Anti-gun activist and Stoneman High survivor David Hogg to appear at CSUB, Monsignor Craig's legal team goes on the offensive, and the attack on local businesses by the drug addicted continues unabated

Thursday-Friday, September 19-20, 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 community such a special place. Send news items to rsbeene@yahoo.com.

* ... DAVID HOGG: The Kegley Institute of Ethics will devote its spring speaker series to David Hogg, one of the survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in south Florida. Hogg,

now 19, has since become an anti-gun activist and crusader and a polarizing figure for pro Second Amendment advocates. Hogg's appearance was announced by Kegley director Dr. Michael Burroughs on The Richard Beene Show. No details yet on exactly when Hogg will appear at CSUB. Meanwhile, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Arun Gandhi, will appear at Kegley's Fall lecture on Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Dore Theater.

 * ... FATHER CRAIG: Monsignor Craig Harrison's legal team has filed yet another lawsuit against his accusers, this one aimed at a monk who accused Harrison of inappropriately touching and fondling young men. This time Harrison's attorneys filed a suit against Justin Gilligan, who told investigators that Harrison had touched the genitals of young men, told homosexual jokes and engaged in pornography. The monk once worked with Harrison at St. Francis Parish in Bakersfield. If you remember, Harrison's attorneys have already sued a Catholic watch group group - Roman Catholic Faithful - for defamation. The filing of the suits opens Harrison to cross examination and depositions which will of course allow his detractors to repeat, in graphic detail, the sordid details of the charges he has been fighting. The monk's allegations were detailed to police with the full cooperation of the Diocese of Fresno, which suspended Harrison pending a full investigation. As noted plaintiff's lawyer Daniel Rodriguez said, at times this strategy can backfire, but it is clear that Harrison's legal team has taken the fight to his accusers, no matter what the cost.

 * ... LIVE AUCTION; Speaking of Father Craig, did you hear about the live auction to benefit a local program this past week? It turns out one of the items being auctioned was dinner with Father Craig, and it went or a whopping $27,000 thanks to a winning bid by a local business owner. The bid speaks volumes about the enormous support that Father Craig enjoys among well heeled Catholics and others about town, some of the same people who are contributing to his defense fund that pays for the lawsuits against his detractors. It also reflects the great divide between the Catholic Church and pro-Harrison parishioners, many of whom have withdrawn their monetary support of the church in hopes of pressuring the diocese into returning Harrison to his old job.

 * ... CRIME: The tsunami of petty crime committed by street vagrants, the mentally ill and the drug addicted continues unabated. Over the weekend the newly renovated offices of Skarpohol Frank architects downtown were vandalized. The front door was bashed in and the lobby ransacked, yet the only item stolen was a jar of candy. Meanwhile, police were called to Dagney's Coffee house downtown to deal with a pair of screaming homeless, and so it goes.

 * ... SPOTTED ON FACEBOOK: "Hey, @BetoORourke, actual Texan here. I regret to inform you that your request to buy my legally purchased firearms has been denied after your background check revealed your criminal record. Don’t want to take any chances. Xoxo."

 * ... JEFF SIMPSON: One of the founders of Sequoia Sandwich Co. has joined American General Media as chief financial officer. Jeff Simpson, who along with partner Gary Blackburn built Sequoia into a powerhouse local lunch spot and went on to sell it last year, joined the Bakersfield-based radio company this week. AGM operates six radio stations in town, including KERN News Radio.

 * ... MEMORIES: Two of my favorite Facebook pages - Kern County of Old and Kern County History Fans - deal with our living history. Here are some more nuggets from those pages.

Three Kern County cities make a list of the "worst cities" in America, McFarland High rolls out the "early college" program and graffiti vandals deface freshly painted utility boxes on Panorama Drive

Friday, February 8, 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.

 * ... WORST CITIES: Three Kern County cities made the list of the top 50 "worst cities" in the United States. Arvin, Taft and California all made the list, which was compiled by The Wall Street

Journal based on affordability, the local economy, the quality of life and the community. The top five "worst" cities were Highland Park, Michigan, Makaha, Hawaii, California City, Florida City and Mendota, Ca.

 * ... MCFARLAND HIGH: Did you know that McFarland High School has boasted the highest graduation rate in Kern County for the past three years? And the high school now has become the first in the state to introduce the "early college" program, which allows seniors to graduate with both a high school diploma and an associate's degree from Bakersfield College. Starting next year, all ninth graders at McFarland High will be enrolled in the early college program.

 * ... GRAFFITI: Remember when local artists teamed up with county administrators to paint the utility boxes at Panorama Park with color images of flowers, trees and skylines? It was a thoughtful project, and it brought a new energy and positivity to the popular park along Panorma Drive. And as things go here, it didn't last long before graffiti artists ruined it all. Almost all of the freshly painted utility boxes have been tagged.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Half-time Super Bowl show review: The good news? I saw two nips. The bad news? They belonged to that Maroon 5 guy."

 * ... SPOTTED ON FACEBOOK: "Once you reach that level of dad where you put your phone in your shirt pocket there is no way back."

 * ... JAZZ FESTIVAL KILLED: The Bakersfield Jazz Festival, a benchmark event for our community, is taking a year off and will not be held this year. Jim Scully, the direction, had this to say: "The week of BJF is filled with events at CSUB this year honoring the new CSUB president, so it’s the right year for a reboot. We are taking a year to reinvent and re-imagine our event. We will be back and stronger than ever in 2020 - best to you all, and thanks for your support."

 * ... ETHICS PANEL: The Kegley Institute of Ethics out at CSU Bakersfield has brought on two professors as part of its Faculty Fellowship. They are Dr. Alice Hays (CSUB Department of Teacher Education) and Dr. Jeanine Kraybill( CSUB Department of Political Science). Dr. Hays’ project focuses on collaborating with local teachers and CSUB students to promote the development of ethical, social, and educational competencies in young students. Dr. Kraybill’s project focuses on the “different voice debate,” centered on representation of female judicial officers in the United States and, related to this, whether (and, if so, in what ways) female judges adjudicate differently on key issues than their male counterparts. Dr. Kraybill will investigate this issue by developing a survey that examines this question with juridical officers throughout California. Kraybill appears every Thursday at 2:30 p.m. on The Richard Beene Show on KERN NewsTalk 96.1 FM.

* ... MEMORIES: Check this out, the old Southern Hotel in its heyday.

Remembering Bakersfield first black police chief, Eric Matlock, and conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan will appear at Cal State Bakersfield this week

 * … RIP ERIC: I was saddened to hear of the death of Eric Matlock, Bakersfield's first African-American police chief who led an exemplary life inside and outside the department. I got to know Eric 15 years ago and had the pleasure to dine with him multiple times during some noon Rotary Club

meetings. He was always a gentlemen and was never without a broad, welcoming smile. He battled cancer for three years before succumbing last week at the age of 65. Too young for a man with such energy and natural kindness.

 * … KRISPY KREME: The news last week that Krispy Kreme is returning to Bakersfield went viral on social media websites. When I posted the news here on The Californian's Facebook page, more than 50,000 people read the post and almost 200 folks commented on it, a staggering number that speaks to our love affair with new restaurants in our community. Another post that received a lot of buzz: a place called The Habit Burger is also coming on California Avenue, a gourmet burger joint that has quite a following in places like Stockton, Visalia and Fresno.

 * … SULLIVAN: Kudos to the Kegley Institute of Ethics at Cal State Bakersfield for landing yet another outstanding speaker this week. On Wednesday, author and conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan will be speaking at the Dore Theatre at 7 p.m. Always provocative and a terrific thinker, Sullivan is the former editor of The New Republic and a frequent contributor to network news talk shows.

