Along with basketball, March Madness brings a spike in vasectomies and TV upgrades and three big local events in May will compete for our wallets

 * … MARCH MADNESS: It turns out that our obsession with the NCAA Basketball Tournament has to do with a lot more than simply college basketball. According to researchers, doctors report up to

a 50 percent rise in the number of vasectomies during the NCAA tournament, presumably so the men can spend their recovery in front of the big screen TV. Further, 27 percent of respondents to a 2014 survey say they watch games at work, and 12 percent would upgrade to HDTV if their favorite team made it to the Sweet Sixteen.

 * … MORE MADNESS: And speaking of March Madness, few households are more excited about the tournament than the home of Grimmay Farms counsel Jeff Green and his wife, District Attorney Lisa Green. Consider this: their son Matthew Green graduated from UC Irvine, brother Andrew graduated from UCLA and sister Rebecca from Indiana University. Jeff, meanwhile, is an alum of San Diego State. All four schools -San Diego State, UC Irvine, Indiana and UCLA - are represented in the tournament. Only Fresno State, Lisa's alma mater, failed to make the Big Dance.

* … EVENTS: Three big events are on a collision course for competing for our attention (and dollars) in late May. It is all starting on Saturday, May 23, when George Martin's huge rock and country show will feature over 30 acts at the Kern County Museum, all for a price tag of $130 a ticket. On the same day, the Bakersfield Craft Beer Festival will be at the CSUB Amphitheater, hosted by Imbibe Wine and Moo Creamery. And then, just a few days later, the Eagles will be appearing at Rabobank Arena, and you can bet tickets won't be cheap for that. Those are three popular events that will make a serious dent in your wallet, and how effectively they cannabalize each other will determine how successful they are.

 * … SPOTTED: A young mother holding the hands of her two very young daughters jaywalking across a busy south Chester, forcing two cars to veer into oncoming traffic to avoid running over them.

* … STARBUCKS: So what do you think of the Starbucks campaign to spark a conversation about race by writing provocotive messages on our coffee cups? As a frend told me: "Can I just have a cup of coffee please? I don't need a morning conversation on race with my local barista."

* … GOOD FORM: Don't you love it when people surprise and delight you? From Sheila Blackburn: "I read your column regularly and know that you often pass on a thank you to good samaritans in our community. I would like to publicly thank the kind gentleman who came to my elderly mother's aid following a mishap on Manor Street on Saturday morning, making sure she was okay, getting her car to the side of the road, and delivering her safely to my home  We didn't get his name, but we wanted to publicly thank him for his kindness. My mother couldn't stop talking about that 'nice man.' We are very grateful to him. The world needs more people like this thoughtful, caring gentleman."

The Greens: Bakersfield's power couple featured in this weekend's BakersfieldLife magazine

"Power couple" is an overused and cliched phrase but it's hard to argue that it doesn't apply to Lisa and Jeff Green, the Bakersfield couple who will be featured on this Saturday's BakersfieldLife magazine. Lisa of course is the long-time deputy district attorney who is lined up nicely to succeed Ed Jagels as the county's chief prosecutor when he retires next year. She's tough as nails and has handled some of Kern County's most notorious murder cases, including vice principal-turned-killer Vincent Brothers. Jeff is chief counsel of Grimmway Farms, the nation's largest carrot producer, and like his wife he's active in the community. He did a term of the First Five Commission, asking tough questions others would not about this once ill managed group, and he served an interim term on the Bakersfield City Council. Beyond their public service, these are good people and good neighbors and it's good to see them featured in the magazine. Local writer Lisa Kimble did another thorough job bringing these folks to life.





The magazine also will have a short profile on Rogers Brandon, president of American General Media (the company owns a half dozen radio stations in town, including KERN news talk featuring Inga Barks) as well as the "Dining Divas" featuring eateries about town. Make sure you look for it in your home delivered Bakersfield Californian.

Lisa Green gets a boost from the Grimm family

Lisa Green's campaign to replace Ed Jagels as the next Kern County District Attorney is beginning to look like a juggernaut. The longtime deputy D.A. has been relentlessly campaigning for a full year now, since she made it clear before a downtown Rotary Club audience that she was in it to stay. Not only does she have the blessings of Jagels, but she's been busy lining up well-heeled followers. Over the weekend, I am told her campaign raised some $20,000 when carrot family doyenne Barbara Grimm-Marshall (owner, Grimmway Farms, the world's largest carrot producer) and sister-in-law Kari Grimm hosted a fund-raiser for Green at the Metro Galleries in downtown Bakersfield. Of course, it never hurts that Green's husband, Jeff Green, is chief legal counsel for the carrot company. Green's lone opponent at this point is former prosecutor Bob Barton, who served as a prosecutor from 1988 to 2005.

Lisa Green: our next District Attorney?

Saw Jeff Green at the gym today. Jeff, general counsel at Grimmway Farms and husband of deputy district attorney Lisa Green, is hard not to love. He moves from one obsession to the other with such enthusiasm that it's infectious. So here he was toiling away on the stairmaster, carrying a 30-pound rucksack and sweating like a roofer in South Georgia preparing for a June hike up Mount Shasta. And he made it clear - once again - that wife Lisa is definitely running for District Attorney despite DA Ed Jagels' hints that he just might stay on past 2010. She's making the calls, preparing to raise money, speaking and doing everything to line up support, Jeff says. I have no reason not to believe him.