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A California couple died in a car crash Tuesday after fleeing from immigration officials, police said. Santo Garcia, 35, and Marcelina Profecto, 33, died at the scene in rural Kern County after their speeding SUV crashed into a power pole and overturned , Delano police said. Police determined the couple was fleeing from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who tried to stop their vehicle. The driver pulled over, but then began speeding after the agents flashed their emergency lights and got out of their vehicle, police said. The couple, who has six children, was out looking for work when they...

Los Angeles Rams defensive end Ethan Westbrooks was arrested Friday night on suspicion of carrying a loaded stolen firearm, according to California Highway Patrol records obtained by NFL.com. Westbrooks was arrested on five felony charges of receiving stolen property, carrying a loaded firearm, carrying a stolen loaded firearm, grand theft of a firearm and possession of a high capacity magazine, according to police records. Westbrooks was arrested without incident following a traffic stop on Interstate 5 west of Bakersfield, California. According to the police report, the arresting officer stopped Westbrooks after he noticed him driving at a high rate of...

Two men were fatally shot inside a medical marijuana shop on Chester Avenue Wednesday, marking what may be the first homicides to occur inside a pot dispensary in Kern County. Bakersfield police spokeswoman Michaela Beard said the department received a call at 9:49 a.m. of a shooting inside First Reliable, a medical marijuana collective at 217 Chester Ave. Officers found two people dead inside. Beard said a dark-colored SUV was seen speeding from the area with a black male driver and an unknown race female passenger.

Reporting from Taft, Calif.— Anywhere else, linking an aromatic cup of coffee and a gooey glob of oil would quickly kill a restaurant. Not so in Taft, Calif., the Taft Crude Coffee House is a popular stop for hot coffee or iced mocha. And in an era when oil spills tend to be environmental disasters, people here are happy to provide directions to the Lakeview Gusher, even though it spewed more than 9 million barrels of oil, nearly twice the amount spilled in 2010 from the Deepwater Horizon, the ill-fated British Petroleum rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Over 18...

Building a high-speed rail maintenance facility in Shafter or Wasco would create between 1,520 and 2,170 Kern jobs, and would support an additional 1,990 positions in the county once it reached full capacity, according to an economic impact report made public last week. The 24-page study is intended to build public backing for the two proposals. It was paid for by the Kern Council of Governments at a cost of $75,000, and prepared by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. While there remain questions as to whether the California High-Speed Rail project will ultimately run all the way between...

Supervisor Ray Watson was even more clear that he wants answers as to the money mystery, "We didn't know where were by about 35 million dollars and that's a real concern."

Dust storms that fouled Kern County’s air in May could mean months of delay for two major Kern County freeway projects. A project to widen Highway 46 from Holloway Road west to Highway 33 at Blackwells Corner will almost certainly be delayed for five months or more, said Ron Brummett, executive director of the Kern Council of Governments. And the Westside Parkway in Bakersfield, a freeway that’s to run west from a point near Highway 99 to Heath Road, might also be delayed if dickering over air quality standards goes on too long. The Environmental Protection Agency, Brummett said, is...

At least two counties in California have begun reviewing a plan to uphold the state's laws regarding marriage as being between one man and one woman and disregard a state Supreme Court opinion that has yet to be implemented by the Legislature. In the next step in the state's war over marriage – defined by voters as involving only one man and one woman and by the Supreme Court as two people of either gender – traditional marriage supporters will be attending the Kern County board of supervisors meeting tomorrow when the issue will be discussed. In an alert from...

A Kern County dairy violated the federal Clean Air Act when it built a new plant before obtaining an air permit and complying with the latest air pollution requirements, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment sued C&R Vanderham Dairy nearly two years ago in U.S. District Court in Fresno, claiming the dairy needed to apply for an air permit before beginning construction. The plaintiffs argued that volatile organic compounds in decomposing dairy manure, livestock feed, and cows' digestive systems contributed to the region's polluted air. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District...

The drama Even if Measure E passes overwhelmingly — as expected — Kern’s fight to keep imported sewage sludge off local farmland will be far from over. A coalition of Southern California sewage districts and private-industry interests is waiting in the wings to take legal action after votes are counted. For betting types, the real question might be: How many hours until the first lawsuit is filed? The background At its root, Kern’s battle over sludge is something of a David-and-Goliath struggle. Since the mid-1990s, Southland cities and counties have been trucking their treated human and industrial sewage over the...

