Prepare to avoid the 405 Freeway this weekend as LA prepares for "Carmaggedon"

 * ... CARMEGGEDON: Remember that a 10-mile stretch of the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles will be closed this weekend, creating the mother of all traffic nightmares they are calling "Carmeggdon." It will be closed at Mulholland Drive at midnight Friday and not open until Monday morning, so avoid it at all costs. Good time to stay out of LA or use Meadows Field if you are leaving town.

 * ... JOHNNY MATHIS: The upcoming Johnny Mathis concert is being billed as his "first-ever" appearance  in Bakersfield, but Margaret Self says that's in error. "He performed at the Civic Auditorium on October 18, 1963, along with the 25-piece orchestra of Sy Zentner," she said. She said Johnny was 28 years old at the time and tickets were priced from $2.50 to $3.50. "My husband, the late attorney Robert Self, was program chair for the Westchester Kiwanis and they sponsored the show. All proceeds went to benefit Kiwanis philanthropies." Johnny will be at the Fox Theater on Thursday, September 22.

 * ... SPOTTED: Carl Cole, part of the Crisp and Cole real estate company that came to epitomize fraud and recklessness in the real estate bubble, was spotted working at the Brooks Brothers outlet in Camarillo.


* ... ALZHEIMER'S: The local Alzheimer's Association of Kern County is planning a walk to raise money to end this dreaded illness. Carol Hatton, CEO  of Continuum Senior Care Management, said the walk is planned for September 10 art the Park at River Walk. "It was we Americans who came up with a vaccine that stopped polio," she said. "Let's get rid of Alzheimer's!"

 * ... STORM DRIAN: Reader Cliff Harmel sent me a picture of a storm drain located near the intersection of San Pablo and Vassar streets in the northeast. Stamped on the drain it reads: "City of Bakersfield, Storm Drian, Public Works." That's correct, drain is spelled "drian." Said Harmel: "I pass the spot now and then when I walk my dogs ... I like to think the cover was manufactured and stamped in Fresno!"

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: A particularly relevant contribution from reader B.W. Bank: You know you're from Bakersfield "when 98 degrees is considered a cooling trend."

Icardo Center gets new "Boise State" blue portable floor and celebrating a U.S. victory in women's World Cup soccer

 * ... CSUB: Had a chance to spend some time with CSUB Athletic Director Jeff Konya last Friday, interviewing him on Californian Radio SmartTalk 1230. Among his revelations: The Icardo Center is getting a new removable floor painted a bold blue (think Boise State) and is in for more upgrades as more basketball games move back to campus. Also, expect to see more uniformity in logos and uniforms among all the sports teams. In a few years, the teams will be sporting a bold new CSUB yellow-gold at home games. Also, lots of positive buzz about the eight recruits that new basketball Coach Rod Barnes is bringing to campus.

 * ... WOMEN'S SOCCER: Speaking of sports, it doesn't get more exciting than watching the United States' women's soccer team beat Brazil in the World Cup Sunday. An amazing game on any level that ended in a dramatic shootout.

 * ... PATRIOTISM: Reader Glen Worrell said his patriotism was challenged after he wrote that he was flying an American flag that was made in China. Turns out Worrell is a retired Coast Guard commander, rarely leaves the house without an American flag pin and loves his country as we all do. Worrell reminds us that patriotism is not determined by a flag manufacturer, but by what is in one's heart.

 * ... MEMORIES: Correspondent Geraldine Sproul wrote with some memories of old 18th Street, including the Masonic Temple. "Many people don't know this but during World War II the basement of the temple was a bomb shelter and they spotted planes on the roof... The Woman's Club further west on the corner on the north side of 18th Street is about a year older than the Masonic Temple. As a teenager I danced by way through life in the basement of the temple."

 * ... ACHIEVER: Hats off to Chelsea Dunlap, a local product who just graduated from UCLA with a major in English and a minor in anthropology. Her grandfather, Leland R. Luttrell, told me that Chelsea has accepted a one-year contract as an English teacher in Otsu, Japan, which is close to Bakersfield's sister city of Wakayama City. She is a graduate of Highland High School where she was active in the band and served as senior class president. Her parents are Bob and Susan Dunlap.

