Ventura County Star News

Throughout the year, staff photographers from The Star will explore and visually document the diverse lifestyles and landscapes of Ventura County, one ZIP code at a time. Every other Saturday, staff photographers will present images from a given ZIP code to introduce readers to communities they might otherwise never see. This week, we take a look at ZIP code 93033, which covers a portion of Oxnard.

With Air Force One at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum as a backdrop, Yolanda Diaz of Oxnard looks on as her son, Marine Staff Sgt. Rodrigo Gonzalez, center, shakes the hand of his brother, Petty Officer 2nd Class Gabriel Gonzalez, as he gives Gabriel Gonzalez his honorable discharge certificate during his re-enlistment ceremony on Friday.

A man was stabbed during a home invasion robbery in Oxnard early this morning, police said.

Comedian Kathy Buckley and the Tony Maddox Band will be the featured entertainment Oct. 3 for the fourth annual mayor's dinner and charity auction at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The Democratic Club of Camarillo has opened a campaign office to serve Democratic candidates running for office and volunteers working on various campaigns.

Firefighters fought a blaze Friday afternoon in the Ojai Valley that burned about 3 acres of grass along Baldwin Road opposite the old honor farm, authorities said.

Surviving veterans of World War II reunited Friday to tour the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley more than 60 years after the war ended.

An appeals court will determine whether a Moorpark man, who is a suspect in the stabbing death of his estranged wife, will remain in jail on a separate federal charge, a judge said Friday.

A nursing home is paying its bills with IOUs. A day care center for seniors may close Sept. 15. Two homes for developmentally disabled children are so tight on money that pocket change will be collected in donation jars in a burger joint.

Isabel Valdivia was really motivated. On just two hours of sleep, she showed up at 8 a.m. for Nordstrom's "beauty bash" at The Oaks, eager to get a free makeover and be one of the first to shop at the upscale store that opened Friday.

A new ordinance offering greater protections to residents of mobile home parks in Thousand Oaks took effect Aug. 15, but some who fought to get it on the books say it has made no difference so far.

A Thousand Oaks man killed this week while picking up litter along Highway 126 near Ventura was a Marine reservist doing community service in lieu of jail time for driving without a valid license.

Christopher Williams, 22, joined the Marine Corps nearly four years ago and rose to the rank of corporal, said Capt. Carl B. Redding, a spokesman for the Marines.

People waiting for the housing market to recover need to hold on a little while longer, speakers at the Ventura County Real Estate and Economic Outlook conference said Thursday. Mark Schniepp, director of the California Economic Forecast, predicted county home prices would stabilize in 2009 as sales strengthen, but it is expected to take until 2010 before prices start to rise.

The drastic decline in prices and surge in foreclosures could mean the recovery will be equally quick, not dragging on as it did in the 1990s, he said.

Two young men allegedly attacked an ice cream vendor in Oxnard and stole coins when he dropped them, authorities said.

A man allegedly attempted to kidnap a teenager at gunpoint in Oxnard, police said.

At a field hearing in Los Angeles on Thursday, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-San Francisco, heard from a long list of Southern California politicians and government officials who said they need more money for roads and mass transit.

It's been one year, one month and 16 days since Shannon Beach died from breast cancer, but the Simi Valley mother's long struggle with her disease has not been forgotten.

When El Camino High School opened in 1982, teacher Nancy Stout and 12 students made the best of their cramped quarters in Ventura.

One man was killed and four others were injured Thursday when a truck driver lost control on Highway 126 between Ventura and Santa Paula and plowed into a road cleanup crew of men doing community service instead of jail time, authorities said.

Several dozen people were evacuated from a local Vons early this morning following an electrical short that was originally reported as a fire.