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1. Mojave-based XCOR Aerospace to provide free ride to space

   By THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN

   Wednesday, May 16 2012 02:17 PM

   An aerospace company in eastern Kern County has promised a free trip to suborbital space to a Northern California woman.

   In a news release today, Mojave-based XCOR Aerospace said San Francisco Bay Area resident Jennifer Brisco is the grand prize winner of a trip aboard XCOR's Lynx Mark I suborbital launch vehicle. XCOR Chief Operating Officer Andrew Nelson made the announcement at the Spacecraft Technology Expo in Los Angeles.

   "About two months ago, we were at an event called the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, where together with the Southwest Research Institute we gave away a suborbital flight," Nelson said. "We had a winner, and we had a backup. Unfortunately our main winner was unable to accept the prize. Our backup winner, Jennifer Brisco, is now the official recipient of the suborbital flight."

   Brisco was flown in to the Expo in Los Angeles to receive the prize. She did not know that she had been selected until she was presented with the award.

   "It's been my lifetime goal to take a suborbital flight," she said. "This is an absolute dream... I am in shock right now, I am speechless."

   Read More

2. Looking for a job in the commercial space industry?

   MOJAVE -- Jobs for spaceship designers and engineers are opening up in this high desert community in eastern Kern County -- and they tell the story of a new reality.

3. NASA employing local companies for payload transport

   At least two commercial aerospace companies with operations in eastern Kern County are expected to benefit from a new partnership between NASA and private companies developing commercial access to space.

4. Ever hunted a megalodon?

   Can you dig it?

5. Draft environmental impact statement released for Isabella dam project

   News Release

6. The Spaceship Company in eastern Kern enlisting help to build Virgin Galactic spaceships

   A Mojave-based company currently building a fleet of commercial spaceships for Virgin Galactic announced Monday that it has qualified three suppliers to fabricate structural components for the company's space tourism vehicles.

7. Could burying aircraft become a growth industry for Kern?

   Since we broke the story earlier this week about a Swiss artist's plans to bury a Boeing 727 in eastern Kern County -- all for the sake of art -- our story has been followed by The Washington Post, the Huffington Post, USA Today and a number of other news organizations.
9. 

   Reported valley fever cases in 2010 triple the number in 2009

   Kern County public health officials reported three times more valley fever cases in 2010 than they saw in 2009.
   
   Countywide, there were 1,812 cases reported last year, more than triple the 596 cases reported the year before, according to the Kern County Department of Public Health.
   
   But before you pack your bags, consider the context.
   
   The number of reported cases in 2009 was the lowest since 2000. In addition, 2010, a relatively bad year, pales in comparison to 1992 and 1993, when county health officials documented 3,342 cases and 2,608 cases, respectively.
   
   It's also important to know that reported cases are only a fraction of the total number of valley fever cases, as most cases are not reported because most people don't even know when they have it.
   
   Dr. Claudia Jonah, public health officer for Kern County estimated that 60 percent to 80 percent of cases are never reported.
10. 

    Searching for sharks in the dry hills of Bakersfield

    Sixteen thousand millennia before Col. Thomas Baker settled on a patch of dirt that would come to be known as Baker’s Field, a great ocean bay covered the land.
    
    The primeval sea teemed with life.
    
    And death.
    
    Evidence of that life still exists in the skeletons of whales, the bones of long-extinct sea lions and the fearsome teeth of the 50-foot shark known as carcharodon megalodon, or giant tooth.
    
    The Greyhound bus-sized shark may have been the most fearsome hunter to ever live on planet Earth.
    
    On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the ancient bone bed adjacent to Shark Tooth Hill near Bakersfield will be opened to amateur paleontologists for a rare dig. The area is famous for its rich concentration of marine fossils deposited 14 million to 16 million years ago during the Miocene era.
    
    Organized by the Buena Vista Museum of Natural History, the event will help fund the museum and its educational programs.
    
    All attendees must be museum members. Cost of membership is $25 per person, $20 for seniors and $75 for families.
    
    Cost of the dig is $85 for a one-day pass with multiple-day reservations also available.
    
    And get this: Diggers will be allowed to keep all teeth (including megalodon teeth!) and fossils with the exception of rare scientifically significant assemblages or articulated fossils.
    
    For details go to Sharktoothhill.org or call the museum at 324-6350.
11. 

    Students in grades 7-12 must be immunized against whooping cough

    California experienced a large number of whooping cough cases last year — more than 7,800 — so starting this fall, students attending grades 7-12 will be required to be immunized against the illness.

12. Bakersfield students donate 600 DVDs to local burn center

    Each year Almondale Elementary School encourages their students to be actively involved in the community by choosing a local project for the students to support.

13. Resource advisory council calling for proposals

    SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST — The Kern and Tulare Counties Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) has begun accepting the second round of applications for projects that would enhance forest ecosystems or restore and improve land health and water quality on the Sequoia National Forest and other near-by lands in Tulare and Kern counties.  
    
    According to RAC Chairman Mark Cave, “the RAC committee will have nearly $400,000 to spend on projects”, made available to Tulare and Kern Counties through the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. This is the second, and will be the last opportunity the RAC has asked for proposals.  The Act expires in September, 2012; however, all proposals recommended by the RAC for Forest Supervisor approval must be submitted by September 2011.  The last date for accepting proposals is June 1, 2011.  
    
    The RAC works closely with the Forest Service to recommend projects that will benefit Forest health, fish, wildlife, soils, watersheds and other resources; maintain roads, trails, and other infrastructure; or control noxious weeds.  Projects can be implemented by Forest Service personnel, through partnership agreements, or by open-bid contracting with individuals and/or corporations.
    
    Workshops will be held in Porterville on February 17th at the Forest Supervisors Office, 1839 S. Newcomb, Porterville CA and in Bakersfield on March 17th at the County of Kern Administrative Office, 1115 Truxtun Avenue, Bakersfield CA. Both workshops will be held from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. to offer assistance to the public on completing the application process. The February meeting will also be available by video-conference at the Kern River Ranger District, 105 Whitney Road, Kernville, CA 93238.
    
    Proposals will be accepted hard copy, email, or in person.  New RAC Project Proposal application forms and instructions are available on the Sequoia National Forest Website. Completed proposal forms can be sent hard copy to Penelope Shibley, Kern River Ranger District, P.O. Box 9, Kernville, CA 93238, or by email to [email protected] by close of business June 1, 2011.  
    
    The public is welcome to attend RAC meetings and observe the proceedings. For more information on the Committee or to learn more about proposing projects please contact the RAC Designated Federal Officer, Priscilla Summers at 559-539-2607 ext 210, or Penelope Shibley, RAC Coordinator at 760-376-3781 ext 650.
14. 

    Local Red Cross volunteers respond to home fires

    American Red Cross-Kern Chapter Disaster Action Team volunteers responded to a fire Wednesday night on Elmo Highway in McFarland, where they provided food, clothing, comfort kits, and referrals to two adults and two children. 
     
    This marks the fourth home fire the chapter has responded to already this year, the local organization said in a news release. Red Cross volunteers respond at all hours to the site of home fires. At each visit, they provide help and guidance to families in crisis who sometimes feel they have nowhere to turn. They even bring teddy bears for young children.