• I know I have said this before, but I will now be 100% retired from the Breeze and not 99.9%. This will be my last column on a regular basis. I might have something to say now and then but not every issue. It has been my pleasure communicating with you.

• A recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed a significant disparity between teenagers (aged 12 to 17) and their parents regarding the perceived adequacy of social and emotional support.

Only 28% of the teenagers said they always received the social and emotional support they needed, and 77% of their parents stated they always provided that support for them. This disparity is likely influenced by the way teenagers communicate today, primarily through smartphones and other digital devices. Such support cannot compare to face-to-face interactions, where one can look someone in the eyes, see their emotions, and perhaps even hold hands. A teenager said, “I just spoke to grandma.” “How did she sound?” “I don’t know we texted.”

• I hadn’t been to the mall in many years, so checked it out. It was not as dismal as I thought it would be. There were both large stores and small ones that had been closed. I don’t think any more so than other malls. Most of the restaurants in the food court were still open (I had sushi) and there is a kid’s play area there. There are two sit-down restaurants as you go into the mall, and if you go to the end of the mall you can go into Target. I think it’s a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours with or without your family.

• I have heard some folks complain about why Ventura should pay our police to work at the Fair. We don’t – this is from the City site; “Approve and authorize the City Manager, or designee, to execute an agreement with the 31st District Agriculture Association for security and traffic control services for the 2024 Ventura County Fair in an amount not-to-exceed $275,000.” In other words, these are off duty police who get paid by the Fair.

•In condemning our “open border” Trump has stated several times that countries are sending people from insane asylums to America. Sophisticated and intelligent people have not referred to facilities trying to help the mentally ill as insane asylums for many years. I certainly wish he would stop.

•Former Ventura City Manager Ed McCombs, who was responsible for securing the amazing building that is now City Hall, died June 28. He was 90. McCombs served the city from 1970-1981. He was able to secure a grant to acquire the old Ventura County courthouse and turn it into our city hall when the County moved to its new headquarters.

The building was originally built in 1912. Ventura could not have afforded to construct this wonderful structure. It is open to the public and is worth a visit to appreciate the building and to enjoy the large art collection that hangs throughout the building.

• May 2024 was the 12th straight month of record-warm temperatures for the planet. It’s the second-longest such streak on record. “It is shocking but not surprising that we have reached this 12-month streak,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service stated. “There is no sign in sight of a change in such a trend.” Some question the fact that this is the result of human practices. The fact remains that we need to find a way to stop this trend before the earth becomes unlivable.

“Success in not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”
~ Winston Churchill

• The presidential debate was very depressing. Biden was very weak and not at all presidential and Trump just lied, lied and lied and never answered a question. The moderators would ask him a certain specific question and his answer would be “Biden is a terrible president.”

The moderators did a horrible job by not insisting that their questions be answered (by both candidates). It’s a shame that these two will be our choices for president. Certainly, we could do better.

Writing in the LA Times, Steve Lopez wrote:

• “Not a good night for Biden.”
• “Not a proud night for Trump.”
• “A sad night for the United States.”

The best thing for the country would be for Biden to withdraw from running and a younger more centrist Democrat be selected to run.

• A survey rating our presidents, was conducted online in late 2023, combined the responses of 154 experts (current or recent members of the American Political Science Association’s presidential politics division as well as scholars who recently published peer-reviewed research in related journals or academic presses.)

The results were:

• Biden 14^th (this could go up or down by the end of his term)
• Trump 45th last

• Trump stopped by Tony and Nick’s Steaks to eat one of Philly’s famous sandwiches. An interviewer asked him about it and this was his answer.

“Ohhh, that was good,” Trump said. “I haven’t sampled it yet, but I will.”

He supports putting the 10 commandments in our schools. Too bad he has never read them.

• On July 29, there was a drone show in the Harbor. It was absolutely amazing. One of the best things I’ve ever seen. If there is another in Ventura be sure to watch it even if 9 p.m. is past your bedtime.

• Ventura County Fairgrounds CEO Jen McGuire has resigned in a very surprising announcement.

The sudden announcement that she was leaving was made at a closed-door fair board meeting.

