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C A L L U S

I N D E X

Annies Mailbox .B6

Bridge . . . . . . . . . .B6

Classifieds . . . . . .C1

Comics . . . . . . . . .B6

Crossword . .B6, C3

Eye Street . . . . . .B4

Funerals . . . . . . . .B2

Horoscope . . . . . .B7

Local news . . . . . .B1

Opinion . . . . . . . . .B3People . . . . . . . . .B6

Sports . . . . . . . . . .D1

Sudoku . . . . . . . . .B6

Television . . . . . . .B5

High 97Low 70

Air quality: Unhealthy, 101

Complete weather, B8

W E A T H E R

When is the right time to letgo of your fruit tree? JoanSwenson tells us about her recent

experience with herFlavor Queen

Pluot tree

after 10years of

greatfruit inEye

Street.

C O M I N GW E D N E S D A Y

NATIONAL PARKS

Famous arch inUtah collapsesOne of the largest and most photographed

arches in Arches National Park in Utah has

collapsed. Paul Henderson, the parks chief

of interpretation, said Wall Arch collapsed

sometime late Monday or early Tuesday.

The arch is along Devils Garden Trail, one of

the most popular in the park. For years, the

arch has been a favorite stopping point for

photographers. Henderson said the arch

was claimed by forces that will eventually

destroy others in the park: gravity and

erosion. The arch, first reported and named

in 1948, ranked 12th in size among the

parks estimated 2,000 arches.

COCKFIGHTING

State to be lastto ban fightsGory and bucolic all at once, cockfights

have drawn crowds to small-time pits and

full-blown arenas in towns around

Louisiana for generations. By next week,

theyll be against the law. Everywhere. On

Friday, Louisiana will become the last state

to outlaw the rooster fights, a move that

cockfighting enthusiasts say marks the

end of a rich rural tradition. Maybe so, but

supporters and opponents agree that the

blood sport wont be wiped out entirely.

Page A7

CAMPAIGN 08

DNC to featureClinton nightHillary Rodham Clinton

will headline her own

night at the Democratic

National Convention,

Barack Obamas

campaign announced

Sunday in a nod to her

strong showing in the

partys presidential primary. The former

first lady will speak on the second night,

Tuesday, Aug. 26. The campaign and

convention committee in a statement

called her a champion for working

families and one of the most effective and

empathetic voices in the country today.

Page A6

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ISAAC HAYES | 1942-2008, A6

BY MAGGIE CREAMERCalifornian staff writer

e-mail: mcreamer@bakersfield.com

Evelia Rodriguez waited four stressful monthsafter receiving a pink slip. She did not knowif she would be able to buy a house, plan her

dream wedding or go on a trip to Mexico.For a while there, a lot of things were not

certain, she said.

About three weeks ago, her wait was overwhen the Kern High School District let herknow she would have a job at Arvin HighSchool. Rodriguez cant wait to make the mostof what she considers a second chance.

I get to go back to the students Ive beenworking with for a while, and Im familiar witheveryone, she said.

As teachers prepare to start school in thenext few weeks, many in Kern Countyare hap-py to have the jobs that seemed so unsure a fewmonths ago.

KHSD teachers all hired backThis spring the district notified 23 teachers

that they might not have a job in the fall, assis-

Pink slips give way to good news

Layoffs

Teachers

relieved tohave a jobafter wait

Russia presses deeper into Georgia, bombing capitalBY ANNE BARNARD

The New York Times

TBILISI, Georgia Russia expand-ed its attacks on Georgia on Sunday,moving tanks and troops through theseparatist enclave of South Ossetia andadvancing toward the city of Gori in

central Georgia, in its first directassault on a Georgian city with groundforces after three days of heavy fight-ing, Georgian officials said.

The maneuver along with aerialbombing of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi suggested that Russias aims in theconflict had gone beyond securing the

pro-Russian enclaves of South Ossetiaand Abkhazia to weakening the armedforces of Georgia, a former Sovietrepublic and an ally of the UnitedStates whose Western leanings havelong irritated the Kremlin.

