Feature Story
Taft: In This Sleepy Town, It Isn't Crude To Celebrate A Giant Oil Spill
Wall Street Journal Writes About Taft, the Lakeview Gusher and BP Oil Spill
By Justin Scheck
TAFT, Calif. In this dusty town, the nation's largest oil spill on record is about to get a grand celebration.
"We have a car show and an art show and we have a carnival and a souvenir store," says Eric Cooper, president of the Oildorado Days festival.
Mr. Cooper isn't celebrating BP PLC's oil spill, which has sent up to 5.2 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. He's marking a larger spill here exactly a century ago: the Lakeview Gusher, a leak of about nine million barrels that helped give birth to this city of about 9,000 people.
In 1910, when the gusher blew in nearby Maricopa, Calif., it spewed oil over these sun-bleached hills for 544 days. Hot crude burned workers and killed wildlife - then ushered in an era of wealth that turned a railroad settlement called Mor...
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Community Voices
Taft Westside Little League Batting Cages Ready to Play Ball
Special Thanks to SYNAGRO
A special thanks to Lorrie Loder with Synagro without them this project would not of happened. Also John Dowden owner of John Dowden Electric and Daniel Cortez for doing all the labor for the electrical. And the Lights, Donnie Paterson and work crews for all their help in constructing the cages and doing the cement work, The City of Taft, al...
News
Taft Airport Committee Meets, Discusses Feasibilty Study
By kent Miller
The Airport Committee of the City of Taft discussed the Airport Feasibility Study for Taft-Kern County Airport at its meeting Tuesday at City Hall. The study examined three alternatives for the existing airport. Its conclusion was to examine alternate sites for a replacement airport. Land acquisition costs and some of the pote...
California Report
Furlough Fridays Back Again
By Jessica Wallis
On Wednesday, July 28th California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency as the state is faced with a $19.1 billion deficit. Under the rules of the emergency, Schwarzenegger ordered back furloughs, with three furlough days per month for all but essential state employees. State offices will be closed three Fridays a m...
Charlie's Neighborhood
I'm Back...
By Charlie Long
Tip your head off to the side...no...more...cheese!... Charlie not that far, you look like your having a fit. That's better, good, now lift your eyebrows up. That's it! Do a little whiney noise...not bad. Try not to wiggle your eyebrows so much, it makes you look kinda rabid...well, we'll work on that later. A little cuteness and you c...
Community Voices
Fighting With One Hand Tied Behind Our Back in Vietnam and Afghanistan
By Dr. Harold Pease
It seems ludicrous that a government would create laws and restrictions on it's military that would virtually leave them fighting with one hand tied behind their back. And yet that is exactly what our government has done in the past, and continues to do now. According to U.S News and World Report, June 30, 1975 citing the just released, formal...
Taft Oildorado 2010
Taft Oildorado Posters Now Available at the Taft Independent
Oildorado Store Opening Soon
Taft Oildorado Days posters are now available free at the Taft Independent offices. Seen here is Oildorado president Eric Cooper (left) presenting Oildorado board member Pete Gianopulos with a framed poster. Gianopulos has been a board member of Oildorado for 50 years. The Oildorado Store will officially open Saturday Aug. 21 at 10:00am. The sto...
Westside Watcher
Maricopa Rukus?
I came expecting a media circus: Bakersfield television stations jockeying for the best camera and microphone positions, newspaper reporters from Bakersfield and Taft with notebooks or tape-recorders in hand, fighting for the front row seats; but no. I came expecting to see at least 40 or 50 Maricopa residents shoehorned into Gusher Hall on...
Business
G.S. Graphix and Hobbies Expands
G.S. Graphix owners Brandon Farkas and Allen Jones, and James Branson stand in front of the new store location on Center Street, the former TASCO Building, located in Downtown Taft. The hobby store will open on Monday.
News
Candidate Filing for Local Office Nearing Deadline
By Kent Miller
With one week to go before the filing deadline, official candidates for seats on two city councils, four education boards, one water district and one health care district on the Westside are scarce. Challenger Greg Gray was the only person to turn in paperwork for three open seats on the Taft City Council as of Thursday evening, City Clerk Lo...
Horoscopes
Week of 7-30-10
by Jessy McCulloch
Aries (March 21-April 19): This is a perfect time to sign yourself up for a class or a lesson in something new. It should be for fun, but it should also be practical in some way, shape, or form. Taurus (April 20-May 20): You have an uncanny knack for making lemons out of lemonade, which will come in extremely handy this week at work. Gemini...
Letters to the Editor
Maricopa Profiling?
Dear Editor, I have read the commentary as to Maricopa PD racially profiling, as well as this evening watched their Chief speak on what he can do as a Peace Officer in the State of California. As to the profiling, is it any different when someone of non hispanic origin is walking on the side of the street and asked if he or she is on ...
