1. Funeral Notices

   Services for May 22, 2013

   TO OUR READERS The Californian provides free death listings using information supplied by local mortuaries. The in-depth notices that follow are paid obituaries and remembrances. These listings must be purchased by 2 p.m. To place an Obituary or In Loving Memory, call 395-7302. Full obituaries are posted at...

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2. Local Politics
   

   Vidak maintains lead but final outcome unclear

   Republican Andy Vidak led in the 16th Senate District special primary race throughout Tuesday night, but whether he won the seat outright was unclear at press time. At 11:30 p.m. with all four counties reporting election night final counts., Vidak had 51.9 percent of the vote, leading Democrat Leticia Perez by 5,780...

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3. Health
   

   SJCH opens new cancer center

   With the snip of a giant red ribbon, San Joaquin Community Hospital celebrated the long-awaited opening of its new cancer and outpatient surgery center Tuesday morning. The AIS Cancer Center at San Joaquin Community Hospital has been open since late April, but Mayor Harvey Hall, hospital administrators and donors...

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1. Local News
   

   Investigators in Silva case obtain security video and limited medical records

   Kern County sheriff's investigators wanted to learn more about David Sal Silva's activities in the hours before his death following a physical struggle with several law enforcement officers May 8. So they filed a search warrant that would ultimately lead to the release of security video showing the 33-year-old as he...

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2. Business

   Senate committee approves sweeping immigration bill

   WASHINGTON -- Far-reaching legislation to grant a chance at citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a solid bipartisan vote Tuesday night after supporters somberly sidestepped a controversy over the rights of gay spouses. The 13-5 vote...

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3. Local News
   

   Cooler temperatures expected for rest of the week

   Temperatures in the valley will drop just in time for Memorial Day weekend as a cold front coming from Northern California brings cooler temperatures to the valley. Gary Sanger, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Hanford, said temperatures in Bakersfield are expected to drop 10 to 12 degrees Wednesday...

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1. Business

   Senate committee approves sweeping immigration bill

   WASHINGTON -- Far-reaching legislation to grant a chance at citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a solid bipartisan vote Tuesday night after supporters somberly sidestepped a controversy over the rights of gay spouses. The 13-5 vote...

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2. Business
   

   KSFCU rescues ailing Tehachapi credit union

   The county's largest financial institution is riding to the rescue of a much smaller credit union in Tehachapi that federal data show has fallen on very hard times. Kern Schools Federal Credit Union announced Monday that it has agreed to merge with Tehachapi Federal Credit Union, whose perilous financial condition...

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3. Business

   Unemployment picture brightens in California, Kern

   California's unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in 4 1/2 years as the state experienced one of the sharpest drops in joblessness nationwide, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday. Unemployment fell to 9 percent in April, the lowest point since November 2008, nearly a year after the...

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1. High-speed Rail
   

   Judge to hear lawsuit over high-speed rail bonds

   SACRAMENTO -- State officials on Thursday agreed to drop a request to consolidate all lawsuits challenging California's use of voter-approved high-speed rail bonds, allowing a trial seeking to stop their sale to begin later this month. Opponents of the $68 billion bullet train project and attorneys for the California...

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2. Business
   

   Judge faults government's 'abusive' tactics against Chevron in Elk Hills lawsuit

   A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Department of Energy owes Chevron Corp. unspecified damages in a years-old contract dispute over $37 billion in petroleum deposits at the prolific Elk Hills oil field in northwestern Kern County. A 91-page ruling issued May 8 by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims said the...

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3. Business

   Action Line: How do I stop getting unwanted magazine subscription?

   Editor's note: Action Line is a weekly column from the Better Business Bureau answering consumers' questions and concerns about money and business issues. Dear Action Line, I just received my second copy of Better Homes and Gardens magazine today. I did not order this magazine and do not want magazines. I take no...

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1. Jamie Butow
   

   JAMIE BUTOW: Netizens worldwide react to David Silva beating case

   There's no denying that the David Silva case is being followed world-wide, but today there's a new social media element: an online petition calling for "immediate dismissal and prosecution of officers involved in the death of David Silva, harassment of witnesses, and illegal seizure of video recordings pertaining to...

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2. Local Lifestyle
   

   HERB BENHAM: How forgiving is St. Christopher?

