|
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 Our L.A. good neighbor Make the daily ride safer for clean-air commuters Adopt new highway sign rules 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 
RSS 2.0    |
|
|
PUBLISHED 12/28/07 -----
Doctors, health workers, public safety officers and innumerable others have seemingly had the privacy provisions of the federal HIPAA law tattooed to their foreheads since the statute took effect in 2003.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, enacted in 1996 and updated four years ago with additional privacy restrictions, establishes regulations for the use and disclosure of “protected health information,” including even the...
PUBLISHED 12/27/07
The Environmental Protection Agency’s chief administrator informs us that California cannot be allowed to lead the way on controlling greenhouse gas emissions because the federal government is already handling the problem.
That opening sentence was your cue to start laughing. Or crying.
The Bush administration’s leadership on environmental issues hasn’t merely been lacking, it has been shamefully derelict. For the EPA to not only derail the...
PUBLISHED 12/26/07 -----
Yes, Bucky, you found out there is a Santa. Just days before Christmas, the sharp-toothed rodent (or perhaps family of rodents) was spared a certain death at the hands (figuratively speaking) of state wildlife officials.
The state Department of Fish and Game issued a permit to kill the beaver or den (family) of beavers after Bakersfield officials complained that nine cottonwood trees had been felled along the bike path near the Park at River Walk.
Rather than...
PUBLISHED 12/26/07 ----
Educators are always looking for ways to bolster high school graduation rates, and with good reason.
A high school education, as opposed to the lack of one, produces measurable benefits to society and to individuals.
A new study suggests one more good reason for educators, parents — all of us — to do everything we can to encourage kids to stay in school: There’s a direct correlation between low graduation rates and high homicide rates.
...
PUBLISHED 12/25/07 -----
As we celebrate this season of love, good cheer and giving, The Californian’s editorial board wishes all of you a very merry Christmas and rewarding new year. Board members have some specific Christmas wishes for Bakersfield and Kern County.
LIFE AS IT SHOULD BE
As Kern County and Bakersfield continue to grow, we wish in 2008 that the quality of our lives continues to grow as well.
The tagline to Bakersfield’s “leafy” logo is:...
Listen here:
http://static.bakersfield.c...
and then minimize the audio-link window so you can follow along here:
I'll Be Leaning Downhill
To the tune of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
I’ll be home for Christmas
assuming the place still stands
that hillside perch left us in the lurch
we’re worried about shifting sands
Christmas Eve will find me
grading soil round back
I'll be home...
listen here:
http://static.bakersfield.c...
then minimize that window and follow along here:
Sung to the tune of “White Christmas”
I’m dreaming of a wide freeway
just like the one Uncle Bill wants soon
where the cars move freely
and ideally
everybody’s home by 6
I’m dreaming of a wide freeway
that helps us move from east to west
with exits aplenty
and incidentally
fewer, shorter...
Listen here:
http://static.bakersfield.c...
then minimize that window and follow along here:
We Foreclosers
Sung to the tune of “We Three Kings”
We foreclosing bankers are
repossessing near and far
mansion, condo — tiny or mondo
it’s starting to get bizarre
O-----Ohhhh ...
For-sale sign here, for-sale there
for-sale signs are everywhere
lawns...
Listen here:
http://static.bakersfield.c...
and follow along here:
Sung to the tune of “O Tanenbaum”:
Oh L.A. sludge! Oh L.A. sludge!
forever breaching borders
Oh L.A. sludge! Oh L.A. sludge!
relying on court orders
Your reasoning
makes us ill
High-dollar lawyers
mean and shrill
Oh L.A. sludge! Oh L.A. sludge!
you call yourselves “good neighbors”
Listen here:
http://static.bakersfield.c...
and follow along here:
Hillary Clinton
Sung to the tune of “Frosty the Snowman”
Hill-a-ry Clin-ton
was the best friend of the Sikhs
with her pants-suit style and hubby Gomer Pyle
and her Dubya malaprop critiques
Hill-a-ry Clin-ton
was coming to Bakersfield
she’d collect some checks
and pay her respects
to contributors well-heeled
There...
Listen here:
http://static.bakersfield.c...