Russias moves, which came afterGeorgia offered a cease-fire and pulled its

troops out of South Ossetia, sparked wide-spread international alarm and anger andset the stage for an intense diplomaticconfrontation with the United States.

Two senior Western officials said itwas unclear whether Russia intended a

Please turn to GEORGIA/ A3

BY EMILY HAGEDORN

Californian staff writer

e-mail: ehagedorn@bakersfield.com

Dont get Steve Schillingstarted on how hard it isto get doctors to come toBakersfield.

Known for saying whats on hismind, the Clinica Sierra Vista CEOwill launch into describing thetrips hes taken with potential hiresto Seven Oaks, enticing them bypointing out the spacious homes acommunity clinic physician canafford in Bakersfield.

We live here in Kern County, inone of the most severely under-staffed, health manpower shortageareas of anywhere in America,said the outspoken chief of the non-profit group of clinics that servethe poor. Ive got vacancies allover the place.

So you can imagine Schillingsexcitement upon finding Dr. JohnMelville.

Melville is board certified inpediatrics and internal medicine, arare designation that no other Clin-ica doctor has.

He is a member of the NationalHealth Service Corps, a federalprogram that sends doctors tounderserved areas in exchange forpaying for college.

He has glowing references and a

medical record clean of discipli-nary actions.

When a gentleman like Johncomes along, were, of course,interested, he said.

But despite Melvilles trackrecord and Clinicas desire to hirehim, he may never see the inside of

one of Clinicas clinics.The Medical Board of California,the state agency charged with licens-ing and disciplining physicians, hasnot granted him an unrestrictedlicense a must, Melville andSchilling say due to the fact he hascerebral palsy, according to medicalboard correspondence Melville pro-vided to The Californian.

Cerebral palsy is a condition

Disabled doctors dilemma

JOHN HARTE/ THE CALIFORNIAN

Evelia Rodriguez spent Saturday redecoratingher classroom at Arvin High School. She wasoriginally laid off, but an unexpected openingled to her getting her job back.

Please turn to LAYOFFS / A3

South Ossetia conflict

Please turn to MELVILLE / A3

Limits by state could foilhiring by clinical group

HENRY A. BARRIOS/ THE CALIFORNIAN

Dr. John Melville sits with his daughter Olivia at the Clinica Sierra Vista office. He wants to work for the clinicand it wants to hire him, but because he has cerebral palsy he is having trouble getting his license in California.

License limboNATIONAL PARKS SERVICE VIA AP

The arch along Devils Garden Trail before its collapse.

PHELPS TAKES 2ND GOLD, D1

Subscriber services:392-5777 or 1-800-953-5353

To report a news tip:395-7384 or 1-800-540-0646

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MONDAY, AUGUST 11, 2008 THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN A3

full invasion of Georgia, but that itsaims could go as far as destroyingits armed forces or overthrowingGeorgias pro-Western president,Mikheil Saakashvili.

The escalation of fightingbetween Russia and the formerSoviet republic raised tensionsbetween Russia and its former ColdWar foes to their highest level indecades. President Bush has pro-moted Georgia as a bastion ofdemocracy, helped strengthen itsmilitary and urged that NATOadmit the country to membership.Georgia serves as a major conduitfor oil flowing from Russia andCentral Asia to the West.

But Russia, emboldened by wind-fall profits from oil exports, isdemonstrating a resolve to reassertits dominance in a region it hasalways considered its near abroad.

The military action, which hasinvolved air, naval and missile

attacks, marks the largest engage-ment by Russian forces outside itsborders since the collapse of theSoviet Union.

Russia also escalated its assaultSunday despite strong diplomaticwarnings from Bush and Europeanleaders, underscoring the limits ofWestern influence over Russia at atime when the rest of Europedepends heavily on Russia for natu-ral gas and the United States needsMoscows cooperation if it has anyhope of curtailing what it sees as anuclear weapons threat from Iran.

