Post a Comment On: Bakersfield Observed

 Welcome to Bakersfield Observed. Our mission is to celebrate life in Kern County by focusing on newsmakers and events and the local characters who make this community such a special place. The views expressed here are strictly my own and do not represent any other company or publication.
 * ... KEVIN MCCARTHY: Rep. Kevin McCarthy is wildly popular at home, but his national reputation has been seriously tarnished by his loyalty to ex president Trump and the "big lie" that massive fraud pushed the election to Joe Biden. And there are few harsher critics than the Lincoln Project, a group [Image]
founded by disaffected Republicans who say they are calling out people who put personal ambition over country. The Lincoln Project has singled out McCarthy as one of the ranking GOP leaders who has shown cowardice and lacked the courage to push back again Trump and do what is right for the country. You have probably seen the Lincoln Project hit pieces on McCarthy on local television (as well as the criticism leveled against McCarthy by his former boss, former Congressman Bill Thomas). Steve Schmidt, one of the Lincoln Project founders who has worked for various Republican candidates as John McCain, George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger, took to Twitter the other day to continue his criticism of McCarthy. Below are screen shots of some of Schmidt's missives.


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 * ... MISSION: The Mission of Kern County christened a new 40-bed dormitory wing this week, adding to Kern County's expanding ability to deal with its crushing homeless problem. Mission director Carlos Baldovinos, joined by Mayor Karen Goh and other dignitaries, held a ribbon cutting for the new wing, which Baldovinos predicted will be full of clients within weeks.
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* ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "I want to lose weight but I don't want to get caught up in one of those 'eat right and exercise' scams."
 * .... SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: Southwest Airlines has announced service to Fresno's Yosemite International Airport beginning in April. The airlines will operate three daily flights between Fresno and Las Vegas and one daily flight to Denver. "Bringing Southwest to Fresno has been our priority for a number of years," said Fresno airport director Kevin Meikle. Wouldn't it be nice if Southwest served Bakersfield?
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 * ... OLD CALIFORNIA: I spotted this old map on the Kern County of Old Facebook page, an artifact and evidence of time gone by. The caption reads: "In the 1856, the area was an odd place on the map, in between southern California and Central California.  One of the last places to be pioneered and colonized. Roughly a triangle shape (a gore?) at the south end of the Great Valley, Buena Vista was renamed County of Kern and awarded vast mineral rich desert tracts from San Bernardino in 1866.It was a vast, natural, grazing grounds. A kind of forgotten land, dominated by too much or too little water. Col. Baker made his way here from Visalia in the 1860s and found Christian Bohna's corn field soaking wet from that decade's El Nino. Baker bought him out and spent the next 15 years drying out (with help from La Nina) and schemed canals for agriculture and cities for people."
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 * ... MEMORIES: Rows of trucks carrying cotton line up in the 1920s in this old picture from the Kern County History Fans Facebook page.
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