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Lasting benefits of 'magic mushrooms' Are top swimmers doping? U.S. tennis player's amazing rant against female tennis stars DNA tests sniff out mutts' breeding Court rules in favor of Second Amendment gun right What makes someone an adult? Get high before you fly Man loses 75 pounds on McDonald's diet High school girls make pact to get pregnant The smartest (and dumbest) dog breeds 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 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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Let's say you actually wanted to be inside the University of Phoenix Stadium for this Sunday's Super Bowl.
You'd probably have to spend about $2,000 and that would be for the cheap seats.
The face value of the ticket prices are $700 or $900. They get jacked up a little by people who actually buy them at those prices. Some choice seats can run $10,000 to $50,000.
The average ticket price is more than $4,000, the above story says.
I would pay that kind of money for my life or the...
A happy Bakersfield Police Chief Bill Rector announced that his department has been cleared of any wrongdoing or constitutional issues in a 4 and 1/2 year probe by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The probe began with questions of excessive force and racial profiling. Throughout the whole process, no specific examples were cited.
That caused Rector and District Attorney Ed Jagels to question why the probe was started in the first place. Jagels had this to say: "The criticisms were...
I was amused at the excitement my colleague, Jen Baldwin, expressed that she gets to use her homeowner's insurance policy because the wind blew her fence down.
Jen is a relatively new homeowner.
I understand the giddiness of, "Isn't this great. I'm using my insurance that I have for just such situations?"
Reminded me of those good old days for me. We had a freeze that destroyed my pool solar system.
My insurance (Farmer's Insurance) took care of it.
Then we had wind that blew...
Researchers have found that people in their 40s, the alleged middle age, are more depressed than either the younger or older.
The study of 80 countries around the world found that the rock-bottom age is 44.
The study says people go through a U-shaped life with highs at the younger ages and then again at the higher ages. People in their 50s are on their way back up.
No one asked me. That's not how my life went. Life bombarded me in my late 20s and early 30s — marriage, kids,...
Bright House has announced that cable rates are going up in Bakersfield, averaging 2.5 percent but some plans as much as 8 percent.
I see my cable bill as a necessary evil. I must pay it or I won't get to watch the Golf Channel.
We have two large, flat-screen tvs, but neither are the high definition, plasma or whatever else the new gadgets are. People still get bloody on CSI and the Cowboys still lost in the playoffs.
I don't know that seeing that stuff any more clearly would enhance my...
Democrats in the Senate are hoping to add $6 billion to the proposed $150 billion economic stimulus package that House leaders and the Bush administration proposed last week.
Among other things, they want to award rebates to senior citizens living off Social Security and extend unemployment benefits.
But instead of adding more money in my pocket, they want to reduce my share from $600 to $500.
That would be only $1,000 for my wife and I rather than the $1,200 we would have gotten in...
Bruce Weinstein, Ph. D., who is known as an ethics columnist, has written a column saying it is a bad idea to discuss politics at work.
He writes: "Simply put, we shouldn't discuss politics in the workplace because, with very few exceptions, these discussions have nothing to do with our job and can only interfere with it."
For example, if your political candidate favors abortion and your boss is dead set against it, that could interfere with how the boss views you on reviews and...
Though it is not yet final, the government wants to give lots of poor and middle class people about $600 each to go out and spend.
I sort of feel this is like a poor person throwing a buck into my tip jar, but as a good American, I will do what is asked of me. I will take the money and spend it.
This will cost my government $150 billion and the purpose is to provide an economic stimulus.
We need this extra money because the government in so many ways has taken our money away — what...
I'll admit right up front, I'm struggling with the idea of
getting rid of plastic bags at grocery stores.
I love them. They fit in my little trash containers at home. They are perfect for picking up dog do. I can hold five or six at a time as I bring the groceries in the house. And they are a fallback lunch bag.
But they are bad for the environment.
Doggone it. I like the environment. I do my best to pick up after myself when I go camping or fishing. I like most living things and most...