   I was driving in my car when it rattled one too many times and I said to myself, "That's it." I grabbed it around its metal waist and dumped it in the white plastic bag I'd been given my last time through Cruz Thru Express Car Wash. "It" was a two-inch-high figure of St. Christopher that I've had in the car for years...

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3. Local Lifestyle
   

   HERB BENHAM: If karma is real, Lance McCullah has a lot coming his way

   Thursday nights during football season, Lance McCullah, an assistant varsity coach at Bakersfield High School, takes linebackers and running backs to dinner. Pizza, sushi, cheeseburgers, it doesn't matter. What does is that players -- some of whom may not know how to order from a menu or behave in public -- dress in...

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1. Sound Off
   

   SOUND OFF: What's known, and what's not, in Silva investigation

   ARTHUR: Our coverage of the death in custody of David Sal Silva has been read around the world and has drawn many comments. It's impossible to answer them all (and some don't need answers) but a couple of online remarks from our article last Sunday -- "Deputies' video confiscations come under scrutiny in fatal...

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2. Hot Topics
   

   ROBERT PRICE: Has good-ol'-boy corruption seized the Kern County Sheriff's Office?

   The Kern County Sheriff's Office is out of control. That's one conclusion many people will draw based on the events of the past two weeks and in the context of recent years. We won't know whether that's a fair characterization until we get some answers, but it should grieve us all that the possibility is even on the...

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3. Steve Flores
   

   STEVE FLORES: Diving into summertime memories

   Canals and the Union Avenue Plunge: That was our southeast neighborhood's primary refuge from the San Joaquin Valley's oppressive summer heat during the 1960s. We shared the canals with crawdads, broken beer bottles and other unknown sources of refuse. Disgusting, I know, but it was almost a rite of youthful passage...

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1. College

   Fresh off 3-game series, CSUB, San Jose St. meet in WAC tournament opener

   Cal State Bakersfield's baseball team will see familiar faces across the field today when the Roadrunners begin their quest to earn a berth to the NCAA Nationals. The top-seeded Roadrunners (35-21) open the eight-team Western Athletic Conference Tournament against No. 8 San Jose State (17-38) at 1 p.m. today in Grand...

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2. Preps

   Pilgrim powers Taft to semifinal win over Chowchilla

   TAFT -- Arizona Pilgrim got a taste of a Central Section championship game last year. She and her Taft High teammates will get another shot on Thursday. Second-seeded Taft used Pilgrim's dominating pitching and timely hitting to beat No. 3 Chowchilla 5-0 Tuesday in the Div. IV softball semifinals at Taft. The...

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3. Preps
   

   Rams get a Handel on Wolf Pack, advance to softball final

   When Ridgeview loaded the bases in a tie game during Tuesday's Central Section Division II softball semifinal at Garces, Rams coach Mike D'Amato felt a calmness washing over him. "I've just learned to trust Cassie (Handel)," D'Amato said of his senior pitcher. "I don't know how she does it; she just buckles down and...

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1. Community - MyBakersfieldSports.com

   Local report: CSUB nets triple crown of awards for WAC baseball

   GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas -- Cal State Bakersfield nearly swept the Western Athletic Conference awards Tuesday. CSUB junior infielder Tyler Shryock was named the player of the year, Roadrunner senior Jeff McKenzie earned pitcher of the year honors and Bill Kernen was named coach of the year. Shryock, a junior from...

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2. Preps

   Five local players qualify for SoCal Regional golf tournament

   Five area golfers qualified for the CIF Southern California Regional tournament Tuesday at the Central Section Individual Boys Golf Championship in Madera. Frontier's Konner Baker had the top local score with a 76 at the par-72 Madera Country Club. That was three strokes behind the winner, Sean Duckering of...

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3. Preps

   May 21 high school roundup

   Softball Central Section semifinals Division I No. 5 Fresno-Central 3, No. 8 Clovis 0 No. 3 Fresno-Bullard 1, No. 2 Clovis West 0 Division II No. 4 Garces 3, No. 8 Ridgeview 2 At GMHS. W: Handel (18-5). L: Mejia (13-6). 2B: RHS (Martinez, Meza). Notes: RHS (Samantha Mejia 6IP, 5H, 3ER, 10K, 5BB, 2-3;...

