The Bakersfield Californian
Honoring their memories
Stramler Park came alive Sunday with a celebration of those who have died. The Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Día de los Muertos commemoration at Stramler Park included community ofrendas, or altars; live performances; vendors; and food...
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‘A vibrant, abundant energy source’
Local officials gathered Friday in McKittrick to celebrate the resumption of oil drilling in Kern County after several years of regulatory uncertainty had left the industry adrift. It’s taken some time since the passage of Senate Bill 237, the bill...
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Latinx center opens with enthusiasm, hope at CSUB
Close to seven out of 10 students at Cal State Bakersfield share a Latino or Hispanic heritage, and according to leaders at CSUB, it’s vital that they feel a sense of belonging and cultural pride at the campus in southwest Bakersfield. Extensive...
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A BLUE WAVE
WASHINGTON — The midterm election blowout delivered a new era in Washington, with Democrats in Congress eager to meet voter demands for change while Republicans watched their majorities evaporate after a revolt against President Donald Trump and his...
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Democrat Becerra wins
SACRAMENTO — Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who ran on his decades of experience in public office, will take over from California Gov. Gavin Newsom as the next governor of the nation’s most populous state. The victory by Becerra, a former state attorney...
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Día de los Muertos
Their faces may be painted to resemble death, but those who celebrate the annual tradition of Día de los Muertos say it’s actually a celebration of life. Several hundred celebrants gathered at Historic Union Cemetery in east Bakersfield Monday to...
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Construction complete on latest portion of 58/99 interchange
Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Almost! The transition between highways 58 and 99 is officially seven-eighths of the way complete. Construction recently finished on a brand-new loop connector that allows drivers traveling east...
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Eyeing grant opportunities, city seeks pro-housing designation from state
The city of Bakersfield is looking for public feedback on its housing policies, part of its efforts to secure a pro-housing designation from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. At an online meeting Thursday, city Principal...
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LEGENDARY ACTIVIST
Leader inspired locals to engage, push for change As an immigrant, a woman and a mother in the Central Valley, Nataly Santamaria didn’t feel like there was much she could do to fundamentally help her community. Then she met Dolores Huerta. She...
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‘El Niño stacks the deck, but it doesn’t decide the outcome’
Kern County is prepping itself for what’s expected to be a strong El Niño year, and officials are asking residents to do the same. To help, the county has created a new website, kernemergencies.com, where all the information needed to prepare for...
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A touch of Latination
Bakersfield’s annual Latination festival opened Friday with a dazzling blend of dancing and music in celebration of Hispanic-themed art. A sizable audience gathered on 18th Street downtown to watch performances by groups including Ballet Folklorico...
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At rally with Villegas, AOC, local progressives are hopeful
If there’s a year a progressive can win in the Central Valley, it’s this year. At least that was the feeling outside the Nile Theater on Friday afternoon as hundreds of people lined up to see a pair of progressive Democrats share the stage a little...
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Streets alive for Latination
After a preview event on Thursday, Latination 13 opens to the public this weekend with two days of festivities at the Arts Council of Kern. More than 100 works were entered in the juried exhibit, with award winners set to be announced at 7...
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‘Another historic milestone’
It’s not just a name change. Hard Rock Casino Tejon will become a different kind of destination in about 20 months. On Wednesday, the casino 15 miles south of Bakersfield hosted a celebration of a $725 million, second phase of construction that will...
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I-40 coming to Bakersfield?
A federal grant announced Tuesday will fund an in-depth look at the cost and benefits of reclassifying Highway 58 as the western extension of Interstate 40, which could bring upgrades to the thoroughfare and support economic development in Kern...
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‘Sitting ducks’
POND — The first thing Bilqees (Bell) Ubadi shouts across Pond Road at an approaching reporter is: “No one has come. No one has done anything.” There aren’t many secrets in this tiny northern Kern County community that consists of about 15 homes,...
