Ventura County News

Wednesday, May 15, at approximately 6:45 p.m. 5 units responded to a traffic accident at Ventura Avenue and B Street.

JOHN SCHEIBE/THE STAR Dennis Amundson, a retiree from Fillmore, enjoys dinner along the Rincon Beach north of Ventura on Wednesday.

A trapped person was extricated after a vehicle hit a tree tonight in the area of Balcom Canyon Road and South Mountain Road between Santa Paula and Fillmore, the Ventura County Fire Department reported.

A firefightier watches a backfire set in Hungry Valley State Park to halt the prgress of the Grand fire, which charred more than 3,000 acres of wildlands near Frazier Park on Wednesday, May 15, 2013.

Ventura County has changed its land-use process to regulate hydraulic fracturing, an oil and gas extraction method that some fear can contaminate groundwater.

Susie Komar of Camarillo shouts at a passing motorist as she takes part in a protest Tuesday outside the IRS office in Camarillo.

With scant rain locally and little snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, local Cal Fire officials said Tuesday they are bracing for what could be a dangerous fire season.

A judge on Tuesday sentenced a 59-year-old Simi Valley man to eight years in prison after he was found guilty of drunken driving with a blood-alcohol level of twice the legal limit, according to prosecutors.

A female jogger was sexually assaulted at knifepoint in Santa Paula, and Ventura County sheriff's detectives were searching for a suspect, authorities said Tuesday.

Oxnard Star Isabella Beltran makes a jump of 12-feet, 4.5-inches in the Bantam division of the Ventura County Youth Track Varsity Finals at Moorpark College.

David Gatchel, a sophomore at Camarillo High School, plays a Rachmaninoff solo at "Notes to Remember - A Bill Israel Memory Rectial" on Sunday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley.

More poor people now live in U.S. suburbs than its big cities, new research shows, but Ventura County isn't particularly affected by the trend.

Last month, the Board of Supervisors discussed land use permits as a way to regulate the oil industry practice known as fracking.

Ventura County Medi-Cal commissioners voted Monday to allow Kaiser Permanente to continue providing health care to nearly 3,000 area children, although one commissioner said the huge HMO is being given preferential treatment.

After a national search, the Board of Directors of Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast is pleased to announce the appointment of Gina Jaeger as chief executive officer.

Crews continue to build containment lines around a wildfire burning for a fourth day in the hills and mountains around Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles.

One man was arrested and two males escaped Sunday after leading authorities on a pursuit through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, officials said.

Food - specifically strawberries - took center stage at the 30th California Strawberry Festival, where Larissa Nelson, of Fillmore, narrowly beat out the returning champion in the annual Berry Blast-off Smack-Down finals, Nelson and Winona Krieger faced off using only hot plates to create gourmet treats for a panel of five judges in the cook-off.

Erika Rosa, trauma program manager at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center, and her son Caleb Rosa, 4, play a number-counting game on their way to school and work.

Isabelle Massey, 2, holds her mom Sarah's hand as they make their way around the California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard Saturday, May 18, 2013.