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Who should pay for development? Get 17-year-olds involved Keep July 4th safe, legal, fun Doctor’s stroke, community’s tragedy California is going up in flames Talk’s cheap, but campaigns aren’t Move on, Bruce Sons Time to weigh in on our future Put leeches to work Find the will to ‘fix’ homelessness 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 7-2-2007
House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi must take steps to ensure that the Senate’s passage of higher fuel-efficiency standards does not run out of gas in her chamber.
By a vote of 65-27, the Senate passed an increase in the corporate average fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks from 25 miles per gallon to 35 miles per gallon by the year 2020.
The vote was a realization of the impacts of global warming, high fuel prices and pressure from states like...
PUBLISHED 7-2-2007
Zero tolerance policies in our public schools are appropriate when properly implemented.
But school administrators must use common sense and be given flexibility in dishing out expulsions when policies are violated.
“Zero tolerance” means students will be recommended for expulsion when certain offenses are committed. Such offenses generally involve weapons and firearms possession, drug use, violence and assault.
For example, when a...
PUBLISHED 7-1-07
The Kern County Board of Supervisors should seek a wider review of the Public Health Department than the financial audit it recently requested.
The board’s unanimous request to Auditor-Controller Ann Barnett for a financial audit came following disclosures that resigned Health Officer B.A. Jinadu owes the state more than $360,000 in Medi-Cal overpayments made to three medical clinics he operated privately in other counties. The clinics are no longer in operation....
PUBLISHED 6-29-2007
The federal Food and Drug Administration’s newly announced crackdown on over-the-counter diet supplements is long overdue. The agency’s assertion of more extensive oversight of such products is not as strong or as comprehensive as the agency’s control over prescription medications.
Nonetheless, the FDA will now require manufacturers to follow standards regarding packaging, labeling, accuracy of claimed benefits and testing ingredients for purity,...
It’s darn hard to come up with politically correct, non-threatening, Chamber-of-Commerce-pleasing wording for a sign telling visitors not to kill themselves by jumping into the raging, treacherous Kern River.
Oh, there we go. We said it. Sorry Assemblywoman Jean Fuller. Sorry Kern County Supervisor Jon McQuiston. Sorry business owners and tourism trumpeters in the Kern River Valley.
There’s a sign at the mouth of the canyon that posts the number of deaths from drowning...
PUBLISHED 6-27-2007
“Where the first amendment is implicated, the tie goes to the speaker, not the censor.”
— John Roberts,
Chief Justice
The U.S. Supreme Court skillfully trod a difficult free-speech path in voiding a key portion of the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act.
In doing so, the court’s 5-4 majority likely displeased both free-speech advocates and campaign reformers.
But the inevitable tension between advocates of...
PUBLISHED 6-27-2007
The California Department of Education was correct to change the test that is used to measure the progress of students who are learning English.
Results and comparisons for the mandated tests for students whose first language is not English should be transparent to the public.
Starting next year, results will be able to be compared from year to year. This school year, students took a revised test.
State and federal laws require that school districts...
PUBLISHED 6-26-2007
Gas prices may be cooling off — temporarily — but the weather isn’t, and that is costing you money unnecessarily.
The hotter gas is at the pump, the less power it has per gallon, but you end up paying the same price for the lower power.
A lot of consumers want to change the situation, but the oil industry is cool to the solution. Its legislative power is leading to what the Los Angeles-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer...
PUBLISHED 6-26-2007
Call it what you want — a through-Delta facility, a conveyance, the Peripheral Canal — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called it right in Bakersfield last week, saying that it is long overdue.
The “it” is a means to get water that is transported from Northern California to Central and Southern California but without mingling it with the marshy waters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The Delta is a 1,600-square-mile estuary fed by the joining...
PUBLISHED 6-25-2006
It makes a lot of sense to give toiletries confiscated at airport security checkpoints to the needy. The practice should be a statewide effort, which is why Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, is on the ball.
He introduced a resolution that would encourage all airports in the state to donate confiscated toiletries to nonprofit organizations that support needy communities.
Currently, such programs have been set up in Bakersfield and Fresno. Such confiscated items as...
PUBLISHED 6-25-2007
Stop hurting the people who are fixing our roads. Caltrans employees have been threatened, shot with a BB gun, hit with flying objects thrown at them and run over by vehicles.
Motorists have also damaged equipment along California 138, a main east-west route in Southern California.
