I opened the paper Sunday to a picture of Harvey Hall under which was the date of his birth and death. Although Harvey hadn’t looked well the last few times I’d seen him, that brief period of frailty will not be my lasting memory but rather his robustness accentuated by ramrod-straight postu…
Was it a sign, or coincidence?
I just watched “The Darkest Hour," the movie about how Winston Churchill had to get Britain to prepare itself for a long fight with Hitler’s Germany. It made me think about what would we do in Bakersfield, or in the country as a whole, if we were to be attacked.
Allow me to call attention to the two men listed on your Kern County sample ballot as running for Superior Court judge. Specifically, the two vying for the open District 10 seat.
Dad left me a black wallet. Not me specifically, but the wallet was in his desk drawer next to his watch that had returned from the repair shop in good working order. No one else wanted them because the watch wasn’t a Piaget and the wallet not a Givenchy.
Reader: In your May 12 Sound Off column you responded to a reader by writing that President Trump is responsible for conflating "fake news" and "negative news." I think you are right to a certain extent: President Trump goes overboard identifying every negative news report as fake. But, in m…
There are two big weddings this weekend:
With most of the regular hunting seasons over for the year, it's time to take a look at the newest updates from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Not so fast, Grace. Not everyone in the ostensibly unified Fourth District is on board with your candidacy.
California’s middle class is hurting. Housing is severely unaffordable. Energy costs are skyrocketing and public employee pension liabilities continue to metastasize. Our next governor must possess experience leading in government and the courage to take on broken systems and work for real r…
I’d never heard of artist Charles Arnoldi but the artists I haven’t heard of and the things I don’t know could fill the Louvre and the New York Library. Arnoldi, and his wife, Katie, were at the Bakersfield Museum of Art Thursday night for the opening of his exhibition “Forms: A Fifty Year Survey.”
It was a proud moment for my niece Rachelle and her husband, David Yubeta. Their son, Josh, was drafted to play in this year’s U.S. Army All-Star Bowl at Rabobank Arena. According to the U.S. Army website, “the All-Star Bowl is the only high school arena-style football game held indoors.”
When Cristobal Chavez injured his back 15 years ago so badly he could no longer haul produce, he changed up his entire life. He sold his home in Los Angeles and moved to a 15-acre ranch near Porterville, where his family — his wife, three children and several additional foster kids — could s…
Dolly Hei is joy personified. Even her last name (pronounced “high”) describes her spirits, sense of humor and regard for people.
Reader: This letter is in response to Jack Balfanz’s letter about that April 28 editorial cartoon by Bob Englehart ("Is this cartoon proof, at long last, of TBC's atheism?," May 5). The cartoon is a disgusting cheap shot against evangelicals. Evangelicals and Christians did not vote for Dona…
There are places that remind us of people. With Mike Marotta, it may be the stretch of road on Alfred Harrell Highway, beginning with the rise west of the soccer fields, and ending 200 yards later at the top, after he has laid down another withering pull, scattering fellow cyclists in his wa…
When I was a kid, milk was milk. It came in a glass bottle from the milkman, by way of a cow. Simple. There was skim milk, which my mother bought when my grandmother visited. It was watery and not exactly white, more like a sickly blue. My grandmother took a splash of it in her Sanka. (She a…
Tax increases are not the only way to grow government revenue.
Public safety and staying financially solvent appear to be two of the biggest challenges facing the good people of Arvin, as elected representatives on the city council and the police department struggle to come up with a solution. Let's start with public safety.
The last of The Californian's primary election endorsements appears in today's Opinion section, along with a summary list of all the races for which TBC Media's editorial board made recommendations.
Close your eyes. Think soft-shell crabs. Everybody likes soft-shell crabs and if they don’t, they should.
Reader: I have always suspected that TBC Media was an atheist enterprise. As a result of the cartoon you published on April 28, I am now 100 percent sure of it. Your depiction of The Last Supper, captioned with the words, "One of you will betray me," spoken by Christ and referring to a comed…
Readers will recall last Saturday's column when I wrote about a trip to Alaska taken some years ago with some great hunting companions. I decided to let each of them tell about one of the highlights of the hunt, in their own words.
