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A clear sky. Low 71F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph..
A clear sky. Low 71F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy introduces President Trump, who visited Bakersfield Feb. 19 to sign his administration's reworking of environmental regulations that will direct more of the state's water to farmers and other agriculture interests in the Central Valley.
Hal Bopp in his comet guise
Hal Bopp of Bakersfield, now retired, was the state oil and gas supervisor for the California Department of Conservation.
Herb Benham on his rocker: Now he's the man.
Contact Robert Price at rprice@bakersfield.com or on Twitter: @stubblebuzz.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy introduces President Trump, who visited Bakersfield Feb. 19 to sign his administration's reworking of environmental regulations that will direct more of the state's water to farmers and other agriculture interests in the Central Valley.
Hal Bopp in his comet guise
Hal Bopp of Bakersfield, now retired, was the state oil and gas supervisor for the California Department of Conservation.
Herb Benham on his rocker: Now he's the man.
Reader: I have always thought that Bob Price's 1997 article comparing the Hale-Bopp comet to local resident Hal Bopp — wait a minute, that's me! — was his finest work ("The Big Boppers: Hale-Bopp, the comet, has startling similarities to Hal Bopp, the oil guy," April 3, 1997). But columnist Herb Benham has confirmed it, so it must be bona fide ("Goodbye, Bob; welcome up-and-comers," Feb. 18).
Bob is the consummate newspaper person, and I'm glad we're not completely losing him as a columnist with The Californian. Always professional, always fair, always well-researched and always willing to give the other person a platform to express themselves. He exemplifies the adage that, "You have a right to your own opinion but not your own facts."
My mom — who is still alive and well, and sharp as ever — alerted me that a new comet had been discovered and if it amounted to anything, might generate some interest because it was very close to my name. It was discovered by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp on the night of July 22, 1995. The Hale-Bopp comet. In the spring of 1997, when Hale-Bopp was putting on quite a show, Mom bought me a T-shirt, and Bob Price called.
Bob was thinking about writing an article and had this idea for doing a "tale of the tape," relying on his background as a sportswriter and the comparison they would do between two boxers listing height, weight and reach. Since this was going to be my 15 minutes of fame, I said "sure." I donned my Hale-Bopp T-shirt on the day The Californian sent a staff photographer over. I could tell the photographer, Ed Homich, didn't feel this was his greatest assignment, so I led him out to a little grassy area behind our office and began making faces as if I was trying to scrutinize the comet. He got into it more, and we enjoyed the session.
A couple of days before the article was to be released, a group in San Diego called Heaven's Gate decided that the comet was going to take them away somewhere if they all died. So, they truly "drank the Kool-Aid." Bob called again and said that this probably wasn't the time to write a lighthearted article about Hale-Bopp — and here I thought he was serious — so we postponed. After an appropriate mourning period for Heaven's Gate, Bob called and said, "We're running the article tomorrow. You're sure this is OK with you?" To which I said, "You're sure they're still letting you run this?"
I figured this would get buried somewhere on the third page of the Sports section. When I picked up The Californian in the morning, there was an icon of my face with a comet tail coming out the side. The entire first page of Eye Street was titled "The Big Boppers" and dedicated to the comet story. Well, OK, Laura Schlessinger's weekly column shared front-page billing with me. Her column was titled "Religious services center us." As do stories about comets.
The most long-lasting aspect of that whole experience was the icon with the comet tail coming out the side of my head. For the next couple of years, any talk that I attended included a slide with the Hale-Bopp comet icon in it. This being the early days of PowerPoint, if the speaker was really creative, the icon would go dancing around the screen. Much to the entertainment of all in attendance.
Herb, you are now the senior person at The Californian. You've got a lot of traditions to carry on, brother.
Price: Herb is fully capable of convincing his editors, as I have been, to publish ridiculous stories like the comet tale you cite. In fact, readers need not fear: Fully half of Herb's past columns have been ridiculous.
I probably cannot get away with much ridiculousness at KGET-TV, the next stop on my journalistic journey, but if I have any ridiculous ideas not suited for television, I will gladly share them with Herb, my colleague of 32 years.
Reader: I was saddened to read of your moving on from The Californian to greener pastures. But at least we’ll still get to read you on Sundays. But who will I "Sound Off" to on Saturdays?
Thank you for your great articles/columns/work through the years. Not to mention the great patience you have shown with some of the whiners! I guess poor Herb will have to stick it out with the young’uns till he retires!
Best wishes for the future.
Price: Sound Off is not going away — it is just morphing to fit the personality and vision of another author — Executive Editor Christine Peterson.
