Adoption day "magical"

By LOIS HENRY, Californian columnist
Nov. 18, 2009

There are some stories I come across that make me smile.

Really. I mean that in a good way!

November is National Adoption Awareness month and Friday our local courts will celebrate National Adoption Day with more than 50 adoptions.

On that day, two Kern County men will happily oversee the final signing of adoption papers for the local families.

And it just so happens that both those men, Kern County Superior Court Judge John Brownlee and Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall, were adopted themselves.

“I am who I am today because of the wonderful parents who adopted me 68 years ago. I couldn’t have done any better than to receive the parents that I did,” Hall told me.

Brownlee was equally effusive.

“I think I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” he said of being adopted.

Hall, who wasn’t told until he was 12 that he was adopted, never had a bit of angst about it. Neither did Brownlee, who was told right away about his parentage.

“My mom was troubled about it when she told me,” Hall recalled. “I told her, ‘I’m so glad you and dad came along, you don’t need to fret over this.’”

His parents picked him up in Long Beach, brought him home to Bakersfield and that’s where he’s been ever since, Hall said.

“Mom and dad were mom and dad and that was just it,” said Brownlee, who grew up in Blythe riding his motorcycle, hunting and fishing. “I wouldn’t trade my childhood for anything.”

Their parents, each man said, gave them something of irreplaceable value — roots.

That sense of belonging is crucial to children of all ages, agreed Bethany Christman, Assistant Director of the Department of Human Services assigned to Child Welfare Services.

“Being adopted is about more than giving a child a place to lay his head at night,” she said. “They also get that family’s identity, their heritage, their traditions, their history.”

Kern has 2,400 children in the foster care system. Of those 600 are cleared for adoption and eagerly awaiting their forever homes.

Perhaps I’m naive, but I found that number sadly high. Particularly when you consider the county finalized 281 adoptions last year. It’s great for those 281 kids and a good job by the county.

But that still leaves an awful lot of kids living on hope.

Christman told me things are a little better these days. In the early 2000s, the county averaged 3,000 children in the system.

Still, we appear to be on the high side for our population size, according to statistics collected by the Center for Social Services Research at UC Berkeley.

Kern had 8.8 children per 1,000 of our child population “in care” in July 2008, the most recent figures available.

Looking at other counties with similar-sized child populations (about 250,000), we’re lower than Fresno at 9.1 per 1,000. But we’re higher than San Joaquin, 5.9 per 1,000; Contra Costa, 5.3 per 1,000; and Ventura, 2.9 per 1,000.

Even looking at other valley counties, which have similar demographics, we have a higher prevalence of children in the system than all but Fresno.

Christman told me comparing county data is tricky nearly to the point of being useless because approaches to child welfare differ dramatically from county to county.

“We may be tougher on drugs and take more children into custody for that while other counties aren’t as concerned about exposure to drugs,” she explained.

Either way, we clearly have an abundance of children here in need of permanent homes.

Over her 30 years of work at the Department of Human Services, Christman (who also retires on Friday) has learned to celebrate successes wherever she finds them and adoption day is a definite success.

“There are smiles all around,” she said.

“It’s a good day,” echoed Brownlee, who has one adopted child as does Hall.

“It’s a magical day for the parents,” Hall agreed. “And it’s invaluable for that child’s life.”

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

Adoption facts
You do not have to be married and own a home to adopt.

The county cannot discriminate against adoptive parents based on age, sex, marital status or housing.

You have to be healthy and able to support yourself and a child.

If you would like to become an adoptive parent you are required to first become a licensed foster parent, which entails a 11/2-hour orientation class followed by 27 hours of training (held evenings, mornings or weekends to accommodate various schedules) and you must be current on CPR training.

There is also an extensive criminal background check.

Please call 631-6600 or 631-6204 for more information or visit http://www.kcdhs.org and click through to its adoptions page.


Heart Gallery
In an effort to draw attention to older children awaiting adoption, Kern County participates in the Heart Gallery program where older children have photos and some information about themselves open to the public.
You can meet these children at http://www.heartgallerykc.c...

