Greeter: Jean-Luc Slagle + Ivan Carrasco

Invocation: Ryan Crowl

Flag Salute: Jacob Frost

Roving Mic: Leslie Friend

SPOKE EDITOR PROFILE:

Jorge Barrientos is the director of marketing and public relations at Law Office of Chain | Cohn | Clark, and serves on board of directors for a variety of local community organizations. When he’s not working or serving our community, you can find him traveling the world, attending concerts, and hanging with his family, which includes wife Carla, 7-year-old son Julian, 5-year-old daughter Gianna Sol.

GUESTS:

Realtor, dad, Kern High School District Area 4 candidate Bill Mell (Bill Lever)

Greg Mariani of Greg’s Petroleum Service (Justin Salters)

Daughter Millie Clowes and Joanna Kendrick of Central Academy of Arts and Technology (Kat Clowes)

Michael Hansen and Brandon Grimm (Andrea Hansen)

Julissa Bhakta of Kumon Riverlakes and Jackie Koster of Key Staffing, Inc. (Kamal Bhakta)

Ed Youngstrom of Dignity Health (Kelly Youngstrom)

Uvaldo Garcia of California Safety Training Corporation (Ben Laverty)

Matt Bauer, field representative with Rep. Vince Fong’s Office. Johnny Olaguez (Juan Bustamante)  

GOOD NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:

For the first time in the history of Downtown Rotary, Rotarians finished an entire entrée at last week’s meeting, Toni announced.  

Tax or Extortion?

Kat Clowes gave various Girl Scout swag from her daughter’s Scout trip to Washington, D.C.

Steve Sanders gave salmon dip and a beer from Alaska. 

Amy Travis left her gift (rum) from Belize on her desk.

Jacob Frost called out that Toni forgot her gift at another Rotary meeting, and was fined.

Patrick Beck fined for wearing a work nametag in place of a Rotary nametag.  

Justin Salters shared Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $6.8 million grant to support and accelerate the space, defense, and satellites ecosystem in Kern County.  

Mike Willis shared Village Fest returns to the Kern County Museum from 6-10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12. Rotarians can get 20% off with the code: TIX4ROTARY.  

Kelly Youngstrom shared about Kern Dance Alliance’s National Dance Day on Saturday, Sept. 19.  

We celebrated Jean-Luc Slagle’s birthday with no birthday song ($50 fine)  

Order your Rotary shirt at the next meeting, and pick up your new pin, too, if you need one.

Joe Hay introduced our newest Rotarian, Adriana Bland, who is an interior designer and owner of Ikondium Design. 

Next meeting will feature Ken Beurmann and Ken Keller for a “Kens of Healthcare” chat.

PROGRAM

Congressman Vince Fong is a Bakersfield native and lifelong Kern County resident who represents California’s 20th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before being elected to Congress in 2024, Fong served in the California State Assembly from 2016 to 2024 and spent years working on Central Valley issues for Congressmen Bill Thomas and Kevin McCarthy. He’s a graduate of UCLA with a master’s degree from Princeton University.

Congressman Fong opened on a personal note, sharing that he'll welcome his second child in October and soon have two children under two. He then turned to some of our country’s challenges: the economic and security competition the United States faces with China, from AI and manufacturing to space exploration and supply chains.

Cybersecurity was a major focus. Fong described China's approach as stealing technology to reproduce, sell, and create dependency, while Iran is focused on outright destruction, actively hacking American grids and businesses. Fong said China and Russia currently lead in hypersonic weapons, putting the U.S. in catch-up mode, and referenced the Golden Dome missile defense initiative and homeland security priorities. He warned that adversaries want to disrupt daily life by targeting water and power, creating chaos, and noted that the nature of threats has shifted since 9/11 from land and water attacks to cyberattacks.

Space also featured prominently. Fong called space "the ultimate high ground," stressing the importance of satellites and Kern County's role in space investment.

“It’s a unifying issue that brings Democrats and Republicans together,” he said.

Locally, Fong sees Kern County as "the tip of the spear," building a pipeline between education and the military workforce through partnerships with CSU Bakersfield, local community colleges, and other Central Valley educational institutions.

On California specifically, Fong identified power and water as the state's two biggest issues, alongside affordability and the invasive golden mussel problem. He argued California has a structural problem that needs long-term solutions, including boosting in-state oil production.

He closed by touching on trade, criticizing Canada's taxes on us and its pivot toward Chinese markets as a potential back door into the United States. (Context: Canada refutes this as a largely retaliatory responses to U.S. measures, and for China relations, current rules restrict such transshipment.