She was hired as CEO about a year ago and also served as CEO of the Eastern Sierra Tri-County Fairgrounds in Bishop. Her leaving comes at a tough time just a little more than a month prior to the start of the 12-day Ventura County Fair. She was a well-regarded and respected CEO.

McGuire was the third CEO to leave the position in two years. She was hired a year ago to replace Stacy Rianda who suddenly retired from the position less than a year after she was hired.

In the closed session, the board unanimously voted to name Dan Long and Heidi Ortiz as co-interim CEOs. Ortiz is the fairgrounds deputy manager. The state Department of Food and Agriculture owns the fairgrounds.

• Some areas of Ventura have been negatively affected as streets are dug up to install the new water lines (now at Harbor Bl. near Spinnaker) for the Ventura Water project. The project will treat wastewater to achieve drinking water standards, and (we hope) provide about 20% of our potable water.

The cost has risen by about $200 million from the initial estimated costs. That is always the case with government projects. Start it and halfway through say we need more money at which point there is no other choice but to just keep increasing the budget.

As the cost of Ventura Water project keeps rising, higher water rates will be in our future much earlier than expected.

Construction of the water purification project is estimated to be completed by the end of 2027. Wonder how much more it will cost by then?

It seems for that kind of money we could build a desalination plant. About 1/3 of Santa Barbara’s water is treated this way and cruise ships get all their potable water in this manner.

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
~ Confucius

• The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted to ban smartphones for its 429,000 students in an attempt to insulate kids from distractions and social media that undermine learning and hurt mental health. The board voted 5-2, approving a resolution to develop within 120 days a policy prohibiting student use of both items. The policy would be in place by January 2025.

I think this is wonderful. If parents need to reach their kids at school, they can call the office (like the good old days). Now we need to get parents to hold off on giving kids cell phones until at least middle school and permanently ban them from use while the family is eating.

Recently I saw a family of 4 eating at a restaurant and all 4 (parents and 2 teenagers) were using their phones. I wanted to scream.

•Donald Trump is taking aim at business leaders, saying they should be fired if they don’t support him.

In two long Truth Social posts quoting a Wall Street Journal article, Trump said “Business Executives and Shareholder Representatives should be 100% behind Donald Trump! Anybody that’s not should be fired for incompetence!”

We don’t need a president who gets elected by blackmail.

•I was excited when I read this, but it was a little misleading. “The Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approach to regulating the abortion pill mifepristone with a ruling that will continue to allow the pills to be mailed to patients without an in-person doctor’s visit.”

They did not rule on the matter at all just refused to hear the case on a technical issue. The court ruled that the doctors and anti-abortion groups that had challenged access to the drug did not have the standing to sue.

•The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has given Ventura $30 million to support the city’s planned water recycling program. The grant is for the VenturaWaterPure project that will ultimately treat wastewater to drinking water and reduce discharges of effluent into the Santa Clara River.

The project is expected to deliver up to 20% of the city’s annual water demand when fully operational.

The VenturaWaterPure program has already received some federal funding. The Reclamation Bureau previously provided $18 million, and the Environmental Protection Agency last year provided nearly $174 million of low interest loans.

Overall cost estimates for the project just keep getting higher and higher. In November, city officials estimated the price had risen at least $182 million more than previously budgeted. The figure increased from $374.4 million to $556.9 million.

Inflation, bids and project design costs all went up, officials said. Shouldn’t that have been factored in the original projected costs? This is how government agencies get a project started. When half completed, they run out of money and, of course, need more to complete the project.

The project has been very disruptive to many of our streets and continues to be. I certainly hope the final results will be worth at least $556.9 million. To learn more, you can visit VenturaWaterPure.net.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.
~ Plato

by Sheldon Brown

• From council member Mike Johnson; “Well, if you haven’t heard, I’m not running for re-election. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve on Ventura’s City Council. I’m not sure what comes next year. But for now, I’m not slowing down, shutting up, or giving in.”

He still remains one of our busiest council members. He has, or had, these meet and greets in Ventura. Still two more events you can attend.

