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Will Amtrak be the next victim of the high-speed rail project?
We at the Save Bakersfield Committee are alarmed by several new developments in the California Legislature. Besides proceeding with the vote to approve high-speed rail, the Legislature is considering two other bills. AB 1779 will create a joint powers authority. Under the guise of local control, the majority of the members of this authority will be from communities north of...
- Cory Booker's epiphany
- ANOTHER VIEW: Can we hate 'hate' campaigns without being labeled haters?
- Teamwork made success of Amgen Tour possible
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Wednesday, May 23 2012 11:06 PM
Will Amtrak be the next victim of the high-speed rail project?
We at the Save Bakersfield Committee are alarmed by several new developments in the California Legislature. Besides proceeding with the vote to approve high-speed rail, the Legislature is considering two other bills. AB 1779 will create a joint powers authority. Under the guise of local control, the majority of the members of this authority will be from communities north of Merced. Communities in the San Joaquin Valley south of Merced will be outvoted in this body. The main purpose of this joint powers authority is to work closely with the California High-Speed Rail Authority for promotion of each other's interests. In the HSR business plan, there is a mention by the Cambridge Consulting Group that they are planning to discontinue Amtrak service between Merced and Bakersfield and transfer it to the new high-speed rail. This will allow the high-speed rail to show its independent utility requirement to get further federal funds.
The proposal to remove Amtrak between Merced and Bakersfield is extremely dangerous. It will eliminate or greatly reduce train service for the towns in between. Also, our schoolchildren use the Amtrak Kids and Trains Program, which gives them discounted fares to travel from Bakersfield to Sacramento and to the Bay Area to visit historic sites and study the state government in action. The fares on the new high-speed rail will be several times higher and will make it very difficult for our children and chaperons to travel to further their education.
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Tuesday, May 22 2012 11:05 PM
ANOTHER VIEW: Can we hate 'hate' campaigns without being labeled haters?
Are we ever going to be able to hope for civility in our society when everyone is yelling, interrupting and shouting "Hate!" to whoever disagrees with them? Our society is a recipe for disaster now that we are refusing to have civil dialogue. I have to laugh at Shepard Smith on Fox News when he says, "Now it's time for Cavuto, with some context and perspective." Neil Cavuto is one of the few who actually listens to his guests and then replies. That's called dialogue.
Being that it's campaign season and everyone has their slogan, how about "Citizens Against the Misuse of Hate"? Too long, but it's time to ban its misuse in public forums and print. That would include stupid blogs, chat rooms and comment sections. Since Fred Karger, a Republican, is running to become America's first openly gay president ("Last standing anti-Romney still plugs away," Robert Price's May 20 column) and his "grass-roots organization, Californians Against Hate, took on the (Mormon) church over its campaign to repeal the state's same-sex marriage law," we need to have a public dialogue about what constitutes "hate" in its various forms.
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Tuesday, May 22 2012 11:04 PM
Teamwork made success of Amgen Tour possible
I could almost hear the "pop, pop, pop" of buttons bursting off the shirts of many proud Bakersfieldians as we staged the social milieu for America's Greatest Race -- the 2012 Amgen Tour of California.
AEG Sports, presenter of the Amgen Tour, for the second time in two years chose the picturesque bluffs, elevation gains and sharp descents of Bakersfield's roadways to serve as one of the challenging terrains of the eight-day, globally renowned race. Bakersfield was the only city to host the 18-mile-long individual time trial that additionally featured an invitation-only competition of the world's most elite female athletes pedaling in the race for truth.
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Monday, May 21 2012 11:06 PM
Win, lose or hung, nation's jury system works just as it should
A local writer, Dana Martin, recently submitted a Community Voices article regarding her experience as a juror ("Jury service is a cinch, and our courts need life experience," May 4). The jury on which she served was unable to reach a verdict because, in the words of Martin, more than one juror "with birthdates in the early '90s" was not persuaded the government proved its case. Martin disagreed, as is her right.
What is troublesome is the disdain she elected to shower on those fellow jurors who differed with her view. Martin suggested that perhaps those jurors with a different opinion, "were not equipped to handle the pressure involved in making such a big decision."
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Sunday, May 20 2012 11:07 PM
Delano needs a Boys & Girls Club for a number of reasons
How often in the news do you read about issues such as gang violence, bullying, low test scores and other stories about troubled children? I sometimes wonder how the community can help these children and prevent them from getting into worse situations.
I am writing to you to propose a Boys & Girls Club for the community of Delano, which needs such a place for various reasons. If we build a Boys & Girls Club, then we could help these children get on the right track to build a brighter future for themselves.
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Friday, May 18 2012 11:03 PM
Liberals want another tax on job creators
Last week, Chief Executive Magazine ranked California as the worst state for business for the eighth year in a row. That's right -- a survey of CEOs across the country said California was the last place they'd want to do business because of high energy, labor and land costs, regulatory burdens, transportation congestion, and of course, high taxes.
This is critical because California's unemployment rate has remained at its highest levels in history, and the jobs we need have been disappearing. Kern County has seen record unemployment rates as high as 17 percent a year ago before dropping to its current level of 15 percent. We all know someone who's out of work or been out of work. The only way we can help folks get back on their feet is by doing all we can to encourage job growth through a sound, stable economy.
