and that’s what it should be named.
In 1988, some miserable little bureaucrat had the audacity to change the name of the two weeks high school students have off in December from “Christmas break” to...
PUBLISHED 12-22-06
The holidays can be a scary time for motorists. At least it can be for the sober ones.
Children are left without parents and people lose family members in alcohol-related accidents.
Last year, at least two families were involved in fatal accidents during Thanksgiving weekend alone.
This year, no alcohol-related fatal accidents were reported for the same holiday weekend. Alcohol was ruled not likely to have caused a fatal accident on Friday Nov....
PUBLISHED 12-21-2006
Kern County District Attorney Ed Jagels is justified in his criticism of a light sentence given to a child molester by Superior Court Judge Richard Oberholzer.
Jose Richard Leiva, 23, was sentenced to three years in jail following his conviction for having sex three times with a 13-year-old girl. He was also on probation for a prior sexual encounter with a 14-year-old.
In handing down the sentence — which could have been 10 years — Oberholzer noted...
PUBLISHED 12-20-2006
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pursuing exactly the right course to save the state’s death penalty in reaction to a critical federal court ruling.
Avoiding the usual overheated rhetoric that normally follows adverse legal opinions on capital punishment, Schwarzenegger ordered the state Department of Corrections to research ways to achieve process and procedure changes ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose.
In the same...
PUBLISHED 12-20-2006
Parents should be first in line to discipline children. But too often teachers are the ones who have to discipline students. That’s not the way it should be.
A recent duct tape incident at Bakersfield High School left a student upset and others shocked.
Carol Humphrey, who has been with the district 35 years, was accused of duct-taping a student’s mouth and fingers to make him stop making noises in class.
A teacher should have minimal discipline...
PUBLISHED 12-19-2006
Kern County supervisors should agree today to a compromise settlement of a 2-year-old contract dispute with Kern Medical Center physicians.
A compromise settlement that is being negotiated and whose terms are widely speculated about is not the best resolution. But a compromise may be practical and important.
Present KMC Chief Executive Officer David Culbertson wants to settle the issue now so the county can move forward to make widespread reforms at the...
PUBLISHED 12-18-2006
Improving the test immigrants must pass to become U.S. citizens is a good idea. But the new proposed test already is showing some flaws. Understanding how government works, as well as understanding a citizen’s rights and responsibilities, benefit new and existing citizens.
New citizens must be well educated about the system in order to participate in their government. Participation is a right and privilege that many do not have in other countries and U.S....
PUBLISHED 12-17-2006
In 2002, Time magazine selected a trio of courageous whistleblowers, Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom, Coleen Rowley of the FBI and Sherron Watkins of Enron to be its Persons of the Year.
An annual tradition, Time executives select a person or group of people to feature on a year-end magazine cover to honor for their impact on the news and on the nation.
This time-honored tradition is being adapted by the Opinion section for a year-end Sunday Viewpoint page...
PUBLISHED 12-17-2006
Kern County planning commissioners and backers of a new NASCAR racetrack west of Bakersfield were giving themselves high-fives at last week’s meeting.
Commissioners approved a conditional-use permit and environmental reports that clear the way for construction of a half-mile banked-turn raceway at the intersection of Interstate 5 and Enos Lane (Highway 43).
Proponents hope to begin racing in the spring of 2008.
Commissioner Wendy Wayne called the...
PUBLISHED 12-15-2006
The entire California congressional delegation must unite and push hard to bring to reality Rep. Bill Thomas’ last gift to the Central Valley, and especially to Kern County.
Awaiting President Bush’s expected signature is a health care bill that includes authorization for a grant program to help fund valley fever vaccine development.
The bill passed in the waning moments of the recently concluded congressional session.
...
PUBLISHED 12-14-2006
Creative thinking must immediately replace bureaucratic routine in order to open the veterans national cemetery in Kern County on time.
Construction should have begun next year, with completion in 2008. The timelines have now been pushed back a year. And all because of a hiccup in the funding process. The need for the cemetery is imperative. Its justification is unquestioned. There are 170,000 veterans living within a 75-mile radius of Bakersfield and...
PUBLISHED 12-13-06
California and Kern County are no strangers to the war in Iraq. The state has sacrificed more soldiers in Iraq than any other. The death toll nears 300.
The bipartisan Iraq Study Group, politicians and military leaders are calling for new strategies. If the U.S. is to achieve “victory” in Iraq, what should that victory look like and how can the U.S. achieve it?
Tell The Californian and those who represent us in Congress what you believe should be...
PUBLISHED 12-13-06
President Bush’s decision this week to engage in “intensive discussions” with experts about new options to deal with Iraq is a good start.
What’s needed most in the wake of a sober indictment of his administration’s policies in Iraq by the Iraq Study Group, a disastrous domestic election result and forced resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is a bipartisan look forward.
The White House has said the president will...
PUBLISHED 12-12-06
New rules clarifying complex trial processes will enhance the quality of justice statewide. Courts in Kern County implemented some of the new procedures years ago.
The revisions are a part of a decade-long effort by the state’s judicial policymaking body to enhance jury service. Past efforts of the California Judicial Council have concentrated on streamlining procedures for getting jurors to serve more willingly and with less of a burden. Examples include...
PUBLISHED 12-12-06
Many students are not meeting state standards when tested in math and reading.
A program — with a $31.7 million per year budget — that was supposed to help maximize student learning has failed to do so.
Few California teachers have enrolled in the Mathematics and Reading Development Program that helps with teaching techniques.
Teachers get paid for attending the Mathematics and Reading Development Program and they still aren’t using it. If...