• Mon, June 3, 6pm: Rincon Brewery, Telegraph & Ashwood
• Sat, June 8, 10am: Second Saturday Cleanup, meet at IHOP on Victoria
• Tue, June 11, 12pm: Urbane Café on Telephone
• Mon, June 17, 9am: Hill Street Cafe on Hill Road
• Sat, June 22, 3pm: Lovewell Coffee, Ventura Ave & Shoshone

• Regardless if a person is a Trump fan, we should be proud that our judicial system, and democracy worked so well in trying an ex-president and finding him guilty of 34 crimes. There aren’t many countries in the world where this process could happen.

Trump now says it was a Kangaroo Court (I doubt if he even knows what that is) and a rigged jury. Now he has had a rigged election and a rigged jury – he just can’t get a break.

This jury wasn’t selected by Biden, and his attorneys interviewed each jury member and approved them to serve. The judge did an excellent and fair job in his instructions to the jurists.

A social media user quipped: “Says a lot about the state of America that in just 8 months’ time they’re going to kick an elderly man out of his house so a convicted felon can live there.”

For the record, I don’t want him or Biden to be my president. Sad these will be our choices.

•An ad I expect to see on TV one day. “If you purchase this $29,000 auto in the next 10-minutes you will receive a free engine.”

•Amazing: Claudia Sheinbaum made history after becoming the first woman to be elected president of Mexico. Her election marks a groundbreaking achievement in a country with a strong culture of machismo and high rates of violence against women. She has also made history as the first Jewish person to be elected president of the predominantly Catholic country. Two things America hasn’t achieved. Sheinbaum is a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City. The same day, Yolanda Sánchez Figueroa, mayor of Cotija in Mexico’s Michoacán state, was killed just hours later.

•The Ventura Pier has been closed since January 2023. It is scheduled to reopen before the end of June. The pier has been shut since storms with heavy surf knocked out several support members.

The cost of repairing the pier is approximately $3.2 million. Half of this will be from funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The wooden pier was built in 1872 with a steel addition at the end.

•Governor Newsom has announced that the state will make $3.3 billion available in July to begin building inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment centers to provide very much needed housing facilities and address the homeless crisis. It is estimated that at least 1/3 of the homeless are suffering major mental health issues. The money comes from the $6.4 billion bond measure Proposition 1 narrowly approved by voters in March.

This is wonderful and so necessary.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
~ Steve Jobs

• On May 14, the Ventura City Council presented me with a Proclamation celebrating my “retirement” from being the publisher of the Ventura Breeze and declared May 14 “Sheldon Brown day.”

It was an amazing and emotional event for me. A special thanks to Mayor Schroeder for his introduction of me, and to member Mike Johnson for stating that an article I wrote several years ago inspired him to run for city council.

•Very sad to see Steves Plumbing close. It has been a Ventura staple for many years.

The store opened in 1971 on the Avenue and moved to Thompson Blvd. in 1973. Denis Stanley purchased the business several years ago and sadly passed away last year.

•The summer of 2023 was Earth’s hottest since instrumental records began in the 1800s and possibly making 2023 the hottest in more than two millennia.

I sure wish we would get some of that hot weather. I’m tired of being cold. The weather station that gives us current condition information is at the county government center off Victoria. The weather by the harbor where I live is usually colder and has more wind.

The primary cause of the exceptional heat was human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, (oh sure, blame us). Other factors pushing up temperatures include El Niño, the natural climate pattern that warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The U.N.’s climate chief stated the world has only has two years to take action to avert far worse climate change. Scientists say halving climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is crucial to stop a rise in temperatures that would unleash more extreme weather and heat. Some argue if we have global warming why are we having more snow, more rain and more cold weather? These are all just some of the effects of climate change, so maybe just call it climate change.

•Governor Newsom has announced that the state will make $3.3 billion available in July to begin building inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment centers to provide very much needed housing facilities and address the homeless crisis. It is estimated that at least 1/3 of the homeless are suffering major mental health issues. The money comes from the $6.4 billion bond measure Proposition 1 narrowly approved by voters in March.

•I heard a sports announcer say, “I don’t dislike cats, but they aren’t pets.” He is correct, dogs are pets, cats are family members. You don’t say “sit” and “rollover” to a family member.

