∙ Although the City saw increases in arson and thefts from vehicles, major crime decreased by 3.74% in 2018 in Ventura compared to 2017.
Last year, Ventura police responded to 98,652 calls for service and arrested 6,554 people. The most common arrests were non-aggressive crimes such as narcotics-related offenses, being drunk in public, misdemeanor bench warrants and drunken driving.
Among property crimes, the largest increase in Ventura was in arson, which doubled in number from 2017 to 2018. Must of this is attributed to fires started by the homeless in the river encampments.
Ventura police reported a sharp increase in thefts from vehicles, which were reported 230 times more in 2018. Much of this is attributed to doors being left unlocked or valuable property left in plain view. Amazes me when reading police reports that people leave very valuable things in their cars – laptops, credit cards and even money.
∙The state Bureau of Cannabis Control in January approved the legal deliveries of marijuana – medicinal and recreational – anywhere in the state.
Accepting that it could no longer prohibit such deliveries, the Thousand Oaks City Council introduced an amendment to modify the city’s cannabis ordinance to start regulating them.
Under the amendment, marijuana dispensaries that want to deliver to Thousand Oaks will need to first get a business license permit from the City. The retailers will have to pay a business tax and provide the City access to their point of sale systems for audits. The City will conduct background checks of delivery drivers.
Under their amendment, TO will now have “a regulatory framework” in place to require a business license and to require remittance of tax payment based on the voter-approved marijuana tax from last Fall.
Isn’t it about time for our City Council to allow this here as well and gain large amounts of money we are losing from prohibiting what is now legal, including retail outlets? Why should Venturan’s take their money to other cities, which they are constantly doing?
∙Concerned that some new surveillance technologies may be too intrusive, San Francisco has banned the use a facial recognition tools by its police and other municipal departments. Some retail stores are now using this technology to basically monitor customers buying habits in order to present them with specific ads. Hopefully states will ban this practice also.
∙Once again, the Supreme Court has voted 5-4 in making one of their decisions. This one is a broad ruling that shields states from private lawsuits filed in other states. The ruling doesn’t bother me, but I’m still bothered by 5-4 decisions governing our country.
∙Taiwan has become the first country in Asia to let same sex couples marry with most of the same civil benefits that heterosexual couples receive. They joined 27 other countries worldwide that have legalized same sex marriage. I say it’s about time for all countries to recognize and respect peoples wishes if they don’t do harm to others.
∙Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (a lady no less), has signed the state’s controversial near-total abortion ban. The new law is the most restrictive anti-abortion measure passed in the United States since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. The legislation “Human Life Protection Act” bans all abortions in the state except when “abortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk”. It criminalizes the procedure, reclassifying abortion as a Class A felony, punishable by up to 99 years in prison for doctors. The legislation makes no exceptions for victims or rape or incest.
These are the same people who complain when a young poor mother has a child and goes on welfare. It’s about control of women’s sexuality and lives.
Venturan Esther Cole stated, “What gives old, white men the right to mess with women’s bodies?
How about old white women telling men they had to have a vasectomy? If old, white men can mess with the rights of women, ’tis only fair, that old white women should have equal rights over the reproductive organs of old, white men.”
If a 12-year daughter of an Alabaman who voted for this is raped and gets pregnant, would the parents secretly look to abort her? If so they would need to take the child to Mexico or to an underground facility (bringing back-alley abortions to America again)?
Why are Christian conservatives against abortion? Think about it.
∙I never understood why people make their bed every day to only mess it up at night. Now, there is a reason to not make it up. Your bed is probably home to more than 5,000,000 hungry dust mites feeding off your dead skin cells left on your sweat soaked sheets. It’s easy to stop them, don’t make your bed, exposure to sunlight kills them.
∙There are certainly mitigating conditions for our very high gas prices, but it is finally time for Sacramento to find out why. The California energy commission has concluded that “market manipulation “may be one factor as to why the states gas prices are so high compared to other states (sometimes up to $1.50 per gallon more) and have ordered a study of why this is true. The study will take 5 to 6 months so won’t help with our summer gas prices but might help in the future.
∙If a person dies naked will their ghost be naked also?