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1. Music

   Microsoft reveals Xbox One, says it's all-in-one entertainment

   REDMOND, Wash. -- Microsoft today unveiled the Xbox One, a next-generation entertainment console that promises to be the one system households will need for games, television, movies and other entertainment. It will go on sale later this year. Microsoft executives touted the Xbox One as a replacement for the set-top...

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2. Dining
   

   PETE TITTL: Getting to Coseree's Restaurant hard; staying there easy

   Some new restaurants open with all sorts of hype: spotlights scanning the skies outside, long lines, full parking lots, media attention. Coseree's Restaurant & Catering is not one of those places. In fact, one of the most valuable points I can share with today's review is how to get to this humble but worthwhile...

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3. Dining
   

   The Dish: Famous Dave's beefs up its menu; BJ's goes low-cal

   Famous Dave's has a new menu and recently had a P.I.G. (Pretty Important Guest) Club tasting on a Tuesday evening to offer samples to their email group fans. Being a pig myself, I had to go. The new items include the return of the brisket burger, which we wrote about in the past when it was a temporary menu item....

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1. Music
   

   The holy grail of Haggard lore?

   Joe Saunders thought he was finished with production on his ambitious, years-in-the-making Bakersfield Sound documentary. But the documentary, it appears, was not finished with him. For tucked away and long forgotten under a pile of memorabilia in the crowded garage of his pack-rat grandfather -- seminal Bakersfield...

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2. Dining
   

   The best Q you can chew all year long this weekend

   If you're ready for ribs and all the Q sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society, then head on out to the Kern County Fairgrounds for Bakersfield's Biggest Baddest BBQ. This year you'll certainly have a lot of savory meat to choose from with more than 60 teams contending for the grand champion title in a record...

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3. Community
   

   Pot shots at Taft? Not from Chong

   You don't often think of the Taft desert as a prime destination for spiritual rebirth. But for Tommy Chong, one half of the legendary comedy duo Cheech & Chong, the solitude of west Kern's sprawling desert offered a chance to "blaze" a new path in life. Chong served a nine-month prison stint in 2003 at the Taft...

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1. Our View

   A victory for disclosure in political races

   As the final votes are tabulated in a special election pitting two million-dollar front-runners in a five-way race for the California State Senate, we pause for a moment of silence in honor of a time long distant when campaign war chests contained far fewer zeroes. Sometimes, however, we're given the opportunity to...

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2. Our View

   A worthwhile plan to address mental illness

   We'll never know if it would have helped David Sal Silva, who had sought refuge at the Mary K. Shell Mental Health Center the night he died following a beating by sheriff's deputies two weeks ago. But perhaps, if it's approved, new legislation aimed at improving care for the mentally ill will save the next man in his...

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3. Hot Topics
   

   ANOTHER VIEW: Judge Brehmer didn't deserve tarring over signing of search warrant

   Although Lois Henry has penned remarkably insightful columns in the past, she missed the mark regarding her comments about Judge Charles Brehmer in her recent analysis of the David Sal Silva incident ("Impartial reviews should be standard procedure," May 15). Henry denounced the actions by deputies in entering a...

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1. Hot Topics
   

   CONNECTING CALIFORNIA: You'll need to be tough, high school graduates

   To the distinguished California Public High School Class of 2013: I'm sorry James Franco canceled at the last minute. I'm even sorrier you wound up getting me as your substitute commencement speaker, but I was offered gas money plus a free lunch. I believe Franco planned to say that you are the future and that...

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2. Hot Topics
   

   DAVID VALADAO: Let the valley flourish -- BLM decision hurts region's jobs

   The Central Valley has been home to agriculture and energy development for generations. This way of life is less about what we do, and more about who we are. Over time, the state and federal governments have imposed policies and regulations that discourage growth in the very industries we rely on. This has led to high...

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3. Letters to the Editor

   Episcopal turmoil hurts parishioners

   Our diocese separated itself from the Episcopal Church several years ago, but today we are fighting a different battle. The Episcopal Church has sued many dioceses and individual churches saying that they own all the church facilities and they have won again with St. Paul's and St. Michael's ("Episcopals regain 2...

