House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy attends the funeral for Rev. Clementa Pinckney in Charleston while expressing remorse for the death of a Bakersfield police officer

House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy gives us his weekly view from Capitol Hill. In his words:

 "At the conclusion of another busy week in Washington, I was honored to attend the touching funeral of Rev. Clementa Pinckney who was one of the victims of the South Carolina shooting last week. Against the backdrop of a national tragedy, the power of prayer and faith has uplifted the Charleston community and our nation as a whole as we continue to stand with the family and friends who are grieving. Hate has no place in the United States and today’s celebration of life and love was an inspiring reminder that even in the darkest days, the light of God will shine through.

  "Locally, Judy and I are saddened to hear of the death of Bakersfield Police Officer David Joseph Nelson. A young officer who gave his life protecting our community, our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends and to our entire local law enforcement community.

 "This week, the entire California Republican delegation joined together and introduced legislation that will fix the water mismanagement in California that has contributed to worst water crisis in generations. The crisis has transcended regional boundaries in the state and now the pain that our community has suffered over the past few years has no gripped suburban and urban communities throughout California. For years, I have offered and supported solution after solution that has passed the House, which unfortunately the President has opposed and were not enacted into law. But we will not rest until we solve this water crisis. We must act now so that when we are blessed with rain and snow we can capture and store it.

 "This latest proposal achieves four major goals that I have consistently stated must be included in any water bill. They include: 1.) moving water through the Delta; 2.) creating a path for new storage; 3.) protecting the State Water Project; and 4.) preserving state water rights.

  "
This bill is an important step to getting our community the water it needs and the water that we have contracted and paid for. In the coming weeks, this bill will make its way to the floor and will pass out of the House. I believe that the Senate will also follow suit and pass a California water bill. In fact, I have spoken to Senator Feinstein about this bill and our community’s need to have a bill signed into law that actually delivers water. Time is of the essence, and I look forward both sides of the aisle coming together and supporting important solutions that provide the robust economic opportunity our families, farmers, workers and businesses all need.

While the furor over the Confederate flag burns hot, a local black news talk show host questions the rush to tear down monuments in the South to Civil War heroes

 * ... FLAG: The controversy over the Confederate flag is resonating across the country, and it is nowhere as hot as on social media. When Amazon decided to stop selling the flag, I spotted this note on Facebook speaking to the hypocrisy of it all: "Amazon sells a huge variety of shirts, posters, you-name-it featuring the hammer and

sickle, Joseph Stalin’s mustache, all things Che Guevara, Vladimir Lenin and other colorful revolutionaries ... Guevara’s book Guerilla Warfare is on sale in four different formats. In one of the worst genocides in modern times, Stalin forcibly starved Ukrainian peasants in what’s known as the Holodomor, a 'terror-famine' that left anywhere from 2.4 million to 7.5 million Ukrainian peasants dead in 1933."

 * ... MORE FLAG: The feeding frenzy that started with the Confederate battle flag has now moved on to the hundreds of statues of Confederate war heroes that appear throughout the south, as well as schools and streets named after rebel leaders. Is it reasonable to expect that every vestige of the Civil War, from the Southern perspective, be removed from society? I was struck when local talk radio host Ralph Bailey, a conservative African American and host on KERN NewsTalk 96.1 FM, yesterday defended Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate calvary general from Memphis known as the "wizard of the saddle." After the war Forrest became a member of the Ku Klux Klan, but later fully embraced the Union and apologized for his actions, much to the dismay of his fellow Southerners. Said Bailey: "The facts are irrefutable. Forrest experienced a Malcolm X-like racial epiphany. Not only did he walk away from an incredibly lucrative slave trade profession but he addressed a crowd of black pole bearers in 1875 calling for racial equality well documented by The New York Times. He had no political motivation and had to have been vilified by friends and family who viewed blacks as innately inferior. Not only should his bust remain in the Tennessee statehouse but he should be a symbol of change and forgiveness ."

 * .... SOUTH HIGH: If you are a Bakersfield native, you know that the rebel flag was used by South High School to support the "Rebel" athletic teams. Said Ronal Reynier: "Here in Bakersfield we had a similar situation in 1976 when South High School was asked to change the 'Stars & Bars' flag they had been using for 19 years. The proposed flag would be a field of red with SH in gold. It was proposed at the meeting to change it to a field of red with SHS in blue trimmed in white. This was not agreeable to one faction. A student asked to speak. He said that the solution would be to have a new red flag with a gold hammer and sickle. He was suspended from school for five days.

