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A proposal to require that the City of Thousand Oaks to fill city council vacancies by special elections in most cases has received enough verified signatures to qualify for the ballot.

What’s known as the Thousand Oaks Right To Vote Initiative had around a thousand more verified signatures than it needed to qualify.

The measure is the result of some city residents who were upset that in two instances in recent years, the council opted to fill unexpected vacancies by appointment, instead of by calling an election. The cost of holding special elections is considered to be a factor in how vacancies should be filled.

The City Council will have to act in the next few weeks if the measure is to make it on the November ballot. The Council could also adopt the proposal as an ordinance, making the need for a ballot measure unnecessary.

Vandals caused damage at more than a dozen businesses in the Ventura area between midnight, and ten this morning.

Police believe two teenagers were involved in the damage spree, which targeted businesses on Victoria Avenue, and East Thompson Boulevard. Investigators say the vandals put glue into the door lock mechanisms of at least 14 businesses.

Detectives are trying to track down surveillance tape from the area, but think the two vandals were between 15 and 18 years old.

Voters in a Ventura County school district are going to be asked to step up to help some financially struggling schools, with a new parcel tax.

Ventura School District trustees have approved putting a ballot measure on the November ballot for a $59 dollar a year parcel tax.

District officials say if approved, it would raise about $2.7 million dollars a year to help keep academic programs in face.
They say the situation is critical, and that even if the parcel tax passes, and the governor’s proposed new tax plan is approved by voters, they will still have to make millions in cuts.

In 2010, Ventura School District voter narrowly rejected a proposed $96 a year parcel tax. It actually received close to a 60% yes vote, but tax measures of this type need two-thirds support to pass.

A faulty catalytic converter on a passing vehicle is now being blamed for a series of small brush fires along the 101 Freeway in the Goleta area.

The series of small spot fires occurred around 2:30 yesterday afternoon on the northbound 101 from Patterson to Fairview Avenues, with the largest of the fires briefly threatening a gas station, and some other building adjacent to the freeway.

The gas station suffered some minor damage.

From the very first ticket to Disneyland, to some of the original characters from the Haunted Mansion, the largest every exhibition from the Walt Disney Company’s archives is set to open in Ventura County.

More than 500 items are a part of “Treasures Of The Walt Disney Archives,” a new exhibition opening to the public July 6th at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in Simi Valley. The 12,000 square foot exhibition is the largest in the library’s history.

KCLU’s Lance Orozco has the story, from Simi Valley.

Click on link to listen to/download story: Disney Treasures Exhibition At Reagan Presidential Library

Link to online ticketing: http://www.reaganfoundation.org/tickets.aspx

Work is underway on a ten million dollar project to build a new home for a Santa Barbara County based theater company.

The Ensemble Theater Company is remodeling the Victoria Theater into a state of the art, 300 seat performing arts facility.
The theater company says it’s raised more than $8.5 million of the $10.5 million needed for the actual work. They’re also trying to create a $4.5 million dollar endowment for the theater company.

Plans call for the new home for the more than three decade old professional theater company to be open in the fall of 2013.

A man is dead, after police say he was struck, and killed while trying to cross a busy Ventura street.

Christopher Spilberg was walking with his son along Harbor Boulevard, south of Olivas Park Drive just before 9 Wednesday night.

Police say he tried to cross the street, and was hit by a car. The 34 year old Ventura man died at a hospital shortly after the accident.

Police say there was no crosswalk at the scene, and that the victim was at fault for walking into the road in front of a vehicle.

A Santa Barbara County hospital has received a two million dollar gift towards its rebuilding efforts.

The Santa Barbara based Cavalletto Charities today announced its contribution towards a new Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital.

Cottage Health System is replacing the existing hospital, with a larger, state of the art facility which is also able to meet more stringent state seismic safety requirements.

The new, $114 million dollar facility is scheduled to open in 2014. The 152,000 square foot facility will include an emergency room double the size of the existing one, as well as 52 all private rooms.

Authorities are now identifying a parolee who was shot to death by law enforcement officers in Santa Barbara County in a confrontation.

It happened at around 8:15 yesterday morning, near Bunny Avenue, and Lincoln Street in Santa Maria. Jose Luis Ortega, and two other people were in a car which was being followed by Santa Maria Police, and Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s detectives in three vehicles.

The suspect’s vehicle then suddenly stopped near North Broadway, and the 22 year old man jumped out of it with the weapon. A barrage of shots was fired, and the Santa Maria man was struck by at least one bullet.

It’s still unclear as to whether he fired his weapon before he was shot, and killed. Investigators say he was a known gang member.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision today on the president’s health care plan drew strong reactions from the South Coast’s two primary congressional representatives.

Democratic Congresswoman Lois Capps of Santa Barbara says she’s pleased the constitutionality of the plan was upheld, and that she is hoping that efforts can now focus on expanding healthcare coverage. She says the law has already resulted in more than 10,000 young Central Coast residents getting health insurance.

Republican Congressman Elton Gallegly of Simi Valley says the ruling shows that the individual insurance requirement is a tax, and that Congress can work to reject the tax. Gallegly says he will continue to work to try to repeal the plan, and then enact what he says is more accessible, and affordable health care reform not based on taxes.