• Congratulations to our local stars, Supervisor Matt LaVere on winning a strong majority of the votes in the primary. He won’t have to run in the general election this fall. And California State Representative Steve Bennett who will be on the November ballot for a runoff but will certainly win.
• Ventura has been awarded $640,000 for a homelessness prevention pilot program. The city’s new homeless prevention and diversion program will provide rental and utility assistance to residents.
This will help 100 (if not more) eligible households with up to $4,000 in rental and utility assistance so they may keep their housing. The aid is possible through state funding awarded to the city in February for a two-year homelessness pilot program. More than $410,000 will go directly to applicants, and the remaining funds cover administrative and staffing costs and associated taxes and benefits for the program.
The assistance could be for payment for back rent or up to two months of future rent to prevent evictions. It could also cover outstanding utility costs.
The income limit is $74,400 a year or less for a one-person household or $85,000 or less for a two-person household. Perhaps I’m eligible.
To apply for housing help with the city, contact Mercy House at 805-399-9099 ext. 385 or case manager Norberto “Sal” Meza at [email protected].
• The Ventura City Council voted 6-0 (Jim Duran was absent) to hold off on converting some free parking into paid parking until at least January. The city will conduct a study of rates and details that should be complete in November.
The original plan was approved on Nov. 13 in a 6-1 vote, and would have turned hundreds of free spots into paid stalls starting May 1. The change would have included the parking structure on Santa Clara Street and many surface lots downtown.
The additional revenue (if ever implemented) will help pay for a new parking garage planned for downtown, which is very much needed. The preliminary design calls for spending $31.3 million (which will of course cost much more) and provide for 435-spaces at the corner of Santa Clara and Palm.
• The two largest pharmacy chains in the United States will start dispensing the abortion pill Mifepristone this month, a step that could make access easier for some women. At least some of our country makes sense.
Daylight Savings Time (DST) was first implemented in the US with the Standard Time Act of 1918, a wartime measure for seven months during World War I in the interest of adding more daylight hours to conserve energy resources.
In the United States, Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, and the five populated territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands) do not participate in daylight saving time. Indiana only began participating in daylight saving time as recently as 2006. Since 2018, Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio (and others) has repeatedly filed bills to extend daylight saving time permanently into winter, without success.
Apparently, pets’ internal clocks don’t change for daylight savings time. Our cat Savana the cat lets me know at 6:30am that it’s time for breakfast. Now she lets me know at 7:30. They are such odd animals. Some mornings I put the food in her bowl, and she just looks at it and gets back in bed. I think she just likes to let me know that she’s in charge.
• How odd movie ratings are on Spectrum. Mad Max gets 97% and Gone with the Wind 90%. So now Mad Max must be considered one of the best movies of all time.
Is this the one where I get an extra hour of drinking or lose an hour of drinking?
~ Author unknown