Other ways to help
You can help make a holiday wish come true for a child in foster care by participating in the Holiday Cottage, which starts today.
The Cottage has wishes of children that community members can fill and return in time for Christmas.
This year, the Cottage will be at Brimhall Square, 9500 Brimhall Road, Suite 703.

Closing courts wrong approach

By LOIS HENRY, Californian columnist
Nov. 15, 2009

I thought closing the courts one day a month to save money was a tremendously bad idea.

Then California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George answered my call and made his case for the decision.

Hmmm. OK, he makes some good arguments. He is, after all, Chief Justice.

But nope, sorry, your honor. I still object.

Closing courts even one day a month absolutely interferes with us peon citizens’ right of access to our own justice system and that’s just not worth any amount of money it might save (an estimated $93 million for the full fiscal year, according to George.)

The closure decision becomes even more wrong when you follow the money and see that the Judicial Council, via its administrative arm, imaginatively called the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), moved a whole bunch of money ($171 million) that could have helped keep courts open into funds for other things — like a fancy new computer system that’s years in the making and already way over budget, according to a Sacramento Bee expose.

They’re also still paying for new courthouse construction. And oh yeah, and they had $86,000 in change laying around, so they decided to throw a three-day judicial wingding in San Francisco in June, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Meanwhile, you better check the court schedule and block out half a day if you want fight that speeding ticket in traffic court. And good luck with any civil case you might have. Kern courts, like most others, have had to prioritize, and that means criminal cases and domestic violence orders come first.

“Those are being attended to,” Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe assured me.

Lampe and all other Kern County judges have also taken a voluntary pay cut, which most are donating to a local fund for local court functions rather than giving it back to the state because, yes, they’re that ticked off about what’s happening.

It’s not just that local courts are losing 10 days this fiscal year (which works out to two full work weeks). Judges are fed up with how the Judicial Council and AOC have taken more and more control over local courts and made decisions with little to no input from those affected.

Recent news about the AOC hasn’t eased those concerns.

The AOC was created by the Legislature about 10 years ago to handle costs — but not management — of California’s 58 individual trial court systems. Since then, it’s increased dramatically in size and scope. Shocking, I know.

The Mercury News reported that from 2004 through last year, the AOC’s budget nearly doubled to more than $220 million and has gone from 490 to 901 employees, a third of whom make at least $100,000 per year.

I’m no mathematician, but I bet you could save some serious dough trimming back the AOC ranks.

AOC supporters have countered that it had to grow because the state increased its oversight of local courts.

Not quite, according to Lampe, who helped create a new judges’ group, the Alliance of California Judges, dedicated to shining a brighter light on the Judicial Council and AOC.

The Alliance sent a letter to the Judicial Council in October, saying the AOC has sacrificed public court access in order to keep itself off the chopping block and that it has overstepped its bounds by trying to wrest control of local court management, which legally belongs to county judges.

As an aside, an AOC staffer actually slipped an amendment into the budget bill that would have totally done away with local control of courts. (It didn’t pass — the AOC later said the amendment was a “mistake.”) As a further aside, AOC is also talking about trying to take control of courthouse security in order to save money. That authority legally resides with each county sheriff, but the AOC will bring the issue to the Judicial Council at its January meeting. Sheriff Donny Youngblood and the Californian Sheriff’s Association are not pleased.

Lampe’s Alliance group is asking for a bill of rights for court employees and creation of an advisory group made up of trial court judges to oversee financial decisions. So far, the Judicial Council hasn’t responded; Lampe said their next step may be to go to the Legislature, which already called the AOC on the carpet during an Assembly oversight hearing Oct. 28.

In an attempt to damp anti-AOC sentiment, the chief justice said the closure decision was made by the Judicial Council, which he heads. “The AOC didn’t cook this up behind closed doors.” And, if anyone has a better alternative, he’s more than willing to listen.

“This was a Judicial Council decision that we made — reluctantly — after substantial input from local courts,” George told me.

When I asked if any Kern judges were involved, he couldn’t get that specific, saying the council has two committees, one made up of presiding judges and the other of court administrators, and he assumed both were consulted.

I asked whether the council had considered holding off funding the computer system. George said even if they hadn’t fully funded the computer project (which they did) they might still have needed to close courts because they were facing a $400 million shortfall.

Either way, he said, stopping midstream on the computer system would have been a terrible waste of tax dollars.

