Laura Lanfrey, Reporter

November 9, 2018 • No Comments

Shannon Grove claimed the Republican win for California’s sixteenth Senate District as of election night, Nov. 6. The sixteenth Senate District consists of several cities across the Kern, Tulare and San Bernardino counties of the Central Valley. With over 900,000 people, it is one of the largest districts in the state. The two candidates, Republican Shannon Grove, and Democrat Ruth Musser-Lopez focused their campaigns around job creation and solving water issues in the Central Valley. Grove is an Arvin High School graduate and a military veteran, having served in the Headquarters Company 5th Corps for three years. She began a temporary staffing agency with her sister-in-law where she helps people acquire jobs. To Musser-Lopez, this...

Bryana Lozoya, Reporter

November 9, 2018 • No Comments

The Southern California American Civil Liberties Union (SoCal ACLU) marked the opening of its new office in Kern County with a press conference at the Kern County Liberty Bell on Nov. 1. Community engagement policy advocate Rosa Lopez and staff attorney Jordan Wells are first staffers to the new office. Lopez commented that the office will later gain three people to join their team: another attorney, a paralegal, and a community organizer. ACLU SoCal, founded in 1923, was the first affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU defends the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the United States Constitution. They advocate for free speech, gender equity, immigrants’ and LGBT rights, among many others. Other offices...

Bryana Lozoya, Reporter

November 9, 2018 • No Comments

The unofficial results for the Kern County’s 2018 midterm election arrived early Wednesday morning. Multiple measures for cities like Bakersfield, Arvin, Wasco, Tehachapi, and McFarland were on the ballot. According to the California Secretary of State website’s county reporting status, the unofficial count of ballots that were cast in Kern County was more than 132,000, making it a 35 percent voter turnout for this year’s midterm general election. Results for two Kern and one Bakersfield cannabis measure, J, K, and O, all failed to pass by large margins. Measure J got a 61.71 percent for a no vote with only 38.29 percent voting yes. If passed, Measure J would have legalized medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas...