Columnists

JOSE GASPAR: Goshen, so much like rural Kern, feels impact of mass shooting

Jan 29, 2023

GOSHEN — She was walking slowly down Kame Drive using a walker. I approached her, introduced myself and struck up a conversation with Maria Linares. What's Goshen like, I wanted to know. The 75-year-old was quick to respond and said, "Goshen isn't what it used to be." This small rural enclav…

HERB BENHAM: To sleep, perchance to dream of a new mattress

Jan 29, 2023

"Dad, you need a new bed," Herbie said. "It's a game changer."

VALERIE SCHULTZ: The women are always there

Jan 28, 2023

The Christmas joke about the Magi goes like this: If the three wise men had been women, they would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and given practical gifts. It's just a joke, but as with most humor, the recognition o…

JOSE GASPAR: Man killed in crash with police had plans to start a family

Jan 24, 2023

Mario Lares was a husband of three years, a son who lived with his parents and at 31 years of age, he couldn't wait to start a family of his own. Those are the dreams he and his now-widow, Yuvani Lares, had planned for. But those aspirations came to an end rather unexpectedly last week when …

STEVE FLORES: A wedding anniversary, indoor camping trip and a Barbershop Quartet

Jan 22, 2023

Smoke detectors blaring, popping confetti-filled balloons, barbecuing outdoors in torrential rain and the noise level of a Chuck E. Cheese would minimally describe this last three-day weekend celebration with my family.

HERB BENHAM: Trees gone but sweet memories remain

Jan 22, 2023

I looked out the back window of our house. Something looked different. Something had changed.

SAL MORETTI: What was there to push against? What was the final challenge of life?

Jan 15, 2023

Sometimes, you have to see different things, to see things differently.

JOSE GASPAR: Folklórico group at BC aims to enrich students' culture

Jan 15, 2023

As things are appearing to return to some semblance of normal after COVID restrictions, a new club at Bakersfield College started this year. It's called Ballet Folklórico Ritmo y Sabor, under the direction of BC counselor Cynthia Zamora. She and some students tossed around the idea of starti…

HERB BENHAM: Red-letter day courtesy of the IRS

Jan 15, 2023

Recently, I got a letter from the IRS. Correspondence with the IRS can be buried in a sea of catalogs, an ocean of PG&E bills, a reservoir of letters from the Social Security Administration, Medicare and credit card companies, hoping to tempt you to transfer your credit card balance "wit…

ROBERT PRICE: With a speaker and a chief justice, Bakersfield can now claim rare but not unprecedented status

Jan 14, 2023

An acquaintance cornered me last week with a question about American history and Bakersfield’s place in it now that a homegrown politician, Kevin McCarthy, has ascended to what, theoretically, is one of the most powerful jobs in the nation and, hence, on the planet.

TRIP schedules nighttime closure of eastbound Westside Parkway

Jan 14, 2023

Nighttime closures have been scheduled for all lanes of eastbound Westside Parkway between Mohawk Street and Truxtun Avenue from Monday through Wednesday, according to the Thomas Roads Improvement Program.

SOUND OFF: What was the point of cartoon?

Jan 13, 2023

Reader: On rare occasions The Bakersfield Californian publishes an Opinion cartoon that is both irrelevant and disingenuous. The one on Wednesday is such an example. With no one of any influential significance objecting to anyone praying for the recovery of Damar Hamlin following his cardiac…

JESSE VAD AND LOIS HENRY: Storms bring river flows, frustration for San Joaquin Valley water managers

Jan 8, 2023

The string of wet storms streaming over California since the end of 2022 have brought the San Joaquin Valley both relief and frustration, depending on location.

VALERIE SCHULTZ: Goodbye, Mr. Pitts

Jan 8, 2023

Opinion writers know somewhere deep down in their hearts that they are lucky. Everyone holds opinions of varying strength on many topics, but how fortunate are the ones who get to express them regularly on a platform that readers will read? And how incredible is it to get paid to do so? We c…

HERB BENHAM: Two grandkids, 10 days, endless fun

Jan 8, 2023

My friends were impressed.

ROBERT PRICE: Speaker or mayor of ‘Crazytown’? McCarthy is now both

Jan 7, 2023

Given the hostage-taking nature of Kevin McCarthy’s historic, 15th-ballot victory over elements within his own party to win the House speakership Friday night/Saturday morning, it might be helpful to consider how much worse it could have been.

HERB BENHAM: A good time for parenting advice, helping hand and a happy dog

Jan 5, 2023

This is a miracle, the miracle for which I have been looking. Maybe it's the start of something and if not, at least we can see that miracles are possible.

ANDREA WOROCH: 5 quick cures for holiday debt hangover

Jan 3, 2023

The holidays may be over, but there's one thing still lingering from the season: credit card debt. LendingTree’s latest holiday debt survey found that 35 percent of Americans took on debt during the holidays at an average of $1,549 per person and it's expected to take five months or more to …

LOIS HENRY: Kern River ‘restoration’ wells pumping but not to restore the river

Jan 2, 2023

An observant reader emailed SJV Water recently asking about a well he noticed near Calloway Drive that was pumping water into the brimful Cross Valley Canal just north of the dry Kern River “all summer long and beyond.”

STEVE FLORES: Welcome to day 2 of your New Year’s resolutions

Jan 2, 2023

I saw a great post for the start of our new year. It read: “I’m opening a new gym called ‘Resolutions.’ It will have exercise equipment for the first two weeks in January and then I will turn the gym into a wine and beer bar for the rest of the year.”

LOIS HENRY: What a year 2022 was for Central Valley water news

Jan 2, 2023

Water, or the lack of it, was a major topic in California over 2022 — the third year of exceptional drought throughout the Western United States.

CHRISTINE PETERSON: When airlines fail, real families are hurt

Jan 1, 2023

Matthew's craft project said it all.

HERB BENHAM: Hello fogginess, my old friend

Jan 1, 2023

Fog. Remember it used to be like this.

ROBERT PRICE: Tuesday’s must-see TV: McCarthy’s Faustian drama

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Jan 1, 2023

Pop yourself some popcorn and sit down with your favorite news network Tuesday. We might just witness a political drama of a type not seen since the lead-up to the Civil War. Which somehow seems appropriate, given the tenor of today’s political discourse.

VALERIE SCHULTZ: Make resolutions of the soul

Dec 31, 2022

Although some folks pack away the Christmas decorations on Dec. 26, the Christmas season lasts a bit longer on the Christian calendar, until the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6.

JOSE GASPAR: Neighbors on edge after major bust of human trafficking

Dec 25, 2022

The video is chilling to see and hear. At about 12:30 a.m. Dec. 16, a home security camera caught the moment when a man went door to door banging loudly on each one and yelling in Spanish, “Auxilio!” or “Help!”

HERB BENHAM: Christmas merry and bright for the Benhams

Dec 25, 2022

Would this be the year I'd fall off the wall on the front porch while stringing up the evergreen garland and white twinkly lights? If 2022 weren't memorable enough, falling backward into the scratchy pink bushes would do the job and serve as a catchy first line in next year's Christmas letter.

ROBERT PRICE: Visiting the long-lost town of my birth was the best Christmas gift I could have given myself

Dec 24, 2022

Everybody goes home at Christmastime, in one way or another, whether they want to or not.

JOSE GASPAR: Kern County makes history, and in a good way

Dec 18, 2022

The 8-year-old student was curios so she wrote a letter. In it, she introduced herself and wrote that her parents were immigrants from India and that she was in the second grade at McKee Elementary School in Bakersfield. And she mentioned that she wanted to maybe be a lawyer when she grew up…

HERB BENHAM: Selling the truck the end of an era

Dec 18, 2022

It was probably time to sell the truck five years ago but with trucks you don't want to make any sudden moves.

ROBERT PRICE: Red Simpson’s son helped preserve the sound of Trout’s, if not the aroma of stale beer and butts

Dec 17, 2022

The embers of honky tonk history were still moist from the fire hoses when David Simpson pulled up in back to see what was left.

LOIS HENRY: High-tech snow flights to cover most of California’s watersheds this year

Dec 14, 2022

You probably didn’t notice a twin-engine prop plane loaded with high-tech equipment circling 23,000 feet over the San Joaquin Valley’s upper watersheds this fall. But it was there, gathering information about those watersheds in their “snow off” condition.

