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Vol. 17, No. 10 – Feb 7 – Feb 20, 2024 – Scamp Club

 

Hi: I’m Missy Baumgardner and adorable Shih Tzu like Scamp.
I was adopted as a senior 4 years ago so I’m probably 14 or older.
I like treats, naps and walks (in that order).

 

 

 

Lucy is a rescue dog. She is a Goldador Lab/Golden Retriever mix, or Golden Lab. She is 7 years old. She loves delivering the Breeze because she gets lots of praise and petting. She likes blankets, treats and going for rides in a van.

 

 

My name is The Dragon, and I am a young, Pato Real drake. I’m quite a personable boy — as long as you bring me offerings of fresh, ripe fruit! My hobbies include sitting by the door and watching my people in their house, following people around when they’re gardening, and taking luxurious baths in my bucket.

 

VCAAA seeks applicants for California senior legislature position

The Ventura County Area Agency on Aging, a division of the Human Services Agency, is seeking applicants for an open Senior Assembly Member position on the California Senior Legislature. This person will also serve on the VCAAA’s Advisory Council.

The California Senior Legislature is a volunteer body whose primary mission is to help preserve and enhance the quality of life for older Californians and their families. The CSL gathers ideas for legislation at the state and federal levels, crafts the ideas into formal proposals, prioritizes the proposals, presents them to members of the Legislature or the Congress, and advocates for laws implementing the ideas.

Each October, the CSL meets in Sacramento to convene a model legislative session in the chambers and hearing rooms of the State Capitol. The CSL members participate in hearing testimony, debating issues, and voting to approve or disapprove legislative proposals.

Forty Senior Senators and 80 Senior Assembly Members are selected in elections supervised by the Advisory Councils of the state’s various Area Agencies on Aging.

Candidates must be 55 or older. The application deadline is March 29, 2024. The election packet is attached, though it, and more information related to the election process, can be found at www.4csl.org in the Forms section. The completed packet – which must also include a resume that outlines one’s experience at the city and county levels dealing with older adults – should be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to Roger Horne, VCAAA, 646 County Square Drive #100, Ventura, CA, 93003.

After nominations are received, the VCAAA’s Advisory Council will hold an election at its May 8, 2024 meeting. Newly elected members will be sworn in during the October 2024 Annual Legislative Session. The term of this position runs through October 2026.

MEDIA CONTACT: Roger Horne, VCAAA Public Information Officer, (805) 477-7306, [email protected]

ABOUT: The Ventura County Area Agency on Aging, a division of the County of Ventura’s Human Services Agency, is charged with the responsibility to promote the development and implementation of a comprehensive coordinated system of care that enables older individuals, children and adults with disabilities, and their caregivers to live in a community-based setting. The VCAAA advocates for the needs of those 60 years and older in the county, providing leadership and promoting citizen involvement in the planning process as well as in the delivery of services.

Exposure to stress

“Maybe I should hire someone to do my taxes?

Exposure to stress increased biological age in humans and mice, but it decreased after the stress resolved, according to NIA-funded research. Findings from the study were published in Cell Metabolism.

Biological age refers to the accumulating damage, physiological changes, and loss of function that occur in a person’s cells over time. One method scientists use to measure biological age examines the epigenome, which contains a record of changes to a cell’s DNA and DNA-associated proteins.

Led by Harvard University scientists, this study used DNA methylation (DNAm)-based aging clocks to measure changes in biological age in response to diverse forms of stress. The researchers began with a laboratory experiment known to produce aged physiology in young mice or restore youthful physiology to old mice by surgically joining young, 3-month-old mice with older, 20-month-old mice, which allowed them to share their blood. At the molecular level, they found that the biological age of the young mice increased when measured with most aging clocks. Once the young mice were separated from the old mice and therefore were no longer experiencing the older mouse physiology, their biological age returned to youthful levels. This finding suggested that biological age is malleable and potentially reversible, and these changes are reported by DNAm aging clocks.

Next, the researchers examined blood samples from people who had recently experienced stressful situations, including surgery (emergency versus elective), pregnancy, or severe COVID-19. Analysis of blood samples from patients who underwent emergency surgery showed their biological age increased the morning after surgery and returned to pre-surgery levels four to seven days later. Elective surgeries, on the other hand, had less impact on biological age, which the authors attribute to pre-operative regimens known to aide recovery. Pregnancy in both mice and humans led to increased biological age at delivery, which reverted to lower biological age following delivery and recovery.

The research team found the same reversible biological age in older adults with severe COVID-19, although the change differed by gender and treatment. The scientists also found people in the group who were treated with the immunosuppressive drug tocilizumab, usually prescribed to treat moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, showed a greater reversal of their increased biological age related to COVID-19.

