Community Voices
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State needs a ballot initiative banning public-employee unions from politics
The Tea Party Patriots have a solution to create meaningful political reform in California. It is to reduce the disproportionate power of the public employee unions, which form the largest special interest in politics by far.
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Politicians, not old folks, responsible for economic woes
Warren Coats' Oct. 18 Community Voices article, "Younger people shouldn't have to support elders," started out about visiting his ailing mother and then went into a rant over greedy old people ripping off poor young people.
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Soot causes lung problems, period
Lois Henry's Oct. 21 column, "State air board can't ignore credibility problems," is another attempt to change the conversation about the reason the California Air Resources Board is working to cut diesel emissions: public health.
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Turns out blight is my own problem
I recently moved back to Bakersfield from Los Angeles, and immediately upon my return I realized where the focus of attention had been during my absence.
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Some questions for PG&E we haven't yet received satisfactory answers on
The reliability of PG&E's SmartMeters has been questioned by a state senator, media statewide and Kern County ratepayers. Just in case Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the California Public Utility Commission neglect to solicit my thoughts regarding independent testing, I decided to share my opinion with them via a medium that is sure not to get lost in the mail. Here goes:
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U.S. cities must do a better job of planning for baby boomers' active retirement years
During the Vietnam War decades ago, it was a commonly heard protesters' chant: "Hell no, we won't go." That protesting generation of baby boomers now seems to be taking the same chant into its aging years.
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Americans like what is familiar, even if better solution might be out there
The health care debate has polarized the nation so much that it now seems prudent to pause and ascertain the facts before we float farther on the waves of this debate.
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Traffic reduction tax has plenty of benefits
During the first OPEC oil boycott a Southern California radio station reported that a major hospital had delayed the opening of its new emergency room; it wouldn't be effectively utilized due to decreased need. One can't help wondering how many lives were "saved" during the boycott. Soon enough America was back to our profligate ways and doubtlessly the emergency room was thriving.
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In case you missed It: Californians' withholding taxes are going up by 10 percent
Taxes: For most, they get taken out each paycheck, allocated to their respective governmental level and then dispersed as funding for a given government program. Typically handled by a payroll department, the taxes are taken swiftly and stealthily, leaving taxpayers with a pay stub reflecting the difference between wages earned and wages taken home.
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Toll of domestic violence on children can be profound to both child and society
As a counselor at the Alliance Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault, I am especially compelled during Domestic Violence Awareness Month to speak up about the most innocent victims of this tragedy: children.
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In case you missed It: Californians' taxes are going up by 10 percent
Taxes: For most, they get taken out each paycheck, allocated to their respective governmental level and then dispersed as funding for a given government program. Typically handled by a payroll department, the taxes are taken swiftly and stealthily, leaving taxpayers with a pay stub reflecting the difference between wages earned and wages taken home.
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One way to ease physician shortage: Extend authority to pharmacists, others
No matter what side of the political fence you sit, you should be terrified by the raw numbers associated with the shortage of medical practitioners, not just physicians, facing the U.S. today. And the dire predictions we're hearing about practitioner shortages are based on current numbers. Think how much worse the shortage will be when the people now without health insurance start seeking medical attention in a universal-care setting, as Robert Price pointed out in his Oct. 12 column, "We've got to find more doctors, expert says."
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Younger people shouldn't have to support elders
My mother, Sue Coats, has been a frequent contributor to these pages. I am here in Bakersfield, the place of my birth, to visit her in her hospital bed at Rosewood. Worrying about my parents' care -- my father is still able to live in the assisted care section of Rosewood -- has redoubled my disgust with the AARP and the greed of some of our elders.
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The lesson of six little motherless kittens
I found them on a rainy March evening. They were deep inside some tangled, wet bushes and my husband and I had to chop our way in to them. As he started to pull them out, one by one, I counted, "One, two, three, four, five -- and, oh my god, six!" They were about two to three weeks old, as close as I could figure. They were all screaming for food. We had found their mother dead, poisoned, we thought, a few days earlier.
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After 10 years with ALS, my second wind
For 10 years, I have lived with ALS. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis takes a person's life by paralyzing the muscles, slowly taking away the ability to walk, talk, eat and eventually breathe.
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Keep Hart Park inviting and intact
Very recently many of us have been captive to Ken Burns' series of television documentaries featuring the history of our national parks. We have learned more than we could have imagined about the efforts of visionary and courageous American men and women to save many of our greatest natural assets for the appreciation and enjoyment of generations to come. Our passion for these priceless treasures is clear in the printed words of their proponents, and in poetic testimonials of people interviewed during visits there.
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A health-care money manager's plan to reform the U.S. system of delivery
Recent polls indicate that a majority of Americans (including myself) disapprove of President Obama's health care reform proposals.
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Humans are contributing to the health of the California Condor -- by hunting
Just a few years after humans helped pushed it to the brink of extinction, the California Condor may find itself owing its survival to people with guns.
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New licensing requirement serves a useful purpose for Kern County
A proposed Kern County Animal Control ordinance revision would require two things of people who own more than 10 dogs or cats, if they live in unincorporated areas outside metro Bakersfield. The ordinance revision would require them to apply for a permit to keep the animals, and to submit to annual inspections of their "non-commercial animal facilities."
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Who is benefiting from PG&E's SmartMeters?
Imagine pulling into your regular gas station. Before you stand new, glimmering pumps. However, as you fill up you notice the price on the pump is hidden and you cannot see what kind of fuel you are getting. You are told the new pumps will save you money and promised that the bill you get next month will be lower. When the bill finally arrives, it's two times higher, despite the fact you have traveled less distance in the same car you have always driven.