Russian officials say Georgia pro-voked the assault by attackingSouth Ossetia last week, causingheavy civilian casualties. But West-ern diplomats and military officialssaid they worried that Russiasdecision to extend the fighting andto open a second front in Abkhaziaindicated that it had sought to use arelatively low-level conflict toextend its influence over a muchbroader area.

GEORGIA: Americas abilityto influence Russia limitedContinued from A1

affecting body movement and muscle coordi-nation. For Melville, it was caused by a braininjury suffered during birth.

When he walks, he limps slightly and stum-bles. His words come out slurred and louderthan he intends.

His hands jerk, contort.Now were we a little struck by John when

we first me him? Absolutely, Schilling said.Everybody is a little bit surprised and takenaback by a person that is as quote disabled asJohn is or as different.

Melville recognizes his limitations and vol-untarily refrains from procedures involvingsharp objects, like administering injectionsand IV medication, he said.

But for the board, that might not be enough.Medical board spokeswoman Candis Cohen

couldnt comment on license statuses but saidthat in the interest of public protection, weneed to make sure the appropriate protectionsare in effect.

According to the boards letters to Melville,an unrestricted license was never a possibility.

He could undergo a physical medicalassessment and maybe be offered a restrictedlicense, or he could withdraw his application.

Restricted and unrestricted licenses mightnot mean much to laymen, but license statusaffects doctors reputations, employmentopportunities and whether health insurers willpay for medical services.

So the board has kind of put me in this real-ly difficult situation that in order to get alicense, I need to accept actions that are goingto mar my professional reputation irreparablyand solely based on my disability, Melvillesaid. I grew up in California, and California,if anything, prides itself in the effort it goes toinclude everyone.

Melville has an unrestricted license in Alas-ka, where he works now, and had an unrestrict-ed training certificate in Ohio, where he did hisresidency.

He underwent a physical assessment in Julyat the boards request. The evaluating physi-cian recommended anunrestricted license,according to the filing.

Melville is awaiting theboards final decision.

This sort of felt like

Mississippi 1955,Schilling said. It just bugsme that there was not away for the medical boardto be more responsive.

At least one local attor-ney sees valid reasoningbehind the boards actions.

The rules were writtenfor the purpose of protect-ing the patients, said DeeStasnopolis, a health carelaw attorney and partner inthe Bakersfield office ofBorton Petrini.To have the rules rewritten fora particular doctor its not going to happen.

Far awayArvin, where Melville would work, may

seem small by Bakersfield standards, but thesoutheast Kern farm town is a big city com-pared with Kotzebue, Alaska a village 30

miles north of the Artic Circle where thedoctor currently resides.

Theres far away and then theres faraway, Melville said.

Melville, 32, has worked at the ManiilaqHealth Center since 2006, sometimes travelingby seaplane and dogsled to care for sick kids.

Hes the northernmost pediatrician in theUnited States, he says with a laugh, responsi-ble for children within a 500-mile area.

I like a rural lifestyle, he said. Its a littlebit slower, a little bit different, but it agreeswith me.

Richard Elam, a 50-year-old Kotzebue resi-dent, remembers the first time Melville treat-ed him for his chronic back pain.

I thought they were playing a joke, hesaid. He was walking, talking funny.

But over the last year, he has grown toappreciate Melvilles skills, he said.

The doctor jokes with patients about his dis-ability to remove the big question mark fromthe room, said Dr. Robert Gibson, ManiilaqHealth Center medical director.

Hell say, Oh, its nothing but brain dam-age, Gibson said. Hes very engaging andempathetic.

With Melville in Kotzebue is his wife,Valerie, and two daughters, Olivia, 3, andOrpah, 11 months.

Olivia has recently shown some develop-mental delays, for which their Inuit villagedoesnt have the appropriate resources another reason for coming to California.

