HITS & MISSES: A new future for troubled East Hills Mall
By The Bakersfield Californian
HIT: The purchase of East Hills Mall by Modesto-based Save Mart Supermarkets can only be a good thing. The struggling indoor shopping center has been a shadow of its former self over the past few years. That's a shame, because the location is attractive and northeast Bakersfield residents need and deserve the shopping.
Save Mart, which paid $3.3 million, hasn't said what it plans to do with the beleaguered mall, which has had trouble keeping tenants and at one juncture couldn't pay its power bill. But whether Save Mart convinces new anchor tenants to move in or razes the mall and starts over, things almost can't be worse than they are. Here's hoping Save Mart has the right plan for the potentially great property.
HIT: Go away, robo-caller
Are harangued consumers gradually winning the war on telemarketers? It would be tough to make a blanket statement like that, but the latest developments are encouraging. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission clamped down on telemarketers, placing significant limits on robo-calling and even texting. FCC commissioners, in a 3-0 vote, decreed that telemarketers must obtain prior written consent before placing robo-calls to consumers; eliminated the exemption for companies that have an "established business relationship" with consumers; and required telemarketers to provide an automated, interactive opt-out mechanism during each robocall so consumers can immediately tell the telemarketer to cease their calls.
It's about time!
MISS: Let's hold hands instead
Four hundred of the nation's most popular lipsticks contain small but worrisome levels of lead, according to recent tests by the federal government. It's not the first time lipstick has tested positive for trace amounts of lead but possibly the most alarming: These tests revealed problems but on a much wider scale and at higher levels than previously detected.
Five L'Oreal and Maybelline lipsticks, owned by L'Oreal USA, were among the 10 most contaminated brands, according to the analysis by the Food and Drug Administration. Two Cover Girl and two NARS lipsticks were also on the list, along with one from Stargazer.
Consider this a good reason to shake hands.
MISS: No-go for Green Frog location
Green Frog Market, a local institution, said last week its last attempt to reopen its store at Columbus and Oswell streets has failed. A plan to split the previous space with other tenants "did not garner the much-needed support of the company's landlord," President Scott Hair said. At least a second location at Alta Vista Drive and Bernard Street continues to operate.
Shea Properties of Aliso Viejo, which owns Country Club Plaza, where Green Frog had done business, apparently couldn't work out a deal. Green Frog has been a locally owned family business since it opened in 1934.
HIT: Recognizing veterans
The Bakersfield city limit signs may soon have a different look: a notation that Bakersfield is a "Purple Heart City." The City Council must first approve, but the addition would make it clear that Bakersfield is a city that supports veterans -- and has its share of those who sacrificed meaningfully.
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Since Karen Goh returned to Kern County from a publishing career in New York in 2004, she has helped foster a strong network of Christian leaders in government, politics, media, business and nonprofits.
Kern County has agreed to pay a Kern River Valley family $1 million for wrongfully taking their son in 2008 when the family was in a dispute with the South Fork Union School District over how school officials were dealing with the boy's food allergies.