The elevation and subsequent return to baseline of biological age found in this study may represent possible targets for geroscience-based interventions to improve health at older ages. Future research may explore how temporary fluctuations of apparent biological age influence aging over a lifetime.

This research was supported in part by NIA grant R21AG065943.

Vol. 17, No. 10 – Feb 7 – Feb 20, 2024 – Movie Review

Streaming Spotlight by Cindy Summers
Dumb Money – Netflix

4 out of 4 palm trees

“Dumb Money” is based on a true story when millions of small investors led by a regular guy named Keith Gill (Paul Dano) took on Wall Street hedge funds by backing GameStop when hedge fund Melvin Capital Management was investing big that it would fail. Keith Gill also went by “Deep F*@k!ng Value” on Reddit in the Wall Street Bets (WSB) forum where he posted his daily balance sheets and also produced videos on YouTube as “Roaring Kitty” explaining his financial strategies.

In July 2020, Keith Gill invested $53,000 in GME (GameStop) at $4/share believing that the company was being shorted by Wall Street hedge funds to purposefully deflate the price until the company was destroyed. He shared this information on WSB and his Roaring Kitty YouTube channel, where he always wore a cat shirt and frequently a bright red bandana. Word spread about Roaring Kitty and GME, and thousands of everyday people started buying GME.


By September 2020, GME more than doubled to $10/share and kept rising due to a growing number of retail investors, who were referred to as “Dumb Money” by Wall Street professionals. Then Melvin Capital owner Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogin) shorted another 600,000 shares in GME, triggering a battle where Roar Kitty told his followers to hold, saying the situation was bigger than any personal gains – that it was their chance to rise up together and stick it to the Big Man.

WSB and GME hit the headlines, calling WSB a revolution and causing GME stock to rise to $25/share by December. Much of the trading was processed through the Robinhood app, which offered free trades with no commissions and gained 5 million users during the rise of GME. Robinhood was run by Co-CEOs Baiju Bhatt (Rushi Kota) and Vlad Tenev (Sebastian Stan) and though not made public information, was owned by Citadel Securities, a division of Citadel Corp owned by Wall Street tycoon and hedge fund mogul Ken Griffin (Ken Offerman).

By January 2021, GME soared to $100/share and Gabe Plotkin – Melvin Capital was losing billions daily and was actually considered bankrupt. GME rose to $150/share and after losing $6.8 billion, Melvin Capital received a $3 billion dollar bailout primarily from fellow investor Steve Cohen (Vincent D’Onofrio), CEO of hedge fund Point72, with a portion from Ken Griffin of Citadel. Keith Gill (Roaring Kitty) was up $23 million on GME but still wasn’t selling and told his followers to hold. An estimated eight million small investors all held and GME soared to $350/share.

Then WSB was shut down by Reddit for what they said was inappropriate content, and Keith Gill got a call from his boss at MassMutual and was let go from his job as a financial analyst due to all the media attention. When WSB was shut down and the small buyers didn’t have access to the Roaring Kitty balance sheet, many panicked and sold. When the stock got close to over $500/share a lot of people decided to sell and Robinhood shut down the buy option for stock on their app, though saying it was a technical issue it seemed to be to slow the buying frenzy.

The scare caused the stock to drop, but after WSB was back online and everybody saw that Roaring Kitty still held even though he was down to $17 billion, many small investors sparked an investment frenzy causing the stocks to go skyrocketing again. That’s when Roaring Kitty, Robinhood and Citadel received Congressional subpoenas regarding their involvement in market volatility which put a national spotlight on the institutional practices by Wall Street firms and demonstrated the enormous potential power of social media in the markets.

Runtime: 1h 45m

Vol. 17, No. 10 – Feb 7 – Feb 20, 2024 – Police Reports

by Cindy Summers

Police reports are provided to us by the Ventura Police Department and are not the opinions of the Ventura Breeze. All suspects mentioned are assumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Fatal Traffic Collision with Arrest

On January 3, at approximately 10:00 pm, the Ventura Police Communications Center received a 911 call regarding a vehicle vs pedestrian traffic collision in the 3200 block of Harbor Blvd. A witness that observed the collision reported that the vehicle involved immediately fled the scene, making no attempt to check on the pedestrian that they had struck. Officers responded and located the victim down in the roadway and determined that he was deceased as a result of the collision. Patrol officers checked the surrounding area but were unable to located the suspect vehicle at the time.

Ventura Police Traffic Division investigators responded to the scene and began to process the crime scene. During an extensive investigation over the next few weeks, investigators were able to identify 32-year-old San Pedro resident Aaron Greene as the driver of the vehicle that evening. On January 3, Aaron Greene was taken into custody for Felony Hit and Run and Vehicular Manslaughter and was booked at the Ventura County Jail.

The investigation is still ongoing and anyone that has information related to this incident can contact Officer Garcia with the Ventura Police Traffic Division at (805) 339-4326.