I went to see the hip doctor. Not a doctor who was hip, although she could have been, but a doctor who specializes in them.
We were in Santa Monica recently for a Dignity Health retreat. I was the plus one. My responsibilities were modest, but included sauna duty, something at which I am reasonably good.
On April 19, at 3:50 p.m, Vicente Benavides was escorted out of San Quentin State Prison in a white van.
As expected, Grace Vallejo, the mayor of Delano, formally announced her candidacy last week for 4th District supervisor. We'd been anticipating that, of course, because a group of local Democratic leaders — 17 Latinos and four Anglos — reportedly held their own little nominating convention i…
Betsy Kinney called. No one ducks Betsy Kinney. When Betsy Kinney calls, you put down your pencil, sit straight up in your chair and check to see that your shoelaces are tied.
Reader: I'm not often prone to writing to newspaper columnists but I felt the need to in regard to your answer to Kathy Frith on marijuana ("Was it irresponsible to put pot smokers on the front page?," Sound Off, April 21). I take exception to your, and other media outlets', using the term "…
Imagine being a citizen of Germany in, say, 1939. Now imagine you are a Christian.
Unless you are a waterfowler, you probably don't know that there are two distinct types of ducks in North America: Puddle ducks and diving ducks.
The Bakersfield Master Chorale is a feisty little group and prides itself on a willingness to tackle any piece or genre of music.
For years, school discipline consisted of referrals, suspensions and expulsions. Many schools had “zero-tolerance” policies that suspended or expelled students for one violation of rules, varying from bringing a weapon to school to willful defiance.
I saw a friend who I hadn’t seen for awhile. I asked him where he’d been.
The call from my daughter-in-law Yvonne came early Thursday morning. I knew something was wrong right after she said, “Hello”. “They stole our car from the driveway,” she explained with a tone of total frustration, anger and sadness. I could hear my son Sean in the background talking to the …
Gilroy has the Garlic Festival. Elko has the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Key West has Hemingway Days. The Black Rock Desert has Burning Man.
Last weekend, we took Andrew on a train from San Diego to San Clemente, spent the night, and then took the train back. An hour and 15 minutes each way. If this had been the Polar Express, and the journey had been to the North Pole and included hot chocolate and presents, it's hard to imagine…
Reader: In reference to your April 20 edition's "Toking up on 420," it is beyond my educated ability to comprehend why The Bakersfield Californian would promote this picture (of two men smoking marijuana) as front-page news.
If any of you readers have ever been to the Rabobank Arena for an event, I'm sure you noticed the huge display for the Bob Elias Kern County Sports Hall of Fame in one of the hallways.
I’ve come to hoarding sugar. “Hoarding” because sugar is under siege. First salt and pepper disappeared, now sugar.
So much for the fiction that the Kern County Board of Supervisors is a nonpartisan chamber.
It seems like every week there’s a new report about the emaciated state of the California Dream. Housing prices continue to rise. Environmental regulations push more Californians into energy poverty. Taxes and frivolous lawsuits incentivize businesses to leave the Golden State.
Although you might not completely understand what the Mazzei Injector Co. does, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that Angelo and Mary Mazzei have friends. That they are loved and have contributed to the community in which they live.
There are a couple of local highly respected individuals I want to tell you about who have much in common during this month. Both have passed on, but made this world a better place.
Paul Ryan is doing the right thing by hanging on to his speaker gavel until the November election passes.
A couple Saturdays ago, Keith Shotts was riding his bike. People who know him will not be surprised. Last year, the 58-year-old retired petroleum engineer with Chevron, rode 11,000 miles, which included 600,000 feet of climbing.
Reader: After reading your April 12 article, “McCarthy’s name tops the buzz over House Leadership,” I feel compelled to make two observations.
Though my mom is regaining her balance two years after Dad died, I'm never sure whether I should give her bad news from her hometown.
It’s official: I am old.
No one publicly complained last week about the effort to recognize homegrown musician Merle Haggard with a post office named in his honor.
Commented