Caltrans grew so tired of the threats and injuries to employees and damage to equipment, that it decided to close the road during construction.
Good. That’s one way...
PUBLISHED 6-24-2007
Responding to deafening noise from constituents as well as from trains, a Bakersfield City Council Railroad Ad Hoc Committee is taking several steps to convert the noisy crossings into quiet zones — urban areas where trains won’t honk.
As commendable as the actions are, solving the problem will take take time, be expensive and must satisfy the federal government, the railroads and the city.
The issue lies in a new federal law that took effect in...
PUBLISHED 6-22-2007
The appearance of justice, and the expectation that justice will, in fact be rendered, is an important component to ensuring public trust and confidence in our justice system.
— Ronald George,
Chief Justice of California
Diversity should be a high priority in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s nomination of two new judges for Kern County this year. It should also rank high for the one or possibly two new judges who may be appointed next year.
The need...
PUBLISHED 6-21-2007
With bright sun, warm weather and light breezes, it’s a great time for recreation-minded Kern County residents to enjoy the great outdoors.
It’s also a great time for mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus — and Kern County now has recorded the first case in the state this year and may have a second developing.
But the early onset of this year’s sometimes serious disease outbreak doesn’t mean people can’t enjoy the summer...
PUBLISHED 6-21-2007
A proposed virtual fence along the border is a more practical solution to slowing illegal immigration than the 850-mile physical barrier President Bush approved last year.
A virtual fence based on technology tools is less costly than an actual fence.
In concept, one proposal is to construct a string of 1,800 towers equipped with cameras, sensors and links to sophisticated computers along the Mexican and Canadian borders. A section of the virtual fence was tested...
PUBLISHED 6-20-2007
Should we be concerned that members of a Bakersfield City Council committee last week snubbed an invitation to join a Kern County effort to plan for future “open space?”
No, not if we can take these City Council members at their word — that they are committed to preserving and expanding parks, trails and outdoor amenities in metropolitan Bakersfield.
City officials note that Bakersfield already has a parks plan. Kern County doesn’t. City...
PUBLISHED 6-20-2007
Kern County Supervisor Mike Maggard has proposed the creation of a city-county committee to plan for future “open space” in metropolitan Bakersfield. He envisions it to be a way for citizens to express their desire for more parks and trails.
While formation of the committee received a cold shoulder last week from some members of the City Council, perhaps that’s as it should be. Perhaps such a committee should not be a function of government; rather,...
PUBLISHED 6-19-2007
No Child Left Behind standards are not consistent from state to state, proving that revisions must be made before the program is reauthorized this year. These revisions must be made in order for No Child Left Behind to work.
Some states set standards lower than others to create the illusion that students are improving in school. This is of no benefit to students.
The fact that some states have extremely low standards is proof that NCLB is not working. And the...
PUBLISHED 6-19-2007
Names of the Major League Baseball players who received performance-enhancing drugs should be disclosed.
Kirk Radomski has already pleaded guilty to steroids distribution and money laundering in April in connection with the BALCO investigation. He has admitted to giving at least 23 MLB players steroids. It is the public’s right to know who these players are.
These players are heroes in the eyes of children. Children should not idolize drug-users and...
PUBLISHED 6-18-2007
Whatever happened to just “Once upon a time?” The sweet tones of a bedtime story floating out of a child’s room is being replaced by the screech of ideological wars.
“Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed!” is a zippy title, complete with cartoons that seem more appropriate for politically conservative adults than impressionable young children. The book is the “flag- ship” of a line of titles offered by publisher...
PUBLISHED 6-18-2007
You might think it’s “no big deal” and that you might even save a buck by hiring an unlicensed contractor to do work around your home. But think again. The risks far exceed any imagined savings.
California requires contractors to be tested and licensed. The system provides some guarantee that a contractor possesses necessary skills and insurance. This can protect consumers from shoddy work and legal liabilities if an unlicensed contractor or...
PUBLISHED 6-17-2007
Kern County water officials declared an “emergency” last week as pumps were shut down in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and water supplies to local crops threatened.
Valley farmers and many urban residents depend on water from the delta. Without pumps sending delta water down canals to farmland, Kern County faces a $100 million loss from crop failures and unemployment. Losses will not be confined to farmers. Consumers will pay much higher prices for the...