 * ... MEMORY: Ruth E. Overton wrote to recall a large mural that was painted on the side of a business just off Mount Vernon south of Niles Street. It was painted by Nick Paola. Anyone remember this? It would have been in the late 1950s.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Robert E. Holland writes that you might be a Bakersfield old timer if you remember driving down Truxtun Avenue "on a hot summer night with the windows down and smelling the wonderful aroma of bread baking at the Golden Crust and Sunbean bakeries."

McCarthy: end ban on off shore drilling, give small businesses a break and deal with the debt

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield and House Majority Whip, gives us his weekly view from Capitol Hill. In his words:

"Like many parents, I’m worried about the future opportunities of kids in America. Are we laying a foundation for them to succeed? I know we can, but we must change course. Over the past two and a half years, spending has skyrocketed and we have accumulated an additional $3.2 trillion in debt. Still, our economy remains sluggish. In June, we added a paltry 18,000 jobs. This is unacceptable. We should be adding hundreds of thousands of jobs every month. Big spending and big government have clearly failed. I’m fighting every day to change the culture of spending in Washington. There has been progress, but we can do more, especially in the following three areas:

•       Cutting Spending: Since January, we have cut an historic amount of pending, voted to repeal Obamacare, aggressively attacked the law’ slush funds and passed a budget that brings spending to the 2008
levels we promised in our Pledge to America. Now we’re fighting for trillions more in spending cuts and pushing a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA). Back in 1995, the BBA failed to pass Congress by just
one vote. 16 years later, we’re $14 trillion in debt. But we have another chance to get it right. This month, we will bring a new BBA to the Floor and I will vote for its passage. This week I released a video on the BBA, which you can watch on my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RepKevinMcCarthy

•       Growing small businesses: Small businesses employ over half the private-sector workforce. If we look at the end of the last recession from 2001 to 2007, small businesses – those with 500 employees or less
– added more than 7 million jobs. We’re clearly not seeing the same comeback now. In fact, 70 percent of small businesses said they don’t plan to hire over the next 12 months in a recent U.S. Bancorp survey,
primarily because of economic uncertainty. We must boost private-sector confidence. That means not raising taxes, as some in Washington are proposing. Taxing job creators is not the way to grow our economy and I will not stand for any proposal that increases taxes on families and small businesses.

•       Increasing energy production: Tapping our own abundant natural resources will drive down energy costs, create jobs and increase our ation’s energy security. My colleagues and I have recently passed
legislation to move forward on oil and natural gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Virginia, put an end to the Obama Administration’s de facto moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and lift the President’s ban on new offshore drilling. These three pieces of legislation could help create an estimated 1.2 million jobs long-term, according to Louisiana State University Economist Dr. Joseph Mason. In addition, we passed legislation to allow oil extraction in the Alaskan Outer Continental Shelf to move forward in a timely and safe manner, which could create tens of thousands of jobs annually. The Senate must act on this legislation.

A tribute to a career teacher who touched so many lives and dealing with a traffic nightmare on Truxtun

 * ... TRIBUTE: Jamie Henderson, who retired as superintendent of the Rosedale Union School District, dropped me this wonderful tribute to career educator  Lloyd Palmer, who died recently. Palmer spent 30 years as a social studies teacher at Curran Junior High, where Henderson found himself as one of Palmer's students in the early 1960s. "Kennedy was president, we had just come through the Cuban missile crisis and John Glenn had circled the earth.... It was a good time to be studying U.S. history and the Constitution." Henderson said Palmer knew every student by name and was always upbeat and positive. Years later, when as Rosedale superintendent Henderson was dealing with a difficult challenge, Palmer called and offered his support. "Forty years after I had been in his classroom he still checked on his students and offered them encouragement. Mr. Palmer, I realize having you as a teacher was a true blessing from God. May God continue to comfort and bless you and your family." (Californian photo of Henderson below)

 * .... TRAFFIC: The opening of the new Mohawk bridge connecting Truxtun Avenue with Rosedale Highway is proving to be a nightmare for morning commuters headed from the Southwest into town. Apparently so many drivers are using it to get off Rosedale Highway and onto Truxtun that it is backing up east-bound traffic on Truxtun almost all the way to Coffee Road. It seems particularly bad between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. when traffic it at its worst.

