James Burger, county government reporter
661-395-7415
James Burger recently moved from covering Bakersfield city government to covering county goverment. He had been the city guy since November 1999. His record for time spent covering a single city meeting currently stands at nine hours. That meeting finished at 2 a.m.
Burger joined The Californian in 1998 and covered real estate, banking and transportation before taking over the city government beat.
He got his feet wet with the controversial City Center project and proposed baseball stadium in downtown and has, since then, covered everything from Wal-Mart Supercenters and collapsing canal crossings to explosive fireworks rules and the plight of abandoned animals in Kern County.
He got some awards for the animal stories. Burger graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz with a degree in literature and history and started his journalism career on a whim at his hometown newspaper, The Porterville Recorder.
He likes coffee - especially before he settles in for a nine hour meeting.