I was disturbed this morning to read a university professor saying that everyone knows the most famous moment for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was his "I have a dream..." speech in 1963.
But the professor added, "No one can go further than one sentence. All we know is that this guy had a dream, we don't know what that dream was."
If true, that is sad to a destructive degree.
I was 14 years old when King delivered that speech on the steps at the...
Roy Haynes and his Fountain of Youth Band's concert at CSUB's Dore Theatre
Saturday night was such good jazz that it actually brought a tear to my eye.
I'm not a huge jazz fan, so I just went because I wanted to listen to jazz
of Haynes and his quartet's quality. They delivered.
I sat, as one member of the audience later told Haynes, "in awe" of the
drummer, his sax player, his pianist and his bass player's talents. But I
couldn't help noticing that Haynes' solo drumming was...
Juashaunna Kelly, a high school runner in Washington DC, has the fastest times in the one- and two-mile runs for girls in her area.
Kelly is a Muslim.
And true to her faith, she has for the last three years been wearing an outfit that covers all her skin and hair except for her face and hands. She wears the school running gear over this one-piece coverall.
This Saturday there is a big race that she's run in before. But now officials are saying her outfit doesn't conform to the...
My 19-year-old stepdaughter is re-registering to vote because she wants to support Rudy Giuliani in the upcoming primary election.
That will make her part of what appears to be a substantial movement among youth to get involved in politics.
Barack Obama benefit ted from heavy support among young voters in Iowa where voters aged 17 to 29 comprised 22 percent of the Democratic electorate.
The youth demographic did not mobilize as much in New Hampshire as it did in Iowa, making up only...
When I first read that Edison School District Supt. Cheri Sanders will be paid $80,000 to resign, my immediate reaction was "What the .....?"
But then I read what she's accused of and how little money was involved, plus her explanations that she made mistakes but not intentional abuses. My reaction softened.
Reading between the lines, the $80,000 seems like part severance and part let's not fight this out in court where the costs could really go up.
The disputed expenses...
MySpace, a social networking site that boasts of 70 million users, agreed Monday to establish controls in 49 states, including California, to help thwart sexual predators.
One step is to make a default for profiles of anyone under 18 to be private. That means teens and pre-teens would have to invite someone to participate in their online discussions rather than have sexual predators invite those discussions under false pretenses.
“Today’s agreement makes it harder for...
I do not support Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in her bid for the presidency, but it is beyond me how she is being criticized for supposedly diminishing the civil rights role of Martin Luther King, Jr., when she said President Lyndon B. Johnson put King's dream into law by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
She added it took a president to get it done.
She blames Sen. Barack Obama for inflaming the controversy — he said he said nothing about it.
And Sen. John Edwards...
Location:
Auburn and Oswell streets,
Bakersfield, Ca 93306
Sunday was my day to work the news desk at The Californian. Before heading in to the office, I went to the Carl's Jr. at Auburn and Oswell streets, thinking I'd grab a breakfast sandwich. I noticed the American flag at half-staff, and immediately thought, "Wow, who died? What don't I know? It's going to be a big news day. Who could it be?" And then it hit me. Carl Karcher, the founder of Carl's Jr. restaurants, had died Friday. We'd had the story in Saturday morning's paper....
The IAAF ruled Monday that double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius is ineligible to compete in the Beijing Olympics because his prosthetic racing legs give him a clear competitive advantage.
It's a tough pill to swallow for the South African because he holds numerous world records in Paralympiuc sprinting events and is fast enough that he would probably have qualified for Beijing.
But when a scientist worked with the sprinter he found that Pistorius' prosthetic legs gave him a clear...
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has asked his attorneys to look into the possibility of buying the Virginian-Pilot, a 186,000-circulation newspaper that has been critical of Robertson's activities.
Now there's a way to add credibility to the newspaper industry.
