∙Congratulations to my favorite music columnist, Pam Baumgardner, on the 10th-anniversary of providing VenturaRocks.com for our community. People live by her daily listings for showing where to go for music in Ventura, and she’s never once charged the artists or Ventura venues to be listed. Plus, you can read her column in the Breeze.
∙Here we go again, hopefully this appointment works out. The Board of Education has selected Dr. Roger Rice as the new Superintendent of the Ventura Unified School District (see cover story). And they did it without spending a lot of money to hire a search company by looking at local candidates.
∙It just got a little harder to open a store that sells firearms and ammunition in Ventura.
The City Council voted 7-0 to approve an ordinance that limits where in the city these businesses can be located.
Once the new rules become law, a firearms business won’t be allowed to open if it’s within 500’ of a “sensitive use,” a designation that includes schools, parks, religious institutions, day care facilities and residential zones. Such stores will need to be at least 200’ away from a similar business.
The new rules limits stores to three areas based upon the zone. Limited Industrial (M-1), General Industrial (M-2) and Manufacturing Planned Development (MPD).
Even though I don’t like guns much I’m not sure limiting where stores can be located serves any purpose at all.
∙A “glad they’re here” to a few Ventura businesses. Steve’s Plumbing & Hardware, 1199 E. Thompson Blvd (but don’t expect to find Steve there) is a great local hardware and plumbing fixture store. Recently I went in to buy a very specific little bitty screw and a part for a ceiling light. They helped me find both and made sure they were the correct parts. And the cost was .95c – you can’t beat that.
The other is Grossman Imaging Centers, located at 2705 Loma Vista and specifically Alma B. who works there. She was great helping me with an MRI that my wife needed. Very understanding and made several calls to see if the procedure could be done at that location. Turns out it was very specific and could only be done at Kaiser in LA, but she was terrific.
∙ New York is having a problem it hasn’t seen recently, which is rabid raccoons in Manhattan.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have identified four raccoons with rabies since the start of the year. The health department is now advising residents in the area to make sure that pets are up to date with vaccinations. I hope pet owners won’t object to this based on religious grounds.
∙I feel that some opinions are important enough for me to comment in my editorial. This one is from Mike Mislinay (it has been edited for size, but not stripped of its meaning). My comments are in caps.
Sheldon:
You are constantly whining about Trump I DON’T THINK I WHINE BUT IF I DO, I APOLOGIZE and in the February 27th issue you continued your tantrum I ALSO DON’T HAVE TANTRUMS, UNLESS MY OPINIONS ARE NOW TANTRUMS two years into his term. AM I SUPPOSED TO STOP BECA– USE HE HAS BEEN PRESIDNET FOR TWO YEARS? You quoted Trump saying in 2012 “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.” And then you added….”If the President says so it must be true.” With all due respect my friend you must be getting forgetful. Most people of our generation still remember George H.W.Bush “No New Taxes” and the ridiculous lie from Obama “If you like the Doctor you have, you can keep your Doctor.” Both comments were not true and made by Presidents. POINT BEING WHAT? WE SHOULD ACCEPT ALL PRESIDENTAIL STATEMENTS WITHOUT COMMENT OR CONCERN? These men are no different than you and me. Being President does not make you more honest or smarter. OBVIOUSLY, BUT ISN’T THAT SETTING THE STANDARD RATHER LOW? YOU WOULDN’T WANT ME TO BE PRESIDENT? You have stated that just because Hillary won the popular vote she should be President. Even though Hillary won the national popular vote by 2.8 million votes, in California she won by 4 million votes. So I guess you could say that she won the national popular vote with California votes. Now if we changed to most votes win, then California would dictate national elections. Anyone from California running for President would probably be odds on favorite to win. WE HAVE HAD A LOT OF PRESIDENTS FROM CALIFORNIA, CORRECT? Some might all think that California, Florida, Texas and New York should determine who becomes President because they have the greatest populations but I think it is a mistake to ignore middle America and the Electorial College reminds us of the fact we all live in 1 country together and as a republic all of our votes count not just California and other big states. STILL MAKES NO SENSE TO ME THAT THE VOTE OF A PERSON IN ALABAMA MEANS MORE THAN MINE. MAYBE I’LL MOVE TO ALABAMA, SO MY VOTE HAS MORE IMPORTANCE.
EDITOR: Consider the following when explaining what the writers of the electoral college were thinking.
The first census I could find with California in it was the 1860 census (obviously a lot lot less residents in California in 1787). In fact, California didn’t become a state until 1850.
- California 379,994
- Georgia 1,057,286
- Kentucky 1,155,684
- Virginia 1,219,630
- Known slaves in 1860
- California zero
- Georgia 462,198
- Virginia 422,494
- Mississippi 436,631
- Alabama 435,080
Obviously, the writers of the electoral college were not thinking about California unless, in 1787, they knew that California would be a huge state one day. They probably didn’t even know where California was. If so, they were better prognosticators than Nostradamus.
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