“You’d be throwing away the $450 million invested so far,” he said. “If you don’t keep it going you have to start from scratch.”

He praised the system, saying those who’ve tested it can’t say enough good about it and that even Homeland Security is interested.

As criticism mounted over the court closures earlier this fall, George was quoted as saying, “A lot of this is an effort to dismantle the statewide administration of justice because with the statewide administration of justice comes accountability.”

The comment chapped a lot of hides, particularly because the Judicial Council and AOC have been downright secretive about how, exactly, they spend our tax dollars.

I asked George if he stood by that statement and he said yes.

He realizes the Judicial Council and AOC can be more open with information and they’re willing to do so, he said, and he’s not impugning the debate over the closures. But they did consider other measures, such as massive layoffs or allowing locals to close dependency courts or domestic violence courts or cutting other services county by county.

“The irony is, the best way of preserving access for all was actually limiting the days court were open on a consistent statewide basis,” he said.

I respectfully disagree.

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

Courts closed
All California trial courts are mandated by the state Judicial Council to close on the third Wednesday of the month as a cost savings measure through the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 2010. Following is a list of those dates plus holidays when Kern’s courts will be closed.
2009
Nov. 18, mandated closure
Nov. 26 & 27, Thanksgiving
Dec. 16, mandated closure
Dec. 25, Christmas
2010
Jan. 1, New Years Day
Jan. 18, Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday
Jan. 20, mandated closure
Feb 12, Lincoln’s birthday
Feb. 15, Washington’s birthday
Feb. 17, mandated closure
March 27, mandated closure
March 31, Cesar Chavez birthday
April 21, mandated closure
May 19, mandated closure
May 31, Memorial Day
June 16, mandated closure
July 1 begins new fiscal year

Wars never end for veterans

By LOIS HENRY, Californian columnist
Nov. 11, 2009

War never ends.

I don’t mean that in the literal sense (though that does seem to be the case these days).

As we thank our veterans today for their service, we need to remember that, for many, coping with the aftermath of war is a lifelong battle.

Ken Cannon has spent decades coming to grips with that after watching his brother, who he called a World War II hero, drink himself to death 30 years after his homecoming.

“I never cried so hard in my life as the day we buried him,” Cannon said of his older brother, James Myron Cannon. “I’ve always felt guilty that we didn’t save him.”

The elder Cannon came home an Army Captian with a chest full of medals, but he never talked about what he’d seen and done in North Africa, Italy and France.

“All he ever said was, ‘It was rough.’ That was it.”

James married, had children and held a steady job. But his drinking increased.

Ken, who served in the Air Force during the Korean War, said no one had ever heard of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) back then and they didn’t understand that alcoholism is a key symptom.

The family watched helplessly as James sank further into despair, finally dying in a VA hospital in 1979, just 59 years old.

“It was the war that killed him,” Ken told me, emotion still clogging his voice. “And all these young guys coming back now...boy! We gotta make sure we get ’em the help they need.”

Cannon, like many of us, is shocked by the increasing suicide rates of recently returning troops from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Stories started surfacing as early as 2004 about spikes in suicides among troops. Earlier this year, the Pentagon reported that for the first time in history, the rate of suicides among returning Army soldiers (20 deaths per 100,000 soldiers) outpaced civilian suicide rates.

I couldn’t find local numbers, but Chuck Bikakas with the county’s Veterans Services Department said he knew of two such cases.

“You hear rumors about much higher numbers,” he said.

The problem is so frightening the Army has put up $50 million to form a five-year partnership with the National Institute of Mental Health to find out why so many soldiers are killing themselves.

These days, there’s no question PTSD is real and serious. There’s a lot more education and awareness about the disorder and far less stigma, at least in the civilian world.

But for a warrior, admitting you have a problem can feel like admitting defeat.

Retired Gunnery Sgt. Wally Beville, 37, spent 17 years in the Marine Corps until he was medically retired for a heart condition in 2007. He was in the first Gulf War and was sent to Iraq in 2004 where he was a helicopter mechanic.

His job was to go in after a downed chopper and try to fix it or recover the bodies and blow up the aircraft. His team was often under fire as they worked.

