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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 2/29/08 ---
Recycling what we can, rather that just thoughtlessly throwing away our waste, makes sense. “Waste not, want not.” Stewardship of our resources should be a top priority. As should our efforts to reduce trash dumped into county landfills.
Developing a refuse transfer station in metropolitan Bakersfield should be a priority. It will allow trash to be separated for recycling. It will reduce the number of trips
pollution-spewing garbage trucks ...
PUBLISHED 2/28/08 ---
You’ve undoubtedly had this experience: You’re just sitting down to dinner when the president calls. “Can you phone back later, Dubya?” you tell him. “The meatloaf is going to get cold.”
But the president, or the congressman, or the prominent candidate for national office, or whoever it might be, just keeps talking. Because, one, that’s what politicians do, and, two, because this is a robocall — an automated,...
PUBLISHED 2/28/08 ----
Most neighborhoods have at least one. Many neighborhoods have a whole slew: Perfectly good homes rendered wastelands because of foreclosure.
Bankruptcy and abandonment have created all sorts of eyesores, from ragged, unkempt, dying landscaping to green, unsupervised backyard pools.
The City of Bakersfield has taken an important step toward better management of the problem.
Under a plan tentatively approved by a City Council committee last week, Bakersfield...
PUBLISHED 2/27/08 ---
Downtown Bakersfield’s much-discussed parking shortage has been solved. The solution requires no new asphalt or road striping, no new parking meters or meter maids. According to Donna Kunz, director of the city’s Department of Economic and Community Development, the solution, for the most part, requires only a change in perception.
There’s no parking problem in downtown if one factors in the city’s underutilized 18th and Eye streets parking...
PUBLISHED 2/27/08 ---
Kudos to Congressman Jim Costa for keeping the lungs of his Central Valley constituents foremost at heart.
Democrat Costa, who represents portions of Kern County, has written legislation that would encourage additional retrofitting of diesel engines with new, lower emissions technology.
HR 3754, co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of California congressmen, including Republican Devin Nunes of Visalia, recently passed the House Subcommittee on Energy and Air...
PUBLISHED 2/26/08 ----
The California vehicle code is about 1,500 pages long — about the size of the Bakersfield phone book. The type is so small that it’s a virtual blur to anyone under 50 who isn’t using (to use DMV jargon) corrective lenses.
But within its pages are some of the more common-sense traffic safety laws in America.
So says the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, which ranks California among the best in the nation based on 15 laws that, according to the...
PUBLISHED 2/26/08 ---
Maybe the people of Bakersfield are less inclined to shred discarded credit-card offers than people in most other cities. Maybe there’s a local aversion to using mailboxes equipped with locks. Whatever the reasons, this is the reality: Bakersfield ranks No. 14 on the Federal Trade Commission’s list of cities hardest hit by identity theft.
Bakersfield had 1,436 ID theft complaints in 2007, or 184 complaints per 100,000 population, placing it ahead of Los...
PUBLISHED 2/24/08 ---
At a random traffic checkpoint last year in southeast Bakersfield, law enforcement officers stopped 62 vehicles. Forty-nine of the drivers were cited for driving without a license.
It makes you wonder just how many drivers who share our roads don’t bother to get licenses, or don’t worry about driving without them.
So if Assemblywoman Jean Fuller gets her way and schools are given the power to suspend the driving privileges of students who drop out,...
PUBLISHED 2/24/08 ----
Schools should teach. Considering the low test scores and soaring dropout rates, schools should be doing a much better job of teaching our children and preparing the next generation of Americans.
But meddling, grandstanding legislators just can’t resist piling on “social engineering” programs — burying reading, writing and arithmetic under a mound of state- and federal-mandated requirements.
School teachers and administrators aren’t...
PUBLISHED 2/22/08 ----
The typical household generates 4.6 pounds of trash per day. Give someone from that same household a hotel room key and a “Hello My Name Is” name tag, however, and suddenly his daily production of trash increases fourfold.
