Pro marijuana organization targets Supervisor Mike Maggard in radio commercials, Celeigh Chapman unveils a new album and Lisa Green's son joins the ranks of attorneys

 * ... MAD MIKE: A radio commercial attacking Supervisor Mike Maggard has hit the airwaves, taking him to task for opposing the legal regulation of marijuana. The ad says "Mad Mike" Maggard endangered the public by opposing the sale of legal pot under strict regulations. In the absence of regulations, the ad argues that taxes will go up and crime will increase as the sale of cannabis is

pushed underground. Expect more of this type of blowback from the supervisors' decision not to allow the legal sale of cannabis. Meanwhile, the American Legion endorsed the legal                   sale of cannabis for medicinal purposes, citing research showing an overwhelming number of combat veterans use marijuana regularly to control pain and get off opioids doing so.

* ... LISA GREEN: District Attorney Lisa Green has a lot to be thankful for, but perhaps this Thanksgiving was more special than most. Green reached out to me to share this: "In 2006 my middle child, Andrew, became interested in mock trial while he was a student at Bakersfield High School.  When the other coaches found out I was an attorney, they asked me to help with the team and so began my first of approximately eight years coaching mock trial at BHS (I continued to coach well after Andrew graduated). The really cool thing, is, last Friday Andrew passed the California Bar Exam and in doing so became my first mock trial student to actually become an attorney. Anyway, as you might imagine Jeff and I are so proud of him." As you should be, Lisa. Congrats to you Andrew.

 * ... CELEIGH: And congratulations to Celeigh Chapman, an East High and USC graduate who has produced a new album called "The Winner." Chapman, 32, now lives in Los Angeles and is part of the fabric of the SoCal country music scene.

  * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "My husband let me sleep in late and then made me pancakes. Someone please let Dateline know my death was absolutely premeditated."

 * ... SPOTTED ON FACEBOOK: "If you speed up yoga, you then have breakdancing."

 * ... FALL FOOD: Here are a couple of my favorite culinary tips for Fall: try the lamb lollipops from Pyrenees Cafe, absolutely mouth watering, and the tortilla soup at Mama Roomba. Both perfect for a crisp fall day.

 * ... FAVORITE PIES: And speaking of food, an annual survey of the most popular Thanksgiving Day pies is out and once again pumpkin pie reigns supreme However, it appears that pumpkin is more beloved by Baby Boomers than millenials so a change may be coming. But for today the most popular pies are pumpkin, pecan, apple, sweet potato and chocolate in that order.

 * ... GOOD FORM: And finally, here is some good news to start your day, compliments of Jim and Diane Hankins. "My wife and I attended the Western Band Association (WBA) Championship competition at Buchanan High School in Clovis. Hundreds of wonderful young people from high school bands all over Southern California competed. The splendor and choreography of the bands reflected the untold hours of rehearsal and practice in the months leading up to this championship of the best of the best. Bakersfield was proudly represented by Bakersfield High and West High. The best part of the night was when my wife and I were sitting in the bleachers, the entire West High unit filled in all around us. It was a treat for us to be surrounded by so many enthusiastic young people. They were so full of good cheer and energy. Not one curse word was uttered during the time they sat around us. When competing bands took the field, many West High members shhhh’ed the group. All then watched, cheered and applauded for their competitors."

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."

Northwest Baseball 10 year olds win the Cal Ripken World Series and DA Lisa Green coming on Californian Radio to discuss local crime

* ... CHAMPS: Congratulations to the team of Northwest Baseball 10-year-olds who won the Cal Ripken World Series in Bentonville, Arkansas. The team made it to the finals after sweeping teams in California and traveling to Arkansas for the tournament. It may not be an Olympic gold medal, but don't tell that to these local boys of summer.

* ... LISA GREEN: District Attorney Lisa Green will be my guest Monday on Californian Radio KERN 1180. We will be chatting about local crime, the ongoing prison realignment and its role in the sharp spike in thefts and burglaries. Call us with your questions beginning at 9 a.m. at (661) 842-5376.

 * ... ASHBURN: Linda Fiddler, who helped manage Democrat Leticia Perez's successful campaign to join the Kern County Board of Supervisors, is now working for Roy Ashburn in his bid to return to the board. (file photo of Roy Ashburn)

* ... SPOTTED: Retired Kern County Schools Superintendent Larry Reider and Vince Rojas, who retired as head of the Kern Schools Federal Credit Union, having lunch together at Luigi's. Other familiar faces seen during the busy lunch hour were Monsignor Craig Harrison of St. Francis and local plastic surgeon Dr. Darshan Shah.

