Sheriff, Supervisors tussle over budget

February 10, 2015, 1:25 pm

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County Supervisors and the Sheriff exchanged sharp words this morning over the county budget and the suggestion by the Sheriff the Ridgecrest jail should be shutdown.

There are holding facilities in Mojave and Ridgecrest where they are held temporarily.

The Sheriff says it would take about an hour for deputies to travel from Ridgecrest to Mojave to book people who are arrested if the Ridgecrest facility were shutdown as he proposed.

The sheriff argued it was a difficult decision, but closing the facility was in the best interest of public safety and to keep deputies on the streets.

Supervisors are grappiling with a $27 million budget hole created by a drop on property tax revenue because of falling crude oil prices.

Each county department has been asked to slash 1 percent of spending.

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Mayor takes applications for college scholarships

February 10, 2015, 1:32 pm

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Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall has announced the application period for his scholarships for 2015-2016 is underway.

Each year he uses his mayor's salary to pay for three scholarships to local colleges.

Students can apply for $500 scholarships to Taft College and Bakersfield College, or $1,000 to CSUB.

The application deadline is March 24 at 5 p.m.

If you are interested in applying click here.

High School District seeks public input

February 10, 2015, 1:56 pm

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The Kern High School district hopes parents will come to a series of public forums about school funding.

The Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) is an educational action plan to improve the learning

outcomes of our students. Under the new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), districts are required to submit an LCAP, which describes how each district intends to meet the specific planning and budget criteria identified by LCFF.

A series of public forums will be scheduled for our community’s participation.

The district says upcoming forums are unique and important opportunities to talk about new ways in which resources can be used to improve our students’ performance.

The next forum is scheduled for Thursday February 12th at East Bakersfield High School.at 6:30 p.m.

There will be another forum on Thursday February 19 at Mira Monte High School at 6:30 p.m. 

New HPV study shows no link to risky sex

February 10, 2015, 3:22 pm

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A study of more than 200,000 teen girls finds no evidence teen girls who receive the HPV vaccine are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior that may lead to sexually transmitted diseases. 

 

The research from Harvard compared two groups of girls; vaccinated and unvaccinated. 

 

The rate of increase in STD's was the same in both vaccinated and unvaccinated girls. 

 

The HPV vaccine is given in three doses, and can prevent cervical cancer. It's currently available in two forms; Ceravix and Gardasil. 

 

Cupid's Challenge raises money to help families of sick kids

February 11, 2015, 12:22 pm

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If you love candy and helping kids, we have just the thing to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Its called Cupid's Challenge and you can show your love for others by buying a box of Dewar's chews while helping out a good cause.

KGET is partnering with the Mendiburu Magic Foundation and Dewar's Candy, to raise money for patient assistance funds.

All day, Dewar's Valentine's boxes will be sold at the Eye Street location in downtown Bakersfield, until 7 p.m. Drive-thru sales are available so you don't even have to get out of your car.

All of the proceeds benefit the Mendiburu Magic Foundation, which helps the families of critically or terminally ill children with costs like gas to get to and from appointments.

You can purchase through cash or check at the downtown location, or if you'd like to donate here.

Bakersfield College phone outage continues

February 11, 2015, 1:04 pm

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Phones and internet service are still down at Bakersfield College.

The college was not closed due to the outage.

The college did not know how long the outage would last.

The campus maintenance and operations and information technology teams were working on the problem.

School officials said they would send out a BC alert to students who had signed up their cellphone.

High-risk sex offender off the streets

February 11, 2015, 1:27 pm

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A high-risk sex offender is back in custody.

Harold Jiovani Marchelly, 33, was booked into the downtown jail this morning-- just after four-- on a charge of violating the terms of his parole.

He was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts on a child and officers had been looking for him.

Family medical history key for heart health

February 11, 2015, 2:36 pm

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Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the U.S. and yet is 80 percent preventable.

Part of every woman's prevention plan should be learning family history.

The more you know the earlier you can detect disease, something Bakersfield resident Nikki Cross found out unexpectedly.

Her father, who she reconnected with after 32 years, gave her news she needed to hear.

"When I reconnected with my father he informed of this condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy that he has very severe," said Nikki. "So I went and I took that information, took his family history with me to the cardiologist and sure enough while its very mild and its under control, I do have it."