The couple met when he was doing his resi-dency with Childrens Hospital Medical Cen-ter of Akronand Akron General MedicalCenter. Melville moved to Akron after gradu-ating from the University of California SanDiego School of Medicine.

It took him longer than most students tolearn to do physical exams at an acceptablespeed, he said.

The demands placed upon residents aregreater than anything you would find in the realworld, said Dr. Paul Lecat, the former internalmedicine and pediatrics residency director atAkron General. I never cut him any slack.

Other medical professionals werent so sureabout him being a physician, but they usuallycame around or he found ways to succeedwithout them, Melville said.

Ive always run into people who say,Couldnt you just be a research guy? he said.

Getting into med school was a little bit hard.A couple of admissions committees couldntdeal with a disabled doctor.

The boardMelvilles complaint with the board centers

on the trust it places with all other physiciansexcept, apparently, him.

The board has one license, a physiciansand surgeons certificate, for all doctors, frompsychiatrists to heart surgeons.

Physicians are trusted to only do the thingsthat they do well and that theyre trained for,he said. What I find particularly objectionableis theyre saying that disabled physicians arentworthy of the same trust.

Furthermore, Melville said the board isleery of his surgical skills because of his

shaky hands, despite thefact he isnt a surgeon.

The procedures herefrains from, such asdrawing blood, arent typi-cally done by physiciansanyway, and in the case adoctor is needed, anotherdoctor from the officecould cover, he said.

Still, the board cant relyon a physician to choosehow to practice medicine,Cohen said, via e-mail.

If a physician has a con-dition impairing his/herability to practice medicinesafely without sufficientevidence to deny the appli-cation, a probationarylicense may be issued, she

said.A probationary license is different from a

doctor being placed on probation.A probationary license is an administrative

action that occurs at the point when a licenseis issued, when physicians have conditionsimpairing their ability to practice safely butthe board doesnt have evidence to deny theirapplications, Cohen said.

Being placed on probation is a disciplinary

action, usually done when a doctor is negligentand harms a patient.

While Melville wouldbe given a probationarylicense, not probation,that action would still bereported on the boardsWeb site and to theNational PractitionerData Bank,a resourceused in backgroundinvestigations, accordingto letters from the board.

The board then wouldsuspend his license andconvert it into a limitedlicense with restrictions.

It will endeavor tofully inform any inquir-ing party of the circum-stances surrounding thetransition, according tothe May 23 letter from the board to Melville.

The solution theyre offering is not a real

solution, Melville said. To say, Well its asuspended license, but its not disciplinary its kind of like a nondisciplinary jail term.

Five California physicians have activelicenses with voluntary limitations on prac-tice, Cohen said. Board staff couldnt recall asingle instance when a physician harmed apatient because of a disability.

Gibson, Melvilles current medical director,said his situation poses a challenge to theboard. He can see both sides.

If the physician has an area of limitationthat is recognized as a possible threat to thepublic, then theyll put a limitation on thelicense even if the physician has no plans topractice that type of medicine, said TimMiller, senior director for government relationsand policy for the Federation of State MedicalBoards, a nonprofit composed of the countrysboards. Ive seen limitations on physicianswhere they cant do surgeries or deliver babieseven though thats not what they do.

Larry Paradis, executive director of thenonprofit, Berkeley-based Disability RightsAdvocates, said the assumption that the dis-abled pose a threat is an archaic stereotype.

Public safety can still be protected whileallowing quality individuals with disabilities tobe licensed, he said. Its not an either/or.

The board should have a license for disabled

doctors that is unrestricted but includes a sideagreement on what the they can and cannotdo, Paradis said.

The board is looking into a special license,Cohen said.Melville and Schilling also assert that the

restricted license would make getting paid dif-ficult.

There are certain payers who respond verynegatively if you bring forward a providerwith a restriction on his license, Schillingsaid. It would have made life really difficult,and it may have made the practice unsustain-able.

Health Net and Anthem Blue Cross, twolarge insurers in California, typically requireunrestricted licenses, but exceptions can bemade on a case-by-case basis, officials said.

