Almonds show their vulnerabilities during midwinter bloom, and mandarins can’t take a hard freeze, but probably no other major crop grown in Kern County is as sensitive to weather disruptions as cherries.

Rio Tinto, one of eastern Kern’s largest employers and the county’s seventh-largest contributor of property tax revenue, is looking to sell the 99-year-old mine it acquired in Boron in 1967.

Bakersfield housing developer Sage Equities has begun site work in preparation for its fourth market-rate apartment community in downtown’s Eastchester neighborhood, this time in partnership with a Fresno company.

Kern County ranchers are being asked to stay vigilant after confirmation this week that a sometimes-fatal parasitic insect has been detected in the United States for the first time in six decades.

One couple stood back in hesitation Tuesday morning while about 50 people gathered in celebration of the grand-reopening of the MCSC Kern Women’s Business Center along California Avenue.

Signs of stability crowded out hints of weakness in a new Bakersfield home sales report that, for the first time, included an artificial intelligence-enabled forecast that predicted more of the same — with caveats.

Until Monday, 13-year-old Christopher Roman had never heard of California Resources Corp. Now he may never forget.

A local oil producer’s proposal to develop a data center in western Kern County is part of a larger discussion of how to integrate the region’s power generation, carbon storage assets, natural gas reservoirs and available land.

Environmental groups spoke up in opposition Wednesday to Kern County's approval this year of hundreds of new oil well drilling permits, targeting in particular those that involve the use of "enhanced oil recovery" techniques.

In a milestone for the local region and California as a whole, the state’s first carbon capture and sequestration project began storing carbon dioxide this month deep in a pair of depleted petroleum wells in western Kern County.

An environmental document the federal government released this week moves the Bureau of Land Management a step closer toward possibly resuming oil and gas leasing in Kern and eight other counties in Central California.

In the face of the nation’s highest gas prices, California lawmakers approved a bill to ease restrictions on E85 conversion kits — devices that let conventional gasoline cars run on a cheaper, mostly ethanol fuel blend.

An industrial complex notable for its size and location in central-western Bakersfield hosted an open house Wednesday as partners behind the speculative development say they’re closing in on lease agreements with diverse potential tenants.

Small business owners who tune in for a locally produced webinar Wednesday afternoon can learn about using artificial intelligence for various marketing projects, sales data analysis and staff scheduling improvements.

It’s no secret the Kern River makes for world-class whitewater rafting as it flows through the Southern Sierra Nevada. But there’s so much more for people who enjoy outdoor recreation to do in the greater Lake Isabella area.

The discord that has rattled Tejon Ranch Co. over the last two years seemed to subside this week with company shareholders voting to approve every item put before them during the company’s annual meeting Wednesday in Lebec.

Just as news settles in that at least two new data centers have been proposed in Kern County, a report released Thursday raises concerns about the strain that installations powering artificial intelligence can impose on water supplies available to nearby and regional communities.

Kern County’s ambitions for becoming a carbon management hub could get a financial boost from a state program offering up to $11 million in cap-and-invest money in support of demonstration projects that would pull greenhouse gas directly from the atmosphere.

Perceptions of whether government action is succeeding sometimes come down to different views on what the goal was to start with.

Industry estimates of the size of this year’s California almond crop suggest an ample but not over-large harvest following what may be the first decline in the state’s bearing acreage in three decades, led by orchard removals in Kern County.

For the chief executive of a company that just reported a quarterly loss of $711 million, Francisco Leon sounded upbeat.

Despite assurances it'd come with a "highly efficient hybrid cooling system," a data center proposed in Inyokern has raised concerns it would strain the region's water supplies while imposing unacceptable levels of noise, heat and light pollution on the surrounding area.

Sometimes having a popular neighbor can make a big difference, as Tejon Ranch Co. has learned with the opening of Hard Rock Casino Tejon.

The energy sector has long occupied such a central position in the local economy that, when it spun off several years ago from the annual Kern County Economic Summit, less prominent industries couldn't help but benefit.

