| Locals caught in collapse of "hard money" real estate fund (The Bakersfield Californian) |
| For about 20 years, monthly payments from a Paso Robles real estate investment fund arrived like clockwork. But last year, said Tehachapi resident Jack Girkins, 76, everything stopped cold. Interest payments from roughly $380,000 Girkins and his wife Sharon had invested with the company, Estate Financial Inc., dried up. "It was a good part of our income," he said. |
| 01/03/2009 |
| Lois Henry: Looking into the crystal ball (The Bakersfield Californian) |
| It's a brand new year! Ahhhh, the fresh smell of "promise." It's like looking at a blank sheet of paper that surely contains your great American novel, if only you could get the words to appear on the page. Right now, 2009 is deliciously unfathomable. Which makes it the perfect time for wild, unrealistic predictions, Jeane Dixon style. Editor's note: If your sense of humor isn't fully engaged, ... |
| 01/07/2009 |
| Follow up: Fates of abandoned dogs both happy, sad (The Bakersfield Californian) |
| In mid-December, real estate appraiser Jeff Burgess found a small pack of seven abandoned dogs living in a half-burnt shed on Gage Street in east Bakersfield that barely sheltered them from the cold, persistent rain. There were four growing puppies, all nervous and hungry, and three adult animals, two skittish females and one old male. The plight of the dogs living on the foreclosed property ... |
| 12/31/2008 |
| Year in Review: Oil, airlines, aerospace and hotels -- our economy (The Bakersfield Californian) |
| OIL UPS AND DOWNS The wild ride of the year came courtesy of the oil industry, which saw profits climb and then plummet. The price of thick Kern crude topped $130 a barrel in July then slid to less than $30 a barrel in December as the world economy cooled. The fluctuation played out across Kern oil fields as many companies tried to ramp up -- then scale back -- their activity according to crude ... |
| 12/27/2008 |
| Dog homelessness on the rise -- but you can help (The Bakersfield Californian) |
| The family of abandoned dogs huddles in a half-burnt shed that barely shelters them from the cold, persistent rain. When real estate broker and appraiser Jeff Burgess comes around the corner of the house next door, the four puppies bound over first. After a week and a half of these visits, they know Burgess has food for them. |
| 12/25/2008 |
| New bank slated to open next year (The Bakersfield Californian) |
| This might seem an odd time to start a bank. But a group of local movers and shakers are about to open one, the first such Bakersfield-based startup in a decade. Some recent business stories even suggest this might be a great time to launch: Clean books could be an advantage in the post-bubble market. |
| 12/20/2008 |
| People in Business: A who's who in business for Dec. 19 (The Bakersfield Californian) |
| SUSAN GLADDING has joined Provost & Pritchard Consulting Group as planning specialist. Additionally, TRILBY BARTON-DUERKSEN has joined the group as marketing coordinator. The 145-person engineering and planning firm has offices in Bakersfield, Fresno, Clovis and Visalia. GORDON L. ROBERTSON has been named vice president of sales and marketing at Sun World International LLC. He will be ... |
| 12/19/2008 |
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