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Oildale deserves to get a little TLC 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 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 1/24/08 ----
Eighteen elected prosecutors, including district attorneys who represent New York, Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland and Atlanta, have posed an interesting argument before the U.S. Supreme Court.
What if reversing Washington, D.C.’s controversial handgun ban — a move the nation’s highest court will start to consider in March — had a previously unforeseen consequence? What if, by recognizing a...
PUBLISHED 1/23/08 ----
California is trying to grow a green-tech economy, which is certainly noble and forward-thinking. But it’s all been just talk. The state has failed to develop the workforce that eco-friendly businesses need.
According to corporate and government leaders who addressed a Jan. 7 summit on so-called green-collar jobs, the work force is so miserably failing to keep up with the growing demand, California runs the risk of losing these fledgling industries to other...
PUBLISHED 1/23/08 -----
That tire around your middle is not your fault. Society, not you, should be held accountable for that rapidly disappearing 12-pack of ice cream bars in your freezer — and the overly ample posterior it has helped develop.
That’s the gist of a recent study by a Rand Corp. scientist focusing on obesity and the environmental factors that help foster it.
And the funny thing is, there may be some truth to her theory.
Automatic behavior, triggered by...
PUBLISHED 1/22/08 -----
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata received a new, more modest state-issued car a couple of weeks ago: a navy blue Chevy Impala. Maybe you read about the vehicle it replaces: a candy-apple red Dodge Charger with 22-inch rims.
The Oakland Democrat was carjacked at gunpoint last month. Police originally speculated he was targeted because of those rims, but the car was finally located with the rims intact, along with pretty much everything else important, except...
PUBLISHED 1/22/08 -----
Once again, California is out in front on a consumer-rights issue.
This one addresses the annoyance of the half-spent gift card — a long-overdue option that offers year-round benefits, not just during shoppers’ post-Christmas trek to the malls.
Since Jan. 1, consumers have been able to convert leftover gift-card and merchandise-credit balances into cash — provided the balance is less than $10.
The new state law,...
When Californians go to the polls on Feb. 5, they will consider ballots that, for the first time since in 1928, will not include the name of a sitting president or vice-president. That fact alone guarantees change — of a sort.
The change many Americans have is mind, however, is deeper and more profound than the wholesale turnover of the current Oval Office brain trust. Opinion on what shape that change should take is as varied as the names of the seven or eight leading major-party...
One DUI is a serious mistake. Two is a trend that demands harsh intervention. But seven? Eight?
Jose Hernandez, accused of killing a Bakersfield woman in an alcohol-fueled crash on Stockdale Highway last October, is clearly a hazard to public safety, whether or not he is found guilty in this particular tragedy.
He qualified as a hazard long before that Oct. 14 crash. What was he still doing on the road?
In a sense, all of us — including law enforcement, the Department of Motor...
PUBLISHED THURSDAY 1/17 ---
Few features of The Californian’s Opinion pages — or any newspaper’s editorial section, for that matter — have the power to incite outrage and inspire delight quite like the single-panel political cartoon.
We were reminded of that fact for the umpteenth time last week after we published Paul Combs’ stinging visual parody of Hillary Clinton’s now-famous New Hampshire choke-up on Jan. 11.
The senator from New York,...
PUBLISHED Tuesday, Jan. 15 ---
If you’ve ever been tempted to call the cops on a weaving, swerving driver, consider this your invitation.
The California Department of Transportation wants you to report suspected drunk drivers by calling 911. Following a successful test-run during the 2006 holiday season with changeable message boards, Caltrans made the program permanent by posting blue and white signs all over the state. Maybe you’ve already seen them: “Report Drunk...
PUBLISHED Tuesday, Jan. 15 ---
When it comes to veterans, most Americans believe in giving credit where credit is due.
Whether they served in wartime or remained stateside, survived grievous danger or stocked shelves for four years in a climate-controlled commissary, veterans are owed a certain amount of respect.
Those who remained citizens, by choice or by circumstance, must earn their public accolades — if that’s what they’re after — some other way.
Some...
PUBLISHED Friday, Jan. 11
The U.S. went to war in Iraq, we were told, in part to bring an end to the atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein against his own people.
The American military deposed that despot and extracted some justice for the many victims of his barbarous ways.