 * ... PERRY: Former Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry was in town the other night for a fund raiser at the Westchester home of Kyle Carter and his wife, Kim McAbee. You can bet Perry will be followed by a parade of other GOP contenders who will be courting some of our area's influential business people.

* ... SPOTTED: A panhandler on a freeway ramp holds a sign proclaiming: "Mostly harmless."

  * ... INDEPENDENCE HIGH: Phyllis Adams dropped me a personal letter to thank a group of Independence High School seniors who have entertained residents at Carriage House Estates. "Glenn Miller era music was played by Richard Gonzales and dancing was enjoyed with students and residents for several hours," she wrote. What a satisfying feeling for teens to plan and enjoy time with their elders. Sharing of those evenings will be long remembered."

 * ... MEMORIES: Joe Chavez wrote with this memory from East Bakersfield: "Does anyone remember Louie the mailman from the 1960s? He delivered in east Bakersfield and he always had a smile. I myself would chase after him when I was waiting for a toy or model kit I ordered. Then it was off to swim at Jefferson park. What wonderful days!"

A couple who burglarized a downtown home are arrested thanks to their pictures being circulated on Facebook, celebrating Hammons Meat market and it's time for another Guitar Masters concert

 * ... SOCIAL MEDIA: You can mark this one as a victory for the good guys. A neighbor's house downtown was burglarized this past weekend and later in the day the intruders came back to finish the job, eyeballing the home from a rear alley. This time the owner was home, snapped a couple of

pictures of the suspects in the alley (a couple in their early 30s, heavily tattooed) that were later circulated first on a neighborhood watch email list and later on Facebook. Within hours the couple was arrested (turns out they were driving a stolen car) and most of the stolen items were recovered. Now that is social media at its best.

 * ... VISITOR: When visitors come to town, how do you entertain them? I had friend from college this weekend and at his request, gave him a tour of the almond groves off Famoso Road and the Kern River oil field. We take this stuff for granted, but for folks from another area of the country, they are awesome sights and a chance to educate them on agriculture and oil. Then, a weekend of our landmark downtown restaurants: dinner at Muertos on Friday and Uricchio's Trattoria the next day, along with the signature Bakersfield event: Saturday lunch at Luigi's. Doesn't get much better than that.

 * ... HAMMONS: And speaking of local family-owned businesses, I had a nice chat the other day with Jenny Hammons, the dynamic 27-year-old who has taken over JJ Hammons Meats, the remarkable meat market founded by her grandfather in 1975. Jenny told me the market has a July Fourth special on rib eyes for $7.59 a pound, a bargain by any standard and almost 50 percent less than other high end meat shops. The special runs from June 24 through July 4. Check Hammons out at 1700 South Union Avenue.

 * ... SPOTTED: A local bumper sticker reads: "Duct tape can't fix stupid, but it sure can muffle the sound."

 * ... MUSIC: Guitar virtuoso Albert Lee is performing tonight (Wednesday) at the Simonsen Performing Arts Center at Bakersfield College. This is part of Rick Kreiser's "Guitar Masters" acts that have become so popular. Tickets at $35 at the door and $18 for students. The fun begins at 7:30 p.m. and Kreiser promises a "surprise" appearance at the concert.

 * ... SCAMS: My post on KERO TV anchor Jackie Parks shutting down a telephone scam brought this response from reader Mike: "I got a laugh out of your article re Jackie Parks and thought you might get the same with an incident that happened to my mother. Years ago she had some furniture in storage. After she had it removed and paid her last bill she thought it was over. It wasn't! The following month she got a bill. She wrote back that the furniture was no longer in storage and to please stop billing her. Next month, same thing. And the next, etc. Finally she wrote them and said
'Please forward all furniture immediately to the following address!' She never heard from them again.                                          

 * ... ACHIEVERS: Louise Scurlock, a proud mother and grandmother, offered the following about some high achieving local products of our local schools: "You might go to Memorial Hospital one day and find Bruce Scurlock M.D.,  his daughter, Kristin Chrisum P.A., and his other daughter Brooke Holmes, R.N., all working there. Maybe son, Joshua Scurlock M.D., from Massachusetts, should be intrigued to come back to Bakersfield and practice. All are graduates of Bakersfield High Schools."

