Robert Price
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On foot today? Be nimble: It's scary out there
I probably visit San Luis Obispo, that charming central-coast city 120 miles west of Bakersfield, a couple of times a year. I like to shuffle along the tree-lined main drag, Higuera Street, and stop for lunch at the Big Sky Cafe or SLO Brewery. Invariably I am taken aback by a strange and vaguely unsettling local custom.
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A journey toward healing fraught with pain, irony
For 10 years, Franzisca Nzau gazed upon the face of African chaos. Widowed mothers, orphaned children, raped girls, tortured men: a continent paralyzed by catastrophic dysfunction seemed to assemble at her humble doorstep daily. She was not equipped to offer much more in response than meager rations of food, soothing words and barbed-wire sanctuary.
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Battle for soul of GOP reflects on McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy represents the reddest county in California, but as his party's chief recruiter of congressional candidates, he grudgingly acknowledges that some places on the Republican map lean a little toward violet.
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We've got to find more doctors, expert says
My new e-mail pen pal is Dr. Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, who spoke in Bakersfield Oct. 5. I'd read a couple of his articles on health care reform, including one that focused on the many things we as Americans can learn from peer nations like Japan and Switzerland, and I assumed he was a straight-down-the-line liberal on the subject.
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Last cop in the building, don't forget to turn out the lights
Some people will look at Bill Rector's upcoming wardrobe change, from police blue to beach floral, and gripe about one of two things.
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The return of a favorite old soap opera
Some of my colleagues, and perhaps some of you, are relishing the thought of a rematch between the Florez and Parra clans. Some of you might miss those days of snarky digs and snide comebacks between Dean Florez and Nicole Parra, Kern County Democrats with more in common than either might admit.
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Afghanistan war demands new expectations
Americans tend to think of political stability and government-managed civil order as interchangeable concepts. Reciprocal definitions, redundant when placed in the same sentence.
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Meg has a lot of 'splainin' to do, as far as these women are concerned
When Mary K. Shell picked up my voice-mail message, she'd just come in from the alley, where'd she'd been cutting back some overgrown vines. It's been a quarter-century since she last banged the gavel as mayor of Bakersfield, but apparently she can still wield the appropriate tool with authority.
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Decline of trucks could have major cultural fallout in trucky Kern County
Some people might look at declining pickup sales and wonder what it means for the economy. With sales of high-profit, low-gas mileage vehicles dropping to their lowest levels in 25 years, automakers are closing plants and tens of thousands of assembly-line workers are facing transfers or unemployment.
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They want the same care the government offers
Two-year-olds can be feisty, but Garrett Hutchins' screaming jags clearly weren't tantrums. Something was wrong.
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Ken Burns wants to hear about your Dust Bowl trek to California
Ken Burns, meet Earl Shelton. Earl Shelton, meet America's most celebrated documentary filmmaker. What took you guys so long to get together?
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When prez spoke, her kids listened
Cynthia Mostoller has always believed in bringing history to life. Through the years, she has brought in professional historians, designed Revolutionary War-era newspapers, held birthday celebrations for important but neglected women, and led rousing in-class renditions of American folk songs like "Yankee Doodle."
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When prez spoke, her kids listened
By ROBERT PRICE
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There's a familiar twang in the air from the north
The first song I ever learned on the guitar, back in my Petaluma parks and rec summer class, lo, those many years ago, was a response to Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee."
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She finally found herself at the homeless shelter
Her roommates were a tad suspicious at first. What was a beautiful, trim athletic blonde doing at the Bakersfield Homeless Center, clutching her purse to her chest like it was her last possession on earth?
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Astroturf floods, flaming nostrils and your letters
If we at The Californian have learned anything from the past week, it's that people don't always do change well. More than a few folks have complained about the new tabloid-format weekday edition, and some of those calls came in to the Opinion section -- despite the fact that here in this little corner of your newspaper (and I hope some of you noticed this), we're actually offering about 20 percent more opinion and analysis on a daily basis than before.
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Light summer reading: that health care bill
I undertook the health care reform challenge last week. Yes -- hold your applause -- I read the entire bill. OK, I skimmed it, but I did flip through all 1,026 pages. I read every section heading and diligently waded into the sober, dispassionate text when I came to the parts that seemed especially important or potentially controversial. My internal yellow-highlighter was hard at work.
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Absurdities that distract us from truth
Even in this age of outpatient breast enhancement and dueling in-house public polling teams, it's been a challenging week for the unembellished truth.
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Taxing quandary: Legalize marijuana to increase state revenue and scale back violence, or maintain America's difficult war on drugs?
In cannabis counties, they're mostly for it, but not for reasons you might've thought
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Taxing quandary: Legalize marijuana to increase state revenue and scale back violence, or maintain America's difficult war on drugs?
In cannabis counties, they're mostly for it, but not for reasons you might've thought