That's what the column has done, more or less, since editor Mike Jenner created it in 2006. In its initial incarnation, Sound Off was a venue for readers to vent and Jenner to succinctly explain, defend, apologize — whatever. As Jenner told me last year during a too-rare return to these stomping grounds, accompanied by wife Jean and two deep-voiced men who, last time I checked, had been children, "You took it to a whole new level." I guess I did. "Succinct" has never been a strong suit of mine.
I imagine Christine will restore that succinctness, but we'll just have to see.
As for Herb: He has procured several grandkids over the past few years, so he has plenty of practice directing young’uns. Whether these young’uns may want his direction is another matter.
Reader: Bob, many, many reasonable people in town are surely mourning your imminent departure from Sound Off. Your insistence on facts in dispatching blowhards with grace and wit — but never cruelty — has been my greatest pleasure in opening the paper every Saturday. Although Lois Henry, James Burger and Christine Bedell always gave us solid and fearless reporting — sometimes at the expense of county government, where I worked for 27 years — you were the last man standing in that newsroom and the one whose voice I will miss most.
I congratulate you on your long and honorable run at The Californian, and I hope that television will afford a broader audience for your brilliant reporting and commentary. Give ’em hell!
Price: Apparently I did not sufficiently harass you when you were a big shot at the county, Allan, but thank you anyway.
I will concede that because I have been around for a while, my departure will cost the paper some institutional knowledge, but I would remind readers that we have many solid and knowledgeable journalists still in the stable, among them John Cox, Steven Mayer, Stacey Shepard, Sam Morgen and Ema Sasic, as well as some strong up-and-comers.
Reader: Congratulations on the new job. Hope it is interesting and fulfilling, but I’m clinging to the first sentence Herb Benham wrote in his Feb. 18 column, reassuring us that you will still be writing for the paper, even though you’re leaving. Kind of ambiguous. What does that mean?
Change happens. We move, adapt, expand, explore, learn, grow, or we stagnate. Like sharks, I guess. But what am I going to do for therapy now? Who am I going to bug with my frantic rants?
Price: Pam, please continue to rant frantically in my direction. We'll work something out.
The plan is for me to continue writing one column a week for The Californian, most likely publishing Sundays, and at least one a week for KGET.com.
Reader: Stephen Montgomery, vice chair of the Bakersfield Historic Preservation Commission, used half a page to inform the public about what he thinks is a problem regarding architecture ("Is an executive order to impose classical style architecture for federal buildings coming?," Feb. 18). His real message is to demean President Trump. His words: "Considering that the current occupant of the White House's tastes can be best described as 'gaudy kitsch,' do we really want his judgement to determine how our public buildings should look?"
It seems to me the vice chair of the city's Historical Commission should be nonpartisan and, yes, the president of the United States, whomever that may be, should approve federal projects. I hope the chairman for this committee is better informed.
Your Opinion section rules state that The Californian reserves the right to decline publication if letters are libelous, defamatory or criticize an ideology, party, nationality, etc., in generalized terms. Stephen Montgomery did all of these things with his words about President Trump yet you chose to publish without editing.
Price: You're correct, Henry — no libel or blanket condemnation is permitted. But it's beyond me how that applies to Montgomery's thoughtfully expressed opinion about the process by which federal building design is approved — given the fact that such decisions would run through the office of a man who has, according to some, debatable tastes in architecture.
I defer to Peter York, author of 11 books and a weekly column on design for Britain's Sunday Times, who wrote this for the March 2017 edition of Politico Magazine:
"The Trump look is miles from the architectural tradition of Washington, D.C., a city kept deliberately low-rise in its center, and whose neoclassical public buildings evoke stability and trustworthiness through their restraint. From the White House to the monuments, the American capital was designed to avoid Europe’s autocratic excesses, projecting a message of simplicity, democracy and egalitarianism — precisely the opposite of (President Trump,) the new brand in town."
I would add this: We are essentially talking here about art and art criticism, not partisan politics. To each his own.
Reader: Recent postings by The Bakersfield Californian, a paper that takes the reporting of The Associated Press as gospel, leads me to surmise that your new management is left of center — although many of the paper's readers are right of center. I was hoping the ownership and leadership changes at The Californian would lead editors to select repostings that are a little to the right, but my hope has not been a reality. On Feb. 17, a Washington Post repost in your Nation & World section had this glaring headline: “More than 1,100 ex-DOJ officials call for William Barr’s resignation.” Nowhere in the article does it mention these ex-DOJ officials are Obama appointees and disgruntled bureaucrats.
Price: That's because they aren't. The vast majority are simply career Department of Justice attorneys who worked their way up through the ranks; most were prosecutors hired as government employees — in the typical way, under various administrations — not appointees. And though some who signed the letter were indeed appointees, as a group they were selected by executives of both major parties.
