Free HIV Testing To Be Offered During Coachella Festival
In other local news, Bakersfield residents are worried after dozens of syringes turn up in a nearby field, two Ventura County human services offices are moving to new spaces, and Paramount Farming faces up to $180,000 in fines over pesticide drift.
The Desert Sun:
Get Tested: HIV Testing Comes To Coachella Festival
Get Tested Coachella Valley will offer free and confidential HIV testing during both weekends of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this April, a first for the organisation that started two years ago. Desert AIDS Project CEO David Brinkman said getting testing at Coachella was a goal since the early discussions around creating Get Tested. (Newkirk, 2/11)
Eyewitness News:
Bakersfield Man Concerned About Syringes In Vacated Field
Dozens of syringes turned up in the big, vacant field near Jack Sheahan's house, and he was upset. The Rosedale man said he's been worried for years about trash blown into the field, and tumbleweeds that blow off it, but he considered the syringes a real danger. They turned up on Wednesday morning, and by midday on Thursday they were gone. (Ferguson, 2/11)
The Ventura County Star:
Human Services Offices Moving Tuesday To Simi Valley
Two offices of the Ventura County Human Services Agency will be relocated to new quarters in Simi Valley starting Tuesday, officials said. The employment, veterans and public assistance programs at 980 Enchanted Way and a child protective services office at 970 Enchanted Way will be consolidated at a single location at 2900 Madera Road. The East County Job & Career Center, at 980 Enchanted Way, is included in the move. (2/11)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Paramount Facing Fines In August Pesticide Drift
Paramount Farming’s West Valley division is facing potential fines of $25,200 to $180,000 for a pesticide over drift incident that sickened 36 construction workers near Lost Hills last August. A Kern County Agricultural Commissioner’s report states that airblast sprayers working in a Paramount pistachio orchard over the evening of Aug. 27 and morning of Aug. 28 sent the pesticide Danitol 2.4 drifting with the wind onto a nearby solar farm construction site on Twisselman Road west of Interstate 5. (Burger, 2/11)