PUBLISHED 12-11-2006
The U.S. Treasury Department discriminates against the blind, a federal judge ruled.
The judge ordered the Treasury Department to start discussing how to redesign paper currency so that the blind could distinguish among $1, $5, $10 and other bills.
Distinguishable currency will open opportunities for blind people.
The immediate effect will be that blind people will no longer be vulnerable to being cheated.
They will also be able to have jobs that...
PUBLISHED 12-11-06
It’s normal for professional athletics to roll in billions of dollars. In college athletics, a smaller but comparable amount is also made. The only difference is the National Collegiate Athletic Association is exempt from the taxes professional athletes pay.
Bakersfield’s outgoing Congressman, Bill Thomas, has justifiably challenged the NCAA’s tax-exempt status. Myles Brand, president of the NCAA, defended the association in a 25-page response to...
PUBLISHED 12-10-2006
Maybe the lyrics of one of his country western classics offers an explanation of why the 69-year-old Merle Haggard is encouraging his family, friends and fans in Bakersfield to remember him.
Sing me back home with a song I used to hear.
Make my old memories come alive.
Take me away and turn back the years.
Sing me back home before I die.
In recent years, the push has been on to rename a public building or street in Bakersfield in honor of the native son...
PUBLISHED 12-8-2006
Come on, guys. Start living up to those words you mouthed in November that got you elected to the Kern High School District Board.
What was all that lip service about “putting the students first?” Test scores, preparation for life, vocational education. Making the high school district better.
Those were the priorities you promised. You said you would not be ideologically driven.
Yet, you bolt from the starting blocks during the first meeting of the...
PUBLISHED 12-7-2006
This advertising campaign stinks. No, really. It really stinks. It stinks so bad that Municipal Transportation Agency officials in San Francisco pulled it.
Good for them.
The California Milk Processor Board has priors for rolling out offensive ads. Remember its 2005 spoof on athletes’ steroid use. (Hey, guys, there’s nothing funny about using steroids.)
But what was the board thinking when it rolled out a scheme to put “mouth-watering”...
PUBLISHED 12-7-2006
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has thrown down a good government gauntlet that the Legislature must embrace meaningfully.
For years, legislative leaders have used evasions, deceit and phony-baloney excuses for failing to reform the state’s redistricting process.
Enough already. There is nothing more crucial for having competitive and fair elections than stopping the stranglehold that incumbent party leaders have over the process.
Picking up from where reform...
PUBLISHED 12-6-2006
It is imperative Kern’s legislators — Reps. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, of Bakersfield and Jim Costa, D-Fresno — be leaders of the California delegation’s battle to enact free trade legislation in the House of Representatives. Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, is also part of the coalition.
Key votes on several bills come up in the House of Representatives this week, perhaps as early as tomorrow. The urgency to move quickly stems from two facts:...
PUBLISHED 12-5-2006
It’s cold. It’s foggy. It’s time to light up our fireplaces and warm up our bodies and souls.
But it also may be time to obey a San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District’s “no-burn” declaration.
The Air Quality Index — a measure of unhealthy air pollution — sets off alarms particularly in foggy weather, when pollutants, such as particles from wood-burning fires, are trapped.
“No-burn”...
PUBLISHED 12-5-2006
What do you think? Should former St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire be voted into the baseball Hall of Fame?
McGwire held the nation’s attention as he slugged his way to 70 home runs in 1998.
He again held the nation’s attention seven years later when he refused to give forthright answers to Congress when asked if he used steroids to enhance his performance and set his records.
McGwire is just one of many sports superstars accused of taking...
PUBLISHED 12-5-2006
Not voting for cheaters seems logical. And that is exactly what eligible voters should keep in mind when they cast their ballots for the baseball Hall of Fame.
Mark McGwire refused to answer questions about possible steroid use, stating he didn’t want to talk about his past. An answer like that leads baseball spectators to believe many of the 583 home runs McGwire hit are tainted by the use of steroids.
The ballot doesn’t only list statistics for...
PUBLISHED 12/3/2006
Rafael Marin Carrillo is dead, but painful, frustrating questions live on. Where are the crossing gates on this deadly intersection? How many more people have to die before the gates are installed?
The 41-year-old Carrillo died this week, after his car was struck by an Amtrak train at the Kratzmeyer Road crossing in northwest Bakersfield.
The crossing, which only has signal lights, has been the scene of other fatal accidents and is scheduled to have crossing...
PUBLISHED 12/3/2006
While Sen. Dean Florez and others try to cut through the red tape and add safety devices at deadly rail crossings, we must take our lives into our own hands.
Federal highway officials offer sound tips for dealing with dangerous rail crossings:
• Expect a train at any time on any track.
• Do not rely on the train whistle or other device to warn you. You may not hear it.
• Don’t try to cross a track unless you are certain your...
PUBLISHED 12/6/2006
Stop just fuming about that guy weaving between lanes and driving erratically ahead of you. If you suspect the driver is drunk, dial 911 and report it.
The California Highway Patrol is enlisting all of us in the campaign to battle drunken driving and save lives this holiday season. The CHP reports 4,300 people died on California’s roadways during 2005. About 1,500 of these people died in alcohol-related accidents.
“Those people could be...
PUBLISHED 12/6/2006
It’s a start, a fast start even, but it’s not quite enough. Kern County will get a portion of the road improvement money from Proposition 1B, the ballot measure voters approved. But money from Measure I, the half-cent sales tax voters rejected, was needed to really do the job.
Kern County will miss out on bidding for projects from a $2 billion pot because it is not the “self-help” county Measure I would have created. However, Metropolitan...
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