Bakersfield news

• Celebrating National Volunteer Appreciation Week

  16-04-2015 23:42
  
  The week of April 12-18th is National Volunteer Appreciation Week and many organizations are celebrating the volunteers who give so much.
  
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• BPD continues their community meetings tonight

  16-04-2015 23:40
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA - The Bakersfield Police Department is continuing its series of community meetings, designed to let people know about changes in how they patrol.
  According to BPD officials, they have geographically redrawn patrol areas into six zones instead of the 25 beats it had before.     This is part of an on-going effort to make the department more efficient and to reduce response times to calls for police assistance.
  The next meeting for the Southwest Zone is Thursday nigh
  
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• Shafter police shoot knife wielding man

  16-04-2015 23:25
  
  A man armed with a knife in the alley near west Lerdo Highway and Wall St. lunged at a Shafter police officer causing the officer to fatally shoot him according to Deputy Chief Brian Smith with the Shafter Police Department. 
  
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• Suspects wanted for attempted burglary of convenience store

  16-04-2015 23:10
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA - The Bakersfield Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying and locating two suspects wanted for attempted robbery.
  The incident happened on March 8, around 1:25 a.m. at the Fastrip store located at 1801 White Ln. 
  According to BPD, the suspects reportedly left the store with two 18-count packs of beer without paying.
  The store clerk reportedly made contact with one of the suspects and a physical fight ensued. 
  Both suspects eventually e
  
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• Officer-involved shooting in Shafter

  16-04-2015 23:05
  
  Deputies with the Kern County Sheriff's Office have confirmed an officer-involved shooting around Golden Oak Elementary School in Shafter, near the intersection of W Lerdo Hwy and Wall St.
  
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• Shafter Police shot and kill person

  16-04-2015 23:03
  
  SHAFTER, CA- Shafter Police confirm they shot and killed a suspect Thursday afternoon.Police have a called a 3:00 p.m. press conference at the Shafter Police Department to brief the media.The incident happened just across the street from Golden Oaks Elementary.
   
  Officials at Golden Oak Elementary say the School was on lockdown for about an hour during the incident.By our count this is the 29th fatal officer involved shooting in Kern County since the beginning of 2012 and the 6th fata
  
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• Shafter Police shoot and kill person

  16-04-2015 23:03
  
  SHAFTER, CA- Shafter Police confirm they shot and killed a suspect Thursday afternoon.Police have a called a 3:00 p.m. press conference at the Shafter Police Department to brief the media.The incident happened just across the street from Golden Oaks Elementary.
   
  Officials at Golden Oak Elementary say the School was on lockdown for about an hour during the incident.By our count this is the 29th fatal officer involved shooting in Kern County since the beginning of 2012 and the 6th fata
  
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• Aera CEO set to step down

  16-04-2015 22:21
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA - The president and chief executive officer of Aera Energy is stepping down.
  The company announced Thursday morning that Gaurdie E. Banister Jr's resignation will be effective in mid July.     Banister joined Aera in December 2007, following a stint as vice president - technical for Shell International's Asia Pacific region based in Singapore with responsibilities for drilling and development activities in southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.   &nb
  
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• HSR meeting tonight in Wasco

  16-04-2015 22:12
  
  WASCO. CA - A right of way meeting for the High Speed Rail will be held on Thursday in Wasco.
  The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the Wasco Veterans Hall, located at 1202 Poplar St.  Bilingual representatives will be available to speak with property owners.
  
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• Meeting tonight to discuss groundwater management

  16-04-2015 22:09
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA - A public workshop is set for Thursday evening, detailing the sustainable groundwater management act.
  Rosedale Rio Bravo Water Storage district general manager Eric Averett will discuss local sustainability efforts and how those efforts affect our county.     about 30 million Californians rely on groundwater for a portion of their drinking water.      Groundwater provides about 40 percent of the state's total annual water supply, depending on
  
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• Cellmate of former NFL player died from being strangled

  16-04-2015 21:51
  BAKERSFIELD, CA - A Kern Valley State Prison inmate who died over the weekend was reportedly strangled, according to the coroner's office.
  According to the coroner's report, 37-year-old Damion Soward was found unresponsive in his cell on Saturday at 12:46 a.m.     Soward was transported to Delano Regional Medical Center where he died Sunday.
  Prison officials said the suspect in the case is Soward's cellmate, 39-year-old Lawrence Phillips.     Phillips is a former N
  
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• Bright House phone service outage due to IP system

  16-04-2015 21:47
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA - A phone service outage that affected all Bright House customers has to do with the company's voice over IP system, according to a Bright House representative.The outage affected all Bright House divisions, including parts of Florida and Indianapolis, according to the representative.There is no word yet on how many customers in Bakersfield were impacted.
  