Local workers fear immigration sweeps Posted 4/28/06 BAKERSFIELD - For the past couple of weeks, there has been concern over immigration sweeps taking place country-wide including those in Kern County. Though KGET-17 news has not been able to find anyone who was arrested, the fear is running rampant that Border Patrol Agents are showing up at workplaces to deport people in large numbers. But, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says it is not doing anything out of the ordinary. However, as rumors continue to fly about deportation, some people are taking extra precaution. For the past several days immigrants,...

BUTTONWILLOW, Calif. (AP) - Kern County authorities arrested a teacher today on charges that she had a sexual relationship with one of her 12-year-old students. Authorities say Sherry Brians, a 41-year-old teacher at Buttonwillow School, had been under investigation since before Christmas. The 12-year-old boy's mother went to authorities after finding a letter in her son's backpack that indicated the two had a romantic and physical relationship at the school.

SACRAMENTO — “So you’re a reporter,” the salesman said as we sat in the little room. He was just trying to break the silence as we waited for his boss to come back and tell me that my offer for their overpriced car was too low. “What’s it like down there at the Capitol,” he asked. “Is it just all corruption?” That was several weeks ago. But I thought about the salesman when I read about Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham pleading guilty to taking at least $2.4 million in bribes. Probably no one is more representative of middle America than...

What kind of legacy will Kern County's longtime Republican congressman, Bill Thomas, leave behind? There is no indication that retirement is in the near future for the volatile politician known for his razor-sharp intellect, temper tantrums and heavy-handed control of Kern County Republican politics. Thomas declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story. But as Thomas approaches his 64th birthday, on Dec. 6, speculation about his place in the history of Kern County and the nation has gotten a jump-start. It was prompted by the federal transportation spending bill, which was unveiled a few weeks ago and quickly passed...

Kern County Superior Court Judge Stephen P. Gildner, the court's former presiding judge, was given a rare public admonishment by the California Commission on Judicial Performance Wednesday for throwing defendants in jail without just cause and pressuring other defendants to take plea deals. The commission found that Gildner issued warrants and took three people into custody without cause because they did not show up in court when he thought they should. Two incidents happened in 2001 and one in 2003. The commission wrote Gildner had no reason to believe two of the men were notified they should show up in...

Mayor Juan Alvarez (Arvin CA, near Bakersfield) was arrested on 5 felony child molestation counts one day before election day. Alvarez is a one-term mayor running for reelection.

Bakersfield Neighborhood Covered In Oil Homes Ruined By Oil Spill POSTED: 7:56 p.m. PDT April 16, 2004 BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A malfunctioning oil well left a west Bakersfield neighborhood covered in black, KERO reported. Residents of Sunnybank Avenue didn't strike oil -- it struck them. Oil soaked trees, covered driveways and destroyed lawns. Ted Sisco's home was covered in oil. "It's a mess. How do you replace mature trees?" Sisco told KERO. Oil shot into the sky Thursday, leaving homes covered in oil. Officials evacuated 10 homes for several hours. A $750,000 home will likely have to be torn...

Police: 10-Year-Old Driving For Drinker Man Faces DUI, Contributing To Delinquency And Child Endangerment Charges POSTED: 3:46 p.m. PST March 8, 2004 BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A man who allegedly had a few too many drinks decided he shouldn't drive drunk -- and so handed off his car keys to his underage companions, police said. Lionel Cerda told officers that he had been nodding off, so he first let a 14-year-old drive. B>But when police pulled the car over after midnight on Saturday, they found Cerda in the front seat, with empty bottles at his feet, the 14-year-old in the...

For more than a decade, Kern County farmers and water officials have been complaining bitterly about irrigation water they lost when federal agencies began diverting it to protect endangered fish. Now, a court has ruled that federal agencies must pay for water they took for environmental protection in the early 1990s, an estimated $26 million. In a case that could leave the government liable in other programs around the country, a federal claims court judge in Washington, D.C., has given agricultural and urban water agencies a major victory.The ruling is a blow to environmentalists and federal environmental officials who argued...

. It all surrounds a patrol car, which carried a message some found offensive. The car decal said, "We'll Kick Your Ass".It is the kind of stunt that could have quickly been put to rest.Instead it has prompted a flood of editorial letters to the Bakersfield Californian with mixed reviews on what the sticker said.There is still plenty of controversy over how the sheriff handled it.It is not the act that gets you in trouble, but whether or not it is a cover-up.There may or may not be a cover-up in this case, but there are a lot of different...