PUBLISHED 6-17-2007
While Bakersfield drinking water supplies are not expected to be affected by the shutdown of State Water Project pumps, city residents are urged to curb their water use. Water saved through conservation can help offset shortages for agricultural users and users in other parts of the county.
According to Tim Treloar, district manager of Cal Water in Bakersfield, the best way to conserve water is to cut back on landscape watering. At least half of the urban water...
PUBLISHED 6-15-2007
It was hard to know where to begin when The Californian’s editorial board sat down this week with Highway Patrol Commissioner Michael Brown.
Brown requested the meeting. It was one of many stops he is making throughout the state, talking to newspapers and groups, trying to quiet growing concerns about his department.
Do you jump right in and begin questioning the commissioner about the many scandals that have plagued California’s prestigious law...
PUBLISHED 6-14-2007
Dumb as dirt. That’s how Republican Congresswoman Heather Wilson of New Mexico described the Homeland Security and State departments’ passport fiasco.
“This is the kind of mess that makes people mad at their government,” she told reporters as a passport requirement was suspended last week to allow time for the State Department to get its act together. “It’s not Middle East peace; it’s basic customer service.”
The...
PUBLISHED 6-14-2007
Faced with changing technology, the Kern Council of Governments has wisely decided to upgrade highway call boxes. COGs coordinate local transportation planning.
Most highway call boxes used by motorists to contact emergency dispatchers now operate using analog radio transmission. The technology is rapidly being phased out by cell phone companies that provide the link between the call boxes and Highway Patrol dispatchers.
Most cell phone carriers are converting...
PUBLISHED 6-13-2007
State lawmakers must increase the pay foster families receive to alleviate the shortage of foster families and homes.
The main reason families are not opening their homes to foster children is because they can’t afford to, recent reports by county welfare and children’s advocates contend.
Licensed foster homes fell by 30 percent in the state over the last 10 years. A proposed bill could improve those numbers.
Assembly Bill 324 would give foster...
PUBLISHED 6-13-2007
Smoking in movies, as well as the actors who do it, influences children and teenagers. The Motion Picture Association of America has taken some steps to combat the influence.
The MPAA recently included smoking as a factor it considers when rating films.
A film’s rating can be affected by the depiction of smoking. And rating will include phrases such as “glamorized smoking” or “pervasive smoking.”
This will help parents decide what...
PUBLISHED 6-12-2007
State legislators can’t figure out how to fix California’s broken down fiscal house, shore up its levies, or even upgrade its freeways. But they propose to tell Washington how the war in Iraq should be prosecuted— or, more precisely, not prosecuted.
If enacted, Senate Bill 924 would place on the Feb. 5 presidential primary ballot a measure calling for a yes or no vote to end the war:
“Shall President George W. Bush, in support of the men...
PUBLISHED 6-12-2007
The Federal Communications Commission must not allow cell phone companies to hang up on improving 911 calls.
For more than a decade, the FCC has required cell phone companies to use technology that allows 911 emergency dispatchers to pinpoint the location from which a call is made.
Exact location of 911 calls placed on wired phones is routine. Locating a cell phone call is far less precise due to different technologies. In its newest proposed rulemaking, the FCC...
PUBLISHED 6-10-2007
Disturbing revelations about the moonlighting activities of Kern County’s former public health officer raise serious questions about the Board of Supervisors’ oversight of top county administrators.
They also raise serious questions about county department heads’ accountability to their immediate boss — the Board of Supervisors — and their ultimate boss, Kern County’s taxpayers.
State law requires elected public officials to...
PUBLISHED 6-11-2007
The addition of United Airlines’ new flight from Bakersfield to Denver is an ideal setup both for people connecting to other destinations and for people with business in the mile-high city.
The flight on a 50-seat jet is slated to begin in September. It will depart from here at 6 a.m. and return at 7 p.m., giving people a full day to conduct business. Denver is also an ideal connection to hundreds of destinations served by such airlines as United,...
PUBLISHED 6-11-2007
Fifth District Court of Appeals justices have decided former Kern County Sheriff Carl Sparks was wrong when he gave bonus pay to seven sheriff’s commanders. Only an elected board of supervisors has the authority to set pay.
Hopefully the ruling will end years of legal wrangling over the pay issue. Supervisors announced they are dropping their lawsuit against Sparks because the authority issue has been settled.
Still unresolved is Sparks’ claim that the...