Convention-goers contribute to landfills at an astounding rate. According to a 2000 study by the Environmental Protection Agency, the average conventioneer generates about 20 pounds of trash per day. That’s a lot of mouse pads...
PUBLISHED 2/21/08 ----
The recent death of actor Heath Ledger from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs brings an unnerving trend to the fore. Unintentional deaths from drugs, including prescription drug overdoses and illegal drug abuse, is now the nation’s No. 2 cause of accidental fatalities, second only to auto wrecks.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most alarming increases are due to prescription drug misuse. Between 1999 and 2004,...
PUBLISHED 2/21/08 ----
California’s action hero-governor apparently needs a little help in the muscle department. Make that a lot of muscle. The state’s taxpayers are protecting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — and five of California’s other top officials — to the tune of nearly $38 million a year. That’s more than two and a half times what taxpayers paid to protect Gray Davis and five top state officials in the previous administration, according to numbers...
PUBLISHED 2/20/08 ----
It seems like a matter of common decency, humanity and fair play: Provide “imprisoned” passengers with basic amenities, such as water, snacks, fresh air and sanitary restrooms if their airplane is delayed on a California tarmac for more than three hours.
Yet, incredibly, the airline industry is fighting a new bill that would require carriers to provide those simple comforts.
Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, is sponsoring what he calls the...
PUBLISHED 2/20/08 ---
Turns out the helpful little reminder affixed to the top, left driver’s-side corner of your windshield — the one that tells you when to get your next oil change — may be perpetuating a less-than-helpful myth.
“The 3,000-Mile Myth” sustains the often-erroneous belief that we must change our cars’ oil every 3,000 miles or risk damaging the engine. The California Integrated Waste Management Board says that’s frequently not the...
PUBLISHED 2/19/08 ----
Although Proposition 92, the community college funding initiative, failed badly at the polls this month, it may have succeeded in portraying the plight of the system’s 109 campuses.
At least state community college officials hope it did. They’ll soon find out, as they prepare to ask the state Legislature to boost funding.
Even Prop. 92 opponents say community colleges need to be better funded. The funding mechanism Prop. 92 would have put into...
PUBLISHED 2/19/08 ----
The drunken driving laws of most states include penalty enhancements for convicted motorists whose blood alcohol content greatly exceeds the national standard of .08 percent.
Most states mandate jail time of specific durations, often accompanied by minimum fines, for DUI drivers guilty of “aggravating circumstances” — defined as testing out at roughly twice the BAC standard for an ordinary DUI arrest.
Not in California. The Golden State, a...
PUBLISHED 2/17/08 ---
Monday is Presidents’ Day, the holiday set aside to honor the contributions of the 43 men who have served as America’s chief executive over the past two-and-a-quarter centuries.
The holiday, usually noteworthy only for the three-day winter weekend it affords most of us, does seem to take on a little extra meaning in presidential election years. Perhaps that’s because it reminds us of the difficult odds aspirants face in the daunting quest that...
PUBLISHED 2/15/08 -----
We hope Robert Fassbender of Tehachapi learned his lesson, but we’re not holding our breath.
We are glad, however, that he won’t be taking up bunk space in a California prison for having allegedly stolen a package of doughnuts.
Fassbender had been facing a possible third-strike conviction for the petty theft, but charges were dismissed Feb. 8 morning for insufficient evidence.
Insufficient evidence? How about insufficient cell space? Insufficient...
PUBLISHED 2/14/08 ---
Fresno may soon establish itself as a leader in solar energy production. No fewer than three candidates for mayor of that San Joaquin Valley city have laid out separate, tentative plans to encourage or compel builders to include solar energy panels on new homes.
The most recent is Fresno City Councilman Mike Dages, who wants to make solar panels a requirement for new construction. That will be a tough pill for builders to swallow, given the cost ($20,000 or more) and...