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Thursday, May 17 2012 11:06 PM
Unions want government to help them market membership
Supporters of economic and personal freedom won a temporary victory on April 17 when a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., stopped an Obama administration initiative to force employers to put up biased posters about union organizing.
The Obama administration is using the National Labor Relations Board as its agent to impose this requirement on businesses. The court ruled that citizens had a legitimate reason to question whether or not the NLRB has any authority under federal law to force businesses to put up unionization posters at their offices and facilities.
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Wednesday, May 16 2012 11:04 PM
Norris school bond prepares area for explosion of growth
After reading Inga Barks' May 12 column, "Do we really need this whopping school bond?," I noticed the headline on the story above her column proclaiming "Solar technology could assist oil companies." (More on the juxtaposition later!) Barks informed us she and her husband had "worked their buns off" to live in the Panama Buena Vista Union School District so their three kids could attend schools in that district.
The first third of her column dealt with her opinions regarding a survey PBVUSD sent out regarding the long-term infrastructure needs of the district. In fact, she acerbically questioned why the district didn't want her opinion on the most important thing: "What do I think about my children's education?" I believe she knows an effective survey will focus on a specific issue, not multiple issues. When PBVUSD wants her opinion on education and programs, they'll send her a survey on education and programs, not infrastructure needs.
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Tuesday, May 15 2012 11:06 PM
Should Canadian legals receive benefits like Mexico's illegals?
Most know that the Dream Act came to us in two phases, the first many years ago, and the second initiated into law just last January. The initial process was to allow illegal immigrants to enter U.S. colleges, after high school graduation, even if they had only been in the country a few months, without paying fees required of foreign students or even out-of-state students. The argument made by out-of-state students was that illegals had more assistance than they. The argument made by foreign students, who seek to be educated in the United States, is why does one country get free assistance and not another? It is certainly a double standard.
A powerful argument against equal funding of everyone is that it is not equal. The huge education expenses necessary are subsidized by the long-term taxpayer and should benefit his children first. This is why we have extra fees for out-of-state or foreign students -- to make the process fair to our own. New immigrants, whether legal or not, could not contribute enough on a short-term basis to make this fair. Certainly Mexico would not even try to subsidize Americans sneaking into their country.
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Sunday, May 13 2012 11:03 PM
America's radical same-sex marriage social experiment
Presently, America is undergoing what I believe is a radical social experiment -- the redefining of marriage. Ultimately, it's not about whether or not gays and lesbians are nice people or good citizens. Frankly, some are and some aren't, just like heterosexuals. It's not about whether gays and lesbians can be good, nurturing, loving parents. It's not even about whether or not gays and lesbians should be treated with respect and dignity. Every person deserves to be treated with respect and dignity.
If we redefine marriage to include same-sex marriage, is there any logical reason for us not to redefine marriage in other ways? There are those that are already "demanding" equality that promote polygamy or group marriage. If marriage can be redefined to include two men or two women, why not allow marriage between a man and four women, or a group of six or seven adults and their various children?
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Sunday, May 13 2012 11:02 PM
ANOTHER VIEW: Rubio's take on expulsions lacks understanding
The worst thing to happen to public education in the last 25 years has been the end of the Cold War and the realization by legislatures that they needed new ground to devour. Between the Republican Party, which would like to get rid of public education and have every school look like Garces and Bakersfield Christian high schools, and the Democrats, who want to create a "nanny state" using the schools, teachers and administrators are pulled in multiple directions. As a proud progressive, nothing irritates me more than liberals affirming the conservative notion of Big Government and overreach; state Sen. Michael Rubio's recent legislative action on expulsion, which he described in his May 6 View From Sacramento piece "Let's address Kern County's expulsion, suspension crisis," is a perfect example.
What bothers me most is that Rubio shows a tremendous ignorance of how our school system works and the reality that teachers and administrators face on a daily basis. I'm sure he has visited schools for photo-ops but I am as sure that he has not spent multiple hours in a classroom or at a school. Rubio also seems to make certain assumptions and imply certain allegations in his legislation. I find this sad from a man who is supposed to be educated and in the know.
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Saturday, May 12 2012 10:02 PM
Victories for farmworkers were victories for all
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Farm Workers union, and I feel it is time that the residents of this great county, starting with the Board of Supervisors, acknowledge the contributions that Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and the thousands of other UFW members have made to improve the quality of life for thousands of hardworking people who harvest the food that we eat. The impact of Cesar Chavez and the UFW extends far beyond the geographic boundaries of Kern County.
For 80 years before Chavez and the UFW, efforts to organize farmworkers, the poorest of the poor, met with failure, often from the brutal use of force. Starting with the Chinese, then the Dust Bowl refugees and Filipino immigrants, farmworkers tried to organize, only to be beaten back. Farmworkers were one of a very few labor groups specifically excluded from the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 by agribusiness and their powerful lobbyists. But in 1965, through the tireless efforts and courage of poor Filipino and Mexican farmworkers led by Chavez, farmworkers struck for higher pay and better working and living conditions. The UFW was borne out of the struggle of this first strike, and it was largely due to the efforts and vision of Chavez, the son of migrant farmworker parents. Chavez, like many farmworkers' children, moved from school to school as the picking season wound its way up and down the state and into Arizona. As a consequence, Chavez only finished the eighth grade.
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