Casino Brawl
Sung to the tune of “Jingle Bells”
Casino brawl!
casino brawl!
Kern pro-se-cu-tors fight
nasty vibe
from the Chumash tribe
let’s claw, let’s kick, let’s bite
Casino brawl!
casino brawl!
sliding door knocked loose
rent-a-cops
forgot their props
no cuffs, no spray, no noose
Santa Barbara court
doesn’t see the...
Listen here:
http://static.bakersfield.c...
and then follow along:
“Deck the Walls”
Sung to the tune of “Deck the Halls”
Deck the walls with godly posters
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
School board on a roller coaster
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
From graduation kids subtracted
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
School board seems just too distracted
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Motto...
The transition from second-rate, out-of-the-way destination to competitive, high-momentum spoke in the West’s air transportation wheel has been a challenging one for Bakersfield’s William M. Thomas Terminal. But BFL, as that tag on your luggage calls it, is gradually getting there.
Meadows Field now has 15 daily outbound flights to nine cities, the most recent addition being Sacramento last September. That flight, via ExpressJet, came at the expense of one of BFL’s two...
Eyeing residential and commercial development on northeast Bakersfield’s fragile hills and bluffs, a politically courageous Bakersfield City Council last year adopted a “hillside ordinance.”
The ordinance established tighter building rules to set homes back from ridges, to provide safety barriers and access for firefighters, and to head off landslides and soil collapses that have plagued earlier developments in northeast Bakersfield and in other California...
The metaphorical barbarians are at the door. Interest rates are attacking from all directions, broadswords drawn. What’s in your wallet?
That’s what Capital One asks prospective customers with rhetorical flourish, the inference being that they’d be better off turning in their current credit cards for something with a more reasonable interest rate. Like a Capital One card.
But as a recent Senate hearing helped illustrate, many of the barbarians have disguised themselves...
Among the many other challenges it poses, pregnancy can be exhausting. The temptation to pull back a Red Bull or other caffeine-laced refreshment might be strong for many women in such circumstances.
Acting on that urge too frequently, however, is a bad idea. Sodas and energy drinks containing caffeine can pose a risk to pregnant women.
Is that risk serious enough for a warning label? The beverage industry says no. Others say yes.
In the middle is a state advisory board that has...
PUBLISHED 12-18-07 ------
Was anyone who follows sports, even with moderate interest, surprised last week by the picture of Major League Baseball portrayed in George Mitchell’s report on steroids?
Not if they’re honest with themselves.
Baseballs flying out of ballparks in numbers that don’t merely topple old records but eviscerate them.
Forty-year-old pitchers throwing 90-mph fastballs long after they should have started concentrating exclusively on their...
PUBLISHED 12/18/07 ----
Californians can and will continue to argue about the supposed need for new gun laws. Existing gun laws should be another matter.
If California simply enforced the basic gun laws it has, the streets would be considerably safer. Even staunch gun advocates should be able to agree with that.
Few existing gun laws are more logical than the one that pries guns out of the hands of convicted felons. Evidently, felons have been getting a pass on that one. No more.
...
PUBLISHED 12/14/07 -----
They’re still not getting it. Despite repeated sting operations, and well-publicized results, Kern County retailers continue to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors at unacceptable levels.
It happened again Dec. 1, when clerks working at 14 retail establishments handed over the goods to high school students without bothering to check for proof of age (or not caring once they did check).
Underage decoys working the “Minor Decoy...
PUBLISHED 12/13/07 -----
It’s not just about a controversial “In God We Trust” poster anymore. It is about good government, public responsibility and obeying the law.
Kern High School District trustees and their administrators have earned failing grades in those areas.
Their behavior cannot be dismissed or ignored. It must be corrected. If they can’t obey the law, if they are unwilling to do the public’s business in public, they do not deserve to...
PUBLISHED 12-12-07 ------
It’s a miracle! The cell-phone industry has unlocked one of the great mysteries of human existence: What to do with that perfectly good Verizon-compatible cell phone when you switch to Cingular. Or vice-versa.
A year ago, the mobile-phone industry was telling us that incompatibility was an unfortunate fact of life, that science and technology were stymied by the puzzle of conflicting circuitry. So sorry, consumers, you’ll have to pitch your devices...