 * … DROUGHT: A reader passed along this note about neighbors who likes to keep their cars spotless: "We have two neighbors that each own three cars. They wash them at least twice a week. That is using a lot of water plus leaving it running while soaping the cars. Bakersfield needs some kind of restriction on that."

 * … JEWELRY: A unique art and jewelry boutique has opened downtown and will show off its wares at this week's First Friday downtown arts faire. Owned by Susan Ruppel, Wire and Pearl is located at 1911 17th Street. For First Friday, the shop will feature art by Yvonne Cavanaugh and Linda Brown and ceramic art by Alacrity.

 * … BAKERSFIELDISM:  John Strand says you might be a Bakersfield old-timer "if you can remember when the most important decision you made on a weekend was which drive-in theater was showing your favorite movie. Choices were The Ninety-Nine, The South Chester, The Terrace, The Edison, and The Crest. Taft had The Sunset. We thought we were so clever by putting a couple of guys in the trunk!"

Kegley Institute's anti-Israeli rant sparks a furor and the Bakersfield Racquet Club struggles to survive

 * ... LEBEC HOTEL: More background on the old Lebec Hotel comes from Jim Clifford, who just happens to live in a beautifully restored home on 19th Street that was once owned by the Lebec's builder and owner, Thomas O'Brien. Clifford said O'Brien came to Bakersfield via Needles and Kingman around 1900 and owned a number of properties, including a saloon called the Louvre located at 19th and K streets. He also had an interest in the Del Monte Saloon and Bakersfield's first theater, the Empire. In 1905 he brought Al Jolson to the Empire Theater and met an opera singer who would become his wife and help him in running the Lebec Hotel. "I became interested in O'Brien when I remodeled my 19th Street home and discovered he was the original owner," Clifford said. "With a little luck I was able to ferret out much of this information from local archives and books." Clifford said the Lebec Hotel was never a cash cow and his partnership with Cliff Durant and the debt he incurred plagued him until the end.

 * ... CHUTZPAH: The anti-Israeli lecture by Palestinian-American Susan Abulhawa at Cal State's Kegley Institute of Ethics last week has lots of folks up in arms, and rightly so. As Howard Silver wrote in The Californian, Abulhawa "hurled classic anti-Jewish blood lies... unrestrained by reason, facts, evidence or decency." Abulhawa showed her true colors when, while taking a question, she wouldn't answer if the state of Israel had a right to exist. And  later I learned that - talk about chutzpah - the Kegley Institute actually approached a local Jewish congregation weeks before her speech and requested money to sponsor the program.  (file photo of Susan Abulhawa) 

* ... OVERHEARD: Shopping at a local Costco a middle aged woman turns to her husband and says: "If you don't leave me alone I won't buy you that casket you want."

 * ... RACQUET CLUB: Interesting story in Sunday's Californian about turmoil over at The Bakersfield Racquet Club, one of our community's long standing institutions. The club faces an uncertain future. It has lost roughly half its membership, including some people who have been members for years, and tennis is not exactly a growing sport. The turmoil - triggered by the board's decision to replace Jeff Hedberg as manager - led to the entire Board of Directors either resigning or being voted out. One thing seems certain: if the status quo isn't working, something has to change. Here's hoping the old place survives.

 * ... CAL RADIO: Make sure you tune into Californian Radio (KERN 1180) Monday morning when I will be chatting with local attorney Phil Ganong about the fight over medical marijuana, particularly in light of the California Medical Association's recommendation that pot be legalized. I'll also be talking to CSUB Athletic Director Jeff Konya on what's happening on the Southwest campus. The show runs from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

* ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You may be a Bakersfield old timer if you remember "Sally the Shopper" at the old Brock's department store. Said Kitty Jo Nelson: "What a help she was, especially to those of us who live 50 miles from town. Dial and talk free number, tell her what you need and it's taken care of at no extra charge. Mailed and delivered."