Fatal Traffic Collision

On January 30, at approximately 11:30 am, the Ventura Police communications center received a 911 call regarding a motorcyclist down in the 1200 block of Olive St. Officers arrived on scene and located the rider unresponsive and began rendering aid. Ventura City Fire and AMR personnel arrived and attempted lifesaving measures but the victim, a 35-year-old male Ventura resident, had succumb to his injuries. The preliminary investigation determined that the collision appeared to only involve the victim on his scooter with no other vehicles involved.

Vol. 17, No. 10 – Feb 7 – Feb 20, 2024 – Mailbox

Dear Sheldon and Richard

Thank you so much for the coverage of the Skyline entrance wall refurbishment. It was a really great project and I appreciate the recognition. It’s always wonderful when neighbors see a problem and work together to fix it.

I would be remiss not to recognize Jim and Kathy Ackerman, and Alison Bryant, all of whom played significant roles in the success of this project.

Jim Ackerman was the project manager. Without his leadership and enthusiasm, this project would never have come to fruition. He cares about our community and has volunteered much of his time to keeping Ventura safe and beautiful. Alison and Kathy did a great deal of work with fundraising and speaking to our neighbors. Without their help, we wouldn’t have received the donations needed to get the project done.

And lastly, I want to thank all of the neighbors who donated to make this happen. It’s amazing what we can do together.

Barbara Brown
Chair, College Area Community Council

Hello Sheldon,

Thank you so much for including the post article and pictures in The Breeze. The committee was very excited to see it!!
Again, thank you so much.

Debbie Gohlke
Soroptimist International of Oxnard

Bill Kelley, a retired senior is nine years post cancer

Bill “warming up” with Beth Baumer owner of Neuroboxing.

by Patricia Schallert

Bill is a retired 67-year-old gentleman, originally from the San Fernando Valley. He used to vacation in Ventura with his sons and fell in love with Ventura and the cool weather. While living in Northridge, he operated a successful food truck called Smokin’ Willies BBQ. He also worked for Warner Bros. for 26 years, real estate for 6 years and Smokin’ Willies BBQ for 6 years. Upon moving to Ventura, Bill worked for the Parks and Recreation program and in a school cafeteria until the Pandemic in 2020.

Bill was diagnosed with cancer after going to the ER for not feeling “right”. He thought he was having a stroke but was diagnosed instead, with cancer and the doctors discovered a lymphoma tumor. Bill had thoracic surgery and the tumor was removed  but left him with 13 screws, 2 rods and 73 staples in his back. He continued to receive treatment for his leukemia by having two bone marrow  transplants. Currently he is nine years post cancer. When he was released from treatments in 2021, he and his wife of 41 years vacationed in Italy.

Being retired and knowing he will have cancer treatments for the rest of his life, Bill says, retirement means that “Every day is Saturday and it feels like freedom”

Regarding attending Neuroboxing I asked Bill “How long have you been involved with Neuroboxing? “About one-year” he answered.

What do you enjoy most about it? “The good friendships among the members of the group.”

Museum of Ventura County announces changes in admission policy

The Museum of Ventura County extends heartfelt gratitude to our vibrant community for its unwavering generosity, allowing us to offer free admission throughout 2023. As we look ahead to the new year, the Museum of Ventura County, Downtown Ventura location, will undergo a transition in its admission policy beginning February 1, 2024. The grant that has sustained free admission will conclude, necessitating a shift to a sustainable funding model.

Starting February 1, 2024, the Museum of Ventura County, Downtown Ventura, will implement the following admission fees: • $10 for adults • $5 for students & seniors • Free for individuals under 18 years old This change marks a new chapter for our Downtown Ventura location. We understand the importance of making cultural experiences accessible to all, and to that end, we invite you to consider becoming a member of the Museum of Ventura County. Membership not only grants you free admission to all Museum locations, but also provides exclusive access to a range of programs and events.

“As we transition back to reinstated admission fees, our heartfelt gratitude goes to those who made free admission possible in 2023. We now encourage the community to consider affordable membership options. Your support not only preserves our history, art, and culture but also unlocks exciting new benefits at every membership level.” – Elena Brokaw, Barbara Barnard Smith Executive Director Museum Membership Benefits:

• Free admission to all MVC locations

• Entrance to member-only events

• Exclusive merchandise offerings

Explore the various membership tiers available, each designed to enhance your connection with the Museum and its vibrant cultural offerings. Your support ensures the continued success of Museum of Ventura County and contributes to the preservation and celebration of our shared heritage. To learn more about membership options or to join the Museum of Ventura County community, visit https://venturamuseum.org/membership/. We are pleased to announce that the Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula will continue to provide free admission. Thank you for your ongoing support, and we look forward to welcoming you to the Museum as we embark on this exciting new chapter together.