With unemployment up, wages falling and even the inflated salaries of CEOs hitting the skids, you might think it’s a bad time to give the boss a nice fat raise.

Especially when the boss is paid from your tax dollars.

But on Thursday — over the strong objections of two trustees — the board of directors for taxpayer-funded Kern Health Systems voted 7-2 to give the agency’s chief executive a raise of more than $13,000.

The raise, which will increase CEO Carol Sorrell’s base pay to more than $283,000, doesn’t include the more than $40,000 Sorrell could receive through the 15 percent bonus she takes home annually.

Kern Health Systems is a nonprofit insurance company created by the Kern County Board of Supervisors but independently operated that manages the delivery of Medi-Cal benefits and health care to poor county citizens.

“We are a government agency and every dollar we get comes from another government agency,” said Al Wagner, one of two members of the Kern Health Systems governing board who voted against the raise.

Wagner, along with board members Estela Casas and Bernita Jenkins, argued that awarding the raise was unconscionable in this time of economic upheaval when thousands of workers in government and the private sector are losing their jobs, taking pay cuts and doing more with less.

What do you think? Should CEOs of public agencies be landing big raises in tough economic times?

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Let's say a neighborhood pit bull gets loose from its yard, runs down the street, breaks through your backyard gate and attacks and kills your beloved pet.

Is the pit bull "dangerous?"

Not necessarily in the eyes of the law.

For JoAnn Mayfield, the owner of Tucker, a miniature dachshund mauled to death last month by a marauding pit bull, something is wrong with this picture.

Mayfield was getting dressed Oct. 9 when she heard a commotion in her back yard in northeast Bakersfield. When she ran to the door, she found a pit bull shaking Tucker "like a rag doll."

Mayfield and her 82-year-old mother were powerless to rescue the small dog. He died hours later as a veterinarian worked to save him.

The owners of the pit bull got their dog back the same day.

More than 2,400 dog bites have been documented by animal control services in Bakersfield and Kern County since 2007. The worst offenders by far are pit bulls.

So we ask you: Should Kern institute zero tolerance for dog attacks?

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Andy Castaneda could hear the man's screams from several houses away.

By the time he and other neighbors in east Bakersfield arrived Tuesday afternoon, they saw 35-year-old Steven Herrera being attacked and brutally mauled by three pit bulldogs.

"I was four houses down," Castaneda said. "I could hear him screaming, 'Oh God, please somebody help me.'"

When he arrived at the scene, Castaneda, 69, had no weapon, except a hardwood cane.

"The big pit was chewing the man's arm off. It was horrible," Castaneda said of the victim. "I've never seen anything like that."

FULL STORY

With some exceptions, it usually takes two attacks against a human and three against another animal before a dog can be ordered destroyed by authorities.

Are we coddling our four-legged criminals?

Houchin Community Blood Bank invites the community to come out and support a local family desperately in need of a Bone Marrow Transplant.  The event will be held on:

Saturday,  November 7, 2009
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Houchin Blood Bank – 5901 Truxtun Avenue – 323-4222

Mike Person is a local leukemia patient diagnosed in August with Myelodysplastic Syndrome.  He is currently receiving blood and platelets at Memorial Hospital and is receiving chemotherapy treatments every 6 weeks. Kaiser doctors informed the Person family that a Bone Marrow Transplant is needed as soon as possible.

Raised in the Pond/Delano area and now living in Bakersfield, Mike has worked 30 years as a truck driver.

Although he experienced no serious health problems in the past, Mike's  life was turned upside down after hearing the diagnosis in August.  By signing up for the Bone Marrow Registry, you may be found to be a match for Mike — or any number of critically ill individuals in need of this life-saving procedure.

Join the Bone Marrow Registry.
It is a simple procedure.  Just three steps:
1) Watch a short video
2) Complete a health history questionnaire
3) Simply Swab your cheeks! – That’s It! (No Needles)
 

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With only four minutes to go, the scrappy little rocket team of Masten Space Systems fought through a series of problems and disappointments to qualify Friday morning for the $1 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X-Prize. Mechanical and electrical glitches had dogged the company’s efforts to qualify Wednesday and Thursday even though the rocket had flown flawlessly on Tuesday.

Thursday’s attempt ended with the company’s rocket in flames, but assisted by volunteers, some of whom work for competing rocket companies, the Masten team repaired and modified their rocket.

It went on to make two successful flights with sufficient accuracy to put the team in first place for the Lunar Lander competition.  That purse is worth $1 million.  Second place is worth $500,000.  Only one more team, Paul Brede’s Unreasonable Rocket, is scheduled to fly its entrant for the Level 2 purse on Saturday.

Masten Space Systems, a six-man rocket company based in Mojave, saw its rocket, XA0.1E, nicknamed “Xoie,” (pronounced Zoh-ee) make two flights to qualify for the X-Prize.  The combined purse of $2 million is provided by NASA. The primary sponsor of the contest is Northrop Grumman.

