Ventura County Star News

Ventura County auto dealerships are reeling from the spillover of a nationwide economic collapse that is forcing them to consolidate or close.

Business has fallen off so severely that cities — the ones that rely heavily on sales taxes generated by new- and used-vehicle purchases — are bracing for reduced revenue.

A grim picture emerged last week from the auto dealerships in Thousand Oaks, said Gary Wartik, the city's economic development manager.

"I had a conversation with some of the major dealers in the auto mall, and sales were down to levels not seen in at least a dozen years," he said.

Oxnard voters are about to decide the fate of a traffic initiative that could profoundly influence how the city develops over the next 20 years. Proponents say Measure V is needed because the city has failed to address an ever-worsening traffic situation, while opponents argue it is a no-growth measure in disguise that would slow economic growth without improving traffic.

Kilts and palm trees, bagpipes and Pacific Ocean breezes, odd combinations perhaps, but that was the scene Saturday at the sixth annual Seaside Highland Games. The games kicked off at the Ventura County Fairgrounds — a far cry from their Scottish roots — and will continue today.

Four candidates are competing for two seats on the board of the district that provides water and sewer services and trash collection to three unincorporated beach communities near Oxnard.

The owner of a strip mall in Camarillo was found dead Friday in his sport utility vehicle, parked behind a vacant building that he owned. Mike Issa Grair, 64, lived in Burbank and owned the Crossroads Center at Las Posas and Lewis roads. He ran the Cross Road Market & Liquor in the center, said Tony Sadaa, a cashier at the store.

Funding lobbyists, curbing high school dropout rates, expanding vocational education programs and increasing accountability have emerged as key issues in the races for two open seats on the Ventura County Board of Education. Four candidates are running in the two district races to be decided Nov. 4.

If the $700 billion bailout should fail to lift Wall Street out of its financial equivalent of the Mariana Trench, I had figured there remained one ultimate force that could put the wind back in our economic sails. That would be teenagers. Talk about cash flow. The $150 billion to $190 billion the Brandons and the Ashleys are estimated to spend annually hardly qualifies as a drop in the bucket.

Little Madison Grace LaFountain-Spacey stared up at the video screen, standing absolutely still, her eyes wide, as she gazed at a series of photos of her beloved grandfather Roger Spacey. The only grandchild of Metrolink 111 crash victim Spacey, the little girl who turns 2 in a few weeks had, until that poignant moment, been oblivious to the grief around her, too young to understand what was going on.

The fifth annual Earth Charter Summit and Awards Ceremony on Saturday at Ventura College acknowledged community activists who have worked toward peace, equality and a healthier planet.

In our previous two columns on construction and demolition debris, we described local government programs promoting recycling and highlighted local opportunities for recycling. In this column, we feature some of the individuals and businesses doing an exemplary job in the past year to meet government mandates, reduce waste and save money by recycling construction and demolition debris.

The director of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" will speak at the next showing in the Reel Justice Documentary Series at California Lutheran University.

The Community Leaders Association's 2008 auction, which benefits academic programs at California Lutheran University, will be held Nov. 8 at the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center on the university's campus.

Dr. Arnold Bresky, an author, memory function lecturer and teacher to baby boomers and senior citizens, will speak on the Scientific Basis for Memory Improvement on Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Goebel Senior Adult Center, 1385 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks.

Traffic was expected to be flowing today over all the freeway ramps at the Tierra Rejada Road interchange on Highway 23 in Moorpark, a day after family members and detectives gave up any hope of finding the remains of a teenage boy believed buried there 40 years ago by a serial killer.

"We're not going to get under that freeway," Los Angeles Police Department Detective Vivian Flores said Friday, fighting back tears. "We believe from all the expert information, and all the tests that we've been doing, that the body is under that freeway."

Flores, about three dozen police officers, sheriff's deputies and FBI agents joined Roger Dale Madison's sister at the side of the 25-foot-deep pit for a memorial service Friday.

What difference, if any, they would have made in the deadly Chatsworth accident will never be known, but Metrolink is scheduled to start receiving next year what it says will be the safest commuter rail cars in the nation. The train cab and trailer cars — 117 of them — cost more than $230 million and were ordered more than two years ago.

Matt Kokkonen is nothing if not an optimist. When he talks about the long odds he's facing in his race against Rep. Lois Capps, a five-term Democrat from Santa Barbara, his broad smile and the lilt in his lightly accented voice don't waver a bit. He could be discussing a horse race in which he'll ride Secretariat and his opponent will climb on a rocking horse.

After 10 years in Congress, Rep. Lois Capps has been around long enough to know that Washington doesn't change its ways overnight. But when she considers the ramifications of this year's elections, the Santa Barbara Democrat senses that an extraordinary opportunity may be on the horizon.

Closing arguments were made Friday by attorneys in a torture-mayhem case in Ventura County Superior Court involving two alleged Simi Valley gang members accused of brutalizing two men. One of the victims, Zacarias Carranza, testified that defendant Delfino Vasquez used a box cutter to carve his initials on Carranza's back.

Triunfo Sanitation District board incumbent Ron Stark and challenger Michael Paule agree that a hot topic in the Nov. 4 election campaign is governance: Should all five board members be elected, or should some continue to be appointed.

On June 3, 1944, Wayne Ehlers and the 379th Bomb Group arrived in Kimbolton, England, and prepared for a mission that would change the course of World War II. "To take part in a momentous historical event leaves one with a vivid picture in your memory that stays with you as long as you live," Ehlers wrote in a journal chronicling his time in the war.