•I bought a pair of pants that has a “hidden pocket” for my phone, and now I can’t find it.

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
~ Socrates

• The time has finally come for me to bid farewell as Publisher/Editor of the Ventura Breeze. This will be my last issue. It has been an incredible journey spanning 17 years, filled with cherished memories, remarkable experiences, and the unwavering support of our beloved Ventura community.

When my daughter Staci and I started this venture 17 years ago, we embarked on a journey fueled by hope and enthusiasm. We didn’t know how Ventura would receive our humble publication, but today, it is heartening to see how it’s become an integral part of life in Ventura. I’m always delighted when strangers approach me to express their love for The Breeze and tell me how much joy it brings them.

This journey has been nothing short of exhilarating and inspiring, and I owe it all to you—our devoted readers, amazing staff, contributors and loyal advertisers. Without your unwavering support and enthusiasm, The Ventura Breeze would not be what it is today. It has been an honor to serve you, and I hope that you’ll continue to find joy and enrichment in the pages of The Breeze for many years to come.

As I transition into a new chapter of my life, I want to assure you that while my tenure as Publisher/Editor may be coming to a close, my commitment to the Breeze remains steadfast. My opinion column may not appear regularly, but rest assured, it will make appearances from time to time, whenever inspiration strikes.

Moreover, I’m delighted to announce that the Breeze will remain within the family, with my son Mark Brown stepping into the role of Publisher/Editor. Mark has decades of experience in both print and digital publishing and can be reached at [email protected]. I’m confident that the Breeze will continue to play an important role in the Ventura community for years to come.

In closing, I extend my deepest gratitude to each and every one of you for your unwavering support, encouragement, and readership over the years. The memories we have created together will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Sheldon Brown

• The closure to traffic of 5 blocks of Main Street was started in May 2020, and has been extended several times by the city council.

A group of property owners called “Reopen Main Street” is seeking a court order that would force the city to reopen the streets to vehicle traffic, alleging that the closure has been bad for their businesses. A majority of polled Venturans are in favor of keeping the street closed to cars.

It should be easy for Ventura to determine the effect it has had on downtown businesses by analyzing sales tax receipts, bed tax receipts, etc. for each business.
I understand that businesses that sell products are certainly suffering. It’s tough to buy a product and carry it several blocks to the parking structure or a side street. Perhaps (if money could be found) a shuttle from the parking structure that goes through downtown might solve this problem.

Hopefully the city can work with the unhappy businesses to work out some way to help them maintain their customers.

It would be a shame to demolish all of the wonderful outside eating areas that restaurants have spent many dollars to construct.

Regarding the parking structure, I parked on the 3rd level last week to eat downtown. I made the mistake of taking the elevator down. It was disgusting. It smelled, was dirty, un-kept. Certainly, the city could at least clean it up and install new flooring. Upon returning I took the stairs up which wasn’t too much better. Rails with little paint so that the bare metal showed. This is a simple solution, paint them.

It’s bad enough that Venturans need to deal with this, but tourism is very important to Ventura and this gives a very bad impression of our town.

• The time has finally come for me to bid farewell as Publisher/Editor of the Ventura Breeze.
The May 1 issue will be my last as Publisher/Editor. It has been an incredible journey spanning
17 years, filled with cherished memories, remarkable experiences, and the unwavering
support of our beloved Ventura community.

When my daughter Staci and I started this venture 17 years ago, we embarked on a journey
fueled by hope and enthusiasm. We didn’t know how Ventura would receive our humble
publication, but today, it is heartening to see how it’s become an integral part of life in Ventura.
I’m always delighted when strangers approach me to express their love for The Breeze and tell
me how much joy it brings them.

This journey has been nothing short of exhilarating and inspiring, and I owe it all to you—our
devoted readers, amazing staff, contributors and loyal advertisers. Without your unwavering
support and enthusiasm, The Ventura Breeze would not be what it is today. It has been an
honor to serve you, and I hope that you’ll continue to find joy and enrichment in the pages of
The Breeze for many years to come.