PUBLISHED 2/14/08 ---
California state lottery executives aren’t setting the world on fire. But that didn’t stop Director Joan Borucki from putting on a $43,629 Sacramento bash in November for more than 300 employees and their guests to “celebrate” the $20 billion the games have provided education since voters passed an initiative establishing the lottery in the mid-1980s.
A celebrity host was paid $5,000 to run a mock Big Spin and give away prizes — a...
PUBLISHED 2/13/08 ---
The Bakersfield Police Department recently sent an important message to high school students: Spend more time in the classroom, or spend time somewhere less comfortable.
The BPD, working with Kern High School District police and other agencies, participated in a truancy sweep in the Arvin and Lamont areas Jan. 30.
Of the 120 targeted students, 105 had conversations with police -- and 15 were handed truancy citations.
Too bad the sweep didn't get the attention...
PUBLISHED 2/13/08 ----
A proposal that would reward Californians who purchase clean-burning new cars and penalize those who buy high-polluting vehicles needs some tweaking, but it deserves approval.
Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City, withdrew his so-called "feebate" bill on Jan. 30 because it didn't have the required votes -- thanks, in no small part, to automobile-industry opposition. But Ruskin should try again with a few changes to the bill. He has promised to do...
PUBLISHED 2/12/08 ---
The departure of Fresno County Supervisor Judy Case from the California Air Resources Board last month should make the state Legislature's air-quality goals abundantly clear.
Californians deserve and demand clean air. Any wavering from that objective is unacceptable.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, led the charge to oust Case, who lasted less than a year after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named her to fill a position reserved for a member of the San Joaquin...
PUBLISHED 2/12/08 ---
If you've ever attended one of those grotesquely fascinating exhibitions of posing, skinless, preserved corpses, such as "Body Worlds," you've probably asked yourself these obvious questions:
Who are these people and how did they get here? Who, in his right mind -- or any state of mind -- would will his body to a commercial enterprise to be plasticized and displayed?
The New York Times endeavored to answer those questions in August 2006. Among the...
PUBLISHED 2/10/08 ----
The scandal-plagued departure of the Kern County Health Department's director was a wake-up call for the Board of Supervisors.
Dr. B.A. Jinadu resigned last summer to take a job in San Diego. But San Diego officials withdrew their job offer when they found Jinadu years earlier had overbilled the state's Medi-Cal program and failed to repay the money.
While working for Kern County, Jinadu had moonlighted by operating private medical clinics in Southern...
PUBLISHED 2/10/08
Kern County needs to beef up its oversight of government spending.
Board of Supervisors should:
* Increase funding for Auditor-Controller Ann Barnett to audit county departments.
* Pass a county ordinance requiring Barnett to audit every county department every two years and report to the Board of Supervisors at least annually the status of her audits and the departments' progress in correcting deficiencies.
* Establish within the County Administrative Office or...
PUBLISHED 2/8/08 -----
Raise your hand if you thought judges weren’t elected. Likely many of you had no clue that as a voter you have a say in who becomes a superior court judge.
That’s because state judges are generally appointed by the governor to fill a new position or sudden vacancy. Once they are appointed, they pretty much have a lock on the job — unless they act downright oddly, or tick off the legal community.
Judgeships fly obscurely under the political radar...
PUBLISHED 2/07/08 ----
Forget about the actual election results for a minute. Super Tuesday sent a loud and clear message to the political parties, candidates and their operatives.
Given a choice, given the ability to really make a difference, voters will turn out and vote.
And they don’t need to be told what to do — through glitzy advertising and mind-numbing drumbeats — to decide how to vote. Americans will pay attention and they will exercise their cherished right to...
PUBLISHED 2/7/08 ----
Here’s how bad the government budget crunch has gotten: The city of Ventura will begin charging people for 911 calls.
By a 6-1 vote, the Ventura City Council agreed Jan. 28 to give residents the option of paying $50 for every please-hurry-it’s-a-matter-of-life-or-death call, or — the preferred method — paying a monthly fee.
What a ludicrous plan. Yes, we know 911 staffing is a significant drain on precious government resources. But...