“More often than not, it was someone I knew that was killed.”

Still, he never thought he had a problem. Instead, he drank.

Then this past January, he was drinking in his garage and had a flashback. Next thing he knew he was fighting with his oldest son and his two friends. He was arrested.

His wife found Frontline, a group affiliated with the National Association on Mental Illness here in town. Beville said it saved his life.

“I brought my pistol with me everywhere I went,” he said. “ I honestly felt naked without it. I don’t need to do that anymore.”

He said when people are put into wartime situations, certain chemicals are elevated in the brain to cope with the danger. That doesn’t change back on its own.

“When I understood that my reaction was normal, that it wasn’t my fault, it was an ‘Aha!’ moment for me. It put everything in perspective.”

Getting there was tough, though, especially considering the stigma of mental illness is still far worse in the military, he said.

“I wish everyone could get to the path I’m on without having to walk through all the crap and all the pain I went through,” Beville said. “It’s a strength to recognize you have a problem and ask for help.

“It’s not a weakness.”

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

GETTING HELP
• Kern County Veteran’s Services Department: 868-7300.

• Counselors at the new vet center (yet to be opened) are seeing people now: 868-7300.

• The National Aliance on Mental Illness holds a support group for families of veterans the first and third Tuesday of every month 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Good Samaritan Hospital, southwest, 5101 White Lane. Contact Russ Sempell, 303-1416 russmft@aol.com or Patrice Maniaci, 333-5484 ksmmom@msn.com or 868-5061. www.frontlinenami.org

• Lacy Gomez with Central California Family Assistance, coordinates services for vets and their families: 978-7782 or lacy.gomez@ng.army.mi.

• Military One Source, (800) 342-9647 or www.militaryonesource.com arranges local counseling sessions for servicemembers and family at no cost.

Help for survivors of suicide
• A Suicide Survivor Support Group meets the third Tuesday of each moth from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Consumer Family Learning Center, 5121 Stockdale Highway (West Door). Call 661-868-1552 for information.

WASCO'S SACRIFICE STILL FELT BY MEMBERS OF THAT SMALL COMMUNITY

The farming town of Wasco was tiny back in the 1940s, 4,196 people.

But it made a huge contribution to the war effort, losing at least 23 sons in countries across the globe.

One of those sons only recently made it back to native ground.

After 64 years, the remains of Ray D. Packard were returned from France where his plane was shot down in 1944.

He was buried last October with full military honors at the National Cemetery in Prescott, Ariz.

His nephew, Ron, was his last surviving family member and accepted the flag at his service, according to news accounts.

Little Wasco has a big heart when it comes to one of their own.

Ray’s story touched several Wasco High grads, including Ken Cannon (Class of ‘46) who quickly jumped on the Internet to find out as much as he could about Packard (Class of ‘42). Cannon didn’t know him in school, but he remembered his name and felt the full story of Packard’s service needed to be told.

Second Lt. Ray Packard was a pilot in the Army Air Force when he was sent on a mission with 21 other P-38 Lightning fighters to attack enemy airfields in France on Aug. 25, 1944.

They were intercepted by more than 80 German fighters. During the dogfight, 11 P-38’s, including Packard’s, were shot down.

Five of the pilots escaped, two were taken as prisoners and of the four men who were missing in action, three were recovered. Only Packard remained unaccounted for.

In 1951, a U.S. Army Graves Registration Command Team investigated but only found small pieces of aircraft wreckage.

Then in 2006 and 2007, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command traveled to Angy, France, and after two excavations found human remains and other evidence, including Packard’s dog tags.

His remains were brought home and laid to rest Oct. 22, 2008.

“On this Veterans Day, keep this account of one service person’s heroic and agonizing story in your thoughts as well as all of the other service personnel serving now or in the past,” Cannon wrote in a tribute to the former Wasco High alum. “Freedom comes at a price.”

— Lois Henry

Read a few of the letters home from Capt. James Cannon to his family.

Indian casino OK with me

By LOIS HENRY, Californian columnist
Nov. 8, 2009

Oh yes, if the Tejon Indian tribe gains federal recognition, Kern County will likely have an Indian gaming casino in its future. Probably somewhere near Mettler, close to Interstate 5.