* ... CSUB: I will be chatting with Jeff Konya, the new CSUB Athletic Director, Friday (July 8) at 10 a.m. on SmartTalk 1230 AM on Californian Radio. Konya will lay out the strategic direction of the athletic department and answer any questions from callers. We will also discuss the embattled wrestling and women's tennis programs and the fund raising efforts to save them.

* ... SPAY, NEUTER: Did you know that one intact female dog, plus her offspring and their offspring, can product 67,000 dogs in just six years? That's the word from Ha Adolfo, founder of the Basic Needs Foundation. And that's why her group is hosting two free mobile spay-neuter clinics for low income pet owners of Lake Isabella, Wofford Heights, Onyx, Bodfish, South Lake, Mountain Mesa and Kernville. These clinics will take place on Saturday, August 20, and Saturday, October 22, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the parking lot of the Lake Isabella Vons. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-404-SPAY (7729).

* ... STREET CARS: John Pryor says you are an old timer if you remember the city's electric street cars that traveled on tracks back and forth between the Southern Pacific Railroad station on Baker Street, down 19th Street to the Santa Fe Railroad station on F Street at 15th Street, just north of Bakersfield High School. "On the very last day of the street cars operation, sometime in the 1930s, my father took me for a ride from Baker Street to F Street and back. He knew it was the end of an era for Bakersfield, and gave me an experience I still remember 70 plus years later!"

  * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: From reader Kyle Estle: "You know it’s summertime in Bakersfield when the internal temperature on your outdoor grill is above 150 degrees BEFORE you light it!"

UC Regents look for another 10 percent rise in tuition and the Grimm and Anderson families come to the aid of the YMCA

 * ... TUITION HIKE: Not that it's a surprise, but it looks like we're in for yet another tuition hike for the budget challenged University of California system. The UC Regents say they will seek another 10 percent tuition hike, on top of an 8 percent increase already set for this fall. It's hard to keep up with the rising tuition costs but this will bring undergraduate tuition to $12,200, almost a $2,000 increase from where it is now. And remember, this is just tuition. Room and board can easily add another $10,000 a year and by the time you throw in books, food and incidentals, the average student is looking at $25,000 or more a year. Lastly, all this comes on top of news that the more selective campuses like Berkeley, UCLA and San Diego are admitting record numbers of nonresidents simply because they pay a much higher out of state tuition.  

* ... YMCA: Steve Anderson and his wife, Kari Grimm Anderson, have stepped in to help the Kern County YMCA expand its programs to Delano and Arvin. Grimmway Farms is sponsoring programs in Arvin and S.C. Anderson is doing the same in Delano and possibly McFarland. Steve Anderson also dropped a personal $5,000 donation check to the Y, which is struggling to rebuild its program base.


* ... MORE YMCA: Janelle Webb is another longtime supporter of the "Y" and wrote to urge everyone to support our local Kern County chapter. She said her 6-year-old daughter Karalee attends the Y's summer day care and is participating in a drama program, a Disney Musical Revue. "The YMCA drama production is superb with the children receiving individual attention and nurturing for their skills with the finished performance something that could be recommended for any stage."

 * ... SPOTTED: Nice to see so many folks swimming and kayaking the Kern River through town on a steamy holiday weekend. The area from Beach Park down to the Park at River Walk was busy and it's all relatively safe and shallow, at least compared to the raging Kern up the canyon. We will all miss these days when the river returns to a dusty shadow of its former self.

