Archive: Ventura County

"The world stood still today for my sweet husband," his wife posted after a solemn procession Sunday drew crowds along several SoCal freeways. "He is home."

Ricardo DeAratanha was charged Tuesday with misdemeanor resisting, obstructing or delaying a peace officer when he was confronted during the Nancy Reagan funeral in Simi Valley.

Ventura County Star political columnist Timm Herdt, moving on after 31 years of Wednesday columns, pleads the case for print.

Mission Hills Bowl, Friendly Hills Lanes in Whittier and Wagon Wheel Bowl in Oxnard all went dark this month. And a home where Norma Jean Dougherty lived in what's now Valley Village was torn down.

Affected beaches range as far south as San Clemente. Heck of a coincidence if this is not found to be connected to the Santa Barbara County spill.

It's just the second time researchers have spotted a lion successfully crossing the freeway — and the first to leave the Santa Monicas.

On a nice day, in a small town, the customers never stopped coming in. Bart's provides everything that the failed book chains never figured out. Including sunshine.

From the outside, the Conejo Creek Condos look like anywhere else in the Ventura County suburban community. Inside is more chaotic. Immigrants from rural Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras who live packed into the units call the complex Las Casitas.

Conditions out in the Pacific add up to a third straight off year for rainfall. But you never know — normal is such a squishy concept here.

From a long night of posting on September 12, 2008: "Channel 5 just wisely advised parents to keep the children of possible victims away from the television for awhile."

AP reporters Michael Blood and Elliot Spagat investigated what happened when state water was stored in an underground aquifer in Ventura County — the water vanished.

The wildfire that began near Camarillo Springs Road and U.S. 101 spread to 28,000 acres on Friday, but firefighters kept the flames from engulfing any homes for a second day. Residents fled several neighborhoods, however, as the fire jumped ridges and moved toward communities such as Hidden Valley.

Brush conditions around Camarillo are like October, fire officials say — and it's only May. More than 6,500 acres have scorched, forcing evacuations, but no homes have been destroyed. Burned agricultural buildings in the strawberry fields near Cal State Channel Islands have raised concerns about toxic smoke.

Sheriff's detectives said today they are now investigating last May's disappearance of media executive Gavin Smith as a homicide case. Smith's 2000 black Mercedes Benz 420E was recovered last month in a storage facility in Simi Valley.

The latest Pacific observation, from the waters around the Chanel Islands National Marine Sanctuary off Ventura County: a migrating gray whale protecting her newborn calf in a 20 to 30 minute battle in view of spectators on board a boat from Oxnard. Survival of the fittest.

By legend and observation, today is when the sun lines up with a target-like pictograph in a cave in an area of the Simi Hills called Burro Flats. Hopefully, you will never find this place.

Chief Petty Officer Horne, of Redondo Beach, was out with the Marina Del Rey cutter Halibut when a suspected smuggling vessel rammed his inflatable boat, throwing Horne into the sea near Santa Cruz Island.

Eric Estrin, the emeritus contributor at LA Observed who is editor of Movie Smackdown, sends word from Ventura County that Mysteries to Die For in Thousand Oaks will be closing later this month.

Former speaker and losing candidate for mayor releases a statement (through campaign strategist John Shallman) saying thanks but no thanks.

The former Assembly Speaker and unsuccessful candidate for mayor says he can win and she can't.

The Republicans had their own local primary election fight between House incumbents brewing due to redistricting. But Rep. Elton Gallegly said Saturday he won't run, leaving the district to fellow Republican Rep. Buck McKeon.

Bill Fulton, a well-known writer on California affairs and the nitty gritty of urban planning before and since he became an elected official in Ventura, is moving away largely because he is losing his eyesight to retinitis pigmentosa.

KCSN, the FM station from Cal State Northridge, has a new program director. Sky Daniels, formerly of the late KMET and other stations, has also been a label executive at...

Editor Joe Howry is tired of doing battle with the anti-social idiots who comment on the Ventura County Star website.

Nearly two months later, the paper says eight men are not sex offenders and parole violators.

NBC's "Today" show packaged footage of Abby Sunderland at home in Thousand Oaks with a lengthy interview this morning at the studios in New York.

Abby Sunderland told her news conference in Marina del Rey this morning that, now that she's home, she'll concentrate on school and getting her driver's licen

The teenaged sailor arrived home in Thousand Oaks late Monday evening.

While Abby Sunderland was on his boat chugging toward Reunion for more than a week, says Jacques Deshayes, the 16-year-old had her own cabin and access to a phone and mailbox. She sat up on the bridge sometimes, but she also slept a lot and after dinner would return to her room and they wouldn't see her again until 8 in the morning.

Sailor Abby Sunderland arrived on the French island of Reunion a few minutes ago. She was greeted by her brother Zac then met the media briefly before the two teenagers...

News out of Reunion tonight is that the French vessel carrying 16-year-old Abby Sunderland will dock at 8:30 Saturday morning local time. (Reunion is 11 hours ahead of Los Angeles.)

A representative, presumably from Ventura County, met with Abby Sunderland at home for two hours before she sailed from Marina del Rey on her attempt to circle the world. More from blogger Pete Thomas, who sailed with Sunderland.

In her latest blog post from the French fishing ship Ile de la Reunion, Abby Sunderland said she's in awe of the efforts undertaken to rescue her in the southern Indian Ocean.

Sixteen-year-old sailor Abby Sunderland was rescued this morning by a French fishing vessel, in a delicate operation that included overhead aircraft and the French captain falling into the sea.

Abby Sunderland's blog carries an update from her team, passing along the account of Australian Search and Rescue volunteers who flew over the Indian Ocean today and found her...

The Qantas jet spotted Abby Sunderland about 11:30 last night (PDT) and made radio contact.

A family spokesman did most of the talking at today's briefing in Thousand Oaks about Abby Sunderland, who's sending distress signals from the south Indian Ocean.

Abby Sunderland's mother tells the Ventura County Star that the emergency beacon signals from the Indian Ocean give them hope she is still on her boat, and that a third beacon that would indicate the boat is submerged has not gone ofF.

The 16-year-old sailor from Thousand Oaks posted Saturday that she will pull into port in Cape Town, South Africa for repairs, ending her bid to sail around the world without stopping — but not her solo sail.

he 16-year-old from Thousand Oaks who is sailing solo around the world blogged this afternoon that she has passed around the tip of South America, and believes she's the youngest to ever sail alone around Cape Horn

A few more editors and web people got the word today, according to staffers.

A super-heated, basketball-size beam fired from a modified 747 destroyed a missile last night over the military range in the Pacific off Point Mugu.

Current and former staffers of the Ventura County Star are chattering on Facebook that the paper's entire news and sports copy desk was informed yesterday that their jobs are moving this spring to Corpus Christi.

Veronique de Turenne was up and outside early this morning and caught this view across the West Valley from the top of the Santa Monica Mountains. She's got another view...

Dave Laut, the athletic director at Hueneme High School, was found shot to death last night in the yard of his Oxnard home. He was 52. Laut, a UCLA graduate,...

With local media obsessing a bit this week on the 50th anniversary of the partial meltdown of an experimental nuclear reactor above Chatsworth, here's the first comprehensive news story on...

The Ventura County Star copy desk had a blog, until Patricia Marroquin was laid off. The former L.A. Times copy editor posts her farewell: Two years ago on Nov. 30,...

Love this story. Firefighters in Ventura County are monitoring a patch of land north of Fillmore where the temperature of the ground reached 812 degrees on Friday. From the Ventura...