Not only Nikki, but her oldest daughter has it as well.

"It was a shock. So not only was I going through the emotions of reconnecting with my dad after 30 plus years, I was also learning about the heart condition."

The heart condition certainly hasn't slowed her daughter Kayla down. Kayla started a heart club at her school to encourage young people to know their family medical history.

"If teens realize their family history and what goes on with all their parents and something does start happening, they can start taking proactive measures," said Kayla.

Proactive measures she and her mom now take regularly thanks to a family reunion.

"It's more critical to have a family tree of your medical conditions than a genealogy tree," said Nikki.

Know your family history. Click here to print and fill out a family medical history tree from the American Heart Association.

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Panama is second district to switch schedule

February 11, 2015, 2:52 pm

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The Panama-Buena Vista School District is following suit of the Kern High School District by adding new days off for students next school year.

Wednesday night, the board of trustees approved that students will get the entire week of Thanksgiving off, as well as the Monday after Easter Sunday.

Also, the school year starts Wednesday, August 19t; that's three days earlier than normal and the last day of class will be Friday June 3, one day later than usual.

The changes will go into effect in the new 2015-2016 school year.

The total days of instruction remains the same at 180 days, as required by law.

SoCal Edison plans layoffs, outsourcing

February 11, 2015, 3:18 pm

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The following is a statement from SoCal Edison about the layoffs:

In an effort to act as cost effectively and prudently as possible in operations for its customers, Southern California Edison (SCE) is outsourcing some technology-related work functions with the selection of two vendor partners, TCS and Infosys. These partnerships will create a greater opportunity to focus on service improvements for SCE customers.

This transition will lead to enhancements that deliver faster and more efficient tools and applications for services that customers rely on. Through outsourcing, SCE’s Information Technology (IT) organization will adopt a proven business strategy commonly and successfully used by top U.S. companies that SCE benchmarks against.

SCE began the process with multiple potential vendors, some of them United States-based. The decision made to contract with Infosys and TCS was made following vendor site visits, some in India, and in-depth reviews of prospective vendors’ operations. It was a competitive vendor selection process. Selection criteria included capability, maturity of processes, strength of the team interviewed, and cost.

Effective August 4, 2014, the IT organization began a transition effort expected to result in about 400 layoffs and another 100 or so employees leaving voluntarily. SCE does not take this action lightly and it is assisting employees through this difficult period. IT employees will continue to receive offers of health, wellness and professional development workshops, as well as severance packages, job fairs and other possible opportunities with other organizations within SCE. This transition period will be completed in the first quarter of 2015.

SCE has made, and will continue to make, difficult business decisions. In all of these efforts, operational and service excellence will be critical. SCE needs to compete for customers by providing them safe, reliable and, affordable electricity with quality service. This can best be achieved by continuing to be mindful of SCE’s responsibility to spend customers’ money prudently.

SCE will continue to fully comply with applicable immigration and work authorization laws, including H-1B visa requirements. SCE does not discriminate in wages and working conditions based on immigration status and is not hiring H-1B visa workers to replace displaced employees. Any H-1B visa workers SCE does hire for its own workforce are paid a wage comparable to SCE’s domestic workforce, consistent with legal requirements.

Based on contract terms and U.S. law, the service providers contracting with SCE must also comply with all applicable work authorization laws, including work visa requirements. SCE will exercise its contractual right to require service providers ensure they are in compliance.

Deputies looking for information in triple murder

February 11, 2015, 3:37 pm

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The Kern County Sheriff's Office needs your help getting any information on a deadly shooting that happened last August.

Sheriff's deputies say two masked men barged into an apartment on Quincy Street and opened fire back on August 6.

Zephaniah Lee Matthews, 29, Junior Alfonzo Contreras, 23, and Daniel Watkins, 22, were killed.

A fourth person was seriously wounded, but survived.

So far, detectives have been unable to identify the suspects and have no new leads.

If you have any information, you're urged to call the Sheriff's Office at 861-3110 or the secret witness hotline at 322-4040.

Night time lane closures planned on 99

February 11, 2015, 3:46 pm

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Motorists should anticipate nighttime lane closures on State Route 99, in the vicinity of Hosking Avenue (between Panama Lane and State Route 119/Taft Highway), on Wednesday, February 18th and Thursday, February 19th, weather permitting.

