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Relay for Life -- Bakersfield a leader Lay off the old people, you NFL bruisers Scratching and rubbing, good feelings Female-only buses in Mexico City, but not Bakersfield A $200,000 ride to space, how nice How healthy are your dogs? Mother gives up newborn to Bakersfield fire station A $2,000 puppy stolen in Oildale How much of a hassle are fog delays? Fog, the thing I like least about Bakersfield 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 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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My name is Steve Swenson.
I shop at Wal-mart.
Not quite the same thing as being an alcoholic, but I mention that I shop at the retail giant so I can have the right to comment about the next story.
Seems that one of its cashiers was fired for saying on his MySpace page that if bombs were dropped on the stores, the average IQ would go up.
What happened to truth as the best defense?
I'm not saying all Wal-mart shoppers are slow between the ears (though most are slow in the...
We're still working on the story about the after-prom party attended by Bakersfield High School students in Stockdale Estates where some athletes were suspended for drinking alcohol and police are investigating allegations of a sexual assault.
The party was held May 12 at the home of a student whose parents were out of town.
Two things:
I have no sympathy for student athletes who were suspended from participating in sports for nine weeks. They all know the rules. If they break...
Meagan Nance, a Bakersfield High School junior, talked about sending and receiving 150 text messages a day, leaving her parents with a $500 bill, a story in today's paper says.
She's cut that down after her parents complained.
Megan is certainly not alone in that experience. Huge bills find their way into the mailboxes of many parents.
We had to change my stepdaughter's coverage to accommodate her phone use, and she's been responsible almost all of the time. That was after we saw a...
Last night, I told my wife as we settled down to sleep while the TV was broadcasting the Miss Universe contest that she was my Miss Universe.
We didn't watch the whole contest, which was won by Miss Japan, but we managed to make it through the swimsuit competition before we drifted off into dreamland.
There is always controversy in these contests because some women don't feel that wafer-thin, curvy women represent what womanhood is all about. (well, maybe not, but it was easy to...
When I first moved to Bakersfield in 1978, I thought the road system was pretty good, although I couldn't figure out when the 178-58 freeway stopped at M Street.
Seemed to me, poor planning and very local self interests blocked what really needed to be done.
But even more appalling is the unconscionable delays in building a remedy. And all of that sends the cost skyrocketing.
Federal environmental reviews are partly to blame. It takes the government years or even decades to do a...
Some people don't appreciate loud train noises.
You know, the ones the trains blow to warn people they are coming.
A meeting was held Thursday on whether there are more quiet, gentler train noises. And would they work.
Yes there are alternatives, but they are expensive and might expose the city to even more expensive lawsuits in case someone gets whacked because they didn't hear them.
I'm guessing people who complain live near railroad crossings. They might have wanted to check...
New studies show that women who work outside the home are more likely to stay married longer than stay-at-home mothers.
This is one of those I don't care what the study shows. I wouldn't marry a woman who didn't work outside the home.
First, because I couldn't afford to.
Second, because it makes them more interesting women.
The studies by the way show men are doing more of the housework. Glad to hear it.
I thought I did more housework just because I enjoy pleasing my wife so...
That's a shocker.
But that's what a Kern COG (council of governments) study found out in a February survey of 1,200 residents.
I like it here, but I didn't think any of the rest of you guys did.
Cheap golf, nice houses, good schools, lots of outdoor play, down home folks and pools to cool off in are just some of the reasons I like it here.
The main reason for the study was to find out about traffic congestion. Relative to freeway parking lots in the big cities, it's...
Park rangers in the North of the River Recreation and Park District want to have a portable security camera system to place at district parks to help catch vandals.
But what about collateral damage?
Like littering, making out or drinking alcohol. Would moms spank their children if they knew a camera might capture the moment?
The district board will vote on the idea in July.
What do you think about cameras in the parks?
Posted by Steve E. Swenson
Jimmy and Rubi Zetino featured in today's newspaper kept their pledge not to kiss each other for nearly a year until they got married.
They have since had a baby boy, which suggests after they got married on Sept. 3, 2005, they took the kissing thing to a next level.
