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A Ventura school bus driver is facing DUI, and manslaughter charges after police say she struck, and fatally injured a 75 year old woman while driving a bus with more than a dozen students on board.

It happened just before 3 p.m. Wednesday, near Woodland Street, and Brookshire Avenue.

The bus wasn’t moving fast, but it hit Marguerita McIntosh. The Ventura woman died about three hours later at a hospital.

None of the elementary school students on board the bus were hurt. The CHP is identifying the bus driver as Joanne Madaule, of Ventura.

A social services agency in Ventura County has a new executive director.

Timothy Hockett has been chosen to head Community Action of Ventura County. Hockett was formerly the Executive Director of Olympic Community Action Programs in Port Townsend, Washington. He was selected by directors of the Ventura County non-profit, following a nationwide search. The agency’s former director, Socorro Hanson, was dismissed in Febuary over what the board called job performance issues.

The Oxnard based organization provides services ranging from food distribution for those in need, to legal aid.

A new economic forecast by experts at a South Coast university is predicting continued extremely slow growth for the U-S, and for California.

The California Lutheran University Center for Economic Research and Forecasting says the gross domestic product’s growth will only be only around 1.5% for the next few quarters, with a continued weak job market. The economists say California’s growth outlook is even grimmer.

CLU forecasters say we could also see a continued drop in home prices.

The project’s Executive Director, Dr. Bill Watkins, says continuing efforts by the federal reserve to bolster the economy are failing, and that the Fed has run out of ways to try to pump up growth at this time.

The findings are a part of the Center’s release today of its third quarter California, and U.S. economic forecasts.

A man prosecutors say had a homemade dagger in the Ventura County Jail, and planned to use it on a jail guard has been sentenced to seven years in state prison.

Ventura County prosecutors say James Calzada was found to have the weapon, which is commonly called a shank, on May 23rd. Because the 40 year old man had already been convicted of forcible rape, his sentence was enhanced under the three strikes law.

Simi Valley Police say they’ve found a man who disappeared Tuesday afternoon.

Police say Benjamin Morris was last seen at his Larch Street home at around 1:30 yesterday. Authorities were concerned about the man’s well being.

The 24 year old man was found around 10:30 last night, and police say he was okay.

Police responding to calls of suspicious activity in a Ventura neighborhood used a K-9 to end a standoff with a parolee.

It happened at around 1:30 yesterday, on the 7200 block of Bristol Road in Ventura. Officers responding to a call of suspicious activity saw Jeremy Seymour drop a duffle bag, run into the yard of a home, and then jump a fence. They discovered Seymour was hiding in a camper.

When the 29 year old man refused to give up, a police K-9 convicted him to surrender. Seymour was arrested for a parole violation, possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting an officer, and assaulting a police dog.

Some Santa Barbara city board members are keeping their posts, despite their handling of a decision in which some of them brought political and personal views into what were supposed to be planning decisions.

Last month, the city’s Architectural Board of Review was supposed to act on some minor landscaping changes proposed for an already approved Chick-fil-A restaurant in Santa Barbara.

But, in the wake of controversy over the restaurant President’s support for the anti same sex marriage movement, not enough board members were willing to vote on the landscaping changes for a decision to be made.

The inaction was blasted by some council members, and city officials, who say board members are only supposed to act to the merits of proposed projects, and not their personal or political views of the applicants.

Some pro same sex marriage advocated defended the action.

Tuesday night, the council narrowly decided to let the board members keep their posts, with three council members calling for thie ouster. Following a four hour hearing, the council did agree that the board members will have to undergo ethics training, and sign agreements they won’t let their perison political views influnce what are supposed to be planning related decisions.

Simi Valley Police say they’re looking for a man who disappeared Tuesday afternoon.

Police say Benjamin Morris was last seen at his Larch Street home at around 1:30 yesterday. He’s a 24 year old white male, who stands about six feet tall, has brown hair, hazel eyes, weighs 180 pounds and was wearing a brown dress suit.

Authorities are concerned about the man’s well being, and are hoping somone might remember seeing him.

There’s been yet another brushfire in a Ventura County neighborhood that’s been hit by a series of suspicious blazes this week.

The latest in the series of spot fires occurred on the 7000 block of Harmon Drive in Ventura just after 2:30 yesterday afternoon.

Ventura firefighters quickly controlled the fire before it could spread to nearby homes.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Two other small blazes in the same area earlier this week were considered to be suspicious in nature.

A Carpinteria City Councilman who rejected calls for his resignation following a DUI arrest has now unexpectedly announced he will leave office October 1st

Joe Armendariz says that he had moved to Northern Santa Barbara County to be closer to family members, and that it would be unethical to stay in office for the last several weeks of his almost completed term.

He was arrested on a DUI charge last year. It was the second time he’s been arrested for that type of offense in five years. He told the media that he had been struggling with alcohol, but was receiving treatment. However, many fellow council members, and community leaders called for him to step down from office, a demand he rejected at the time.

In an e-mail to KCLU, Armendariez noted that what he called some “intervening circumstances” in the last year altered his long term political plans. He says he plans to remain politcally active in the county.

In addition to his council duties, Armendariez has headed the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association, and has a PR firm.