 * ... GOOD DEED: A transient couple with a black dog are resting in the shade near the 24th Street Cafe when another couple leaves the restaurant and offers them food and cold drinks.

 * ... KASH: Remember Kash, the reader with the poison pen who had a gripe or two about our town and this column, including my picture? Linda Burton wrote to say that Kash should "change his name to Crass or Crass minus the 'cr,' either would apply." Another reader, Stephen Montgomery, said Kash  "should be ashamed making all those silly snarky remarks. That kind of thing looks at best juvenile and shows a lack of self discipline.  If writers can't put their name on it most likely they shouldn't write it. Maybe he and some others should find something else to read. Me? Agree or not this is my favorite column." Nice to have Linda and Stephen watching my back.

 * ... BC RENEGADE: Too often people go about their business quietly and rarely get the recognition they deserve. Randy Ariey called my attention to Judy Romanini, a counseling department assistant at Bakersfield College for more than 20 years. "When students have been issued an incorrect grade, or received a notice in the mail saying they have been suspended from BC, it is Judy who they seek out and sometimes blame. However,  Judy handles  all these types of situations with a  aring heart, and a true concern for each individual; furthermore, it is truly remarkable that she has done this job for 21 years. She is the face of Bakersfield College for all of our young people, and I feel that is a great thing."

Burglaries, break-ins and thefts are exploding across Bakersfield as California's prison realignment program dumps hundreds of felons onto our streets

* ... CRIME: Hardly a day goes by when I don't hear a story of a burglary, break-in or some type of petty theft that seem to happen anywhere and everywhere across town. In the past week alone a couple in Westchester awoke to find a man on drugs standing in their kitchen, a friend in Oleander returned to find his entire house and garage ransacked and a reader in The Oaks had his truck broken into. District Attorney Lisa Green told me that the total number of "complaint requests" (potential crimes passed to her office from Bakersfield area police agencies) has jumped a whopping 33 percent over this time last year. She attributed it directly to the ongoing prison realignment program that is dumping hundreds of lower level offenders on our streets. "It's not a popular thing to say," she told me, "but people who would otherwise be in state prison are out there committing crimes." (file photo Lisa Green)

* ... BECKWITH: I chatted recently with Ryan Beckwith, the (relatively) new athletic director at Bakersfield College. Along with his counterpart at CSUB, Jeff Konya, these two men have brought new energy to our local colleges. One side note about Beckwith that you may not know: he was training to make the U.S. Olympic decathlon team when he decided to take the Bakersfield College job. (file photo of Ryan Beckwith)

* ... SPOTTED: Hats off to the middle aged woman who was spotted on the Panorama Bluffs early Monday morning, picking up the trash that other people who park along Panorama had tossed from their cars.

 * ... MORE KETCHUP! Longtime Bakersfield resident R. Bussard wrote that he was at the Chevron and McDonald's at Rosedale Highway and Allen Road on Monday when he heard a loud, angry voice coming from a grey Ford Excursion parked at the curb. "She was loudly complaining to someone in the vehicle that she ordered a hamburger with ketchup only" but received an "(expletive) cheeseburger" instead, yelling at the occupant to get out and change the order.  "...With that the back door opened and a 7 or 8 year old girl climbed out with the wrong burger in hand and went inside.  I was standing 40 to 50 feet away so I turned and looked towards the unhappy lady. She appeared overweight as she waited and used a cell-phone to text.  Soon the youngster came back with the correct sandwich. As she drove off with her mouth full I read the large stencils on the back window: 'Redneck Girls.' Appropriate."

 * ... TUTTI FRUITTI: I finally ventured over to the Tutti Fruitti yogurt shop on a steaming Saturday recently and learned what the fuss was all about. Folks in the Southwest have been raving about this place for months, and its two-for-one Daily Deal offer in the Californian set an all-time record for sales. Well, it's worth it. Check it out in the Town and Country Shopping Center at the corner of Gosford Road and Stockdale Highway the next time you need a refreshing snack.