One inside lane will be closed in each direction between the hours of 7 p.m. and 6 a.m., and two inside lanes, in each direction, will be closed between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

These lanes closures are needed to allow the contractor to remove the old bridge footing, pavement and barrier from the median. At least one lane will remain open to traffic in each direction while work is underway.

Motorists are reminded to stay alert to changing conditions and pay attention to construction and detour signs while traveling through this area.

State and PG&E reach settlement on worker death

February 11, 2015, 4:03 pm

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The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today announced that its Safety and Enforcement Division and all parties to the CPUC’s investigation into a 2012 fatality at Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E) Kern Power Plant have filed a $5.5 million settlement agreement for CPUC approval.

The proposed settlement of the Safety and Enforcement Division, BayView/Hunter’s Point Community Legal, and PG&E would resolve all issues regarding the June 19, 2012, death of a contract worker of Cleveland Wrecking Company during the dismantling of PG&E’s retired Kern Power Plant.

Under the proposed settlement, PG&E accepts accountability for its failure to exercise adequate safety oversight of the Kern Power Plant demolition project and will pay fines and cost disallowances of $5,569,313. In addition, the Safety and Enforcement Division and PG&E have agreed on a corrective action plan that will significantly change the way PG&E manages contractor safety at its job sites and investigates serious safety incidents for gas and electric lines of business.

In the corrective action plan proposed in the settlement, PG&E would implement a comprehensive Contractor Safety Program that would: 1) evaluate and verify the safety records of contractors before they are hired for high and medium risk work; 2) enhance contractor safety standard contract requirements; 3) provide for review by qualified PG&E personnel of contractor safety plans; 4) establish line of business contractor oversight procedures; and 5) establish post-project safety evaluations of work performed by contractors and capturing/sharing of lessons learned.

PG&E would also implement an Enterprise Causal Evaluation Standard that would require it to investigate serious safety incidents (i.e., incidents resulting in a fatality, life threatening, or life-altering injury) and would provide guidance across the company for when a causal evaluation should be conducted; the extent of the evaluation; the attributes and training of the evaluation team; the methods used to analyze the incidents; a requirement that corrective or preventative actions be identified, tracked, and evaluated for effectiveness; and a process for broadly communicating the results of the causal evaluation to potentially impacted organizations across the enterprise.

The worker fatality occurred when PG&E’s contractor, Cleveland Wrecking Company, was demolishing the Kern Power Plant in Bakersfield. The CPUC opened an investigation of the incident and the proposed settlement was filed in the proceeding today. The Safety and Enforcement Division is separately investigating the August 3, 2013, incident at the Kern Power Plant in which several members of the public were injured, one critically, during a scheduled implosion of the steam boilers.

Homicide suspect charged, but not for murder

February 11, 2015, 4:11 pm

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The man who triggered the massive manhunt near Tehachapi on Monday has been charged.

William Patterson, 34, faces 1 count of reckless evading of a police officer and 1 count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

Kern County Deputies say Patterson was a homicide suspect when California City police tried to pull him over early Monday morning.

They say he lead them on a chase before abandoning his pick up near Tehachapi. He was later captured after an air and ground search.

Deputies say the found the body of a man in the back of Patterson's truck.

But so far, Patterson  has not been charged with murder.

The victim has not yet been identified.

Man bitten by dog; taken to hospital

February 12, 2015, 12:16 pm

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BAKERSFIELD, CA - A man was taken to the hospital Thursday morning, after being bitten by a dog in east Bakersfield. It happened in the 600 block of Goodman Street about 10:30 a.m.

The sheriff's department says the 47-year old man was bitten by a pit-bull and was taken to the hospital. No word on the extent of his injuries. Kern County Animal Services is handling the investigation.

Animal services officials say the man was interacting with other dogs outside the property and the dog became excited, broke his chain, and attacked the victim. He suffered 4 puncture wounds. The dog was secured in the yard, and is being quarantined on the property.

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Police seek theft suspect

February 12, 2015, 12:26 pm

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Bakersfield police are looking for man wanted for theft.

Police say the man went into Walmart store on Panama lane and Highway 99 and took merchandise without paying.

The fled the store on a black and orange BMX bicycle.

