The "gamification of learning" is rolling into Kern County with state investment in a new virtual reality lab on wheels designed to deliver next-generation workforce training to local students in need of career options.

On Monday, Assemblywoman Dr. Jasmeet Bains, D-Bakersfield, presented a $1 million state check to the Kern Community College District so it can build what's being called an "economic mobility lab." The district expects to put the 30-foot trailer on the road by fall 2025.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. KGET) — A bill that would possibly bring a University of California medical school to Kern County is moving forward in the state legislature.

Dr. Jasmeet Bains, who represents California’s 35th Assembly district, first introduced the so-called “Grow Our Own” bill. It would require the University of California to build a medical school in Kern County and create an endowment in the state treasury to fund it.

In a major milestone for mariner safety in California, the California Senate Transportation Committee has voted 14-0 in favor of a measure that would prevent the California Air Resources Board (CARB) from enforcing a potentially deadly requirement in its harbor craft regulations. That requirement would force operators to install unproven and uncertified diesel particulate filters (DPF), widely seen as a fire hazard. The U.S. Coast Guard has already said that it won’t enforce the CARB DPF requirement.

The measure, AB 1122, was authored by Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains, MD.