A special enforcement operation by the Bakersfield office of the California Highway Patrol resulted in 318 citations and two vehicles impounded. The sting between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday on Interstate 5 through the Grapevine netted 225 speeding tickets, 3 cell phone violations, and 7 seat belt violations, among other citations. 15 warnings were…… Read More
One adult and four minors are dead after a house fire in eastern Kern County. It happened around 12:15 a.m. Thursday in the 18200 block of Claymine Road near the community of Edwards where crews from Kern County Fire and Edwards Air Force Base found a house fully engulfed in flames. Nearby houses were threatened…… Read More
A prisoner who escaped from a Delano courthouse last December has allegedly been involved in a fatal shootout in Mexico. Law enforcement officials say Cesar Hernandez, 34, was involved in a firefight Wednesday afternoon when U.S. and Mexican officers tried to arrest him in the Barcelona neighborhood of Tijuana, about 30 miles from the U.S.…… Read More
A Kern County jury has found a man not guilty in a vandalism case that dragged on for nearly four years. Gary Hatler was acquitted Tuesday just 20 minutes after jurors got the case. He was accused of damaging his ex-girlfriend’s truck in 2020. The public defender’s office managed to have the charge reduced to…… Read More
A Bakersfield man has been found guilty of burglary and petty theft. A hidden phone camera caught Jenner Ramirez, 43, entering his female roommate’s room, taking money and a pair of the woman’s underwear which he hid underneath his pillow. The woman set up her phone to record Ramirez after noticing her cash kept disappearing.…… Read More
A sweep of homeless encampments in southeast Bakersfield leads to nineteen arrests. Police, city code enforcement officers, and workers with Kern Mental Health cleared fourteen camps along the railroad tracks near South Williams Street on Tuesday. Officers issued five citations and took eleven dogs into temporary custody. Charges included trespassing, outstanding warrants, and violations related…… Read More
A teacher with the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District has been arrested for alleged child sex crimes. Kimberly Tull, 45, was arrested April 2, 2025, on suspicion of engaging in lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14. The Bakersfield Police Department says Tull is no longer in custody. Charges had not been filed…… Read More
The Trump Administration has canceled a $190,000 federal grant to California State University Bakersfield. The money was meant for a program that supports teaching the history of farm labor and migration in the San Joaquin Valley. The National Endowment for the Humanities says it is shifting funding under a new presidential order. The grant funded…… Read More
Bakersfield Christian High School was placed on alert Tuesday morning after police responded to a reported threat. Officers blocked access and searched the campus on Stockdale Highway out of caution but determined the threat was not credible. No arrests were made.… Read More
A former Ultimate Fighting Champion is serving time at Wasco State Prison after being sentenced to five years for attempted murder. Cain Velasquez, 42, pleaded no contest to shooting at a man accused of molesting his son. The victim was shot but survived the attack. The mixed martial arts star fired into a truck carrying…… Read More