 * ... NEWCOMERS: Ran into Neil Walker and his wife Pam the other day. Neil is with Kern Oil and Refining and a former president of Bakersfield Breakfast Rotary and they were escorting around town Pam's sister, Tish, and her husband Mike Burnett. The Burnetts live in La Canada Flintridge but are moving to Bakersfield to retire. They were touring town when the temperature was well north of 100 but in good spirits nonetheless. These are the kind of newcomers who will undoubtedly enrich our community.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM:  Rosalee (Gelb) Pogue solved the mystery of the old downtown bowling alley which she identified as the Bakersfield Bowling Academy, located across from the Rice Bowl. "What a flash from the past it was to see the 'Bakersfieldism' in the paper this morning.  I use to go bowling with my father when I was young (in the mid 1950s). The bowling alley in question was The Bakersfield Bowling Academy across from the Rice Bowl. There was the other alley on East 19th (or 18th, I still get those confused) just east of Union called San Joaquin Bowling. Thanks also to readers Tony Bernal, Dave Wilkerson, Craig Holland, and Vicki Philips for also identifying these two old bowling centers.

Top UC schools move to admit more out of state students and Bryan Goodman joins the CSUB basketball squad

 * ... COLLEGE REPORT: It looks like it is going to get even harder for local students to get into the more selective state universities like UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego. Strapped for cash, the schools are now admitting record numbers of out of state students simply because they pay twice the tuition as California residents. According to the Los Angeles Times, 30 percent of the incoming freshman class at Berkeley will be from out of state, up from 23 percent last year. At UCLA, nonresidents will make up 18 percent of the freshman class, up from 15 percent. And at San Diego, the nonresident freshman class doubled from 9 percent to 18 percent.

 * ... CRIME ALERT: A resident of La Cresta passed along the story of a 14-year-old who stole her car and smashed it into a fire hydrant after the Highway Patrol gave chase. The car was stolen sometime between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. out of her driveway. Apparently her husband, who had moved the car earlier in the day, left the keys in his own car and left that car unlocked. Police say summer is the time when crimes of opportunity spike, and thieves are walking through neighborhoods pulling on door handles trying to find one open. In the La Cresta case, the owners were told that local gangs recruit minors to steal cars because they do so little time after they are caught.

 * ... OVERHEARD: A young women is overheard telling her companion about a trip to Valley Plaza. "In 30 minutes I saw a mother slap her child, a guy shoplift a rice krispy treat from a kiosk and another man talking on his cell phone with his other hand down his pants."

 * ... GOODMAN: Had a chance over the weekend to meet Bryan Goodman, the new CSUB assistant baseketball coach. Coach Rod Barnes recruited Goodman from the University of Oklahoma where he served in a similar position. Before that, the 39-year-old Goodman served at Bucknell University. He and his wife have 5-year-old triplets and she hopes to join him here later this summer.

 * ... MOHAWK BRIDGE: Only in Bakersfield do we get excited about the opening of a new bridge that shortens our commute. How many of you have taken the trip over the new Mohawk bridge just to see it?

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Reader Linda Welch is asking if anyone remembers the downtown bowling alley that was located on 18th Street east of Chester Avenue back in the 1940s. She said her brothers were pin setters there but we can't recall the exact location.

McCarthy highlights student interns in both Washington, D.C., and Bakersfield

  Rep. Kevin McCarthy, house Majority Whip from Bakersfield, gives us his weekly view from Capitol Hill.

 "I want to take the opportunity to recognize just a few of the many bright young people in our community. I found my life’s calling after working as an intern for Congressman Bill Thomas, cutting newspaper clips in his local office and answering phone calls from constituents.\ Because of my experiences, I have tried to give as many of our local students a chance to intern over the summer as possible. This summer, we will have a total of 21 interns and 4 fellows serving in my Washington D.C. and Bakersfield offices.

  "Most of these students call Bakersfield home. The current Bakersfield natives interning in my D.C. office include: Vanessa Klass, a Stockdale High School graduate about to start her senior year at CSU Fullerton; Jacob Frost, a Liberty High School graduate attending the University of Colorado; Rane Cravens, also a Liberty High School graduate and political science major at Kansas State University; Mike Mettler, a BHS graduate going into his senior year at CSU Chico; Julia Berchtold, a Garces graduate and finance major at Notre Dame; Kyle Legg, a graduate of Centennial High School studying international business and marketing at San Francisco State University; Ross Powers, a Garces graduate working toward a degree in business administration from USC; Haley Devaney,  a Stockdale High School graduate pursuing her political science degree at UC San Diego; Annie Wilson, a BHS graduate who has already received her political science degree from Queens University of Charlotte North Carolina; and Andrew Green, a BHS graduate studying political science at UCLA.

