Has City Councilman Rudy Salas gone too far with his negative attack ads on opponent Pedro Rios? And did The Californian show bias by running a picture of President Obama?

 * ... ELECTION: At this point in the campaign most of us just want this election to be over, but there will be plenty of drama on election day. Several local races are razor tight and there are a number of controversial propositions on the ballot. Former Kern County supervisor and longtime political consultant Gene Tackett will join me on Californian Radio KERN 1180 to discuss the general election and what is at stake. We'll be chatting about the presidential race as well as the City Council and Supervisor races. Join us at 9 a.m. Monday.

 * ... BIAS: Reader Randy Grigg took me to task for allegedly showing liberal bias by showing a picture of President Obama comforting a storm victim in New York. "As a subscriber for over 30 years and local small businessman I'm appalled at the picture on the front page of Obama holding an emotionally distraught woman because of the storm that hit the East coast. Why didn't you have a front page picture of the father whose son was killed because of lack of appropriate military action in Benghazi... and his comments?  Why aren't you covering the developments of this horrible incident?" Randy: You have to cut me some slack here. The story of Hurricane Sandy and its trail of devastation in New York and New Jersey was the big story of the way. We didn't mean to imply bias by running a picture of the president.

 * ... SALAS-RIOS: Politics is not for the faint of heart, and perhaps the nastiest local race this year is between City Councilman Rudy Salas and former Delano Mayor Pedro Rios who are competing for the 32nd Assembly District. The negative and clearly misleading attack ads by Salas on Rios have been unrelenting, and now it appears they have created a small backlash from folks who question if Salas has gone too far. Is going negative a smart strategy? On Tuesday, we will see.

 * ... TRASH: Keith Key is a local businessman who shares a growing frustration with the trash that litters our roads and parks. "I was reflecting on my recent trip to the World (skeet shooting) Championships in San Antonio, Texas. My wife and I really noticed the lack of trash on the Texas highways. Why can’t the people of California, take the same kind of pride as the people of Texas?"

 * ... HUSKERS: Kelsey Fien is a graduate of Frontier High School who is making quite a name for herself on the Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball team. She helped lead the No. 4 Huskers to an important upset victory over top-ranked Penn State and is one of the team's standout players. The 6-foot, three-inch Fien is a freshmen in Lincoln.

 * ... CAMERON: Last week I shared with you the story of 12-year-old Cameron Caneta, who decided to surprise Monsignor Craig Harrison on his birthday by collecting food for the needy. Since then, folks have been lining up behind Cameron to join the drive. Said his mother Mary Caneta: "We were surprised today with three more cases of food and a young man pulled up in his truck to donate a truckload of clothes, shoes, socks, razors etc. More calls coming in! I told my son...'Job well done' and he replied 'Thanks Mom, but I am not done yet!'"

Plop down in front in front of the TV at your own risk and a non-profit will collect blankets and towels for local animal shelters the Sunday before the national election

 * ... SITTING: There are a lot of reasons to plop down in your favorite recliner and catch some TV: the World Series, the presidential debates, college and pro football. But now comes word that the more time we all spend sitting, "the shorter and less robust" our lives will be. That's according to two new studies which The New York Times said definitely point out the risks of spending too much time watching television. "And the findings were sobering: Every single hour of television watched watched after the age of 25 reduces the viewer's life expectancy by 21.8 minutes."

 * ... SHELTERS: Here's something we can all get behind: a non-profit group called Operation Blankets for Love will be collecting blankets, towels, collars, leashes and animal beds for dogs and cats on Sunday, Nov. 4, at the Bakersfield Racquet Club. All items donated will distributed to shelters here in Kern County. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 * ... THE BUZZ: Rudy Salas, the Bakersfield City Councilman running for the State Assembly, has created a stink by making an issue of opponent Pedro Rios' run-in with the law 20 years ago. Rios was a young convenience store worker when he was cited for selling alcohol to a minor, and Salas implied he was a teacher at the time, which he was not. My in box has been filled with notes from readers like this one: "How is he (Salas) the poster boy for 'wellness' (Salas appeared in the Bwell healthy living publication) when his devious mind deliberately exploits a human error made by his opponent twenty years ago? I have no dog in this race; howerver, if I did I would not consider voting for Rudy Salas." 

* ... FREEDOM TRAIN: Jerry Kirkland remembers when the Freedom Tain rolled into Bakersfield when he was a student at Emerson Junior High in 1947-48. "Each homeroom at Emerson sent a representative to view this collection of our nation's most precious historic documents and I was fortunate enough to have been selected from my homeroom.  It was an opportunity of a lifetime and one that I would love to have again. The 127 documents included the Magna Carta (from 1215), one of the 13 original copies of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. Also the surrender documents signed by the Japanese and Germans that officially ended World War II. And surprisingly enough, while it was strongly supported by President Truman (who loved trains), the Freedom Train was not funded by the federal government but rather by private donations to the American Heritage Foundation."

 * ... ROTARY: Congratulations to Jim Bell, general manager of Clear Channel radio, for being elected to become district governor of Rotary District 5240. It has been years since the district, which includes much of the coast and all the Bakersfield clubs, has been led by a governor from Bakersfield. He is a member of the Twilight Rotary Club. (photo courtesy of Bakersfield Twilight Rotary Club)

 * ... STREET SWEEPERS: A woman who asked to remain anonymous wrote to come to the defense of the city street sweepers, who have been criticized for leaving more of a mess than they clean. "I'm sure most street sweepers are hard-working individuals and they deserve better than the public flogging handed to them by (a reader). I can't imagine that their job is very easy. On behalf of the mothers of street sweepers, thank you!"

 * ... PUZZLER: Here's a reader question I cannot answer. Let me know if you can. "What was the name of the song that opened and closed the Don Rodewald radio and television shows?  If I remember, it sounded like a bath tub draining."