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Friday, February 1, 2019

 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 such a special to live. Send your tips to rsbeene@yahoo.com.

 * ... FRONTIER PORN: There wasn't a bigger story this week than the revelation that a Frontier High School science teacher allegedly posted graphic videos on a porn site. Will the teacher, Emily
[Image] Salazar, lose her job now that virtually every male student at the school has likely watched their teacher perform in the most graphic fashion? Legal experts, including noted plaintiff lawyer Daniel Rodriguez, say it is not clear if Salazar can be fired for her behavior outside the classroom. Rodriguez noted that in some similar cases elsewhere, the teacher was transferred but kept her teaching credentials. Stay tuned for this one. (file photo of Emily Salazar)

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 * ... POLITICS: Ah local politics .... dripping with irony and full of grand standing, personal attacks and duplicity. Let's start with the latest dustup in the Kern County Democratic Party where political
consultant Fernando Jara (husband of Supervisor Leticia Perez) launched a vicious personal attack on City Councilman Andrae Gonzales for allegedly not being Democratic enough in the mid-term elections. Among other things, Jara said Gonzales was directly responsible for two Democrats losing their races for supervisor: Jeff Heinle (he lost to Mike Maggard) and Grace Vallejo (she lost to David Couch.) But he didn't leave it there, opting to go personal with this post: "You are the money changer, not a follower of the radical Jesus of the Gospel.You are the inn-keeper who sends children to be born in mangers. Certainly, Councilman, you are the man who reaches out for a bag of coins from the powers that be and hand over your leaders and the poor of this community, people of color, the least of these, to political, economic, and psychological Lynching. Repent." All this hides the fact that there is no love lost between Perez and Gonzales, or the fact that it was Jara's own work for the marijuana industry that led to conflict of interest charges against his wife. For his part, Gonzales took the high road and dismissed Jara's attacks as "nothing. I don't pay attention to him." (Facebook photo of Fernando Jara)

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 * ... KAMALA HARRIS: Do you like your health insurance? Is it provided by your employer, or school, or perhaps you work for the county or the city? Polls and any number of surveys reflect that the overwhelming number of Americans are happy with their insurance, despite the fact there is a push on the left to move to a single payer system. And who is leading that charge on the national level? None other that Kamala Harris, the California senator who announced a presidential run this week. Under her plan, all private policies (including plans negotiated with local and state governments) would be stripped and replaced by a Medicare for all program. How does that make you feel?

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 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, you’re probably really hot."

 * ... EARLY COLLEGE: A few select high schools in Kern County are the first in the state to offer a new program called "early college" where students can graduate from high school while also earning their junior college associate's degree. The idea: allow students to take college level classes while in high school while forgoing traditional college tuition, and graduate from high school ready to transfer into college as a junior. Heading up the program is Dr. Jean Fuller, former minority leader of the State Senate who has been termed out of office.

 * ... MEMORIES: The Beale Clock Tower circa 1949. Thanks to the folks at the Kern County History Fans Facebook page.

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