PUBLISHED 6-8-2007
The current lottery system community colleges use to determine who will be allowed into nursing programs is not working. Schools should instead use a merit-based system to select participants.
Students are dropping out at a high rate because many are not ready for the vigorous program, which in turn contributes to the existing nursing shortage.
The San Joaquin Valley is expected to be short 20,000 nurses by the year 2020. Patients are looking at longer hospital...
PUBLISHED 6-7-2007
Two recent cases provide hopeful signs that the nation’s war against domestic terrorism is progressing. But much more needs to be done.
Last week, Islamic terrorists were arrested in a plot to blow up pipelines carrying jet fuel at JFK Airport in New York.
Only a month before, six foreign-born Muslims living legally in the U.S. were arrested on suspicion of plotting to use grenade attacks to kill soldiers at Ft. Dix, N.J. Allegedly, they had also discussed...
PUBLISHED 6-7-2007
The case of an American lawyer who evaded a worldwide quarantine dragnet shows no matter how sophisticated security procedures and policies are, the human element is a weak link.
Andrew Speaker, 31, left Atlanta, Ga., May 12 against the advice of county health officials to travel to Greece and Italy for his wedding and honeymoon. He had been diagnosed with a rare, but highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis.
He took several commercial airline flights, eventually...
PUBLISHED 6-6-2007
For their own good, as well as the county’s benefit, voters should take advantage of the ongoing campaign by the Kern County Elections Department to increase the number of permanent absentee voters.
The designation means that voters will be sent an absentee ballot automatically until he or she either asks not to be a permanent absentee voter or fails to vote in a statewide election. In that case the voter remains on the rolls and can vote on election day in a...
PUBLISHED 6-6-2007
A camera system alone is not going to deter vandalism. Other means are needed, such as neighborhood and parent awareness, and police involvement.
Keeping parks safe and clean for children and families must be a high priority.
North of the River Recreation and Parks District officials are taking a step toward that priority by recommending a portable camera system, estimated to cost about $2,500, be added to the district’s budget. Board members will adopt the...
PUBLISHED 6-5-2007
Cuts proposed in the upcoming state budget that would withhold funding for California State University’s successful outreach programs is penny wise and pound foolish. What little will be saved will be costly in the long run.
The governor’s budget includes a reduction of $7 million from funds currently used to support the programs that target students from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Kern County schools benefit from many of the outreach programs,...
PUBLISHED 6-5-2007
Not so fast! Don’t strike that match. Farmers shouldn’t get a pass on a Legislature-imposed ban on agricultural burning.
A bruising verbal battle erupted last month between state Sen. Dean Florez and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District’s board over plans to exempt some farmers from a ban on burning field waste.
The ban, which was to go into effect on June 1, was included in a package of bills sponsored by Florez in 2003 to impose...
PUBLISHED 6-4-2007
Soldiers deserve all the help they can get — especially help in being visited by their families when they are injured in war.
The Fisher House Foundation’s “Hero Miles” program is one of several worthwhile efforts. People can donate their frequent flyer miles to the foundation, which passes the miles along to injured soldiers or their families.
The Fisher House Foundation provides free airline tickets to military men and women who are...
PUBLISHED 6-4-2007
Give us a break! CKE Restaurants Inc., the parent company of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast food chains, is suing Jack In The Box Inc. to stop TV ads CKE says suggest its restaurants are serving up meat from a cow’s anus.
The lawsuit claims the ads confuse consumers by comparing sirloin, a cut of meat found on all cattle, with Angus, a cattle breed.
CKE claims Jack has gone too far with its ads. What a crackup. This comes from a company...
PUBLISHED 6-4-2007
Toughening safety requirements for trucking firms and drivers of hazardous materials should be a high priority after a recent tanker truck crash in Oakland that destroyed a freeway offramp.
AB1612 by Assembly Democrats Mark DeSaulnier of Martinez and Pedro Nava of Santa Barbara comprehensively tightens rules governing truck safety and maintenance, and driver certification.
Funding for increasing oversight and inspections by the California Highway Patrol will...
PUBLISHED 6-3-2007
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed anti-gang program deserves the high praise it is getting from law enforcement and many community activists in Kern County and statewide.
Kern County is one of 20 in the state especially targeted by the program and will be a huge beneficiary if the legislation can be enacted largely as it is.
The program is not perfect, and should be strengthened in the future, but longer-term desires should not derail legislation...
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