The prize is designed to spur development of the technology needed to land and take off from the moon.  The easier Level One contest, involved take off from a flat platform, climbing to an altitude of 50 meters (over 164 feet) moving sideways — in rocketry this is called “translation” — 60 meters and descend to a predetermined spot on another flat surface. The vehicle then can be refueled, and repaired if necessary, but then it must make a return trip to the pad from which it departed.

Both flights must last at least 90 seconds, and have to be performed within a time period of 2 hours and 15 minutes.  In the event of two teams qualifying, the tie is broken on the basis of landing accuracy.

The Level Two competition involves flying from a flat pad to one modified with craters and boulders to resemble a lunar landing site.   The rocket must also stay aloft for three full minutes during each flight.  Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace won the first place purse of $350,000 for the Level One competition in 2008, and was the first to qualify for the Level One competition by making two successful flights in September. It landed with an average accuracy of 89 centimeters, or 35 inches.

Greg Jones of Mojave, and Brian Bernard, of Los Angeles, are both with Orbital Expeditions and worked all night with the Masten crew.  So did Keith Stormo, a molecular biologist from Moscow, Idaho, who started the High Expectations rocket team with his adult son.  “I took a week vacation to come watch the rocket launches, but it turned out to be a working vacation,” he said with a weary smile.  “I wanted to see someone fly, even if it couldn’t be us, so it was good to be a part of the Masten team in this effort.”

By Friday morning, an exhausted team rolled Xoie out to the test site.  The rocket made its first flight with an unofficial accuracy of 28 cm, and returned with a ten cm meter accuracy.  The average was 19 cm or 7 and a half inches. The team now has to wait out the flights of Unreasonable Rocket.  But in true rocket community fashion, most of the Masten team piled into some vehicles and headed out to the secluded Cantil launch site.  If needed, they will help Unreasonable with their effort.

After the two flights were finished, company founder Dave Masten said, “I can’t say enough good about the Masten team.  They take my crazy ideas and make them work.”

“I also have to say this shows the high caliber of people in the rocket community.  People from High Expectations, Speedup, , XCOR, Orbital Expeditions and others volunteered and pitched in on the all-night effort to repair Xoie, and prepare her for flight.”

“Our next stop?  We’re going to go for higher alittude flights as we begin designing and building our suborbital launcher.”

“Contests such as this are a very cost-effective way to spur interest in aerospace engineering, developing new technology, and building the foundation of talent and experience that America needs to remain competitive in space,” Masten said.
 

The San Joaquin Air Polution Control District issued a warning today advising south valley residents, especially those with chronic health problems, to take steps to avoid dust being kicked up by high winds.

Here's the release:

Strong, gusty winds causing increases in particulate matter in the southern part of the Valley have prompted local air-pollution officials to issue a health cautionary statement through Tuesday evening.

Winds in Kings, Tulare and the Valley portion of Kern counties may produce areas of blowing dust and unhealthy concentrations of particulate matter 10 microns and smaller in size (PM10).

"Take precautions to protect your health if you are in an area of blowing dust," said Scott Nester, Planning Director for the Air District.

Exposure to particle pollution can cause serious health problems, aggravate lung disease, trigger asthma attacks and acute bronchitis, and increase risk of respiratory infections. For people with heart disease, short-term exposure to particle pollution has been linked to heart attacks and arrhythmia, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Residents in affected areas are advised to use caution through midnight Tuesday.  People with heart or lung diseases should follow their doctors’ advice for dealing with episodes of unhealthy air quality. Additionally, older adults and children should avoid prolonged exposure, strenuous activities or heavy exertion. Everyone else should reduce prolonged exposure, strenuous activities or heavy exertion.

For more information about the Valley Air District, call a regional office: in Fresno, 559-230-6000; in Bakersfield, 661-392-5500; and in Modesto, 209-557-6400

With three deaths and 26 new cases of H1N1 flu documented just last week, Kern County health officials said Tuesday they are addressing the flu threat with an increased level of urgency.

Unfortunately, vaccines to guard against the H1N1 swine flu are not yet available in large numbers -- and no one is sure when they will be ready.

Instead, heath officials have elected to attack the other flu -- the seasonal flu -- as a way to guard against that virus, while helping to prepare for the potential onslaught of H1N1.

The Kern County Department of Public Health, Bakersfield College and Cal State Bakersfield will join forces next week to offer free drive-thru seasonal flu vaccines to thousands of area residents.

At a press conference held Tuesday at the health department, county health officials and the presidents of the two schools said the purpose of the Oct. 30 clinic is twofold.

The first is to provide as many as 3,460 seasonal flu vaccines to area residents in a quick, convenient and efficient manner.

The second is to help prepare health and safety professionals for a potential emergency scenario that could require the mass vaccination of a large population in a short period of time.

Will you elect to get a seasonal flu vaccination?

What about the H1N1 vaccination (when they become available)?

Bill Sekeres of Bakersfield is in a bit of trouble with the U.S. Secret Service.

The 73-year-old retired executive may or may not have threatened to "take out" the president of the United States during idle dinner conversation recently at a Bakersfield restaurant.