Since the article you cite appeared in print, additional DOJ alumni have signed the letter calling for Barr's resignation; it's now at more than 2,000. Also, Donald Ayer, who served as deputy attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, called for Barr’s resignation; the president of the American Bar Association, Judy Perry Martinez, issued a statement in support of prosecutorial independence; and the Federal Judges Association, an independent organization of U.S. judges, held an emergency meeting to address the politicization of the Justice Department.
They sound disgruntled, all right.
Reader: Most disgusting front page ever for TBC. Ever ("Trump visits Bakersfield," Feb. 20). Toady Kevin. Even Devin Nuñes. Meadows Field hangar. Lots of informed Republicans somehow showed up. Thousands, as you reported. Dems in the twenties. Thanks for the heads up, TBC. You have sold your souls. I wonder who he will grant clemency to next round? Mark David Chapman? Harvey Weinstein? Jeffery Dahmer?
Worst president ever and nobody seems to care.
Price: It is what it is, John. U.S. presidents don't visit Bakersfield often, so when they do, it's a big deal. When the congressman at the president's side, local product Kevin McCarthy, is the House minority leader and Trump's chief advocate in the legislature, it's a slightly bigger deal. When the issue they focus on — aside from the campaign at hand — is the availability of water, it's bigger yet. Throw in the ongoing Trump vs. California side plot, which the president clearly relishes, and you've got all the ingredients for a front-page-dominating visit. Sorry you're not a Trump fan, John, but you know how it works.
Reader: Thank you for Steven Mayer's story about Paul Perez and his tenor sax excellence ("Sax man Paul Perez wants to take you higher," Feb. 19), especially the credit he gave to Tower of Power sax player Lenny Pickett. When I was a student at UC Berkeley in the early ’70s, Pickett also played clarinet with a jug band headed by Sugie Otis (son of blues great Johnny Otis) in Sproul Plaza. Pickett had plenty of solos including a showstopper where he would hold an impossibly high note for perhaps 20 seconds. It always wowed the crowd. Nice to know one of our own is carrying on the torch.
Price: I can vouch for your admiration of Lenny Pickett and Tower of Power. As a Bay Area kid, I probably saw that legendary, horn-driven band a dozen times. I can also vouch for Steven Mayer. Another great profile.
Reader: Thanks for your Feb. 12 column, "Take this tour of the county's new homeless shelter," and Sam Morgen's Feb. 13 article, "Kern County to use homeless individuals for highway cleanup." I live in Taft and yesterday I saw a guy take a pee next to the church across the street from my house as his friend stood by. I called them over and rather than read the riot act I just asked, "Why there?"
They said the same thing as so many other homeless folks I talk to every week — the city of Taft has so little to offer them. They are shut out of the public restrooms and therefore have to pee in public where it's not safe. Signs posted throughout the city prohibit their every move.
I told them of local churches where they may get a hot meal or other assistance. I told them of a plan in Bakersfield to pay the homeless to help clean up litter along highways and asked if such a program were set up in Taft, given the opportunity, would they do it? Both said "yes." I gave them each a pair of new socks and a chocolate bar I carry with me to hand out to the homeless. As they walked away, Fred shook my hand and Dominic hugged me. They were grateful someone was there to help.
Reader: Congratulations on your graduation into today’s news media business reality. You will do a great job, as always. For the last decade you have been riding rough on a dying horse that, like UPS, turns only right, for expediency.
I look forward to watching your TV gig. Don’t fret too much about physical appearances; you will never be a movie idol, but you will tell the truth even if it is unpopular.
Who will replace you at The Californian, John Balfanz?
Good luck. No, the good ones don’t need luck. You will be a huge success.
Price: My charmingly belligerent friend, Mr. Balfanz, has not applied for the job, as I had hoped, but ideally he — and you, Pete — will turn up as contributing critics in future Sound Offs.
What do you mean, I'll never be a movie idol?
The Californian’s Robert Price has answered your questions and taken your complaints about our news coverage in this weekly feedback forum since Feb. 21, 2014 — six years and a day. This is his final installment, but the feature will continue with Executive Editor Christine Peterson. To offer her your input by phone, call 661-395-7649 and leave your comments in a voicemail message or email us at soundoff@bakersfield.com. Include your name and phone number; your contact info won’t be published. Comments may be edited for length and clarity.
Contact Robert Price at rprice@bakersfield.com or on Twitter: @stubblebuzz.
Hale-Bopp is a comet. Hal Bopp is the state’s chief oil and gas engineer in Bakersfield. Hale-Bopp measures about 25 miles across. Hal Bopp fi…
Positive Cases Among Kern Residents: 274,041
Recovered and Presumed Recovered Residents: 263,893
Percentage of all cases that are unvaccinated: 72.51
Percentage of all hospitalizations that are unvaccinated: 83.34
Source: Kern County Public Health Services Department
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