* ... QUAKE MEMORIES: Linda Harden Brammer was living in Alameda when the great earthquake of 1952 hit, and she remembers the initial false reports that the oilfields west of Bakersfield had been set on fire. "My grandparents and several aunts, uncles and cousins lived in Taft at the time and my mom was worried sick. Phone lines were down and calls just did not go through. My dad got emergency leave from the Navy and our family made a trip down to Taft. Of course, everyone was okay. While we were down here, we made a trip around the area and took many photos, even going up to Tehachapi and photographing the damage there. "

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You know you're from Bakersfield if "you got your television tubes tested at the Thrifty's in Hillcrest."

Roy Ashburn readies for a run at county supervisor, but is Kern County ready for an openly gay elected official?

 * ... ASHBURN: Roy Ashburn, the longtime local political figure whose career seemed dead two years ago when he received a DUI and later revealed he was gay, is back in the limelight running for the First District supervisor's seat. Supporters, including local political consultant Stan Harper, point to Ashburn's long public service, local connections and commitment to our community as reasons why he should be elected. Is Kern County ready for an openly gay elected official? Can we put our prejudices aside and elect the person most capable of doing the best job?

* ... BAD FORM: Just when you think things are getting better comes a note like this from local financial planner Barry Rosenfeld. He was walking to his downtown office recently when "someone disposed of a dirty diaper right in front of the building. On Friday another individual dumped several small bags of trash as well as cigarette butts in front of our community mailbox. While my wife was waiting for me in the car on Saturday she witnessed a man dump trash on the grounds of the business I was in. When I went back to the car she ... told me what he had done. I walked back in the business and told him dumping trash was inappropriate behavior. So what happened next really amazed me; the manager of the business chastised me for causing tension and asked me to leave! I have a memo to those working for world peace: if we as a culture continue to condone irresponsible behavior you have little chance of achieving anything close to world peace!"

 * ... UNWED MOTHERS: Amazing to read in The New York Times this weekend that the number of children born out of wedlock is now the norm in our society. For the first time, The Times said children born to unmarried women "has crossed a threshold: more than half of the births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage." Once largely confined to the poor and minorities, the paper said the fastest growth over the past 20 years for having children out of wedlock has been among white women in their 20s. Overall, fully 73 percent of all black children are born out of wedlock. That compares with 53 percent of Hispanic women and 29 percent of whites.

 * ... CSUB: Kudos to three outstanding citizens who were named to the Cal State Bakersfield Alumni Hall of Fame. One is Nancy Chaffin, my colleague who serves as vice president of Human Resources and Operations here at The Californian. Joining her were retired county counsel Bernard C. Barmann Sr., and Jerry E. Scott. A dinner honoring the trio was held at The Petroleum Club, an event that attracted some 200 guests.

 * ... CARS: The annual vehicle reliability report from J.D. Powers is out and the good news is that cars are more reliable today than they have been for years. Heading the top of the list was Lexus, followed by Porsche, Cadillac, Toyota, Scion, Mercedez-Benz, Lincoln and Ford. At the bottom of the list were Jaguar, Ram, Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler, although the Chrysler products did do better than last year.

 * ... SPOTTED: District Attorney Lisa Green, a fitness buff, is spotted on a treadmill at a local club watching "Law and  Order" on one of the big screen TVs.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: From Ben Ansolabehere: "You may be a Bakersfield original if you remember Blanc’s Garage and mercantile across from the Pyrenees Café or City Mercantile on 19th street. What an adventure for a young boy coming off the ranch on Saturday afternoon. Anything from fence posts to pins and everything in between."

More troubling news on our housing market and the generosity of Norman Levan

 * ... HOUSING WOES: We got some more bad new on housing when the February numbers showed that sales of previously owned homes had dropped for the third straight month. Add to that more homes on the market and it's more evidence of an anemic market. On the other hand, it's a terrific time to buy a house. Prices have dropped dramatically (some local homes are going for half what they sold for a few years ago) and interest rates are near historic lows. So on some level, there may not be a better time to invest. There are terrific deals even in large cities that have been slammed with foreclosures. CNBC's list of the top ten cities to get a great deal on foreclosures (starting with No. 10 and counting down to the worst) San Francisco, Kansas City, Mo., Riverside, Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Columbus, Ohio, Cincinnati and finally at No. 1, Pittsburgh.

* ... NORMAN LEVAN: One of our community's most generous benefactors is Dr. Norman Levan, a dermatologist and philanthropist who has given $6 million  each to Bakersfield College, University of Southern California, St. John's College in Santa Fe, N.M., and the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Last week, a wide circle of friends gathered at Bakersfield College to celebrate Levan's 94th birthday. His donations have been used to advance the humanities at all institutions and just last month the Levan Center for the Humanities opened at BC.