Sekeres says he can't recall whether he also included Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in his alleged threat because he isn't sure he made a threat, and if he did make a threat, well, he didn't really mean it.

"Truthfully, I can't remember if I said this or not -- that if I ever get a terminal illness, I'm going to take out Obama and Pelosi," Sekeres said. "I may have. I may not have. I don't know," he said. "If I did, it would have been in jest."

In any case, someone apparently overheard him and took him seriously enough to alert authorities. On Friday, two agents from the Secret Service office in Fresno drove to Bakersfield to have a not so idle chat with Sekeres.

"It is our job to investigate all threats against the president," said Gil Lejarde, resident agent in charge of the Fresno office. "We did speak to him. Right now we're still investigating."

Read the full story by clicking HERE.

In the meantime, the blog question remains: Should the Secret Service have investigated Sekeres' alleged threat to the commander in chief?

The small group of family and friends had no warning.

One moment they were enjoying a quiet Saturday beneath the shade of their open garage door. The next, two snarling pit bulldogs were biting and tearing at the underbelly of their 9-month-old "pound puppy" Gracie.

"They went right for her gut," said Gracie's owner, Curtis Dalton, of Bakersfield.

By the time the attack was over, Gracie had suffered multiple bite wounds to her belly and chest, amounting to hundreds of dollars in emergency veterinary care.

Mr. Dalton also received a bite that bloodied his left hand -- suffered when he tried to pull the bigger pit bull off of Gracie.

Last week, the dog that led the attack went on trial -- sort of.

At an administrative hearing held Sept. 5  in Bakersfield's City Council chambers, the larger of the two pit bulls was found to be a "vicious dog" in a ruling by administrative hearing officer Mike Yraceburn.

Dog ownership, Yraceburn said, is regulated by local government in the interest of public safety. People have a right to be safe in their own neighborhoods -- safe from uncontrolled dogs running loose.

Yraceburn ordered the dog's owner, 25-year-old Luis Robles, to construct a separate kennel enclosure in his back yard in southwest Bakersfield. He further ordered that the pit bull will only be allowed out of the back yard on a leash if the dog is under Robles' full control -- no one else's.

No other animals are allowed on these walks, Yraceburn said, to minimize the chance that the pit bull will take on a dangerous "pack mentality."

No doubt, this was serious business. But one might have cause to wonder: Do we hold dogs and their owners less responsible in unprovoked attacks than we do people?

If a man had randomly attacked the group, causing great bodily injury to another human, he would cetainly be facing significant prison time. But the offending pit bull gets to remain at home, to go on walks and to enjoy a life not so different from before the incident.

Are we tougher on human offenders than we are on canine criminals?

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Board Votes to Include $4.5 Billion for High-Speed Train Projects In California's Federal Stimulus Funding Application

Sacramento – The California High-Speed Rail Authority on Wednesday unanimously approved an application for more than $4.5 billion in federal stimulus funding for engineering, design and construction on the state's high-speed train system – generating an investment of $9.1 billion when state matching funds are added.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to formally submit California's bid by the federal government's Oct. 2 deadline for states to seek a share of $8 billion set aside for high-speed train development under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"California is a leading contender for this federal funding because our true high-speed rail system is further along than any other project in the country," said Authority Board Chairman Curt Pringle. "Plus, we can double the value of the federal government’s dollars by matching them with state bond funds approved by California voters last year, we can break ground before the federal government's deadline, and we can show that our early projects can stand alone as important improvements in their own right."

The Board approved a detailed package of dozens of engineering, environmental review, design-build, train control and electrification projects among every section of the 800-mile system.

The state's application includes:

• $1.28 billion for San Jose to San Francisco, including station improvements, grade separations, electrification and safety state-of-the-art "positive train control" in an upgraded, shared alignment with Caltrain.

• $466 million for Fresno to Merced, including right-of-way acquisition, grade-separations, utility relocation, environmental mitigation, earthwork, guideway structures and track.

 • $819.5 million for Bakersfield to Fresno, including right-of-way acquisition, grade-separations, utility relocation, environmental mitigation, earthwork, guideway structures, track relocation and new track.

• $2 billion for Los Angeles to Anaheim, including high-speed train facilities at Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS), Norwalk Station, and the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC); right-of-way acquisition, grade-separations, utility relocation, environmental mitigation, earthwork, guideway structures, tunneling, and track work.

• Community, business and government leaders from around the state packed the hearing room in support of California's application. The mayors of San Jose, Fresno and Fullerton were among those who called on the Authority Board to approve the application package.

Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, author of the legislation that placed Proposition 1A, the successful high-speed train bond act on the ballot last November, told the board she wholeheartedly supports the Authority's recommendation.

"Our application is very competitive – the only true high-speed system in the country capable of travel up to 220-miles an hour," said Galgiani, who represents a Central Valley district. "It will bring badly needed jobs and economic activity to the state immediately."

The Authority Board also received dozens of letters of support for the application from local governments and agencies, business groups and other organizations around the state.

The full staff recommendation for stimulus funding is available at:

http://www.cahighspeedrail....