Ventura County Star County News

Downtown Ventura will be the place to celebrate the Day of the Dead on Nov. 1. Two events — the Museum of Ventura County's annual Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Community Celebration, and Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc's annual traditional Día de los Muertos Aztec event — will take place that day in Ventura. Both events are free.

Colleges nationwide are giving undergraduates more opportunities to delve into research, once the nearly exclusive realm of graduate students and professors.

In Ventura County, undergraduates are studying environmental pollutants in water, the politics of autism and the food-buying habits of Latino families, among other topics.

"Undergraduate research is one of the most effective ways of teaching possible," said Michele LeBlanc, chairwoman of the exercise science department at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. "In the past five years, we've seen it progressing more and more and more. It's not that nothing was happening before, but faculty are more interested in it now."

Parent Talk Lectures, a series of presentations aimed at parents and sponsored by the Conejo Valley Adult School, will begin later this month.

A 42-year old woman apparently fell to her death Sunday from the second story balcony of her Simi Valley residence on the 3400 block of Sunset Place, according to police.

It's been a year of pain, grief and unanswered questions for the family and friends that Susan Murphy Sutcliffe left behind. About 50 people gathered at Tire Pros in Simi Valley on Sunday afternoon to commemorate Sutcliffe, who was shot and killed in a shooting spree at the store a year ago.

The public can learn about careers in the nonprofit world during a forum sponsored by California Lutheran University's Career Services at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Roth Nelson Room.

More than two decades after he first entered Congress, Rep. Elton Gallegly still isn't ready to call it quits. "It isn't an 8 to 5 job, and it's not a Monday through Friday job," said the Simi Valley Republican, who's running for a 12th term. "But if you don't believe in that and don't believe you're doing something positive to help the country, you ought to be doing something else."

Students will inaugurate the new theater at California Lutheran University with performances of two one-act plays Oct. 23-27.

When Marta Jorgensen won the Democratic primary for the 24th Congressional District in June, the common perception was that she came from out of nowhere. There's some truth to that. Her two opponents were both experienced candidates, while Jorgensen will be making her first try at elected office when she takes on U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, in the Nov. 4 general election.

Labor union and environmental supporters gathered at Oxnard High School on Sunday afternoon where they made a series of demands, including providing a path to legal citizenship for the roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants now living in the United States.

The California Oil Museum in Santa Paula is offering visitors the opportunity to explore the planet as it's seen from satellites. "A View From Space," which opened Friday, is an interactive, hands-on exhibition put together by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.

Five candidates are vying in the Nov. 4 election for two seats on the board of the Oxnard Harbor District, the agency that operates the Port of Hueneme, the only commercial shipping port between Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

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.

Two men robbed a gas station in Ventura at gunpoint Saturday morning, police said.

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.

A brush fire that broke out in the Ventura River bed Saturday afternoon started in an area of homeless encampments, according to fire officials.

Under the umbrella theme of Science Everyone Can Understand, a new Science Speakers Series is being started by the Westlake Village-based Discovery Center for Science and Technology. Environmentalist and actor Ed Begley Jr. will launch the series Thursday with a discussion of "Energy Efficiency for the New Millennium: How to Protect the Environment and Save Money."

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.