Two LA County sheriff's deputies are ambushed while a crowd gathers at a hospital to chant for their deaths, a shooting at Area Park in Bakersfield and CVS Pharmacy to offer Covid-19 testing

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.

 * ... DEPUTIES SHOT: Just when you think it can't possibly get any worse, it does. Race relations are on a razor's edge, protesters burn and look with reckless abandon, and now it seems it is open season on police officers. This weekend, in Compton in LA County, two sheriff's deputies were ambushed while

sitting in their patrol vehicle. Both of them, one a young mother at 31 and the other her 24-year-old deputy partner, are hanging onto life at St. Francis hospital. And if that were not horrific enough, a crowd gathered at the hospital and started chanting "Let them die" and "let the bitch die" while blocking the entrance. Is this where our country is? Is this Donald Trump's fault or have we become so soft on criminal and crime that ambushing police officers is now the norm? Tomorrow (Monday) on KERN NewsTalk 96.1 FM on The Richard Beene Show, I will chat with Pastor Angelo Frazier of Riverlakes Community Church to get take on this new low of race relations in our country.

 * ... COVID TESTING: CVS Pharmacy is now offering free drive-thru COVID-19 testing at five of its Bakersfield locations. The tests will be offered at the CVS pharmacies on Ming Avenue, Union Avenue, Rosedale Highway, Stine Road and Mt. Vernon Road. Appointments are required and people are asked to stay in their cars as they go through the drive-thru lanes.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: You know what’s more annoying than cops? People who buy old refurbished cop cars and keep the spotlight attached. We all hate you."

 * ... PARK SHOOTING: Did you hear about the shooting at Aera Park over the weekend? That's right, a shooting at one of Bakersfield's nicest and newest parks in yet another sign that we live in uncertain times. Bakersfield police said it happened about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, injuring three people. When police arrived they said some 200 people had gathered at the park. Officers said three different shell casings were found, indicating at least three different weapons were used in the shooting. 

 * ... 24th STREET: The long, litigious nightmare of widening 24th Street is coming to an end and not a day too soon. City officials say they are now restricting 24th Street and that should take several days, along with installing landscaping on both the north and south sides of the road. In all, it should be done in a month or so.

 * ... TAFT MEMORIES: Take a walk down memory lane with these pictures of Taft back in the day.

Southwest Baseball's Aera Park to open in April

Here's some welcome good news: that long-planned mega baseball park in the Southwest is set to open in April. If you recall this is "Aera Park," so named because of Aera Energy's generous donation of $250,000 to help the Southwest Baseball organization realize its dream. (the donation actually came from Kern Community Foundation via funds donated by Aera) Our town is sorely in need of improved facilities for our kids (soccer and baseball most prominently) so this will be a huge boost. There will be eleven baseball diamonds located behind Riverwalk off Jewetta and Stockdale Highway. Rob Noriega, a local attorney and VP of Southwest Baseball, filled me in over lunch and said Aera Park will be city owned but that his organization will run it on contract for 15 years. Southwest Baseball, which serves about 1,500 kids, will get priority and other groups can use the facilities by scheduling through Noriega's group. Three folks have been working diligently to make this happen: Rob, Aera communications chief Susan Hersberger and Duane Keathley, president of the baseball group.