                             

Is the gluten free movement one based on science or hysteria? A CSUB lecturer says it is "rampant nutritional misinformation," more bad form at Starbucks and a good way to support the arts

 * ... GLUTEN: Last week I posted a comment from a reader about what causes gluten intolerance, and it triggered a firestorm of emails. This one, from CSUB lecturer Adam Pennell, sums up how a lot of folks feel: "I am an adjunct lecturer/instructor at CSUB (Department of Physical Education and Kinesiology; Department of Biology) and BC (Department of Health & Physical Education).

One of my biology courses at CSUB has been nutrition for the past three years. My two cents... The gluten-free fad diet has been disproved - by the same scientists who started it (Biesiekierski et al., 2013). Most people do not have Celiac disease and do not even know what gluten is. The true culprit? Rampant nutritional misinformation, sensationalism, and exploitation. Are GMOs (genetically modified organisms) causing food allergies? Plain and simple, we need more high-caliber research. If increased FDA involvement is what you think we need, look into the supplement industry. I have a presentation that would scare you silly."

* ... BAD FORM: Shame on the driver at the Starbucks on Ming and Ashe who unleashed a torrent of vulgarities on fellow driver Toni De Rosa. Toni was trying to park her car while maneuvering through the drive-through line when the other driver, a young woman, "jammed her foot on the gas and almost hit me by sideswiping my car for fear I might pull in line ahead of her... She started screaming and yelling as I drove through. I could hear her through my rolled-up window.
I just want this rude person to know I saw her and I was not trying to steal her spot in the line - I was just parking my car. She almost caused a collision because of her unnecessary fear of losing her place in line... Please let your readers know your spot in line is not worth an accident and yes, some people are rude and what goes around comes around. They will get theirs when they least expect it."

 * ... GRADUATIONS: Stephen A. Montgomery has a solution for those people who disrupt local graduations. "It seems we can’t get through a graduation ceremony without a bunch of low life types making an ugly embarrassing scene. Seating should be arranged and security staff should be on hand to remove the bad behaviors. There needs to be accountability for such unjustifiable and selfish behavior. One idea is, stop the ceremony, on the PA announce that there are some ill behaved people in the audience who have interrupted the ceremony and after they are removed and order is resumed the ceremony will resume."

 * ... CONCERTS: Want to support the arts? Then you might consider joining the Bakersfield Community Concert Association, a group that offers some of the best concerts in town at a reasonable price. All its concerts are held at Rabobank Theater and feature everything from Grammy-nominated song writers to jazz quartets. Season tickets for all eight concerts are $80 for adults, $34 for full time college students and $24 for students through high school. For details check it out at www.bakersfieldcca.org.

 * ... GOOD FORM: Darlyn Baker sent a shout out to city work crews for making the best of a bad situation. "Recently, a vehicle ran through a wrought iron fence into the garage of a condemned house at Spruce and 24th St. The plywood used to close up the opening has been painted the two tone colors of the house.  How nice for the city to make the most of a bad situation.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Father's Day

House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy gives us his weekly report. In his words:

 "This week was marred by senseless tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina and Judy and I send our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their loved ones during this time of grief.
 As the weekend rapidly approaches, I want to take a moment to thank all the dads this Father’s Day weekend. My father Owen was a tremendous role model in our family, and while he left us too soon, he taught us many important values and lessons that I have sought to pass on to my children.
 "Being a father has been the most rewarding and will be the most important job I will ever have.  Fathers throughout our community go above and beyond to provide for their families and children. They devote time and energy to ensure that their children can have every opportunity they can dream of. And I know that like my father, they try to instill in their children the foundation for them to succeed in the future.
 "Many of our dads will be away from their families serving our country, and we keep them in our thoughts and prayers as they sacrifice for all of us.
 "This Father’s Day, let us take a moment to say thank you to the father figures in our lives that have helped us along the way.