And I’m fine with that.

I’m not a gambler, but other people enjoy it and as long as it’s legal, who am I to stand in their way?

As for arguments that Indian casinos don’t play by the same rules as other gaming houses in California, that people aren’t protected by the same liability rules, safety regulations and other laws when they’re in those casinos, I say, yup, caveat emptor, my friend.

Things are different in Mexico, Canada and other countries all over the world.

People who harp about how Indian casinos get special treatment because they’re not subject to the same taxation as other businesses sound like they’re talking through a big old mouth of sour grapes to me.

Native Americans weren’t exactly dealt a fair hand back in the day. We (and by that I mean the U.S. government — not you or I personally, so calm down) took their land, killed their people and gave them smallpox in return.

As a small, “’scuse our genocide” token, the federal government created the reservation system, which gave recognized tribes sovereign rights.

Well, they found a way to use those rights to their benefit. Ahhh! The American way!

But back to the Tejon tribe. If you’ve never heard of them, don’t feel bad.

The Chumash and Yokuts seem to have gotten more notice over the years.
But the Tejon tribe has always been here, according to Jim Appodaca, vice chairman of the tribe.

There are more than 200 registered members, many of whom still live in the area. They have regular meetings and four major events a year, he said.

A couple of their members are trained as archeologists and regularly called to check construction sites for Native American habitation. The tribe is also in the process of contacting a linguist to help bring back their language, as the Tubatulabal in the Kern River Valley did several years ago.

Documentation on the Tejon tribe is extensive. The federal government knew about them, set aside lands for them, helped build a church and school on those lands and even sent representatives to check on them after the 1952 earthquake.

The reservation, which was mostly uninhabitable hillsides, was dissolved in the 1960s. Then when the government decided to list all recognized tribes in the 1970s, the Tejon were left off.

“We had always had a government-to-government relationship,” Appodaca said. “Then it just stopped. Our contention is we were recognized but were left off the list through an administrative error.”

(In the interest of full disclosure, Appodaca works for The Californian in new business development, but I did not know about his connection to the tribe until I started making calls looking for a tribal spokesperson. Small world, huh?)

He and his aunt, Kathy Morgan, chairwoman of the tribe, have been working for federal recognition going on 15 years or more, he said.

At the end of September, they met with the undersecretary of the Department of the Interior and showed they had jumped through all the hoops to prove their bloodlines. He was supposed to get back to them in 30 days, which was up on Nov. 1.

Appodaca sighed when I asked what their next move was. That will likely involve lawyers.

Speaking of lawyers, the tribe has some good ones through Patton Boggs, a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm specializing in indian recognition issues.

They were hired in 2008 and since have been paid nearly $300,000 on the tribe’s behalf. Appodaca acknowledged they have a “financial backer” who’s helping them, but he declined to tell me who that was. He wouldn’t even say how the tribe hooked up with this backer.

Clearly, the backer is betting on a casino.

“It’s really a crap shoot for him, though,” Appodaca said, noting the ongoing struggle for recognition.

If they gain recognition, the tribe will consider a number of economic development methods, including a casino, he said.

The primary goal is to create funding so they can take care of older tribal members and provide for the education of the children. A casino would be the fastest, most effective way to do that.

I spoke with Supervisor Don Maben, who said a casino wouldn’t be a good fit for Kern. He cited law enforcement issues and the arguments I listed already.

Casinos may not be subject to direct taxation, but they bring money in other ways — such as jobs, tourism and other contributions to the community.

Seems to me Indian casino would be a much better fit than prisons and sludge dumps.

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

Agency needs to stock up on credibility

By LOIS HENRY, Californian Columnist
Nov. 4, 2009

A bad reputation is hard to shake.

The Department of Fish and Game is finding that out, particularly in the Kern River Valley, as it shops around its environmental review documents on stocking the river with fish.

The department was sued in 2006 by the Pacific Rivers Council and Center for Biological Diversity because it had never done an EIR on how fish stocking affects native species.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge agreed with the plaintiffs and ordered Fish and Game to do an EIR by Dec. 30, 2008.

The department couldn’t meet the deadline (that was Strike One to a lot of Kern River Valley folks) and asked for an extension, which they got, but at a price.

