Bakersfield Ca

Bakersfield and Kern County are among the fastest-growing regions in California, according to new population estimates by the Department of Finance. The state grew by about 500,000 people last year for the fifth year in a row -- about 1.5% -- but Kern County grew about 2.3%, a number greeted with enthusiasm by business leaders and builders but more cautiously by environmentalists and those concerned with quality of life in the area.

Vincent Brothers, the only named suspect in the shooting deaths of five family members, has taken leave from his job and lost partial custody of his eldest child, and even friends are questioning his innocence. Police were quick to name the elementary school vice principal the sole suspect in the killings, even arresting him briefly before releasing him because of a lack of evidence to seek charges. Brothers, 41, who has never been charged, is under constant police surveillance.

A 28-year-old woman who allegedly abducted her three children from their grandmother's home in San Pedro on Saturday was arrested Sunday morning in Bakersfield by Los Angeles police, a spokeswoman said. Janice Gay Ashley and a man who accompanied her were taken into custody about 9:20 a.m., and the children were found unharmed, said LAPD Officer Grace Brady. Ashley and her companion, Wayne Nellums, 43, were to be returned to Los Angeles for booking late Sunday.

School district board members voted Tuesday night to postpone the building of a junior high in southwest Bakersfield. The state budget crisis is partly to blame for the decision, said board members. Housing developments are multiplying in the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District area of Bakersfield, and enrollment at a local junior high is growing by 50 to 60 students per year, school officials said.

The city school district voted to appeal a judge's ruling on the release of personnel records of a vice principal suspected of killing five family members. The Bakersfield Californian sued for release of Vincent Brothers' records regarding allegations of sexual misbehavior and threats of violence. A judge ordered the documents released last week. Brothers is the only named suspect in the shooting and stabbing deaths of his wife, three children and mother-in-law.

Four Bakersfield high school students were expelled for their alleged involvement in a plot to kill seven classmates at Centennial High. The students, whose names have not been released, will be able to enroll in other Kern High School District schools. District trustees approved the expulsions Monday. The Kern County Sheriff's Department looked into reports of a possible plot to kill several students and the campus police officer in May.

Frigid temperatures from a nearly weeklong cold snap contributed to the death of a homeless woman, authorities said Thursday. The 51-year-old woman was found dead Wednesday morning in her sleeping bag in a downtown Bakersfield alley. She died of hypothermia and complications from long-term alcohol use, the Kern County coroner's office said. The woman's name has not been released pending notification of next of kin, authorities said.

The Shell Oil Co. refinery was the source of an odor that caused the evacuation of hundreds of people in downtown last month, air quality regulators said. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District issued two notices of violation to the refinery for creating a nuisance and having an inoperative vapor recovery system.