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‘This is going to become their home’
Starting in early December, Central Valley veterans will have a brand-new, 30,000-square-foot outpatient clinic in Bakersfield where they can receive their care. U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, flanked by U.S. Reps. Vince Fong,...
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Adventist Health unveils pavilion, consolidating advanced care of ferings
If Thursday’s unveiling of a $30 million healthcare center in downtown Bakersfield seemed more like a party than a ribbon-cutting, it’s because there was much to celebrate — more, anyway, than the obvious reason. Yes, Adventist Health’s new Advanced...
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Justices delve into constitutional questions swirling in river case
California Supreme Court justices wasted no time Wednesday jumping into the deep end of several complex issues at the heart of an ongoing lawsuit over flows in the Kern River. Within a few minutes of attorney Kevin Bundy’s opening address on behalf...
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Changing the narrative
Dignity Health and the Comprehensive Blood & Cancer Center highlighted an advancement in local cancer treatment Tuesday morning. However, this treatment, called cold capping or scalp cooling, doesn’t help patients beat cancer so much as it may help...
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National progressives rally for Villegas in Bakersfield
For the second time in a week, national politicians were in Bakersfield to stump for local candidates. On Sunday, it was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders who urged local residents to vote for Randy Villegas, the progressive Democrat running for the 22nd...
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GET GOES PINK
The mood was both joyful and, at times, solemn, as Golden Empire Transit gathered nearly 40 employees, well-wishers and community partners Friday morning to launch its new GET GOES PINK bus designed to raise awareness of breast cancer and promote early...
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Valley needs more doctors. New medical schools are years away
California’s San Joaquin Valley needs more doctors. The roughly 250-mile region, stretching from Stockton to Bakersfield, has about 200 physicians per 10,000 residents, according to the California Healthcare Foundation. In the Bay Area, that ratio is...
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US House speaker stumps for Valadao in Bakersfield
Republicans and Democrats don’t agree on much these days but it seems both sides agree: California’s 22nd Congressional District is one of the most critical races of the 2026 election. “There’s not a stop that I will make that is more important than...
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‘Real work’
America certainly has its share of rock stars, but the Kern High School District’s Regional Occupational Center has Mario Lizarraga. ROC’s automotive collision teacher likely already had something approaching rock star status at the southeast...
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Students learn determination, poise under pressure and hard work showing their animals
Even as fairgoers munch down on funnel cakes and corn dogs, test their skill (or luck) at the balloon darts and ring toss, and maybe get a kiss at the top of the Ferris wheel, FFA and 4-H kids are spending countless hours this week working with their...
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Timeless connections
Three honorees graduated together from Ridgeview High School in 2005. And two of them were first grade classmates. A husband and wife were honored. So, too, was a woman whose husband was selected for the same honor last year. Bakersfield Life...
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Church growth often means moving to a larger space — but who’ll buy the old property?
A house of God isn’t like other real estate. It tends to have one large gathering space, for example, along with smaller classrooms, offices, a kitchen and other support space. So, what happens when a church that owns such a property decides it’s time...
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Fun around every corner at the Kern County Fair
When NaTesha Johnson addressed the media ahead of a tour of the Kern County Fairgrounds, she could have easily been speaking to the hundreds who would pour through the gates hours later when the Kern County Fair opened to the public. “It’s hot and I...
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Open for business
The Kern County fairgrounds were bustling with activity Tuesday morning as vendors, contractors, fair staff and hundreds of others worked to get ready for the fair’s opening. The Kern County Fair opens to the public at 4 p.m. today but a day earlier,...
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CRC, Chevron managers highlight value of permitting certainty, even amid tough regulations
Tough standards are one thing. Local oil producers may not like California’s ever-stricter regulations, but as a general rule, they don’t mind them nearly as much as they dislike uncertainties in permitting. It’s when oil companies do their best to...