A restricted license alone would not precludea provider from Medi-Cal, the states healthprogram for the poor, said Anthony Cava,spokesman for the state Department of HealthCare Services, which oversees Medi-Cal.

A physician could not enroll as a preferredprovider (in Medi-Cal) with any limitations ontheir license though, Cava said.

As a preferred provider, a physicians Medi-Cal application is expedited, so this meansMelville would have to wait longer to acceptMedi-Cal funds.

The lawThe medical board erred when it denied

Melville an unrestricted license before havinghim undergo a physical assessment, saidBrenda Premo, director of the Center for Dis-ability Issues and the Health Professions atWestern University in Pomona.

What puzzles her is all the other disableddoctors she knows who practice with fulllicenses. Why not Melville?

Low vision, deaf doctors: fully licensed.Quadriplegics: fully licensed, she said.There are a lot of quote-unquote able-bodiedpeople who are far more dangerous to patientswho are practicing now with drug and alcoholproblems than people with disabilities.

Melville argues that Medi-Cal and the med-ical board fall under Title II of the Americans

with Disabilities Act, which says people withdisabilities wont be excludedfrom services, programs oractivities of a public entity.

He certainly has a strongclaim under both state andfederal law that he should belicensed in such a way that hecan practice in his field, Par-adis said.

The general principle is thatpublic agencies have to makereasonable modifications forqualified individuals, headded.

Two other states havelicensed him unrestricted,Paradis said. Both of thosewould argue he is qualified todo the essential functions ofhis job.

Under any law, some peo-ple are going to fall through the cracks, Stas-nopolis said.

Is it fair? he asked. I dont know.

What lies aheadMelville figures he has a 50-50shot at get-

ting an unrestricted license from the board.He has reached out to some disability rights

organizations with no luck. He would like totake the state to court if hes denied, but hedoesnt have the money.

Also, the window of time when the NationalHealth Service Corps will let him move maybe closing. The corps, which places doctors inunderserved areas, is restrictive on when adoctor can switch locations.

Giving him a license does not make anyonehire me. It just simply says that I can partici-pate in competition based on merit, he said.The only thing Im accused of is a small errorin the birthing process.

MELVILLE:Restrictions onlicense wouldhinder doctorContinued from A1

tant superintendent of personnelBill Jones said. Several months lat-er, they all have jobs in the district,Jones said.

Kern High Faculty AssociationPresident Mitch Olson said the dis-trict handled the layoff processwell by only sending out the exactnumber of notices needed. He saidsome districts in California givepink slips to hundreds of teachers.

He blames the state governmentfor requiring districts to sendnotices by March 15 to any currentteacher for whom there may not bea job in the fall, which forces dis-tricts to make decisions before itsclear how much state money iscoming to districts.

The district cant think Well,its going to get better because itmight not, so they have to go on theinformation they have, Olson said.

We should be hiring teachersFaced with decreases in state

funding, Rosedale Union SchoolDistrict and Fruitvale School Dis-trict also passed out pink slips ear-lier this year.

As a growing district, we shouldbe hiring teachers,Rosedale Superin-tendent Jamie Hen-dersonsaid.

After giving layoffnotices to 21 teach-ers, long-term subsand interns,Rosedale Unionrehired all seven ofthe first-year teach-ers and two of the interns. Anothertwo interns will not return this fall,and the long-term subs will proba-bly still have subbing opportuni-ties, Henderson said.

The district could fill the seventeaching positions because otheremployees left through attrition,which is usually when teachersmove out of the district or retire, hesaid. The district lost one early lit-eracy position and a music teacher.Also, 12 kindergarten teachersmoved to other grades because ofan increase in kindergarten classsize. Classes went from 20 to atmost 30 students, and the district issaving $450,000 this year.

When Laura Robertson receivedher pink slip, she consideredattending a job fair. She said luckilyshe did not have to start looking for

jobs because a teacher took anotherposition, so she could continueteaching fifth grade at RosedaleNorth Elementary School.