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1. Breaking News Blog

   Health caution issued for blowing dust

   Air pollution officials issued a health caution for blowing dust effective Tuesday evening through Wednesday night. The warning applies to the Kern County valley, as well as San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Tulare, Kings and Fresno counties, according to a news release from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution...

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2. Breaking News Blog

   Passenger killed in big rig crash identified

   The big rig passenger who died Monday after the vehicle plunged over a railing and into a canal has been identified as Wisconsin resident Keith Michael Zeamer. The 32-year-old died of blunt force injuries in the 2:15 p.m. crash on the southbound Highway 99 overpass at Beardsley Canal, a coroner's office news release...

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3. Breaking News Blog

   Suspect arrested in connection with kidnapping, attempted murder

   Deputies arrested one of two suspects Tuesday in a kidnapping and attempted murder investigation. Anthony Victor Ochoa, 25, was booked on suspicion of attempted murder, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and participation in criminal street gang, deputies said. The investigation into the second...

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1. Breaking News Blog
   

   Police searching for runaway juvenile

   Bakersfield police are asking for the public's help finding a runaway juvenile considered at risk because of her age. Gabrielle Bensusen is described as 12 years old, 4 feet 11 inches tall, 80 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes. She was last seen 5:30 p.m. Monday in the 12100 block of Marigold Drive. Anyone with...

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2. Breaking News Blog
   

   Grand fire near full containment

   There are still isolated hot spots in the area of the Grand fire east of Frazier Park that need to be extinguished and monitored, but full containment is expected Wednesday, officials said. Smoke from the area could be visible for the next several weeks, according to a U.S. Forest Service news release. A total of 847...

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3. Breaking News Blog
   

   Inside the schools: "Everybody was crying."

   MOORE, Okla. -- The principal's voice came on over the intercom at Plaza Towers Elementary School: A severe storm was approaching and students were to go to the cafeteria and wait for their parents to pick them up. But before all of the youngsters could get there, the tornado alarm sounded. The plan changed quickly....

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Editors' picks from the last week

1. Pick 6 - Editors Picks from Past Week
   

   Raceway Park's debut a hit for NASCAR fans

   "They did a really good job out here." That was the general consensus of fans and race officials who attended the opening night Saturday at Kern County Raceway Park. What looked like a capacity crowd of 8,000 fans showed up, to the delight of NASCAR and park officials, even while park accommodations were overwhelmed....

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2. Pick 6 - Editors Picks from Past Week
   

   Kern's image may be taking a hit

   The death of a man in custody following a prolonged struggle with Kern County Sheriff's deputies and CHP officers and the subsequent fracas over confiscated witness cellphones have gained international attention and raised concerns here that the incidents could tarnish the county's emerging reputation as a desirable...

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3. Pick 6 - Editors Picks from Past Week
   

   Silva's screams mark video that lacks baton strikes

   David Sal Silva’s screams seem like they will never stop. But they do. Daniel Rodriguez, the attorney now representing the witnesses in the in-custody death of Silva following his beating earlier this month by several law enforcement officers, released cellphone video shot by one of the witnesses Monday. As...

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1. Pick 6 - Editors Picks from Past Week
   

   Sun Pacific gets custody of Cuties in Paramount divorce

   The two companies behind the popular Cuties brand of mandarins have begun a corporate divorce that forces a name change on a popular product that accounts for thousands of acres in Kern County orchards. Under a deal announced Monday, Pasadena-based Sun Pacific was to pay Paramount Citrus, part of Los Angeles-based...

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2. Pick 6 - Editors Picks from Past Week
   

   HERB BENHAM: How forgiving is St. Christopher?

   I was driving in my car when it rattled one too many times and I said to myself, "That's it." I grabbed it around its metal waist and dumped it in the white plastic bag I'd been given my last time through Cruz Thru Express Car Wash. "It" was a two-inch-high figure of St. Christopher that I've had in the car for years...

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3. Pick 6 - Editors Picks from Past Week
   

   Council committee waters down anti-abortion ordinance

   A draft city ordinance that would have restricted abortion in Bakersfield was placed on hold Monday when the Bakersfield City Council's Legislative and Litigation Committee voted 3-0 to table its discussion indefinitely, and instead, ordered the drafting of a resolution that could be less restrictive. The so-called...

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