As I transition into a new chapter of my life, I want to assure you that while my tenure as
Publisher/Editor may be coming to a close, my commitment to the Breeze remains steadfast.
My opinion column may not appear regularly, but rest assured, it will make appearances from
time to time, whenever inspiration strikes.

Moreover, I’m delighted to announce that the Breeze will remain within the family, with my son
Mark Brown stepping into the role. Mark has decades of experience in both print and digital
publishing and can be reached at [email protected]. I’m confident that the
Breeze will continue to play an important role in the Ventura community for years to come.
In closing, I extend my deepest gratitude to each and every one of you for your unwavering
support, encouragement, and readership over the years. The memories we have created
together will forever hold a special place in my heart.
Sheldon Brown

• Recently, more than 50 golfers, mostly seniors, filled the Ventura City Council chambers and
urged city leaders to hurry up repairs to the 92-year-old Buenaventura Golf Course that has been
closed for 15 months because of flooding from storms.

Of course, it would be good to make the necessary repairs, but it always comes down to financing.
I’m sure some of the council members are golfers and agree. Hopefully funding can be provided
soon (see Mailbox on page 2 for an opinion regarding this).

•Tickets for the 2024 Ventura X Games are now on sale. Organizers say they will make this year’s
event even better than last year. The games will return June 28-30 to the Ventura County
Fairgrounds for the second year, bringing many of the world’s best action sports athletes to
compete for BMX, skateboard, and motocross medals. This is great for Ventura because it is
attended and watched by “millions” of fans. I attended last year and was amazed (and scared) by
what some of these athletes do as they fly through the air.

• City Council announcement regarding City Attorney. In a closed-session meeting on April 13,
2024, the Ventura City Council unanimously decided to dismiss City Attorney Andrew Heglund from
his employment, effective April 13. “The City Council voted 7-0 to terminate the City Attorney’s
employment, due to a personnel matter,” stated Mayor Joe Schroeder. Miles Hogan was appointed
as acting City Attorney, effective April 13, 2024. Hogan has been part of the City Attorney’s office
since 2016, initially serving as Assistant City Attorney II and later promoted to the Senior Assistant
City Attorney in April 2022.

Zeus, the father of the
Olympic Gods, turned
mid-day into night, hiding the light
of the dazzling Sun;
and sore fear came upon men.
~Archilochus (c680-c640 BC), Greek poet

• California passed a $20.00 minimum hourly pay for fast food workers that will probably result in higher costs for some fast foods. Even though this is a California law, Republicans will now blame Biden.

•To the disappointment of thousands gathered in downtown Ventura to watch the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the inflatable green pig was absent. “Bacon” didn’t participate in the annual parade due to a mechanical problem involving the vehicle used to pull it.

Previously, the Breeze had a fun, very unofficial contest to name the Green Pig. The pig’s name shall always remain Bacon, so we just did it for fun. The following is from a 2022 issue of the Breeze:

“The long list of funny names sent to us by readers were submitted to a panel of Breeze staffers for review and selection. Of the names submitted over 15 received at least one vote. The winning name was Hamlet, which was submitted by Monique Robles. Other names that were right behind Hamlet were Pigasso, Ham Solo and Albert Einswine. All great names.”
• Once again, he keeps amazing me. While seeking money to finance his campaign and pay his legal bills, former President Donald Trump began selling Bibles.

Posting a sales video on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: “Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible.”

The God Bless The USA Bible, at $59, includes the U.S. Constitution, the amendments that make up the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and a “handwritten chorus” to “God Bless The USA.”

Regarding this, Rev. Benjamin Cremer stated; “It is a bankrupt Christianity that sees a demagogue co-opting our faith and even our holy scriptures for the sake of his own pursuit of power and praise him for it rather than insist that we refuse to allow our sacred faith and scriptures to become a mouthpiece for an empire.”

Donald Trump also took to Truth Social to once again compare himself to Jesus Christ as he complained about the criminal and civil cases against him. Trump claimed that he received a message stating: “It’s ironic that Christ walked through His greatest persecution the very week they are trying to steal your property from you.”

Tennis shoes, and now bibles – what will he be selling next, Girl Scout Cookies?