PUBLISHED 2/07/08 ----
Assemblywoman Nicole Parra hasn’t been paying attention, but it’s not her fault, she says.
The blame, she says, goes almost entirely to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which sneaked through a law that establishes a strict new standard for dairies that produce raw milk.
The bill, proposed by the agriculture agency, somehow got past Parra and her entire Agriculture Committee — despite the fact it was voted on six times in the...
PUBLISHED 2/05/08 ----
Retired computer consultant Dan Shobe of Tehachapi made our day recently when he wrote to The Californian.
“Thank you and the staff of The Californian for your efforts in presenting the news without imposing personal or corporate political bias on your readers.
“Yes, there are editorials, news stories, cartoons and opinion pieces that lean one way or the other. But, on balance, it doesn’t come across to me that a left or right political...
PUBLISHED 2/5/08 ---
Change is good, but experience is better. That’s why The Californian endorses Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton in today’s state primary.
Clinton hardly represents the voice of change. She, not unlike President Bush, is closely tied to a White House administration from the previous decade. But her understanding of the issues, gleaned from eight years in the U.S. Senate and eight years in a cabinet-like role in her husband’s...
PUBLISHED 2/03/08 ----
The good news: After a thorough, 4 1/2-year federal investigation, the Bakersfield Police Department has been cleared of excessive force and racial profiling accusations.
The even better news: Police brass and officers positively responded to the scrutiny and improved the department’s operation.
At a news conference last week, Police Chief Bill Rector reported that the U.S. Department of Justice had closed its investigation and found “no constitutional...
PUBLISHED 2/1/08 ---
Conservation groups are correct to hold the Environmental Protection Agency's feet to the fire for the agency's failure to meet deadlines intended to clean the air in the San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles Basin.
The EPA is almost three years overdue in taking action to address the state's most polluted air.
The lawsuit, filed by the Association of Irritated Residents and the Natural Resources Defense Council, accuses the EPA of violating federal laws that required...
PUBLISHED 1/31/08 -----
A new bill that would make it easier for Californians to check whether acquaintances -- including potential romantic partners -- have a history of domestic violence has some merit.
But we want to know more.
Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill that, if approved, would create an online database of men and women convicted of domestic violence in California, the first such list to be made available to the public.
Under Ma's proposal, the...
PUBLISHED 1/30/08 -----
Rivers help define the cities they flow through, and in many cases the cities also define the rivers. St. Louis, Cincinnati, Sacramento -- all are situated on rivers of historical import and aesthetic character.
Bakersfield, by comparison, has the Kern River -- or, more accurately, it has the Kern Riverbed.
Now, thanks to a recently settled lawsuit, Bakersfield may soon be able to enjoy the many benefits of a river. A wet river.
But we have to speak up, and...
PUBLISHED 1/29/08 ----
With his State of the Union address sandwiched between presidential primaries in South Carolina and Florida, President Bush focused the nation Monday night on the present, rather than on the future and on the drumbeat for change coming from both Republican and Democratic candidates.
In his last year in office, Bush’s annual address lacked the usual grandiose calls for action. After his 2004 re-election, Bush boasted he had earned political capital, which he...
PUBLISHED 1/27/08 -----
If the so-called Westpark Alignment is indeed the fastest, cheapest, most efficient way to complete Bakersfield's long-needed east-west freeway, the Bakersfield City Council should study it. Metropolitan Bakersfield's rapidly worsening traffic congestion demands it.
Without a doubt, most Westpark property owners would be pained to see their homes leveled and neighborhood cut in half. But, given sinking property values, that prospect seems more palatable today...
PUBLISHED 1/25/08 ----
Indications suggest we have good reason to be encouraged as the U.S. General Services Administration considers the city of Bakersfield's proposal for a downtown federal courthouse site.
Following a period of secrecy-shrouded analysis, the GSA accepted a proposal by developer Castle & Cooke to build a federal courthouse complex in southwest Bakersfield, near a school and housing tracts.
People who lived near the proposed southwest project howled in...
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