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• Local high school senior awarded prestigious scholarship

  16-04-2015 21:35
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA - A local high school senior has been awarded a prestigious scholarship, beating out competitors across the nation.East Bakersfield High School senior Heide Gutierrez is one of 305 students in the country to be selected as a 2015 Dell Scholar. The Dell scholarship program provides students with resources throughout their college career.“Well beyond the financial support of $20,000, a laptop and textbook credits, we also provide ongoing support and assistance to addres
  
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• City expected to approve new retail development in Rosedale

  16-04-2015 20:56
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA - The city of Bakersfield's Planning Commission will discuss the development of a new retail center, planned for the Rosedale area.According to the Planning Commission's agenda, Artisan Square investments LLC is proposing a 119,000 square foot retail center to be located at 1201 Allen rd. It is expected that staff will approve the development.The meeting takes place Thursday, April 16, at 1501 Truxtun Ave., beginning at 5:30 p.m.
  
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• Sacramento area couple dies after crash with car carrier on I-5

  16-04-2015 20:26
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA - A man and woman from the Sacramento area have died following a bizarre crash Wednesday southwest of Bakersfield.  The California Highway Patrol says Hugo Paez, 51 of Temecula was driving a car carrier on northbound I-5 near Highway 223 Wednesday afternoon.  Officials say a Land Rover the car carrier was hauling, became detached and fell onto the northbound number 2 lane.  The Land Rover then entered the center median and crossed over the southbound lanes directl
  
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• AERA Energy CEO steps down

  16-04-2015 19:24
  
  Aera Energy LLC today announced that President and CEO Gaurdie E. Banister, Jr. will step down from the position, effective mid-July.
  
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• VIDEO: SpaceX CRS-6 First Stage Landing failed

  16-04-2015 19:04
  
  SpaceX launched a shipment of groceries to the International Space Station on Tuesday, including the first espresso maker bound for orbit. But the company's third attempt to land the leftover booster on an ocean platform failed.
  
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• Badly burned Fresno firefighter continues recovery

  16-04-2015 18:37
  
  FRESNO, CA- A firefighter who suffered serious burns to most of his body after falling through a roof into a burning building is recovering and "smiling" after the latest of several surgeries.Dramatic video filmed on a neighbor's cellphone showed the moment when Captain Pete Dern fell through the roof of a garage in Fresno on March 29.
  He was rescued several minutes later but suffered second and third degree burns to 65 percent of his body.Dern's latest operation involved a treat
  
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• Woman paralyzed by drunk driver speaks to teens

  16-04-2015 18:25
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA- When a person’s decision is to drink and drive, the consequences can be deadly serious.A woman who experienced the consequences of another person's choice to do just that spoke to a room full of young teens Wednesday night. The teens are just learning how to drive.Leann Harris was left paralyzed after a drunk driver slammed into her while she was pumping gas in Bakersfield.Prosecutors say former police officer Kristopher Carter had just fled the scene of another acci
  
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• Police seek suspects in double shooting

  16-04-2015 18:04
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA- A shooting in east Bakersfield left two men in the hospital Wednesday night and police are still looking for suspects.Officers responded to a report of shots fired around 9:15 p.m. in the 700 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard near Potomac.There they found two men who had been shot.The men were taken to Kern Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.Police say the suspects left the area in a green or black four-door vehicle.If you have any information
  
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• Experimental stunt plane crashes near Tejon Ranch

  16-04-2015 17:43
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA  - There still no word on who was at the controls of an experimental stunt plane that crashed near Tejon Ranch on Wednesday.
  A Tejon Ranch hand was the first to discover the wreckage Wednesday morning.     The crash site is in steep terrain, on private property, east of Interstate 5, about five miles from El Tejon Middle School.
  According to county fire officials, the plane and its pilot were reported missing several days ago, though a name has not been relea
  
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• A local stylist loans prom dresses to girls

  16-04-2015 16:14
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA.-Know a young girl getting ready for the prom? She'll want to hear this. Instead of buying a designer gown, a local stylist is renting dresses for a fraction of the cost. While the amount Americans spend on prom has declined in recent years, the price is still high and the west coast spends the most. But thanks to a local stylist with a business under a year old, girls can spend much less on that designer dress. The 2014 visa prom spending survey says U.S. househo
  
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• Local shoe store kicks off annual shoe drive

  16-04-2015 15:24
  
  Guarantee Shoe Center will start collecting donations for the Bakersfield Homeless Center, today. 
  