A senior regional official with the U.S. Small Business Administration will discuss resources available to local entrepreneurs during an hourlong webinar starting at noon Wednesday.

A neurotechnology startup launched in the UK has spun off a Bakersfield company it says will attract clinical trials to hospitals in Kern County.

Just a year after worries of a slowdown put the brakes on speculative construction of warehouses in Southern California, Tejon Ranch Co. announced Monday it is partnering to develop a 510,385-square-foot industrial building north of the Grapevine — without any particular tenant in mind.

United Airlines plans to launch once-daily flights this summer between Meadows Field Airport and Los Angeles International Airport, a spokeswoman for Kern County government confirmed Friday.

A restaurant chain that put down roots in Oildale 36 years ago is returning to North Chester Avenue, admittedly without its full, sit-down atmosphere but still offering hard-to-find dishes longtime customers have come to appreciate.

A modest-size refinery southeast of Bakersfield has won permission to retool the plant so it can reincorporate byproduct hydrogen into its process for making transportation fuels.

Think again if it seemed a new law giving Kern County environmental clearance to permit local oil-field work would end California lawmakers’ years-long battle over in-state oil production.

B3K Prosperity has parted ways with the woman it hired 19 months ago to become the economic development coalition’s first permanent, full-time CEO.

Small business owners who may not qualify for traditional financing can learn about half a dozen alternatives by tuning in for an hourlong webinar starting at noon Wednesday.

Dignity Health is preparing to take over operation of Comprehensive Blood & Cancer Center’s oncology services, excluding dermatology, in a move the hospital network said will enhance the region’s health-care offerings.

Supply jumped but not as high as demand last month as Bakersfield’s home market moved more solidly into the home-buying season, according to the latest monthly report from local appraiser Gary Crabtree.

For all the disruption Kern's oil industry has endured in recent years, a new study shows it has continued to contribute strongly to the local economy while providing exceptionally good pay relative to the amount of education it requires.

U.S. military personnel put an unmanned aircraft through a series of tests at Edwards Air Force Base recently as part of an initiative intended to speed the refinement of experimental products into combat-ready weapons.

Familiar adversaries are lining up for and against a state bill that, by proposing to make it harder for oil companies to sell their wells, illustrates sharply different ideas about managing oil-field assets and, by extension, reducing taxpayer-borne cleanup costs.

Kern County’s advocacy for local placement of tax-beneficial "opportunity zones" will be the focus on an hourlong webinar Wednesday.

Kern County energy projects whose subsidies the Trump administration canceled last year may be revived by a list of roughly 2,000 Biden-era projects the U.S. Department of Energy has told Congress are worthy of retention or modification.

A Fresno lender pleaded guilty Monday in separate federal cases in which he and a partner were accused of defrauding investors in Bitwise Industries, the workforce development venture that made a big splash in Bakersfield before collapsing in 2023.

Radio stations have joined the list of local industries being disrupted by copper wire thefts around Kern County.

Local farmers are turning to an inexpensive, locally sourced soil amendment as the conflict with Iran keeps upward pressure on imported fertilizer prices.

Bakersfield police are investigating a possible homicide after a 60-year-old man was found dead Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 600 block of Taylor Street.

Eastern Kern’s aerospace and defense industry would benefit from easier access to U.S. airspace and more frequent launches under legislation introduced this month by Rep. Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield.

California farm groups are asking the state’s growers to join them in opposing a state wage-increase bill they see as an attempt to undermine the Trump administration’s efforts in October to lower pay for guest ag workers.

Mangoes are hard to find in orchards around Kern, but they’ve become the next big thing for one of the county’s most advanced fruit breeders.

Panelists at an energy conference Thursday at Cal State Bakersfield examined potential trade-offs if Kern County moves forward with development of data centers that, for all their tax revenue generation, could strain local water resources and drive up energy costs without creating many jobs.