  "In my Bakersfield office right now, we have Blair Buckley, a communications major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a Liberty High School graduate; Deepa Kannappan, a graduate of Stockdale High School and Stanford University student; and Kelsey Linford, a Centennial High School graduate currently studying political communication at American University.

  "These students are all smart, insightful and hard working. Their drive and commitment exemplify the strong principles and values of our community. Another member of our community who continues to impress me
is Douglas “DJ” Taylor. DJ was my principal nominee to West Point las year, and he recently shared some of his first-year experiences me. Those experiences are highlighted on my Facebook page
(www.facebook.com/congressmankevinmccarthy) if you want to check out what life at West Point is like.

  "DJ is just one of the many Americans who have answered the call to serve our great nation, and as Independence Day draws near, now is a special time to thank all the men and women in our Armed Forces and their families. We still live in the freest, most prosperous republic in the world, and those who serve play a large role in that. From the Revolutionary War to the wars of today, they have stood strong to defend the freedoms laid out in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. I wish everyone in our community a happy Fourth of July

Time to rally around Cal State Bakersfield and President Horace Mitchell in the face of budget troubles

 * ... MOVE ON: Let's all hope that the recent changes out at Cal State Bakersfield will repair any feelings of ill will between supporters and the administration. CSUB  is facing its greatest budget crunch ever, and it needs the full support of our community and its leaders to continue to provide the best education possible to our local students. President Horace Mitchell has made some tough calls in the face of severe cutbacks, and he now deserves our support. It's time to move on.

 * ... CSUB:  One of the effects of the reorganization at CSUB  is the return of fund raising to the Athletic Department. This is good news for many long-time supporters of CSUB athletic programs, who groused when the University Advancement department under Beverly Byl took over all fund raising, including athletics, several years ago. Supporters complained that funds raised for sports were sometimes used for other purposes. None of this is illegal, of course, but it rankled supporters who didn't like the idea that money raised for a sports program may have been used for another project, however worthy. With the changes, fund raising for sports now reverts to the office of Athletic Director Jeff Konya.

 * ... MOTOR CITY: General Motors has recognized Motor City GMC as one of the top dealerships in the nation. A GM representative was at the dealership Thursday to present the "Dealer of the Year" award to Richard Stricklen, owner of Motor City, and his team. The award recognizes the top 2 percent of GM dealers by region. This is a high honor and - at least from my experience buying two cars there - certainly well deserved. 

 * ... Y MEMORY: Today's memory of growing up with the YMCA comes from Jennifer Marble Howes, who recently moved back to Bakersfield after being gone for 20 years. Her father was a YMCA camp counselor in Pasadena and she grew up at the Bakersfield "Y," camping in the mountains and singing songs around the camp fire. "I remember learning how to row a boat and ride a horse and appreciate wild life," she said. "Singing around the camp fire and everyone yelling Y-M-C-A hoping that we could be heard clear down in Bakersfield. I would recommend utilizing the YMCA to anyone who has children."

 * ... CSUB BASEBALL: Tom Dyer wrote to commend the CSUB Roadrunner baseball team for pitching in to help the 12-year-old All-Stars from the Bakersfield Southwest Baseball team. He said pitcher Mike McCarthy along with teammates Cael Brockmeyer and Oscar Sanay came out and worked with his team for almost three hours. It was all around the time that McCarthy was drafted and "he still made time to make a lasting impression on some of Bakersfield's youth," Dyer said. "Go Southwest baseball and go Roadrunners!"

* ... BAKERSFIELDISM: Gene Bonas says you might be a Bakersfield old timer if you "can remember the logo used by Frank and Marie Amestoy to advertise their On the Hill bar and grill. It was an outhouse set on a hill!"