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• Homeless still living on vacant property

  16-04-2015 08:53
  
  It's been six days since the city of Bakersfield tore down the wall and fence at the homeless camp on union avenue known as "tent city."
  
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• Attorney: Serial rapes the work of multiple perpetrators who remain at large

  16-04-2015 07:19
  
  The series of rapes in east Bakersfield during the summer of 2013 were perpetrated by at least three, probably four people, Deputy Public Defender Paul Cadman told jurors Wednesday. Not one of those perpetrators is Billy Ray Johnson, he said, and those responsible for the crimes are likely sitting at home keeping tabs on Johnson's trial and laughing.
  
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• Westside Parkway's final phase opens to drivers

  16-04-2015 07:12
  
  The freshly strewn wood chips along its broad shoulders are a little browner, the drought-resistant seed cover on its median a little more tan, and its chain link fences much more silvery.
  But the drive along the Westside Parkway's final two miles between Allen Road and the intersection of Stockdale Highway and Heath Road -- which opened to traffic late Wednesday afternoon with a ribbon-cutting -- offers very much the same smooth ride as its first five miles.
  
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• 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW: Today’s guide to the obscure, the possibly relevant and things in between

  16-04-2015 07:03
  
  1. Daniel Ellsberg, who ­became famous (or infamous, depending on one’s perspective) in 1971 for giving The New York Times damning, top-secret government documents about the Vietnam War — documents thereafter known as the Pentagon Papers — spoke to a packed house in Bakersfield on Wednesday night as part of the Kegley Institute of Ethics’ lecture series. Most of what Ellsberg said was serious stuff — government snooping, allegiance to the Constitution over less
  
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• THE GRADE: Teachers approve tentative raises

  16-04-2015 06:50
  
  BCSD TEACHERS PASS RAISES: Most of the 933 Bakersfield City School District teachers who voted Tuesday on a new contract gave it and the two 3.5 percent raises it comes with an overwhelming yes during voting at Sequoia Middle School. That’s yes to a 7 percent salary increase shelled out over two years; yes to a week-long Thanksgiving break; and yes to the district paying teachers’ health care costs.
  
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• Renteria officially joins Clinton presidential campaign team

  16-04-2015 06:38
  
  Sanger Democrat Amanda Renteria, who returned home to the central San Joaquin Valley to try and oust Hanford Republican David Valadao from Congress, has officially joined Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. Renteria, 40, will be Clinton's national political director, which is widely considered one of the top campaign posts for the former first lady and New York senator, who is seeking the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential nomination.
  
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• Alon stock deal won't impact Bakersfield refinery for at least one year

  16-04-2015 06:24
  
  A stock transaction announced this week will give a Tennessee-based company a 48 percent stake in the ownership of the refinery on Rosedale Highway, but the deal is not expected to have any immediate effect on plans to upgrade the plant. Delek US Holdings Inc. said Tuesday it will pay $572.4 million in cash, stock and promissory notes to buy all of Alon Israel Oil Co. Ltd.'s 33.7 million shares of Dallas-based Alon USA Energy Inc., which owns the idled, 70,000-barrel-per-day refinery on Rose
  
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• Plane crash site discovered Wednesday, 1 death known

  16-04-2015 06:22
  
  A Pitts biplane that was reported missing Tuesday crashed near El Tejon Middle School and at least one person has died, officials said Wednesday. The plane was being flown from Bakersfield to Blythe, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor. The FAA does not identify crew or passengers in airplane crashes, he said.
  
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• PHOTO STORY: Heron goes in for the kill

  16-04-2015 06:13
  
  Photojournalist Felix Adamo thought he had the makings of a nice nature shot when he zeroed in on a great blue heron at Hart Park this week. He got more than he bargained for, however, when the heron spotted a nest of ground squirrels and made a predatory approach. Shades of National Geographic! Adamo snapped off a drama of life and death as the heron grabbed and then ­swallowed whole the unfortunate squirrel.
  
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• First ever 'Canstruction' arrives in Bakersfield

  16-04-2015 06:04
  
  You were probably told not to play with your food when you were growing up, but what about building with it? 
  
