Bakersfield rolls out the red carpet for the Amgen Tour of California and remembering Suzanne Rivera, local cyclist who died on Mother's Day

 * ... AMGEN: Get ready for a day to remember Thursday when the Amgen Tour of California cycling race comes to town. Organizers are expecting as many as 30,000 people to view the race, which features some of the top pro cyclists in the world. The 18-mile time trial course starts on the bluffs across from Bakersfield College, follows Alfred Harrell Highway out to Hart Park and returns up the steep grade back to Panorama. It promises to be a spectacular event and if you have never witnessed a pro bike race, this is your chance to see some of the world's finest athletes in action. It's absolutely free, it starts at 1 p.m. and should by over shortly after 4 p.m. And, let's not forget to thank our city for agreeing to put water in the Kern River for the day to help put our community in its best light.

 * ... RIP SUZANNE: Friends and family are mourning the death of Suzanne Rivera, the 47-year-old mother of two who died in a nasty crash during a women's road cycling race near Mariposa. Like any sport cycling has its share of inflated egos and posturing, but Suzanne always had a smile on her face and never had a bad word for anyone. She crashed into a support van on a steep descent on Mother's Day, but she died doing something she loved. (Californian photo of Suzanne with coach Danny Kaukola)

* ... HIGH ACHIEVER: Among the many notable kids graduating from high school is Cristobal Trujillo, a Ridgeview graduate who is headed to Yale on a full-ride scholarship. Michelle Beck, one of his former teachers, told me Cristobal came to this country speaking no English but eventually mastered the language and qualified for the GATE program. That's an accomplishment that should make us all proud.

 * ... HOPPER: As if legacy media didn't have enough challenges, now comes the "Hopper" that threatens to to disrupt the television business model. The "Hopper" is a device offered by Dish Network that allows people to completely avoid commercials. Viewers can already fast forward through commercials, but the "Hopper" does it automatically and the viewer sees nothing but a momentary blank screen and no commercial. As the Wall Street Journal noted: "The notion that viewers won't see even a whirr of fast forwarded ads threatens billions of dollars in broadcast television advertising-and risks the ire of the networks."

 * ... BABY NAMES: The Social Security Administration has released the most popular baby names for 2011. According to USA Today, the top name for girls were Sophia, Isabella, Emma, Olivia, Ava, Emily, Abigail, Madison, Mia and Chloe. For boys: Jacob, Mason, William, Jayden, Noah, Michael, Ethan, Alexander, Aiden and Daniel.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Donna Pacheco wonders if anyone else remembers Hart Park in the 1950s when it featured boat racing, the miniature train, a roller coaster and a merry-go-round. Donna worked at a food stand selling hot dogs and drinks.

Dreaming of water in the Kern River this summer and taking stock of the supervisor races

* ... SUMMER DREAMS: Remember last summer when a good snow pack helped keep the Kern River flowing through town? There were paddle boarders, kayakers and canoeists up and down the river from Beach Park to the Park at RiverWalk. But don't expect the same thing this year, particularly if we don't get more rain and snow in the mountains. One friend in the water business predicted "we'll have periods of water in the river but it won't be deep enough to paddle board." Keep your fingers crossed for some rain and snow.

* ... SUPERVISOR: Leticia Perez, the former staffer for state Sen. Michael Rubio, has just turned in 3,132 signatures to the Kern County Election's office to get on the ballot for the Fifth District Supervisor race. Rubio told me last week Perez is busy walking the district and he predicted she would defeat her primary rival, Supervisor Karen Goh, who is running for a full term. Perez supporter Linda Fiddler said the signatures "were all collected by friends, relatives and neighbors who have turned out every Saturday and some Sundays since the beginning of the year to visit voters at their doors. Those volunteers rock!"

 * .... ASHBURN: Speaking of county supervisors, former supervisor and state senator Roy Ashburn is back running for his old First District seat after a drunk driving incident that could have ruined his career. Ashburn will be my guest Monday on Californian Radio on Kern 1180 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Tune it to hear Ashburn lay out his priorities and thoughts, including how forgiving he thinks voters will be after his  DUI arrest and revelation that he is gay.

* ... TRASH: From my inbox comes this story on how one man deals with bags of trash dumped on his property. "A friend that has property in the country has trash left along side his road.. When that happens he looks in the bags and usually finds a discarded envelope with an address on it. He then writes a nice note telling the owner that they must have lost this bag and delivers it to their house along with all the trash.  A good way to get it back to the rightful owners!"

 * ... MORE TRASH: Yet another reader, Gerhard Schmidt, wonders why whoever dumped the mattress simply didn't look in the telephone book for a number to call (661-326-3114) to have large items hauled away free. "Details are  in the green pages of the phone book. Of course the people who do those things might not be able to read your blog or the phone book."

 * ... AIRLINES: The Dutch airline KLM is experimenting with a system that allows passengers to pick their seats by viewing the backgrounds of other passengers using the social networking websites Facebook and LinkedIn. Here's how it works: you can voluntarily link your seat assignment to your Facebook page so other passengers can view your background in case they might want to sit next to you. Sounds a little much to me but let's see if it works.

