Ventura County News

ROB VARELA/THE STAR Supervising Juvenile Court Judge Manuel Covarrubias congratulates Juan as fellow graduates look on during the drug courts graduation Thursday in Ventura.

Motorists are being urged to not even think about getting behind the wheel this holiday weekend if they've had too much to drink.

Juan Carlo/The Star About 40 white doves are released at the end of the annual Ventura County Peace Officers Memorial ceremony Thursday at the Government Center in Ventura.

Kaiser Permanente , Anthem Blue Cross , Blue Shield of California , Health Net and nine smaller, regional health plans will participate in Covered California next year, the health benefit exchanged authorized by the Affordable Care Act.

That's the message the property owners of Matilija Canyon's Hot Springs are spreading through the community, and beyond.

At about 9:00 a.m. on Monday, May 20, 2013, a female was walking alone along Santa Paula Street, near Peck Road.

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.