Sadly, the White House does not seem interested in sufficiently extracting justice for the U.S. servicemen who suffered at Saddam's hand during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
President Bush has refused to sign a...
published SUNDAY Jan 13
There's some merit in trustee Ken Mettler's suggestion that the Kern High School District explore the idea of separating boys from girls in physical education classes, at least on a limited and voluntary basis to start.
Although there's certainly no unanimity on the issue, the nationwide consensus -- as gleaned from a number of studies -- seems to be that students benefit when they are segregated by gender. Students are...
PUBLISHED 1/10/08 ----
School officials have a responsibility to keep students safe and secure within an orderly environment that promotes learning.
They also have a responsibility to acknowledge students’ constitutional rights to privacy and due process. And they have a responsibility to zealously guard public funds by spending only on programs that are proven effective.
Therein lies the dilemma as Kern High School District trustees weigh the pros and cons of employing drug-...
PUBLISHED 1/9/08 ----
Kern County voters will be casting vote-by-mail ballots in record numbers over the next month, if registration numbers bear expected fruit.
County election workers mailed out some 110,797 vote-by-mail ballots — also known as absentee ballots — on Monday. That’s roughly double the number of vote-by-mail ballots distributed prior to the March 2004 primary election (55,862) and close to three times the number of absentees mailed out handed out prior...
PUBLISHED 1/9/08 ----
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger laid out a grim scenario in his annual State of the State address Tuesday. The governor said he will ask for dramatic spending cuts in order to balance this year’s projected $14 billion budget shortfall, and he’ll eventually ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would give him more power to make those cuts himself in the future, if and when circumstances dictate.
Cuts will indeed be required this year, but we...
PUBLISHED 1/8/08 -----
Californians can’t force the state’s gambling genie back into the bottle. But they can control how fast and how big it grows. They can require the gambling industry to share the billions of dollars it takes from our pockets to offset its substantial consequences.
And that is at the heart of four initiatives on the Feb. 5 ballot. Opponents of the sweetheart deals the governor and Legislature made last year with the four largest “gaming”...
PROPOSITION 94
Tribe: Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, Riverside County.
Casinos: Remain at two
Nevada-style slot machines: Increase from 2,000 to 7,500.
Annual payments to state: Increase from $29 million to at least $44.5 million.
PROPOSITION 95
Tribe: Morongo Band of Mission Indians, Riverside County.
Casinos: Remain at two, plus a small auxiliary gambling facility.
Nevada-style slot machines: Increase from 2,000 to 7,500.
Annual payments to state: Increase from about...
PUBLISHED 1/6/08 ----
How stupid do legislators think California voters are? OK, maybe you shouldn’t answer that. We have swallowed some pretty big political “whoppers” over the years.
But not this time. Proposition 93 is a clumsy political sleight of hand that lacks the finesse of even an amateur magician.
Here’s the “scam.” Proposition 93 is being peddled as a tightening of the term limits California voters imposed on legislators in 1990. (By...
PUBLISHED 1/6/08 ----
Even its “proponents” are asking voters to reject Proposition 91 on the Feb. 5 budget. Talk about a “loser.”
Actually, this “orphan” transportation measure is no longer needed. It was rendered unnecessary by voters when they passed Proposition 1A in the November 2006 election.
Earlier in 2006, a coalition qualified Proposition 91 for a future ballot as a means of stopping governors and legislators from taking revenue from...
PUBLISHED 1/4/07 ----
Proposition 92 is a bad idea. California taxpayers cannot afford it.
The community college funding initiative on the Feb. 5 ballot would:
• Change the state funding formula for community colleges.
• Lower student fees from $20 to $15 a unit and make it very difficult to raise them.
• Increase the size of the state governing board and the board’s authority.
The initiative has commendable intentions — to...
Caucusing in Iowa today officially begins the 2008 presidential campaign.
Yes, it seems the campaign already has been going on for an eternity.
Despite the relatively few people who live and vote in Iowa, there is great symbolism and significance in how Democratic and Republican presidential candidates rank after Iowa caucus votes are counted.
The rankings will make and break some campaigns. Likely it will shake loose some of the bottom, lesser candidates.
With New...
A question for the Federal Communications Commission: Is it really in the best interest of public safety and equal access for AT&T Inc. to get out of the public pay-phone business?
The nation’s largest phone company announced in December that it would be divesting itself of its 65,000 pay phones around the country, including 21,000 in California, by the end of 2008. The San Antonio-based telecommunications giant will put its pay phones up for sale, allowing independent operators...
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