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Neither Becerra nor Hilton will commit to AI safety guidelines laid out by Gov. Gavin Newsom
As governments and political leaders increasingly push for regulations to rein in artificial intelligence, neither candidate for California governor has committed to firm policies on AI safety, including two requirements Gov. Gavin Newsom called for...
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‘Give them their names back’
It was a lone worker who first realized that something unthinkable had occurred along the bank of a canal near Union Avenue in central Bakersfield. But the mystery that began on that April night in 1923 with the man’s discovery of the lifeless body of...
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High-speed rail consultants f lew f irst-class, visited bars and a nightclub on taxpayers’ money
California’s High Speed Rail Authority paid nearly $600,000 in unallowable travel expenses to “questionable locations that appear unrelated to state business,” including trips to gyms, a nightclub, an escape room, a tiki bar and a cigar lounge over a...
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‘A time to really reflect’
Bakersfield College kicked off its annual Hispanic Heritage Month celebration Tuesday, bringing students, staff, faculty and community members together for an afternoon of food, live music, guest speakers and cultural activities at the Panorama...
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CSUB celebrates expanded food pantry, services center
Tucked in the corner of a new building on Cal State Bakersfield’s campus, The Nest looks more like a corporate convenience store for students and staff than a food pantry. But like all food pantries, everything on the shelves is free, donated to help...
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‘WE REMAINED RESILIENT’
“We will never forget.” It’s a pledge made countless times over the past 25 years, a solemn promise that America and Americans will always remember the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and will continue to honor the 2,977 people who lost their...
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WE REMEMBER, 25 YEARS LATER
Kern County resident Hal Friedman was a college student attending New York University. But that morning, exactly 25 years ago today, he was sleeping in because he didn’t have any morning classes. He and his wife at the time, Chelsea Zent, were living...
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‘A hard road for all of us caregivers’
Bakersfield has been without a free day program for adults with Alzheimer’s disease since April, but local advocates are hoping that could soon change. The Alzheimer’s Disease Association of Kern County closed its doors after 44 years in Bakersfield...
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‘We’re not finished making history yet’
Industry, government and academic leaders gathered at Cal State Bakersfield Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the award of $6.8 million in state grant money to support a series of aerospace and defense projects in eastern Kern. The brief event focused on...
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Foothill’s ‘Ned and Pat Show’ mixes Friday dining, football
Ned Permenter has never been at a loss for words. He loves to tell stories. Pat Carlotti has a passion for preservation of time, events, people and being accountable to the history that is created. So during Foothill High School’s football season, the...
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‘WE DON’T HAVE ANY WAY TO DEFEND OURSELVES’
Virtually every weekday, two batches of immigrants who have been held for months in federal custody are released directly onto the streets of downtown Bakersfield. Some have criminal backgrounds and can’t speak English. Many have little or no money,...
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With Becerra’s backing, Hurtado kicks off state Senate campaign
State Sen. Melissa Hurtado rallied supporters in Bakersfield Thursday backed by state and local Democrats, including gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra. The Bakersfield Democrat is seeking her third term as a state senator and told supporters she...
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Almond hulls may be headed to grocery store near you
Good news for almond lovers: There’s a part of the nut you probably didn’t even know about that might one day show up in cereals or even energy bars. Almond hulls — not the kernel, not the shell, but the part that most people never see — have been...
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‘Saved and celebrated’
The local nonprofit Citizens Preserving History is teaming up with Kern County’s director of airports to display 10 portraits of historic Bakersfield Sound musicians inside the airport terminal, where they will welcome travelers and visitors to...
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‘The dignity of work’
When the crew of three entered the block-long section of a downtown alley between 18th and 19th streets Monday, their truck bed and trailer were already heaped with large-item trash. But there was plenty of small-item trash, too, strewn up and down...
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‘Over our dead bodies’
A nascent proposal by Arizona to fill the water gap from its dwindling Colorado River and groundwater supplies by reaching into California’s rivers likely won’t go over well in the Golden State. “Over our dead bodies” was the response envisioned by...