Im 45 years old, and this is asecond career for me, she said. Iwas in a position where I neverwanted to leave, but self-preserva-tion kicked in.

Fruitvale gave layoff notices tofive first-year elementary teachers.The district only had to send outfive slips to teachers because asixth teacher had already taken a

job elsewhere, superintendent Carl

Olsensaid.Two out of the five were rehired

and one took a position elsewhere.One of the positions openedthrough a resignation and anothercame from an unexpected increasein the number of students in agrade. He said the district stillmight be able to rehire the twoteachers still waiting if there is anunexpected increase in enrollment.

The district also sent out noticesto 15 non-teaching employees, such

as janitors. Olsen said the districtultimately had jobs for 13 of them.One employee declined a job andanother is still waiting. Olsen saidsome employees changed positionsand some of the hours were scaledback, but he is happy the districtcould rehire so many.

We are pleased to have comethis far, Olsen said. We wouldlike the issue completely resolved,but weve made progress.

Avoiding pink slipsOther districts, such as Panama-

Buena Vista Union School District,avoided layoffs by tightening thebudget.

We are holding on,Panama-Buena Vista Assistant Superinten-

dent Gerrie Kincaidsaid.

Norris School Dis-trict also avoided

layoffs by not fillingsome positionsthrough attrition.The district did notfill four elementaryteaching positions,and two or three

classified positions, superintendentWally McCormicksaid.

We are not proactively hiring.We are reactively hiring, he said.

Also, the district has movedteachers around to fill positions atother schools. Students who regis-ter late will be moved to elemen-tary schools where there is spaceinstead of placing them in a schoolbased on where there home is locat-ed.

Schools are a people job, so wetry to cut things instead of people,McCormick said.

Back to workThe first group of students

Rodriguez, the Arvin High teacher,tutored in middle school were herseniors last year, she said. Theytook it hard when they found outshe might not be back.

I live in the same neighborhoodI teach in, and theyve been stop-ping by and saying congratula-tions, she said.

For her, it was especially signifi-cant to teach social studies in 10thgrade this year because the classincludes students from her lastyear of tutoring. She hopes toadvise student government andmight coach soccer.

I was relieved to be rehired,she said. I wish this on nobody; itis very stressful.

LAYOFFS: We are holding on,says assistant superintendentContinued from A1

Iraq deathsThe Associated Press

As of Sunday, at least 4,139 membersof the U.S. military have died in the Iraqwar since it began in March 2003, ac-

cording to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes eight military civil-ians killed in action. At least 3,364 died

as a result of hostile action, accordingto the militarys numbers.

The AP count is two more than the De-fense Departments tally, last updatedFriday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 176deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland,21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark,

seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four;Latvia and Georgia, three each; Esto-

nia, the Netherlands, Thailand, Roma-nia, two each; and Australia, Hungary,

Kazakhstan, South Korea, one deatheach.

The latest deaths reported bythe military:A soldier was killed Sunday by an ex-plosive in Tarmiyah.

No identifications reported bythe military.

Schools are a

people job, so we

try to cut thingsinstead of people. Superintendent WallyMcCormick, Norris SchoolDistrict

HENRY A. BARRIOS/ THE CALIFORNIAN

Dr. John Melville has cerebral palsy and is having trouble getting his license to practice medi-cine in California. Melville has been practicing medicine in Alaska and would like to work forClinica Sierra Vista.

Check out The Pulse, reporter EmilyHagedorns blog on health and medicine. Youcan find it at

people.bakersfield.com/blogs/ehagedorn.

Bakersfield.com

So the board has kind

of put me in this really

difficult situation that

in order to get alicense, I need to

accept actions that are

going to mar my

professional reputation

irreparably and solely

based on my

disability. Dr. John Melville

Bakersfield.comSee a video of Dr. John Melvillewhere others speak on his behalf tobe issued an unrestricted California

medical license at Bakersfield.com.