Rachel Dolezal's confused identify provides plenty of fodder for social media, local anchor Jackie Parks shuts down a scammer and yet more on that mulch scam

 * ... SCAMS: KERO TV anchor Jackie Parks is not one to be trifled with, and her response to a would-be telephone scammer is priceless. Said Jackie: "I keep getting a call from a guy claiming to

be from Microsoft. I must have hung up on him five or six times. But one day I answered and said, 'No you're not (from Microsoft) and you know you're not. Why can't you apply your intelligence to something useful and stop trying to rip people off?' I haven't heard from him since."

 * ... MULCH SCAM: I have been writing about the local gardener who goes from house to house selling mulch, and then scamming folks by charging four to five times the original estimate. Local Realtor Walt Newport said he dealt with the same people recently. "Richard, I read your article this morning about the scam artist that quotes you a price for mulch then before job is done shows you the empty bags he used. Then he sells you more to get the job done knowing you won't leave it unfinished. The first time they came by I turned them down. The next time we were in front yard flower bed and they came by again. I had them quote the job and after they measured what they would need I agreed. I left the front yard for a few minutes and when I came back to front they tried to pull the scam showing me 20 empty bags. They were less than half done. I raised my voice and said they were trying to scam me and I wasn't falling for it. I told them to finish the job at the price they quoted me or rake up their mulch and leave. They finished the job and left. By the way our flowers are thriving better than ever."

 * ... GLUTEN: Dr. Gerald Tadej responded to my post about gluten with this: "I understand your column is just for laughs, but 'modern bread' is much different than what our ancestor’s ate 30,000 years ago. Your re-tweet is off by a few years, but the recent allergies are due to GMOs (genetically modified organisms). Much of our food supply has been genetically modified and is now being shown to be harmful to humans. Monsanto did not do this on purpose, they modified our foods to increase profits and the FDA does not require testing. A good book for you to read is 'Wheat Belly' by Dr. Richard Davis or 'Brain Grain' by Dr. David Purlmutter."

 * ... SPOTTED: Lots of feedback on social media on the strange story of the seriously nutty Rachel Dolezal, the white woman and NAACP executive who has been posing as black. On Twitter was this: "I eat at Chipotle twice a week. Therefore, I identify myself as being Mexican." (Dolezal also claimed she grew up in a teepee and her parents hunted for food with bows and arrows, providing yet more fodder for comedians and critics)

 * ... DOLEZAL: And speaking of Dolezal, my friend Peter Wonderly posted this on Facebook: "With all this talk about transgender and transracial issues I think it is time to come clean with my secret. I'm transfinancial, and that means I am a rich man born in a poor man's body." And the hits keep coming.

 * ... OVERHEARD: A middle aged man is sharing this story with a colleague: "Our neighbor is the scourge of the neighborhood. Every weekend her son has a party and the street is littered with beer cans. I pick them up and toss them on her lawn."

 * ... SUMMER READING: Looking for a quick read next time you are on the beach? Check out Kent Haruf's "Our Souls at Night," a bittersweet story of two people coming together later in life and dealing with the challenges that come their way.

 * ... ACHIEVER: The American Petroleum Institute handed out some scholarships recently and one of the recipients was Kolby Buller, a Liberty High graduate who is now in his third year studying mechanical engineering at San Diego State University. Thanks to his proud grandparents, Rick and Erma Giachino, for alerting me to this achievement.

A reader shares the uplifting story of rescuing a starving pit bull, more on those gardening scams about town and just what is a transracial person?

 * ... STRAY PIT: For every sad story about dogs being abandoned by their owners there are folks like Beth Morse who give us hope. Morse shared her story of rescuing a blue pitiful that she found in her neighborhood, skinny and starving after giving birth to a litter. (She submitted an

adorable picture of her grand daughter cuddling with the pit) "She was as thick through as my index finger is long. She weighed 35 pounds. After a night in my side yard with food and a bed I introduced her to my dogs while I figured out what to do with her. Keeping her on a leash for my dogs protection, she stepped on the lead and just froze, never trying to take another step. I knew then she had been staked out somewhere and had quit trying to walk around. We figure she was so starved the puppies didn't survive and since she wasn't a good breeder (although being a 'rare blue') it was easier to dump her. She suffered a dislocated hip and had been so hungry she had eaten a corncob which lodged in her intestine. Today, three and a half years later, Lucy Loo Loo is a wonderful part of my daughter's family."