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CAPK announces changes, donations during launch of Food Hunger Month
Hunger Action Month serves a critical purpose every year in Kern County, and the local community generally steps up to meet the need. But as attendees of Thursday’s kickoff event learned, a few factors make this year’s occasion especially...
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‘I was getting there’
He’s led the Kern County Sheriff’s office and the Kern County Coroner’s Office for nearly two decades, and served some 30 years previously as a sheriff’s deputy. In those 50 years, Donny Youngblood has celebrated success, navigated challenges and...
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End of an era
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood dropped a figurative bombshell at Tuesday’s meeting of the Kern County Board of Supervisors by announcing he will retire in January at the end of what would have been his current term had it not been extended. “Mr....
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‘We are praying for Bakersfield'
A teenager’s fatal shooting Friday night at a high school football game in southwest Bakersfield has prompted a crackdown on local gang activity and a communitywide soul-searching about youth violence. Gunfire shortly after 8 p.m. at Independence...
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Mosquito Control officials warn it may BE just A matter of time before dengue fever arrives
Some Kern County scientists and mosquito-abatement professionals are acknowledging that dengue fever, a mosquito-borne illness also known as “breakbone fever,” will likely be seen in locally acquired cases in Kern County. But it’s impossible to say...
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‘Magic happens’
Something amazing is happening at the Bakersfield City School District as the fall term gets underway. Ten years ago, BCSD had 26 credentialed visual and performing arts teachers to cover arts education at the district’s more than 40 school sites....
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Beloved fabric store in east Bakersfield faces possible closure unless buyer steps up
Local shoppers are in mourning this week after owners of a popular fabric store in east Bakersfield warned they may have to close the shop unless it can be sold soon. Social media posts this week by Floraea and Marcel Sescu say they face medical...
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Downtown buildings getting attention as part of housing ef fort
Neighboring buildings that have seen better days in downtown Bakersfield are being transformed, however haltingly, into housing for the area’s young workforce. The properties — The Georgian Building at 2025 18th St. and the former Fountain Plaza...
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Pistachio growers brace for crop losses after difficult winter weather
Erratic weather earlier this year has disrupted the Central Valley’s pistachio industry to a degree not seen in more than a decade, slashing crop size estimates at a time of surging global demand for the nut. Growers say an unusually warm winter that...
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‘We love to watch them grow and learn’
The streets around Old River Elementary School were swarmed with children and their families Wednesday morning for the first day of the 2026-27 school year. In the campus courtyard, hundreds of students and their families greeted familiar teachers and...
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An oil field became California’s first carbon vault. Who’s responsible if something goes wrong?
Nearly four years ago, California lawmakers ordered state regulators to prepare for an industry that promised a new way to fight climate change: permanently burying carbon dioxide underground. The law called for rules governing how companies would...
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The sounds of freedom
Music, speeches and tributes in celebration of the United States’ semiquincentennial filled Beale Memorial Library on Friday afternoon. The America’s 250th Celebration Concert was a joint performance featuring Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra musicians...
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First work, then inspiration and play for Grimmway interns on National Intern Day
More than a dozen Grimmway Produce Group interns used garden tools, gloved hands and the sweat of their brow to clear weeds and old plants from raised beds Thursday morning at Cal State Bakersfield’s Edible Garden. It was National Intern Day, and also...
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‘Extraordinary generosity’
Dozens of Garces Memorial High School parents, students, alumni, faculty, friends and benefactors gathered Wednesday morning at the historic northeast Bakersfield campus to celebrate the near completion of the first phase of the high school’s...
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After 48 years, local cold case gets incredible, bittersweet breakthrough
It was a lone tractor operator who first realized that something terrible had occurred at the vineyard he was working in off South Wheeler Ridge Road near Arvin. It was June 1978, and when homicide detectives from the Kern County Sheriff’s Office...
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