Ventura News

Authorities say the June stabbing death of a 61-year-old woman in a Ventura home was likely a targeted killing and not the result of a bungled burglary.

Family members and friends gather at a house on Mead Avenue in Ventura where a drive-by shooting took place Friday.

By Scott Hadly, shadly@venturacountystar.com Originally published 11:40 a.m., July 3, 2009 Updated 11:45 a.m., July 3, 2009 A 46-year-old Ventura woman died early Friday morning after her home was hit by gunfire in what police said was a drive-by shooting, the third at the home in less than a year.

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the winner of its annual Sitting Duck Award, a tongue-in-cheek honor that pokes fun at the most ridiculed newsmakers in the United States.

By Gareth W. Dodd Correspondent Originally published 10:50 a.m., July 2, 2009 Updated 10:50 a.m., July 1, 2009 A documentary by a Santa Barbara filmmaker featuring behind-the-scenes interviews of firefighters battling the four-month-long Zaca wildfire during the 2007-08 fire season will screen Friday at the Ventura Film Festival.

Prize-winning columnist Steve Lopez said the work of newspaper columnists has become more important than ever in the wild and wooly frontier of digital communications.

A police officer testified in court Thursday that a fight broke out between three defendants and several police officers in a Ventura bar after one of the defendants, Hugo Hernandez, kept "pursuing" a woman who wasn't interested in him.

Several small vegetation fires have caused the shutdown of the southbound lanes of Highway 101 in Ventura, just south of Victoria.

By From staff reports Originally published 04:45 p.m., June 24, 2009 Updated 05:08 p.m., June 24, 2009 The California Highway Patrol closed the southbound lanes of Highway 101 in Ventura this afternoon as thick dark smoke from numerous fires blanketed the highway.

A 27-year-old Ventura County man was killed Saturday when he lost control of his motorcycle and crashed into a vehicle at the intersection of Victoria Avenue and Avocet Drive, authorities said.

The Players Club, the only live poker room in Ventura County, has settled on a freeway-fronting business in the Ventura Auto Center to relocate and expand, according to documents released Wednesday.

LONDON - A San Francisco man pleaded guilty Friday to causing the death of a woman in a head-on car crash when he veered onto the wrong side of the road in England.

I would like to express my strong opposition to the City of Ventura's proposed half-cent sales tax measure.

A homeless man was arrested in Ventura early this morning on suspicion of an attack that seriously injured another homeless man, police said.

Police and Fire: A 23-year-old man was killed late Monday night in a drive-by shooting in Ventura, police said.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts are offering up their take of the Missing Persons' classic "Destination Unknown" to the soundtrack for the upcoming comedy Endless Bummer .

People walk to the front door of McConnell's Fine Ice Cream Yogurt in Ventura recently.

The City of Ventura remains in discussions to lease a portion of its allotment of state water, with hopes not only to aid local districts saddled with low water supplies, but to assuage the city's own budgetary problems.

A 19-year-old man pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing his best friend Jack Mabee last year during a car accident that resulted in an Amtrak train shearing the car in two.

Oxnard police arrested two suspects Tuesday in connection with an early morning robbery at a gas station in Ventura.