 * ... STRAYS: And Carol Knapp added this: "It is sad to hear about all the abuses to the animals in our county and even sadder to know that that the idiots that commit the abuses more than likely are illiterate and can't read the paper. We need to have more public announcements in regards to spay and neutering dogs and cats on multiple ethnic radio stations in Kern County."

 * ... SCAMS: More on local scams thanks to reader Carol Craig: "Richard thank you for reporting on the mulch scam happening. Unfornately they got us in the fall of last year but for a lot more money, $1,100. They also stated we would not have weeds which was not true. I would like to warn folks of another scam going around. I have received calls from a group stating they are calling from Geek Squad and of course there are problems with your computer. They sound like the same folks that would call and stated they were from Microsoft. Of course I contacted Geek Squad and they don’t make random calls and of course neither does Microsoft."

 * ... GROVE: Now that Assemblywoman Shannon Grove has denied linking God's anger to the California drought, I hope we can put this episode behind us. And as reader Susan St. Laurent reminded me: "It made me think of this quote from Thomas Merton: 'Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him.'"

 * ... SPOTTED: On a lighter note I spotted this on Twitter: "Isn’t it weird that after 30,000 years of eating bread, everyone is gluten allergic now?"

 * ... NAACP: And there was this from Baxter Canfield on the story of the Spokane, Wash., NCAAP president who has been posing as an African American: "I just heard that Rachel Dolezal is a new 'trans' now. It is 'transracial' when a person from one race identifies with another race. I feel left out so I created my own 'trans' called 'transager.' This is where one person is old and thinks he/she is still young."

 * ... GOOD SERVICE: Nancy and Jim Bryant wrote to give a shout out to Southwest Garage which has taken care of their family cars for more than 30 years. "Southwest Garage exemplifies a business who persists in getting the job done. We have always been impressed by their service, but this goes way beyond our expectations."

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy rips California's high speed rail, "a project that takes time and money" away from drought relief

 House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy gives us his weekly view from Capitol Hill:

“They act like they have an unlimited purse.”

 "No, not the LA Dodgers. Instead, that’s a Southern California resident talking about Democrat leaders in Sacramento and Washington and their willfully blind support of the flawed California

High-Speed Rail project.
 "California is a land with abundant resources that has given opportunity and hope to so many who came west to establish a new and better way of life. But the status quo is not always sustainable.
 "Just because California is a land of plenty doesn’t mean we can waste our resources and taxpayer dollars. But that is exactly what is being done with California High-Speed Rail—a project that takes time and money away from what is truly needed, like drought relief.
 "Since being presented to the voters, California High-Speed Rail costs have exploded, ridership estimates have shrunk, and speed projections have been questioned when analyzed by engineering’s brightest minds.
 "At the same time, our state has endured the worst drought in a century that has been exacerbated by planning and judgment errors from government leaders. And years into the crisis, infrastructure and long-term solutions are nowhere to be seen.
 "The big problem in California is that time and money that should be spent responding to the drought has instead been wasted on a boondoggle that California residents don’t even want.
 "Residents up and down the high-speed rail route—from blue-collar suburbs to city centers—are coming out in protest to the project, which would negatively affect dozens of schools, churches, and parks along with tens of thousands of homes.
 "But the negative impacts stretch beyond areas near the tracks. Current estimates state that the high-speed rail project will cost over twice as much as the original plan voters approved in 2008. Private investment that was promised remains nonexistent and Republicans in Congress are committed to not putting another federal taxpayer dollar to this flawed project.
 "Just last week, the House of Representatives passed a transportation bill that blocks federal funding for the California High-Speed Rail project. Since taking the majority in the House, Republicans have been committed to ensure hardworking Americans’ tax dollars aren’t wasted on projects that don’t reflect today’s reality or tomorrow’s potential.
 "But just imagine what could be done if the energy used in pursuit of this fundamentally flawed project was instead used to help relieve the drought. Water storage projects that never got off the ground could have actually been built and more water could be flowing to people’s homes, farms, and neighborhoods.
 "Former Representative Tom Campbell has the right idea, and put it very simply in the OC Register: “California should take the money going to Gov. Jerry Brown’s train and use it to build more water storage.” If the governor did that, we could take advantage of the next rainstorms and the winter snow pack to make sure Californians get the water they need, not the train nobody wants.