All stocking of fish in water that held certain “species of concern,” as outlined by the plaintiffs, had to stop.

Yup, you guessed it, one of those species of concern was wriggling around in the waters of the Kern River — the hard head minnow.

So stocking in the Kern ended a year ago this month.

“There was no notice, nothing,” Donna James, who with her husband runs Camp James on the Kern River near Kernville, said. Almost overnight, she said, fishing dried up — and then so did her business.

Some businesses in the Kern River Valley saw as much as a 40 percent decline, said Jim Hunt, former president of the Friends of the Hatchery, the Kern River hatchery that farms the rainbow trout Fish and Game uses to stock the river.

Strike Two for Fish and Game — and this was the biggie — came in April when residents like Hunt believe the department welshed on a promise to ask the plaintiffs if they could resume stocking, based on studies showing the rainbow trout has no impact on the hard head minnow.

They had done so with three other bodies of water (and were turned down on all three) but not the Kern.

Fish and Game’s spokesman on this issue, James Starr, said the director decided not to ask for relief on the Kern as the hard head minnow’s status would be explored in the EIR.

Without approval of that document, Starr said, they feared it could open them to legal action.

Umm, I’m not sure how the action gets any more “legal” than it already is.

Maybe the Kern would have been turned down as well, Hunt allows.

But at least residents would have felt Fish and Game had honored a commitment and gone to bat for the community. Hunt resigned his post as president of Friends of the Hatchery in protest.

“We’re past that now. It’s spilt milk,” said Starr, who insisted Fish and Game has been forced to play defense by the environmental groups and had every decision forced on them.

“Right now, we need people to focus on the EIR.”

OK. But the EIR isn’t exactly helping.

Under Alternative 2, Fish and Game’s preferred alternative, it very clearly says the Kern River would not be stocked.

Starr told me you can’t take that sentence out of context. He said the full alternative says the department will operate under current guidelines but will add a mitigation measure, which is a kind of stock/no stock checklist.

Under that checklist one of the questions is whether the stocked fish harm any species of concern. In the hard head minnow’s case, the answer is no, according to the EIR. So, bing, bang, boom, it’s good to go.

Hunt heard the same explanation at several public meetings and isn’t convinced.

“They haven’t been forthright in doing what they said they would do in the past, so it’s hard for anyone in this community to have any confidence.”

While the spotlight has so far been on the hard head minnow, even greater difficulties could be posed by another species of concern: the Little Kern golden trout.

Typically found in the river and its tributaries above Johnsondale Bridge, this guy has been on the protected list for decades and stocking in its range ceased many years ago.

So Fish and Game’s EIR gives it only passing mention.

That may not be good enough for the plaintiffs, according to Chris Frissell, conservation director for Pacific Rivers Council.

“The native trout is our biggest concern,” he told me.
Information is all over the place. Some say there are no true Little Kern left; others say the Little Kern’s population has increased so much that they’re expanding into the stock trout territory. Exactly what’s happening with the Little Kern?

“Will this document tell us that?” Frissell asked.

An initial reading of the EIR shows “uneven coverage,” Frissell said. “We don’t think they’ve considered the full sweep of concerns.”

Uh-oh.

Comments are accepted until Nov. 16 on the state portion of the EIR and Nov. 30 on the federal portion. It all goes back to the judge Jan. 10, 2010. The judge could OK it, the plaintiffs could sue or it could get shipped back to Fish and Game for revisions.

Either way, Kern River Valley businesses will likely watch their business head for better fishing elsewhere, Hunt said.

Incidentally, Fish and Game was asked twice to do the EIR and gave zero response before the groups sued.

“We’re not anti-fishing,” Frissell said. “Most of our members are anglers.”

Had Fish and Game been forthcoming with the information, Frissell said: “We probably wouldn’t have filed the lawsuit at all.”

Hmmm. Government operating in a transparent, responsive manner. We could all stock up on that.

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

HOW TO COMMENT

Go to the California Department of Fish and Game’s website to read the EIR on its fish stocking program.
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/...

You can email comments to:
dfghatcheryeir@dfg.ca.gov

Or mail comments to:
James Starr
DFG
Fisheries Branch
830 S Street
Sacramento, CA 95811