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• Viewer helps change apperance of city park

  16-04-2015 04:36
  
  A concerned viewer reached out to 23ABC after seeing the torn and tattered state and national flags at State Farm Sports Village located in southwest Bakersfield.
  
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• Union: Kern Regional Center CEO must resign

  16-04-2015 03:59
  
  Union workers at the Kern Regional Center picketed their workplace Wednesday, calling for the resignation of the organization’s CEO.
  
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• Final phase of Westside Parkway now open

  16-04-2015 03:45
  
  Officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday beneath the Renfro Road Bridge for the final phase of the Westside Parkway.
  
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• Man who clubbed 925 chickens sentenced to jail

  16-04-2015 03:22
  
  A judge has sentenced an 18-year-old man to 120 days in jail forclubbing 925 Foster Farms chickens to death in Fresno last year.
  
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• REPORT: 1 dead in plane crash near Lebec

  16-04-2015 03:22
  
  A person is dead after investigators with the Kern County Sheriff's Office found debris of what they believe to be a plane crash near Lebec. 
  
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• Marine helicopter is forced to land on California beach

  16-04-2015 03:19
  
  A Marine Corps helicopter twice the size of a humpback whale made an emergency landing on a Southern California beach on Wednesday, bringing no damages or injuries but leaving an unforgettable spectacle for surrounding swimmers and sunbathers.
  
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• Stadium plan for Chargers, Raiders near Los Angeles advances

  16-04-2015 03:17
  
  Organizers said sufficient petition signatures have been verified by election officials to qualify the proposal for the ballot in Carson, where the project would be built on a former landfill.
  
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• Closing arguments continue in case of alleged masked rapist

  16-04-2015 03:14
  
  BAKERSFIELD, CA - Closing arguments for the defense began Wednesday morning in the trial of accused masked rapist, Billy Ray Johnson. Johnson is accused of raping multiple women in east Bakersfield in the summer of 2013. His defense team, Deputy Public Defenders, T.J. Brewer and Paul Cadman, worked to disprove those allegations by breaking down the evidence and the victim's accounts.
  Defense closing argument started off with Power Point presentation by Deputy Public Defender, T.J
  
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• Disney-linked measles outbreak soon to be over in California

  16-04-2015 03:07
  
  The outbreak will be declared over in California on Friday if no new cases pop up, according to the California Department of Public Health.
  
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• Want to save water? A man may have the answer

  16-04-2015 03:05
  
  While Governor Jerry Brown is calling for a 25% state wide water use reduction, one local man wants you to know about a system that can help you cut back even more.
  
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• 5-year roadkill effort tracks California's deadliest roads

  16-04-2015 02:57
  
  Busy freeways running alongside park land and marshes make San Francisco Bay Area roads a "ring of death" for wildlife, according to a new statewide roadkill report that tracks the deadliest traffic spots for wildlife.
  
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• Trial opening in 1995 killing tied to psychology professor

  16-04-2015 02:57
  
  A prosecutor on Wednesday urged jurors to convict an Orange County man of kidnapping and killing another man 20 years ago and leaving his bloodied body on the side of a road after his then-girlfriend said he had raped her.
  
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• California grapples with where sex offenders can reside

  16-04-2015 02:47
  
  California cities and counties are grappling with how far they can go to restrict where sex offenders can live amid a shifting legal landscape.
  
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• Bakersfield-born horse trainer Mike Mitchell dies of brain cancer at 66

  16-04-2015 02:27
  
  Mike Mitchell, the all-time leading thoroughbred trainer at Del Mar racetrack with 476 victories, has died after a long struggle with brain cancer. He was 66.
  
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• Range Rover comes off back of car-hauler, causes crash on I-5

  16-04-2015 01:30
  
  California Highway Patrol Sgt. Chris Carr said a Range Rover came off the back of a northbound car-hauler Wednesday afternoon. The Range Rover rolled through the freeway divider and hit a southbound Toyota Corolla.
  
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• I-5 traffic snarled after crash south of Bakersfield

  16-04-2015 01:30
  
  Traffic is snarled on southbound Interstate 5 near Millux Road south of Bakersfield after a two-vehicle crash.
  
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• Funeral Services for April 16

  16-04-2015 01:23
  
  Services scheduled
  Connie Bartlett, 61, Bakersfield, April 13. Service 10 a.m. April 20, Hillcrest Memorial Chapel. Hillcrest Memorial Park & Mortuary.
  
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