 * ... CRIME LAB: Lisa Green, the chief deputy district attorney who is running unopposed to succeed Ed Jagels as our new District Attorney, spoke at the downtown Rotary Thursday about the benefits of DNA testing and keeping the Kern Regional Crime Lab fully funded. It was DNA testing that led to the quick arrest of Anthony Ray Graham Jr. in the horrific "Babies R Us" rape case, which featured a kidnapping and rape in broad daylight. Green put everyone on notice that as DA she will fight to keep the lab funded.

 * ... SAYING THANKS: Reader Donna Rice wrote to tell me about the sudden death of her husband of 31 years. Her thoughts are powerful in their simplicity. In her words: "While a personally difficult burden to bear, the loss brought with it unforeseen comfort to me and my family. The support, help, thoughts and prayers of family, friends, colleagues, the professionals who assisted us and even complete strangers gave me and my family great comfort in the days that followed .... At a time when so much of the news we see and hear is negative, a personal tragedy such as this brought out the innate kindness of so many people in this city." Well said and thank you for sharing.


 * ... LONG COMMUTE: How would you like to commute from Bakersfield to Santa Monica? Well Carl Nicita has been doing just that for six long years, and he loves it. Carl and his wife Beverly have lived in the Southwest for 25 years and both their boys graduated from Ridgeview High School. Six years ago Carl left his job at the Kern County Fire Department and became a traffic officer with the Santa Monica police. He works 10-hour shifts and leases a rent-controlled apartment in Venice Beach just  minutes from work. How's the commute? "Actually I have been totally blessed and I have the absolute best of both worlds. I get to work and stay at the beach. And then I get to come back to Bakersfield and enjoy being away from the hustle and bustle of the big city.  Believe me, being able to park in my own driveway and not having to worry about traffic is one of life's most simple pleasures!" Next step is looking toward retirement and Nicita says Bakersfield is looking good.
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 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You know  you're from Bakersfield when: "You've seen the Stairway to Heaven lights when returning to Bako at night on the Grapevine. And you know to call it Bako and why we call it that."


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Kern County women in peril and the economy continues to struggle ...

* ... WOMEN IN PERIL: The two most depressing news stories in The Californian this week had to be the Northwest Promenade rape trail and the report that Kern County leads the state in teenage pregnancies and births. The first involved the guilty verdict in the trial of Anthony Ray Graham Jr., convicted of a bold and horrific abduction and rape of a woman in broad daylight outside the Babies 'R' Us store on Rosedale Highway, one of our community's most prominent shopping venues. The idea that predators like this roam the streets of our community is terrifying enough, but it is particularly chilling to those of us with daughters. (read Jason Kotowski's full report here) Kudos to prosecutor Lisa Green for bringing a measure of justice to the victim and her family. And then there was Steven Mayer's story on Kern County having the highest teen birth rate in California, even while the statewide rate has dropped. (read his story here) This is our collective shame and you can't help but worry about the state of our young women. This is yet another reason why the work of groups like the Women and Girl's Fund of the Kern Community Foundation is so important.

 * ... ECONOMIC INDICATOR: One place I look for indications of an economic recovery is in company hiring, which has been in a funk for the past couple years. Kern County's jobless rate is near 16 percent and the business people I know have hunkered down for a long, slow recovery. Riley Parker is one person who has a finger on the pulse of hiring, since his company (Parker and Associates) does background screening of potential new employees for companies. Parker told me that part of his business has been steady this year - not great - yet another indicator of general sluggishness. But another part of his business is "booming," he said. "We have had a real surge in real estate fraud cases ... A new twist is in the number of 'intellectual property' cases that are being referred... Some displaced workers are deciding to use the proprietary information gleaned from their former employers to become entrepreneurs."

 * ... GAUCHO WORLD: Retired Kern County School superintendent Larry Reider told me to add his longtime wife Sandy to the list of local folks who hail from UC Santa Barbara. Sandy spent 33 years teaching in Arvin and Fruitvale, and according to Larry was such a diligent student at UCSB that "she was upset she couldn't get to classes when they closed the campus after they burned the Bank of America building during the Isla Vista riots!" I'll take Larry at his word, but I also know that nearly every day is a "riot" of sorts on Isla Vista.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISMS: You know you're from Bakersfield when "Instead of people thinking you're rich for having leather seats, they think you're stupid." And you also know you're from Bakersfield when you have to "explain to someone what Beach Park is all about."

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.