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In the past Bakersfield Code Enforcement officers have responded to complaints. But now, the city has a team of officers who are going out looking for problems. They're starting with Old Town Kern and working their way south, dealing with problems that range from poorly cared-for lawns and construction debris in the yard to unpermitted construction to abandoned buildings that have been converted into drug dens. They've sent out hundreds of letters so far, and they're just getting started on a...
Judge Richard Oberholzer is on vacation -- until the end of the year. The fiscally conservative judge is burning up months of vacation time and may consider retiring after he's gotten through the backlog. (If he retires before using all the vacation he doesn't get any compensation)
Until he formally retires, however, the courts have to deal with a vacancy. They can't replace him.
So what do you all think? Is Oberholzer milking the system and hosing the taxpayers? Or is he just getting...
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who speaks out on social issues affecting black people, will come to Bakersfield this weekend to preach and launch a chapter of his activist organization, National Action Network.
Sharpton will preach at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the Compassion Christian Center, 1030 Fourth Street, and later hold a news conference together with NAN national and local leaders at 2 p.m. at the Bistro Ballroom of the Four Points by Sheraton, Bakersfield at 5101 California Ave.
“God is...
About 65,000 grocery store workers in Southern California, including 2,500 in Bakersfield, are taking steps on whether to authorize another strike such as the one in 2003-2004.
Health care and wages are the top issues for Vons, Albertsons and Ralphs employees, and on the health care issue alone, I wouldn't blame the workers one bit.
The Los Angeles Times reported:
This month, the union and the supermarkets agreed to cut the waiting time for new workers to get health insurance to six...
The Kern County Grand Jury wants development in Bakersfield stopped until the transportation systems is either fixed or there's money in the bag to do it.
Sounds like a great idea.
Too bad it's only a recommendation.
It would be up the to city to take the same position as the county by refusing development until roads and other services are in place.
Posted by Steve E. Swenson
There is a great story about police in San Bernardino and Riverside crushing cars caught in street racing right in front of their drivers.
Teens who have spent up to $10,000 or more making their rides the fastest in town were very upset.
"That's my heart, my dream, said 18-year-old Charles Hoang whose 1998 Acura Integra was flattened in a compactor.
Then he got a little defiant, "That's my girlfriend, the love of my life. The cops can crush my car, but they can't...
Hostile people need to take a deep breath.
If they can.
A new study links hostility with reduced lung power.
The study doesn't say why hostile people can't hold as much hot air as the rest of us, but sage wisdom has it that to prevent angry outbursts, people should take a deep breath.
So if any of you hotheads want to rag on me for this, take a deep breath.
Posted by Steve E. Swenson
Associated Press reporter Nick Divito has written a story about how tattoos are becoming more artsy in recent years.
They even can become invisible unless a black light shines upon them.
I think they can become job killers, but I'm just an old fashioned old guy.
My daughter, who is of all things a stock broker, has a few tattoos, but they are all in places that can be hidden with clothes.
Not that her clothes always hide them because after all, you get these things to show off.
...
At least one is a retread — "Thou shalt not kill."
But the Vatican, ever vigilant about our welfare, has decided to create a new set of tablets regarding this modern activity of driving.
The idea is some of us aren't being very Christ-like on the road.
Here's one story about Highway 138.
Here's another about a shooting death on the 710.
So it's not as though the Vatican is acting without a reason.
A couple of the commandments are intriguing:
...
There is an Internet and news buzz about Alli, the new diet pill that has some explosive side effects.
So explosive that sales of Depends, the adult diaper, goes hand in hand with it.
The pill which went on sale last week helps block about one quarter of the fat a person consumes.
It's an over-the-counter pill that is about half strength of the prescription pill, Xenical.
The blocking of the fat gives a person a 40 to 60 percent greater occurrence of pesky side effects, including...
This question was debated Wednesday on the editorial page by Shaunti Feldhahn, a right-leaning columnist, and Diane Glass, a left leaning columnist.
Neither addressed the question, which can be dismissed with no, clothing does not constitute sexual harassment.
But Diane said dress codes are "a little too Taliban for my taste." She suggests that anyone who wants to complain can go to HR.
Shaunti said it makes good sense to ban provocative clothing in the workplace because it...
The Los Angeles Times has this incredible story about a Tehachapi woman who died, vomiting blood on the floor in the lobby of an emergency room where the staff didn't think she needed to be rushed to the treatment rooms.
What's more bizarre is that another patient and the woman's boyfriend separately called 911 to ask for an ambulance to take the woman to another hospital, but the 911 operators essentially said no because they were already at a hospital.
The incident happened May 9 at...
Let's not sugar coat this.
One minute, President Bush with a dark-strapped watch on his left wrist was glad handing adoring Albanians, and the next minute the watch was gone.
Presidential spokesman Tony Snow said the president put it in his pocket. He's lying. Look at the video.
I'm sure if the adoring Albanians had just asked, the president would have given them his watch. He's that kind of guy.
But let's not pretend this didn't happen.
What else is Snow fibbing about?
...
This happened on the other side of the country in Georgia, but a 17-year-old high school football star was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a consensual sex act with a 15-year-old girl.
The teen, Genarlow Wilson, has served 28 months of that term before a judge ordered him released, saying the punishment was cruel and unusual for the crime.
But the Georgia attorney general said he will appeal that decision.
I'm not saying teens having consensual sex with each other isn't a crime...
Apparently, there are two mothering styles — Alpha which is full-bore, organized, at the top of the technological game and controlling in hopes of child success to a degree that seems obsessive; and Beta which is pretty good but cuts a little more slack and lets the children have a little say in how they will turn out.
New books are coming out that suggest Beta moms may have a healthier approach.
Alpha moms, however, generally consider Beta moms to be slackers.
In the Greek...
An appellate court has ruled that it may be okay to use fleeting 4-letter words (one begins with an F and the other with an S, but we can't use them here because we don't care what any court says, we have decency standards firmly in place) on prime-time television.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission was out of touch with reality when it ruled all uses of the aforementioned words were wrong.
The FCC replied the court was...
Paris Hilton was freed from jail after spending 3 days of a 23-day sentence.
I'm presuming she got time off for good behavior.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department held a news conference explaining why they can't hold a woman a lot of demented young men would like to hold (if only for the noteriety of it all).
At the conference, officials said she was released for undisclosed medical reasons. (I'm guessing being there didn't make her feel well).
But she will be confined to...
I was so glad to see the indictment against Rep. William Jefferson, D- New Orleans, charging him with receiving more than $500,000 in bribes and seeking millions more in nearly a dozen separate schemes.
You may remember he's the congressman whose home in Washington D.C. was raided in 2005 when $90,000 in cash was found stuffed in his freezer.
We in the business call that a clue.
But he has been defiant, asserting his innocence even as he was stripped of two committee posts.
Okay,...
So we learn Dr. Jinadu was suspended without pay for not telling his bosses he was moonlighting in two other counties.
But he still did a great job here!, supervisors insist.
In a geographically vast county with high poverty rates teeming with uninsured residents, it's hard to imagine the public health director had enough spare time to run three outside clinics on his own in the L.A. area. And try to open a fourth.
Was he ultra-competent, or do we have such low standards for county...
San Diego County officials Friday torpedoed plans to hire Dr. B.A. Jinadu as their health officer after background checks uncovered extracurricular business activities and an unpleasant state audit.
It now turns out Kern County officials knew Jinadu ran clinics on the side in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. They knew state auditors found a laundry list of allegations reminiscent of those against Desert Counseling. The state's original audit, finished in 2002, found Jinadu...
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