The suspect is described as a:

Hispanic male, 27-28, 5’8”, 145-150 lbs., short dark “buzzed” hair,
Unknown tattoo on face, wearing a charcoal grey and black
Checkered hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

Anyone with information regarding this case is encouraged to call Detective Dave Jordan at (661) 326-3561 or the Bakersfield Police Department at (661) 327-7111.

Locks of Love looking for donations of hair

February 12, 2015, 12:57 pm

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BAKERSFIELD, CA - Locks of Love still has openings for people wanting to donate their hair to a worthy cause.

Locks of Love takes donations of real hair to be used to make vacuum fitted hairpieces or sold to offset the cost of making the hairpieces for children suffering from various medical conditions.

Free haircuts and styles will be provided by La Dolce Vita Beauty & Spa as well as free before and after photographs for digital download on social media for those donating.

Those who would like to donate their hair please call La Dolce Vita Beauty & Spa at 661-861-4900 and see the details of guidelines below.

NYFotography, Kiss Me Photo Booth Studio and La Dolce Vita Beauty & Spa are hosting a Locks of Love Event and inviting the community to donate their hair to Locks of Love.

Hair Donation Guidelines:

Hair that is colored or permed is acceptable.
Hair cut years ago is usable if it has been stored in a ponytail or braid.
Layered hair is acceptable if the longest layer is 10 inches, and may be divided into multiple ponytails.
Curly hair may be pulled straight to measure the minimum 10 inches. 10 inches measured tip to tip is the minimum length needed for a hairpiece.
Hair that has been bleached (usually this refers to highlighted hair) is not usable.
We are not able to accept bleached hair due to a chemical reaction that occurs during the manufacturing process.

Shorter hair (6”-10”) will be separated from the 10” and longer lengths and sold to offset the manufacturing costs. Although the shorter hair cannot be used in the hairpieces, it still greatly helps to reduce costs. Gray hair will be accepted and sold to offset the manufacturing costs as well. Colored hair is not usable if it is colored over bleached hair.

Downtown Business Association talks beautification

February 12, 2015, 1:28 pm

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The Downtown Business Association held it's 61st annual State of the Downtown Breakfast Thursday morning.

The Bakersfield Young Professionals group launched a crowdfunding project to help beautify and improve the downtown area.

They're hoping to add green patches, better lighting and murals on blank brick walls.

They envision an alley space where food trucks can serve lunch.

Urban planner Randy Jackson delivered the keynote speech, suggesting the city produce better highway signs to clearly usher visitors into the downtown area.

DBA President Kevin Bartyl says the changes are realistic.

Young filmmakers to screen their creations

February 12, 2015, 2:37 pm

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Student films makers will have their work screened Thursday evening as part of the 18 hour film project.

Its designed to encourage young filmmakers.

High School students are given 18 hours to produce a short film.

This annual event is the ultimate filmmaking challenge and is open to all high school student filmmakers. Teams consist of film and video students, putting their skills to the test, while competing for cash and prizes

The contest begins with a drawing where each film team will select a genre, a character, a prop and a line of dialogue that must appear in each film. Then, the teams work together to produce their films in no more than 18 hours. After the films are turned in and judged, it's time to invite in family and friends to experience their hard work, on the big screen.

The 18 Hour Film Project's mission is to advance student filmmaking and promote filmmakers. Through the festival/competition, the project encourages students to get out there and make movies. The tight deadline of 18 hours puts the focus squarely on the students, emphasizing creativity and teamwork skills.

The screening will be Thursday, February 12th at 5pm at Reading Cinemas Valley Plaza 16, #2000 Wible Road. There is a $3.00 per person admission fee.

CHP asking for assistance in locating at-risk senior

February 12, 2015, 2:50 pm

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BAKERSFIELD, CA – The California Highway Patrol is looking for the community’s assistance in locating an at-risk adult.

According to the CHP, Hedy Thompson was last seen on Feb. 12 at approximately 7:30 a.m. at her home in Amador County, Calif.

Thompson is a 75-year-old female, with gray hair, green eyes, standing approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing approximately 135 pounds. Thompson’s clothing description is unknown.

Thompson drove away in a green 2003 Toyota Tacoma, with California license plate 7E60937.

Thompson suffers from a medical condition and may become disoriented.

If located, contact the Amador County Sheriff’s Office at (209) 223-6500