24th Street widening still a few years off and Sheryl Crow wows them at the Fox Theater

 * ... 24th STREET: The long-awaited plan to widen 24th Street through downtown is moving along through the environmental process but it still a few years off from breaking ground. That's the word from City Manager Alan Tandy, who said he expected everything to be ready for construction by the end of 2013 or early 2014. The project will run from about the 24th Street Cafe all the way to Sillect Avenue. The street will be widened to handle three lanes in each direction. Meanwhile, Tandy said the project to build an overpass on Truxtun Extension to provide access to the Westside Parkway is slightly behind schedule because of the swollen river this summer. And speaking of the river, Tandy also reiterated the city's pledge to fight to gain control of water rights to keep river flowing in the Kern almost year round, although that is a fight that will be tied up in the courts for years.

 * ... SIDEWALKS: Gilbert Gia is one of our local historians who has amassed an impressive amount of data on the history of Bakersfield and Kern County. He shared with me his history of local sidewalks and street paving, and how you can date the ages of the sidewalks and streets from the contractor stamps. Tge first sidewalks were built in the late 1800s and by the early 1900s streets and sidewalks were being erected downtown and in the old Baker Street business district. Next time you take a stroll, check out the stamps from long-gone contractors like A. Klingenberg (1915), Valley Construction (around 1920), Thompson Brothers (1912), Worswick Street Paving Co. (1916) and Dean and Strobe, among the many others.

 * ... SHERYL CROW: The Sheryl Crow concert at the Fox Theater was a sell out last week, and at 49 years of age the singer certainly knows how to wow a crowd. Crow mentioned the Padre Hotel five times during the show - that elicited a huge smile from Padre owner Brett Miller who was taking in the show along with wife Kelli - and Crow also shared that she took in the antique store across from the hotel.

 * ... FRAUD: Credit card fraud seems to run rampant these days. Just in the past week, three friends have told me about fraudulent purchases showing up on their credit cards. Then, in the span of 72 hours, I had two credit cards and my bank ATM card compromised. Almost all the fraudulent charges were made in central and south Florida, everything from a Winn-Dixie supermarket in Orlando to a $1,230 charge at Men's Warehouse. Banks are adept at spotting these charges but for your own protection, keep an eye on your bank statements.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Eleanor Grant remembers when she attended the Lowell School on H Street, where St. Francis church is now, and the circus train would come to town. The performers and animals would get off the train at the Santa Fe Depot and parade down Truxtun Avenue to their performance location while the teachers and students watched.

 * ... WHO KNEW? Did you know that China Grade, the paved road to the bluffs and Panorama Drive, was originally a trail used by Chinese residents during the 1870s? It is said they used it to get to the Kern River bank in search of watercress.

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Nothing like a Bakersfield spring and the Kern County Museum gets a makeover

* ... A BAKERSFIELD SPRING: It's hard to beat the spring weather we've had this year. Cool mornings, wonderful evenings, folks sitting outside on their porches or in their lawn chairs, the parks and bike path filled to capacity, runners out early, water in the river. Everyone is talking about it and why not? But you know summer is around the corner. The surest sign hot weather is coming? My cycling group passed four snakes on the road to Woody this weekend. When the rattlers take to the roads for warmth, you can bet the heat is on its way. (photo courtesy of Don Martin, taken during his Sunday run along the river)

 * ... BAKO BOUND: The job market is tough all over, but Kern County's robust oil and energy sector is a bright spot for all those young engineering graduates. One of them is Roshani Patel, a Bakersfield native who is receiving her bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She is returning home to work for Aera Energy. Patel's father encouraged her to pursue a degree in science or math, but after taking an introductory class in engineering at Bakersfield College, she was hooked. Thousands of graduates around the country are looking for jobs, but STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduates find lots of opportunity in Kern County's high tech energy field.


* ... SAN JOSE STATE: Touched base with old friend Mike Stepanovich the other day and he shared the story of how wife Carol ended up at San Jose State. "After graduating from East Bakersfield High School, she attended Bakersfield College for two years where she earned an associate of arts  degree, and planned to transfer to Fresno State. In fact she had been accepted to Fresno State – already had her dorm reservation there  – when her late father, Roy Christensen, who at the time was chief salesman for Golden Bear Refinery, said, 'That’s great! I can pick up your laundry for you on Fridays, have mom do it for you over the weekend, and bring it back to you on Mondays.' Thinking quickly, because she had been looking forward to going away to school and away from the constant gaze of her father, Carol asked, 'How often do you get to San Jose?' Her dad said, 'Oh, I never get to San Jose, that’s not my territory.' We always wondered if he ever made the connection between that revelation and her sudden enrollment at San Jose State. She graduated two years later from SJSU with a double major in speech pathology and elementary education, and returned to Bakersfield where she taught for 34 years. She also earned a master’s degree from CSUB." Mike is executive director of the Bakersfield College Foundation and Carol is now retired.

 * ... NEW PAINT: Drove by the old Kern County Museum Chester Avenue and was pleasantly surprised to see it finally received a much needed makeover. It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint and some landscaping will do. The place is looking sharp. If you haven't visited for a while, you should drop by.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: From reader Christina Blaine: you know you're from Bakersfield when "you run into all your friends, family and acquaintances at Trader Joe's."