By Patric Hedlund, Editor, The Mountain Enterprise

Last week we saw a strong contrast in the offerings to our community from our own U.S. congressman. We owe thanks for one effort—especially if it is the first step in a consistent plan to roll out an intelligent covid-19 testing policy by the current administration that can turn the tide of coronavirus infections throughout rural Kern County.

McCarthy Obtains Rural Covid-19 Testing for Mountain Communities

District 23 congressman Kevin McCarthy did a solid for our community last week, making drive-through covid-19 coronavirus self-swab testing available in Frazier Park and Pine Mountain Club.

I’ll give a standing ovation to that, and heartily call out “More! More!” Indeed, that is exactly what we should be calling for: More continuous access to self-swab tests with results back within hours, as long as they are accurate.

Roughly 300 people were tested in just two days here last week. A great start: 238 people in PMC, according to the POA’s general manager Karin Shulman, and about 61 in Frazier Park, coordinated by the Mountain Communities Family Resource Center, MCFRC Director Tammy Rowan said.

Participants had their results returned in two to four days.

Kern County reports 49 covid-19 cases in our Mountain Community ZIP codes (93225, 93222 and 93243), but The Mountain Enterprise knows of at least 48, and possibly several more not reflected in Kern County statistics, including the death of William Hopper, president of the Lebec County Water District.

Frequent testing will help get businesses back into full operation and open our schools again. We need this allocation of testing resources made available on more than a showcase basis. We look forward to hearing Rep. McCarthy’s long-term plan for a mobile testing schedule with quick results for rural areas throughout Kern County, along with abundant testing in Bakersfield.

The McCarthy vs. Pelosi WWE Match

It looks as if Californians are going mano a mano in Washington, D.C., in the House of Representatives.

Our Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield is Minority Leader for the House, and Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, of San Francisco, is Speaker of the House. Last week 26 Republicans broke with McCarthy to vote with Pelosi’s efforts to assure that the United States Postal Service will provide solid, dependable service for all mail, including mail-in ballots, during this upcoming national election cycle.

The vote occurred after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the 671 high-speed sorting machines that have been removed from post offices will not be put back in place. This is a major disruption of the ability of the USPS to be timely and dependable—which was once its reputation and its solemn promise to the nation.

Dawn Jenkins of Piñon Pines called about a letter from Hawaii that took 7.5 weeks to arrive. Paul and Sarah Edwards of Pine Mountain Club sent multiple examples of financial impacts from slow mail on their personal and business lives.

The American Postal Workers Union explained in a recent grievance filing that decommissioning the high speed mail-sorting machines removes the ability to sort 21.4 million pieces of paper mail per hour——including mail-in ballots during this upcoming national election cycle.

Slowdowns may also threaten delivery of medications and social security checks.

Look closely at the USPS map on page 5. A majority of the high speed sorting machines were removed from areas that are also struggling with flattening the coronavirus infection curve, which will, in turn, increase the number of people who feel it is urgent to vote early by mail, to minimize personal risk.

The battle for votes in the House of Representatives was to mandate returning the removed high speed sorting machines and to provide $25 billion to aid the USPS.

McCarthy wrote the letter below to try to convince his caucus to vote “No,” the Republican party line. He said nothing about returning sorting machines, only mailboxes. Pelosi’s bill passed in the House. She won her caucus plus 26 Republican “Yes” votes. In the Senate, Majority Leader McConnell said he’ll block it.

Photo captions:

This map shows places in the country where mail sorting has been slowed by more than 10% due to removal of high speed sorting machines. —From data secured by The Washington Post

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This is part of the August 28, 2020 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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