I'm hoping God is on the side of a free press, not a religious zealot who once proposed the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. There's a commandment that says you're not supposed to murder, but Robertson...
A judge refused a request by Marion Jones for no jail time as he sentenced her to six months for lying to federal prosecutors investigating the use of performance-enhancing substances.
Her attorneys argued she had been punished enough, but the judge said athletes are role models for young people and sometimes jail is needed for a deterrent effect.
The popular track star has already been stripped of her Olympic medals.
The judge also sentenced her to two years of probation and...
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is faced with a $14.5 billion deficit in the 18 months, has proposed a budget that will slash education and welfare benefits for children, but also let out inmates from prison and make it tougher to put parolees back in the joint.
It also proposes to close 48 state parks, including some Southern California beaches (San Clemente, Carlsbad, San Onofre and Will Rogers), and to cut benefits for children of welfare recipients if their parents fail to get...
So it appears those kind mountain folks east of us have offered a home to Bakersfield's favorite beaver, if and when the little blighter is actually caught.
Seems this rugged mountain community is all too happy to open its arms to a furry rodent bent on wildlife destruction, whereas Bakersfield residents looking to enjoy the snow in Tehachapi often don't receive the same red-carpet treatment.
Is anyone else offended by such a double standard?
— Andrew Mockett
A bill proposed by Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, a former school district superintendent, that would give administrators four years — instead of the present two years — to fire a teacher without cause is just plain ludicrous.
Fuller argues that principals just don't get around enough to evaluate a teacher in two years, so the extra time is necessary.
Because, God forbid, if a teacher makes it past two years, the only way they can be fired is for cause. How unfair is that?...
The Writers Guild of America strike, which has wreaked havoc with television in recent weeks including the virtual gutting of the upcoming Golden Globes event, can be solved.
What has been lacking in media coverage of this event is what are the two sides actually hung up over.
And the answer is less than the cost of one salary to a CEO in the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) arena.
This comes from Rediff news (a leading India news portal) which answered 10...
Kern High School District Trustee Ken Mettler has proposed to begin a voluntary, single-sex gym classes for high school students.
When I went to high school, I had involuntary, single-sex gym classes. They didn't let girls in to St. Martin's High School in Olympia, Wa.
The only physical education classes I had that were co-ed were back in grade school when in 3rd grade at Holy Ghost School in Fremont, we had square dancing classes.
My partner was Ann Daley who was kind of cute. But...
Folks appear to really be reacting to today's poll question,"Should drug- and alcohol-sniffing dogs patrol local high schools?"
So far more than 300 people have voted, with most saying yes. Guess all the students are still in classes and haven't gotten around to voting.
In case you're just finding this story for the first time, we had a story today about Ken Mettler, a board member with the Kern High School District, suggesting a bunch of changes, including hiring drug...
The United States Supreme Court heard arguments today on whether lethal injection is an acceptable way of killing condemned murderers.
A defense attorney argued the current method — a three-part cocktail in which the first part is supposed to knock a person out, the second part paralyzes him and the third part stops his heart — is subject to going wrong and causing the inmate unnecessary pain.
He suggested an overdose of barbiturates — a fatal dose of sleeping pills...
At the end of last week it seemed like every public agency was battening down and preparing for a deluge of rain. There were all kinds of warnings from the weather folks, sandbag stations and more.
Then it drizzled a couple times over the weekend.
Now I'm not saying I want us to have flooding and damage to homes. But I kinda feel hoodwinked. I really thought we were gonna get something more.
Did anyone out there believe the weather forecasts? Am I the only sucker?
--Davin McHenry,...
Stephanie Rosenbloom of the New York Times has written a very thought-provoking article about how we present ourselves in cyberspace -- how we craft our images online.
In real-life, we act differently depending on the social situation or who we are around. But in cyberspace, we are viewed by a mass audience - your boss, mother, and crush might all be looking at your same MySpace page, for example.
So how do you "craft an e-version of yourself that appeals to multiple...
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