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...
Q: I had colon cancer and have had trouble buying health insurance ever since. Under Obamacare, will insurance companies still be allowed to refuse me because of my medical history? A: Finally, an Obamacare question with a simple answer,...
Q: What percentage of student fees goes to athletics scholarships, coaches' salaries, staff salaries and other sport-related costs? -- Craig Holland A: Working with Cal State Bakersfield, we got as close an answer as we could by...
A new Medicare program that punishes hospitals with high patient readmission rates is forcing administrators to reach out and improve how patients are cared for even after they're wheeled out the hospital doors. Working to reduce runaway...
Two local doctors' case study of pregnancy and the synthetic drug spice got attention last week at an annual meeting of obstetricians and gynecologists. Dr. Cindy S. Lee and Dr. Sally Nalesnik detailed the case in a poster called "Spice...
When one of Janie Olvera's nine sisters had preventative double mastectomy to reduce her risk of developing breast cancer, Olvera thought she was crazy. But several years later, Olvera's 28-year-old niece was diagnosed with breast cancer...
"Sexual psychopath." That was the diagnosis a court-ordered psychiatrist gave Donald Robert Hoffman after he was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 1965. Hoffman, the psychiatrist determined, was a danger to others. But that...
Bakersfield has long boasted of having one of the world's largest Relay for Life events, but this year, the fundraiser's net income shrank for the first time in nearly two decades. The massive fundraiser took a hit as several big donors...
When donors pull out their wallets to give to a charity, Daniel Borochoff, president of Chicago-based CharityWatch, warned that they should not assume that the biggest, most famous charity they know of will be the one to address their...
As Dr. Michelle Quiogue puts it, a lot of people had to tell a lot of lies to keep her from learning that she was up for the 2013 Family Physician of the Year award. Quiogue sits on the committee that reviews the nominees for the honor...
California prison officials say a receiver's policy for protecting inmates housed at two Central Valley prisons from Valley Fever is "premature" and urged a federal court to oppose its quick implementation. "The [receiver's] policy is...
The Grossman Burn Center at San Joaquin Community Hospital gained a new resource for patients this week courtesy of the Bakersfield Firefighters Burn Foundation: iPads. The four iPads, one for each room in the unit, will be loaned to...
The state supreme court ruling on medical marijuana dispensaries was not a defeat for the pot shop movement, a leading attorney said here Monday, but a setback. Phil Ganong, an attorney representing several medical marijuana collectives in...
Sheriff's office: Man who died in custody had drugs in throat (14)
A 25-year-old man who died in Kern County sheriff’s custody Monday night had two plastic baggies with illegal drugs stuffed in his throat, the department reported.
Silva family files federal claim (11)
The family of David Silva announced Friday it has filed its long-expected federal civil rights claims against the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, six sheriff’s deputies and a sergeant, two California Highway Patrol officers, the county and the state alleging excessive police force killed him.
CSUB awards Haggard, Owens top honors (9)
He’s Dr. Merle Haggard now. The bad-boy hero of the rebel strain of music that put Bakersfield on America’s cultural map half a century ago did something Friday he hadn’t done since he was 9: He sat still in school.
Key green light for California high-speed rail (5)
SACRAMENTO -- The California High-Speed Rail Authority won approval Thursday from a federal railroad oversight board to start construction this summer on the first leg of what would be the nation's first bullet train.
Local attorney arrested in shooting of his wife
A Bakersfield attorney’s rocky marriage, marked by a divorce suit and a history of loud, public arguments, reportedly erupted into violence early Wednesday morning when police say he turned a gun on his wife and fired.
Coroner's office identifies woman found dead in garage
A woman found dead in a southeast Bakersfield garage Tuesday was identified Friday as 18-year-old Mia Ramirez of Bakersfield.
Sheriff's office: Man who died in custody had drugs in throat
A 25-year-old man who died in Kern County sheriff’s custody Monday night had two plastic baggies with illegal drugs stuffed in his throat, the department reported.
Sheriff's Office makes arrest in homicide
After a search that lasted much of Tuesday afternoon, the Kern County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man on suspicion of homicide in connection with the discovery of a woman’s body in a southeast Bakersfield garage.