• The California Community College Chancellor’s office has announced that Oxnard College has full approval to launch a four-year dental hygiene bachelor’s degree program. The college plans to welcome its first bachelor’s students in fall 2025.

Oxnard College earned tentative approval for the program in the fall, then spent the intervening months under review for potential conflicts with degree programs in the University of California and California State University systems.

Ventura College will start offering a bachelor’s degree in automotive career education in fall 2025.

I think it’s great that “community colleges” can offer some 4-year degrees, but only if they are in specific fields that will lead to the workplace after graduation. I don’t think they should be in the liberal arts.

I have a soft spot in my heart for what we used to call “junior colleges.” After high school, I attended Los Angeles City College (LACC) prior to attending USC. I would never have been able to attend USC financially if LACC wasn’t first available to me.

I also taught architecture at West Los Angeles College (2-year college) for many years.
• A judge has found Georgia Republican Party official Brian Pritchard guilty of illegally voting nine times over several years. Pritchard has falsely asserted Democrats stole the 2020 election through fraud. Trump was right – the election was rigged.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
~ Oscar Wilde

• 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

The Justice Department said Southern California Edison has agreed to pay the federal government $80 million to recoup expenses caused by the 2017 Thomas Fire. Federal officials are calling it a “record” settlement, one that would compensate taxpayers for the costs of fighting the fire and damage to public lands. Exactly how this compensates taxpayers is yet to be seen.

The application to renew Patrick Berry’s license as a general manager of the Ventura poker card club was rejected by the California Gambling Control Commission. This means he can no longer act as a supervisor for the card room. The card room operates 19 tables for card games. The business license was renewed for another two years.

The card room opened on Ventura Ave. in 1943 and later opened in the Ventura Auto Center and then to the fairgrounds. It is one of the city’s largest taxpayers.

An FBI informant charged with lying to investigators about a fictitious bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company, has had contact with foreign intelligence services, including Russian intelligence agencies.

Smirnov was indicted last week on charges he lied to the FBI, falsely telling them that executives with now-defunct Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in bribes. He is being held in jail because he could be a flight risk. So, Biden will need to be impeached on some other charges.

I find this a little unbelievable. A new Alabama court decision that embryos created during the IVF process are “extrauterine children” and legally protected like any other child. IVF advocates say the ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court could have far-reaching consequences for millions of Americans struggling to get pregnant, especially those living in states with “personhood” laws granting legal status to unborn children.

The court’s ruling repeatedly invoked Christian faith and the Alabama constitution, which specifically protects unborn children, although that has typically been referred to a developing baby inside a womb. IVF advocates have been warning for several years that such decisions were a potential repercussion of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade and permit states to ban abortions.

What I find hypocritical about this is that when an unwed poor mother has a child (because she can’t get an abortion) and needs welfare the same people complain about this becoming a welfare state. And why don’t they complain about capital punishment that only has one purpose which is to kill.

Will be interesting when working robots form their first organized union (probably part of auto workers because lots of them are working on cars). Just imagine that you tell your robot to get you a beer and it says, “This is Sunday, and I don’t work on Sunday’s – it is against my religion “Robotism.”

The Federal Communications Commission is coming to the rescue and has outlawed automated robocalls that contain voices generated by artificial intelligence, a decision that sends a clear message that exploiting the technology to scam people and mislead voters won’t be tolerated. The question is, how do they know they are robocalls?

Greece has become the first Orthodox Christian country to legalize same-sex civil marriage, despite opposition from the influential, socially conservative Greek Church. A cross-party majority of 176 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament voted in favor of the landmark bill drafted by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ center-right government. Good for them.

Just when I thought he couldn’t be more embarrassing for America, Trump unveiled a new line of shoes at Sneaker Con. The shoes, shiny gold high tops with an American flag detail on the back, are being sold as “Never Surrender High-Tops” for $399 on a new website that also sells other Trump-branded shoes and “Victory47” cologne and perfume for $99 a bottle. Is he that desperate for money? Does he think he is Michael Jordon. I’m sure the rumor that, if elected, he would paint the White House gold and try to sell it is not true.