STEVE FLORES: Most men go through these Santa Claus phases

Dec 11, 2022

Dear Santa,

VALERIE SCHULTZ: Beyond a green burial

Dec 11, 2022

The funeral discussion with an elderly parent is a tough one. When my dad died, my mother was still alive, so she made the decisions regarding his burial. Seven years later, my mother was also cremated, so that their ashes could be buried together. She had picked the plot they now share in t…

HERB BENHAM: He was the finest man most of us had known

Dec 11, 2022

Sarah was standing by the wrought-iron gate when I arrived. Rob's truck was parked in the driveway like a horse awaiting its master.

LOIS HENRY: Kings County passes law to keep its groundwater from being sold beyond its borders

Dec 4, 2022

In an attempt to stop groundwater from being mined and sold beyond its borders, the Kings County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance Nov. 29 that will require anyone moving groundwater outside of Kings to get a permit.

HERB BENHAM: Good yard music makes good neighbors

Dec 4, 2022

We have new neighbors next door.

LOIS HENRY: Bakersfield sued over 'dewatering' of Kern River

Nov 30, 2022

Several public interest groups sued the city of Bakersfield on Wednesday, alleging the city has been derelict in its operation of the Kern River by diverting most of its flows to agriculture and other uses, leaving a dry riverbed through the heart of town.

JOSE GASPAR: How do you stop a homophobic chant on the world stage of soccer?

Nov 27, 2022

Sometime around 2003 or so, no one is quite sure when, fútbol fans in Guadalajara, Mexico started a peculiar type of chant meant to intimidate and rattle the opposing team's goalie. Just as the goalie was about to kick the ball deep into the home team's territory, fans would collectively sta…

HERB BENHAM: We're in it together

Nov 27, 2022

The magic trick is turning a less-than-lighthearted subject into something that will bear fruit like the sweet pomegranate tree in our front yard.

VALERIE SCHULTZ: The Advent of something

Nov 26, 2022

The last Sunday of November closes out the Thanksgiving holiday. Many of us will be driving home in heavy traffic, our stomachs heavy with our Thanksgiving feasts and our hearts heavy at the prospect of starting another work week. But that last gasp of a delicious four-day weekend is also th…

STEVE FLORES: A Thanksgiving prayer for us die-hard Raiders fans

Nov 20, 2022

Loyalty, honor, fidelity, commitment and tolerance.

HERB BENHAM: Wrinkled arms? That's the other guy

Nov 20, 2022

I raised my heavily muscled arms, arms which I've always been proud of, and then rolled my shoulders forward as if my shoulders were stiff, which they were but that's not why I rolled them.

LOIS HENRY: 'Dropout' from race for seat on a powerful Kern water board appears poised to win

Nov 13, 2022

If Eric Averett maintains his lead over incumbent Phil Cerro for a seat on the powerful Kern County Water Agency board, it may prove just how effective a campaign statement can be.

HERB BENHAM: Another hometown success story

Nov 13, 2022

Success story. We can't have too many of those. This victory march ended recently at Jeffrey Cowan's wedding, surrounded by people who had been through the good and the not-so-good. It was time to celebrate.

VALERIE SCHULTZ: Antisemitism is un-American

Nov 13, 2022

When I got to see the cramped "Secret Annex" in the house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family and several others managed to hide for their lives from the Nazis for two years, I was not much older than Anne was when she was subsequently killed in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp …

ROBERT PRICE: McCarthy’s ascendency to the speakership, though likely, is not assured

Nov 12, 2022

How badly does Bakersfield’s Kevin McCarthy want to be speaker of the House?

DELANO RAMBLINGS: Christmas Parade preparations getting underway in Delano

Nov 11, 2022

Entries for Delano’s annual Christmas Parade are being accepted until Dec. 5 which is the pre-registration deadline for the Thursday, Dec. 8, parade. Entries should be submitted online.

JOSE GASPAR: Maybe $50K will help solve a 32-year-old murder case

Nov 6, 2022

For the past 32 years, Nellie Mesa has been the number one advocate for justice in finding the person responsible for the kidnapping and murder of her 4-year-old daughter, Jessica Martinez. During that time, Mesa has not idly stood by, content with letting police handle the investigation. No…

HERB BENHAM: Fall is here and we couldn't be happier

Nov 6, 2022

I walked down 20th Street. Something I've done a million times but this was different. No assault from the sun. The ankle-biting mosquitoes seem to be hanging on, but I'll trade the absence of one for the presence of the other. There is hardly anything better than a leisurely walk on a cool day.