Before they met each other, they dabbled in physical contact with others, but their pledge made their marriage very special and exciting, they said.
The question is, do you suppose you could, or could have done...
At my suggestion, a Wells Fargo account has been established in Farmington, N.M. where Cameron Weckerley of Bakersfield has been hospitalized since May 14 due to a motorcycle accident.
His wife, Patti, has been staying in The Connelly House across the street from the hospital, San Juan Regional Medical Center, to keep in touch with him and with us via her blogs.
This has caused a financial strain on their family so the account was set up Friday. We had trouble on Friday reaching someone...
I'm tempted to be flip and funny about this topic, but I know people who have died and I have written about people who were killed trying to avoid hitting animals that wander into the road.
But the question comes from a story we will do on what to do on Truxtun Avenue by Truxtun Lake or 18th Street and R Street where ducks and geese — none of whom are apparently trained to look both ways — waddle across in search of greener pastures.
The question can be expanded to dogs and...
A friend of mine had back leg problems with his pet dog.
More than $1,400 later, including a trip to Ventura for a specialist, the dog seemed to be recovering on its own with some prescribed restriction on movement.
He actually saved about $500 from what he was told he would have to pay in Ventura because an ultrasound wasn't needed as originally thought.
I'd have to love a dog a whole lot to spend that much money. There is no cat worth that kind of investment.
We once...
Sandy Stockman, 28, accepted a plea bargain to misdemeanor child cruelty charges in the death of her infant daughter, Kayden, whom she was holding in a car crash on Feb. 8.
Stockman was ordered to attend a 32-week parenting class, although her attorney felt she may not have to attend that long.
Rather than put Kayden in a car seat, Stockman was holding the infant as her mother, Brenda Stockman, sped through town and ran a red light to try to get Sandy to the hospital because of an...
Very few things spike my blood temperature from 98 to 212 but the outrageous complaints by Region 73 AYSO soccer officials against the recent Relay for Life event of the American Cancer Society got the corpuscles boiling in a heart beat.
Right in the middle of the May 5 Relay for Life event at the soccer fields that Region 73 leases from the university, complaints about how cars were damaging the grass prompted rerouting cars to much farther away — making people including cancer...
Reporter Jenny Shearer wrote a story in Sunday's paper about the Seasons Park, a neighborhood park with no restrooms, that has been overrun with people associated with organized sports.
Resident Ken Quiring said he couldn't invite people to his home on the weekends because there was no parking.
He was fed up with crowds, trash and public urination, so he called the city.
Assistant recreation director Allen Abe said city codes say neighborhood parks are for the neighbors. Larger city...
This Sunday is Mother's Day.
It is a time to honor the woman who spent nine months wondering what kind of pain you would bring.
And then she spent years trying to guide you through what we know as real life.
You probably had some thoughts about how she was doing.
I ran away once because I didn't think she was doing such a hot job. Why couldn't she let me do more of what I wanted to do.
Turns out that's not her job.
When my mother died of brain cancer (she taught me not to...
Plans are being discussed to bring a Ronald McDonald House or a similar program at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital.
They are in the early stages, but it's a good discussion because it focuses on the need for intensive care pediatric beds in Bakersfield.
Ronald McDonald Houses are for families to stay in so they can be near their children who need such care.
Right now there are no intensive care beds for children in Kern County. The closest is a Children's Hospital Central California in...
We went to my first Relay for Life event at Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday.
My new wife has gone several times before because she is a cancer survivor. She also encourages people who have become afflicted with cancer. That's what survivors do.
The survivors talk a walk around a track that us surrounded by booths, tents and teams. People line up on the sides of the track and cheer as the survivors walk by.
People hug and laugh and cry during the event. My wife was walking along...
We can all agree Bakersfield is life as it should be. After all, that's our slogan and we all believe it.
(Some say they don't, but they are naysayers and they should move to Fresno, the city whose hockey team we recently whomped.)
But can Bakersfield be even better? Can it reach a higher nirvana, as it were.
We asked some real people in a video that can be found on this website. They offered this list:
— Lower gas prices (not unique to here. They're too high in...
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