PUBLISHED 12/12/07
A technicality in the law briefly cracked open the door of secrecy behind which donors to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hide.
Schwarzenegger and other state politicians use non-profit organizations to shield what amounts to anonymous, tax-deductible campaign contributions. The organizations are not required to divulge the identities of donors.
On Nov. 7, the obscure non-profit California State Protocol Foundation held a fundraiser in San Francisco attended by...
PUBLISHED 12/11/07 -----
An exasperated state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who conducted a hearing this summer into Fresno State University’s athletic department, has declared, “Enough is enough.” He is correct.
It’s long overdue for California State University Chancellor Charles Reed and Fresno State President John Welty to clean up the mess at the Fresno campus.
Last week, a Fresno jury returned an unanimous verdict in favor of a former women’s...
PUBLISHED 12/11/07 ------
It’s called the farm bill, but it might better be understood as the farm, foreign trade, food stamp and nutrition bill. It affects those and other vital aspects of the U.S. economy.
The farm bill comes up for reauthorization every five years, although it occasionally takes Congress an extra year or so to complete the job. This will almost certainly be such a year.
One of the hang-ups: Whether to maintain the current level of subsidies for corn and...
PUBLISHED 12-9-07 -----
As people draw up their shopping lists for holiday gift-giving, they’re often stymied by those tough-to-buy-for friends and relatives. It would be no different if they were shopping instead for local newsmakers, opinion leaders and government officials.
Those people have given us sooooo much all year long, and now it’s time for us to return the favor. The Opinion section staff has conjured up this list of “perfect gift” suggestions that...
PUBLISHED 12-7-07 -----
Nothing is forever. Great empires crumble. Time passes. History has proven permanence is a fleeting hope.
But people who plopped down $100 or $250 for bricks or tiles to raise money to complete the city of Bakersfield’s Centennial Plaza (renamed Rabobank) deserve more than a shoulder shrug and an “oh, well” for their investment.
The bricks and tiles were sold in 1998 as a fundraising scheme by the Centennial Foundation to add the finishing...
PUBLISHED 12-6-07 -----
Here we go again. American automakers say they can’t comply with gas-mileage targets established by Congress because it’s just too much, too fast, too ambitious.
We’re all familiar with Detroit’s “can’t-do” attitude. U.S. automakers fought against mandatory seat belts in the 1960s and standard driver’s-side air bags in the 1980s.
They opposed the Clean Air Act of 1970, claiming the mandates would force...
PUBLISHED 12-6-07 ------
Is nothing sacred? The state of California wants to apply its 72-year-old “use tax” on out-of-state purchases to Internet commerce.
That means the cold-weather jacket you ordered from Maine-based L.L. Bean, the laptop computer you bought from Texas-based Dell, and the new hardcover heading your way courtesy of Washington-based amazon.com, are subject to California’s 7.25 percent sales tax.
Those purchases always were, but the Board of...
PUBLISHED 12/5 --------
Shouldn’t Mitt Romney have suspected his gardeners were undocumented Guatemalans? Is Rudy Giuliani really that deluded about New York’s status as a de facto sanctuary city? And what about Mike Huckabee and college scholarships for the children of illegal immigrants? Aren’t they illegal too? What would Jesus do, anyway?
Illegal immigration took center stage at last week’s Republican presidential debate. This much became clear:
Despite...
PUBLISHED 12/4/07 ----
Constant train honking makes sense out in the rural backcountry, where crossing gates can be few, train speeds faster and desolate roads dangerously hypnotic. But its a major irritant in the middle of cities, like Bakersfield.
It’s good news, then, that Bakersfield may be able to re-establish the citywide quiet zone that was in effect until 2005, when a new federal regulation went into effect and trains started blasting their horns on their way through town....
PUBLISHED 12-4-07 ------
If Congress and the White House won’t lead, the nation’s governors seem to be saying, we will.
The Bush administration has demonstrated little inclination to address global warming.
Neither has Congress.
But the chief executives of many states (and at least one Canadian province) have done so, reaching regional agreements to cap greenhouse gases and engaging in assorted efforts to prompt action by Congress.
Two Republicans and a Democrat,...
|
